The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Ohakim probe: How far can Okorocha go?

    Ohakim probe: How far can Okorocha go?

    Imo State is in dire straits. The state which used to be one of the most progressive and rapidly developing in the country is today, facing a serious challenge of development occasioned by directionless leadership.

    As Imo and Imolites suffer retardation in every sector of the state’s economy, the Rochas Okorocha government, which elicited much enthusiasm and hope at inception, continues to pursue shadows. Like Emperor Nero of the ancient Roman Empire, the government in Owerri fiddles while Imo burns. Today, the only indication that something is happening in Imo, is the upsurge in the number of hotels and brothels which depend on free ladies from the tertiary institutions in the state. In fact, prostitution is the biggest industry in Imo as all other sectors of the economy remain undeveloped.

    Instead of delivering on its campaign promises, the government in Imo has continued to blackmail former Governor Chief Ikedi Ohakim with threats of probe.

    Only recently, Governor Okorocha disclosed to Imo people that the fraud allegedly perpetrated by Ohakim was so monumental that he would not sweep it under the carpet. According to Okorocha and his aides, the loans obtained by Ohakim in the name of the state, ended up in private pockets as there is nothing on ground to show that the loans were judiciously used.

    Okorocha and his men are quick to point at certain projects initiated by Ohakim, which they describe as phoney or non-existent even though funds were said to have been allocated for them in budgets. Some of the projects include the Oguta Wonder Lake, the Oak Refinery, the Imo Boulevard, the new Government House, Mid-West Airlines among others. Ohakim was said to have procured bank bonds for these projects without executing them.

    Already, Ohakim has told the world that he left about N13.5 billion in Imo State’s coffers while leaving office May 29, 2011. His media aide, Ethelbert Okere has risen in defence of his boss, maintaining that Okorocha is simply pursuing rats while his house is burning. Similarly, the 27 Local Government Council chairmen in the state who were sacked by the governor have dragged him to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions (EFCC) for alleged misappropriation of the N13.5 billion.

    The council chairmen have also alleged that Governor Okorocha used the allocations due to local councils in the state as collateral to borrow N45 billion and another N28 billion from two separate new generation banks.

    The truth of the matter is that the Okorocha government has betrayed the hope the Imo people had in it when it came on board in 2011.

    Most of the projects which Okorocha claims he has executed are bogus and have no direct economic benefits to Imo people. They include the Ojukwu Square, all the street gates in Owerri, abandoned hospital buildings which were started with local government funds, the perimeter fence along Wethedral Road and the grading of roads without actual construction.

    Before the Okorocha admnistration came on board, each of the 27 local government areas had a General Hospital built by past administrations in the state. It is worrisome that these hospitals lack equipment and medicaments required for effective health care delivery. Most of these hospitals lack beds, qualified nurses and good sanitation. The few doctors who have agreed to work in them are poorly-motivated. Instead of the state government to equip these hospitals to enable them function well, it chose to construct new ones. Even the new hospital buildings under construction have been abandoned.

    Okorocha has destroyed the local government administration system in Imo. Despite several court verdicts directing him to allow elected council chairmen to run the affairs of the councils, Okorocha has crippled the councils in his bid to destroy Ohakim’s legacies.

    The councils are now being run by Directors of Administration and General Services (DAGS) in total violation of court orders while the chairmen elected under Ohakim are barred from even entering council headquarters.

    Granted that the Ohakim administration had its own shortcomings, these are not enough to prevent Governor Okorocha from performing. Okorocha’s fourth tier government, which includes traditional rulers and Town Union Presidents in local administration, is another primitive and retrogressive policy that has further crippled the local councils and created unnecessary rifts in the villages. Cases of assassination, kidnapping, rape and arson have become daily occurrences in communities that were hitherto peaceful. The introduction of partisan politics in village unions has destroyed the brotherhood, communal harmony and cohesion which were hallmarks of the traditional Igbo society.

    After over one year in office, Governor Okorocha has nothing to his name apart from unnecessary village controversies which are counter –productive. His so-called free education policy is a sham. His decision to give primary school pupils One Hundred Naira (N100.00) monthly is a mercantilist approach, which is eroding the Igbo value system anchored on hard work. It is regrettable that Okorocha is forcing Imo children to develop a taste for money not earned through handwork. Igbo children are encouraged to imbibe the virtue of delayed gratification which is predicated on the philosophy that work must come before pleasure.

    The Imo University which is a timeless legacy left by the Sam Mbakwe administration is now a shadow of its former self. Within one year, Okorocha has changed three Vice-Chancellors of the university. This is antithetical to academic culture and freedom. His decision to make Imo University a purely commercial venture, while propagating free education, is deceptive and inimical to the dreams of the founding fathers of the university. It is clumsy and primitive to ask university undergraduates to go to their rural communities to collect cheques from their traditional rulers. Most of the traditional rulers have said that the governor should have allowed them enjoy their peace instead of dragging them into his politics of free education. Nobody has seen the cheques which have been advertised in national newspapers.

    It is annoying that the government in Owerri excavated most of the roads in the state without asphalting them. The rains have destroyed the roads, rendering them impassable and worse than they were when Okorocha assumed power. The fraudulent recruitment of contractors without mobilization and payment violates the Procurement Act. It is saddening when a government decides to deceive those it is ruling. It is even more saddening when the strategies for deceit are deliberately designed and executed by the government and its functionaries.

    Okorocha should tell the world how many roads he has constructed from start to finish since he came to power. It is clear that the infrastructural base of the state has collapsed. Owerri is a failed city already. Education which is the greatest legacy any government can leave for posterity is being ridiculed as the government continues to play politics with everything.

    Ohakim has dared Okorocha to probe him. Let the probe begin if this will make Okorocha perform.

    • Dr. Okoroma wrote from Owerri.

  • The return of Fayose

    Ex–Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose is not only controversial; he loves and revels in controversy. Ekiti people will never forget him in a hurry. Not so pleasant memories of his truncated reign linger in Ekiti today. As governor between 2003 and 2006, he did many strange things alien to Ekiti. Ekitis are so full of integrity and cherish the Omoluabi credo. An Ekitiman for instance would not imagine his governor passing under a barbed wire fence at an international airport; a governor to personally storm the venue of a rally by the opposition with roughnecks; a governor to torment and humiliate a first class traditional ruler and even contemplate removing him.

    He was accused of ordering the beating to death of an opposition member, one Tunde Omojola in Ifaki-Ekiti during a local government election in April 2004 but nothing has been done about this till date. Prominent Ekiti citizens tasted a dose of his reign at that period. Femi Falana was threatened with summary execution if he ventured out on Election Day at his Ilawe home while a prominent legal luminary was not spared as his posters filled town portraying him as contesting for governor of Ekiti State by Fayose’s loyalists. The legal luminary had to cry to Abuja for protection from the rampaging governor. A former Military Administrator now a serving minister was beaten to a state of pulp while ex-Gov Segun Oni was not only beaten blue and black but also dragged on the floor. To make his reign more dreadful, it was at that time that Ayo Daramola an aspirant for the 2007 gubernatorial elections was felled by assassin’s bullets. The murder remained unresolved till date.

    Many opposition leaders had to flee Ekiti for their lives. When Ekiti people could no longer bear his suffocating reign, they formed a common front to truncate his tenure. It became a shame to be identified as an Ekiti person at that time because the question that would follow is, ‘as educated as you are, why are you people so careless as to allow this character emerge as your governor’?

