The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Budget brouhaha

    If a country’s budget is in a mess, it is straight, simple logic that the country’s economy, if not the entire polity, could become one stretch of quagmire. Seventh month of the year yet the country’s most important working document, 2013 Appropriation Act, is dog-eared and in tatters. Not from handling it in the bid to diligently carry out its legitimate mandate, but from unyielding contentions and bare-faced chicanery. This all-important document is being wizened not in order to determine the fine points and delicate nuances of its requirements for the utmost good of the citizenry, no. It’s all about personal interests, turf fights between the executive and the legislature.

    The budget, the budget, it’s the budget, stupid. How we long for the day when we will get a grip on the federal budget once again. Most state budgets we have lost forever as they are disbursed from the shirt pockets of the big men. Local government budgets are long dead and interred thanks to the undertakers of the local council system. The federal budget, therefore, represents the last frontiers of budgeting in this vast, receding polity. Let’s save the budgeting system, if only to help our children learn the nebulous, arcane art of planning, projecting, juxtaposing, virements, project execution, monitoring and implementation.

    But budgeting has become a dying art in Nigeria and the 2013 budget is in utter ruins. By the time the 2013 Appropriation Act eventually emerged from the National Assembly (NASS) early in the year, it was already half dead hanging only on life support. For about a month, the President would not accent to it. When he eventually did, it was a conditional accent. Don’t ask Hardball if he appended half of his signature on it but he promised to return it to NASS. A few weeks later, on March 14, precisely, President Goodluck Jonathan returned the Act to the NASS. On June 26, the NASS threw it back at him. Ding, dong, like ping, pong our budget goes.

    The first tragedy here is that this matter is as complicated as the budget itself to the point that Hardball cannot help you to unravel it (sorry). The lesser tragedy (since we are entranced in delirious ignorance) is that they are playing ping-pong with your life. The final tragedy is that since they have befuddled our lives so much, that puts them at liberty to brand us ignoramuses who cannot understand basic economics and there ends the matter till the next season of (budget madness).

    As it stands, two quarters have passed yet we don’t know how much of the budget has been actualised. The NASS accuses the executives of seeking to amend an already approved budget instead of sending in a supplementary. The executives in turn insist NASS is balking so much on the matter because it had not released a N100 billion constituency projects cash. For your information, our representatives are passionately fighting to execute about 469 capital projects in constituencies across Nigeria for our edification. Without being prompted, they insist they will have no hand in the projects since the Ministry of Special Duties would handle them. And they are thoroughly piqued that the executives through the instrumentality of the Finance Minister who doubles as the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy (CME) is sitting on their project cash (sorry on the project cash). Where in our constitution is this position of the CME, some have asked angrily?

    Don’t ask me if I have seen a constituency project before in my constituency. You could jolly well count your teeth with your tongue. Don’t ask me if the Ministry of Special Duties is the new Ministry of Works and whether it has the capacity to execute 469 projects across Nigeria. Please ask no more questions because I am as confounded as you are. Please let’s move forward…it is at times like this that you appreciate the strictly Nigerian idea of moving forward.

  • On Senate committee’s report on constitutional review

    SIR: The recent report that the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution had completed its assignment and released its long awaited recommendations is a welcome development

    Some of the highlights of the committee’s recommendations are bound to elicit even more serious debates on the entire process of constitutional amendments.

    Some of the committee’s recommendations include: The separation of the office of the Federal Attorney General from that of the Minister of Justice; abolition of joint account of the states with the local governments; creation of the office of Mayor for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The committee also rejected requests for creation of new states on the ground that none of the numerous requests met the constitutional requirements for their creation. It also rejected the idea of state police among others.

    The committee’s most controversial recommendation in its report was on the issue of a single six year term of office for the President and Governors. This most unpopular recommendation is to say the least, ill-conceived, retrogressive and self-serving.

    It is regrettable that after expending valuable time and enormous resources, the Senate Committee failed to address the fundamental issues that had greatly impeded the socio-economic cum political development of the nation since independence. It deliberately shied away or ignored to address the endemic problems currently confronting the nation such as: perennial political instability occasioned by lack of adequate constitutional framework for the operation of true fiscal federalism as obtainable in advanced democracies of the world. The committee seems to have ignored the popular agitations for urgent restructuring of the country as already demanded by majority Nigerians during its public hearings held across the country as well as numerous memoranda submitted to the committee by patriotic Nigerians. It is instructive to observe also that some of the so-called amendments as recommended by the committee were purely administrative in nature and as such ought not to have been made constitutional issues in the first place.

    The distinguished members of the National Assembly should not miss this golden opportunity to write their names in gold by urgently and decisively effecting radical changes in the 1999 constitution which was never approved by the people but simply the product of the despotic and authoritarian military regime that was totally ill-equipped in constitution making process. The National Assembly therefore, should as a matter of national priority embark on some radical and far reaching changes in the country’s constitution which will surely promote the spirit of true nationalism as well as the socio-economic cum political transformation of the country as a potential economic power house within the African continent and beyond.

