The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Rivers tag team

    In the (un)presidential jungle of Rivers, if you escape Mbu Joseph Mbu’s police, hired militants will get you.

    That is the message that must pierce the think skulls of Save Rivers Movement (SRM), as they launch another rally of theirs. SRM calls it rally to rally their democratic rights under the law. But their presidential vice-royal foes warn it is free suicide missions to which, of course, SRM has a democratic right of choice.

    Where does the law stand in all of these?

    The law is a prancing and gloating Nyesom Wike and his menacing Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI), with its divine-democratic right to pacify the rebellious natives in Chibuike Amaechi’s camp, and Wike’s wike-wike talk to rub in the grim message.

    The law is a rampaging Mbu police, extremely proud and completely flush with their outlawry; and Mbu prancing and threatening and barking and swooning that he is Jonathan and wife’s imperial viceroy, in front of whom the democratically elected governor and his contemptible rabble of a people must bow and tremble.

    The law is a colluding president that sees nothing, hears nothing, smells nothing and touches nothing on the Rivers crisis, for such meddlesomeness would demean the all-mighty office of president and disillusion those who feel they could demystify that all-mightiness, despite his meekly declaration that he is no Pharaoh, no general and no dictator, just an humble servant of power, that must be used however it must be used!

    Still, for those galloping from strength to strength on the stallion of presidential impunity, and a police that wilfully bully innocent and defenceless citizens, here is some grim news.

    Once upon a time, there was a ragtag rabble that called itself Boko Haram. It was so ragtag the sitting powers then virtually made its members game for shooting practice — so dispensable and so useless was this rabble. Indeed, Muhammed Yusuf, its ill-fated leader, was so dispensable and so woe-begotten that after the soldiers arrested him and gave him up to the police, the power-drunk police didn’t think twice before dispatching the “rebel” in detention.

    But the ragtag Boko Haram of yesterday has become the terror of today. First, it gave the police in its area of jurisdiction a bloody nose, such that posting to that area became well-nigh a death sentence. Then, it took on the hitherto imperious military, giving as much as it took. Between these two extremes, it had become sheer terror to the Nigerian state, killing and bombing innocents at will. Such is the wrath of the hitherto inconsequential!

    So, as Mbu and his federal sponsors go on overdrive in the criminal abuse of the power of uniform, they should dread that day when the fleeing are back against the wall; and have no choice but to lash back. Trust Mbu and co would have the fire power to cope with the infernal Niger Delta mess.

    But where could such doomsday warning emanate? Just say a primer from a book entitled How a President merrily shoots himself in the foot.

  • Anchors for new Igbo leadership

    Leadership is the most sublime of all arts, said an ancient thinker and one dares add that there are no foolproof formulae or methods. Leadership is leadership only when it has fermented or yielded results – desirable results of course. While we daily discuss and dissect this eternal concept, the people of the world continue bear the brunt of poor leadership in all spheres of life without let.

    But leadership like gift comes in different packages, shades and even character. It some times manifests in the unlikeliest of places and circumstances, which is why one proposes here that the disquieting leadership vacuum in Igboland today may fine manure in the persons of the current governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji and the out-going governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi. While the twain could prove to be the key to Igbo ‘renaissance’, so much will depend on their individual and concerted efforts; their will to pick up the gauntlet, their desire to stand in the gap for their people and most important, their sense of history and legacy.

    There is no doubt that Ndigbo today, more than ever before, are in dire need of men of wisdom and stature who would stand as rallying points for the now stranded people of the South-east of Nigeria. The demise of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu and the aging of the likes of Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Professor Ben Nwabueze have left Igboland barren and starkly bereft of ndi- ndu. And if the point must be made, Ndigbo cannot afford to be headless and rudderless in today’s Nigeria that totters precariously threatening to snap and disintegrate along ethnic fault lines. This is a time that calls for quality ethnic champions; it is also an epoch that breeds leaders.

    We think therefore, that these two Igbo leaders are today, in pole positions to step up as the next generation of Igbo to serve as anchor for that great land and her people in these times. One shortlists T.A Orji here because in spite of an orchestrated barrage of smear campaign against him, his administration and his work in Abia by people who believe they own the state and would not brook any ‘interloper’, TA as he is called by all, has proven his mettle both as a wily politician, administrator and leader.

