The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Let our leaders be warned!

    SIR: On the state of the nation, Nigeria and Nigerians need prayers. Nobody understands the present situation. The leaders should be sincere for the sake of the corporate existence of Nigeria. They are hiding a lot from the public.

    The unfaithfulness in the nation leads to corruption and fraudulent practices that are eating deep into the resources of the nation and affecting the economy very seriously.

    We pay for electricity that is not there for us. People are paying more for the water that is not supplied. Instead of the government to provide electricity, water and other basic amenities, they are short-changing the public by importing generators for the public. Our roads are not motorable. They are death traps. On the petrol subsidy, government is not subsidizing anything.

    They are increasing tuition fees in higher institutions, beyond poor man’s reach and they are not creating jobs. Nigerians are already frustrated, hence the spate of kidnapping, blood shedding, arm-robbery, killings here and there. They should know that if the children of the poor are hungry, the children of the rich will not sleep.

    Let our leaders be warned that unfaithfulness and corruption will continue to make people frustrated and the more frustrated the people are, the more problems should be expected in this nation. The Bible says: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14:34.

    Our leaders in every sphere of governance should read the handwriting on the wall and repent, hence, they should be expecting more problems for the nation, because – Proverbs 15:27– “He who is greedy for gain, troubles his own house, but, he who hates bribe will live”. Also, 2 Chronicles 7 : 14-15 record that – “If my people who are called by my name could humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land”.Therefore, let our leaders repent from their wickedness, selfish ways, so that, God can hear our prayers.

    • Raphael Olalekan-Adesina

    Lagos.

  • Farewell, Justice Kayode Eso

    SIR: The tradition in the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos has been that any legal mind whose dicta and ratios are sine qua non to the study of law should be equated with the likes of the Lord Dennings of this world. So, the Faculty has thrown Justice Kayode Eso into that high pedestal of the legal greats of this world.

    It is almost a forthnight since the revered Eso passed away but condolences are still flying in the air. It’s not surprising that the students of the late Justice Kayode Eso’s Students’ Chamber are expressing more grief than others. This is because of their view that his punctual, neat, upright and rigorous character should be emulated including their belief in what is now called ESOISM.

    The Law must go on. It is left for those aspiring to step into the giant shoes of

    the departed “Father of Judicial Activism” in Nigeria to work harder. Adieu, the immortal Justice Eso.

    • Ekpo Uduakobong,

    Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Akoka.

  • In search of People’s Constitution

    The contentious claim to autochthony in the opening line of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) has remained a fundamental defect of the document. As a result, there have been calls for a national conference (some say sovereign) and/or referendum to cure this malady. But regrettably, these suggestions are not contemplated by the constitution which however, prescribes a formula for its amendment.

    This prescription gives the National Assembly a pre-eminent authority and leeway to alter the document in line with the wishes and aspirations of the Nigerian people. In spite of the successful amendments carried out by the last session of the National Assembly, the dilemma over authentic ownership of the grundnorm has yet festered like an open sore. And while the current seventh National Assembly is in the thick of another amendment process, the question has remained how best to make the resulting constitution a truly peoples’ document.

    Now this is where the House of Representatives has risen to the challenge. Its recently conducted Peoples’ Public Sessions is an ingenious methodology which opens up the amendment process in a manner that sufficiently redresses the controversial claim of pan-Nigerian ownership noted in the extant constitution. On November 10, the 360 federal constituencies across the country were agog with village square-like meetings where the ordinary Nigerian had his voice reflected in discussions over what aspects of our basic law need to be amended and why. The market woman, palm wine tapper, and the local jeweller sat together with the local solicitor, community newspaper publisher, and community health worker to define the Nigeria of tomorrow they want for themselves. Without discrimination, let or hindrances, Nigerians hosted themselves in the comfort and proximity of their neighbourhoods to talk about their similarities and differences; likes and dislikes; preferences and prejudices; and indeed about their future within the context of the Nigerian nation. In a unique way, Nigerians in all nooks and crannies of the country felt an uncommon sense of belonging with government and in particular, their elected representatives at the House of Representatives who merely acted as facilitators of the public sessions and allowed the people to determine the issues of constitutional amendment for themselves.