    Eventually, providence, rather than any other thing swept Fayose off the seat of power and Ekitis heaved a sigh of relief even if momentarily. Though he was impeached in rather controversial circumstances, he went underground immediately; he hibernated and occasionally threw jibes from hiding. The re-run election of 2009 between Kayode Fayemi and Segun Oni gave him an opportunity to launch himself back into reckoning. He was clever, he pitched his tent with the popular Action Congress (AC) and the people temporarily forgot his painful reign because he joined them in demanding for justice. But because of his nature of always trying to dominate his environment, he couldn’t wait for the justice he fought for to be realised before he abandoned the people’s ship again and went solo. Before the 2007 elections, he joined the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and during the gubernatorial re-run election in 2009, he claimed he remained a member of the PDP while working for the ACN after which he joined Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) from where he joined Labour Party (LP) and finally he came back recently to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under which he originally contested and won as governor in 2003. The period after Fayose’s ouster from 2006-2010 was not better in terms of instability and violence.

    When Dr. Fayemi eventually mounted the saddle, peace which had eluded Ekiti returned. Armed robbery incidents drastically reduced, kidnappers were kept at bay and Ekiti became too hot for criminals. Suddenly, like a bolt from the blues, news of violence filled the dailies in the last one month and this is not unconnected with the rumoured gubernatorial ambition of the ex-governor who had been readmitted into the PDP for the purpose of winning the state back for the PDP in 2014. But before that, a member of his party and his loyalist who was an ex-Deputy Speaker cried out on television with a heavily bandaged neck accusing Fayose’s thugs of nearly strangulating him during the PDP congresses. Recently, he was said to have started a one-man gubernatorial campaign by embarking on tour of local governments to counter a similar tour embarked by the governor few days earlier. His first call was Ilejemeje where youths in the area reportedly prevented him from passing through the newly resurfaced Iludun,-Obada-Iye-Ikosun-Igogo-Otun road by Fayemi government and was reminded of how he boasted during his reign that he would not fix the road because they didn’t vote for him and the road was left undone. The youths prevented his vehicle from passing through. Next, he was in Oye-Ekiti where he reportedly went with about 60 policemen fully armed. He was again met with resistance by the people of the town including his party members who believed he was wrongly favoured by Abuja. He erected huge loud speakers where he declared his intention to be governor and was condemning the present government as having done nothing. Violence broke out, some members were injured, and vehicles were damaged while police fired teargas to disperse the crowd. The following day, against security advice, he ventured to Ilawe-Ekiti but the town was too hot for him to enter as youths numbering over 5,000 mobilised and warned him never to enter the town. The intimidating presence of over 100 anti-riot policemen who were deployed to the town to facilitate his entry did not dissuade the youths who were battle ready. At the end, Fayose could not enter the town. He tried the following day to go to Ikere Ekiti, he met the same resistance though he succeeded in entering the town and addressed an almost empty hall, and he did so amid tight security and a hail of bullets. A passer-by was hit by a stray bullet while many others were injured. He was eventually ferried out of the town by policemen. He has since stopped further campaign tour. But he was bent on reinventing his dark days of violence and last week, the dailies reported he hid under the pretence of celebrating his birthday while his roughnecks attacked innocent Ado Ekiti citizens with machetes in their houses.

    What this tells discerning observers is that never again would Ekiti people allow an Ayo Fayose or any other element in his image come back to power at any level. They demonstrated this during the 2011 general elections when he was roundly beaten as the senatorial candidate of the Labour Party. If he was once so popular to win an election as governor and eight years after, he has become so unpopular to lose a senatorial election which is one third of the state he governed, the message should be clear that he is not wanted by the people again. But Fayose is such a personality that never gives up. He believes anything is possible in Nigeria and one cannot blame him. He has gotten away with so many things in the past including very grave allegations. The one billion naira poultry fraud case with the EFCC is almost forgotten. Also the state government has not had the courage to prosecute him on the alleged beating to death of Tunde Omojola in Ifaki Ekiti on his orders and in his presence. If he is going about like loose cannon, it is the fault of the agencies of government responsible for law enforcement. He has not given up; he is only hibernating and would soon come out to cause more violence as it becomes increasingly clearer to him that he has been declared a persona non-grata by the people who have refused to be taken back to his dark inglorious days.

    The question remains, is the PDP bereft of good candidates? The people have played their part in rejecting him but why have EFCC, the previous and the present governments in Ekiti unable to prosecute Fayose? Why is he given loads of anti-riot policemen to shepherd him about as if he is a serving governor?

    • Ajibola writes from Iye-Ekiti

  • Ngige as man of the people

    Ngige as man of the people

    I would like to recount an experience I had while attending a function that had the presence of the quartet of the Senate President David Mark, Anambra State governor Peter Obi, senators Chris Ngige and Andy Uba.

    The occasion was the Anambra State University’s convocation lecture delivered by the Senate President with the theme “Democracy and Democratization in Nigeria: The Journey So Far”. The lecture hall was packed to the full as technocrats, academics and scholars, non-academic staff, traditional rulers, students and other notable dignitaries had come to felicitate with ANSU and perhaps drink deep from David Mark’s knowledge stream. But of course, protocols had to be followed: first came the prayers, then the national anthem, and then the university orator began the ritual of recognizing the university’s august visitors. First was the Senate President, who received a loud ovation, the orator then recognized Governor Obi, who by virtue of his office is also the visitor to that university. Trust the orator, she wanted to look good before her boss, she gave it her best shot, calling the governor several titles and appellations for about a minute and half, a privilege a more decorated David Mark was not afforded and at the end of it all, our governor got a mild ovation.

    Then came the turn of Senator Ngige, one could notice the orator’s drop in tone, body language and enthusiasm. She had done a good job for our governor, why spoil it by according an opponent of his with the same vigour, tone and style? Perhaps she didn’t want to be asked if there could be two governors in a state?

    Rambling on the words, “The former Governor of Anambra State”; at this

    stage the hall became silent, the kind of silence that a Buddhist would naturally love, the crowd listened on, awaiting the mention of a name or senatorial zone, since both Ngige and Uba had been addressed as governor at one point in time – Ngige for three and a half years and Uba for a period of 16 days.

    Then the words fell out of her mouth “and Senator representing Anambra Central”. Alas that was it! The audience cheered and applauded with a mighty noise, Ngige then stood up to acknowledge the cheering as others had done before him and then took his seat but the cheering continued amidst shouts of Onwa!, Onwa! rising in tempo, this caused Ngige to rise up a second time to receive the applause, meanwhile a lady in her mid forties threw caution to the winds as she dashed forward to kiss the Senator’s hands, she probably must have been a staff of the university but who cared, she was swept in the euphoria of the moment, like others her joy knew no bounds.

    For Obasanjo’s Man Friday, Senator Uba got a consolatory applause, now don’t blame him, it’s not just his thing.

    I have taken much pain to paint a picture of how much the people like

    Senator Ngige. Anytime, any day, Senator Ngige is a man of the people. But what makes Ngige thick? Why Ngige? What are the main attributes of this bearded politician? The ever smiling, diminutive and amiable politician has a grass to grace respectability story; coming with it is an impeccable civil service record, and then a compassion for the common man. If a few had thought that his 2003 – 2006 blaze of glory stint as governor would not be replicated as a senator in the seventh National Assembly, that the forthrightness, integrity, brilliance and courage which were the hallmarks of his stewardship then, would simply disappear since he had no Chris Uba and the richa ife nine (Chop and quench in Igbo) gang to deal with this time, I am quite sure that such fellows must be eating their hats now like dear Mr. Grimwig in Charles Dickens Oliver Twist.

    As a first time senator, Ngige has refused to toe the line of first termers who are made to see themselves as being ravaged by the kwashiorkor of ideas, no! His contributions on the floor of the Senate have been sterling enough, each bearing strong hints of his passion for the ordinary Nigerian. On oversight functions, Senator Ngige has obviously done well again, his input in committees like power and mines, health, education, police, capital markets and constitution review has been well noted by his colleagues in the various committees as well as the leadership of the senate.

