The Nation Newspaper

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  • Rape of democracy in Africa

    The famous Roman author Pliny, had this to say about Africa: ‘ex Africa semper aliquid novi’ (Something new is always coming out of Africa). To me, something new came out of Africa again last week with the news that President Pierre Nkrurunziza of Burundi changed his country’s constitution to see him rule till 2034. His government adopted a plan in October to revise the constitution to enable him run for another two terms from 2020. To make a plan to rule for another 14 years when one has not completed the current term is novel to me. It will be recalled that the same Nkurunziza plunged Burundi into crisis in 2015 when he ran for a controversial third term that he went to win. The crisis generated by this tenure elongation claimed the lives of 2000 people in his country.

    Nkurunziza came to power in 2005 and if allowed to rule till 2034, he would then have ruled his small landlocked country for 29 years. To many observers, this should not raise an eyebrow in Africa where we had sit-tight African dictators like Mobutu, Eyadema, Omar Bongo, De Santos and Mugabe who between them spent 187 years in power. The trend is still being continued by rulers like the longest serving Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea who has already spent more than 38 years in power, Museveni of Uganda, Kigame of Rwanda, Kabila of DR Congo and Ngueso of Congo ( Brazzaville) who continue to extend their grip on power through dubious tenure elongation.

    All these African leaders and others who rule their countries as personal fiefdoms are not monarchs with divine right to rule, as they are supposed to derive their power through participatory democracy which they rape with impunity. There is no doubt that after almost six decades of independence in Africa, democratic practices are unfortunately still wobbling in most part of Africa. This piece is therefore an attempt to chronicle the unedifying travail of democracy in Africa.

    Immediately after the colonizing powers left the shores of Africa in the sixties, the political leaders who took over from them wasted no time in dismantling the democratic contraption left behind by the departing colonialists. The new African leaders introduced what they termed one party system of governance in which the state recognized only one political party. This system of governance had main apostles in Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, and the leaders of Francophone African countries in West Africa exemplified by Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast who was the favorite of De Gaulle, the then French leader. These post-independence African leaders felt for selfish reasons that African countries at their formative stages could not afford the luxury of multi-party system as practiced in Europe and that there was no room for opposition in traditional African society. The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo countered them that by this view, they were portraying Africans as having no mental capacity to practice democracy. However, in countries where one party system of government was not practiced like Nigeria and Kenya at that time, elections were chaotic and opposition parties were harassed and emasculated. Our chaotic federal elections of 1964 and the rigging that characterized the Western Regional elections of 1965 buttressed this assertion.

    The above phase in governance in Africa gave way to governance by the military through series of coup d’état. The military in Africa from mid-sixties added to their expected role of defending the people against external aggression, the difficult task of political governance. In sub -Sahara Africa, the trend started in Togo in 1963 when the then President Slyvannus Olympio was overthrown and assassinated in a military coup. Before long, Africa took over from South America as a continent of the Generals. It was at this period that Africa had fiendish military dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of DR Congo, Idi Amin of Uganda, Eyadema of Togo, Kerekou of Republic of Benin, clownish Bokassa of Central African Republic, Rawlings of Ghana and others.

    Nigeria also had his own heavy dose of military rule which covered almost 30 years of its existence as a sovereign nation. The military rule in Africa was so pervasive and appeared so entrenched that many leading political lights in Africa felt that military rule had come to stay in Africa. In Nigeria, one of the founding fathers of Nigerian independence, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in frustration suggested that Africans should adopt what he called ‘Diarchy form of governance’ in which the military would rule with the civilians. The reason usually given by these military despots for taking over the governance of their countries was that they were in government to save the people from anarchy and civilian dictatorship, but all of them usually ended up compounding the problems of their countries. During this period some countries in Africa such as Kenya, Senegal, Ivory Coast and some countries in Southern part of Africa escaped military rule but that did not mean that these countries enjoyed good governance.

    With its customary excesses and unsuitability for governance, the military of overstayed its welcome in the governance in Africa towards the end of 20th century. The outside world, especially Europe and USA used their leverages to call for an end to military rule in Africa. These countries outside Africa condemned military rule and threatened to cut off aids to any military regime in Africa. The African Union was forced to take a stern stand against military coups and military regimes were ostracized. African countries were encouraged to adopt democratic form of governance. This new era in governance in Africa brought joy and hope to millions of Africans and their well-wishers all over the world. Unfortunately, this joy and hope were short lived. Some African leaders in their characteristic despotic manners now devise means of truncating the new democratic dispensations. After getting to power through democratic means, they manipulate the constitutions of their countries to elongate their stay in power as it is currently been done by President Nkrurunziza of Burundi. Tenure elongations through dubious means, had been carried out in Uganda, Togo, DR Congo, Congo (Brazzaville ), Rwanda, and there was a failed one in Gambia by the illiterate upstart called Yahya Jammeh. A subtle attempt at tenure elongation in Nigeria was thwarted in 2003 by the National Assembly.

    There is no doubt that that we have bright spots in Africa where democracy seems to be thriving and such bright spots can be found in Ghana, Republic of Benin, Senegal, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia, but it is not yet ‘Uhuru’ for democracy in black Africa as a sizeable portion of the continent is still under the grip of malevolent dictators masquerading as democrats. As Tatalo Alamu wrote in his column last Sunday, we may hope for the ’emergence of new generation of African leaders who will drag the laggard continents screaming and kicking from the hell-hole of millennial suffering to the threshold of compulsory modernity’. I do not think that this hope will be realized soon, when we have people like Pierre Nkrurunziza of Burundi and others with the same mindset in charge of this misused continent.

    • Professor Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.

  • Impunity unlimited

    It may be patently unfair to blame President Muhammadu Buhari for all the ills in the land but the unbridled impunity that is rendering services inaccessible in many of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) spread all over the country is hardly excusable. It appears rules and regulations have gone to sleep in the absence of any strong administration in place.

    At the inception of this administration, many watchers of the civil service were expecting a clean break with the past with replacement of the headships of these establishments with new hands. Unfortunately, nothing of such happened. Not only were the Directors-General loyal to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan allowed to stay, some of them had since elongated their stay and subverted the real essence of their appointment. This must have led to the issuance of the latest circular by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation on the sit-tight public office holders.

    There may be many of them.

    The Administrative Staff College (ASCON), established in 1973 and the Centre for Management Development (CMD), Abuja established in 1973 were Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s ingenious answer to the problem of indigenous poor management capacity following the enactment of the Indigenisation Decree of 1972. Those were heydays when things worked. Round holes were found for round pegs. For many years, the two institutions along with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) located at Jos were the nation’s pride in human resource development.

    Unfortunately, the story is different today.

    ASCON floundered for many years under the yoke of a few incompetent Directors-General who almost wrecked the institution until the emergence of Ajibade Peters, who rescued the institution and put it back on the path of rectitude and steady growth. Thankfully enough, wise counsel prevailed and Peters has since been succeeded by an insider, Mrs. Cecilia Gaya, who is likely to maintain the track record of her predecessor. ASCON under the supervision of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), is calmly pursuing her mandate as a Management Development Institution operating the CONRAISS salary structure and allowing professional staff to retire at age 65 years specified in the SAUTHRAI agreement with the government.

