The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Southern governors and true federalism

    Governors of 17 states of the southern part of the country recently held an historic meeting in Lagos at the end of which they reiterated their commitment to true federalism and the indivisibility of Nigeria as well as devolution of power to the states. The meeting was historic because it marked the second time the governors would be meeting under aegis of the Southern Governors’ Forum in 12 years. It will be recalled that the first summit of the forum took place in 2001 while the very last prior to the latest one took place in 2005. While scheduling its next meeting to take place in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the forum equally made governors Akinwunmi Ambode and Seriake Dickson its co-chairmen.

    The forum’s stance on true federalism is, no doubt, a welcome development to all advocates of fiscal federalism in the country. Giving a hint on the subject in his opening remarks, Governor Ambode said: “There is certainly a lot to be done about true federalism, an issue that requires urgent, meticulous and proactive attention from the forum. No less disturbing is the failure to undertake the periodic review of the revenue allocation formula as provided for by the 1999 Constitution to reflect evolving realities. This is another critical matter that ought to engage this forum in order to enhance the viability of the state and local governments as well as their capacity to fulfil their developmental roles in the polity”. Governor Ambode further noted that the current trend where states over rely on handouts from Abuja is a reflection of the constitution that burdens the federal government with activities and responsibilities that rightly fall within the jurisdiction of the states.

    Globally, the distinctive feature of a federation is the constitutional dissection of powers between the central government and the federating units. In a unitary system, total powers flow from the centre while in a federation, powers are detached between the centre and other federating units. Federalism is supposed to be a mutually evolved system where none of the federating units is inferior to another but each deriving its powers and exercising them within the framework of the constitution.

    Federalism is normally considered a better political option in view of certain factors. For instance, it is politically expedient for a country with a huge land mass, big and heterogeneous population, complex cultural and language diversities to operate a federal system of government as a way of accommodating the diverse ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic interests in the country.  Thus, federalism becomes the viable option for a nation, like Nigeria, with diverse interests in order to exist in a mutually binding framework. It is, however, not an avenue for any of the federating units to bully the other. It is not a system that makes states governors’ school children while the President acts as their headmasters. No! Rather, it is a system that calls for mutual respect and fairness among all federating units.

    Unfortunately, because we have been practicing a defective version of federalism over the years, individuals and institutions that advocate the practice of true federalism are often labelled as rascals, rebels or in some cases secessionists. It is, therefore, pleasing to note that eminent individuals and organisations in the country have, in the past and of late, been canvassing for the enthronement of true federalism in the country. While delivering a lecture at the Sixth Annual Oputa Lecture at the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto, Canada, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, described what is being practiced in the country as ‘feeding bottle federalism’.

    Perhaps, the most eventful period in the country’s political history was when true federalism was practiced as reflected in the regional experience of the pre-independence and immediate post-independence era. This was the period when the defunct Western Region under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo made giant strides that are till date second to none in the region. In same era, the defunct Eastern Regional government was also able to record several landmark legacies depending solely on revenue from palm kernel among others while in the defunct Northern Region, the Ahmadu Bello administration equally laid the foundation for the socio-economic evolvement of the region.

    If we are to go back to this glorious era in our socio-political history, we need to evolve a new constitution that will truly reflect the principles and sprit of true federalism. The present constitution is lopsided in its power-sharing at the expense of other federating units. For instance, Part one of the Second Schedule of the Constitution listed 68 items in the Exclusive Legislative List on which only the central government has control, while in Part two, it listed 30 items in the Concurrent Legislative List on which both the central and states could exercise control. In a true federal arrangement, there should be no need for local government creation to require consequential provision of the National Assembly. Equally, the inclusion of Police, Mines and Minerals, Railways, Stamp Duties, Taxation of Incomes, and Value Added Tax (VAT) in the exclusive list is also uneven.

    Similarly, a situation that warrants states to wait endlessly for the federal government to fix so-called federal roads in their domains is not too tidy. Equally, it is imperative that a new revenue sharing formula that will be fair to all federating units be put in place. It is only in a unitary system that such an uneven arrangement in which the federal government takes 52 per cent of the total revenue while other federating units share the rest could take place. Similarly, some Ministries, Departments and Agencies that exist in Abuja shouldn’t be in place in the first instance because their duties are better performed by other federating units. In a proper federation, what the central government does is to focus on central federal matters like foreign affairs, economy, maritime shipping and security.

