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  • Re-engineered IPPIS: But not yet freedom

    Re-engineered IPPIS: But not yet freedom

    • By Oluwole Ogundele

    It is not an exaggeration to say here, that many things are wrong with today’s Nigeria. Therefore, there is need to urgently begin to cure the country of such terrible socio-economic illnesses as corruption, fraud, and poverty of the mind.  Transparency and accountability including probity have almost totally disappeared from the vocabularies of leadership discourse across the board. The Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), though a fine concept (if thoroughly domesticated and applied), has become another devil to wrestle with. The central philosophy of this system is the promotion of economic and financial sanity in our corruption-stained society. But IPPIS is being abused by the key stake holders who behave as if nobody is in charge to curb their excesses. Originally crafted to tackle the menace of ghost workers and bloated bureaucracies, IPPIS is now one of the houses of fraud and embarrassment to innocent federal workers.

    Salute to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for being a good listener and by extension, responsive leader! The Federal Executive Council under his direction has just removed tertiary institutions from this payment system.

    This payment system started in 2012 by the federal government. By 2019, we were told that it had saved about N12 billion. But despite this claim, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) wanted the body to effectively capture the peculiarities of the university system-a global phenomenon. ASUU’s template addresses the issue of sabbatical leave, accumulated annual leave, and contract appointments among others. Succinctly put, IPPIS before the removal of higher institutions from its platform a few days ago, rubbished the limited varsity autonomy enshrined in the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act, 2003 (also called Universities Autonomy Act, No.1, 2007).

    It is pertinent to note here, that a memorandum was signed in 2013 by the Abubakar Rasheed team. Professor Rasheed was then the vice chancellor, Bayero University, Kano. The thoroughly engineered document by ASUU, aimed at engendering economic/financial sanity in Nigeria was ignored by the “powers-that-be”. The spirit of patriotism had disappeared from the ruling class particularly during the pre-Tinubu era. Almost every senior official was doing what he liked because the central leadership was in a coma. Unbridled arrogance and power-drunkenness of most top government officials, did not allow them to be in harmony with federal varsity lecturers.

    Any society that is disdainful of its intelligentsia is doomed to failure. The earlier the Nigerian political class recognizes this existential reality the better for our country.  It is against this background, that PBAT’s decision on December 13 to disentangle ASUU from the clutches of IPPIS, gains its relevance.  This is highly commendable.

    ASUU is not unaware of the fact that maximum corruption goes on in the academia. Therefore, I do not think that it (ASUU) hates the concept of IPPIS, provided the uniqueness of varsities is captured, in line with the best global practices. The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had on several occasions reported cases of monumental corruption in our universities. There are many cases of prostituted promotions, irregular appointments, and looting of the commonwealth in higher institutions-Polytechnics, Mono-technics, Colleges of Education, and universities.  Indeed, unprecedented fraud is oozing out of almost every corner of the country.  This new government should kindly begin to take appropriate steps to reduce the mess to the barest minimum. Salute also to SERAP in this context! Corruption is suffocating Nigeria. It is our most dreadful challenge.

    I’m sure that PBAT would be shocked to hear that some staff members of the University of Ibadan have not received their minimum wage arrears since May 2022.  In actuality, this writer is one of those short-changed lecturers. After filling several forms and approaching the vice chancellor, the true position of things is still shrouded in secrecy.  This is a social signature of rudderless-ness. The integrity and reputation of IPPIS are firmly on the line.

    Why should somebody be sleeping in the bursar’s office or “disturbing” the vice chancellor before getting his legitimate arrears, when we are not in the stone age period?  This is an internet age where administrative operations ought to be faster than hitherto.  There is a conspiracy of silence!  After 63 years of independence from Britain, transparency and accountability remain a big challenge for Nigeria. This is most worrying.

    Therefore, I’m humbly appealing to Mr. President to focus more on IPPIS operations in the interest of the common good. IPPIS is one of the ugly legacies of past administrations which must be rigorously handled. The removal of tertiary institutions from the dreadful IPPIS is just the first step, perfectly in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu’s administration. Government also needs to ask IPPIS about the unpaid arrears among other things, of many innocent varsity staff. After all, the affected workers have not committed any crime.

    Read Also: Tinubu to NPC board: start work now, I won’t tolerate non-performance

    In this connection, government needs to discipline the culpable IPPIS staff that are giving PBAT administration a bad name.  Such monies have to be recovered from them and paid to the affected individuals in the interest of equity, justice, and peace. They are not smarter than over 200 million Nigerians. We cannot just continue like this. Nigeria is stinking of endemic corruption!  Consequently, some of us have now become superb prayer warriors for the success of President Bola Tinubu, as he takes Nigeria to the promised land defined by transparency, accountability, probity, and unalloyed patriotism.  

    We should not forget in a hurry, how former President Buhari in 2017 ordered the stoppage of the Tertiary Education Trust Funds (TETFUNDS) special intervention money, given to universities across the country due to gross mismanagement. The Nigerian academia (like the filthy town), is riddled with unprecedented financial infractions among other forms of corruption.

    Those managing the affairs of our universities also have to begin to do a rethink. Their minds must be critically de-materialised. PBAT is the new General Officer Commanding Nigeria. He is a fiery warrior ordained by God to change the narrative from ugliness to beauty. My honest advice to those who want to continue to short-change Nigeria is to leave the stage as quickly as possible. Adjust or relocate! Our prisons across the country are waiting for such unpatriotic, gluttonous government functionaries-enemies of human dignity and progress. 

    Those of us who believe that President Tinubu has the courage and capacity to craft a new Nigeria of our dreams will not keep quiet in the face of recklessness characteristic of a rudderless society. Government agencies cannot afford to go haywire. A stitch in time saves nine!

    Despite the exit of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS, sanity must be embraced as a way of life by this body. This applies to other government agencies. Corruption, in whatever form amounts to economic and political sabotage in the long run. Once again, the dawn of a new era of total commitment to work is here. By this token, cockroaches and spiders masquerading as top government functionaries must disappear from our landscape, otherwise they would be consumed by a full-blown insecticidal revolution under the direction of President Tinubu.

    •Prof. Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

  • Wike and Khama; Fubara and Masisi

    Wike and Khama; Fubara and Masisi

    In the mid-1970s, the Kenyan government claimed it was making progress on the economic front as shown in the number of prosperous citizens it had created. A witty politician, J.M. Kariuki, retorted, “We do not want a Kenya of ten millionaires and ten million beggars.” How I wish I knew this inimitable sound-bite – “Ten millionaires and ten million beggars” – in 2014 when a Nigerian President was reported to have said that the success of his government’s economic policies was reflected in the increasing number of private jet owners in the country. Today, let us see what else we can learn from Kenya, through the life of the late President Daniel arap Moi who died on 4 February, 2020 at the age of 95. He was eulogised as a “political giraffe”, who could see very far, and as a “Professor of Politics”, for his superlative grasp of Kenyan politics.

    In the beginning of his political career, Moi had the disadvantage of belonging to a minority ethnic group, and was written off as a low-threat, unambitious, easily manipulable and readily discardable person by the political hawks around President Jomo Kenyatta, who belonged to the Kikuyu main ethnic group.  Moi did not create any condition that could make those who had the unedifying impression of him to think they could be wrong. Rather than throw his weight around as President-in-waiting, he being the Vice-President, Aljazeerah reported that “wary of any threat during that uncertain period, Moi fled his Rift Valley home when he heard of Kenyatta’s death, returning only after receiving assurances of his safety”.