    On the delivery of the dividends of democracy to his constituents, again it is a plus for Ngige. Starting from the construction of a motorised borehole at Federal Government College Nise coupled with a computer centre for the same school and then on to the construction of three blocks of classrooms in Umunachi, Dunukofia. Another motorised borehole is in Idemili South with five other bore hole projects in Abacha, Ideani, Neni and Ukeh areas. In addition, the senator has undertaken to site constituency projects via the provision of streetlights to communities within the district. Areas like Nkpor junction, Oyeagu Abagana, Nimo, Ukeh, Obosi, Adazi, Enugu Ukwu, Adazi Nnukwu, Adazi Ani, Nibo, Amawbia, Enugu Agidi, Aguluzigbo and a host of other communities are to benefit from this project.

    On the issue of power, one should expect these few sceptics to burn their hands too. As vice chairman of Senate Committee on Power and Mines, Senator Ngige has certainly been alive to his duties and in that direction has helped to attract certain power projects to the state as a whole. To the glory of God too, the inclusion of Anambra as one of the pilot states to partake in a scheme that seeks to make power outage in these select states a thing of the past is also doing of Senator Ngige.

    Projects abound; power stations in Amanuke, Urum, Awka North, Awba Ofemili, Umunachi, Umuoji, Aguleri, Ogidi and Ifitedunu. There is the construction of 2 by 7.5 MVA injection stations in Idemili South. Installation of 3 x 300 KVA at Isiagu, Amabor, Enuofufe, Amata, Awba Ofemili, Umuchibu, Maternity and Umuosite. Areas like Nnaba and Umunocha are to have constructed a 2 X 300 KVA sub station for each area. Same goes for Umenebo, Nnobi, Eziafakaego, Nawgu, Oba and Ukwulu, which are to enjoy either the construction or installation of 2 X 300 KVA sub stations. Areas like Ndiokpaleke in Orumba, Ugwu Awovu in Enugu Ukwu and Agu Awka are to be rehabilitated, in fact word has it that it was on the senator’s prodding that the Energy Commission and other agencies went back to work at the sites mentioned above.

    These are in addition to hundreds of students at secondary, tertiary and higher degree levels placed on scholarship.

    Now, if these feats are not laudable then I wonder what is?

    In the speech that heralded his decision to vie for the senate seat, Ngige’s simple submission was to touch the lives of Ndi Anambra again, to transform Anambra State into a land of opportunities and to restore the lost glory to the people of Anambra. In less than two years he has just done more than that.

    Finally, statesmen were simply politicians who did ordinary things in an extra-ordinary manner; I reckon that Senator Ngige is fast approaching that mark reserved for titans and quintessential statesmen alike.

    • Arinze writes from Awka

  • Abia’s scourge of ghost workers

    When Abia state governor Chief Theodore Orji introduced reforms in the civil service of the state which include promotion of workers due for promotion, approval of N21,000 as minimum wage, retiring those due, transferring of service of non-indigenes to their states of origin after due consultation with their home state, and insistence on biometric data capturing of all workers and pensioners in the state civil service, some cynics who believed in business as usual criticised the reforms severely.

    All sorts of misinterpretations such as political witch-hunting, victimization and others were read into the reforms. Hatchet writers were hired to condemn the reforms and workers especially junior ones who were unaware of the rot in the service were instigated against the state government to ensure that reforms failed.

    But being a thoroughbred civil servant himself, the governor remained undaunted in his pursuit and implementation of the people-oriented reforms especially the issue of biometric data capturing of all workers in the council areas to avoid the menace of ghost workers.

    On several occasions, some workers in the council areas openly protested the non-payment of their monthly salaries and allowances without telling the world the real reason behind their rage: their opposition to the biometric data capturing exercise.

    At a stage, the question people were asking is why should genuine workers in the state civil service or any organization be opposed to biometric data capturing especially as it has become a global trend for easy identification of individuals? What were the fears if they were qualified and genuinely employed? But the resistance was a clear picture of how corrupted the civil service has become in the country over the years and the insistence by most state governments across the federation on biometric data capture of workers after the approval of the N18,000 minimum wage was to ensure accountability and transparency in the civil service.

    So why were workers in Abia state opposed to the idea? The answer is now clear to Nigerians with the recent report of the exercise in the council areas which showed that not less than 1, 727 workers were ghost workers. These were workers that did not show up during the biometric verification that lasted for months, whereas they have been receiving salaries and allowances for years from the state government.

    According to the chairman of the biometric data implementation committee, Cosmos Ndukwe, Aba South Council area with 245 ghost workers topped the list, followed by Isiala Ngwa South with 153, and Osisioma Ngwa with 138 ghost workers. Others were Ikwuano, 117; Umuahia North, 123; Umuahia South, 101; Isiala Ngwa North, 92; Umunneochi, 65; while Ugwuanagbo Local Government Area had the least with 28 ghost workers.

    The committee had consequently recommended that the 1727 workers who did not show up for verification be removed from the payrolls of the councils where they existed less those that may have genuine excuses.

    The outcome of the biometric data execise is a clear indication of what has been obtainable in the civil service both at state and national levels for years. It has exposed the level of corruption in the civil service which supposed to serve as the backbone of governance. It was the same civil servants who would always accuse the government of not paying their salaries and allowances, but has at the same time made themselves a conduit to milk the government of public funds through the ghost-workers’ syndrome.

    Government is a continuity and governance is all encompassing, because everyone who is in a leadership position at any level has a role to play to ensure good governance but that has not been the case in Abia civil service as shown by the recent biometric data capture reports. It is clear now that civil servants are a stumbling block in the delivery of democracy dividends to people of the state.

    If not, how would one explain that a small state like Abia state with 17 council areas, monthly allocation of N3.3 billion and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N250 million monthly and monthly wage bill of N2.5 billion cope with such number of ghost workers and be able to embark on any capital intensive projects as being witnessed in the state today? Among these are the construction of ultra modern workers’secretariat, international conference centre and other money spinning projects.

    It takes more than prudence in the management of public resources for the state government to have been able to achieve what it has achieved so far. Now that Governor Orji and his government have been vindicated with the outcome of the reforms in the civil service, what next for those behind or responsible for the frauds in the service?

    We have had such cases in the past where perpetrators of such frauds were left off the hook to enjoy their loots. Today top civil servants are among the richest Nigerians because they loot public funds with impunity, live above their incomes and acquire material wealth through proxies.

    For these obvious reasons, Abia state government should act beyond accusing the top civil servants of aiding and abetting the menace of ghost workers in the state. It should bring all those who were directly involved in the fraud to book and retrieve from them all they have acquired with the loots over the years. Such action will serve as a deterrent to other workers with such intentions.

    Other state governments should take a clue from the Abia government’s success in that direction because the menace of ghost workers has become a tradition. Many see it as means of getting their share of the national cake.

    That is why I subscribed to the call by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for a reduction in the over-bloated civil service because it has become more of a problem than solution to our country’s problems. Most of the civil servants like in Aba for example are more of businessmen and women than workers. They only go to offices when they like and when it is time to collect salaries and allowances. Majority of them are redundant in offices and public money which would have been used for the provision of basic amenities were being paid to them on monthly basis without them making any meaningful contributions in return.

    The Abia discovery is an addendum to the various scams that have permeated the civil service across the country. Before now, we had pension scam, subsidy scam and other forms of scams perpetrated by top civil servants entrusted with public funds. With these sordid revelations, where is the moral justification for civil servants to criticize our political leaders, where they have failed in small offices entrusted in them? It calls for soul searching and sober reflection on where our problems really come from. Is it from us as a people or from leaders as custodians of public resources?

    • Adimba, a youth corps member wrote from Abuja

  • FROM THE CELL PHONE

    For Olatunji Dare

     

    Re: Omoruyi: A scholar‘s lament. The piece was precise, full of facts and comprehensive. Please, l would have loved to read Professor Omoruyi‘s book in reference. How can l get the book? Anonymous

    If you come across him, tell Omoruyi that those who ride on the back of a tiger normaly end up in the belly of a tiger. He may not know, despite his erudition. From Kola Olawuni.

