The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Who will save Nigerians from internet fraudsters?

    Who will save Nigerians from internet fraudsters?

    SIR: There is no denying the fact that our security agencies have become overwhelmed by the magnitude of criminal activities that daily challenge their competence.

    In fact the impunity of criminals underline the inadequacy or near absence of security intelligence system.

    Ironically 80% of the Police have never used a computer yet they are expected to chase after high tech cyber criminals.

    The internet crime is being carried out by young people in the most brazen manner as they are secure in the knowledge that nobody is coming after them.

    I recall when a group of fraudsters opened a fake Nigerian Customs website, they recruited thousands of Nigerians online and gave them appointment letters after collecting huge amounts from them.

    I recently encountered the Yahoo criminals:

    I was looking for a car to buy and decided to check the internet.

    I found sites like: Tradestable, Car finder and Nigerian Customs market office

    Many of the car advertisers claim to be Customs officers based at the Seme border or in Kebbi.

    They ask you to pay some amount to bring the vehicle for you to see, so that if you like it , you can then pay.

    As soon as you deposit the logistics money in their account the extortion starts.

    The syndicate I encountered are using the following: GT Bank Account NO: 0116270510

    Account NAME (witheld)

    The bank officials can check teller NO: 015651636 of 4/12/2012 paid into the account from their VI branch

     

    • Michael Azara

    Lagos

  • Challenges before Governor Yero

    Challenges before Governor Yero

    SIR: Kaduna descended into mourning following the sudden demise of Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa in a helicopter crash that also killed five others at Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. In line with the constitution, his deputy Alhaji Ramalan Yero emerged as chief executive of the state. For the new governor to succeed in uniting the people for peace, stability and development of the state, he must overcome series of challenges.

    First is the security challenge. Why is this task proving increasingly difficult in the state? Because for many years now Kaduna State has become scene of deadly sectarian violence, segregated into Muslim North and Christian South. As chief security officer of the state, the responsibility is on him to unite and secure the life of every citizen regardless of his tribe, creed or political affiliation. It is on this note one could begin to image how committed His Excellency would be in keeping the diverse people of the state united behind him in peace and for love of one another. This may be deemed delusory but it is realistic if he applies wisdom and expertise in dealing with the knotty difficulties of governing the state.

    So it is important that he realise on time, the need to bridge the gap between the two major religions in the state by introducing policies on genuine reconciliation. Besides, demonstrating fairness, equity and equanimity while discharging his duties will do much to keep the state united. Likewise, it will prove prudent if he takes every decision with circumspection, so as to douse all chances of providing his antagonists with spurious points that may be used in labeling him as being more devoted to one religion than the other.

    In trying to cope with this challenge, he should remain impartial and at the same time play a mediatory role in bringing bloody confrontation between these warring faiths to an end. Because taking either side will have a wider implication of backfiring on unity and peace in the state. So I advice him to take a leaf from the book of his predecessor i.e not to be one sided governor; he should be governor for all.

    Secondly, it is important he prioritise on his agenda. How to end the syndrome of impunity? Many believe insecurity persist as perpetrators of crime go unpunished. He should support measures to combat impunity. Because the saying is people desist from committing crime only if the crime is punished with stiff penalty. So to keep the peace, culprits must be brought to book.

    One other key issue that has the tendency of posing challenge to the governor is the choice of deputy and his cabinet members especially if he dares to defy his godfathers. But in order to foster good working relationship with all his cabinet members, the governor should have free a hand to pick the people he feels he can work with.

    Lastly ,as he promised, let him build from the legacies of late Yakowa as abandoning those projects may prove too costly to the state treasury. It will be a headway for the state if he strives to bring the projects to completion. He could start with the Zaria water project of which we have heard so much but seen little action by his predecessors.

    • Umar Rayyan

    Tudun Wada Kaduna.

  • UN, AU, ECOWAS and Mali

    Hardball is certainly not done with Mali. Today is the fourth time he will be commenting on the subject of the divided country, a division foolishly aggravated by that country’s military under the coup leader, Captain Amadou Sanogo. The long-awaited approval by the United Nations (UN) Security Council authorising military action against separatist Tuareg rebels in northern Mali has finally been given. It follows the resolve of both the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to forcibly reunite Mali and prevent Al-Qaeda from developing deep roots in the region. Nigeria was at the forefront of the effort to put together a regional intervention force to retake the northern part of Mali already declared independent by Tuareg rebels under the aegis of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). The UN-approved intervention force, African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA), has a one-year mandate.But in giving the approval last week, the Security Council was more cautious than the AU and ECOWAS have been in the past nine months. Even though the caution appear obfuscated, it is still remarkable. Said the world body: “(The Security Council) urges the transitional authorities of Mali, consistent with the Framework agreement of 6 April 2012 signed under the auspices of ECOWAS, to finalize a transitional roadmap through broad-based and inclusive political dialogue, to fully restore constitutional order and national unity, including through the holding of peaceful, credible and inclusive presidential and legislative elections, in accordance with the agreement mentioned above which calls for elections by April 2013 or as soon as technically possible, requests the Secretary-General, in close coordination with ECOWAS and the African Union, to continue to assist the transitional authorities of Mali in the preparation of such a roadmap, including the conduct of an electoral process based on consensually established ground rules and further urges the transitional authorities of Mali to ensure its timely implementation.”