    It is needless to emphasize the point here that for the country to take her rightful place as a major player in world affairs, certain bold and courageous actions must be taken urgently to restructure the country.

    • Nze Nwabueze Akabogu (JP)

    Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

  • When NECO came short in integrity test

    SIR: Examination bodies of worth always contract a group of seasoned teachers, and, or subject specialists within the academic or educational sectors to write items for immediate or future use for the examinations that they (the bodies) organise and administer. By extension, they are obligated to draft (with reference to our national and sub-regional scopes and with the highest regard for confidentiality) the questions for prospective examination candidates. This rigorous academic and professional activity is expected to pass through a quality control process of phrasing, editing, vetting, re-drafting, approval, and archiving. Somehow, a pre-testing of the items might be required for the purpose of standardisation. This process serves an important purpose: errors are detected and corrected before the administration of the said items.

    In Section IV, the NECO June 2013 Literature in English Paper II booklet contained this as its 11th question: Explain the use of repetition as it is used to build the theme of John Donne’s ‘The Soul’s Errand’.

    To the reader who might not be a literary person or might not be familiar with the pattern of examining, the literature papers have I, II, and III respectively. Paper I tests the literary skills, unseen texts, and Shakespeare using the multiple choice objective pattern. Paper II tests drama and poetry, and paper III tests the prose titles. The ‘question’ above was set in paper II and it carried a misleading referencing: the quoted poet did NOT write that poem! (The subtle tautology in the structure of the said question is even more worrisome: …the use of repetition as it is used…)

    John Donne, the English 16th century metaphysical poet, wrote ‘The Sun Rising’ and not ‘The Soul’s Errand’!

    Obviously the item writers and whosoever has the statutory responsibility within NECO to oversee the vetting of (Literature in English) questions have done a ‘good’ job of overlooking two vital elements: the referencing and the structure. Could the number of candidates who got confused in the examination be quantified?

    Could the question of the NECO corporate image be rectified? Would the confused candidate be liable for this error? Could a poor grade or outright ‘failure’ in that paper be modified? (That question alone carried 30 marks!) Within academia, could the embarrassment this misadventure might cause be measured? Are these items standardised or worthy of being re-tested by teachers across the nation, and beyond the Nigerian waters? Won’t many other prospective candidates be further misled because it is the practice in many schools that teachers rely on ‘past questions’ for their internal assessments? This calls for a re-think.

    The other matters centre on NECO and public (dis)trust, depending on the perception one takes. If we limit ourselves to item writing for examinations alone, the language and literature backgrounds of any seasoned teachers would have given them the opportunity to compare the phrasing and content (task achievement and response) of test items prepared by similar bodies across the world. It is in the interest of the NECO’s corporate governance and image to attain this level of social service and public trust. It is also in their interest that experienced item writers, examiners, and sundry employees involved with examinations are recruited and remunerated well and promptly.

    • Adeodu Aanuoluwapo

    Abuja.

  • How Fashola defines service

    How Fashola defines service

    Rivers State governor Chibuike Amechi and his Akwa Ibom counterpart, Godswill Akpabio, who are the leading dramatis personae in the feud which has engulfed the Nigerian Governors Forum since May, have at least one thing in common: they both have private jets. A number of Nigerians seem not have issues with the acquisition of executive jets for the exclusive use of the Rivers and Akwa Ibom governors because both states earn so much revenues from Nigeria’s oil sales. True, these states are reaping fortunes from unearned income or what economists call transfers from the federation account. But neither Rivers nor Akwa Ibom is as rich as Lagos State which makes money from truly productive ventures and regenerative endeavours. Interestingly, the Lagos State governor has no private jet or even a helicopter. And there are no plans to get one in the foreseeable future.

    The stark difference in the lifestyles of the Lagos State governor and his counterparts is no happenstance. It is fundamental. It is revealing of their mindsets. Apart from Peter Obi of Anambra State, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos is the only governor in Nigeria who goes about with no siren blaring away or long motorcades complete with a platoon of fierce-looking and heavily armed security officials. He is the only public officer since the restoration of democratic rule in 1999 who has bluntly refused to accept any kind of award, including the national honour, because of the conviction that honours should be bestowed on office holders only after they have left office. In a country where high office holders use stupendous public resources to bribe and lobby for accolades the Lagos governor has provided us all food for thought.

    Fashola marked his 50th birthday on June 26 and, characteristically, there were no squandering of public funds on any razzmatazz. There is in him a deep belief that every high public officer is a servant of the people, and not their conqueror who must at all times lord it over them. In other words, leadership is all about service. In the language of the Scriptures, the son of man has “come to serve, and not to be served” (Matthew 20:28).