    The same cannot be said of the Centre for Management Development, a sister institution established to perform similar functions as ASCON. In 2010, the then CMD Director-General, Dr. Joseph Maiyaki, was removed unceremoniously and forced to hand over to Dr. Kabir Kabo Usman, who then was serving as a Personal Assistant to Dr. Shamshudeen Usman, the one-time Honourable Minister of National Planning Commission. Kabir Usman’s qualifications for the job were a doctoral degree in chemistry, a 25-year stint in the United Kingdom as a tutor and a few months as personal assistant to the Minister of National Planning Commission. The first move of Dr. Usman was to preemptively relocate the corporate headquarters of the CMD to Abuja, a step regarded by many people as wasteful and unnecessary. This was followed by his attempt to sell the properties left behind in Lagos until the office of the vice president stopped him following the intervention of former Directors-General of CMD.

    Usman has spent eight years in the saddle and the things that can be seen on ground are litany of failures arising from impunity, highhandedness and financial mismanagement. The Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, SAN and Senator (Dr.) Rabiu Kwankwaso, the Senate Chairman of Committee on National planning visited the centre in the course of the year and they did not have any kind words for him.

    As his eight year tenure ends January 10, it has been rumored that Usman, when his plan to extend his tenure failed, has stepped up another plan to impose his own candidate to continue with the carnage in the institution.

    In order to pave way for his candidate, he, earlier in the year, obtained through HoCSF, a letter to indicate that the CMD is no longer a research and allied institution and so the rule of retiring at 65 years of age must be reversed. As a result, more than seven directors and deputy-directors have been summarily sent on premature retirement. This is in spite of six letters earlier written by the same Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation which had classified the CMD as a Management Development Institution in the same hue with ASCON capable of earning the CONRAISS salary structure as well as retirement at age 65. It is sad that the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation is by this double standard, confirming that it has indeed become a marketplace for all kinds of manipulations reminiscent of the Maina’s scandalous reinstatement.

    The CMD’s case may not be anything strange in the country. After all, the same Usman flagrantly disregarded a directive from the office of the vice president and treated with utter disdain, a valid judgment of the National Industrial Court that was aimed at reinstating five staff of the CMD whose services were deemed to have been wrongly terminated. Usman and his ilk may get away with their impunity and highhandedness but it is not a good commentary for a government everyone is looking up to salvage the mess it inherited and usher in a salutary era of meaningful change.

    Meaningful change will not come merely from rabid political sloganeering or posturing of some self-serving and unconscionable hirelings. It begins with the establishment and maintenance of strong institutions, impartial application of the rule of law and effectively holding public office holders accountable for their actions and inactions. The case of the CMD is an unfortunate one. As at today, the Lagos office of CMD has been sealed up by the Lagos State Waste Management Agency for debts owed it while the South West Zonal office of the centre has been under lock and key for seven months as a result of debts owed the Oyo State Housing Corporation. It is incredible that within a period of eight years, a once thriving national institution could be rendered prostrate and totally incapable of carrying out her constitutional mandate.

     

    • Adeaga writes from Lagos.

  • Liberia scores a great one for Weah

    The news about George Oppong Weah’s election as president of Liberia was an especially pleasant one to round-off 2017.

    However, perhaps unknown to many of the young supporters whose votes propelled him to victory during the country’s recent run-off election, Weah’s road to Liberia’s impressive Executive Mansion was beyond unpleasant, and one paved with rivers of blood.

    Let us start from April 12, 1980, when a segment of the country’s armed forces launched a coup in the early hours of that day and butchered the-then incumbent president, William Tolbert. The especially bloody coup, led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, was justified – and inspired – by the utterly clannish argument that it was time for the “indigenous Liberians” to take over “their country” from freed black American slaves who had been transported to Liberia to start a colony in their home continent. Ever since those first slaves settled on Liberian soil, a settlement that took on greater urgency after the end of the American Civil War in 1865, peoples of the indigenous tribes whom the freed American slaves met there ceaselessly fussed about how the newcomers completely dominated all facets of life in the new territory and wielded unlimited political power and influence.

    All that ended on that bloody day in April 1980, when soldiers who hailed from the “indigenous” tribes of the country invaded the Executive Mansion in the early hours of the morning and not only shot then-President Tolbert (an “Americo-Liberian”, like many members of the ruling class in the country then) to death but also disemboweled him.

    The violent deaths of the Tolbert brothers, Dennis and other members of the “Americo-Liberian” ruling class in Liberia eventually led to a series of unfortunate events that turned the entire country into a giant river of blood; in December 1989, less than 10 years after Doe’s coup, Charles Taylor invaded the country to launch a rebellion against Doe’s government.  Curiously, Taylor had been one of the few “Americo-Liberians” that had supported Doe’s coup and had indeed served in his government. But he had fallen out with Doe after the latter (of all people!) accused him of corruption and hounded him out of the country. The bloody sequel to Taylor’s act of rebellion was the infamous Liberian Civil War, even “wars”, in which a plethora of individuals and characters became etched in the worldwide imagination, through newspaper and cable news headlines / stories that dutifully chronicled the carnage in that country.  For those of us who worked in Nigeria as journalists at that time, two of those names, Krees Imodibie and Tayo Awotusin, continue to be etched in our collective memories: they were journalists who crossed into Liberia just a few weeks after Taylor’s invasion started, to cover the events, and then got cut down in its fierce cross-fires.

    We also all watched on video as troops belonging to the armed faction of Prince Yormie Johnson very early on in the Liberian Civil War captured, tortured and killed President Samuel Doe, with the garish spectacle of Doe’s ears being cut off on camera while he lay squealing on the floor still the stuff of many nightmares.  It also did not do Liberia any good that it became the country of drug-crazed child soldiers, massacres of internally-displaced refugees who had sought protection in churches and other places of worship, along with other demonic indignities.

    Through the Liberian ordeal that spanned from December 1989 to at least April 2003 when Charles Taylor was forced to give up the power he had seized over the corpses of many Liberians (anyone remember the campaign chants of “He Killed My Pa. He Killed my Ma, But I will Vote for Him” that preceded Taylor’s election as Liberia’s President in 1997?), one man stood out as the beacon of light and hope in Liberia: George Oppong Weah.  While Johnson, Taylor and others of their ilk were either preoccupied with the “herculean tasks” of drawing and quartering Samuel Doe or raping, slaughtering and dehumanizing their fellow Liberians, George Weah was making waves on the world soccer stage, and generating positive publicity for Liberia. The trend continued after he joined French club Paris Saint-Germain in 1992, winning the French Premier League title with the club just two years after, in 1994, and topped the goal-scoring charts during PSG’s UEFA Champion’s League run in 1994-1995.

