The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Why not the Green Energy option?

    SIR: Over the years, Nigeria has always lagged behind in technological advancement and innovations. Everything integral to human progression often come to us late. This explains why we lag behind in renewable energy to drive sustenance in the energy sector. The energy generated from gifts of nature is considered infinite, free, renewable, eco-friendly and above all self sustaining. All over the world, there are structured re-awakening towards this energy generation with negligible negative impact.

    In the United States of America, energy generated from wind and solar in the last three years has doubled from around 5.5% to over 11.1%. The construction of new wind power generating capacity alone in the fourth quarter of 2012 totalled 8,380 megawatts (MW) bringing the cumulative installed capacity to 60,007 MW. This capacity is exceeded only by China.

    Another country that is seizing on the moment of renewable energy is Germany. The Germans intend to have about 35 per cent of its energy sourced from renewables by 2020, 50 per cent by 2030, 65 per cent by 2040; and 80 per cent by 2050. It is not a wild dream because the amount of energy sourced from renewables, including wind rose from 20 to 25 per cent in the first half of 2012.

    Even Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Gulf Kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, aims to meet one-third of its energy demands by using renewable energy by 2032, setting aside an incredible budget of $109 billion for achieving the goal.

    With the stagnancy in our power generating capacity, attaining sufficiency might be a tall dream, but we have an untapped alternative in renewable energy. Unfortunately, while the world is actively awake, Nigeria is still at documentation. The Minister of Power, said the government is still “trying to build a policy on renewable energy and energy conservation”.

    The push for renewable energy at this period of our national life is critical because of its abundance and eco-friendliness. Renewable energy can be generated from resources which are continually replenished such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, animal wastes, plants and geothermal heat. Nigeria is one of the very few nation blessed with all the above sources year round, though, we barely use it. So why the waste and darkness?

    • Sulaimon Mojeed-Sanni,

    Lagos

     

  • Ekiti and South-west integration quest

    SIR: According Wilson Churchill, “A pessimist will always see difficulty in every opportunity, while the optimist will see opportunity in every difficulty. Putting the Southwest under the same economic landscape in this modern time could be arduous, but I want to commend the Southwest governors for their doggedness and beliefs that there are myriad of opportunity in this seemingly difficult project of regional integration.

    During the old Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo brought the Yorubas under one socio-political and economic structure, even extending to the old Bendel State now known as Edo and Delta states respectively. The wonders that were performed then by the late sage still remain the reference point in Nigeria and Africa at large today. It was then that we had the first Television Station in Africa, Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, Free Universal Primary Education among other landmark policies that put the region on the world map.

    I want to believe that this was where the Southwest governors drew their strengths that boosted their determination to re-enact the policy of the old to catapult the fortunes of the region to an enviable position this modern time.

    It was so pathetic to remember the military usurpation of 1966 that halted the democratic structures of that time. The region would have been Eldorado of development in Africa today going by the pace of radical economic transformation being undertaken then. Military succeeded in importing the culture of insidious arrogance, hopelessness, despondency and desperation into the region’s body polity which did colossal damages to the economic prospect and breakthrough that were already in motion.

    I want to salute the courage of these governors, particularly the noble roles been played by Dr. Kayode Fayemi in ensuring that the new economic renaissance is not aborted. One thing really gladdened my heart, that was the statement made by Fayemi during the maiden edition of the Southwest governors meeting in Ado Ekiti that “this is purely economic rebirth in the Southwest. It is devoid of political or ethnic colouration”. Noteworthy was the fact that the Labour Party governor of Ondo State Dr. Olusegun Mimiko was present at the meeting.

    Fayemi posited that nothing impede the region from having the same economic and administrative policies in governance saying “I think nothing stops us from having the same railway network, same educational and economic policies and way of life, the same Papa Obafeimi Awolowo did”.

    But the drivers of the laudable programme should be conscious that deep-rooted political acrimony and the lopsided federating structure operational in Nigeria could serve as inhibiting factors in the consummation of the programme. The artificial boundaries created by the breaking of the region into states could affect the psyche of the people, because citizens from each states now see themselves from the narrow perspective of their respective states, rather than the broader Southwest spectrum. They should find a way round them.

    But whichever way we look at it, this regional regrouping is quite commendable. It marks the watershed of economic and political liberation of the region.

    With this new stride, there is a ray of hope that the Southwest would be re-launched back to the pace-setting position it occupied in the past.

     

    • Dalimore Aluko,

    Ikere Ekiti, Ekiti State.