    The political powers-that-be around the presidency therefore did not have much reservation about allowing him to be sworn in as President. According to the New World Encyclopedia, “Daniel arap Moi [was] popularly known to Kenyans as ‘Nyayo,’ a Swahili word for ‘footsteps.’ He championed what he called ‘Nyayo philosophy,’ which means following the leader and is, he claimed, a distinctive African tradition of leadership. He claimed to be following the footsteps of the first Kenyan President, Jomo Kenyatta. … The Kikuyu elite referred to him as ‘a passing cloud’ and  a ‘limping sheep that could not lead other sheep to the pasture,’ the implication being that he would be pushed aside in a short while to allow them back in power.” Ironically, this presumed weak place-holder spent twenty-four years, from 1978 to 2002, in office as President, by guts and guile. He has as such had the distinction of being the longest serving President of Kenya. Certainly, the road did not lead in the direction in which the political chess players set their sight. That is the way political strategists do sometimes miscalculate; and those they perceive as the meekest turn out to be the most ferocious.

    One of such miscalculating political strategists is former Governor Nyesom Wike. Mr. Wike, from the Ikwerre ethnic group, is a lawyer, former Chairman of Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, former Chief of Staff to the Governor of Rivers State, former Minister of State for Education, immediate past Governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. So, he is not a spring chicken in Nigerian politics. To succeed him as Governor of Rivers State, Wike preferred Siminalayi Fubara, a member of the Ijaw ethnic group, a man with a meek mien who had served as Director of Finance and Accounts, Permanent Secretary and Accountant-General of Rivers State. The going appeared good between them, and Wike worked assiduously for Fubara’s victory in the governorship election. After Fubara’s inauguration as Governor, Wike was appointed as the Honourable Minister of the FCT, Abuja, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Read Also: Wike storms Port Harcourt amid face-off with Fubara

    Then the bubble burst, and Wike has been full of public lamentation. In an interview with some television stations on 24 November, 2023, he accused Fubara of betrayal, trying to dismantle Wike’s political structure and instituting ethnic politics in Rivers State. Specifically, Wike declared, “I don’t like ingrates. … What is happening now fits very well with what Odili said in his book – ‘Give a [person] power and money. It’s then you’ll know the person.’ … We never knew that it will be in three months [that you will set out] to scatter a political structure that built you up [and] begin … propaganda… You know what is painful about these allegations…, who and who sat with me when he was picked as the governor? …. I will [not] allow anybody to crumble our political structure. It will not happen.”       

    Fubara hit back. In his address to the quarterly general meeting of the Rivers State Council of Traditional rulers in Port Harcourt on 8 December, 2023, he said defiantly: “Let us not forget that Rivers State is our collective inheritance, presently under my watch, to protect, defend and advance it as the governor.  I assure you that I will not fail in this responsibility nor will I surrender our mandate and progress to intimidation, blackmail and deliberate sabotage.” Today, worrisome headlines about Rivers State are the norm. They include: “27 Rivers Assembly members defect to APC from PDP”; “Court order recognises Ehie as Rivers Assembly speaker”; “Rivers government demolishes House of Assembly complex”; “Defection: Rivers speaker declares seats of 27 lawmakers vacant”; “Governor Fubara presents 2024 budget to 4 member assembly”; and “Just in: Four more Rivers commissioners resign from office.”

    Like Wike, some commentators believe Fubara was hasty in showing his hands. But how would the “Professor of Politics” have handled such a situation? He bore the contemptuous attitude of the former President Jomo Kenyatta’s associates with equanimity until a coup attempt, four years into the Moi presidency, gave him the opportunity to assert himself. When the “political giraffe” decided that it was time to strike, he did so with devastating efficiency, resulting in his effective consolidation of his hold on power. Moi’s demonstrated political sagacity is consistent with the tactical principle enunciated by the following Yoruba proverb: Tí owó eni ò bá tí t’èkù idà, a kìí bèèrè ikú tó pa baba eni. (‘Until the hilt of the sword is in your hand, don’t try to find out who killed your father.’) It is not certain whether Fubara was guided by this principle, and it is yet unclear how the Wike-Fubara feud will end; but the present trajectory is not comforting. Ominously, it reminds one of the Yoruba proverb, Ajá tó bá maa pa líìlí, enu rè á s’èjè. (‘A dog that would kill a porcupine would have a bloodied mouth.’)

    But Wike was not the only one sold a political dummy. Another is Ian Khama, a qualified pilot, retired Brigadier General, former Commander of the Botswana Defence Force, former Vice-President to Botswana, immediate past President and son of the first President of the country, Sir Seretse Khama. Strategising for his succession, he chose his Vice-President Mokgweetsi Masisi, an educator, former parliamentarian and former minister who took acting as a hobby. On assumption of office, Masisi slammed Ian Khama with allegations of financial impropriety and unlawful possession of firearms, and the Masisi administration was alleged to have engaged in the unlawful arrest, unlawful detention and dehumanisation of Khama’s relations held in custody. Khama had no choice than to leave the Botswana Democratic Party which his father Sir Seretse Khama and others founded in 1961and which has been the party in power in Botswana since independence in 1966. Khama, with others, then formed the Botswana Patriotic Front in July 2019. In 2021, he was hounded into exile in South Africa.

    In a 7 September, 2022 speech, Ian Khama said: “It’s my fault that Botswana is where it is today in decline, because he [Masisi] was my Vice-President. I put him there knowing that he would succeed me. [He was] a good actor and he fooled me, when he was my Vice-President, to thinking that he was going to continue the trend and build upon it and not to do the reverse just like what Trump was doing to Obama. So, I regret that I put him there and I owe it to the nation to make sure that at the next election [in 2024] he’s removed.” Addressing the media earlier on 8 June, 2019, Masisi stated: “Promises were made and assurances given that once he vacated office, he will always support government, that he will never destabilise government but now, a total somersault!” He then remarked defiantly in relation to accusations that he was failing the people: “Let me do what you ask me to do. If you’re tired of it, you’ll decide at the elections. You have a choice.”

    Ian Khama said about Masisi: “I put him there”; and Nyesom Wike asked rhetorically about Fubara: “Who and who sat with me when he was picked as the governor?” So, as a Yoruba proverb puts it, “Kò s’íbi tí a kìí tí k’ádìe alé.” (‘No society is exempted from getting chicken to roost.’) Relatedly, an Ijaw proverb says, “A wise fish knows that a beautiful worm that looks so easy to swallow has a sharp hook attached to it.” The unilateral choice or overbearing influence in picking presumably pliable candidates for office, or the outright imposition of such candidates, and their eventual uncontrollability, is the bane of African politics.

    One solution to this problem could be the institution of “direct primaries”. The direct primaries mode is equitable and egalitarian and has the tendency to generate grassroots involvement in and even ownership of the candidate nomination process. It also has the tendency to reduce voter apathy. Moreover, it can reduce problems such as vote buying and political thuggery, because people see the candidate as their own project and are ready to invest in them and protect the process. With the digitisation of party membership lists, the potentials for the direct primaries mode to achieve the goals outlined above, and even more, are enhanced. Above all, the direct primary mode is not new in Nigerian politics. It was the mode adopted by Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria for candidate nomination in 1983. 

    In the end, regarding the predecessor-successor conundrum, it is like Nyesom Wike, like Ian Khama; like Siminalayi Fubara, like Mokgweesti Masisi. Considering the trajectory of the Khama-Masisi feud, it is hoped that beautiful Botswana, starlit Botswana and, as the former US Ambassador to the country, Michelle Garvin, described it, “small, but mighty” Botswana will not become another African nightmare. Meanwhile, let us appreciate the profoundly sagely quote in the 18 March, 2020 issue of the Kenyan newspaper Nation in which the “political giraffe”, the “Professor of Politics”, the late President Daniel arap Moi, admonished: “Siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya.” (‘Bad politics results to a miserable life for the citizens.’)”