    43 focal areas distilled from the about 200 memoranda received from the public, were highlighted for discussions and voting at the public sessions with a caveat that constituencies were at liberty to reduce or increase the list depending on the peculiarity of their situations and/or what is considered of priority concern. These focal areas include local government autonomy, financial autonomy for state legislatures, revenue allocation, fiscal federalism, state creation, tenure of office for the president and governors, rotational presidency, the indigene-settler dichotomy, further electoral reforms, separation of the office of Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, constitutional role for traditional rulers, and a host of others. To ensure the credibility of the exercise, the sessions were organized and implemented in each constituency by an independent steering committee of experts and stakeholders which included members of the State House of Assembly in the particular federal constituency, local government chairmen in the constituency, and representatives of the following organizations: Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Bar Association, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Civil Society Organizations, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Nigeria Youth Council (NYC), National Council of Women Societies (NCWS), National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). Individual members of the constituencies as well as relevant stakeholders like ethnic nationalities, professional organizations, religious organizations, artisans, traditional institutions, town unions, women and youth groups, among others, were specifically invited to attend and participate in the public sessions which were widely advertised and publicised in the national and local media across the country.

    Reports from across the country including those monitored in the media showed that the peoples’ public sessions were a huge success. But that is just the beginning of the pro-people, bottom-up approach of the constitutional amendment process as adopted by the House of Representatives and being so brilliantly coordinated by its Committee on Constitution Review chaired by consummate lawmaker and Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha. The process has entered another integral and important stage: collation of the views of the people freely expressed at the sessions.

    Indeed, some observers have expressed concerns about how the divergent views and choices on the various issues determined at the sessions can be collated without possible manipulations and/or undue influences. This well-placed concern has been contemplated ahead of time and adequate measures put in place to address it. For instance, the Committee has invited representatives of stakeholder groups including those listed above to join its secretariat and participate in the collation of reports from the federal constituencies. In fact, as has always been emphasized by Hon. Ihedioha, the committee secretariat remains open to observation and/or enquiries from members of the public especially during the reports’ collation stage. Bringing this kind of transparency and accountability to bear on the process is a further testimony of the commitment of the House of Representatives to bequeath a truly peoples’ constitution to the Nigerian people in line with its legislative agenda.

    Little wonder then that the methodology adopted by the House of Representatives in seeking to amend the constitution has not only resonated positively with the mass generality of Nigerians, stakeholders have not been sparing in expressing their excitement and contentment with the process. NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, speaking at the official flag-off of the peoples’ public sessions, commended the House of Representatives for the brilliant initiative and described the consultative model as a veritable answer to the clamour in some quarters for a national conference. For Mr. Richard Montgomery, Head of Nigeria Country Office of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the peoples’ public sessions is an “incredibly commendable initiative” while for Mr. Emma Ezeazu of the Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE), the idea of the peoples’ public sessions has given democracy in Nigeria “a rejuvenating slogan that CSOs will continue to harp upon even after the programme.”

    Providing leadership and direction to an exercise as constitutional amendment is no tea party and this where the Committee on Constitution Review ably coordinated by the deputy speaker as chairman has stood out so far. Hon. Ihedioha, fully conscious of the huge burden of expectations of Nigerians on the task of amending the constitution has been very careful to maintain and project neutrality in directing the affairs of the committee. And this has in no small measure, helped to credit the committee and indeed the House of Representatives, with a good dose of credulity, satisfaction and acceptability as far as the amendment process is concerned. Being a shrewd and high-heeled politician that he is, Hon. Ihedioha has been careful in both utterances and appearances to allow Nigerians debate and decide for themselves the issues for constitutional amendment while keeping away his views and personal opinions. This impartial disposition is one trait that has become a recurring decimal not just in piloting the amendment process but in nurturing and nourishing the flourishing seventh House of Representatives built by Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. And this is what Nigerians need in realising the quest for a truly peoples’ constitution that can legitimately approximate the declaration of “we the people.”