    Perhaps, most importantly, states and local governments in the country need to identify areas where their Internally Generated Revenue’s base could be boosted. It is only when all the federating units are financially buoyant that the prosperity that the country once enjoyed in the Awolowo, Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello’s era could be replicated. The present arrangement where states readily queue, cup in hand, at Abuja before they could sort out routine issue such as payment of salaries isn’t tidy enough. Lagos, under Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was partly able to stand its ground in the celebrated local government fund seizure matter between it and the then Obasanjo-led federal government because its leadership had creatively evolved a sound economic base for the state.

    On a final note, it needs to be emphasized that advocacy for the enthronement of true federalism in the country should not be misconstrued as promotion of secession. It is not and cannot be. If we are unable to aggregate and articulate concerted efforts to entrench true federalism, all our aspirations for a better a country where institutions work and where fairness and equality reign supreme might continue to be mere hallucination

     

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Osun’s gospel of parliamentary democracy

    Barring any unforeseen circumstances, local government elections will hold in Osun State on January 27, 2018. At least, 332 councillorship slots will be up for grabs in an election scheduled to be the first of its kind in the life of the Rauf Aregbesola-led administration. Not only that, it will be the first in the history of the Fourth Republic that parliamentary practice will be given a shot at the local government level.

    While some professional doubters may wish to liken Osun to an administrative jungle where laws are brazenly breached and, constitutionalism, flagrantly abused, Section 22 of the Local Government (Administration) Law Cap 72A, Vol. 4, Laws of Osun State 2002 as amended states as follows: “There shall be for each local government a chairman and a vice chairman who shall be elected by the councillors of the Local Government Council from among themselves. The chairman and vice chairman shall only be elected among the councillors of the political party that has majority seat in the Local Government Council.” So, why parliamentary system in Osun?

    By the way, what does Aregbesola stand to gain by daring to walk with clear  conviction where  even  angels dare  to  tread and what roles does has the “inchoate” problem associated with local government creation in Nigeria {ref: Supreme Court’s judgement in AG Lagos v AG Federation (2004) 20 NSCQLR 99A} got to play in all of these?

    Without doubt, the creation of Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), Area Councils and Administrative Offices in Osun was a political masterstroke by this government and Aregbesola deserves commendation for giving Osun a sense of direction and purpose. Lest we forget, ‘Ogbeni’, as he is fondly called, was a prominent member of the Bola Tinubu-led team that midwifed the LCDA system  in  Lagos State. That he is again finding a new path to rehabilitate our democracy in line with the views and position of the people clearly attests to  his valued  intelligence,  unquestionable  optimism  and  endless hope for a better Nigeria.  One can only pray other leaders would tap into the sheer force of his personality and the power of his ideas.

    Again, why the introduction of parliamentary system in Osun and where do we go for succour, in case our cherished system becomes captivated by the culture of corruption and inefficient management system usually associated with our Nigerianness?

    By design, parliamentary democracy is meant to encourage quicker legislative action, primarily because the executive branch is a product of the support of the legislative branch which in turn “includes members of the legislature.” In an environment like ours where ethnic, racial, even religious and ideological animosity has been elevated into statecraft, parliamentary practice serves as an effective instrument for direct political participation and even distribution of power. Also, the likelihood of a drastic drop in the rush for; and friction at the centre under parliamentary practice is high. And, apart from its ability to carry along with it a spectacular increase in political activities across the state, Aregbesola’s innovative revolution is most likely to generate robust discussions on the way forward for a democratic Nigeria.

    Quite clearly, it is because we have failed to test our laws that dysfunctional political system has become commonplace scandal in Nigeria. Contrary to projections, parliamentary system runs the risk of becoming a mere fig leaf by which Nigerians seek good governance and socio-economic liberation unless the fine issues of its cumulative impact are clearly defined. In any case, this is where the involvement of critical stakeholders like the youth, traditional institutions and civil society groups in exploring all the opportunities that an election of this nature and timing presents comes in. Church and state must also collaborate in the overall interest of the electorate, exploring the strengths and inspirations that the exercise will be throwing open. Essentially, political parties must read the signs right by going into the contest with their best, votes-worthy candidates.