  • To Buhari, the kind hearted toughie at 81

    To Buhari, the kind hearted toughie at 81

    • By Femi Adesina

    From his days as an iron fisted military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari had cut the image of a brutal, no nonsense person, without a drop of milk of human kindness. Not so. People often condemn who or what they don’t understand.

    Yes, he can be reserved, aloof, unflappable, and even stern. I remember when news of Bukola Saraki’s defection, along with Yakubu Dogara and many other senators and Rep members got to him before 2019 election, he simply said: “And who the bloody hell does that bother?”

    But all that changes when he becomes comfortable with you. You then get to know his soft and kind side.

    Sometime in 2022, we were at Kigali, capital of Rwanda, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. On the delegation was the Honorable Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen.

    During our stay, news got to the President that Dame Tallen had suffered a bad fall in the bathroom, and was in the hospital.

    Pronto, President Buhari got some of his aides together, and we headed for the hospital. He not only wished his Minister well, but also gave instructions that she be evacuated for better care, if necessary.

    Col. Dangiwa Umar, remember him? He was one of those popularly referred to as IBB Boys in the Nigerian Army then, and he was military governor of Kaduna State.

    He told me a story, which showed that he may not have gone beyond the rank of Captain in the army, if not for Buhari.

    “I went on a course in the United States of America. Advanced Armoured Course. General Buhari was Military Secretary then.

    “Usually, promotion in the army is based on performance, and annual evaluation report. But you don’t get assessed for a year you are on course, since you didn’t work under any superior, who would assess you. So, the course report is usually used.

    “I came back from the course, and my mates, the 7th Regular Course, had been promoted from Captain to Major, but I was bypassed. I wrote that I wanted to resign my commission because of the injustice.

    “As Military Secretary, Gen Buhari took an interest in the matter, raised it at the appropriate quarters, and within two to three weeks, I was promoted.”

    You also sure remember Dr Marilyn Amobi, Managing Director of Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc. She told me of her encounter with Buhari:

    “My first contact with the Nigerian government was in 2005, during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. One afternoon, I just got a phone call in London, where I lived, and the person identified himself as Liyel Imoke.

    “I said; Imoke. Is that not a Nigerian Minister? He was just laughing. Because I was making my hair, I was a bit impatient with him, when he didn’t answer. I then said; please don’t call this number again.

    “He was calm, and asked when I would finish making my hair. I said in about an hour. He promised to call back.

    “He truly did, and said he was trying to put together a regulatory commission for the power sector, and he would love to meet with me. I agreed.

    “We met both in London, and later in Abuja. I was to become a Consultant to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for a number of years.

    “When President Buhari came in 2015, I learnt he set up a sub-committee to scout for honest, knowledgeable and courageous people, who could do the right things in the power sector.

    “Members of the committee all came back with one name, Marilyn Amobi. Eventually, I was made Managing Director of NBET.

     “But it was a turbulent assignment, with too many vested interests trying to bleed the system. One day, in 2017, I got a phone call through which I was summoned to the Presidential Villa.

    “There had been the issue of Acu Gas, over which the President had been misled to approve the sum of 10 million dollars. I wrote a memo against it, and that was why the President sent for me.

    “I waited briefly in an office shared by Ambassador Kazaure (SCOP), Mohammed Sarki Abba, and Dr Suhayb Rafindadi. I was eventually ushered before the President, with my knees shaking.

    “He cleared his throat, and asked me to sit down. He was laughing.

    “My daughter, how are you?” he asked. “I couldn’t answer.”

    “I hear you are fed up with your job at NBET. You have many troubles. But have you gone to jail before?”

    “He laughed again. He said he asked to see me because he saw what I had written on the Acu Gas deal.” He went on:

    Read Also: Buhari’s integrity, commitment to nation building unparallel – APC

    “It’s not easy to govern Nigeria, or even anywhere. But I must trust some people, or I can’t survive. They got me to commit 10 million dollars of Nigeria’s money to this project. I sent for you, to thank you for your courage to write against the deal.

    “They brought you to join in their corruption, but you refused. You can’t fit into their corrupt ways, and that is why they are all against you.

    “I told the President that I was already tired of the job, but he told me not to worry, that he would give me people I could contact if there’s any reason.”

    The people, according to Dr Amobi, were Mohammed Sarki Abba, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Domestic and Household Matters, and Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education.

    “The President then prayed for me. And when he finished, his eyes were filled with tears. I was so touched. I asked if I could pray for him too. He said yes.

    “I asked that God would bless, strengthen, and give him long life.

    “When I finished, he looked at me, and said instead of long life for him, I should pray that God would give Nigeria more honest people like me.

    “The President never knew me before he appointed me. When I had troubles, he stood behind me. Yet some people say he doesn’t like Ibos. Well, I don’t know….”

    Those after Dr Amobi were relentless. She was suspended by Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, reinstated on the orders of the President, and when her term ended shortly after, she showed a clean pair of heels, running back to London.

    “I would have died on the job. I was quite glad to leave,” she now says.

    I’ve written about how the President left all other things in 2013, flew into Lagos to attend a farewell service for my late mum. One of his longest serving aides told me there were not up to five people in the country Buhari could do such for. I felt, and still feel, eternally honored.

    When he got into office in 2015, he kept the Service Chiefs he met for three months. But that is not the story. It is the prerogative of a President to dispense with the services of those he inherits, and when. It could be immediate, it could be later.

    The day he decided to appoint new Service Chiefs, he called me to his office, and gave me a paper.

    “I’ve decided to let the Service Chiefs go,” he said. “Here’s the new list. But don’t release it till tomorrow. I want those who are leaving to get home, and be the ones to break the news to their family members. It’s not good for a man to leave for work in the morning, only for the family to hear over the radio or television that he had no job again.”

    I asked the President if he had told the Service Chiefs that they would be leaving. He said yes. I then told him that the news could not be kept under wraps till the following day. It would become public knowledge once any of them even whispers it to another person.

    President Buhari looked at me, smiled, and said. “You have never been sacked before. That’s why you are thinking that way. Me, I’ve been sacked, and I know how it feels.”

    I left, but immediately I got downstairs, my phone began to ring back to back. It was the media, wanting to confirm if the Service Chiefs had truly been sacked or not. I promised to get back to them.

    I went back to the President, and told him what happened. Surprised, he said; “is my office bugged? How did the news get out so quickly?”

    He then consented that a statement be issued immediately.

  • Inaugurating Federal Civil Service Commission as reform hub

    Inaugurating Federal Civil Service Commission as reform hub

    Over the course of my sojourn in the public service and my consistent advocacy for governance and institutional reforms, I have come to deeply appreciate the fundamental difference between seeking a position that allows for transformation and actually occupying such a position and using it to transform reform objectives into tangible achievements. This was what raced through my mind as I was inaugurated as the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And my apprehension was (and still is) all the more serious given the fact that Nigerians have started rating the leadership and governance performance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu right from the moment he took the oath of office and read his now momentous inauguration speech. From May 2023 when he took office till now, a short span of seven months, the lives of millions of Nigerians have been impacted somewhat with multiplex, even though paradoxical and pregnant dimensions, requiring urgent solutions to restore normalcy to our nation that needs now as never before innovative problem-solving methods which Mr. President is fervently committed to.