    Very few things illustrate the profound failure of leadership in Nigeria at every level as the rash of private aircraft at our airports in the midst of growing mass misery and collapse of infrastructure as well as ruination of institutions. Whether in the private or public sector, our people equate leadership with ostentation and vanity rather than service and sacrifice. This is why Nigerian evangelical pastors, whose congregations are overwhelmingly poor, would consider it infra dig to fly on anything less than a private jet while the Pope, who leads the world’s biggest and wealthiest church, always travels by Alitalia. Why should the Taraba State governor insist on a private aircraft when American governors, for example, drive themselves to work daily because their states cannot afford to procure the services of official drivers?

    Olusegun Obasanjo, who popularized “low profile” in Nigeria in the 1970s when he was the military Head of State, was regrettably the person who, as Nigeria’s democratically elected president between 1999 and 2007, led an assault against the concept. By the time Obasanjo returned to office in 1999, Peugeot which Obasanjo made the official car from the mid 1970s was still the official brand for public officers. It was assembled in Nigeria. But Obasanjo quickly jettisoned it in favour of Mercedes and very expensive Japanese SUVs imported into Nigeria by a handful of Indian traders and Nigerian merchants. Ministers and state governors followed in his footstep. Consequently, the Peugeot Assembly of Nigeria (PAN) is now moribund, with the local engineers and the other employees and consultants and suppliers out of work.  The same fate befell ANAMCO, the Mercedes truck assembly plant in Enugu.

    In his world famous memoir, Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew expresses shock at the sight of presidents of poor nations like Nigeria and Kenya arriving at the 1980 Commonwealth summit in Canada with presidential planes. Some of the African rulers were at the summit to solicit for aid from countries whose leaders came by commercial planes! Not long ago, the King of Swaziland, a tiny and very poor country in the belly of South Africa, insisted before Parliament on the acquisition of a presidential jet, arguing ferociously that he needed it to fly around the world in search of aid for his kingdom which depends on foreign assistance for survival. It does not matter to African rulers like this king that the prime ministers of prosperous nations like the United Kingdom and Singapore have no presidential jets, even though Britain is a major aircraft manufacturer. The Fokker brand, used widely in Nigeria and elsewhere, is British. And Rolls Royce of the UK is a key manufacturer of plane engines worldwide.

    The false consciousness of Nigerian—nay African—rulers is the primary reason why development has over the decades eluded us. Therefore, it gladdens the heart anytime one sees a leader like Fashola who is in a different mould; he is purpose-driven. Fashola understands that leadership is about service to the people, and not self aggrandisement.  His performance in office has been sterling and inspiring. Lagosians, who are historically difficult to govern because of the robust tradition of activism, have been star-struck, charmed. At the President Goodluck Jonathan’s launch of Road Map for Power Sector Reform  at Eko Hotel in Lagos on August 26, 2010, the governor made other top government officials look very unpopular, almost making them cut the image of personae non grata. Immediately Fashola was called upon to speak, the large audience comprising leading entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bank executives, manufacturers, international and local media went into a long frenzy of adulation. The master of ceremonies could not stop the audience. It even took the governor himself time and effort to stop the fawning audience. The first sentence President Jonathan uttered when he got up to speak was “I can see clearly that the people of Lagos State are very happy with their governor”. And the audience responded enthusiastically as one man, “Yes oh!”, followed by another sustained round of applause.

    The inimitable thinker, Obafemi Awolowo, has said it all: “The greatest legacy a leader can bequeath is to etch his name in gold in the hearts and minds of his people”. As I happily and proudly welcome my great friend and brother, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN- a Nigerian without bile, a Nigerian not held hostage by the errors of the past or by such primordial sentiments as regionalism, ethnicity or religion—into the golden age, I say:  Not even the sky will be your limit. Ad multus annos.

    • Adinuba is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting.

  • Diaspora Day: Appraisal of Dabiri -Erewa’s address

    Hon. Abike Dabiri – Erewa hit the nail on the head in her recent address on the issues affecting Nigerians abroad. It is very interesting that she noted the dysfunctional nature of many groups claiming to represent Nigerians in the Diaspora.

    I could not hold back applauding her, when she admitted that Diaspora day tend to be a gathering of those who lack the capacity to focus on many important issues affecting Nigerians abroad. A jamboree!!! The same person attends the so called Diaspora day without

    significant impact on those they claim to go to Nigeria to represent.

    Many of the groups do not have any office base, no financial support to enable effective representation in many countries abroad – for example the UK. These are groups I consider to be on shoe strings. !!!

    It is about time Nigerians abroad organise themselves to take up issues with the country to whom they pay their dues – for example Council Tax in the UK!!! Whilst many Non – Nigerian communities in the UK strategically and successfully present issues of importance to UK Local, Regional and Central Governments, Nigerians in the UK continues to focus on the Nigerian government via the Nigerian High Commission.

    The mission with many highly dedicated and good staff but inadequate resources to function as a Diplomatic Mission, let alone represent a group of people who are British with legitimate with legitimate rights to seek assistance from Britain.