    Your discourse on Prof Omoruyi’s lamentation was a master piece. I am still puzzled by the inability of the likes of the Prof who did not learn from the experience of what the junta did in Latin America. Symptomatic failed state of today’s Nigeria is the outcome! Anonymous

    Your write-up on Omoruyi has shown your objectivity. You are unpredictable, unlike some other columunists in your stable, whose articles show passionate prejudice, and the holding of inflexible positions, no matter the subject they write about. Keep it up, the doyen of colummists and master of satire. Anonymous

    Re: Omoruyi: A scholar’s lament. Omoruyi meant well for democracy in Nigeria, but he walked with Maradona who called himself President without people’s mandate. From Wale Ojo

    Prof Omoruyi’s reconciliation with his former course mate at NIPSS and boss is classic. The country is in dire need of people like Omoruyi and his virtues. From David Polang, Jos

    Professor Omo Omoruyi should have been helped with state fund. What I mean by that is that he served a public institution. It was not IBB’s CDS. Anonymous

    Omoruyi: that he found the courage to denounce what he knew or did not know is a hallmark of dignity and decency. Your writing is very instructive. Thanks for your uprightness. Anonymous

    I am an ex-flagship. I just read your piece. The sin of Azazi was his indictment of PDP in Asaba. Fajuyi died wth his friend in Ibadan July 29, 1966. What of Abiola? What of Bola Ige? Yakowa was advised to follow another Chopper but insisted to follow his friend…they killed Azazi. Anonymous

    Re: Omoruyi: A scholar’s lament. May God not put us in a situation that may lead us to seeking aid and assistance from our detractors. Local people call them, Enemies! That was the situation Professor Omo Omoruyi has found himself. Notwithstanding our situation, we must imbibe the ideology of firmness in life. Prof had ridiculed the professorial position, by thinking of aid from IBB. May God Almighty miraculously heal him – Omo Omoruyi. From Lanre Oseni

    Omoruyi used and dumped himself. He knew the truth but took sides with falsehood. After June 12, the attack he suffered, the books he wrote, he still went to falsehood. He had no choice having trained 400,000 agents of destruction and releasing them on Nigeria. The country is ruined, Omoruyi is ruined, naturally ruined by cancer. Babangida cannot save Nigeria. He lacks the moral right to give him money to treat cancer. Anonymous

    I was amused to read in your column of 18th December a reference to me squirming in my seat as IBB delivered his diatribe against campus-based Marxist/Socialists at an annual lecture of The Guardian newspaper in VI Lagos. Let me be clear: I have never attended any lecture or event organised by that publication. Consequently I could not understand why you could not compose your drama of Omoruyi’s sycophancy and IBB’s psychopathy without dragging me in as a fictive prop. I did not know until now that professional journalists were at liberty to mix fact with fiction in their formal presentations! From Segun Osoba

    Thanks for your brief of 21st December. There is a typographical error in the poem. It should read ‘Ma fowuro sere…’ but not ‘Ma fowuro sise…’ God bless you. From Ayo Fakunmoju.

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    Mr Segun, be reminded that The Nation is a national newspaper, you should restrict this crap to native journals circulating in Oyo. I am sure your kids school in UK and cannot speak your so-called rich Yoruba language. Everyone in China sends the kids to learn English and now bear English names. Anonymous

    Ise ni ogun ise. Mu ara si ise ore e mi. Ise ni a fi i di eni giga. Bi a ko ba ri eni fi eyin ti, bi ole la a ri. Bi a ko ba ri eni gbekele a te ara mo ise eni…… Mordern Yoruba orthography, sir. Anonymous

    I really enjoyed the write-up, culture is really something we all must think about. Thanks. Anonymous

    I am not against borrowing for genuine reasons of development. But not into the bags of the few rich at the expense of poor masses. It is quite unfortunate that our own elites will connive with the lender to divert the loans into private uses and in a bid to impoverish this nation. From Mr. Ogosu, Onne, Rivers State

    Re: The responsibility of citizenship. The movers of THINKOyo are commended. However we hope some will not go back and become thievery leaders when such youths are opportuned to lead. The culture, religions and the Yorubas we hope, will be made and mixed to become a produced ‘item’ that will be used to engender growth, development and progress of Yorubaland specifically and Nigeria, generally. From Lanre Oseni

    I am one of your teeming fans who have made it an article of faith to unfailingly read you every week. I have just given your newest piece “The responsibility…” a ‘second’ reading, and already yearning for more. Baba, Agba o nii tan lorile o. E bami ki awon oree yin Baba Opalaba ati eegun nla ti n je Tatalo Alamu. From Azeez Kehinde, (Akure)

    Re: Youth in Focus(1): THINKOyo is laudable if it goes beyond being a forum for intellectual masturbation and actually makes a difference. Secondly, our leaders give a lot of thought to the chance of getting caught and, most likely, they will not get caught. Also, Yoruba language, like the culture itself, is losing relevance because it is not evolving (I said “evolve” not “change”) It is not nimble enough for modern communication. By the way, I do not know any “young” person (25 – 50) who has banned the speaking of Yoruba in his or her home. Very suspicious statement. From Ade

    Dear sir, the N9,000,000,000 proposed expenditure on a new banquet hall and VP residence is nothing more than the criminally reckless way of this goverment spending. If that money alone is given as loan to jobless graduates roaming our streets to engage in agric ventures at N1,000,000 per graduate, it will gainfully employ 250 graduates in each of the 36 states of the nation. We can now think of the number of hands these ones will employ and the effects it will have on the economic activities on each local government, state and the nation. God will surely visit His judgement on all of them, their children and generation unborn in the looting spree that we are witnessing this time around. They cannot escape it. From Nathaniel Abiodun

     

  • Journey that leads to nowhere

    Journey that leads to nowhere

    Before the January 15, 1966 military coup, there were five constitutions operating in this country. There was the Constitution of the Federal Republic of 1963. Then we had the Constitution of Northern Nigerian Law of 1963, the Constitution of the Eastern Nigerian Law of 1963, the Constitution of Western Nigerian Law of 1963 and the Constitution of Mid-Western Nigerian Act of 1964.

    The four Regions were administered in a way, as if they were sovereign states.

    Sub-section 2D of Section 63 of the Constitution of the Western Nigerian Law of 1963, subsection 1 of section 64 of the constitution of the Mid-Western Nigerian Act of 1964, sub-section 1 of section 66 of Eastern Nigeria constitution Law and sub-section 1 of section 68 of the constitution of Northern Nigeria Law of 1963, all made provisions for the appointments of Agent Generals for the four regions in the United Kingdom.

    The Agent Generals were like modern days ambassadors. For example, the Western Region appointed Chief Emmanuel Akintoye AkinbowaleOlasunmbo Coker (1924-2000), as Agent General to the United Kingdom and he served in that office between 1960-1963. His schedule was not in conflict with that of the Nigerian ambassador to the United Kingdom at that time, Alhaji Abdul-Maliki (1914-1969), the son of the late Attah of Igbirra land- a true diplomat and bureaucrat.

    And the age-long dream among students of the then Western Region at that time was to clinch Western Region scholarship instead of the Federal Government scholarship. Those were the booming cocoa era days.

    Each of the regions had their own Chief Justices, Police Commissioners, Legislative Houses and many other bodies. We remember in particular Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1909-1966), father of the late, Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who held the powerful posts of chairman of Eastern Region Development Corporation and Eastern Nigeria Marketing Board.

    Each of the regions differed on some key issues. Section 23 of the Constitution Northern Nigeria Law of 1963 ruled that” the business of the Legislative Houses shall be conducted in English and in Hausa”. Other Regions upheld only English in their legislative houses.