     

  • Still on local government autonomy

    SIR: The Guideline for Local Government Reform (FGN, 1976) defines local government as government aat local level exercised through representative councils established by law to exercise specific powers defined areas. These powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs as well as the staff and institutional and financial power to initiate and direct the provision of services and to determine and implement projects so as to complement the activities of the state and federal government in their areas, and to ensure, through devolution of functions to these councils and through the active participation of the people and their traditional institutes , that local initiative and responses to local head and conditions are maximised.

    The implications of the above definitions are in four dimensions: Local government must be a legal entity distinct from the state and federal government; it must be administered by democratically elected officials; it must have specific powers to perform a range of functions assigned it by law; and it must enjoy substantial autonomy to perform array of functions, plan, formulate and execute its own policies, programmes and projects, and its own rules and regulations as deemed for its local needs.

    Autonomy of the local government includes power to control its finance, recruit and discipline its staff. Based on these definitions, and their implications, could it be said that the local government system in Nigeria is autonomous? Absolutely not. The 1976 local government reform also conceptualised local government as the third tier of government operating with a common institutional framework with defined functions and responsibilities. As a third tier of government (105 International Journal of Advanced Legal Studies and Governance Vol. 1 No.1, April 2010), local government gets its statutory share of allocation direct from the Federation account and it is empowered to exercise control over it’s spending. The states, especially, abused some provisions of the 1979 Constitution to suit their selfish desires. State governments neglected or voided aspects of the 1976 Reforms that they were displeased with and distorted those that were merely inconvenient.

    The fact is that, rural communities across the country are in abject poverty and state governments have not done anything to alleviate the suffering of the rural people. There is no rural community, not even local government headquarter, that can boast of these four basic needs of life; water, electricity, primary education and primary healthcare centre that are working optimally. The excuses have been that, the state claims it is the responsibility of the local government to provide these amenities while the local government say they lack financial power to execute such projects thereby leaving over 70% of the nation’s population orchestrating between hope and despair amidst of plenty.

    Some states in Nigeria even pay state salary from the local government allocation and then leave a paltry sum which cannot pay local government staff. How then can they execute projects? The quest for rural transformation can only be realized when local governments become autonomous.

    • Onogwu Isah Muhammed,

    Lokoja, Kogi State

  • Finally, the 2013 budget is parsed

    Hurray, Nigeria eventually has an appropriation document to run with as the National Assembly (NASS) finally approves this year’s budget. This is coming in the third quarter of the year when most other countries are fine-tuning their 2014 budget. You may argue that the budget had been running but that must be only on a crutch as the executive and legislative arms of government engaged in a protracted battle of (no) wits. As our governments are wont, no explanations were proffered as to the root of the crisis; as to why the economy had to run at half capacity for the better part of the year. As in most other things, we are only left to our conjectures.

    Even in the best of times when our budgets suffered no high-wire altercations and horse-trading, our fiscal documents virtually amounted to naught; now it seems doomed on delivery. What was at issue? The untold story is that the executive arm would not ‘accommodate’ the NASS, especially as concerns their allocations for constituency projects. The sums proposed by the lawmakers were viciously slashed by the presidency team. In an angry reprisal, NASS reached for a machete and recklessly slashed the Bill almost beyond the recognition of its owners. In some cases, the sharks cut so deep they almost crunched bones. This naturally left the document in tatters leaving the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy (CME) in pitiful distress.

    The lawmakers couldn’t be bothered, they in fact went ahead to pass the Bill in such miserably inoperable state warning that they would not entertain any supplementary Bill. But this particular one, they let it be known, was subject to adjustment after all concerned have ‘reasoned’ together. This was exactly what happened: some constituency funds not less than N50 billion was released, to be warehoused and disbursed by the Minister of Special Duties. The Ministry of Works and not the legislators would award and execute all the constituency projects accordingly. (Aside: they could tell that to the marines; Nigerians know better than that). The important point to note here, however, is that it was only after this uncanny ‘accommodation’ was reached that the NASS went back to the vomit of a budget they refused to pass and passed it after some rapid sessions.

    If you thought that there were some reasons, principled or not, why the lawmakers held the country to ransom for seven months, there is not a single one. At least that is what came out when they eventually re-passed the Bill on July 25. Both the rejected Bill and the one just passed are estimated at N5 trillion. The difference between the twain is just about N162 million. The NASS simply reinstated the portions of the budget they had chopped off in anger.