    In other words, the UN recognises the nexus between political development in Mali and the success of AFISMA. The AU and ECOWAS have, however, over the months appeared eager to gloss over the pernicious influence the coup leaders still wield over the transitional government in Mali. Only recently, the coup leaders forced the resignation of the prime minister, the eminent astrophysicist, Cheick Modibo Diarra, and installed Django Sissoko as replacement. The UN deplored this meddlesomeness, but ECOWAS has made only feeble statements on the peremptory dismissal.

    This prompted Hardball on December 13 to warn that diarchy was creeping in on Mali. He wrote: “It seems all but clear that Mali is quietly but agonisingly slipping into diarchy. This is a traumatic transformation for a country that in 1992 transited into full and stable democracy with the election of Alpha Oumar Konare. His re-election in 1997 and the peaceful transition to another elected president, Amadou Toumani Toure, in 2002 convinced the world that Mali had become a democratic trailblazer for the region. Unfortunately in March this year, a few months before Toure passed the baton to a successor, the army under Captain Amadou Sanogo staged a coup d’etat. Even though international pressure and ECOWAS muscle-flexing compelled Sanogo to transfer interim presidential power to the Speaker of the Mali National Assembly, Dioncounda Traore, and head of government business to Cheick Modibo Diarra, a former Foreign minister, effective power has remained with the coup leader who continues to enjoy the perks of leadership without the corresponding responsibility.”

    It must be reiterated once again, even though the UN was surprisingly not firm enough on the matter, that the Malian conundrum could never be solved as long as the coup leaders retain effective control. Democratic Nigeria must make Captain Sanogo and his cohorts relinquish power as a precondition for our participation in AFISMA. It is naïve and short-sighted to expect that Sanogo and his men would not complicate the campaign for unity if allowed so much elbow room as they currently enjoy. It is even difficult to see northern rebels entering into negotiation with the transitional government, as the UN has directed, when the coup leaders still wield enormous influence in Bamako. More crucially, it is hard to see AFISMA succeeding in the face of an indulgent UN, an absentminded AU, and an unreflective ECOWAS.

     

  • Journey that leads to nowhere

    Journey that leads to nowhere

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Remembering Madallah blast victims

    Remembering Madallah blast victims

    SIR: It’s only a man whose’s consciousness has been riddled with bullet’s of blind mentality and incurable irrationality that can confute the axiomatic submission of Claude Mekay’s magnum opus titled“if we must die”. Claude was right when he told us in his poem that “if we must die, let it not be like dogs, hunted and penned in inglorious spot. If we must die, let us nobly die”.

    Merchants of sudden death and death-defying ogres invaded Saint Theresa Catholic Church last Christmas and killed their fellow men like dogs during Christmas mass. Men and women, boys and girls who left home for the Church to celebrate the birth of Church, never returned to home, as they were sent to Golgotha in unimaginable pieces by despicable death hawkers.

    I understood John F. Kennedy when he said “forgive your enemies but never forget their names”. Others may choose to forgive and forget those monstrous gallow-birds’sflying like vultures in search for harmless prey, but I will never forget. As I urge Nigerians to stay on alert this Christmas, please let’s make it a solemn duty to give useful information about those irredeemable agents of unthinkable criminality to security agents nearest to you. I think the best way to celebrate this season is to assist our security agency with credible and timely information so that we can have a peaceful celebration this year. Remember security is the duty of all.

    We should never submit to fear and together we can defeat our fear. Therefore, I urge you to resist the temptation of forsaking the house of God this Christmas. We should be in church if we wish and do not forsake the church because of those monstrous characters, who come like the biblical thief in the night to kill, steal and destroy.

    Let’s remember the victims of Saints Theresa Catholic Church tragedy in our silent prayers. May God grant them eternal rest and comfort their families left behind. Certainly, the time to end the groundless and senseless violence is now. Since they say “it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war”, because after war-war, we will still go to the table of ‘talk-talk’ to discuss, why not discuss and avoid war-war?

    To Christians I say keep faith, for the abyss of darkness awaits those despicable ‘ganakos’ who invade places of worship.

    • Godfrey Ehi O.

    Benin City

  • A nation in turmoil

    A nation in turmoil

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    • Olokode, a Communication Strategist, wrote from Lagos.

  • Oyo SUBEB should get its priorities right

    Oyo SUBEB should get its priorities right

    SIR: The continuous building of classrooms for our primary schools in Oyo State despite the dwindling population of pupils in these schools and the fact that the classrooms built by past administrations, local governments, constituency project of members of Oyo state House of Assembly, ETF and PTA are underutilized has continued to be a source of concern for me.