    The Western Region even had a Court of Appeal which served as an intermediate court between its High Court and the Supreme Court. The only uniformity was in the procedure for the establishment of key office holders. They all had premiers and governors.

    The governors, according to the four Regional Constitutions, shall be appointed “by the President acting in accordance with the advice of the Premier”.

    The post of governors was more ceremonial for the executive power resided in the hands of Premiers, who had a majority in the legislative houses.

    Interestingly, except the Mid-Western Nigeria Constitution, Act of 1964, the three other regional constitutions, named all the governors.

    As for the Premiers, we had Sir Ahmadu Bello (1909-1966) in the North, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola (1910-1966), who succeeded Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987), in the Western Region, Dr. Micahel Iheonukara Okpara (1920-1984), who succeded Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (1909-1996) as Premier in the Eastern Region and Chief Dennis Chukadebe Osadebe (1911-1994) as premier of the Mid- Western Region.

    Chief Osadebe had earlier resigned as President of the Senate to be elected as Premier of the newly created Mid- Western Region following a plebiscite by the people of Edo and the Delta provinces to carve Mid-Western Region out of the Western Region.

    In the Western Region, Sir Gabriel Odeleye Fadahunsi (1901-1986), an educationist and former chairman of Nigerian Airways Corporation succeeded Sir Adesoji Aderemi (1889-1980), the former executive of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and a wealthy Cocoa magnate, who was on the Ile-Ife throne as Ooni for more than 50 years, as governor, while Chief Samuel Jereton Mariere (1907-1971), the Olorogun of Evwreni, a former executive of John Holts Company, was appointed the first Governor of Mid- West Region.

    In the Eastern Region, a Physician, Dr. Akanu Ibiam (1906-1995) married to a Yoruba, Eudora Olayinka Sasegbon was appointed governor while in Northern Nigeria, an educationist and former Waziri of Kanuri Kingdom, Sir Kashim Shettima Ibrahim (1910-1990) was governor.

    All these were in place until the army struck on the night of January 14, 1966.

    In taking over power, General Thomas Johnson Umanakwe Aguiyi Ironsi(1924-1966) told the nation later on January 28, 1966 “all Nigerians want an end to regionalism. Tribal loyalties and activities which promote tribal consciousness and sectional interest must give way to urgent task of national reconstruction”.

    Also in a broadcast on February 21,1966, the same Ironsi said “it has become apparent to all Nigerians that rigid adherence to regionalism was the bane of the last regime and one of the main factors which contributed to its downfall”. He was referring to the regime of then Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912-1966). He then went ahead to establish a unitary system of government. He renamed the Federal Military Government as National Military Government, re-designated the regions as group of regions and incorporated all Civil Servants, federal and regional into single National Public Service.

    General Ironsi’s critics charged that the unitary system was a tribal agenda.

    In spite of opposition by two of his appointed Military Governors, Lt. Col. David Akpode Ejoor of Mid-West and Lt. Col. Hassan Usman Katsina (1933-1995) son of Alhaji Usman Nagogo, the Emir of Katsina (1905-1981)of North, General Ironsi went ahead to sign the Unification decree 34 on May 24, 1966.

    At Ibadan, shortly after the Kaduna meeting,where he tried to explain the beauty in his Unitary Government to the traditional rulers, Ironsi was toppled and General Yakubu Cinwa Gowon took over power on July 29, 1966.

    In the midst of confusion following the downfall of his regime, Ironsi was killed along with his host, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi (1926-1966), the then Military Governor of the Western Region.

    On August 31, 1966, Gowon abolished Decree 34 and restored the federal system. On May 27, 1967, Gowon created the 12 states, killed the four regions and handed supreme authority to the central Government. It has been so since.

    In creating the 12 states, Gowon said “the main obstacle to future stability is the present structural imbalance in the Nigerian federation. Even Decree 8 or confederation or loose association will never survive if any section of the country is in a position to hold others into ransom”.

    In a nationwide broadcast on October 1,1970, marking the country’s tenth independence anniversary, Gowon announced that the Armed Forces had decided to hand over power to civilians in January 1976.

    Four years later on October 1,1974, the same Gowon announced in a broadcast that the armed forces had considered the 1976 deadline for return to civilian rule as “unrealistic”. The Armed Forces he said, would not honour that pledge without plunging the nation into chaos. “It would indeed amount to betrayal of trust to adhere rigidly to that target date”, he said.

    Gowon also failed to keep his promise on the setting up of the Constituent Assembly which he promised the nation on January 30, 1966. He paid for it.

    While in Kampala, Uganda for the summit of Organisation of African Unity (OAU),on July 29,1975, he was also toppled from power and General Murtala Ramat Muhammed (1938-1976), former aide-de-camp of the 1962 administrator of Old Western Region, Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi (1916-2012), took over.

    The first Act of General Muhammmed was to set up a Constitutional Drafting Committee and a Constituent Assembly. He then did the unthinkable- he imposed this wasteful, extravagant and prodigal Presidential System of Government on the nation, without a referendum.

    In this part of the world, government and the leaders, get way with everything because of the docility of a conformist society.

    By the time General Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated the Constituent Assembly on October 6, 1977, following Muhammed’s brutal murder on February 13, 1976, he warned the assembly under the leadership of Justice Egbert Udo-Udoma (1917-1998), “that the task before you is to deliberate on the draft constitution and pass it to the Supreme Military Council for promulgation into law”.

    Both Nduka Onum and I covered the event for The Punch along with Mohammed Haruna of New Nigeria, Tunde Thompson of The Sketch, and Femi Ogunsanwo of the Daily Times. Our conclusion at the press gallery on that day was that this is a command. An instruction.

    And since then till now, four elected Presidents have operated the presidential system and yet we are still debating a suitable system of government, best for us.

    Some want a total review of the presidential system, some want us to go back to regionalism, some want a Sovereign National Conference to determine a better system of government, and some want a return to the parliamentary system. To some, regionalism still represent a kind of Camelot government when some of their needs were met promptly, when the government was not deaf to their calls and when they had a functioning responsive government- open and pro-active. They call it Regional Integration or Regional Resurrection.

    Our National problems did not begin when we adopted the presidential system, but it has made the challenges worse.

    As a people this presidential system will lead us to nowhere.

    TENIOLA was pioneer Editor of the Evening Punch and a retired Director in the Presidency.

  • A nation in turmoil

    A nation in turmoil

    Nigeria, my beloved country, is obviously in turmoil, as every patriot now suffers from unceasing headache inflicted by daily brain-spanking news from official quarters. In fact, that I started this piece without the slightest idea of a title to christen it, an indication of trouble. Trouble within ! Trouble without! Please, let someone bail me out. How can any sane person, particularly a full-blooded Nigerian, without any other home than this stupendously rich but stupidly poor entity, possibly calm his ever-riotous brain that can’t but reflect on so many things at the same time, 24 hours daily?

    Which of these‘peculiar mess’ should I take first. The wit-twisting Lamido Sanusi’s mass sack economic advocacy? Or the Bamanga Tukur’s latest comedy on PDP’s status in relation to national security? Yet, the wind of fear and trepidation that recently shook the National Assembly to its foundation caught my fancy, as I struggled to contextualize Pastor Oritsajefor’s latest ironic concern over the Boko Haram phenomenon.

    Next is this mouth-gaping N2.2 billion approved by the Federal Executive Council for the construction of yet another event hall in the Presidential Villa. I doubt that the fate of Olubiyi Odunaro, the ex-employee of Hallmark Bank Plc, who has just bowed to pressure to suspend his indefinite hunger strike over the failure of the authorities to facilitate the payment of his terminal benefits as well as that of over 14,000 other ex-staff of unconsolidated banks ever got a mention during this federal cabinet meeting.