    Now you see why our budgets hardly work: they are often not based on sound economic bases; personal interests often override patriotism and reason. Too much viruses are injected into the document that it is diseased and probably dead by the time it reaches implementation stage. Do you see why year-on-year the budget increases yet our infrastructure shrinks and we borrow even more? Can you begin to fathom why our lawmakers are the highest paid in the world by miles? Yet they earn so much for doing no work as a recent report show that about one-third of our senators have not sponsored nary a bill after two year in office. They probably have been absentee lawmakers hardly attending sessions yet their bank alerts would ring frequently like a busy supermarket’s cash register (mind you they don’t use those noisy analogue machines anymore!).

    To think that this matter we toy with is the most important business of our lawmakers. You see why we are in perpetual crises, you see why our youths are unemployed; you see why see why the country is in perpetual retreat? Our leaders mess around with the most important task we have assigned them.

     

  • The problem with Ango Abdullahi

    Professor Ango Abdullahi, former vice chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, is fast acquiring notoriety not just as a northern irredentist, but also as a political irritant. Nothing best captures this assertion than his reported declaration recently that the North would not only withhold support for the South in the 2015 presidential election, but also that once political power returns to that section of the country, it would remain there forever. The statement is supposed to reflect the position of a coalition of some northern groups.

    In a country where ethno-religious factors, not merit, determine who holds the office of president in our peculiar brand of democracy, it is quite normal and therefore legitimate for the Abdullahis of the North to insist that come 2015, it should be their ‘turn’ to produce the occupant of Aso Rock. Other sections with equal right and legitimacy also have a similar argument, especially the South-east, which has never had what, in Nigeria, is considered an opportunity. It, however, becomes a different matter altogether, one that borders on the ridiculous and the absurd, for the former don to even suggest that political power could remain in the North for as long as that section desires, bragging about its so-called voting power.

    The problem with those obsessed with the notion of political dominance is that they see it less from the point of view of the uplift of the standard of living of the people, but more from the standpoint of the opportunity it provides them, a tiny few, to perpetually live in the corridors of power, with its attendant benefits. These include opportunity to have their children in the best schools in the world, while the overwhelming majority of kids in that section of the country wallow in ignorance. They can point to mansions that dot the landscape in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Yola and other northern cities as benefits of the North’s dominance of political power, while their people live in squalor. A handful of them have oil blocks to show for the many years that the region has held political power.

    But it should be to their eternal shame that despite more than three decades of that region’s stranglehold on political power, it accounts for the highest rate of poverty, illiteracy and disease in the country.

    A recent study showed that 75 per cent of young men in the North have no skill. Nothing best proves the veracity of this study than the army of able-bodied young men who daily struggle with one another to carry wares with wheelbarrows in markets all over Lagos and, I believe, other parts of the country. Those who do not have the nerves to engage in this kind of struggle are content to hawk sugarcane in wheelbarrows, or become emergency shoe menders, trekking long distances, just to eke out a living. I look at these young men and wonder what future they have in a country where the Abdullahis – their leaders – are ready to go to war to preserve their supposed right to hold political power for life.

    Quite a good number of Nigerians must have been amused when governors in some parts of the North with indices that should qualify Nigeria as a failed state; governors who have proved incapable of rescuing their states from poverty, ignorance, disease and insecurity, teamed up with relatively successful governors in the South-west to form the All Peoples Congress (APC), to rescue the country from the dominance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I am one of those who wonder if Sule Lamido and Ibrahim Shema, two governors who are said to excel, are not in the North. Or is federal allocation also shared on party basis?

    It is the failure of the Ango Abdullahis of the North who have a misconception of the purpose of political power, that has resulted in a bizarre situation in which a boy from Yobe State needs only to score two over 200 in an entrance examination to gain admission into the same school in which another boy from Anambra State has to score a minimum of 139 to qualify for admission. This policy that stands logic on its head is known as federal character, an abnormality that epitomizes everything that is wrong with Nigeria. The policy will ensure that when the boy from Yobe gets literally held by the hand through the different levels of education, he will find himself holding a job for which he is certainly not qualified.

    Many years ago, when General Ibrahim Babangida was still playing hide and seek with Nigerians on the issue of democratic rule, General T. Y. Danjuma was reported as saying, with resignation, that he would not witness democracy in his lifetime (I wonder if the revered former general still holds that view today).

    I worry about the fact that with our deliberate adoption of mediocrity as a policy for deciding qualification for elective offices, in the name of rotation, this generation of Nigerians may never witness the era when such offices would be for the best hands only. I worry myself sick about the possibility that Nigeria may grope in the dark indefinitely, as long as we ignore what is right and continue to settle for what is convenient.