    May I suggest that in future the Diaspora Day should seek to focus on how Nigerians who are abroad can effectively present issues to the government of the countries in which they reside.

    I have always wondered why Nigerians in the Diaspora should be of any importance to Nigerian government when many do not wish to return to Nigeria.

    Those who wish to contribute to the development of Nigeria cannot remain abroad to do so – (Unless they wish to invest cash). Perhaps Nigerian government should create opportunities for those who wish to return to make such contribution. The latter I believe is inappropriate simply because, many abroad are out of touch with the realities of life in Nigeria, consequently those who may choose to go to Nigeria will require orientation to be fit for purpose.

     

    Finally, may I suggest that future Days for Nigerians in the Diaspora should be hosted outside of Nigeria in different countries to enable the representatives who have been going to Nigeria to show case the groups they represent. There are a number of groups in Liverpool who are successfully set up to cater for the needs of Nigerians in Merseyside area of the UK.

    A visit by Hon. Abike Dabiri should be an eye opener!!!

     

    Hon. Lola Ayorinde, writes from the UK.

     

  • Kwara’s transformation testimony 

    Kwara’s transformation testimony 

    Indeed, if His Excellency, Alhaji Ahmed Abdulfatah, Governor of Kwara State were to be an athlete, he would be in a blistering form in the 100 metres dash, just as the 4X400 metres relay race would comfortably occupy pole position in his competitive athletic menu list. Interestingly, both require enormous speed and endurance, but more than anything else, focus.  No doubt, in the last one year, this gentleman has displayed these traits in surplus; the reason he has so far surpassed expectations before and after his victory in the April 26, 2011 gubernatorial election in the state on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Recall that when politicians and technocrats from Kwara State and beyond converged in Lagos for a retreat to draw a roadmap on the Kwara Project after the elections,  many dismissed it as a jamboree; describing it as one of those time-wasting talk shops that would not impact positively on the people.  In fact, as was with the governor’s “Legacy Continues” slogan premised on the benefits of one administration furrowing into another in terms of policy formulation and implementation, as well as programme actualization, many saw it as another political mantra to cajole the electorate. The doubts arose particularly as most new governments in Nigeria were in the habit of steering away from the programmes of the out-going government and often rubbished their actions and programmes by any way possible.

    However, as opposed to this common practice, the Ahmed’s administration chanted the continuity mantra and stuck to it being in the know of its benefits to the people. Little wonder, two years down the foray, for the discerning, the administration has substantially acquitted itself by upping the ante of development in many sectors of the Kwara economy with the monumental developmental benchmark set by the immediate past administration of Dr Bukola Saraki as a guide. Starting out with the Lagos Summit which gave birth to the shared prosperity of the administration as a spring board for the formulation, implementation and actualization of the administration’s programmes and policies, all eyes were fastened on the transformation agenda of the government.

    With a policy thrust that leverages resources and takes advantage of the strength of the state for economic growth, human capital development and youth empowerment, strategic infrastructure and effective governance, all of which fuse with the Shared Prosperity Programme of the administration, happy days, indeed, have come.

    While deepening and strengthening commercial agriculture through private sector initiative to drive the economy of the state and in turn, create jobs and ensure food security, the government has completed the International Diagnostic Centre, flagged-off of the inaugural flight by student-pilots of the aviation college, completed the Micheal Imoudu/ Offa garage road among other road projects started by the immediate past government, as part of the continuity agenda. The administration’s high value on the 500 metres concept, especially as it affects its health and water supply policies spurred it on to consolidate on the achievements of the previous administration in the area of healthcare.

    In its first phase, the administration embarked on a robust rehabilitation of the five General Hospitals across the three senatorial districts of the state at the cost of N1.6 billion with more General Hospitals to follow in the second phase. The governor explained that the logic behind the concept is that no Kwaran should go beyond 500 metres to access quality healthcare.  Already, plans are in top gear for the start of the Community-based Healthcare Insurance Scheme, which has already undergone pilot shape.

    With matchless vigour, Dr Ahmed pursues his dreams of human capital development and youth empowerment. Like squeezing water out of stone, quite a number of investors are now keen on coming to the state.  There is a N70 billion agreement on large-scale farming with Valsolar, a Spanish Consortium. The agreement has since been commended by stakeholders in the agriculture sector, just as the federal government through the Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state government on the production and cultivation of cassava on commercial scale in the state.

    Today, Kwara State produces about 40 tonnes per hectare, which is far above national average. The beauty of the Valsolar/Kwara State government partnership lies in the fact that the Spanish consortium got to know about Kwara State’s potentials in agriculture through the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria. Another dividend of the administration’s policy on agriculture was the interest of Mosilo Group in building an Agro-Processing complex in Share in Ifelodun council area of the state. The 600 tonnes complex with over $150 million capital outlay for its first phase will change the status of Nigeria to the largest producer of cassava in the world.