    But Weah was not done with his great run of generating positive news about himself and his beloved Liberia: in 1995, he joined the Italian Seria A Club, AC Milan (at a time the Italian Seria A was the best soccer league in the world to watch, not the English Premier League, as is now the case!), making such an immediate impact that at the end of that year’s campaign, Weah dribbled off with the highest award in the world of professional soccer, FIFA’s Ballon d’Or (yes, the same ones won later by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, soccer’s top superstars today).

    I am equally not surprised that the votes of Liberia’s youth (those usually in the 18 – 49 age demographic) propelled Weah to power in the recent Liberian run-off presidential election. In the desperate years of the country’s very bloody and bitter civil war, when despair ruled the land and the country epitomized everything wrong with the African continent and its leadership cadre, only George Weah and his exploits on the world stage comforted many Liberians. Through the soccer star’s extraordinarily-individual efforts, many Liberians inside and outside the country fervently believed the best in their country and in its future potential as a stable and self-sufficient land in the comity of nations, not a warring laughing-stock of disparate tribal interests, as another African country – Somalia –has remained, despite the fact that its civil war started just about the same time as the one in Liberia.

    Even more impressive, especially in retrospect, Weah actively embraced his people and country during their darkest days.  While his fame grew well beyond Liberia and encompassed the whole world, the soccer star in turn continuously embraced his beleaguered countrymen without hesitation. Weah stridently made calls for peace among the warring factions during Liberia’s Civil War, while also urging the presence of peacekeepers that would impose a peace; the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, was believed to be a response to such calls. I also recall reading reports of Weah funding the expenses of Liberia’s national soccer team, the Lone Star, in those parlous times, especially the team’s international matches.  This, in addition to his contributing large sums of money to assist displaced Liberians who had found refuge in other countries during the war, especially the country’s infamous former child soldiers.

    Just as George Weah put his beloved country on the world map in a very positive way at the same time others were thrashing it in the name of crass personal vendettas, conduct steeped in deprivation-of-others, mayhem, murder, strange / satanic sexual escapades and quests, along with selfish political rivalries, to say the least, one implores him at this time to put the interests of all Liberians, whether Americo-Liberian or indigenous (which Weah is) above those of himself and his “inner circle” of supporters.  His country’s bitter past dictates this, as well as the grace and eloquence of conduct he had shown years earlier at the highest levels of world soccer, while entertaining millions and uplifting Liberia at the same time.

    The ascendance of 51- year old Weah (he shares the same birthday with Nigeria, incidentally) to Liberia’s Presidency is also a lesson to others on the African continent that they must truly give Africa’s youth a chance at leading their countries, and not stymieing same under the chimera of the-youth-continuously-growing. The latter attitude only encourages and engenders the unfortunate recycling of politicians in their 70s, 80s and even 90s (as in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe!) who aspire to and then seek return to offices and positions in which they have barely delivered on past promises, while relying instead on discredited and dangerous practices and policies of the past that only deepen the despair of citizens they falsely profess to love or care about.

     

    • Soboyede, former newspaper editor, is currently a US-based attorney.

  • ‘Official’ armed robbers on the prowl

    There is a saying among the Igbo people that when evil persists over time, it spreads its mat, lies down and institutionalises itself and this has sadly become the case of the Nigerian Police with roadside extortion. It has become even more worrisome because the people themselves have accepted the situation as normal and I really mean they have accepted – not seemed to have accepted. One wonders why a people would arm a group of men and women and place them at strategic positions across the country to rob road users while at the same time outlawing ‘private’ armed robbery. The situation is no longer funny and I think we should either constitutionally legalize armed robbery in this country or completely eradicate this uglier-than-vulture-malodorous-than-shrew evil. The case has so hopelessly deteriorated over the years from a covert operation to a broad daylight transaction with all the haggling and demanding for change and rejection of bad bills. Sadly, the Nigerian Army has not only also shamelessly engrossed itself in this depravity but has also since overtaken the police with a brazen and defiant boldness. The Federal Road Safety Corps seems a big joke having since inception been in long-running competition with the police not only over its duties but also over this normalized anomaly.

    The few road users who refuse to join the bandwagon are seen as either crazy or as congenital troublemakers. And so what are the results: Criminals get easily away with all sorts of crimes that could have been intercepted as long as they have enough crisp bills to go round. Drivers no longer bother about expired or incomplete papers and ramshackle vehicles provided they have something folded in their left palm with a smiling ‘officer officer how work?’ Innocent drivers and passengers are maliciously detained and frustrated and many others have accidental discharge hit them for refusing to comply with evil. Police officers watch while armed robbery lasts right before them in broad daylight at traffic gridlocks only to carry on with their own armed robbery a few meters away, retorting “Wetin concern me?” to any confrontations. Army officers manhandle and subject law-abiding citizens, old and young, frail and strong to inhuman treatments, the commonest being frog jumping for refusing to ‘go see the oga’. Men and women of the Federal Road Safety Corps ignore vehicles whose bumpers scrape the roads from overloading while detaining others whose fire extinguishers and wipers ‘do not appear convincingly functional’. Communities set up and fund vigilante groups to perform the same duties for which these security forces are paid and to which they have solemnly sworn. The list is endless.

    Traveling to Owerri a few weeks ago, we were waved down by policemen mounting one of the millions of roadblocks that one is forced to get used to in the country. I was in a public bus and this particular roadblock was in Orlu, Imo State. One thing led to the other and a young woman, who was cradling a baby that seemed only a night old and who was sitting beside me by the way, was ordered down from the vehicle with all her luggage for detailed investigation, that ambiguous Nigeria Police expression laden with blurred meanings. This wasn’t very strange following cases of child trafficking lately prevalent in the country and aggravated by the young woman’s hesitant reply to questions thrown to her by the cops. I was beginning to bask in the pleasure of having for once, in a public transport, to share a row of seat with just only two other passengers when a man on the row before ours started to accuse the driver for the woman’s predicament, for refusing to ‘settle the officers with only an extra N50 and save everyone all the stress’. And as if that was not enough, the driver himself shocked me with his reply which had something along the line of how many more policemen he’d have to settle along the way and so has to dodge the much he could.

    First, in no way was this driver responsible for the police doing what should be their job but it now seemed much the norm that he should accept responsibility than have the police to blame for anything, than have them do their work otherwise he might have had the police’s proverbial can of worms opened against him, against his vehicle and its road-worthiness. The truth is that if indeed the police had wanted to punish this driver for refusing to bribe them enough, it wouldn’t be through this nursing mother because we were almost immediately after the woman alighted, waved on to continue our journey. This is just one of countless incidents, one of the countless incidents of just how terrible we have become.

    Several police chiefs after another have on assumption of duty ordered the dismantling of police roadblocks ostensibly to curb this menace but only to have these devious orders collapse over time. The whisper has become so audible, as my people would say, that even the deaf have overheard. I therefore strongly recommend that President Muhammadu Buhari should as a matter of urgency make real his anti-corruption stance on whose wings he rode to power in 2015 and prevail on his security chiefs to stamp out this evil and return our security officers to their constitutional duties. The country’s services and particularly the police should be genuinely and completely overhauled. These men and women should be subjected to a thorough reorientation towards their original values and responsibilities. The masses should also be fully engaged by mandating the National Orientation Agency to wake to its responsibility of inculcating the proper ethics and values, rights and obligations into the people. An independent agency composed of patriotic men and women of proven integrity should be established by the National Assembly where citizens should be encouraged to report all cases of extortion for possible prosecution and punishment. It is too dangerous to toy with a time bomb when we already have too many explosions from Boko Haram.