    If America had continued to place emphasis on colour, there is no way a Barack Obama would have dreamt of being in the White House as its occupant. But because the people of that country decided it was time to actualise the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr, of a country where people are judged only by the contents of their character, he ended up achieving two firsts – the first black man to be elected president and the first sitting president to be re-elected against the background of a virtually battered economy.

    It is time people like Ango Abdullahi realise the futility of clinging to primordial sentiments that have served the people of the region no good. They should ask themselves how it happened that despite the fact that political power remained the birthright of that region during the military era, the worst indices of human existence are found there.

    It should matter very little the part of the country a person aspiring to be president comes from. The consideration should be ability to deliver, which should be based on performance in a previous public office.

    The erroneous belief that unless a region produces the country’s president, it cannot be guaranteed the benefits of belonging to the commonwealth should be discarded. In a democracy, such that we are labouring to build, a president would be hard-pressed to ignore any section of the country in the spread of development, especially since we seem to perfect the electoral process with each election. It needs not be mentioned here that a Nigerian president of southern origin – Jonathan – is the one that has deemed it necessary to give almajiris, those long forgotten by the Ango Abdullahis, the chance of a life time to receive education.

    The Abdullahis should be concerned about building a Nigeria where a George W. Bush would be judged by his own suitability for the same office that his father held, whether or not the latter was a success story, without anybody asking if the office of the president is the birthright of one family; a country where a Hilary Clinton could end up holding the same office that her husband held for eight years.

    It serves a better purpose than make statements that smack of arrogance; statements that suggest that holding of the office of president by anybody from the South is an act of benevolence by the North.

    • Ukpaukure lives in Lagos

  • Wind of change in Lagos health sector

    A child was born with Spinabifida at a private hospital in Lagos in the early hours of February 15, 2012. An opening at the back of the childexposing some of the nerves needed to be closed within 48 hours of birth to wade off infection.

    The Medical Director of the hospital, a gynecologist immediately sent for a specialist, in one of the government hospitals to perform the surgery which will be the first in the series of surgeries to be carried out on the child as she grows.

    The neurosurgical consultant made it known to the grieved parents that spinabifida is a condition that cannot be totally cured but could only be managed and as the child is growing there will be need to carry out more surgeries on the baby in order to avoid her being completely dependent on people.

    The first of the surgery to close the gap at her back would cost them N250,000, one month after the initial operation, the second surgery would attract the same amount of money, explained the consultant.

    All appeals from the parents to have the cost reduced fell on deaf ears but the doctor however told them that they could have the surgery performed by the same consultant at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for free except they will be required to pay about N60,000 for some of the drugs and medical test. But the actual surgery and hospital accommodation would come completely free.

    Due to the various negative stories about government general hospitals, the parents opted to pay N250,000 and have the surgery performed at the private hospital by the consultant.

    The surgery was successful, but two weeks after there was need to carry out the second surgery on the child. The cost again at the private hospital was 250,000 so the parents reluctantly went to LASUTH. But to their surprise, prompt attention was given to them and the surgery carried out without any payment except for the various scans and medical test they paid for.

    After the successful operation, the child was wheeled to the BT ward complex LASUTH which was commissioned by the Governor of Lagos State on March 2008.

    According to Rachael Idowu, the mother of the child who kept vigil at the baby’s bedside for two weeks “the environment and the food served to the baby and myself could not be faulted”, adding that the food and accommodation was free.

    “The ward and other wards I visited while at LASUTH are even beautifully furnished with plasma television sets and the whole environment including the toilets are beautifully maintained”.

    Most services at LASUTH are free including the dental section where a patient pays a minimal amount of about N4,500 for tooth X-rays, cleaning and extraction. And what is more, patients are not made to wait for long before receiving the services of a doctor.

    The same story can be told of other general hospitals in the state. A visit to the newly commissioned Igando General hospital on the Isheri- LASU road reveals a magnificent state -of -the art hospital that boast of the latest medical facilities.

    Just recently, the governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola officially commissioned the Trauma and Burns Centre at Gbagada General Hospital as he takes the silent revolution in the health sector to a new height.

    The governor said his administration is determined to make Lagos State Africa’s Medical tourism destination while commissioning the Trauma and Burns Centre. He said that the Centre was established to save lives currently being lost to trauma and burns sustained from accidents.

    No wonder the centre is equipped with the state-of-the art medical facilities that can manage massive burns even when the layers of the skin tissues were lost.