    • Epia is Media Adviser to the Rt. Honourable Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives.

  • Between Sanusi’s idealism and Jonathan’s realism

    Between Sanusi’s idealism and Jonathan’s realism

    Far more than the furore that greeted his remarks in 2010 about the National Assembly spending 25 percent of the Federal Government overhead annually, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has again infuriated his enemies and united them effortlessly against himself. The list of his enemies is growing. Speaking with peerless candour at a seminar in Warri a few days ago, Sanusi told his stunned audience that if the nation wished to free resources for development, the government must have the courage to eliminate the third tier of government, that is, the local government, halve the staff strength of public sector workers, reduce the size of the National Assembly, and forswore the creation of more states. In that one swing of the axe, Sanusi ensured that he would have no friends among local government workers, among civil servants who interpreted his call as unfriendly and disparaging, and among national legislators who see him as probably the most irreverent and acerbic of all government appointees.

    Predictably, his now united enemies have in turn called for his sack, describing him as uneducated and incompetent. In fact the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the umbrella union of Nigerian workers, has specifically drawn his attention to his indefensible and insufficient understanding of the term civil servants. Sanusi had indicated that 70 percent of the budget was spent on salaries and entitlements for public sector workers, leaving a meagre 30 percent for development purposes. But if Sanusi knew the difference between civil servants and public servants, said the General Secretary, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, he would recognise that the entire civil service strength is below 100,000, and that the public service, comprising the Army, Navy, Customs, EFCC, NAFDAC, among others, has 970,000 workers. In other words, if Sanusi knew this distinction, would he still call for a drastic cut?

    But the NLC’s umbrage was even fiercer. Said Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, its president: “We see in Sanusi an agent of death that must be defeated and crushed before he further destroys the Nigerian economy. While President Jonathan is promising to create more jobs, Sanusi is calling for mass sack of civil servants in a country with one of the highest number of unemployed, which has indeed led to gross deprivation and the current state of insecurity in Nigeria. While we believe the Federal Government will ignore the ranting of this hollow economist, Sanusi has never demonstrated patriotism in all his advice on economic and financial management in Nigeria.”

    It was clear Sanusi spoke with the impersonal penchant of a man obsessed with figures and with balancing of books or budgets. He did not speak as a politician, and could not have, for his lifetime ambition is either to be a top banker, which he has achieved, or a traditional ruler, which he still pants for. Both offices admit of candour, especially the indescribably unfeeling variety he has managed to imbibe. He must indeed consider himself lucky to be living in these times, when the grave contradictions undermining societal cohesion and progress have made his frankness tolerable, even admirable. Had he come to maturity decades ago, and rose to become an emir, he would have been vulnerable to deposition.

    If the NLC will gun for Sanusi, so too will the National Assembly redouble its effort to subvert his talents. The legislature had driven him to distraction with repeated summons a few months ago, to the point that he exasperatingly wailed he was tired of being summoned. He will wail the more in the coming months. However, no one has said anything about Sanusi’s sensible denunciation of the loathsome effort to create more states. It is impossible to fault his premise on the argument against state creation. There is indeed no reason on earth to create more states, and it does not seem it will be done, at least not this decade.

    Nigeria can use the candour and common sense of someone like Sanusi. But whether that candour befits a CBN governor is a different thing altogether. Nor is it likely that President Goodluck Jonathan will find Sanusi’s brave talk amusing. Jonathan is a politician, and he has an election to win in 2015, if he decides to contest. Sanusi on the other hand has no election to contest or even win. Instead he has repeatedly announced he has a death wish – to be sacked. For someone who derives fulfillment in speaking candidly and making people squirm, which characteristics he deeply covets, the last thing on his mind is to please anyone or suffer fools gladly. Sanusi may have spoken idealistically, but Jonathan can be relied upon to act realistically.

  • Ibrahim Gambari at 68

    SIR: Please permit my humble request to celebrate Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, a distinguished African/Nigerian son and world citizen who turned 68 recently. His life in the past twenty years has been devoted to public service and indeed service to mankind.