     

    • Ebuka is a writer living in Imo State.

  • Reflections on restructuring debate

    Of recent, re-structuring has become the catchword in Nigeria’s landscape with key political leaders and socio-political groups pushing forward certain ideas and views. ‘What exactly is the idea of re-structuring?’ and ‘Is a restructured Nigeria feasible?’ The answer is simply yes, provided it favours a peaceful, safe, prosperous, virile, united, and indivisible Nigeria that offers every man, woman and child a brighter and better future where each and everyone has a chance to build and share in this great nation’s potential.

    Overtime, the clamour has been made for the re-structuring of our federal system in response to the cries of marginalisation by various segments of our country as well as the understanding that our federation, as presently constituted, impedes optimal development and the realization of our peoples’ aspirations.

    In all these years, the various leaders have considered and embarked on various re-structuring templates of political, administrative, fiscal and economic, educational, monetary, socio-administrative, socio-economic, politico-administrative, geo-economic, geo-fiscal re-structuring and re-structuring of security apparatus.

    And by whatever name it is christened, re-structuring is not a magic bullet that would resolve all of Nigeria’s challenges or those of any section, region or zone of the country. This assertion does not detract from the fact that our country is in need of re-definition and conversation to address all the imbalances inherent in the present Nigerian nation.

    I am therefore constrained to draw our attention to the fact that the needs of our dear country is beyond re-structuring because we are yet to realize the urgency and depth thereto, rather, exigencies of our time make this roundtable imperative a sine-qua-non.

    In addition to the debate on re-structuring, on how resources are allocated, power shared or devolved, there is need for Nigerians to renew their commitment to moral renewal, spiritual reawakening and reorientation. Reframing the mindset and attitude of the citizens are a major catalyst in our objective to propel our country to greater height. Therefore my fear is that the greatest threat to the call for re-structuring is our fixated mindset and lack of mutual respect for one another.

    The present times therefore call for patriotism, tolerance, strength in our diversity, fair play, self-sacrifice, hard work, selfless service and commitment to public well-being. It is in the interest of our nation that we build bridges of accommodation, understanding and brotherhood. It is possible to re-define the re-structuring paradigm in such a way that it can accommodate some fundamental or foundational requirements that are key enablers for the needed or desired socio-economic growth and survival of our country.

    Some integral issues staring us in the face include (a) Citizens who are fractured, disengaged and poorly mobilized for the needed sacrifice required to trace the pathway to sustainable economic growth and nation building; (b) and an unwilling populace reluctant to trust no one, neither proponents nor opponents of the call for re-structuring.

    This is dangerous because until we see more Igbos moving into Gwoza and Sambisa to build shops and plazas just as we expect to Dantatas and Deribes establish in Enugu, Abakaliki and Ohafia, we cannot expect any meaningful change. Taking this into cognisance, the need for a holistic approach to re-structuring becomes imperative.

    With a growing population that will become the third largest in the world by the year 2050 and agriculture contributing less than 10% of our earnings, as land constricts and coupled with poor technological infrastructure to advance frontiers of crop/food production, health and manufacturing, Nigeria is at the brink and we must make or mar; we must restructure to enable us begin the reconstruction of a completely deconstructed nation.  

    The political class and leadership must demonstrate exemplary conduct in terms of probity, integrity, transparency, consistency and altruistic commitment in order to mobilize Nigerians to face our common challenges of poverty, ignorance, infrastructural decay and under development.

    Stellar leadership at various levels in our country is also a critical requirement, if we must galvanize our people, provide templates and framework that is capable of supporting a redistribution of opportunities and resources, not necessarily by collecting from one zone and throwing to another, but by empowering the ordinary citizens on terms that he/she can comprehend and grasp for meaningful participation in the Nigerian socio-economic enterprise. The decisive step in our long pathway of re-structuring is probably to create a sense of inclusion, participation in our economic and democratic process.

    Most public institutions for national cohesion, integration and good governance have been subsumed and succumbed under the weight of nepotism, inefficiency, intolerance, infringement and arbitrariness. Apart from the military, others such as NYSC are gradually receding into catharsis of abrasion, divergence, dysfunction and irrelevance. The time to build is now and we the leaders of the moment must restructure our mentality and thinking. A leader should be able to accurately assess the circumstances and then do what the situation calls for. We as leaders must be constant in doing that which is right, our style and purpose must reflect the yearnings of our people, not what the leaders feel like doing.

    What did China do, that has changed the burden of leading 1.3billion people to blessing of having 1.3billion people produce food and solutions for the world? There is a key balance and nexus between technological advancement/knowledge, population and opportunities. We must strike that balance immediately, otherwise we run a risk of annihilation through self inflicted tensions.

    Finally, I want to seize this opportunity to reiterate my unflinching commitment to national unity, territorial integrity and oneness of Nigeria where justice, equity and fair play reigns in a country that works for ALL; though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand.

     

    • Ikpeazu is Abia State governor.

  • Sokoto 2018 Budget

    Sokoto State’s 2018 budget, as presented to the House of Assembly by Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, will be the last full budget before the 2019 general elections. Expectations are high that the fiscal year will see to the realization of many promises made not just in the outgoing year, but since the administration came on board on May 29, 2015.

    Different sectors and industry players within and outside Sokoto State have high expectations from the budget. Let’s take a quick look at what can be expected from this new budget.

    The 2018 Budget, whose total projections stand at N220,500,264,565.00, has the sum of N67,613,099,000.00 set aside for Recurrent expenditure, while the sum of N152,887,165,565.00 is for Capital Expenditure. This represents a ratio of 70:30 in favour of capital expenditure over recurrent.

    Highlights shows that the largest share goes to education with N57,505,170,420.00 which constitutes 26.10% of the sum. This is followed by health sector which was allocated the sum of N20.932 billion; agriculture got the third highest allocation with N16.535 billion. Similarly, the sum N14,255 billion was allocated to the Ministry of Works and Transport while the sum of N11.560 billion was allocated to Ministry of Lands, Housing and Survey.

    The budget, tagged ‘Budget of Sustainable Positive Change’, will focus on completion of the projects started in the preceding year and ensure execution of new ones in line with the government’s development policy agenda. According to Tambuwal, this is a budget carefully formulated to address the fundamental future needs of the people. The plan to complete numerous projects already started will lead to the consolidation of the impact of the fiscal reformatory policies introduced in the last two years. And if all goes according to plan, the 2018 budget will be the most viable yardstick to use to assess the administration of Governor Tambuwal.

    Among the key fiscal components of the 2018 budget is government’s decision to expand areas of cooperation with the private sector in the implementation of projects in areas such as housing, education, agriculture, commerce and industries and roads construction. The fundamental strategy underlying the Public Private Partnership (PPP) as an implementation alternative for development indices is to combine the strength of the private sector and that of the public sector in order to overcome challenges faced by the society to achieve superior outcome. This budget looks set to achieve this purpose.