    Does Oyo SUBEB have any agenda for our primary schools aside provision of classrooms? As at the time of writing this piece, construction works are on-going in various primary schools in the state. While there is nothing bad in providing classrooms for our pupils, what I frown at is the policy which gives priority to building of classrooms for building sake. In other words, building of more classrooms when the available ones are underutilized is a misplaced priority. As such, most of the playing grounds in many schools have given in to new classrooms, thereby crippling sporting activities in various schools. In relation to the above, there are many derelict classrooms buildings in many schools that are craving in and need urgent maintenance

    I believe it is more reasonable to maintain the old classrooms than building new ones in view of economic problems staring the nation in the face. My position is that it is high time that Oyo SUBEB review its policies as concerned our primary schools.

    Aside classrooms, there are many innovations that could be introduced to make our primary schools conducive for learning. As an example, the schools can be fenced, well drained with modern toiletries and boreholes. Aside, solar powered street lights could be created at strategic places in the schools to illuminate the school compound at nights. This will stop hoodlums from using these schools as hideouts to perpetrate evils. Lastly, library facilities could be provided for our primary schools as this would promote reading habits among our pupils early in life.

     

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake Ogbomoso

  • How to make Nigeria work

    How to make Nigeria work

    SIR: The public hearings which attended the constitutional amendment process has revealed the anxieties amongst citizens many of whom have been thinking aloud on whether the National Assembly would live up to expectation. This is in the background of the entrenched notion that the Assembly is not so much in tune with the yearnings and aspirations of the people of Nigeria. This sad but painful perception must be corrected in a deliberate manner. I am yet to see any Nigerian who wishes for the country to continue on this path except those who are making a fortune from this skewed arrangement.

    In the past, many have advanced logical and highly convincing arguments for the re-structuring of Nigeria in such a manner that will make it work to the delight and reward of all and sundry but regretfully that is yet to receive government attention. The challenge is how to build Nigeria without fear and without grievances? It might appear simplistic but with every blast from indiscriminate killings and maiming of innocent Nigerians, rancour and flare of ethnic acrimony which has remained a recurring decimal of our history, it is evident that the national fabric is under strain. We must all rise up before this house caves in. The failure to live true to our claim to principles of federalism has made a mockery of us.

    The pains and frustrations are ever mounting and if all men and women of good conscience do not act and do so in a deft manner, then we all might be consumed in the looming anarchy. Nothing is more fundamental for us at this moment than for us to answer without any deceit if what is obtainable is the best for Nigeria. I nurse no doubt that we are not at our best given the enormous mineral and human deposit which abound within our national frontiers.

    Given that we have travelled this road before without much success, it will do no hurt but rather a lot of good if we can be courageous enough to candidly answer the question of how to organize Nigeria that the best can be gotten from the composite nationalities under a stable and virile government. It is not a presumption that the vast majority of Nigerians want a functional and stable polity. Given that fact, the National Assembly should not foreclose any option in its task to fashion a living constitution for the benefit of all our country men and women.

    The agitation to address the nationality question is not, and should never be misconstrued as calling for the balkanization of the country. The fire of the nationality question which was lit shortly after independence in 1960 has continued to grow in intensity simply because the relationship between the nationalities has remained one defined by fears of domination, some real, others imaginary. In such a foul atmosphere, it is only rational for us to seek a truce in a potentially charged arrangement. The best way in my candid opinion is for all nationalities that make up Nigeria to step forward with a road map that will assuage their fears.

    We must be bold to make a necessary change. The reason why every nationality within Nigeria makes desperate push to control political power at the centre at all cost is the absence of considerable autonomy for all to flourish at own pace.

    Many Nigerians have been killed or maimed and many more face a grim future in our country for no fault of theirs, perhaps simply because of their mode of worship, place of birth or economic status and place of birth. Whatever motivation that propels this rabid intolerance should be addressed rather than fold our hands until the entire country slips into a bloodbath.

    Clearly, the fissures generated by such a potentially destructive path continue to grow with each passing day simply because of the erroneous believe that a section of the country holds the master key or is actually the master in a lopsided arrangement. It has not worked in the past and will never work if we are sincere enough to face the truth. We must re-examine our perceived “settled issues” with a view to making our country truly functional. It is an ethical issue which if well handled will usher us to a more purposeful living.

    There is ample example to point to the fact that we have breached universally known face of federalism and compounded problems of harmonious ethnic co-existence for so long. The greatest gift we can give to our country men and women is to be guided by this historic mission to alter for good our reality of today.

     

    • Rotimi Opeyeoluwa,

    rotbaba@gmail.com

  • Reflections on Osun’s Walk to Live

    Reflections on Osun’s Walk to Live

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

    • Lawal is Publicity Secretary, ACN Ogun State.

  • Insights into onshore – offshore dichotomy

    Insights into onshore – offshore dichotomy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    •Attah is former Governor Akwa Ibom State.