    As governor of Abia in the last six years or so, again ignoring the antics of deprived ‘owners’ and ‘godfathers’, he has been able to reclaim an entity which was worsted by locusts and termites between 1999 and 2007. By 2007, Abia was like a wasteland where a deadly hurricane had traversed. Abia was devastated physically, psychologically and spiritually. That condition explained the horrific state of insecurity and a suffusion of criminality in a place with the slogan: ‘God’s Own State’. By 2007, it was apparent that God had left Abia in anger.

    As for his performance in office since he took over in 2007, his travails in the hands of his rapacious godfathers during most of his first term of course arrested the growth and development objectives of the new administration. Clear-headed analysts of the Abia conundrum would admit that since 1999, it is the TA administration that has brought order, sanity and articulated development to Abia State. It is no secret that the previous administration only bequeathed the people debts and chaos after eight years. But TA has calmly picked the pieces, and is rebuilding from the ruins and rubbles of that era.

    Leadership is not however judged by the ability to deliver bricks and mortar alone. TA’s forte, which is why one thinks he would emerge as one of the apex Igbo leaders is his reasonableness, people skill, his amiable nature and his elastic capacity for reconciliation and mediation. When he was vilified for an obviously misguided policy which sought to indigenise the state’s civil service, he back-tracked at the earliest opportunity when the state’s finances improved. He promptly offered the victims of the policy the opportunity to return to their jobs.

    In a field of up-coming Igbo leaders, TA possesses the right educational and intellectual pedigree, professional/service records and the authenticity of the Igbo. As he ends his tenure, how he plays his end game and the trajectory he constructs going forward would be vital in fitting into what may be a natural position of Igbo leadership. As others before him did, it may be tempting to try to seek solace and relevance in the secure bowels of the Senate but that move never worked for anyone. That road has long proven to be a fatalistic cul-de-sac through which many have simply lapsed into irrelevance.

    This brings us to the other candidate, Governor Obi who has about finished his term in Anambra State. He has vowed never to seek any elective or appointive position after governing a state for eight years. Nobility is made of this and Obi may have instantly earned himself statesmanship should he abide by his word.

    Like TA, Obi will be remembered for helping to stabilize his fractious and dishevelled state; bringing order and sanity to the anchor state of the southeast. Obi’s especial ability to carry through two terms in office with a minority party and the grit with which he was able to win with his successor in the last election is also a testimony to his capacity to provide holistic leadership for his people. Lastly, apart from boasting of a worthy work and service pedigree, Obi, like TA, is a true nwafor Igbo who truly understands the special needs and aspirations of Ndigbo in today’s Nigeria. It is therefore imperative for Obi and TA to pull together regardless of party affiliations, form partnership; forge alliances and build platforms for the resurgence of Ndigbo. Mark you we do not seek a leader as a shepherd to a herd of cattle, but we merely ask for a strong, true voice for Ndigbo.

    Will these two great Igbo sons stand to be counted?

     

    • Nchekeocha writes from Okigwe, Imo State

  • Sango-Ijoko road: Amosun must hear this!

    SIR: I have observed with utmost disdain and sadness the handling of the Sango – Ijoko Road, in Ogun State by the contractors handling the job, the officials of Ogun State Land Bureau, and the landlords whose buildings were affected by the on-going project.

    While commending the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun for having the courage to face the job in spite of oppositions, one has to pity this hard-working man for having people within the land department and among the contractors, elements who are so much after financial gains and inducements rather than doing the work assigned to them.

    It is shameful to observe that houses that were marked for demolition in Sango axis of the road were not demolished up to the points marked but the landlords were paid for them. Aside these, an independent observer will find out that the erection of the electricity poles was nothing but ruse. Poles were erected in line with what the owners of the buildings can part with.

    The second marking of the houses further exposes the failure on the part of the officials of Land Bureau. House that were marked eight metres additionally were only demolished by just three metres while landlords were paid for eight metres. Who bear these losses? The government and people of Ogun State of course and some people will smile to the bank.

    It was also observed that people trading or living in or near most of these half-demolished buildings are on the verge of untimely death that may occur via unexpected collapse of 80% of the building.