    Prof. Gambari needs no introduction in our clime having held office as Foreign Affairs Minister after the collapse of the Second Republic.

    This erudite academic after this noble appointment became Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to United Nations (UN), setting the record of being Nigeria’s longest serving permanent representative in the UN till date. Altogether, this great Nigerian served five Heads of State and Presidents, in a period spanning over a decade. Upon completion of his mission assignment, the UN, in respect and recognition of his industry offered him yet another appointment as Under-Secretary/Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on African Affairs thereby becoming the Under-Secretary/ Head, Political Affairs Dept of the UN- the most important office after that of the Secretary General.

    Prof Gambari served UN as Under-Secretary/Special envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the troubled Myanmar where his mediatory efforts yielded fruits. This led to the multi- party democracy and the release of Aang Sun kyi from house arrest after close to two decades and her election recently into the parliament. The career of this seasoned diplomat in the UN cuts across important committees, commissions and special assignments including the chair of UN Security Council, UN committee on Apartheid, the head and special representative of UN Secretary –General during the UN/Angola Peace Mission, International compact with Iraq, UN special envoy to Myanmar(formerly Burma) and until recently joint UN-AU special representative to Darfur.

    The highpoint of his striking career was his being the last chairperson of the UN Committee against Apartheid under which aegis he presented UN’s congratulatory letter to President Nelson Mandela during the latter’s inauguration in 1994. He was recently honoured with a national award by the South African people and government for his diplomatic forays in that country.

    Before I met Prof. Gambari in person, we had been in communication for over 6 years. Indeed, all through my undergraduate days, we communicated mostly through e-mails when I was in dire need of one of his books: Nigerian Foreign Policy after the Second Republic. It is to Professor Gambari’s credit that he not only sent the book to me from his US base, he even asked how he could get the book across to me, till we finally agreed that it should be sent through his son in Lagos.

    This was to open a ready made courier for more book gifts and other items that the amiable Prof sent to me. Before we met physically, he called me one night, to intimate me of his arrival and to plan our meeting the following day. Our meeting was less dramatic, due largely to his humility. Inspite of being in the midst of glitterati, he gave me an audience and promptly requested I should come to his residence in the night where we even2tually met properly and were able to exchange thoughts freely. Ever since, our relationship has blossomed. Ours is a father and son relationship; he shared with me moments of joy and despair, most particularly after my recent road traffic accident, he not only called to offer soothing words, he gave a fat contribution to aid my recovery.

    Once again, permit me to salute the humility and kindness of this great son of Africa and a distinguished Nigerian. May Allah continue to protect him and his immediate family members that are paying huge sacrifice for his involvement in public life.

    • Badejo Adedeji Nurudeen,

    Adeniji Street,

    Lawson/Itire road,

    Surulere.

  • Tribute to Lam Adesina

    SIR: The death of Alhaji Lamidi Adesina, a former Governor of Oyo State, on Sunday November 11, 2012 as denied Oyo State a true progressive politician. Unlike many contemporary politicians who junketed from one party to another in search of the Golden Fleece, Adesina began as a progressive of Awolowo’s school of politics and remained so till the end.

    Alhaji Lam Adesina’s consistency as a politician was a contributory factor to his success in politics. Alhaji Adesina’s role in the struggle for democracy that the nation is enjoying today is indelible. He along with other activists like Baba Omojola, Comrade Ola Oni and so on confronted the military junta through organized resistance in form of mass rallies, public demonstrations etc, to seek for the de-annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and enthronement of democracy. Perhaps, Adesina paid dearly for his effrontery by being thrown into detention and became a “prisoner of war” courtesy of Col. Ahmed Usman, the then military administrator of Oyo State.

    Adesina’s efforts and suffering in the hands of the military was not in vain because the appreciative people of Oyo State gave him their mandate to govern them at the inception of the present civilian dispensation in 1999, as the Governor. Consequently, he was nicknamed Majiyagbe 1. Arguably, the period of Alhaji Lam Adesina as the governor of Oyo State between 1999-2003 would remain a reference point in the anals of Oyo State. This is because Lam Adesina ruled with the fear of God and his was a civilized administration devoid of acrimony between himself and his deputy, between the executive and the legislature.