    There is equipment to carry patients with serious burns from one point of treatment to the other without touching them. The facility will be able to provide plastic surgery to patients that may require such services.

    While commissioning the facility, Governor Fashola also promised that the Cardiac and Kidney Centre, which is under construction, would be commissioned before the end of the year.

    The wave of change in the health sector is being felt in virtually all the parts of the state. In order to achieve it’s commitment to the provision of adequate qualitative health care, the state government took a further step by adopting the policy of preventive maintenance of the public health facilities.This entails the execution of maintenance contracts once the health facilities are delivered thereby creating additional employment opportunities for the citizens.

    It should be noted that a lot of projects have been executed in the health sector recently. Among them are, the renovation of old Ayinke House at LASUTH, the Lagos State School of Nursing complex located at Alimosho General Hospital Igando, the three-floor L shaped building extension at the Harvey Road Health Center, Yaba.

    The 110-Bed Maternal and Child Health complex at Amuwo Odofin, the new Staff Clinic located at the Secretariat, Alausa and the new Mortuary at Badagry General Hospital have all been complete .

    In the same vein, on-going projects include the 110-Bed Maternal and Child centre at Alimosho which is at 90% completion stage, the 110-bed Maternal and Child Health complex at Lekki which is at 75% completion stage.

    Work is still going on at the sewage treatment plants at Surulere, Ajeromi, Ifako Ijaiye, Somolu, Apapa and Lagos Island General hospitals . Upgrading of the mortuaries at the Epe and Ikorodu General Hospitals are at 55% completion stage.

    So far more than 65,587 primary school pupils in the public primary schools have been screened for eye defects and impairment.

    As new feats are being recorded in the various government hospitals due to the high-tech medical facilities provided by the Fashola administration, the state commissioner for health announced that a total of 12 Knee-replacement surgeries have been conducted at LASUTH since the commencement of the state’s free total knee replacement surgery and implantation programme over three years ago.

    In the latest exercise, two total knee replacement surgeries sponsored by the Lagos State Limb Deformity programme were carried out on April 27 and 28 this year.

    The state government is making good its vow to make the state, African’s medical tourism center as it focuses on the continued professional development of its health workforce, upgrading and construction of new health facilities

     

    • Nwachukwu writes from Ibadan

  • Crime and puny men

    Where political expediency collides with democratic yearning, ‘free’ and ‘fair’ are first casualties. Sustained with obvious help from Abuja, the crisis generated by the Nigeria Governors Forum chairmanship election held in May naturally spawned another, more vicious impasse. The exchange of claims and counterclaims of legitimacy between 19 members who duly elected incumbent chair and Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi, and Jonah Jang of Plateau State with 16 dissenting governors in tow tormented the nation. But subsequent fracas involving five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the 2015 gubernatorial hopeful and President Goodluck Jonathan ally, Nyesom Wike, and the 27 others rooting for Amaechi signalled peril for the 2015 general elections.

    The disastrous June 9 attempt by the five to impeach Speaker Otelemaba Amachree turned farcical after police opted to investigate Majority Leader Chidi Lloyd while the importers of a fake mace and other ‘weapons’ deployed in the ensuing free-for-all walked free – all except the hospitalised Michael Chinda. More worrisome than mode of conflict, the substance of discord, given officially to be a “conflict of interest on certain resources” by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka after consultations with Amaechi and the president’s men, appears to combine intolerance of opposition, intemperate ambition, partisan security set-up and the president wife’s unfortunate grouse about the Okrika waterfront demolition of 2010.

    Tellingly, Mbu Joseph Mbu, the much-maligned Rivers Police Commissioner on whose watch recent progress in state security seemed to unravel quickly, talked up a storm. Mbu thought the governor played ‘dictator’, and he, the top cop, would not play ball.

    Apparently reading a script composed by the hierarchy, he affected ignorance as the ‘infamous five’ ignited combustible atmosphere charged by premature 2015 politicking.

    Even if the presidency succeeds in proving disconnection, calls for state police emanating from the Rivers rumble could help discourage presidential meddling in local politics. Yet, with poor funding as metaphor, the police are clearly hobbled by the centralised security arrangement. A system that tasks a Divisional Police Officer with roughly N40, 000 quarterly to cover stationery, communication material and sundry expenses, and generally smoothen the function of patrol vehicles and generating sets for his command beats the imagination. What doesn’t, however, is witnessing a police vehicle run out of fuel in pursuit of night marauders or a constable in tattered gear giving chase to a petty thief in the neighbourhood. Or, ultimately, hapless folks watching policemen pay a million naira ransom for a colleague kidnapped by criminals following the cold-blooded murder of 11 others on escort duty as occurred in the creeks of Bayelsa last April.