    Instructively, the efforts of the governor has not gone unnoticed as he was awarded the Outstanding Agriculture Icon of the Year 2011, for his contributions to the country’s agricultural development by the African Leadership Magazine in Washington DC, United States of America in April last year.

    To boost water supply, the administration provided water booster station at Western Reservoir in Ilorin and Anberi to boost water supply to Ajasse-Ipo and environs. It also carried out comprehensive rehabilitation of 15 water works and sunk 300 boreholes across the State.

    On the area of manpower, which the government sees as critical to the actualization of its robust policies, it has expedited action on the take-off of the School of Nursing, Oke-Ode to complement the College of Nursing, Ilorin, in the training of qualified nurses and midwives.

    On the area of water supply, the reticulation of water pipes in Ilorin metropolis has continued in high pace while boreholes have been dug for many communities to ensure availability and access to pipe borne water. In the last count, no fewer than 14 water works were rehabilitated while 38 others were committed to the National Grid.

    It is worthy of note that in the last nine years or so, Kwara State has been reputed for road construction. The tempo has been nourished under the present administration. The Ahmed administration has done over 800 kilometres of roads in the three senatorial districts to open the state further for agricultural development and economic growth. Over 300 of these are feeder and access roads purposed to create the desired value chain. In the Kulende-Oyun bridge axis of Old-Jebba road in Ilorin, a federal road that was a nightmare for motorists due to monumental traffic snarl, today, the story is different. The state government carried out expansion work on a long stretch of the road at a cost of N200million and traffic congestion on the road has since disappeared.

    Again, the government has rehabilitated more than 400 classrooms in 58 schools while about N24 million was spent on the payment of National Examination Council (NECO) and National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB) fees for 3,126 students.

    At the tertiary education level, fees of Kwara indigenes at the Kwara State University Malete was reduced from N180,000.00 to N95,000.00 to the relief of parents and guardians. The government also offered Bursary Award to students of Kwara State origin.

    The subventions of state-owned tertiary institutions were increased by 50% to boost the financial strength of the institutions. Still poised to reflect the new education policy based on capacity building with a technical education bias, technical schools in Erin-Ile, Ilorin and Patigi are being rehabilitated and equipped to produce well trained manpower, while an International Vocational Centre at Ajasse-Ipo, in Irepodun local government of the state is under construction.

    On the economic front, Kwara State remains a beautiful bride for investors and banking institutions who want to partake in the actualization of the state’s potentials.

    • Oba is Chief Press Secretary to Kwara State governor

  • Obama’s Nigeria wake-up call

    Obama’s Nigeria wake-up call

    SIR: The dumping of Nigeria by United States President Barack Obama in his recent visit to Africa does not mean that Obama does not know the strength of Nigeria. It is not to undermine the vantage position of Nigeria in Africa and the world. Visiting South Africa, Senegal and Tanzania, and leaving out a promising country like Nigeria is not a way of saying that Nigeria does not matter in the black world.

    What the flamboyant President of the United States is trying to do is to help us to do some growing up and pay attention. The leader of the world’s largest economy is sending a powerful signal that our leaders are not getting it right. He came short of saying that despite our huge potentials, given our human and material resources, Nigeria cannot take the lead in Africa. Obama is indirectly indicting Nigeria to rise to the occasion and be responsible and responsive. He is advising Nigerian leaders that size is no guarantee to strength; that if leadership is measured by might, giants would have been ruling the world.

    It’s a clarion call for Nigerian leaders to show some respect to 150 million Nigerians and do things right.

     We do not need to reinvent the wheel but just do what other countries are doing to attract attention. We can go back to the drawing board to reassess how we handle matters of wealth distribution in Nigeria. We must change the ways we deal with the matters of justice and rule of law. We must pay attention to things that unite us and discard things that tend to divide us. Let the real men in Nigeria pick up this challenge. Societies have always been moved forward by the unique discoveries of few great men throughout history.

     Nigeria has the potential of leading, feeding and policing Africa if we discard primordial sentiments and invest in all Nigerians irrespective of tongue, tribe, culture, religion or tradition. If the rapacious greedy lots in Nigeria can say enough is enough and that they have stolen enough, this country can be great again. Let us begin by making 2015 elections free and fair. This is the first step. Once Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice in a free and fair process, the journey to greatness can start from there. Let no one be deceived; we cannot be great without electing great leaders. We cannot achieve great things by deploying little-minded persons to do the job of great men.

    President Obama looked down on Nigeria in 2013. Perhaps in the next 10 years things will be different and the world will pay attention to Nigeria. This I believe!

    • Joe Igbokwe,

    Lagos

  • Gbogun gboro – 3 Battle cry is ‘self-reliance’

    The world has no mercy on the stagnant. Human development in particular has no mercy on those who commit the terrible sin of standing stagnant. Whoever or whichever people, is not moving forward, is actually falling back, and will be pushed further back by others. That is the law of the dynamics of human progress. In some years in recent times, we, the Yoruba, allowed ourselves and our economy to lose our cutting edge position in Nigeria. As a result, we suffer today a degree of poverty and disrespect that we have never experienced before in our history.