    In 2017, Sokoto state government initiated moves to reform its tax regime. The entire management team of the state board of internal revenue was sacked and in its place, a new and dedicated team of professionals was appointed. Almost a year after the radical move, figures have shown that internal revenue drive has jumped by 50 percent, with a target to achieve 100 percent increase due to be met in January. Among the measures implemented was the change in the state’s tax structure. With the 2018 budget, we can expect further changes especially in areas of pay-as-you-earn (PAYEE), direct tax and income tax.

    Infrastructure is also expected to be a priority in the budget. The new budget will put impetus on developing rural infrastructure. In that regard, government said it intends to construct 30km feeder road from Kuruwa-Kaurare in Tureta Local Government, 10km feeder road from Goronyo-Birjingo-Tuluttu in Goronyo Local Government, 18km feeder road from Toronkawa-Binjin Muza-Kibiyare in Yabo Local Government Area, 15km feeder road from Kebbe-Girkau-Mazoji in Kebbe Local Government and another of similar length in Yar Tsakkuwa in Rabah Local Government. Others important road projects to be implemented include the Sifawa-Badau, D/Daji-Nabaguda-Tulluwa, Rabah-Gandi-Bakura, Tambuwal-Gurzau-Ganuwa, Isa-Modachi-Bafarawa, Dange-Danchadi and Katami-Birnin Tudu roads. Intervention in infrastructure is not limited to roads. As the budget document clearly showed, important projects are to be undertaken under the ministries of water resources, agriculture, commerce and industry, lands and housing and information.

    Another highlight of the budget is that the state government is now taking the issue of energy resources more seriously than before. Among the projects it inherited from the previous administration is the 38MW Independent Power Project which has now reached appreciable level of progress. So considering the amount of money expended on it in the past, and coupled with its economic and social relevance to the development of the State, Tambuwal said his administration is working towards its completion by the third quarter of 2018. As the governor highlighted, in order to provide the right economic and commercial environment to the people, a new ministry to cater for the energy needs of the state is under consideration. The ministry will be saddled with the responsibility of formulating and implementing policies aimed at harnessing the state’s energy potentials. This will include solar, wind, hydro, bio-mass, coal, petroleum and gas energy resources.

    Sokoto has a made a name for itself as centre for social welfare interventions. This is aimed transforming the lives of the less privileged and also reducing dependency on handouts. According to Tambuwal, the government has pursued this programme consistently through the introduction of vocational skills acquisition programs for women and youths in both the state capital and all the local government councils.   In this outgoing year, the Ministry of Social Welfare took over the payment of disabled persons’ monthly allowances across the State.

    The underlying theme behind government’s poverty eradication strategy is to create job opportunities and sustainable means of livelihood for the vast majority of the populace. This principle has guided government’s policy since it came on board over two years ago. Focus has been on tackling poverty in urban and rural areas with special emphasis on women. This approach led to the distribution of 3,500 motorised pasta-making machines for the use of our women across the State. Looking forward, Tambuwal said the government intends to procure thousands of units of sewing machines, grinding machines and additional 400 units of tricycles, known as KEKE-NAPEP, for disbursement across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state. Similarly, government said it intends to reactivate its cottage industries to execute programmes that have direct bearing on youths.

    Sokoto government has vigorously explored strategies that would ensure conducive atmosphere for investment. Such initiatives include the reviving of Sokoto State Investment Company to serve as a catalyst for the industrial and commercial development of the state. In the last two years, a new Organic Fertiliser Production Plant located at Dundaye, a joint venture between Sokoto State government and Industrial Miners Limited, was completed and put to use. The company is producing 15,000 metric tons of fertilizer daily. Another industry developed is the Hijrah Textile Company located at Kalambaina Industrial Layout. Work on the site has now reached 80% stage of completion. Similarly, construction of a Sugar Processing Factory has started in Goronyo. The project is being promoted by a number of sugar entrepreneurs in the state.

    Efforts have also been made to promote Micro, Small and Medium Scale Industries in the state. In this wise, the government, in collaboration with the Bank of Industry (BOI) is providing soft loans to indigenous entrepreneurs under the SOSG-BOI Fund to boost industrial development in the state. In 2018, plans have been concluded to establish additional Neem (Dogon Yaro) Tree Organic Fertilizer Company in partnership with local and foreign investors; Construction of Ceramic Products Company at Taloka in Goronyo Local Government through Public Private Partnership; establishment of Quarry Plant at Sabon Birni Village in Kebbe Local Government; construction of laboratory centre for sample tests and analysis; and construction of two additional Mineral Buying Centres in the other zones as the state had already acquired one built by the federal government for the Central Zone.

    The take-away from the Sokoto 2018 budget document is that the developmental and infrastructural needs of the economy have not been neglected in pursuit of a consumptive expenditure. What we have seen in the budget document is a broad desire to industrialise the state and hence uplift the livelihoods of its people by ushering decent jobs and opportunities for private capital to flourish. Since 2015, Sokoto has exhibited progressive economic management regimes, the very strides that have been gradually transforming its economy and has continued to deliver dividends.

    • Imam is a Sokoto-based journalist.

     

     

  • Repositioning NIMASA

    Following the approval of the board of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on August 26, 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari and its subsequent inauguration by the Hon Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the board hit the ground running with the enunciation of top-notch policies and programmes aimed at revolutionizing the agency.

    It leaves much to be deserved when competence is evaluated and judged based on self-seeking variables that defeat the objective and benefit of the general good. From inception, NIMASA had been on the self-inflicted journey of uncoordinated policies that dovetailed into high level of profligacy. Times were when the agency was a brazen cash cow for obviously non-sustainable programmes and skewed policies.

    The new leadership in NIMASA has brought a lot to the table. This is evident in the several commendable strides so far recorded by the less-than two-year old leadership of the agency.

    As a service and consumer-based establishment, NIMASA is open to varied constituents. Expectedly, everything new attracts reactions that are reflective of group/personal interest and perception. There are people and or groups within and around the establishment that would account as early adopters. These are those who embrace the change that has come about. They are described as smart, innovative and engaging. The early adopters are open-minded and lookout for new opportunities to enhance productivity and, by extension, satisfaction.

    At the other extreme are the laggards. They are averse to change; scared of venturing into the deep seas of glowing opportunities. They prefer the old order. Fear and suspicion reign in their minds and actions. It was with this pervading air of skepticism that the laggards greeted the cutting-edge innovations the new leadership brought to the table. To them, the rebranding of NIMASA was a jamboree. The Director General, Dakuku Peterside has, however assured that “We are progressing with the actualization of a NIMASA that fulfils the wonderful imagery of a global brand. The rebranding of the agency is work in progress with attendant training of staff at all levels. The new logo is a symbol of paradigm shift and a pointer to a new direction for the maritime industry.”On his part, President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that “We are reforming NIMASA so that it can play its expected role as a facilitator of economic prosperity. The rebranding is part of federal government’s effort to enhance economic diversification and repositioning of the maritime sector as the country’s highest revenue earner in the very near future”.