    My appeal in the above is for immediate action on the part of the governor, the various town planning offices and basically the land office. A stitch in time saves nine, so they say.

    • Abiodun Rauph,

    Sango, Ogun State

  • Pensions: Open letter to the President

    The present letter is reminiscent of my open letter to your predecessor, the late President Umaru Yara’Adua on the plight of pensioners. That letter led to the cancellation of the government’s wicked and primitive insistence that pensioners from all corners of the country must report in Abuja for verification. Having put that horrible aspect of bad governance behind us, there remains the core problem of payment of pensions and arrears for pensioners. On this matter, sir, I have a few questions which you must critically consider in the name of justice, equity and fairness.

    Are you aware that it is only in the country under your leadership that pensioners do not receive their pensions, as and at when due, every month, like those currently in service?

    Are you aware that, in this country, many pensioners are still owed, probably up to 10 years or more, and that it is the pensions of those who had died since this period, together with unpaid pensions of those still alive, that are being stolen by officials in the pension house of horror?

    Are you also aware of the scandals in the pension house that ran into billions of naira and that those responsible for stealing the pensioners’ fund (dead and alive pensioners), seem to have gotten away with their loots while the legitimate owners of the stolen money are dying by the day?

    After they had served their country for so long, should retirees be faced with pension problems that are now like their death sentence? Come to think of it, Mr. President, do you, for a moment, examine the life and condition of people in your government, in relation to the people you govern, in the light of what Socrates said that “an unexamined life is not worth living?”

    Can you therefore say, with good conscience, that nonpayment of hapless and helpless retirees’ pensions and arrears is an act of good governance?

    Now, Mr. President, sir, are you aware of the 53% increase in pensions for retirees from July 1, 2009 which you cut down to 33%, and the total cost of which your Technical Committee had calculated from July 1, 2009?

    Is it true that the same 33% (cut from 53%) which was recommended from July 1, 2009, had been paid to the armed forces while you have not signed the approval of same which has been lying on your table since April, 2013 for payment to bloody civilian pensioners? Would it not be just and proper that these arrears be paid with interests from July 1, 2009 to date? Or are you delaying approval of payment of the pensions and arrears so that more pensioners would die and the arrears of their pensions could go to the living pension thieves or the government once more?

    Are you really aware that while many States like Osun have paid the pensions of their retired workers regularly, the federal government and the sole custodian of the nation’s financial resource has refused to pay its own part of the pensions to retired workers for many years? Perhaps you want us to believe that states are more humane and more interested in the welfare of their citizens than the mighty federal government.

    Is there justice in this matter, sir, when compared to what you spend on two animals in your zoo, the amount spent on cutleries, feeding, presidential jets, travels, generators e.t.c. when these expenses and the money embezzled by ministers on kickbacks and frivolous, non-productive expenses are enough to pay the arrears of all pensioners in Nigeria for 10 years or more?

     

    Lately, the newspapers have carried the frustrating news and even wrote editorials that your government failed to pay December salaries to federal workers, thus denying them the opportunities of celebrating the New Year while ministers, special advisers, and their children and relatives consumed as much food as would have catered for millions of unpaid civil servants and other poor Nigerians at that festive period.

    Now, I think I can grant you a diminished responsibility on these wicked dealings. Those who should have helped you by getting you to do the right thing without delay are the Nigeria Labour Congress and the National Assembly, both who perpetually go to sleep while their neighbours, friends and compatriots – the pensioners – are being subjected to excruciating pains under the yoke of non-payment of pensions and arrears. I had once praised the Senate President when he, for the first time in history of pensioners’ travails, talked tough against the wicked treatment of pensioners, castigated and cursed pension officers who refused to pay pensioners their dues. It was at that time I raised the important issue of paying the arrears of pensions with interests, so that those fond of fixing pensioners’ fund would know that the accrued interests belong to the pensioners and not to the pension thieves.