    My past two messages urged that we must speedily revive farming in our South-west, in order to enhance significantly our production of our staple food crops as well as our export crops. My central message in both messages and in today’s message remains the same: Let us put more energy and spirit into our struggle for the revival of our economic strength and self-reliance in the South-west; if we do, we are capable of achieving an enormous lot within a short time. Our people are living in undeserved poverty, but we can fight poverty off in no time.

    Thank God that in spite of all the battering that we have suffered in recent years, we still command our fundamental strengths. We still command the strengths not merely to recover, but also to rise to new heights. Thank God too, that we are already beginning now to embark on the struggle for recovery. Yes, a new spirit of struggle is on the rise among Yoruba folks at home and abroad. The information concerning this rising spirit of struggle is for now uncoordinated. However, in every direction one turns these days, one can feel it very clearly and powerfully.

    For instance, in a recent World Bank publication, money transferred by Nigerians living abroad to their homeland is reported to have hit the 21 billion US Dollars mark in the past year – that is, roughly 3,200,000,000,000 Nigerian Naira. This is larger than the annual budget of a number of Nigerian states put together. It is not exactly known how much of this is from the Yoruba Diaspora to their families and relatives back home, but all indications are that that must be substantial. The contemporary Yoruba Diaspora worldwide is very large, numbering an estimated 1.5 million in America, Canada and Europe together, and probably another quarter of a million in other parts of the world. Money routinely sent home by this large number of Yoruba men and women abroad has, for many years, been a major source of support to Yoruba families in the desperate economic situation in Nigeria. Now, the available information indicates that this support from abroad is rising significantly. That is great news indeed.

    But the contribution of the Yoruba Diaspora from abroad to the growing spirit of struggle in Yorubaland is not limited to money transfers. Increasingly these days, more and more of the folks abroad are giving intellectually sophisticated attention to the situation back home. Just over a month ago, a think-tank group of Yoruba intellectuals from all over the world gathered in a suburb of Wilmington in Delaware, USA, and spent two days in solid consideration of all aspects of Yoruba prospects in Nigeria. Their communiqué, representing perhaps the most incisive proposals of socio-economic development in any part of Nigeria since the Awolowo years, holds out very high hopes for the revival of Yoruba strength and the rise of the Yoruba nation to great new heights. And the think-tank group that held this Delaware conference is by no means the only one of its kind among Yoruba people abroad; some others like it exist in different parts of the world. And even much bigger than any think-tank are the general Yoruba descendants associations, or Egbe, in various countries of the world. Of such Egbe, the largest and most influential is the ‘Egbe Omo Yoruba United States and Canada’, the prestigious umbrella association of all Yoruba people living in North America. In the rising struggle for the economic revival of the Yoruba nation, this association represents a powerful assemblage of resources and capabilities. It is a giant. And that giant, from what one is hearing among some of its prominent leaders these days, is rousing itself for the battle for the revival of the Yoruba nation.

    Happily, very happily, the biggest news of change and of growing hope is coming from the home front itself. Bit by bit, in this direction and that, the state governments of the Yoruba South-west are returning to the high quality of striving, venturing and hope that were characteristic of the government of our Western Region of the 1950s. Naturally, the specifics vary from state to state, but altogether they paint a picture of change and rising hope. Each state government is upgrading transportation and communication in its state by constructing a network of good-quality new roads. Each is taking its own kind of step towards a higher quality of education, and towards a higher quality of healthcare delivery. Some are combating agricultural revival boldly, and fighting with the best of their capabilities.

    And it is very important indeed that all this initial progress and change is taking place in the context of the Nigeria of today – the Nigeria of political, economic and social chaos, the Nigeria of perpetual federal disruption and obstruction of progress in its component states. We need to grasp the lesson from this. The lesson is that any Nigerian nationality or group that is absolutely resolved to make progress and snatch its people out of poverty can accomplish its goal. Of course, federal Nigeria will obstruct and disrupt, and the various component nationalities, rather than stand up for each other’s freedom of action, will mindlessly contribute to the obstruction and disruption. In spite of all these, the will to succeed will succeed. If we, the people of the South-west, regardless of our partisan political stands, would form the habit of standing up together to insist that our state governments be allowed to perform, we will curb the ability of Nigeria to disrupt or obstruct our progress. The time to start doing that has come.