    One of the standpoints of the current NIMASA leadership was the successful hosting of the 3rd Conference of the Association of African Maritime Administrators, with the long-term aim of drawing a roadmap for the sustainable work plan of the association. Recall that Nigeria failed to host the event in 2014, due mainly to the Ebola scourge at that time and may not be unconnected to some debilitating leadership and financial misadventures. As a stamp of the continental approval of the competence of the leadership of NIMASA, Peterside was elected chairman of the Association of African Maritime Administration (AAMA). President Muhammadu Buhari, in his congratulatory message to Peterside, had this to say: “Peterside’s unanimous election is not only a personal honour and an affirmation of confidence in his ability to lead AAMA but also places Nigeria in a pivotal position to rally other maritime administrations in collaboration with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) towards safer global maritime activities.” This is competence walking on two legs.

    As though the president’s commendation on his election was not enough, the Peterside-led NIMASA was highly rated by the federal government and stakeholders for the high revenue contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). Within a period of one year and one month, NIMASA remitted a total of N21.805 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. According to the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, “The management of NIMASA was able to generate more money by half year that it did in the two preceding years.” The sharp disparity in remittances compared to previous years, thus necessitated the government’s probe of previous leaderships of NIMASA. The Minister of Finance did not mince words in recommending the NIMASA financial model to other agencies of government. The automation of all its processes has reduced to a large extent, human interface thereby increase revenue generation.

    One obvious lesson we can take away from this is that at this season when revenue-yielding agencies and parastatals are finding it difficult to be self-sustaining, NIMASA’s leadership ability to buy into President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision has recorded this plus. Ability to buy into another’s vision is in itself, a leadership trait that is not strewn on the streets of incompetence.

    Convinced that capacity-building remains the mortar that binds the blocks for sustainability of the NIMASA brand, the leadership has left no stone unturned in ensuring that it constantly oils the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP). Worthy of mentioning here is that the NIMASA management in has found the missing part of the NSDP project which is sea time training to ensure the products of the project are employable across the world. So far the NSDP initiative has produced 243 graduates, 1,600 cadets at various stages of completion of the programme out of which 887 are ready for sea-time training”.

    One hundred and fifty cadets under the scheme are bound for Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Marine Transportation in Alexandria, Egypt to commence their mandatory sea-time training, 89 others for the South Tyneside College, United Kingdom for their on-board sea-time training, making it a total of 239 in the first phase of the programme. The problem of sea time which is a global challenge was a no-go area for past administrations until Dakuku took over the mantle of leadership of the agency. This is in addition to various internal and external trainings of all cadres of staff of the agency.

    Conscious of its primary role of checking sea piracy and other related crimes on our national waterways, NIMASA leadership has built strong inter-agency relationship that would see to the success of this role. The synergy between the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Army, the Marine Police and other paramilitary agencies has been rated highly. The Defence Research and Development Bureau is also working in tandem with NIMASA in providing the necessary research knowhow to develop indigenous capacity.

    The prestigious Public Organisation of the Year 2016 Award on NIMASA by Tell magazine therefore, did not come as a surprise. It was a product of visionary leadership anchored on commitment to the delivery of core values of the agency. It was a testimonial of untainted competence of the leadership of NIMASA. It speaks of a team versed in the orchestrated landmines on it path, yet with a torch of professionalism, went about detonating them all. Though, still work in progress, more would be achieved if all stakeholders meaningfully put their hands on the plow and resist the temptation of looking back.

  • Ambode: When performance speaks  

    Quite interesting, but instructive  – In the thick of the 2017 rains, a well-known blogger had taken to his Facebook page to draw the attention of the Lagos State government to the bad state of the Oba Akran stretch of the Ogba-Ikeja road. The response from Habib Aruna, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s spokesman, was quick and immediate: “Something is being done about it” .

    True to those words, “something” started happening the next day, as workmen moved in with their equipment for extensive repair works on the road. Today, it may not be as smooth as every user would desire, but you no longer practically have your eyes in your hands to drive through it.

    What’s the import of this narrative? First, it means that there people monitoring and not only seized of the right information, but are ready and able to supply them at all times to the public. Second, it also means that there is a government, which is not sleeping on the job, but alert to its responsibility to the people.

    But that is not the end of the story. In fact, it is a tip of the iceberg in the light of what is currently going on in Lagos under the present government. To say that the entire state, has suddenly become a huge construction site, is to put it mildly.

    No doubt, it is a situation that has brought with it a bitter-sweet experience, however. I’ll explain. First, the bitter side. On Wednesday, December 13, 2017, I had set out with a well-laid out plan meant to consummate the day to the fullest. Why my daughter’s school chose that particular day to vacate for Christmas, beats me. That was actually my undoing for a day I had planned to pay myself back for working so hard during the year, with substantial enjoyment. It was supposed to be the biggest party of the year to end the season. How would I know that I was entering the road on a wrong day? But I did.  Destination – Ojo – mission, to pick up the little lass from school.

    I began to notice something unusual on the approach to Oshodi, through the Agege Motor Road. I was eventually confronted with the reality of the closure of the intersection leading directly into the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, due to the massive construction going on. By the time I eventually made the connection, not being too good with my geography along that axis, I had lost more than hour already.

    Again, on eventually hitting the road, I realised I had to make a detour at Second Rainbow, towards FESTAC, the only saving grace on that expressway, since tankers and trucks have completely blocked the remaining portion from there through Mile 2 to Apapa. Unfortunately, it was the same day that a fuel tanker exploded into fire on that axis, which forced motorists back on the other side of the road. That was how the drive which usually took less than 20minutes ended up taking three hours. Of course, the major culprit was the huge construction going on Mile 2-Badagry road.

    To cut the long story short, I eventually arrived the party at the time the tables were being cleared. The heaps of bones being emptied into the waste bags, apparently for dog owners and the empty bottles, literally told the rest of the story. Not that I didn’t try to make it by all means. Knowing that returning through Oshodi would have been suicidal, I had tried the Iyana-Iba-Igando-Iyana Ipaja axis. But again, Ambode’s huge construction from Amuwo Odofin down to Volkswagen and more along that stretch, took care of that.

    Like many on that road that day and many more before and after, I did not harbour any sadness or make any untoward utterance, even amid massive frustration, owing to the energy-sapping and grueling experience, because I knew the implication. What is a day’s loss of enjoyment, compared to the long term benefits of what is in the offing?

    In the main, the complete story is that in the last two years or so, whilst many of his contemporaries are either offering one excuse or the other for their horse and buggy pace performance or engaging in needless political undertakings in preference to real governance, Ambode, has continued to move with a jet-like speed, in his determination to create mega city that he promised the people as his dream Lagos.

    The result is that each way you look, wherever you go, the bulldozers are eating up the earth to set up the monumental structures that can compare, perhaps only to the First Republic, when men of vision and mission were in charge of Nigeria.