    Sometimes, by the way, it is difficult to determine the more rewarding ‘occupation’ between lawmaking and kidnapping as jumbo pay meets payday at relatively low risk.

    Following a series of high-profile gaffes since the turn of the Fourth Republic, we may tar representatives in the Upper and Lower Houses of the National Assembly (NASS) with the same brush of misrepresentation, but by track record, the senators consistently seem to shed eminence. Led by the adaptable David Mark, they were quicker to embrace the President’s contrived military intervention plan for terror-ravaged Adamawa, Borno and Yobe back in May. By the time both chambers harmonised positions, the House of Reps’ reservations were muted and the affected states’ coffers subjected to war spending.

    While the government countered the Boko Haram scourge with partial state of emergency to limited success, the senators voted on recommendations by committees on amendments to the 1999 constitution from their safe NASS abode. Prodded by Ahmed Sani Yerima of the underage Egyptian bride fame, the Senate incurred nationwide wrath by resisting the temptation to expunge a clause that undercut the legal age of marriage for a woman. On their own, the Reps courted opprobrium, opting, among other deliberations, to ‘simplify’ the process of state creation. A quick submission: ‘Nigeria-refugee State’ for the thousands exiled to Cameroon by the Multinational Joint Task Force versus Boko Haram war or ‘Oil-rich-poor State’ for millions disenfranchised by decades of warped economic policies.

    The country grapples with official revelation of 400, 000 barrels of crude oil worth N7.35 billion at the official $117 price multiplied by the official exchange rate of NI57 daily lost to crude oil thieves, or the more technical corollary of shutdown, but the pipelines are protected at exorbitant cost by Government Ekpemupolo, aka ‘Tompolo’, and ex-militants reformed as security contractors. In the confusion, citizens cited influential individuals and politicians as perpetrators; Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs Kingsley Kuku mentioned oil workers; and a Niger Delta group fingered multinationals that maintain illegal oil wells and exaggerate loss to make more profit and remit less tax. So, whodunit?

    We strain to decipher mutating variables in the volatile Niger Delta mix, but a former petroleum minister battled the son of late despot, Sani Abacha, for proceeds of the sale of controversial Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 245 to a multinational when dispute should relate to culpability in possible shady dealing. But greater worry must be reserved for the United States of America’s revolution of shale oil production, its curbed appetite for Nigeria’s sweet crude and financial implications for the domestic budget, present and future. Beyond cushioning the expected loss of half of the revenue usually guaranteed by America’s patronage looms the challenge of curtailing corruption and diversifying the economy to plug political meltdown.

    To start with, the lumbering national structure must kick into proactive mode, before petty crime trumps a critical banking system revamped by endless reform. Automated Teller Machines (ATM) spew counterfeit naira notes of the highest denomination and the best that central bank authorities do is preach redesign of the naira while promising yet another probe. Nor should it suffice that federal and state governments announce discovery of thousands of ghost workers and how much has been saved. Listing and prosecution of offenders should follow, unless officials uphold the notion that corruption trickles from the top. Even if fantastic judgments prevail, courtesy a compromised judiciary, ghosts do not operate bank accounts.

    Hampered, in the meantime, by attack on power plants, constant shortage of gas and a bumpy roadmap, electricity stutters towards the magical 10, 000 megawatts quoted since 2007 by the federal government to the background drone of generating sets across the country. To take imagery further in the season of redesign, how about a new statue for the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN): ‘Sango’ hoisting a generator in front of PHCN’s Lagos office in place of an axe, perhaps?

    Want amidst plenty is a truly Nigerian paradox aptly situated by Chairman of JUTH FC of Jos, Ishaya Pam. Establishing a link with current leadership style, Dr Pam, unlike sponsored analysts, hinged national growth on ‘luck’ and not International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank indices. “Every country that has a good national team has good leagues and very organised academy systems. We don’t have those things and we want to win always.”

    Well said. Yesterday’s apathy bred today’s shame. Today’s puny men evoke yesterday’s mimic men.

  • Why governors are against LG autonomy

    SIR: It is quite unfortunate but not surprising that our governors are standing firmly against local government autonomy and this reminds me of the popular saying by people that politicians are the same

    but only have different faces.