    His achievements as Oyo State governor were feasible and practical. Free education, free health services, integrated rural development- all items on the manifestos of the Alliance for Democracy were implemented. Although, the federal allocation to the state was not as buoyant as that of today, however the meagre resources of the state were well managed. He lived in his own house for months; he did not buy an official car for himself throughout his four years tenure but rode the official car inherited from Col. Oyakhire. In addition, all segments of the state – civil servants, students, market men and women, traditional, drivers’union enjoyed dividends of democracy to the fullest.

    One remarkable fact about Lam Adesina’s era is that his government did not erect self promoting bill boards or newspaper advertisements to showcase its achievements.

    To say that Adeshina lived a fulfilled and meaningful and impactful life is to say the obvious. Alhaji Adesina did not live for himself alone. As a teacher, politician, columnist, pro-democracy activist and a governor, he served humanity. He never owned mansions at home and abroad, no fleet of cars, no jets. The crowd that assembled within hours paid last respects before his burial; with tributes and encomiums showered on him as evidence of his impactful life. One wishes that our contemporary political leaders should borrow a leaf from Adesina. They should see power as a means to an end and not end itself; use it for the betterment of the society and not for personal aggrandizement and primitive accumulation noticeable among our leaders today.

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

  • The chameleon called NJC

    SIR: It is an indisputable fact that the invaluable role of the judiciary to the sustenance of justice, peace and progress of any society can not be over-emphasized. This explains why any society that lacks justice can only experience peace of the grave yard. The judiciary by its critical role in the Temple of Justice is expected to be upright, consistent and just and where this is not the case, that society is in trouble. The latest macabre dance by the National Judicial Council (NJC) on the issue of recall of suspended President of the Court of Appeal calls to question the integrity of the bench.

    Just recently, Nigerians and the whole world were taken aback, when the announcement was made that the NJC had recommended to President Jonathan the appointment of a new acting Appeal Court President; contrary to its earlier recommendation in May for the recall of Justice Ayo Salami to his position as the President of the Court of Appeal from his unconstitutional and unlawful suspension in August 2011.

    The NJC in realizing its error in suspending this incorruptible and honest judicial officer agreed that the President had no role to play in the recall of the suspended PCA. The NJC had on October 2, 2012 told the Abuja Federal High Court that President Goodluck Jonathan had no powers under the law to play a role in the reinstatement of the suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Salami. The NJC told the court that rather than Jonathan, the exclusive power of recall resides in it. Why the sudden change of position? May be the NJC has forgotten that it reportedly forwarded a letter recommending Salami’s reinstatement to the President.

    With this latest dance, one is indeed convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that our judiciary is in dire need of judicial surgery. The NJC has only succeeded in ridiculing the judiciary as an arm of government that is not upright, disciplined, principled and inconsistent in handling matters concerning even itself. What then becomes of the image of this institution as the last hope of the common man in the dispensation of justice? Well, only time will tell.

    • Nelsondel Ekujumini,

    Adesina Street,

    Ikeja, Lagos.

  • President Jonathan’s subsidy ruse!

    Just recently while receiving participants of the senior executive course 34 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), President Goodluck Jonathan just like his predecessors made recourse to the familiar refrain of blaming corruption in the oil industry thereby justifying erroneous official thoughts that the total removal of fuel subsidy was the only guarantee to encourage private sector investment in the country’s refinery business. And also the only path that can put an end to importation of refined petrol.

    In the course of the interaction, Mr. President even made allusion to the fact that unlike Nigeria which has four dysfunctional state owned refineries operating below 30 percent of installed capacity, Canada has 16 functional privately owned refineries operating at installed capacity. With all due respect, Mr. President’s analysis is illogical.

    The basis of comparing Nigeria to Canada does not exist in whatever ramification because apart from the fact that they are poles apart in the Human Development Index (HDI), Canada is neither an OPEC member nor an oil producing country like Nigeria. On the other hand, Nigeria can only be compared to countries like Somalia, Afghanistan etc in terms of failed statehood or in terms of its being an oil producing country with other member states in OPEC.