    Now, emerging solutions are confronting hitherto intractable problems. Who would have thought that the people on the Lekki-Epe express could have such new lease of life in so short a time or their counterparts on the Iyana-Ipaja-Abule Egba stretch? But before their very eyes, in their own lifetimes, practical solutions are already coming. Gradually, Lagos is taking shape in grand style.

    Visit Epe through Lekki. Be there at Tafawa Belewa Square or Tinubu Square or Broad Street and see the transformation. Go to Abule Egba. Visit Berger bus terminal on the Lagos-Ibadan stretch. Visit the network of roads and Link Bridge within the Aboru and Abesan communities in Alimosho council area and confirm for yourself the boldness of Ambode’s ideas.

    Yet, there are many that are not yet eye-marked. You perhaps need to be sick to witness the monumental transformation in the health system of the state or be a journalist to notice the monumental work at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre at the Government House, Alausa or require one service or the other to experience the new ease of doing business in the Lagos civil service.  Of course, for the naysayers, who are wont to point out that Lagos is the richest state in Nigeria, and therefore could afford the projects he is embarking upon, they should also advert their minds to the other uses Ambode and those in his shoes could have put the huge resources.

    What stops the Lagos governor from using the money to expand his political frontiers? Why would he not be interested in who becomes the next governor of Akwa-Ibom State or Kaduna or Ebonyi, so that by the time he is through, he would have built a formidable political empire that would catapult him to Nigerian presidency in a jiffy? Have other governors, some with half or less the resources of Lagos, not pursued such a phantom project in the past?

    That is the difference. Instead of following that course that has led many to damnation, he chose differently. The fact that very little is heard of him in terms of politics, bespeaks of a single-minded determination for public good rather than pursuit of ephemeral fantasies. That’s the difference.

    Interestingly, again, whilst many of Ambode’s counterparts would have mounted the rooftops to celebrate what he has done during this period if they as much as managed to achieve that record in the eight years. Yet, he sees them as “modest achievements,” as he depicted during the 2017 Christmas party message to Lagosians.

    Hear him: “I want to use this opportunity to once again, express this administration’s profound gratitude to you all for your support which is the cornerstone of the modest achievements we have recorded in the outgoing year. I want to assure you that our Lagos project is on course and we are gradually and steadily moving towards actualizing the dream of building a State that works for all.”

    How could anybody have described the monumental transformation Lagos has gone through in the past two years as a modest achievement? Of course, the answer is yet, in what many Nigerians lack – humility.

    That Ambode is not only the poster-boy of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is no longer in doubt. What remains to be seen is whether he and what he is making of Lagos would be the only thing left of the party to campaign with in 2019, given the picture elsewhere in the country.

     

    • Igboanugo, a journalist, writes from Lagos.

  • Buhari and leadership burden

    More than ever before, Nigeria is in the news for many unprecedented challenges and problems that are of near-complete crisis proportions. Gloom and penury deepen daily among the generality of the people. The masses are the victims of the greed and utter rascality of successive governments as well as their agents. However, this current administration under the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari cannot claim that it was totally ignorant of the level of recklessness before it took over in 2015. This administration promised the Nigerian masses, a change from decaying standards of morality and socio-economic retrogression to a truly modern, civilised milieu central to the promotion of robust, fine-grained human essence in all its ramifications.

    Most Nigerians trusted the Daura-born general, based on his antecedent performance as military head of state between December 1983 and August. 1985. During the above period, Buhari and his charismatic deputy- Tunde Idiagbon, gave Nigeria a new national orientation defined by uncommon discipline including unalloyed patriotism. This was the reason why Nigerians, having been severely debilitated by hunger and all kinds of socio-economic dislocations, voted for Buhari, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate in 2015. Nigerians do not need endless stories and excuses about how PDP government messed up the economy before the coming of the current administration. Action is badly needed now!  In other words, Nigerians would want to see a president who is sincerely prepared to speak and act with messianic fervour. A near-complete fiery political leader, reminiscent of Sango-the Yoruba god of thunder and lightning. That is, a political leader that is capable of sending shivers down the spine of every criminal in our land.

    This country does not need ethnic chauvinism and/or religious bigotry. Religious extremism, no matter how carefully disguised and unbridled ethnic consciousness, are just a tool of desperate politicking. The Nigerian masses must understand, appreciate and appropriate this drama which is full of lies and deception. This is the reason why politicians continue to use circumstantialism of ethnicity and religion to oppress and exploit the people. Nigerians are merely experiencing a class struggle between the rich and the poor.  The target of the political class is to maintain the status quo at all costs. Poverty has no geographical, religious and ethnic boundaries. The Nigerian politicians are chronic Machiavellians.  Our president has to prove to us, that he is not one of them, by stepping on toes no matter how big, in order to rescue the Nigerian masses from untimely death. Currently, there is an increase in deaths from hunger and illnesses. Nigeria is now an unprecedentedly suffocating collectivity.

    President Buhari must work harder than hitherto in order to redeem his image which is now heavily skewed towards negative history either by errors of commission or omission. In the 21st century, the wife of the president of a country, has acritical role to play in politics embedded in social engineering. Nigeria can only be an exception at its own peril! Therefore, I’m pleading with you to extend the space of Hajia Aisha Buhari to more locations beyond the kitchen and of course, the other room.  As a matter of fact, I’m not aware of anybody in this administration who has keyed to your anti-corruption fight more than our cerebral, beautiful and courageous first lady.  Mr President Sir, your failure in politics is part of her agonies!  Similarly, your success is a component of her pride forever! Aisha, who occasionally (most probably)in frustration, becomes a whistle blower deserves a pat on the back. Her latest effort was about the rot in the Aso Rock Clinic where (according to newspaper and television reports) over three billion naira has been spent recently, without any tangible results. She could not hide her utter displeasure at this national disgrace.  How sickening!

    Up to now, nothing concrete has been heard from the official quarters. By 2019, the masses will have an opportunity to tell this government that they are not a bunch of fools.  No amount of travelling to overseas countries for support in fighting terrorism can solve the Nigerian problems.  Solutions will necessarily come from within. Despite the need to internationalise, the government must appreciate the fact that charity begins at home. Adamawa State has been serially attacked by suspected Fulani herdsmen in recent times. Currently, a sense of gloom pervades the Nigerian landscape as if there is an interregnum. This is succinctly put, unprecedented in the Nigerian political history.

    Those suspected Fulani herdsmen, who are proud of killing and maiming innocent farmers in their villages across the country are President Buhari’s greatest enemies.  This is because they make him lose popularity with the people very rapidly. Time will tell! These notorious Fulani herdsmen and their sponsors must do a rethink because they are among other things, giving Buhari and indeed, the entirety of the country, a bad name.  Nelson Mandela remains in the consciousness of South Africans and humanity at large, not because of his wealth and/or power, but rather the political ideals which he stood for when he was on this side of the divide. We are no longer in the Stone Age period characterised by maximum crudities.  No civilised country today around the world supports open grazing of cattle among other ruminants.