    Sir, I shudder to imagine what the outside world would think about the extremely wicked treatment of pensioners by your government. My fears, which should be everybody’s fear, are the quantum of curses rained on those directly or remotely responsible for the deaths of thousands of pensioners in this country. It is generally believed that a justifiable curse by an aggrieved person on an individual, a family or a nation could take 20 to 40 years to reverse. How long would it take thousands of curses from aged pensioners, dead and alive, on a person, family or a nation in multiples of thousand curses by the genuinely aggrieved to be reversed? While the curses of the living pensioners could still be reversed if the pension thieves make proper atonements for their wicked deeds, those of the dead remain irreversible because there are no chances for atonements. This precisely might just be one of the remote, if not direct, causes of the intractable problems facing Nigeria and her government today, and which impotent atonements may or may not take away in a hurry.

    Please, Mr. President, what I do not understand is why any government worthy of that name and any government which swore to an oath to see to the welfare, good life and general happiness of its citizens should amass so much of the nation’s oil wealth to itself while it does not care a hoot about what happens to its citizens, especially its retired senior citizens who are dying daily from non-payment of their pensions and arrears. It is just as if the government under your leadership is enjoying it all, and perhaps saying that those pensioners that have survived penury so far should forever keep quiet or, if they like, jump into the lagoon or the Atlantic Ocean! But I believe in the truism: “Nobody knows what his/her future would be, and this future starts from the next moment”.

    In this country, pensioners are more sinned against than sinning. So, Mr. President, sir, please be aware of the saying of the oppressed: “God-dey”. On this religious note, I rest my case but strongly advise you to pay the pensions and arrears of all workers in Nigeria now, for the number of years owed them without delay.

    • Professor Makinde, FNAL is DG/CEO, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, State of Osun.

     

  • Echoes from Benin youth summit

    SIR: Nigerian comedians may be vessels of laughter, they also can be harbingers of bitter but hard truths. In no better way was this trait demonstrated than the parody of the Nigerian leadership experience seen from the relationship between its old rulers and younger generation as captured by Julius Agwu, one of the nation’s foremost comic advertisements. According to the joke master, the country’s youths are no longer the leaders of tomorrow as a popular political mantra would have us believe. The reason is that their claim to the title has been given an unrealistic extension, a reason for which they are now better known, albeit as “Leaders of the Day After Tomorrow.”

    Like Agwu noted, distraught Nigerian youths are indeed in a dilemma over the role they are meant to play in a country where leadership appears to have become the exclusive preserve of influential, rich and powerful aged and or any other individual annointed by them to foster their grip on power. On account of this and other reasons, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, Edo state governor, decided to organize a summit for the army of youths in the state as part of the country’s centenary celebrations.

    The Benin Youth Summit turned out to be a timely intervention programme as the state goverment left nothing to chance in its determination to ensure that all issues were situated and addressed. However, one central issue that attracted the attention of virtually all the speakers is the need to truly integrate the youth into the country’s leadership hierachy hitherto dominated by its aged rulers. They were also united in the opinion that unless the disconnect between old leaders who have continued to hold sway without giving an inch, and the youth is resolved in order that the latter may be able to play its role, the nation’s inability to resolve its myriad of challenges may go on unchecked. Toyosi Akerele, a youth advocate would call for a generation integration process that will aggregate the interests of both the older generation and youth.

    Another issue that came up for deliberation in the course of the one-day summit is the need to help the younger generation imbibe pan Nigeria attitude in order for them to develop patriotic inclinations. The point was made that current leadership should desist from annointing successors only because of their desire to exercise a measure of leadership control through proxy long after dropping the reins of power.

    In particular, the summit enjoined the youths to disregard claims in certain quarters that the country will disintegrate if certain individuals fail to acquire political offices. In the words of Peter Esele, Nigerian youths must continue to think more of a united Nigeria, given that everyone stands to benefit more under one Nigeria than a disintegrated one just as he noted that the factors for which disintegration whistles are being blown in some quarters  are no more present at the federal level than they are at both regional and state levels hence the antidote is for the country to have a leader whose commitment to the Nigerian dream is not in any doubt in order to restore the people’s confidence.

    • Ernest Omoarelojie

    Benin City.

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Siren tyranny on Nigerian roads

    SIR: This is not a funeral dirge for Festus Iyayi – distinguished former President of Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, (ASUU) and eminent professor of University of Benin. “To live in the hearts of those we love is not to die’’ and Festus was eloquently eulogised at his burial by his family, peers and friends. He was a victim of this siren madness. So also was Captain Wada – Governor of Kogi State whose convoy led to Iyayi’s death. Wada of course lived to tell his story.