    I have made the vocal argument, since I began publishing my public commentaries, that the public service is a sine qua non for good governance in Nigeria. Without a reformed public service, the task of public administration and governance becomes arduous and almost insurmountable. This is because it is the public service and the public administration dynamics that undergird it that serve as the mechanism for translating the policies of government into tangible development in the form of optimal performances that generate durable and sustainable infrastructures for Nigerians. This efficient service-delivery is the basic backbone of democratic governance anywhere in the world. Thus, when the public service becomes untidily bureaucratic and hence inefficient, the government crumbles and becomes, so to say, only mechanically weightless, weld-less and wield-less. All Nigerians are aware of how unduly bureaucratic the public service is. And all Nigerians bear the terrible and traumatic brunt of the near absence of good infrastructure – good highways, drinkable water, efficient healthcare delivery system, sound educational sector, and sustainable security – that could transform the quality of their lives.

    This is where my apprehension lies: at the core of transforming the public service is the FCSC and its human resource mandate to facilitate the recruitment, training, capacitation, promotion and disciplining of civil servants into a highly efficient, professional and performing workforce. One at that to make the Nigerian public service system a high-performing institution for backstopping democratic governance under the watch of President Tinubu at a time, this dire time, when everything is so hard for everyone needing redemption which they rightly hope that President Tinubu will give them. However, the FCSC as at now is seemingly not ready to function optimally and drive the reform of the public service in the right direction. And this is precisely the position that the eleven federal commissioners and I in concert with other core stakeholders are expected to change. This expectation is set against the background that in spite of the many reforms launched and implemented to date in the annals of the civil service in Nigeria, not much has changed. Indeed, the expectation of Mr. President and the entire country is focused on our capacity to turn the FCSC around so that it could perform a human resource reengineering that will turn the public service into an optimal machine for governance and administrative transformation. This is the very core of the expectation of Mr. President from us:

    “The President anticipates that the new FCSC leadership will competently facilitate the transformation, reorientation, and digitization of the Federal Bureaucracy to enable, and not stifle, growth and enhanced private sector participation in the development of the Nigerian economy, in full adherence to the Renewed Hope Agenda of his administration.”

    Read Also: Tinubu appoints  Olaopa, 11 others into Federal Civil Service Commission

    Transformation, reorientation and digitization is a tall order but should be straightforward enough when all things are equal. Alas, all things are rarely equal in matters of reform, more so when the challenge is as steep and complex as revamping Nigeria’s beleaguered public service. Almost all enlightened or knowledgeable Nigerians know what a bureaucracy looks and functions like. We visit federal and state secretariats and encounter red-tape; we try paying tariffs and meet unscrupulous public servants; there are over-zealous public functionaries-regulators in government law-enforcement agencies; we are forced to give bribes or “tip” government workers for what they are supposed to do ordinarily; and many more. All these happen all over the world too, but they are worse where there are no institutional mechanisms for protecting the citizens from unprofessional attitudes and tendencies that cannot but constitute gross misconduct. This is why institutional reforms are critical. Clearly, the Nigerian public service has had its fair share of institutional reforms since the public service came into existence. However, all the models, paradigms and procedures that seem to work in some other climes keep failing in Nigeria. The question we need to ask then is: What is wrong with the public service in Nigeria?

    I have a sense of what the answer to this question entails. And my response derives from many years of being an insider with expert insights into almost every aspect of the public service dynamics, from being a speechwriter, administrative officer, strategist, and policy analyst at the Presidency to being reform programme director to being a permanent secretary, and thereafter as an academic, trainer, consultant. I have been in many offices, served on many committees (local, regional and international) and thoroughly understand the basics and fundamentals of the public service rules and regulations, the theoretical underpinnings and the global best and smart practices. Added to this, I have also very thoroughly researched the theoretic and practical dimensions of public administration and the framework of the public service system in Nigeria, in comparison with other critical institutions across the world. I am not being immodest: My effort is motivated by the need to understand why the public service in Nigeria is the way it is and what can be done to transform it.

    Two factors are responsible for what ails the public service system in Nigeria. The first is Nigeria’s leadership deficit, both political and bureaucratic. By this, I refer to the entire dynamics of the type of bad politics that the Nigerian political class play with the destiny of Nigeria; a nation that has all it takes to become a great global economic player with the capability to transform the quality of life of its citizens. This bad politics has obstructed the establishment of a developmental state structure and an active citizenry united by a concerted action to put civic responsibility before selfish primitive accumulation. The second factor is what we all know as the “Nigerian factor”: the collusion of all of us in undermining the capacities of our systems to become efficient and serve us all. Even though we all complain about how inefficient and exhausting this public institutional dysfunction is, we are still all too eager to circumvent, evade and compromise the system at all points, and make it more dysfunctional. The Nigerian factor is the logic that says nothing can work in Nigeria.

    That logic gets increasingly mired in the vicious cycle in which our experiences say nothing can work while our collective action keeps it that way. The inevitable consequence is that the system thus gets increasingly lost in a self-reinforcing cycle of dysfunction that makes it less optimal and more difficult to improve performance and hence productivity.  

  • ‘Agbero’, transport unions and public order

    ‘Agbero’, transport unions and public order

    • Adesegun Ogundeji

    Popularly referred to as Agbero, operators of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers of Nigeria   (RTEAN), are major actors in the transportation sector of Lagos State, and indeed other States across the country.

    To some, Agberos are into legitimate undertakings, while others simply see them as interlopers who compound the State’s transportation challenges. 

    However, irrespective of contrary opinions, in the real sense of it, Agbero, by its original concept, is doing a legitimate business. Shocked? No doubt, I am sure a lot will be surprised to hear this, but don’t crucify me yet.

    Just wait a minute!  Is a travel agent doing a legitimate business? Well, the answer is yes. By implication, if a travel agent is doing a legitimate business, then an Agbero is equally into a legitimate business. The point is that our understanding of Agbero does not tally with its original conception.

    What an Agbero (commuter’s link man) does is not different, by inference, from what a travel agent does. Agberos have been operating in the transport sector since the days of the yore, acting as middlemen between the transporters and commuters.  It is quite plausible that the ‘Gen Z’ might find it tough to understand this narrative because time has changed.

    In those days, willing travelers booked seats ahead with the Agbero who in turn informed the transporter to reserve a specific number of seats for people who had booked ahead with him. The implication is that if you are not on that itinerary you go nowhere.

    Are you getting the gist?

    Therefore, for his time and efforts in gathering passengers for the vehicle, the transporter gives him an agreed percentage of the fare. In-fact, in the olden days, travelers who live far from the Agbero’s (travel agent) abode sleeps over in his house so as not to miss the flight. Did I say flight? Sorry, I meant bus.

    I experienced this in my series of travels to Ikuehi, Ihima in the now Adavi Local government of Kogi State. Adi Jimoh was the transport agent of Suru Ohu ni (Surulere) Transport Company in Ikorodu. His base was Ojogbe, while Idi Mangoro in Agege was the major loading point for vehicles going to Ebiraland, generally referred to as Okene.

    As school resumption approached, the agent informed our parents when a vehicle will be available. The same happened upon vacation.

    What I have laboured to establish from the foregoing is to give legitimacy to the business of Agbero both historically and legitimately.

    But then, with relation to the concept established thus far, does Agbero still exist in Lagos?

    I dare to say no. Those roughnecks, guttural voices and fierce looking men we now call Agberos are mere opportunistic elements extorting money from hardworking drivers.

    Today, no one acts again as a travel agent for anyone, at least those travelling by road. Not even on the inter-state routes. In the modern era, there are designated parks (public and private) where vehicles are ready for boarding. The traveler is, therefore, at liberty to plan his trip without the help of an agent.

    Read Also: ‘Agberos’, transport unions and public order

    Therefore, Agbero, in its present form, is nothing but a fraud. But what of the NURTW and RTEAN?  Are they still relevant? In my view, they are. They are not different from the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and even the Nigeria Labour Congress. They were established and registered to protect the interest of their members.