    The issue of state ownership of functional fuel refineries in all OPEC member countries of which Nigeria is a member is not in doubt and we should use this opportunity to avail Mr. President and his economic team this fact. Algeria, for instance is the World 15th largest producer of crude oil (2,125,000bpd) with 5 state owned refineries, maintains petrol pump price at US$0.41 (N61); Libya as at early 2011, before Muammar al-Qaddafi death), the World 17th largest producer of crude oil (1,79millionbpd), with 5 functional refineries maintains petrol pump price at US$0.17 (N25); Iraq, the World 13th largest producer of crude oil (2.4millionbpd), with 11 functional refineries, maintains petrol pump prices at US$0.38 (N56); Iran, the World 4th largest producer of crude oil (4.2millionbpd), with 9 functional refineries and having the World 10th largest refinery (Abadan refinery, refining 450,000bpd), maintains petrol pump price at US$0.65 (N96); Kuwait, the World 10th largest producer of crude oil (2,49millionbpd) with 3 functional refineries subsidizes petrol at US$0.22 (N33).

    Furthermore, Qatar, the World 20th largest producer of crude oil (1.2millionbpd), with 2 functional refineries maintains petrol pump price at US$0.22 (N33); Saudi Arabia, the World 2nd largest producer of crude oil (8.8millionbpd), with 9 functional refineries and having the World 5th largest refinery (Ras Tanura refinery, refining 550,000bpd), subsidizes petrol for its citizens at US$0.16 (N24); the UAE, the World 8th largest producer of crude oil (2.8millionbpd), with 4 functional refineries maintains petrol pump prices at US$0.48 (N71); Ecuador, the World 30th largest producer of crude oil (485,700bpd), maintains petrol pump price at US$0.44 (N65); and Venezuela, the World’s 11th largest producer of crude oil (2.47millionbpd), with 12 functional refineries, and owns the World 2nd largest refinery (Paraguana refinery, refining 940,000bpd), maintains petrol pump prices at US$0.02 (N3).

    From the above analysis, one can see that if we want to make a logical and common sensical comparison on the functionality or otherwise of state owned refineries, our best bet would be with our OPEC colleagues with whom we have something in common. So the critical question to ask is; why are state owned refineries functioning optimally in other OPEC member countries except Nigeria? The answer which we all know and are sure Mr. President knows too even if he is trying pull wool over our eyes is the fact that the non functionality of our state owned refineries is due to corruption and not ownership, pronto!

    Again, Mr. President stood logic on its head when he made an analogy of the oil situation in Nigeria to one’s daughter who has a boil on her face, that it’s either you allow it to remain and deface the girl or you make her visit the surgeon for operation at great pain, cost and inconvenience, the end result of which will be a beautiful face. Mr. President as it has become his trademark and that of his government got it wrong again. The issue is that when one has a seeming problem, you first of all examine the cause of the problem with a view to proffering lasting and not cosmetic solution. My answer to Mr. President’s analogy is that, it is only the medical doctor who can examine the patient and prescribe the appropriate treatment and not the father of the girl who is naturally swayed by fatherly emotion to assume that if there is a lump on his daughter’s face, then it’s a boil, what if its just pimples? On the other hand, let’s even assume it’s a boil, won’t it be better and economical if it’s treated through administration of antibiotics and other non surgical means rather than the pains and scars of a surgery?

    We still remember vividly that this same old worn out song of the necessity of removal of fuel subsidy which has been over played by successive governments was also publicly rehearsed by the Goodluck Jonathan led government. Nigeria apart from being the world’s sixth largest producer of oil, was the only OPEC member country that does not have an accurate data of its oil production because of corruption. It is also the only OPEC member country that exports crude and imports refined petrol for local consumption with the attendant economic loss of other by-products of crude oil to its economy. Just recently, even President Goodluck Jonathan publicly admitted that Nigeria was the only oil producing country in the world that is grappling with the issue of oil theft.