    One can never stop wondering why sane people would willingly hand over their most prized possession they have – THEIR LIVES – to the whims and caprices of ill-trained, semi-literate convoy drivers. Most of these convoy operators have minimum education which is primary standard six. Their level of self-discipline and control is even lower.

    This problem of siren abuse has undergone a long period of gestation in my thoughts. At some stage, I contemplated introducing legislation in the National Assembly but with the backlog of un-assented bills one had a rethink. State legislation looked a better option. Governor Fashola of Lagos State is a trail blazer in this respect and their landmark legislation known as Road Traffic Law 2012 is worthy of emulation by other states. Governor Fashola does not move with siren.

    Sirens gained prominence during the Second World War to warn people against impending air strikes. There is also a new dimension and that is the executive siren which is used not only in Nigeria but in many parts of the world. Sometimes irresponsible and excessive speeding are associated with this class of siren use and has an occasions caused accidents and death.

    For certain classes of government officials such as Presidents, Prime Ministers who are identified targets of terrorists attack, use of the siren for fast movement is justified. The use of course must be regulated which does not seem to be the case in Nigeria. In the United Kingdom, use of sirens and flashing cars known as ‘BLUES N’ TWOS’ by emergency services, fire ambulance, law enforcement is controlled by law. Blue flashing lights is regulated by Blue Flashing Lights Road Vehicle Lighting Regulation (1989) and that of siren by Road Vehicles Construction and Use Act (1986). Occasions when vehicles permitted to use these gadgets can break speed limits are well spelt out and obeyed. Former British Prime Ministers used to have two blue light flashing outriders and a few back-up vehicles in their convoy. The current British Prime Minister David Cameron has done away with the motorcycle outriders and now travels with a minimum of traffic disruption. In the U.K, convoy movement with sirens is unknown for private citizens no matter how rich. On one occasion when we had to clear for our lives, I counted 35 vehicles in a governor’s convoy. How ridiculously insensitive can we get?

    The debate on siren use has become urgent because 2014 and 2015 are important election years. It is time to address this madness which drives ordinary Nigerians off the road. What makes the situation more annoying is that the stern gun swinging personnel who accompany these convoys have no respect for anybody. They are prepared to destroy anyone who stands in their way.

    As the elections draw nearer, virtually anybody who can pay for Hilux van will soon be mounting a siren and start this mini terrorism. The use of sirens is authorised by the President through the Inspector General of Police. There are approved lists of persons entitled to use them but this list is completely flouted and ignored. Legislation does not seem to be working either. One therefore would appeal to the President to re-table this topic at the Council of States. A consensus at this forum may have a trickledown effect which may yet restore sanity to our roads.

    • Dr. Eddie Mbadiwe

    Lagos

     

  • Is Jonathan now a General?

    SIR: Sometime ago, President Goodluck Jonathan, while attending a military function, had remarked that he was not a military general. Many analysts wondered if the president really understood the enormity of the power of the office he occupies. How on earth can a man who is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria claim that he is not a general? How come he is commanding other generals?

    If there is any doubt that Jonathan is perfectly on top of things, the clinical and noiseless manner he recently effected changes in the top hierarchy of the military has put all that to rest. In a sweeping change, Jonathan had removed the former Chief of Defence Staff, Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika, and his counterpart in the Navy, Vice Admiral Joseph Ezeoba. The only survivor is the former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, now Chief of Defence Staff. Major General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah was named new Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin takes over from Ezeoba as Chief of Naval Staff; while Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu now steps in as the Chief of Air Staff.

    From the geopolitical perspective, the list of the new service chiefs shows exemplary balance between the North and the South. It is safe to argue that Jonathan, in reshuffling the top military positions, paid serious attention to the most important fault lines of our political architecture, which are religion and the North-South divide.

    But beyond the issue of ethno-religious balance is the emphasis on operational effectiveness and professionalism. The former service chiefs have done a marvellous job in containing the threats to national security especially against the terrorist insurgency of the Boko Haram sect.

    Given the deft manner and tactical manoeuvring with which he has handled the changes in the top brass of the military, who would argue again that President Jonathan is not a General or even a Field Marshal?