    As an old citizen of the South-west, I assume that I am allowed to say such things as this – namely, that from my assessment of all the welcome changes and progress that are starting in all our states, I have my favourite state. Osun is not my home state, but Osun State is my favourite state these days. If you travel abroad and talk to Yoruba people in country after country, you will find that most of the growing excitement among them about our states at this point is about Osun State. The men and women directing the affairs of Osun State have caught a big scoop of the spirit that blessed our life as a nation during our pre-colonial centuries and during our 1950s – the Yoruba spirit of progress, prosperity and pride. They are talking very seriously of their desire to make their state the “food basket” for us all, and they are exploring various promising policies to make it happen. They are equipping their school children to learn better by supplying them with the advanced learning tool which they call “Opon Imo”. They are bringing Yoruba culture and history into the curriculum of their schools in a way that our other states are yet to grasp. They are considering daring transportation ideas, including a rail connection that will haul food to our great metropolis of Lagos. They are considering ways to stimulate entrepreneurship and business development among their citizens, and to stimulate industrial growth. On the whole, Osun State is becoming, among us, the state to emulate.

    In all our states, we are only at the inception of this revival. We are not yet near – we can’t yet even see –the peak of the new era of change, progress and hope; but we have started the climb up towards it. We will climb faster upwards when the masses of our common people catch the fever and take on the climbing – because it is the masses of our people that will ultimately take the climbing to the point when modern farms will spread out as endless green fields in all seasons all over our homeland; when small modern businesses will sprout and flourish in all our towns and villages; when inventions of new products and new processes will become common-place in our economic culture; and when the older ones among us will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and say, “Thank God, we have passed through, and survived, that awful desert and its disorienting storms; we have regained our land of promise, progress and hope”.

  • Why is Salisu Buhari’s chicken always crossing the road?

    What shall we Nigerians do with a certain fellow called Salisu Buhari? Or to put it in a better perspective, what would the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), do without this chap, Salisu Buhari (SB)? For those who were too young in 1999 or who may have forgotten, SB was the golden–haired boy of Nigeria’s re-born democracy in 1999 when he shot into the political scene like a bold, bright meteor. Just in his 20s (but claimed to be older), suffused with astounding military contracts money and the right contacts in the hegemonic circles of the North, SB became a member of the House of Representatives in the new Republic.

    If only he had tempered his ambition and remained just an ordinary lawmaker of the Federal Republic, he probably would have risen to be a kingpin in the PDP firmament, perhaps in line to be president today or something higher if ever there was such. None of us would have been wiser for it after all we have been afflicted with worse afflictions (pardon me). But SB was a lion, osina nwata buru ogaranya, the tenderloin who made good real good, if you would allow me to put it that way. A military leg man and carpetbagger; he pitched for the top job.

    It was the era of innocence when democracy was defined in salubrious officers’ mess and even dingy mammy markets depending on the taste bud of your military brass. SB – small boy who swims in big waters, he dove for the big prize: he wanted to be the Honorable Speaker of the new born 3rd Republic of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And pronto, SB was Speaker. But before you could say “Mr. Speaker Sir”, there was trouble in the House. You know the ancient saying that when a deity begins to give its people too much trouble, they simply ‘undeify’ it by revealing the tree with which they had carved it. Our Honorable Speaker, Salisu Buhari had hardly assumed his stool when it ‘came out’ that he was not the person he claimed he was, he did not go to the schools he forswore to have gone, he was not the age he filled out in forms and SB did not do some of the noble things he may have ascribed to his name. SB was a poseur. So was the party, one would argue but then he was caught out.

    Thus the concept and reality of a Hon. Speaker Salisu Buhari became chimerical. His classmates at King’s College, Lagos could not work out the alchemy of an age mate ‘acquiring’ more age ahead of them. They could understand SB acquiring more mansions and machines. It also turned out that he did not school at Toronto University, Canada which he claimed. He was convicted and he went in for it. He was the first casualty of a rambunctious new age.

    But just before you could say EX-CONVICT, SB was ‘slammed’ a presidential pardon by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo. Of course SB was party’s cash machine and no ill dares befall him. Obasanjo went ahead to make him chairman of an education parastatal and in spite of Nigerians shouting themselves hoarse, he never budged. The PDP government has thrown the Salisu Buhari mud at Nigerians once again. SB has just been made a member of the Governing Council of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. What grim humour, what dark, mirthless offering? Why would SB’s chicken always want to cross the express road you ask?

    The Salisu Buhari affair is a metaphor for the manner PDP governs Nigeria – insensitive, unthinking and unconscionable. This is how our agencies are filled with nincompoops and scallywags. If SB must get board appointments why not in less opprobrious entities; and what, may we ask would PDP make SB next, a vice chancellor?

  • Let not the ‘current’ crises go to waste

    Let not the ‘current’ crises go to waste

    The Federal Government of Nigeria on May 14, declared a state of emergency in three states north-eastern states. The comments I want to make are not directed to ‘fire brigade’ action. I am more interested in the perhaps less exciting subject of constitution making. And the angle from which I am approaching this matter is that Nigeria has been in crises right from the beginning. Certain individuals only recently were reported to have threatened ‘fire and brimstone’ should they fail to have their way in matters that concern all Nigerians. I refer the reader to the comments as contained in The Guardian editorial of Monday, May 13, under the title ‘Kuku, Asari-Dokubo and the limits of blackmail’. The comments responded to the threats made by these named individuals, “against the background of the fragility of Nigeria’s security today…” It was pointed out that, such threats that there won’t be peace in the land if so-and-so did not happen, is not new; that supposedly respectable persons had also in the past adopted the practice of blackmail.