    Walter Bagehot famously describes ability to do “what the people say you cannot do” as “the greatest pleasure in life.”  Like a field of driven snow, Osun governorship election is less than a year away! Agreed! No two elections are the same. However, the tragedy of victory is that success at the January 2018 poll may not necessarily translate into victory on September 22, 2018 unless some purposeful political reengineering is done where necessary. On the other hand, the fact that All Progressives Congress (APC) got it wrong on July 8, does not mean that all hope is lost for the party. All the more reason the Aregbesola-led administration must pray towards turning the counsel of the Ahithophels to nought! Truth  be told:  Nigerians are hungry and their quality of life has become so unimpressive that, should the opportunity present itself again, one is not in doubt of President Muhammadu Buhari’s recalibrating  the illusion of ‘belonging to  nobody’ and “everybody”. Sad therefore that Osun is being treated as a case in isolation!

    At a time like this, clarifying extant confusions troubling Nigeria’s Israel may tend to suffer from conceptual impressions. Petty quarrels among brothers also have the capacity to snowball into politically-motivated eruptions of cataclysmic proportions if not accorded the honour of fragility it deserves. To this end, necessary steps must be taken to urgently address all ideological disputations that may want to pitch APC members in the tents of Us versus Us. Most importantly, the salary dislocation which has so far proved to be no respecter of party, racial or gender affiliations must be  courageously confronted in a way that will  ultimately  leave  all parties convinced that the country’s present pass truly has an expiry date.

    Let me by way of conclusion state that, on a good day, an election of this shape and size should afford members of the ruling party a rare opportunity of closing ranks for the purpose of retaining the state for the party in 2018. The hope is that events as they happened in Edo State on September 28, 2016 and Ondo State on November 26, 2016 would provide lessons sufficient enough for the ruling party to deactivate opposition’s fantasy that it is the party of choice in Osun.

     

    • Komolafe  writes from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State.

  • Fighting the mirror

    If you look into the mirror and see dirt on your face, you clean your face and leave the mirror alone. Even, if you choose to ignore the dirt on your face, as revealed by the mirror, you still do not bother the mirror. For in revealing the smear on your face, the mirror only did its work. To pick quarrel with the mirror for showing dirt on your face and to proceed to break it will smack of lunacy. In politics and public life, the opposition and critics are our mirrors. Like the mirror, they reveal to us things about ourselves that we may never get to know on our own. In doing so, they are doing their jobs, which are of immeasurable importance to the public good. To persecute the opposition and critics is tantamount to fighting and breaking the mirror.

    In his book, “Remembering America”, a onetime aide to President John F. Kennedy, Richard Goodwin, wrote that straight out of law school, he worked for a Supreme Court judge, Felix Frankfurter. Frequently, Frankfurter told him about his opinions on the different legal issues he debated with the other judges of the Supreme Court. And, for the most part, he agreed with Frankfurter’s positions on the legal debates. Frankfurter demurred, saying, “I did not get one of the best graduating students of the Harvard Law School to agree with me on every issue. I want you to disagree with me. I want you to argue with me”.

    Frankfurter was one of the greatest legal minds of the 20th Century and, like most great minds, he appreciated the immense good a mirror – criticism or dissenting view – does for a man. For his own good, he needed to see his reflection through the fecundate mind of a distinctly brilliant and youthfully idealistic, fresh law school graduate. Mahatma Gandhi made a similar point when he wrote; “Through such dialogues, systems of knowledge are both challenged and enriched”. Dialogues come from contending views and systems of knowledge include ideas, beliefs, institutions, etc.

    The most successful countries of the world are the Western democracies, where respect and tolerance for divergent views make possible the continuous challenging and enriching of human ideas, ideals and standards. On the other hand, history has furnished the instructive precedence that those that fight the mirror tend to always bring trouble on themselves and their peoples. One of the most barbaric fighters of the mirror in history was Adolf Hitler. He was in Warsaw to celebrate a military victory. On that day at Warsaw, he ranted and raved, as he trumpeted his achievements. At a point he bellowed, “I am indispensable. I will therefore tolerate no opposition. I will therefore spare no effort in liquidating any opposition”. He was indispensable, and will therefore tolerate no mirror, and will therefore fight the mirror and break it. Less than six years after his Warsaw swash, millions of Germans lay dead, the whole Germany laid in ruins and Hitler took his own life.