    While Nigerians and groups were calling for debates and dialogue on the issue because we are in a democracy, they were taken aback when they woke up to a new year on January 1st2012 to a new price regime per litre of fuel at N141 in utter disregard for their wishes and aspirations, the rest as they say is history. No one is sure what awaits the citizenry on January 1, 2013.

    The latest call for total removal of fuel subsidy by Mr. President is an escapist admission of failure and one is shocked and surprised that it is coming at a time when the present government has submitted a 2013 budget proposal to the National Assembly in which it has outlined an expenditure of N251.2 billion for the repairs of the four comatose refineries. The question to ask is, doesn’t this policy somersault typify inconsistency, conflict of interest and confusion for government to budget public money for Turn-Around-Maintenance (TAM) and at the same time be canvassing private ownership of refineries?

    Any attempt by the present administration to hike the price of fuel per litre now or in the near future under any anti-people rationalisation guise will not be condoned by the people. A word is enough for the wise!

    • Nelson Ekujumi is Executive Chairman of Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM).

  • Maduka/Ubah face-off: Questions, more questions!

    Maduka/Ubah face-off: Questions, more questions!

    SIR: The drama that is currently playing out in the media, involving two ‘heavyweight’sons of the industrial town of Nnewi, in Anambra State, is becoming interesting by the day. From all indications, the Maduka/Ubah face-off does not appear to be an issue that will soon go away. The ‘’war” is being fought in the electronic and print media, with indications that it would soon become a communal issue.

    It does appear, however, that the matter has passed the stage at which the traditional ruler of Nnewi and his cabinet can handle, contrary to what Dan Ulasi, who would like to be seen as a trouble-shooter in the ongoing war, recently hinted on Sunrise, the Channels Television breakfast programme.

    Ifeanyi Ubah, the chairman of Capital Oil, had, for several weeks, been in the news for the wrong reasons involving subsidy collection allegations. And just when the public was trying to find answers to the whys of the allegation, Cosmos Maduka, president of the Coscharis Group, came into the picture, raising an alarm to the effect that a brother, Ubah, whom he bailed out of trouble, had turned around to bite the finger that fed him and, in a curious twist, allegedly plotted a sinister move to put him (Maduka), in trouble. Ubah has, since been crying foul, alleging a grand design to run him out of business.

    The point must be made that both men in the centre of the current war are what we usually refer to as ‘men of timber and calibre’ in the Nigerian economy. One is an industrialist of no mean repute, with significant contributions to the growth of the Nigerian auto industry and the transport sub-sector, while the other is a major player in the downstream sector of the oil industry.

    From what can easily be discerned, there was a business relationship involving Maduka and Ubah, over the importation of fuel. Maduka says he intervened to assist Ubah secure a facility from a bank in which he is a director, when no bank would grant him facility, on account of the alleged bad record he has across the financial sector.

    All went well with the business of importation of fuel, with the first six consignments delivered and the proceeds properly accounted for, and both parties smiled in satisfaction, well, until something happened to the seventh consignment!

    Maduka says one year after the vessel conveying the fuel was supposed to have berthed in Nigerian waters, following in the footsteps of the first six, there has been no trace of the ship, its cargo or the proceeds that should accrue from the sales. He contends that even if Molue, the popular Lagos mass transit bus, was used to convey the fuel from its point of purchase, it would have arrived Nigeria a long time ago. Ubah argues that the consignment arrived quite all right, was sold, and the proceeds deposited in the vaults of the loaning bank.

    The Maduka/Ubah saga is nothing other than a business transaction gone awry. It is typically what happens when transparency is in short supply in business dealing or, for that matter, any dealing. In analysing the fallouts of the multi-million dollar fuel importation business that has now obviously fallen on its face, there is need to ask some salient questions.