    • John Ainofenokhai

    Jonny4deals@yahoo.com

     

     

  • Hooray! Time to mine gold!

    The tone is decidedly triumphant: foreign concerns are coming here to mine gold, iron ore and allied minerals.

    And the golden tale bearer, Mohammed Amate, director-general of Nigerian Cadastre Office, Abuja, conveyed it with a flush of excitement: New Year, new hope, and new jobs, courtesy of mining!

    Mr. Amate told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that foreign firms, Mines Geotechnique Nigeria Ltd, Northern Numero Resources Ltd, Segilola Nigeria Ltd and KCM Mining Ltd, from Australia and United Kingdom, have landed mining rights for gold and iron ore in Nigeria: Kebbi, Kogi and Osun states, to be precise. Though Segilola Nigeria, from name recognition, seems a distinctly Nigerian firm, the report claims it is an Australian firm.

    Segilola is the proud gold digger (no negative pun intended), which operating licence is in Osun State; and it’s a done deal, for the firm’s exploration activities have confirmed more than one million ounces of gold buried in Osun’s rich chest, at least in its area of operation. The other firms, mining iron ore, are no less lucky, for exploration activities have also proved no less than 500 million tonnes of iron ore.

    Still on the good news: the quad is only a fifth of the 20 foreign firms the Federal Government has granted mining exploration licences. Shortly the gold – and iron ore – rush would start; and jobs, jobs, and jobs would come, to employ millions of Nigeria’s jobless and disoriented youth! It is a happy, happy New Year indeed!

    But the avoidable depression: why is granting mining licences the monopoly of the Federal Government in a federation of 36 states?

    Look at the bureaucracy of it: the host states lose wealth, while the central government makes a fetish of its licensing monopoly.

    Look at the ecology of it: the host states – and communities – suffer environmental degradation, while the God-playing central government grabs the cash, and gives the Biblical hewers of stone and drawers of water a mere “change”.

    Look at the economics of it: wealth lying untapped in the bowels of states, while mass poverty bordering on penury gallops all over the land because of some pre-historic law by which these natural resources are exclusively vested in the Federal Government.

    It is good the Federal Government is taking mining more seriously as foreign exchange earner, outside its near-mono commodity of crude oil. But it is even better, the earlier it realises the present federal monopoly in that sector does nothing but impoverishes everybody, when a liberal and federalism-compliant law of states mining their land, and paying the centre some agreed tax, will enrich everyone. Besides, that realisation would drive inter-state/inter-region competition that would add value, and embed heavy local industries.

    That would be smarter economics than the present practice of exporting crude oil and buying it back at a refined premium, therefore posting a net loss.

    It is then, and only then, that we would have hit gold!

     

  • NAFDAC and Orhii’s second term

    The reappointment of Dr. Paul Orhii as Director General of NAFDAC on December 31, 2013 by President Goodluck Jonathan is God’s imprimatur, His endorsement of five years of hard work and uncommon innovative leadership by a man ready to give his all to Nigeria and humanity. This perhaps explains the futility of the orchestrated efforts by some individuals and groups to stop his second term.

    And the timing of the announcement, the last day of the year, a year of frenetic sentimentalism and untrammelled attempt by a powerful anti-Orhii coalition to pull him down, was a wonderful way by an administration to appreciate the helmsman of one of the nation’s most impactful institutions. It was one sure way by President Jonathan to put paid to the activities of the growing and unrelenting coalition. What a way to end a vicious campaign, and what a way to endorse an innovative leadership and a change agent in the all important health sector of the country.

    Leadership is a very challenging endeavour, but leading a very complex country like Nigeria has additional challenges. However, President Goodluck Jonathan has demonstrated in words and deeds that he has no time for frivolities, but rather committed to taking Nigeria to the next level. There is no doubt that Nigeria is a prosperous nation maximally endowed with distinct human and natural resources, and positioned by God to set the pace for other African countries to follow. This Divine commission has not been sure-footedly approached since independence in October 1, 1960 due to multifaceted of which leadership is key. However, indications are strong that we have in the incumbent President those sterling qualities that make a good leader. He has demonstrated his commitment to engraving undeletable landmark imprints on the nation’s sand of time.