    Insanity begets insanity. For quite a while, I have been at pain to rationalize perceived widespread insanity amongst my fellow citizens. For instance, regular visits to different newspaper stands every morning have gradually filled me with some passionate hatred for fellow citizens who congregate daily to, relive their excitements and passion for the beauty of European football. I have got no hassles with the popularity of the round leather game, particularly the commonplace Nigerian admiration of its near perfect reality cum seemingly irresistible beauty in that saner clime. Where I have a problem is a situation whereby daily captions of mass killings, bombings, kidnappings and other occurrences of Nigerians’inhumanity to fellow Nigerians have come to mean nothing. Rather than feel the slightest pity for victimized compatriots or show little tinge of concern over a raging fire speedily racing towards even their own abodes, they get moved to morbid anger only by news of match losses by their darling clubs or even partisan ridicule from ‘fans’ of opposing clubs.

    However, I think I now know better. A people beleaguered by insane leadership for too long can’t but be mad. Nigerians have hardly had genuine causes to smile since independence. One happy piece of news is usually overwhelmed and relegated into insignificance by countless sad headlines trailing it in quick succession.

    Most are now incurable pessimists, no longer expecting anything good from the Nigerian landscape. They are so accustomed to bad news that bombing of millions now means nothing but just another event. Perhaps, the people’s obsession for European soccer is merely an escapist tool of living outside their sick society.

    At a time concerned citizens are shedding internal tears of fear over the grave security implications of the new traffic laws in Lagos State on the long-existing sky-rocketing unemployment situation, the recent call by Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank Governor, for the sack of 50% of the civil service, to boost the availability of fund for true economic development, is nothing but depressing.

    Really, Sanusi is blameless. Sincere blames should aim at a system that destroys itself through perpetually cyclical elevation of people far removed from the grassroots into leadership positions. People who are not Nigerians in the true sense. People who never come into contact with the masses as they struggle to survive on less than a dollar daily, cramping themselves, in fours and fives, on bikes, competing with dogs for bones.

    And, just like Sanusi, Bamanga Tukur’s effrontery in absolving the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) of any blame over the general insecurity in the land is incensing to patriots, who have long lost sleep in self-imposed assignment of drumming the beats of reason into the ears of our erring leaders. For the chairman of a party that has been wielding power at the centre since 1999 to claim that since his party is not a security agency, Nigerians should not blame it for the current reign of terror in the land, is, to say the least, an official certification of sick leadership.

    Meanwhile, the National Assembly would have curatively filled the gap of hope for Nigerians, if its members had previously been half as agitated as they were on probable bombing of their congregation, instead of their usual lip-service reactions to attacks on the masses.

    I feel our lawmakers should beam their searchlight on Pastor Oritsajefor and his ilk, if they ever want to avert what they passionately dread. Let’s all address the cleric with the bitter truth: “Our Dear Pastor, please forget about your junketing round the risky areas to calm frayed nerves, to realize that you and your ilk are indeed the problem. Sir, you can’t possibly deny that Boko Haram is terror unleashed by the frustrated lots against the Nigerian State and its leaders who, in their opinion, have been flourishing in wealth and ostentation while they stand neglected in yawning poverty. Sir, you recently unmasked thy ‘holy’ self as one of those who possess and flaunt questionable wealth, through your newly-acquired jet, discretely helping to groom potential suicide bombers within your pauperized flock and the generally impoverished citizenry, further frustrated by your recent entry into the Nigerian Association of Private Jet Owners”.

    “The approving presence of our President during the celebration of your saddening feat only revealed that the man that once had no shoes has been infected by the maddening lucre of office and the typically dominant unthinking companions in the power corridor. Wishing you and all others up there a speedy recovery from the acquisition malady, sir”.

    Perhaps, the terse response of a younger brother to my recent poser on why we seem so doomed aptly diagnosed our national ailment as residing in the kind of people that we are. Thus, since I have every reason to subscribe to the truism that the quality of leadership in any society is a mirror of the led. At least, our leaders did not emerge from a vacuum or a foreign land. It’s indeed time for holistic citizenry cure.

    • Olokode, a Communication Strategist, wrote from Lagos.

  • Reflections on Osun’s Walk to Live

    Reflections on Osun’s Walk to Live

    In the delicate business of governance, some things are given. Others are simply strange or, if you like, novel. Now take the foregoing: construction of roads is a given; building of schools is a normal everyday matter; ditto for maintaining medical infrastructure. But a governor in an endurance trek with his people? A bit extraordinary, huh? This is a monthly affair in Osun state where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has embarked on health awareness initiative. In our type of environment where top government officials announce their presence with blaring siren, it is a comfortable relief to have a governor walk through your door as he waves enthusiastically to you.

    For many, the experience would endure for a long time.

    The programme tagged “Walk to Live” has been hosted by a number of communities in Osun State including Iwo, Ikire, Ife, Oshogbo and Ilesha. I have partaken in two, the last of which was the Ilesha edition of Saturday November 24. Earlier, I had joined the train in August at Ile-Ife. In each of these cases, Ogbeni led his people, in thousands, to walk a distance of no fewer than 25 kilometres, spartanly-clad, reminiscence of the Great Trek of some 14000 Boers from Cape Colony in South Africa in 1835.

    In Ilesha, as the crowd glided from Aladiye location of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Ilesha West Secretariat, through Osogbo garage, Oke Omiru, Isokun, Orikiran to Oke-Isa where the trip terminated at Ilesha Grammar School. I could not help but long for the heady days of the seventies when we rancorously held sway as out-of-control college teenagers in the lovely serenity of Ijeshaland. Boy, we were thoroughly unhinged to the eternal trepidation of our poor parents. What with nightly foray to Ipetu-Ijesha Grammar School, Iloko Grammar School, St. Margret, St Lawrence and Hope Grammar School, among others in search of God-knows-what? I digress.

    With an unbroken line of crowd stretching far beyond five kilometres, this project is a product of sound creative thinking. The governor was a spectacle to behold as he endlessly halted to acknowledge cheers from enthusiastic locals peeping through windows, scurrying across balconies and hanging on rooftops to make a mental documentation of an uncommon scene. Others- male and female- convinced they could muster the strength, tore through the thin security cordon around the governor to scream their messages of innumerable goodwill. I heard one who screamed, “Aregbe, I have seen you this year. May God count me among those that would see you next year”. Another, a female bearing her wares chorused, ‘’you will be there for 12 years”.

    In terms of the fun and excitement, the August Ife edition of the political road show, as I would like to call it for reason that would reveal itself soon, was no less engaging. Ogbeni ignored the inclement weather that was spewing rain in torrents to lead the crowd from Oduduwa College through Sabo, Odo-Ogbe, Lagere, Mayfair, Ede road, Campus gate to Obafemi Awolowo University Sports Centre where, once again, yours truly was ravaged by the firm arm of nostalgia about some long spent good old days of undergraduate years of unlimited ‘aluta’.

    If you are a keen observer of happenings in Osun state, particularly since the advent of the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration, it is unlikely you would find the governor’s popularity curious. You may, of course, find his style of administration strange. First, Aregbe frowns at being addressed as “Your Excellency”preferring a lowly “Ogbeni”. Also not for him the flamboyance of the office of governor. He would appear in public attired like any worker in the state.

    In all certainty, what he could not display in sartorial flamboyance he generously hawks in infrastructural and life-changing transformation in the State of Osun. In less than a hundred days in office, 20,000 youths were absorbed into the civil service through O’Yes programme. Young Omoluabis- as Osun indigenes are now called- still in school are either enjoying free meals or they have had their tuitions slashed to affordable level.