    Local government is known or regarded as the third tier of the government and the closest to the people. It was established because of the need to facilitate development at grassroots level and its importance is to enable people’s participation and sense of belonging and to engender development in all strata. Now, the question is, why are our governors speaking vehemently against financial autonomy for the local government?

    I could recall vividly sometime in 2012, November to be precise, the two chambers held public sessions and also public hearings with a view to ensure that the populace contribute their quota in the constitutional review and amendment. Eventually it surfaced that virtually all Nigerians yearned for local government autonomy.

    The major problem facing the local government system today is the power which the governors have over them stemming from the governors’ desire to control the funds accruing to them from which they can thereafter allocate token to them. This is one of the reasons why we must all go against state police. Most of our governors are already exercising more power than those granted by the constitution. I know of a governor who hates people criticising his administration. He throws tantrums at who ever criticises him even when the criticisms are constructive.

    In this era of democracy, I see no reason why some governors do not want to conduct election into local governments; rather than give people their constitutional rights, they use their veto powers by choosing their cronies and loyalists to act as caretakers thereby denying others of the opportunity to vie.

    No governor is exonerated because they are all guilty of one offence or the other. No country in this world would be at peace if the rights of the people are trampled upon. Therefore, I am using this

    avenue to call on all governors to throw their weight in support of local government autonomy especially the ACN governors who are alleged to be the main opponents to the bill.

     

    • Waziri Mohammed

    Mokola, Ibadan

  • Re: Omatseye’s Obituary

    SIR: Last week’s IN TOUCH column was indeed an obituary of sorts – on the reputation and standing of Sam Omatseye as a political analyst/ public affairs commentator whose writings can serve as reference material on current developments in the country. The article under reference oozed bigotry, using the Brigadier Alabi – Isama’s book and a series of interviews with General Akinrinade  as props to impugn the reputation of the “others” of Nigerian politics. The Nigerian Civil War has had its fair share of heroes as well as villains and in Omatseye’s reckoning; northern commanders constituted the latter group, commanders and officers from the South who put down their war experience in books and extended press interviews are acclaimed. Not that they do not deserve it, but the element of self – promotion is clearly at work here. That aside, the performance of northern officers in that war can withstand the scrutiny of military historians.

    It is both laughable and insulting to describe General Yakubu Gowon as a bumbling commander-in-chief. The needs of the moment, in times of peace or in war, determine the kind of leadership that emerges. Gowon was the type of personality prescribed by the temper of the time, both in the aftermath of the events of 1966 and the resultant Civil War. The demands upon leadership in the circumstances of a civil war are markedly different from those in inter-state wars. A civil war has to be managed in such a way as to make reconciliation easier at its end. That was how Gowon directed the war, with maximum restraint but with the necessary firmness to achieve result.

    It began with “police action” before it transformed into full military operation after the rebel incursion into the Midwest. There was however no adoption of a scorched – earth policy or terrorising of the civilian population.

    Turning a 10,000 – man mainly ceremonial army into a fighting force of over 30,000 in the first six months of the war was no easy task. The command and control infrastructure of the military was rudimentary then, making micro-management of the war well-nigh impossible. It was therefore more practical to allow field commanders much latitude within the overall strategy adopted to prosecute the war. No account should be taken of Col Madiebo’s assessment of Gowon and his commanders. They won by pluck and Madiebo and co lost. What better evidence of  bumbling success and brilliant failure?

    The criticism of General Mamman Shuwa’s is equally laughable. Wars are won by capturing and holding territory, and 1 Division did that eminently. Fighting in the heart of Igbo territory where resistance would be stiffest, from the onset of the conflict, 1 Division held every territory it  liberated from the rebels and provided the needed security and assistance to the inhabitants. Shuwa’s campaign in the northern sector was methodical and clearly effective going by the results. Compare that with the relative chaos in the southern sector where the Third Marine Commando operated and to which the duo of Alabi – Isama and Akinrinade repaired after falling out with General Murtala Muhammed in the western sector. The Division’s campaign began to stutter when it left the friendly peoples of the Niger Delta and approached Igbo territory. The result was the loss of an under-strength brigade in the first attack on Aba and, more consequential to the war effort, the siege of federal troops in Owerri for six months. Col Utuk’s 16 Brigade was down to less than 200 soldiers when it broke the siege, carrying the body of the slain second in command to his family in Benin.

    If there had to be a hero of the Civil War, Shuwa would be it. Pray who is more “tyrannous”, the generals who lost troops in the course of fighting or the one who plotted the ambush and murder of subordinates?