    The major difference, however, lies in the fact that while the road transport associations deploy crude methods to collect their dues on the roads, others do the same through more dignifying tactics. Their members pay through monthly deductions. They maintain a verifiable membership list and relate with their members decently.

    This is one area that the transport unions need to work on as the only nexus between them and their members (drivers) is the daily ‘extortion’.

    Thus, the modus operandi of transport unions and the boys unleashed on the transport workers as revenue collectors on the roads is antithetical to the posture of being an association for the welfare of the road workers. Incessant violent clashes between the “welfarists” (unions) and the supposed beneficiaries (drivers) speaks volume about their relationship.

  • NNPC, remittance, opacity: setting the records straight

    NNPC, remittance, opacity: setting the records straight

    • By Kunle Badmos

    As the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited fated to endure unending but unfounded attacks on its integrity? Again, primordial allegations against the oil behemoth have been dredged up. In the last year, there have been unremitting but unfounded allegations of wrongdoing by the management.

    The latest in the series is the allegation by former Central Bank (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, of non-remittance of money (dollars) into the Federation Account and opacity in the operations of the NNPC. He also described the national oil company as the most opaque oil organization in the world.

    These allegations are not exactly new but are a rehash of the same accusation he levelled against the NNPC 10 years ago. Then, Sanusi had accused the NNPC of withholding over $49 billion, which he said ought to have been paid into government coffers.

    The federal government then headed by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan insisted Sanusi got it all wrong. The NNPC itself held that even as CBN governor, Sanusi did not have a proper grasp of how the process of remittance to the treasury worked.

    This was shown to be the case after the reconciliation of figures with relevant agencies of government, it was discovered that the balance of unremitted oil revenue was the amount spent by the NNPC on its operations under the then-extant law, the NNPC Act. Despite this evidence, Sanusi kept insisting funds were missing, banding different figures like $10.8 billion and $12 billion before finally settling for $20 billion.

    The former monarch’s continued insistence on missing funds forced the senate to investigate the allegation which eventually cleared the NNPC of any wrongdoing.

    Sanusi himself in his capacity as CBN governor attended hearings of the Senate Committee on Finance where the issue of kerosene subsidy was exhaustively looked at vis-à-vis the Presidential Memo directing the removal of kerosene subsidy.

    The explanation was that the process of implementing the presidential directive was not followed through by the Minister of Petroleum Resources at that time as required by law which technically meant that the kerosene subsidy was not removed.

    It was based on this that the Senate Committee on Finance led by Sen. Ahmed Makarfi recommended that the executive should prepare and present to the National Assembly, a supplementary budget ‘to cover the expenditure in the sum of N90.6 billion for Premium Motor Spirit subsidy 2012 and N685.9 billion for kerosene subsidy expended without appropriation by the National Assembly.

    The auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), cleared the NNPC of misappropriation of funds. 

    For observers of events in the Nigerian oil sector, there can be no argument that the NNPC is the most investigated business entity in Nigeria. Beginning four decades ago when in 1979, the Justice Ayo Irikefe panel of inquiry set up to investigate an alleged missing N2.8 billion oil money returned a verdict of not guilty on the NNPC, the company has undergone several investigations and audits including the ones by the Senate and PwC mentioned above, and has not being found culpable for any infractions.

    There is abundant evidence to show that Sanusi is on shaky ground. Had he diligently followed developments in the last four years since Kyari has presided over the affairs of the NNPC, he would have noticed a level of transparency in the running of the company not seen since it was established over 40 years ago.

    One of Kyari’s first acts in office was to unveil his “Roadmap to Excellence” anchored on the TAPE Agenda. TAPE stands for Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence. 

    One of the key gains of the TAPE agenda is the entrenchment of global best practices within the NNPC leading to a transformation of administrative and technical processes.

    In September 2021, Kyari presented to Nigerians for the first time in 44 years, an audited report of the finances of the NNPC for 2020. The bonus was the fact that the company posted a profit of N287 billion to bring to an end decades of losses suffered by the organisation.

    Read Also: NNPCL remits N4.5tri into Federation Account in 10 months

    Beyond running the company on sound and globally recognised and acclaimed management principles, Kyari has repositioned NNPCL as one of the leading oil companies in the world. 

    He has used his position as helmsman of the company to aid in the tackling of key challenges confronting the Nigerian economy.

    One of these is the vexed question of crude oil theft, which has challenged successive governments in Nigeria since the country’s return to representative democracy in 1999. It is on record that the NNPC under Kyari’s leadership designed the “Crude Theft Monitoring Application”, an application, which has options for reporting incidents, with prompt follow-up and responses, and another for crude sales documents validation.

    Before the launch of the application, Kyari had taken leading officials to Niger Delta creeks to tackle the menace of oil theft.  

    His effort paid off as a four-kilometre illegal oil connection line from the Forcados Terminal into the sea where for nine years criminals had been siphoning Nigeria’s oil, was discovered.

    Success achieved in this regard proved pivotal as Fourth Quarter figures released by the NNPC Ltd showed a spike in the country’s oil production level, which rose to 1.6 million barrels from the erstwhile figure of 1.2 million, a development that helped Nigeria regain its position as Africa’s largest producer ahead of Algeria (1.021mb/d) and Angola (1.088 mb/d.

    NNPCL was able to resolve years-long disputes with its business partners, especially the International Oil Companies (IOCs). 

    As part of its determination to boost the country’s production of crude and unlock investments in the Deepwater space, the Kyari-led NNPC Ltd signed different Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and other agreements including Dispute Settlement Agreements and Escrow Agreements that would produce about 10 billion barrels of crude and over $500 billion in revenue.

    NNPCL has also been able to pay Nigeria’s Joint Cash Call arrears to the IOCs to the tune of $5 billion through the introduction of the Alternative Funding Approach (AFA), which has replaced the former cash call payment system.

    NNPCL has signed memoranda of association (MoUs) with countries like Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, and Guinea Bissau, as part of the 5,600 kilometres Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project traversing these countries and seven others including Togo, Benin, Liberia, Cote d’ Ivoire, Mauritania and Senegal. The project when completed will supply about three billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (3bscf/d) from Nigeria to Morocco and then to Europe.

    In 2022, the NNPC Ltd secured a $1.4 billion external project finance agreement for hydrocarbon projects in the Niger Delta. This is in addition to acquiring the OVH Energy Marketing (OVHEM), owner and operator of Oando downstream assets.

    These achievements could not have been possible without the clear roadmap put in place at the NNPC. 

    It is a no-brainer that no organisation no matter how desperate it is for partnership will do business with an opaque organisation of the kind described by Sanusi. That old NNPC has been buried with the coming of the Kyari-led management. 

    In its place is an organisation driven by a determination to outperform its local and international competitors through entrenching world-class standards for qualitative service delivery.

    •  Badmos, a public commentator, writes from Abuja.
  • The cost of insecurity

    The cost of insecurity

    • By Mike Kebonkwu

    December 3, night was a black Sunday in Tudun Biri community in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State and the nation in general when a military drone was said to have bombed a religious gathering or procession in error, killing scores including, women and children.  There was no evidence that bandits were amongst those killed, putting to rest any guess or speculation that civilians would have been used as human shield. It was a chilling and devastating tragedy that this incident occurred while the military was trying to scale-up its operation and campaign against banditry and other criminality that have turned life into living hell for the people of Kaduna State. Given the death toll and scale of the tragedy, the government ought to have first declared a period of mourning, even if it is for one day and fly the national flag at half-mast in honour of the victims.  It is a national calamity with no parallel; whether or not people will count 14 or so similar incidents in the past. 