    If the young enjoys Aregbe touch in schools and elsewhere, the elderly too have had their palpable state ameliorated. No fewer than 1,602 vulnerable senior citizens are now on a monthly N10,000 allowance each apart from provision of food stuff. More so, another 136 elderly persons have benefited from free medical attention for serious ailments. This programme is tagged “Agba Osun Welfare Scheme”. Massive rehabilitation of roads is also taking place across the state.

    The comrade governor ceaselessly made it clear that the exercise is an initiative of his administration to promote good living among the people. According to him, it is also designed to bring back the good old days of active living. Good intent. However, some think the project has a more pungent political message. In fact, one that profoundly touches on the suitability of Ogbeni for the position he currently occupies in the State of Osun.

    Not long after he mounted the saddle, the ever-robust rumour mill operated by the opposition went to town bearing a most heinous tale that the governor was seriously ailing. They said he was so feeble in health that he could not be at his desk for four unbroken hours without collapsing. How wicked! It is said that a worried Aregbesola had sought medical help everywhere including Iraq (can you beat that?) to no avail. Therefore, the walk could not have come at a more auspicious time than when Osun people needed assurance that, indeed and in action, their enigmatic helms man is fine and kicking.

    As one flips the page, it would also be discovered that the huge crowd that accompanies Ogbeni on these trips is a testimony, if ever one is needed, to the popularity of the governor and his party in the state. If leaders of the opposition in Osun ever witness any of these Isrealite-like journeys and the passion with which the masses welcome Aregbesola at every point, they would need no further proof that, indeed, their ideologies have been consigned to the dustbin of history.

     

    • Lawal is Publicity Secretary, ACN Ogun State.

  • Insights into onshore – offshore dichotomy

    Insights into onshore – offshore dichotomy

    Before the advent of the 1999 constitution, the principle of derivation was subjected to severe and whimsical gerrymandering by the various Presidents and Heads of State that had ruled Nigeria. This was due to the fact that, though the principle had been acknowledged and accepted there was no governing FORMULAR.

    Up till 1970, derivation stood at fifty percent. Decree No 113 of 1970, put forward by the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo and promulgated by General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) reduced it to 45% and at the same time appropriated the entire offshore oil revenue to the federal government. That was the sad beginning of the onshore-offshore dichotomy. But it was an emergency war time effort to secure enough money with which to prosecute the war by the federal government and to reconstruct Nigeria. The minority people of the oil producing states were persuaded to make this sacrifice in the interest of the unity and development of this country. It was expected that this arrangement would end with Gowon’s Reconstruction Programme.

    Instead, in 1977, General Olusegun Obasanjo (Rtd) as the Head of State took another 20% to the centre, thus reducing the allocation to the derivation to 25%. At the same time he held on to the entire offshore production revenue thus maintaining the onshore-offshore dichotomy. In 1981, even an elected political regime which was expected to be democratic, Alhaji Shehu Shagari removed yet another 20% thus reducing derivation on onshore oil to 5%. In 1984, General Mohammed Buhari (Rtd) further removed 3.5% thus reducing it to 1.5% while still holding on to the offshore revenue.

    It was only General Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd), who was not called Maradonna for nothing that did something unique and interesting. While he reduced derivation to 1%, he introduced an ameliorating fund called OMPADEC at 3% for the development of the oil region. This effectively raised the total due to derivation to 4%. President Babangida ‘s 4% applied to the entire revenue from oil – both off and onshore. This de facto abolished the onshore – offshore dichotomy and marked the beginning of the restoration of justice and fair play to the suffering people of the Niger Delta region.

    On realizing that the 1979 constitution and the subsequent Allocation of Revenue Act (Cap16) had failed to specifically address the vexed issue of onshore-offshore dichotomy, President Babangida proceeded, by Decree 106 of 1992 to amend the Act. The amendment states: “an amount equivalent to 1% of the Federation Account derived from mineral revenue shall be shared among the mineral producing states based on the amount of mineral produced from each state and in the application of this provision, the Dichotomy of Onshore-Offshore oil producing and mineral oil and non-mineral oil revenue is hereby abolished”

    The two dichotomies: onshore and offshore production; oil and non oil resources were abrogated by this decree. There were, or possibly still are, those who wanted to claim that this degree was never signed or gazette and therefore should not apply. That is the extent of our mischief making and divisiveness.

    There is no denying the fact that all these shenanigans gave rise to the militancy in the Niger Delta. It cannot also be easily forgotten that the issue of a derivation formula was one of the sticky points to be resolved at the constitutional conference called by the late Head of State, General Sanni Abacha in 1994-1995. At that conference, the Committee on Revenue Allocation put forward a resolution which was keenly debated, amended, and subsequently unanimously affirmed by the entire assembly.

    This resolution provided a formula for the administration of the derivation principle and contained three very significant embodiments. The first is that allocation to derivation shall stand on a MINIMUM of 13%. The second is that the dichotomy between onshore and offshore exploration shall not be taken into account for the purpose of revenue allocation. The third is that the boundaries of littoral states were clearly defined as extending to Nigeria‘s exclusive economic zone which at the time stood at two hundred nautical miles.

    The 1999 constitution which we operate today has its roots in the findings of that conference. On the issue of public revenue, the constitution has this to say: “The President upon the receipt of advice from The Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission, shall table before the National Assembly proposals for revenue allocation from the Federation Account and in determining the formula, the National Assembly shall take into account the allocation principles especially those of population, equality of states, internal revenue generation, land mass, terrain as well as population density; provided that the principles of derivation shall be constantly reflected in any approved formula as being not less than 31% of the revenue accruing to the Federation Account directly from any natural resources”.

    We all know that revenue from oil was the issue as the derived revenues from our palm oil and coal from the east, cocoa from the west and groundnut pyramids from the north had long since paled into insignificance. Tin from the plateau had since been exhausted and we had never been serious about our other solid minerals that abound in the north or the tar sands in the west. I cannot therefore agree with those who now feel that, in considering this formula, a distinction should be drawn between naturally occurring resources such as oil and those produced through human labour such as groundnuts or cocoa. Perhaps we need to be reminded that when derivation stood at 50% in the sixties, it included revenue from oil. So what has changed other the price of crude oil? Is this recent outcry therefore just another exhibition of our limitless capacity for capriciousness?

    Today Obasanjo is being condemned for adopting a political solution rather than abiding by the constitution where the payment of derivation is concerned. Those people who are doing so forget that when Obasanjo took office in 1999, in total and flagrant disregard for the constitution, he was allocating only one percent of our public revenue for derivation. His one percent payment, we should note, included the entire revenue from oil – both on and offshore. This went on for more than a year. When finally he was pressured into allocating the thirteen percent that the constitution stipulates, he in a manner considered quite malicious reintroduced the diabolical dichotomy of off and on shore that had long since been laid to rest and which is not in our constitution.

    In defining the Federal Republic Nigeria, the constitution clearly states that there shall be thirty six states which are clearly named and a Federal Capital Territory. No more, no less. What this means is that any territory, be it land or body of water which does not belong to one or the other of these states or the FCT cannot be considered as part of Nigeria. It is for the simple reason that the bodies of water adjoining the littoral states, including Lake Chad, belong in the first instance to those adjoining states, that they can be considered as Nigerian territory. This was one of the cardinal points of agreement at the constitutional conference of 1994 – 95.

    It should also be remembered that that dichotomy was not always there. It was introduced as an emergency war time measure that supposed to have a short terminal date. Unfortunately it dragged on till Babangida’s decree 106 of 1992. Its total and final abrogation came at the constitutional conference of 1994 – 95. It is most fallacious therefore to try to “blame” the National Assembly did, quite commendably, was to stand against the decision of a president whose unilateral action is going against the constitution by his reintroduction of the onshore – offshore dichotomy was considered unacceptable in a democracy.