    A lot of commentators point to constitutional imbalances as the cause of our crises and, in consequence, argue for a constitutional conference to address the problem. I agree with this conclusion, however, reject one thesis in particular, put forward in making the case for a new constitution. My interest therefore is to draw attention to one or more misconceptions that have attended the argumentation in favour of a constitutional re-balancing.

    The case for a national self-reflection of a fundamental sort indeed makes itself in the light of the on-going crises. Not intending to rehash the substantive arguments for a constitutional conference, I would nonetheless refer to some of the matters that have been adduced as grounds for it, and for negating it. I am in doing so rather inspired by this dictum of Francis Bacon that “Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion”. It would seem to follow that we should guard more vigorously against confusions. Whatever the case, the important point is really for the need for some vision on the part of our leaders. A clarity of vision requires first and foremost an understanding of where one is coming from and, secondly, where one wants to go. I wish in this regard to disavow some of the propositions put forward by Professor Ogundowole of the University of Lagos in his essay titled: ‘Conference of the sovereigns is inevitable’, in The Punch newspaper in May 8-9.

    The case for a properly executed conference for the purpose of instituting a sound basis for a stable and viable future should be made with the acute awareness that there are no easy answers to the task of building a modern political community. If there should be one single cause for the general malaise in Nigeria, I would put my finger on immorality, social and political. But then morality is an abstract concept, which, without more may not help us in our search for solutions to concrete problems. However, because ideas, it has been said, rule the world and, according to the philosopher Shelling, the only thing that infuses action with “energy and ethical significance”, the specific political-constitutional question(s) confronting us can only be approached initially abstractly. Political morality: what is it? An unavoidable question, which is to be considered in context.

    Constitutionalism as a principle, the idea of limited government or a government under the rule of the law is a derivative of the idea of political morality. A glaring example of a practice opposed to political morality is the case referred to above of certain individuals using blackmail to gain political advantage. The openness to negotiation and compromise and the preparedness for talks, coupled with the humility required to engage others in reasonable arguments, are the hallmarks of the practice of political morality.

    The argument is made that it lies within the province of the elected representatives of the people to choose to or not to deliberate about the all-too-familiar fundamental constitutional questions. In regard to this, it is worth emphasizing that whilst errors and confusions may be excusable, dishonesty is quite a different matter. Anyone capable of intellectual dishonesty and lacking a sense of personal integrity is not fit to hold a public office at any level of political life. The National Assembly’s claim to sovereignty is in respect to law making only; in like manner, the legitimate powers of the Federal Government and state governments are in respect to governance respectively of the Nigerian State and the states. But sovereignty as such, i.e. unlimited and unqualified, derives, as it is stated in the Constitution, from the peoples of Nigeria. The simple explanation (which most Nigerians can understand) why the National Assembly is not apt to make this new constitution is that the questions to be addressed are much more fundamental than the power to make laws, execute and adjudicate on them.

    Regarding the question of the structure of Nigeria in relation to the constitutional question, I will for the sake of brevity restrict myself to only one issue raised in Professor Ogundowole’s essay. I agree of course entirely with the conclusion as it relates to the desirability of a properly convened national constitutional conference. However, I do shrink from the unmitigated focus on the nationality question. Problematizing national identities can only lead to uneasy relationships amongst different groups. My position is not to deny or erase ‘the reality’ of different nationalities, corresponding to different cultural, ethnic and other identities. The point to note is that most, if not all, modern states are characterised by a multiplicity of different identities, including that of ethnicity. It is the challenge of statecraft to seek to find the possibility of a common life amongst different peoples.

    In as much as I am strongly committed to making the case for a constitutional conference, I believe too in the imperative of the right culture of politics – the ideal of a political morality. There can be no substitute for it regardless of the unity or diversity of any nation-state. I assume that Nigerians want to live in and be part of the modern world. Modernity requires the capacity to be outward-looking and to assume different identities. Our politics must be able to transcend identity politics. If one should think that I am being utopian, I would be quick to raise my hand in acknowledgment. But I ask this – how else do you bring about any positive change through politics, without some sense of idealism – as opposed to some spurious realism.

    Professor Ogundowole has faith only in what he describes as the individuation of nation states. Taking this doctrine to its logical conclusion would mean that we ought to have over 250 nation states in Nigeria. He referred to the case of the United Kingdom, and is enamoured of the Scottish Independent Party’s drive for independence. However, some Scots are making the case for independence on grounds other than their scottishness, namely, economic and other arguments. A union that has lasted over 300 years could not have been a terribly dysfunctional and an unhappy arrangement.

    • Oti, BL, LLM, Solicitor, wrote from Manchester, England