    Gowon has no blood on his hands on account of the failure of the operations to cross the River Niger at Asaba to capture Onitsha launched by General Murtala Muhammed. Sadly, there was heavy loss of life but not on the scale being bandied about.

    The tragic event at Asaba where many civilians were killed did not qualify as genocide. There was no premeditation either on the part of the federal government or Murtala.

    The position of the Midwest in the run – up to the start of fighting had nothing to do with the loss of lives of the Igbos and “other southerners” in the civil disturbances that took place in the North. Rather, it was deemed necessary for the Midwest to remain neutral in order not to cause in-fighting among troops repatriated to the region, the majority of whose officers were Ika-Igbo likely to be sympathetic towards their kinsmen across the Niger. The rebel Biafran invasion of the Midwest proved fears of fifth columnists right.

    Murtala was not “from the old Midwest, now Edo, by birth.” He was born, bred and raised in Kano, claims of his ancestral links with wheresoever notwithstanding;  his northerness had never been in question.

    It is a curious subversion of history to dwell on the events of May/June 1966,  the counter-coup and the Civil War without recognising the proximate cause. January 15 was the fulcrum of all the tragic events in that period in Nigeria’s history. It is intellectual dishonesty to treat it as a foot-note in the rendering of our past.

    Since this is a time of reminiscences, here’s one as complement: it was reported that the Iraqi Revolution of 1958 alerted one of the victims of the January coup to the potential of the military in countries approaching independence from colonial rule. He therefore demanded, in the series of constitutional conferences being held preparatoy to independence, adequate representation for his region in the military of an independent Nigeria.

    Writings by prominent actors in the drama of Nigeria’s history help to guide in the contemplation of a different trajectory for a better future for the country. No one has the right to use such works for unworthy causes.

     

    • M T Usman

    aboumahmud@yahoo.com

  • APC: Of paradigm shift and power shift

    A major political epoch may yet have berthed in Nigeria last week. The registration of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) last Wednesday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suggests the beginning of a phenomenon that may change Nigeria’s political equation and calculations in the years ahead. For once in the political history of Nigeria, it can be said that a brave new era peeps from the horizon.

    Take a bow Professor Attahiru Jega and your team at INEC for overcoming the storm of subterfuge apparently raised by the ‘other’ party to torpedo the APC dream. There was no doubt that INEC came under immense pressure to run members of the new party through the hoops if not entirely scuttle their mission to give birth to a new party. No sooner did the merging parties pronounce their name than a flurry of charlatans and scallywags scurried to the INEC office to file registration papers using the same acronyms, APC. Obviously awash with slush fund, the more active of the miscreants were quick to hire both an elaborate office and a handful of crowd to pose as members. Relishing their brazen forage in political muck, the rabble was also noisome and litigious in the way of political touts. When they were not in the press exhibiting their vacuous state of mind, they are in the courts relentlessly bringing their folly to bear on court processes.

    Members of the small ‘apc’ are obviously, hirelings reminiscent of the infamous Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) led by Chief Arthur Nzeribe, which was deployed to scuttle the June 12, 1993 election. But INEC on this score exhibited integrity and stood strictly by its rules. It is not the group that is first to declare interest in a name that owns it but that which meets all the stringent conditions precedent. Hardball salutes INEC for showing that it has the capacity to stand firm and unshaken at the critical junctures of the electoral process. The commission must brace itself for more intense buffeting by anti-progressive forces for they will get desperate as they get their comuppance in the days ahead. The INEC team will only stand and survive by the quality of institution it manages to build and history will return its verdict accordingly.

    Beyond the role of INEC, greater laudation will of course go to the arrowheads of this emerging epoch – the leaders of the merging parties: the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party, (ANPP). Attempt to merge political parties of this magnitude in the past had failed woefully. Not because the proponents were less tenacious but because ruling parties in Nigeria usually brook no opposition. To put opposition parties on the spin and tear them apart is probably one of the easiest political tasks for any ruling party in Nigeria. The arena is full of political whores who would bend very low at the jingle of a few coins.

    Getting registered is the first, albeit important part; now is the time for the real work. APC visioners and leaders must take a few points to heart: one, the opponent will not sleep it will remain hard at work to extirpate the new baby. Two, APC must work hard and indeed go out of its way to rally true progressives from every corner of the country and as an adjunct it must work at being truly national (it’s a bit skewed now). And finally, it must set and define noble agendas that Nigerians can buy into and which must include restructuring the federation, killing corruption and letting the best minds handle the mantle of leadership. APC must be a paradigm shift and not power shift.