    The Army Chief, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja visited the village to commiserate with the community and families of victims of the tragedy.  He was seen at the grave side soberly bemused and befuddled by the sheer scale of the tragedy.  The incident was said to have occurred at night; what time of the night was it?   It was a tragic error and accident that should not have happened for the sheer human loss and in the circumstances that it occurred.  The Army has to do much more than the condolence visit of its high command to commiserate with the people but should go further to interrogate the operational intelligence that led to the fatal error and accident. 

    The victims were said to be in a religious procession or celebration of a sort.  We are a deeply religious people, starting and ending every gathering and ceremonies with prayers but yet have very little act of piety.  We have shrines and grooves for deities for traditional worshipers, churches and mosques in their denominations, numbers and factions in every nooks and crannies. We have been conditioned to seek spiritual helps and miracles to manmade problems. We are in places of worship in the day time and vigil at night time praying for solutions to political and economic problems caused by bad judgment of the ruling elite. We are unable to think straight and therefore inundate God with prayers for solution to poverty and diseases induced by poor planning, wrong economic and monetary policies of government.

    Insecurity has become pervasive, depriving us of our lifestyle. Citizens’ right to freedom of movement day or night without hindrance has been curtailed even without declaration of curfew by government.  Insecurity in the country has actually hoisted a self-imposed curfew on most communities in the country.  The only selling news item in the country is insecurity; there is wholesale abduction and kidnapping of people for ransom; bandits exert and collect taxes from communities and villages.  We have school children and travellers alike, including youth corps members in captivities of kidnappers, bandits and insurgents for months and years on end with the state doing next to nothing to rescue them.  Incidentally, communities in Kaduna State are worst hit by activities of bandits and kidnappers.  The people have virtually abandoned their farms, places of worship and even moving to IDP camps for safety.  In the midst of economic hardship and deprivation, we now face imminent danger of famine as farmers have abandoned their farms due to insecurity.  The military and security agents have a difficult job to do.  We expect them to rein in these miscreants that have become national security nuisance.  It is a constitutional and professional duty incumbent on them and they must be seen to deliver.  Whatever the situation, they have to succeed; there lies the dilemma to the military.

    Read Also: We will end war against insecurity, Defence minister assures

    Expectedly, people have reacted differently to the incident; some measured and others bellicose, threatening legal action and punitive compensation within two weeks. While the incident calls for thorough investigation, unbridled threat certainly does not offer solution to the problems of accidental aerial bombardment of civilians.  The unintended consequence of the thrust of this campaign to take the military to court over operational error and accident will only be a boon to the bandits.  Even as a general practice, in law, accident is a defence; the same is true of international humanitarian law when an act is not intentional. The accident was indeed a sad human error of judgment. While all the angers and emotions may be justified, legal threat and sanction may only act as a dis-incentive to the fight against insurgency and banditry which will only serve the interest of the criminals and their backers.  We should not contemplate a dampened morale of the military to take the fight to the criminals which will be a victory to these elements that have laid siege to our ways of life.  The problem of insecurity in the country has since passed police action or duties.  In any case, they police has not even fared well within its small confine of policing duties with self-sabotage, corruption and indiscipline. 

    With the military, we expect a sustained campaign against all forms criminality but accidents of this nature must be completely eliminated. Whatever they do, they must improve on their training and sharpen their intelligence gathering skill.  We have a professional army and members of the armed forces are not at war with the people.  They have to carry out their professional and constitutional duty. We expect them to carry out their duties with due diligence and professionalism; no room for poor judgment and errors leading to accidents. However, in the flux of life, there is room for human error and honest mistakes, but it has to be minimal by all means.

    Sadly, this incident has again brought to the fore echoes of right abuses against the military. Equating the error bombing which is a tactical operational mistake to rights abuse against the military is misdirected and serving interest of external forces and agencies who give funds to the NGOs and some civil society organizations (CSOs) behind the campaigns.  Whatever expertise, training or knowledge anybody has, the incident in Tudun Biri cannot by any stretch of semantic extension translate to the right abuse as some commentators are alluding. 

    The military has to undertake a thorough examination of its training doctrine to ensure that accident of this nature is completely eliminated. Aerial bombardment and recently the use of combat drones have always had very devastating impact on civilians.  Target identification must be painstaking, thorough and precise.  The rule in international humanitarian law is that, whenever you are in doubt, leave out.  We have to avoid mistakes, errors and accidents of this monumental proportion.  That said, we should by all means also avoid campaign of dis-incentive against the military operations in the fight against insecurity whether it is banditry, insurgency and other criminalities across the country.  We will only be reinforcing the criminals and their sponsors and turning the military a complete lame duck. 

    One agrees no doubt that there should be support system for the families of the victims from the state and other institutions not in the form of campaign for compensation as punitive sanction as some people are doing.  As things stand, one is still of considered view that by all means we should support the military in the fight against insecurity.  But in their campaign, they must be diligent and ensure that lives of innocent citizens are not needlessly wasted by avoidable errors and accident of the type we witnessed in Tudun Biri.  This incident though not isolated but certainly is not intentional. It is therefore not just enough to call for heads of military commanders to roll.  Our people must do well also to ensure that given the security situation, we should be conscious and circumspect of the time spent outside our homes, prayers and worship centres.  The military must not abandon the campaign to rid the country of criminals and armed bandits terrorizing citizens everywhere.    May the soul of those killed in this tragic error rest in peace.  For family members and relatives of the victims, we are all with you in this trying period of this tragic lost as nothing can compensate for this tragedy.  This is the cost of insecurity that we should fight collectively to defeat.

    • Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja-based attorney.
  • As Nigeria’s people living with HIV starts living longer…

    As Nigeria’s people living with HIV starts living longer…

    • By Isaac Imole

    Last week, I was at an event that brought together academicians, program managers, policy makers and national and global health experts together to review data and trends in public health issues…the area of HIV and non-communicable diseases to be exact.

    Now, here are some interesting statistics to lay the foundation for this piece. According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Nigeria has the fourth highest HIV burden in the world, reporting over 1.9 million people living with the condition and over 190,000 new infections every year. Out of the number, over one million are presently on life-saving Anti-Retroviral Treatment.

    HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) as we know is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. If HIV is not treated, it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). There is currently no effective cure. Once people get HIV, they have it for life.

    But with proper medical care, HIV can be controlled. People with HIV who get effective HIV treatment can live long, healthy lives and protect their partners.

    Over the years, the successes recorded in identifying people living with HIV by partners and getting them on ARTs has meant that People Living with HIV (PLHIV) are now living longer and growing well into old age.

    According to the World Health Organisation, 11.2 million Nigerians are living with Diabetes Mellitus. One out of every 17 adults in Nigeria is living with the disease. Again, the WHO estimates that about 31/2% of Nigerians are presently living with hypertension. The prevalence of both conditions increases significantly among people aged 45 and above.

    Other common chronic NCDs which become more prevalent with age are cancers, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as renal diseases. Collectively, the WHO estimates that these are responsible for over 74% of deaths worldwide.

    The ART-aided longevity of PLHIV has brought about a new scenario where the co-existence of HIV and one or more other non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes are becoming more common. Each of these conditions brings its unique challenges in the lives of those living with them and for PLWAs, having to contend with any of them is certainly going to be much tougher than for the average person on the street. For now, these conditions are being treated in them in silos. We all have people around us managing on or more of this NCDs and we know the toll they take. Imagine having to deal with those alongside HIV.

    But what if there is a better, more pragmatic, more integrated way?

    Let’s face it: aside from privacy concerns, understanding the medical history of a patient is critical to determining the right medication and treatment regimen for them. Managing co-morbidities of HIV and another NCD will be better handled in an integrated manner because it allows a 360-degree view of all the factors at play and optimal utilization of resources for the ultimate benefit of PLHIV.