    Young Nigerians are now being sold as slaves in Libya and Italy largely because there are no hopes for them at home. The parents of these young Nigerians, are either retirees without pensions or government workers with several months of salary arrears yet to be paid. Sometimes, they are children of poor artisans whose businesses are in a coma because of the hostile economic environment withinwhich they operate. The rich-poor gap is getting wider daily. Indeed, Africa’s biggest democracy is on the threshold of disintegration due to mediocre, people-insensitive leadership. The DSS, SSS, ICPC and EFCC must begin to dance together in order to rescue the country from the cancer of corruption with all its debilitating effects.

    I feel that there is need for a cabinet reshuffle. Additional new ministries are also useful so as to gain greater efficiency. The President should drop the idea of new minimum wage of N56000 for now. He should ensure that the current minimum wage of N18000 is paid regularly, until such a time, when the economy would be able to realistically cope with a higher wage. The issue of minimum wage must not be politicised. How can a government that is owing workers up to 12 months’ arrears in some states (at N18000 per month) be talking of N56000? This is a gimmicky idea! The President needs to convince Nigerians, that nobody, no matter how close to him, is untouchable. This is the hallmark of good leadership.  President Buhari has to call the bluff of those clever rogues, who are hell-bent on damaging his hard-earned reputation as an incorruptible, no-nonsense leader. It is not too late to begin to change the current narrative of “business as usual!”

    Again, the President must caution those state governors or emperors who fail to pay their workers and pensioners as of when due. Their action or inaction in this regard, is an invitation to anarchy. The blood of those workers and pensioners who have committed suicide as well as those who have died, because of dire poverty, is on the governors’ heads and those of their nuclear families, for mindlessly promoting hedonism and self-indulgence. This is my message to President Buhari as we enter the new year-2018.

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

  • Between a voodoo and rogue state 

    An official of the department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR) was reported to have lamented how about 10 full loaded trucks of petroleum products left Suleja depot to Bauchi State in the North-east only to vanish along the way. The incidence of diversion of petroleum products is very rife, in the heat of the immense sufferings of Nigerians to access the essential product, especially at this festive period.

    Since the current bout of scarcity of the products, leading to paralysis of economic activities and the massive sufferings it has inflicted on the majority of Nigerians, the common refrain of government officials concerned is that the scarcity is the handiwork of marketers who want to force government’s  hand to hike the price of the product. Other nefarious activities  of the profiteers according to government officials include hoarding of the product to create artificial scarcity for the purpose of reaping bumper profits.

    However, it takes a  combination of a voodoo state and rogue officials for fully loaded trucks of petroleum products to vanish without trace, before it reached its destination and no one is held accountable as if there is no clue as to who authorized the loading and even the identity of the driver. What suffering Nigerians get for explanation is lamentation from those put in charge. For a government that serially and routinely lament the machinations and infractions of some delinquent marketers, ostensibly proving helpless, even to enforce it own laws certainly stands on the perilous infrastructure of a weak and compromised state.

    Since the outbreak of the current petroleum products scarcity, the relevant government agencies and the marketer’s association have openly traded blames. Unable to bring some delinquent marketers to comply with the regulatory framework of the industry, government resorted  to appealing to them to be nice and considerate, as if most human’s natural instinct for greed responds to such platitudes. Only a compromised and captured state appeals to offenders to be nice instead of invoking extant laws to whip them into line and deter prospective future offenders..

    David Mark, former Senate President, Current Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and others, including former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole are all set to challenge in court, government’s recent directive that they vacate official residences they were offered for a fraction of its cost by the previous government. That these men are are pushing back to keep public property that they should never have obtained in the first place, underlines the vacuous character of the Nigerian state and the morbid nature of the government that oversees it.

    An incompetent state, inchoate and dysfunctional, with its nearly only semblance of formal state appurtenance being the fang of organized violence, deployed selectively is destined for elite kicks and knocks, using spurious legal umbrella to shield from the open ridicule of a captured state.

    The toll of inefficient and incompetent state, daily under siege by its predatory elite handlers, who manipulate and undermines it, weighs heavily on the hapless Nigerian people. The election of a political leader, widely adjudged to have personal integrity even in a relatively free and fair election has not mitigated the deepening hollowness of the state, where it looks  and appears like a normal state with all the paraphernalia of one but is actually a caricature and a mediocre of any state.

    Pockets of special and vicious interests emerge routinely, sapping the away the modest vitality of the state, capturing its key organs and rendering it sterile and hollow, and merely masquerading for the powerful clique that have surreptitiously captured it and run it through government proxies in most bizarre way, using ultra legalistic forms.In this condition, the state is mere predatory machine organized to enforce a rudimentary order, conducive to the helplessness of the public to the hedonistic pleasures of the black market operators of the rogue state.

    In this respect, the state is totally unable to enforce the law to which it is constitutionally permitted because the constitution itself, lacking in the legitimate inputs of the people is a decoy meant to hide the deceit of a voodoo state. The political rhetoric of a government leaving off on the vacuous framework of a compromised and captured state should never be taken seriously, otherwise why would government continue to meekly and timidly appeal to renegade petroleum hoarders and other criminal syndicates in the industry to be nice and change their minds? The fact is that the line dividing the so-called marketers and officials of the regulatory and enforcement agencies are narrow and nearly all the felons in the industry are active collaborators with state officials. It is same thing as when the state officials allocating foreign exchange are the same people who own the black market chains for foreign exchange trading. There are many and numerous instances, where officials of the Nigerian state are complicit in the open subversion of the state without any adverse consequences but a huge returns of profit.

    A strong and competent state need not be authoritarian or abusive. Recently, the head of South Korea’s foremost business conglomerate, Samsung went to jail for bribing public officials and seeking to compromise  the integrity of the state. In our clime, the chairman of one of our big manufacturing industries or even other minor players will never ever have the prospects of being brought to book for any infraction, no matter what length they go to compromise and undermine the integrity of the state. The reason the former South Korean leader, Ms Park was removed from office and serving jail term is a joke compared to former President Obasanjo  use of the state apparatus to organize fund raising for his private library. The man still pontificates on issues about public governance and is even taken seriously.

    President Buhari’s famed personal integrity has not and is not likely to disrupt the tragic trajectory of the Nigerian state, simply because he has not or does know how to convert the strategic mass line that ushered him to office to a sufficient revolutionary force to disrupt the old order. The myth that things will simply turn around because he is there, has subsisted sufficiently enough, to no avail for him to discard it. To disavow the rogue state that he inherited  is the cardinal political imperative of his popular mandate. The continuing decay of the state, demands emergency measures which is within the framework of constitutional democracy, where the mechanism of the broadly and popular constituent assembly has been used to re-found the state and re-focus it to the course of political accountability, inclusiveness and social recovery. While the old and compromised state institutions are let to roll on in their usual circus show, a radical measure to re-found the state and revitalize its institutions, by tapping directly on the popular majority through the constitution of peoples’ constituent assembly is the critical antidote to state decay and consequent failure.

    President Buhari must understand his popular mandate as in consisting essentially, the constitutional overthrow of the rogue state.

    • Onunaiju, is of Center for China Studies, (CCS), Utako, Abuja.