    Those who today are bringing up the issue of dichotomy should not forget that we can be as divisive as we wish in this country but the international community does not have to go along with us. The international community will not recognize two boundaries for Nigeria – the one given by the littoral states at the low water mark and the other by our Exclusive Economic Zone. This is because, as it has been stated, there can be no boundary dispute between federal units and the federal because it is the aggregate boundaries of the federating units that define the boundary of the federation”.

    I raised this issue once before. I was ignored and we lost Baksssi. Recently, though quite belatedly, we wanted to claim it back. Bakassi as an island sits beyond the low water mark of Cross River State, since we now want to say that there is something called Nigeria’s territorial waters that belong commonly to all Nigeria, we must ask what would have happened if we got back Bakassi – would it have belong to Cross River State or commonly to all of Nigeria? How would Bakassi belong Cross River State and yet the intervening oil wells between the state’s low water mark and the Island would belong commonly to all of Nigeria? How sad that in this country virtue cannot live out of the teeth of emulation!

    Any governor who wants to say that he cannot develop his state because of non dichotomized payment of thirteen percent derivation to the oil producing states is merely confessing that he is unfit to be governor. In those evil days of Obasanjo’s dichotomy, I was given a mere Six Hundred Million Naira every month with which to run and develop Akwa Ibom State which was classified non oil producing. This was considered the wicked and tyrannical manipulation of the constitution and it went on for more than a year until the National Assembly passed the law that corrected it. Twenty governors – the nineteen northern governors and one other from the west – challenged that law at the Supreme Court and lost. What more; why not let sleeping dogs lie!

    Despite that, I was able to build an airport with a maintenance hanger and the best runway in the country; I built an Independent Power Plant (IPP) of 191 megawatt capacity; I built the Le-Meridian Hotel with a marina and a golf course that today is the tourists’ delight and the place of choice for conferences, retreats and business meetings; I built housing estates, hospitals, schools; I built roads; I gave the people pipe born water and rural electrification; I started a university of Technology and an information and Communication Technology (ICT) Park with a major incubation centre; I initiated the design for a deep sea port at Ibaka apart from establishing new, and rehabilitating a number of moribund industries. In the process I took Akwa Ibom State into Nigeria, and above all I made Akwa Ibom State into peace haven in the turbulent Niger Delta.

    I can think of a number of things that are responsible for today’s poverty and lack of development but the payment of thirteen percent derivation without onshore-offshore dichotomy is not one them.

    One obvious reason is the extravagance and squandermenia in government. At independence the entire north, for instance, was governed by only one parliamentary type government. Today it is government by nineteen president style governments any one of which is phenomenally more expensive than the one that used to govern the entire region. A Governor can have as many as one thousand aids in addition to a motley crowd of commissioners and special advisers. The story is no different at the federal level where a multiplicity of commissions, parastatals, committees and more committees are competing with one another for the work of the ministries. If we spend such on administration how can we expect anything to be left for development particularly, as on top of this, every aspect of government is today being run on television and the pages of newspapers. At an enormous cost, government now at every level, is run by advertising and not by performance.

    If there is a need to look at derivation at all at this stage, it would be to see how the percentage can be increased for a very good reason. We have been told that the oil will last for only thirty more years. It has also been established that if we can stop further pollution, we will need thirty years from now to clean up the pollution that has already occurred in Niger Delta. I am advocating an increase in derivation to be handed over to the governors some of whom, quite sadly, has not demonstrated the capability and integrity to properly utilize these funds. What I am advocating is an immediate need to garner funds for the clean up of the Niger Delta otherwise, thirty years from now we will have no land to farm on and no water for fishing and no oil. The cry now should be for an increase in the derivation percentage rather than the awakening of the foreboding ghost of onshore-offshore dichotomy at a time when they so many more worrisome issues to engage our attention.

    •Attah is former Governor Akwa Ibom State.

  • Exit of Tito Supremo:A tribute

    Exit of Tito Supremo:A tribute

    Tito Supremo- Does that sound familiar?

    Now This: Titus Ajibade Ogunwale?

     

    Ha! Ha! Those are the names of a Nigerian Journalist, a fantastic leader writer, a distinguished editor, researcher, author and the longest serving academic staff and pioneer Deputy Director of Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ).

    For Titus Ogunwale, the stars fell from the sky and the man died on November 26, 2012.

    When a colleague of mine called to inform me of the home call of Titus Ogunwale, my mind immediately went to when we were together at the Features Department of Sketch Printing and Publishing Company in the 60s.

    (Not Sketch Press Limited then).

    Titus Ogunwale joined the “Sketch” in 1967 on his return from United Kingdom where he studied Journalism.

    As a traditional practice then, a fresh reporter’s first assignment was reporting court proceedings. But the Editor of Daily Sketch, Ayo Adedun, quickly discovered that Titus would be more effective in the features department than the newsroom.

    ‘This was how Titus started to stand on the shoulders of ‘giants in journalism and succeeded in seeing farther’.

    At the Features Department, we, the five of us, were working as if at a research centre – reading something about everything and everything about something, buying books and exchanging them.

    The head was the Late Tunji Oseni, a distinguished journalist and Information Manager, Late Lawrence Fagbemigun, (now Late) Titus Ogunwale, Bisi Osindele (now Amagada) and myself.

    Tunji was MATOS, Lawrence, Oddman, Titus, Tito Supremo, Bisi, Aunty Bisi, and self, Tom Drinkwater.

    Now, if all of us were alive, still working in the features department and the story of a departed professional colleague is broken, what would have been our immediate reactions?

    Tunji Oseni would have exclaimed: “This is bloody”. Lawrence Fagbemigun, who always dinned at the table of comic and fun would have said; “This stupid death, if it had knocked at my door, I would have shot it dead before it could harm me”

    In one of his last pieces before his death in May 1973, Lawrence Fagbemigun, the oddman had written on why some men love cars more than their wives: “I can not say (for sure) which of the two I love better but they can both remain in my house as wives No 1 and 2 provided they are tolerant of each other and show understanding, otherwise one would be sacked for the other. If I have to take such a painful decision, then, of course, my wife (I mean the mother of my children) would have to go…….”

    Titus Ogunwale, a cultural man to the core, would have asked in Yoruba language “Duro na, kilopa?” (Wait a minute, what killed him?!)

    Bisi Amagbada would have been so overwhelmed with emotion that she would have been unable to say a word. And yours sincerely would have queried why death should take him away at just over 70 and did not comply with the Holy Book in Genesis 6:3 which says : ‘Then the Lord said, my spirit will not contend to man for ever for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

    Titus Ogunwale contributed immensely to the development of journalism not only in Nigeria but in some other African countries.

    Before his retirement at Nigerian Institute of Journalism, he served as the first Head of Department (HOD) to the Northern outpost of the institution in Jos. His teaching of journalism took him to different parts of Africa – Ghana, Benin Republic, The Cameroons, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

    A one-time Reviews Editor in the “Sketch” Titus Ogunwale was as passionate in the correct use of English as Yoruba Language. Up to the point of his exit, he was busy collecting and exhibiting African artworks for charity. He was a co-director of Nigeria – Bugaria Journalism Workshop and was honoured with a Bulgarian medal. He was also a stringer for the BBC, TBI, (Television Business International U.K) and many other news network).

    At the October meeting of the League of veteran journalists in Oyo State, he had called me and pointed my attention to what he called my “unpardonable” omission” of my encounter with Mariam Makeba and my interview of Col. Adekunle Fajuyi’s mother shortly after his son, who was the military Governor of Western State was killed during a military coup detat in Ibadan in my book “A servant to his colleagues” recently presented to the public.

    Titus Ogunwale will be buried on Friday, December 21, 2012 at his country home, Moro, Ife North Local Government of Osun State.

    To you Tito Supremo, to borrow Tunji Oseni’s words “This is bloody” but greet your boss, your Catholic brother, Peter Ajayi for us. Goodnight

     

    Akingbade is a former chairman of League Veteran Journalists, Oyo State.