    This basically was the crux of discussions by healthcare professionals, partners, and administrators last week when they converged under the auspices of the first Annual APIN Public Health Initiatives’ one-day symposium.  on ‘Integrating NCDs and HIV to ensure Long and Quality lives for People Living with HIV (PLHIV)’.

    The Chief Executive Officer of APIN, Dr Prosper Okonkwo had opined that the rapid decline in mortality among PLHIV in one of the major benefits of expanding access to antiretroviral medication and that it was estimated that by 2030, 73 per cent of HIV-infected individuals will be over 50 years of age and 78 per cent of individuals living with HIV will have cardiovascular diseases.

    Given such a scenario, the need for an intentional national response is quite apparent. Integrating comorbidities should become part of the standard treatment plan for PLHIV.

    Read Also: Fed Govt pledges to combat NCDs, HIV

    Interestingly, many NCDs that we grapple with today are a function of lifestyle choices influenced by economic development and urban living as pointed out by Dr Jerry Gwamna of the United States Centre for Disease Control (US CDC) at the symposium.

    Are we now becoming victims of economic growth in our societies? The fact that many countries are reporting increases in life expectancy due to advances in medicine and increased healthcare coverage among younger populations sets up the scenario for a higher population of older people with attendant risks of age-related diseases listed earlier and the possibilities of the existence of the double burden of infectious diseases and NCDs.

    But his argument is strongly in support of the integrated approach. Afterall, it will discourage competition for the limited resources available for tackling health problems. Resources (manpower, funds, programs and medication) can be optimized where all efforts are harnessed and channeled in an integrated framework.

    This approach also helps expand coverage of health care for PLHIV and NCDs and would help Nigeria get closer to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

    To do these successfully, meaningful stakeholder collaboration and partnership will need to be birthed and driven actively. Ideas, no matter how relevant and well-conceived, must be given life through the instrumentality of people, systems and institutions.  Dr. Salma Anas-Kolo, the Special Adviser to the President on Health spoke to this during the symposium, advocating for a conscious design and roll out of such an integration initiative as well as the need for a ccomprehensive service delivery approach to ensure that there is a link between the primary health care level, the secondary level of care and the tertiary level of care, knitting all into one delivery approach.

    Good enough the board chair of APIN Dr Ayodeji Odutolu also acknowledged this when he said APIN would have failed as thought and program leaders if the knowledge leaders they do not use it to better society.

    I agree with both on this. In Nigeria, we are not slow to generate brilliant ideas. Talk shops are never in short supply. The missing link most times is action. Who will bell the cat? Who will bell this cat? APIN as leaders in the public health space in Nigeria has done well to initiate a very pertinent conversation. Translating it through policies, frameworks, and programs into actual changes in the status quo to achieve the desired effect is where the true work is.

    • Imole, a public commentator writes in from Abuja.
  • Rare, radical battler takes a bow: MC Alli: 1944-2023

    Rare, radical battler takes a bow: MC Alli: 1944-2023

    • By Tunde Olusunle

    The uncanny combination of his names which featured Christian and Muslim epithets was sufficiently intriguing to tickle my curiosity and inquisitiveness. He had become a notable public figure back in 1986 when military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida appointed him military governor of the old Plateau State. Seven years thereafter, he was catapulted to the position of Chief of Army Staff, (COAS) under the regime of Sani Abacha. Abacha had upended the Interim National Government, (ING), hurriedly cobbled together by the departing Babangida in August 1993, as he bowed to popular pressure to disengage. This clamour became more rancorous following Babangida’s mismanagement of the June 12, 1993 election, which was patently won by the charismatic multibillionaire business mogul, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, but summarily annulled by Babangida.

    In a military dispensation, the office of COAS is nominally and politically the Number Four position. Historically, the COAS was always also a member of the nation’s highest policy and decision-making organ in a military government. The body has been variously christened over decades of military rulership. It was at some point the Supreme Military Council, (SMC), and later the Armed Forces Ruling Council, (AFRC). Abacha opted for the designation of the body as Provisional Ruling Council, (PRC). The COAS is a highly regarded and influential office popularised in the past by military greats like Yakubu Jack Gowon, Hassan Usman Katsina, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, Alani Ipoola Akinrinade, Babangida, Abacha himself and Aliyu Mohammed Gusau. 

    Abacha named Mohammed Christopher Alli, then a Brigadier-General his COAS upon his disbandment of the ING in November 1993 and simultaneously elevated him a Major General. Alli was a battle-tested, war-toughened officer who fought in the feisty Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970, and commanded a battalion even as a fresh joiner into the military. Alli had also served as Nigeria’s Defence Attaché to Zimbabwe; Director of Military Intelligence, (DMI) and General Officer Commanding, (GOC), One Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, headquartered in Kaduna. Alli was therefore very well groomed for his new job. 

    I was on the Editorial Board of the Daily Times at the time Alli was appointed COAS. I had the added responsibility of maintaining a weekly interview page which I christened Dialogue this Week. I had the latitude to interview reputable Nigerians across the broad spectrum of the society on topical issues. The simple mention of the name of the organisation, opened doors. I therefore wrote an official letter to Alli requesting to meet and interview him. Alli replied my correspondence. It was a surprise somewhat knowing how insular the military could be. His military assistant at the time, I.I. Hassan a Lieutenant Colonel, acknowledged my letter and proposed a date for my visit early in the month of February 1994. 

    MC Alli beamed from the name tag on the breast of his work gear when I came face to face with him. My preliminary impression of him was that he was urbane and personable. His father, he told me in answer to my preliminary banter, was a Muslim, his mother was a Christian. His bouquet of names which are popular with both religions therefore arose from this background, that intriguing mix of Mohammed and Chris (abbreviated from the original version of the name, Christopher). He displayed notable wit and diplomatese for a steely, rugged soldier. I congratulated him once again on his appointment. “You want an interview,” he asked as he proffered his hand for a handshake and waved me to the visitor’s seat. I responded in the affirmative. 

    Arising from that encounter, my article was titled “Mohammed Chris Alli: Portrait of a Soldier-Patriot”, published in the Daily Times of Saturday February 5, 1994. 

    Months after that encounter and barely one year in office, Alli was removed by Abacha and replaced by Alwali Jauji Kazir, another army General in August 1994. He was reported to have regularly nudged Abacha on the imperative for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993 election which was clearly won by MKO Abiola. He was said to have subtly, albeit stridently pushed for the military to return to the barracks to enable democracy thrive. The totalitarian, feared and dreaded Abacha had aided the ascent of some of his military predecessors to political limelight and long coveted the highest office in the land himself. He was indeed nicknamed the Khalifa, (meaning the successor) on the side-lines of the Babangida regime. He wouldn’t brook any suggestion to terminate his rulership under whatever description. Alli was summarily retired on the same day with Allison Amaechina Madueke, a Rear Admiral and Chief of Naval Staff, (CNS), who was also progressively-inclined like MC Alli. 

    Read Also: UHC Day: Tinubu unveils plan for massive investments in health sector

    After his compulsory retirement, Alli tried his hands on entrepreneurship. He established a woven sacks factory and a gas-filling plant side-by-side, in Lokoja the capital of his state of origin, Kogi State. I remember he named the latter Mohca Gas Ltd, a play on letters from his names. He was thus a regular caller at the historic confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers, where he had a home.