    With about 38 years’ active involvement in the Nigerian economy, Maduka is not known to have ventured into any business and failed. Indeed, he has been a pace setter in the different sub-sectors of the auto industry which he has been involved in. If he found attraction in the fuel importation business, why would he need to climb on Ubah’s back to achieve his aim? Who helped who? For a man whose name opens doors within and outside Nigeria, including financial institutions, why would Maduka need Ubah’s assistance to secure a loan facility in a bank in which he is a director? It cannot be that Ubah has exclusive knowledge of the intricacies of fuel marketing, such that a Maduka would need his help to navigate the rough waters of the industry. If children of politicians and other money bags are using their fathers’ names to succeed in the sector, Maduka, who has been around for a long time, would hardly need Ubah to succeed.

    What is the interest of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Aig Imokhuede and Maduka in running Ubah out of business?

    We are watching a battle whose end is certainly not in sight. But while the war rages on, what has become apparent is that the truth is buried somewhere beneath the propaganda, to be unearthed only by the truly discerning.

    • Yinka Adeleye lives in Lagos

  • A national carnival of violence and killings

    A national carnival of violence and killings

    Nigeria now seems to be cavorting in a carnival of violence and senseless killings. Apart from the cataclysmic months that preceded the civil war, it is doubtful whether in a very long time Nigeria has had intensely dramatic days as it witnessed in the first two days of this week. Forgive the hyperbole. But on Sunday, suicide bombers, perhaps two of them, audaciously attacked the prestigious Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, in Kaduna State killing about 17 people and wounding scores more. AFCSC is not just prestigious, it accommodates the Infantry Centre and School, the Nigerian Army Peace Keeping Centre, and the Armed Forces Command Staff College. Only recently, it also became the home of the Nigerian Army Counter Terrorist and Counter Insurgency (CTCOIN) Centre.

    While the country was still reeling from the audacious bombings, and also counting the physical, psychological and reputational cost of the Sunday attacks, gunmen believed to number about 40 attacked the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) facility in Abuja for reasons that are still unclear. In the attack, about 30 detainees were freed – though 25 were rearrested – and two policemen were killed. SARS is the dreaded police outfit robbers feared the most. Yet, the facility was attacked in the early hours of Monday. If the Jaji attack was audacious, the Monday attack in Abuja was even more so, considering how that number of gunmen organised and stormed a law enforcement facility in the federal capital.

    And while the country was still wondering in bewilderment at the two very bold affronts to the security establishment, a different group of bandits of indeterminate number on Monday evening stormed Auchi, a town in the northern part of Edo State, and attacked a police station, three banks and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) office. The attackers completed a triangle of mayhem that shocked Nigerians and silenced the town for hours. Now, everyone is getting a depressing sense of how unsafe the country has become, and how utterly naked we are in the face of lawless and maniacal groups.

    This feeling has been building up in the past two years or more. It became so bad last month, given the regularity of the killings strangulating the country, that Hardball, in a piece entitled “Sitting comfortably on a powder keg” made the following observations on October 18: The list of killings is endless and growing. Kidnapping is the order of the day, and highway robbery has made travelling by day or night an ordeal. The police are hardly able to compose themselves in the face of the massive lawlessness permeating the country; and in spite of the notable effort of the police leadership to inculcate discipline and higher degree of responsibility in policemen, officers have also affronted the law with embarrassing industriousness. What is obvious is that there are no realistic and practicable ideas from the federal government to arrest the dangerous lurch towards apocalypse. More than this, it is also indisputable that beyond general initiatives, which have neither been proffered nor tested, the structure of the country is simply too weak and even inoperable to stabilise a country of more than 250 cultures, rapidly expanding population, varying and competing religions, and intolerably high youth unemployment…

    The country is not only in ferment, it is seething. It is time the government recognised that these problems will not go away on their own accord or succumb to exhaustion. It will have to be more proactive, imaginative and aggressive to arrest what seems like a looming apocalypse. Of all the problems besetting the country, from Boko Haram to police killings, and from herdsmen versus farmers’ deathly struggles to boundary conflicts, and from communal wars to the gory sport of indiscriminate lynching and kidnapping, the government has solved none. Worse, there is nothing to show that these problems are receiving the intelligent attention that gives hope the country would overcome its afflictions soon. This must be the worst powder keg any nation can sit on.