    Through uncommon clear-headedness, sagacity and calculative mind, he has confronted the daunting challenges facing his administration and has remained on top of them. For a leader convinced of the genuineness of his actions and policies, he is able to assess those he has entrusted with positions of leadership in the various sub-systems of the nation.

    This is why his reappointment of the NAFDAC henchman, Orhii, has not come as a surprise to Nigerians and discerning members of the international community alike. Considering the time and resources put in by the anti-Orhii coalition, his second term endorsement marks the President out as a forthright leader. The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), the arrowhead of the undisguised coalition, advanced the most jejune argument using Section 9(2) of the NAFDAC Establishment Act, to attack the eligibility of Orhii, a medical doctor, pharmacologist and lawyer, for the position of NAFDAC director general. They claimed he is not a pharmacist!

    The truth of the matter is that for anybody to be appointed the DG of NAFDAC, he/she must possess a good knowledge of pharmacy, foods and drugs. With his reappointment, the anti-Orhii campaign died a natural death. And so, since January 14, the day of commencement of his second term, both the consolidation phase and a new one of fresh experimentation for enhanced performance has begun.

    Orhii posted unassailable records in his first term so much that he made waves outside the shores of Nigeria. The achievements of the agency were a reflection of the bigger transformation picture of the Jonathan presidency. The battle against influx of substandard regulated products into the country was reinvigorated and the local production of pharmaceutical products monitored and coordinated. In collaboration with Federal Ministry of Agriculture, NAFDAC established the new Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate for effective regulation of food production activities in line with the President’s agriculture transformation and food security programme. This directorate is assisting the country to promote production and export of value-added agricultural products like cocoa, cashew and cassava.

    The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan for food safety, leading to examination, monitoring, registration and certification of numerous food products as well as ensuring that caterers and bakers comply with the stipulated good hygienic practices of the agency, are worth mentioning. The agency gave the pure and bottled water production revolution in the country the necessary fillip through training, laboratory analysis, advisory inspections and consultative meetings with sector players. About 20, 000 water products were registered between 2009 and 2013.

    A must mention are the multi-million naira ultra modern state-of-the-art Regional Laboratory Complex in Agulu, Anambra State commissioned in 2010; the rehabilitation of the Kaduna Area Laboratory torched in 2004; the acquisition of a new multi-million naira building for Lagos administrative office; the refurbished and upgraded headquarters of the agency in Abuja and laboratories in Yaba, Oshodi and Maiduguri. Others include the design of a corporate portal that allows for in-house sharing of information; an internet enabled web-based portal, Automated Product Administration and Monitoring Solution (NAPAMS), which provides electronic platform for the management of the registration process/E-Registration; a Laboratory Information Management System to support quality laboratory procedure and data processes, and an E-Clearance Portal, which allows for online electronic clearance of goods at the ports.

    Above all, there is database to capture information on all NAFDAC-regulated products. All these happened under Orhii’s charge.

    Perhaps, using the law to fight drug fakers and adulterators remains one of the most impressive achievements of Dr. Paul Orhii. The most salutary judgment till date remains the conviction of two staff of Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, Lagos, Adeyemo Abiodun and Ebele Eromosele and the winding up order on the company given in May 2013 by a Lagos High Court.  The production, distribution, display, sale and application chain of the nation’s drug business was lifted by the introduction of ultra-modern regional drug markets tagged, Mega Drug Distribution Centres (MDDCs) and State Drug Distribution Centres (SDDCs). Their existence will effectively eliminate the unwieldiness in the nation’s supply and demand mix. So also is the soft loan package for local drug manufacturers championed by the agency.

    Orhii’s stewardship in NAFDAC has accorded Nigeria a distinct global reputation and status. Nigeria today is conferred with a pioneering status of deployment of cutting-edge technologies in combating NAFDAC regulated products counterfeiting.

    Now that he has won his reappointment battle as NAFDAC boss, there is no doubt that he will justify the confidence reposed in him by the President and Nigerians in this second phase of his stewardship. Nigerians expect the same level of dedication and commitment to healthcare of citizens. After all, it is said that to whom much is given, much is indeed expected.

    • Ikhilae, is a Lagos-based public affairs analyst