    President, Olusegun Obasanjo, tapped Alli in 2004 to serve as administrator in the perennially acrimonious Plateau State, where Alli was once military governor. Under the leadership of the democratically elected governor of the state, Joshua Dariye, sectarian violence had reportedly claimed over 50,000 lives. This compelled Obasanjo to declare emergency rule, after suspending the governor and the state House of Assembly. Within Alli’s six month service which ended in November 2004, he developed the “Plateau Peace Programme” in collaboration with religious, ethnic and community leadership. He also offered amnesty and fiscal rewards to holders of weapons who turned them in. Alli’s measures considerably helped in calming down the situation in the state.

    Mohammed Christopher Alli was born on Christmas day in 1944 in Kotonkarfe, headquarters of present day Kotonkarfe Local Government Area in Kogi State to Mallam Alli Adakwo Alaburah and Mama Rebecca Ojumori Nanashe Abayomi. He attended Trinity High School, Oguta, Imo State, and the Metropolitan College, Onitsha, Anambra State. He actually had a tinge of Igbo accent, a language he spoke fluently. He demonstrated early intellectual disposition, posting a well-earned Division One performance in the very competitive West African School Certificate Examination, (WASCE), in 1962. 

    He had his earliest military education at Fhiegehorst Isaufboren, West Germany between 1966 and 1967, and the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA) in 1967, where Abdulsalami Abubakar who later became Nigeria’s Head of State was his course mate. Alli attended the Platoon Commander’s course in Westminster in the United Kingdom in 1971, and the Unit Commander’s training in Pakistan in 1975. He was at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, a tri-service military training institution, in 1978 and the National Defence College, (NDC), India in 1990. He obtained a Masters from the University of Allahabad, Pakistan, to understanding his deep-seated inclination towards scholarship. 

    Alli began his working career as a laboratory assistant with Kirkpatrick and Partners in Kaduna, after a failed attempt to secure a job at Eastern Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in Enugu. He also served as archive assistant in the Kaduna-based National Archives. His attempt to enlist in the police was opposed by his father, even as he secured an appointment as a non-commissioned officer in the fledgling Nigerian Airforce. Fortune smiled on Alli in 1967 when the civil war began. He applied for a short service commission in the army and was admitted. Thus began his odyssey in the Nigerian Army. He authored a very courageous and profound book of over 400 pages titled The Federal Republic of Nigerian Army: The Seige of a Nation, published in 2001. He was also member of the Editorial Board of the reputable The Guardian.

    He sadly passed at a military hospital in Lagos in the morning of Sunday November 19, a little over a month to his 79th birthday. Encomiums have continued to pour from across the world. The Nigeria Army declared a three-day mourning period in his honour during which all flags in all Nigerian Army formations flew at half-mast. Alli’s uncommon insights in the military, security, intelligence and administrative sectors, will be sorely missed. So will be his unwavering patriotism, untiring nationalism and undying commitment to the growth and progress of Nigeria, a country he was willing to die for.

    •Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA)*

  • Africa can become the world’s green manufacturing powerhouse

    Africa can become the world’s green manufacturing powerhouse

    • By President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

    As the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I lead a country of more than 200 million people.

    At the same time, in my role as chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), I preside over a region battling with security threats and socioeconomic challenges.

    These pressing issues and their link to climate change were at the forefront of my mind during my participation at the COP28 World Climate Action Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    COP28 marked a critical milestone with the first Global Stocktake on implementing the Paris Agreements, a comprehensive review and inventory that allows each country to assess its progress in reducing emissions and achieving climate goals.

    Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, has battled back against major obstacles, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, short-term challenges from economic reforms, and the ongoing unification of foreign exchange rates. However, we remain steadfast in our resolve to reconstruct a better, cleaner nation despite these challenges.

    To uphold our legally binding commitment to a cleaner world, Nigeria launched the Nigerian Carbon Market Initiative at COP28 by joining the African Carbon Market Initiative.

    The Intergovernmental Panel’s Sixth Assessment Report released earlier this year underscores the inadequacy and slowness of global efforts against climate change. It remains clear that developing nations, despite contributing minimally to the problem, endure most of its impacts.

    We all want to solve the problem, but too few of us are currently willing to do our fair share.

    The rapid loss of water resources and the escalating rate of desertification are closely tied to the Sahel crisis, which is characterized by the emergence of extremist and authoritarian elements.

    The startling loss of 90% of Lake Chad over the past three decades is a perfect example of this. We seek urgent international collaboration in both financing and technology toward the total recharge and recovery of this critical body of water.

    Together, with one voice and coordinated action, we can stop the desert from consuming Nigeria’s vast arable land, displacing communities, and causing food insecurity and social dislocation that often erupts into violence.

    In southern Nigeria, rising ocean levels threaten coastal areas. Throughout the nation, flooding kills hundreds of innocent civilians and decimates farmlands, towns, and villages, all while rendering tens of thousands of our people homeless.

    Nigeria has taken significant steps and acted decisively in enacting the Climate Change Act and committing to net-zero emissions between 2050 and 2070.

    However, challenges persist as energy and food crises caused by conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have weakened the willingness of wealthy nations to fully cooperate with less developed economies. This affects the ability of less developed countries to pursue national plans for achieving net zero emissions, even when those plans are detailed and achievable.

    Africa’s most populous nation has successfully mobilized tens of thousands of youths nationwide to plant 250,000 trees annually to honour a pledge to plant 25 million trees by 2030 as we build our great green wall to fight back against encroaching desert across the northern region of our nation.

    In recent weeks, we/ signed an agreement with a German energy firm to massively convert flared gas into high-grade natural gas exports to Europe. This is critical to reducing one of the major ways the country contributes to global greenhouse gases.

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    At COP28, I joined COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber, US Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry, and Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhu on a panel where I committed Nigeria to eliminate methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases, highlighting our readiness to take the lead in Africa’s efforts to decarbonize the world economy.

    While in Berlin last month at the G20 Summit, I announced Nigeria’s commitment to develop blue and green hydrogen capacity for international export. In conversations with Middle Eastern oil producers, I also solidified this commitment. We now seek to mobilize private capital with support from initiatives like the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative and the new US and EU global infrastructure programs.

    Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, but we are aggressively pursuing the exploitation of our abundant wind and solar resources. Transitioning from fossil fuels, our economic main-stay, will not be easy.

    However, we have implemented the Nigerian Energy Transition Plan (NETP) to make this shift. This data-driven strategy targets net-zero emissions in key sectors— power, cooking, oil & gas, transport, and industry. The NETP demands a $10 billion annual investment until 2060.

    The truth is that we need partnerships for a new green economy in Africa. The European Union’s Global Gateway program and the US Build Back Better World initiative are potential resources we are keen to explore.

    We are also looking to diversify our economy by engaging in friendly competition with Russia in the supply of energy to European markets. We can do it with natural gas and through green energy. This is why we are investing massively in both.

    African countries simply cannot travel on this road alone. There must be a fair and cooperative approach. For too long, too many developed nations have hesitated to do what they should.

    But the time for watching and waiting is over. Developed nations must honour commitments in the form of significant contributions to the Loss and Damage Fund and the $100 billion annual climate financing pledge.

    In September, African countries embraced the Climate Positive Growth paradigm at the Africa Climate Summit in Kenya. We envision Africa becoming the leading green manufacturing hub globally, with targeted financial support and access to global markets.

    Nigeria and much of Africa possess a unique advantage — we do not need to decommission coal-fired power plants. We have an unparalleled opportunity to leapfrog decades of conventional, high-emission industry by building our industrial future on a new green foundation.

    The world faces a stark choice: prioritize the economic status quo or genuinely reduce dangerous emissions. This is a crucial moment.

    Choosing equity and justice in the global economy offers a chance to right past wrongs, save the planet, and create a better future for all.

    It is time to seize the moment.