    With military intrusion into Nigerian politics, a prodigy – a sensation with a streak of oddity – emerged at Enugu. The Oxford educated son of a multi-million personified the Igbo’s concept of success – knowledge and wealth – but paradoxically, was a soldier, a profession that, as of then, commanded little respect amongst the Igbo. He was reputedly a dashing, sybaritic playboy but the aura about him revealed nothing self-indulgent or frolicsome. He looked subdued, solemn, and even melancholic. His melancholic bearded face made him look as though he was sorrowing, may be sorrowing for the recent death of his father and the thousands of Igbo and the other peoples of Eastern Nigeria mass-murdered in northern Nigeria. The canard that trailed him was that of a swank, arrogant narcissist but his calm demeanour, reflective mien, and two arms clasped behind the back, gave him the look of a broody, selfless crusader acutely conscious of the enormous responsibility thrust upon him by the unfurling political events of the time.

    With his words hesitant and his cadence measured, he was seemingly reticent but could soar into electrifying oratory. His spellbinding oratory inspired his people to sacrifice, selflessness and self-reliance. They built air strips and refineries (and refined their own petrol), and manufactured their own guns, rockets, bombs and land mines. His intoxicating blend of centrifugal nationalism and determined optimism got them believing they could achieve extraordinary, if not, impossible feats. They believed that their ill-fed, ill-clad and ill-equipped army could traverse 300 miles of tortuous and treacherous terrains and capture Lagos. Although outgunned, cornered, and ravaged by hunger, they still believed that their victory over Nigeria was not only possible but imminent.

    Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was a great leader but he had a serious problem: he fought the mirror. He suppressed alternate, opposing and dissenting views. He refused to see himself and his stance reflected through the circumspect minds of the elderly, knowledgeable and experienced. He discouraged his father’s visits to the State House because his father had alternate views, he counseled restraint. He punished and discredited the Igbo political elite, most notably, Nnamdi Azikiwe, because they opposed or criticized his positions and methods. And like those that fought the mirror, he got himself and his people into trouble. Finally, Ojukwu scampered into exile, while, the erstwhile Biafra land, overwhelmed by death, devastation, pains and sorrow, laid powerless and helpless at the mercy of Yakubu Gowon.

    The secessionist activist, Nnamdi Kanu, enjoys the fantasy that he is the Chukwuemeka Ojukwu of our time. Unfortunately for him, he lacks the essentials of Ojukwu: knowledge, powerful ego, oratorical grace and riveting presence. But, terrifyingly, like Ojukwu, he fights the mirror. He tolerates no criticism and countenances no opposing view. He is heedless of the advice, and ridicules the views, of Igbo traditional and political leaders. He insults Igbo kings, disrespects Igbo governors and threatens fire and brimstone on anyone that disagrees with his objectives and methods. Like those that fight the mirror, Kanu seems headed for trouble. My prayer is that he does not bring death, pains and sorrow to the Igbo in the process.

     

    • Ezukanma writes from Lagos.

  • Politics and sociology of conflicts: Herdsmen vs. farmers

    Today’s Nigeria is by anybody’s definition, a troubled country despite the huge material resources and robust human capital at its disposal.  Many things are just not working except we want to deceive ourselves. This situation should worry the political leadership more than ever before. Thus, for example, workers especially at the local and state levels are groaning under the weight of unprecedented, material poverty as a result of non-payment of salaries for months in the face of hyper-inflation. Even medical doctors are not spared. More and more Nigerians are committing suicide on a daily basis. How can a hungry medical doctor be fully committed to his work which is extremely sensitive? Certainly, the country needs a major political and economic surgery or re-engineering in order to keep total anarchy or disintegration at bay. Most of the age-long, indigenous values and value-systems of Nigeria are disappearing from our vocabularies of popular discourse. Indeed, demons are let loose upon the space. It is pathetic to note here, that some university graduates are now involved in crimes and criminality as a coping strategy in the face of unemployment and under employment. The current economic hardships have led to the production of much more destitute, prostitutes (of various grades), armed robbers, street beggars, car hijackers, ritualists and kidnappers than ever before. Only the political class and its business associates are living in affluence, of course, at the expense of the toiling masses.

    It is becoming increasingly clear, that the political leadership has not shown sufficient will power to address the numerous problems bedevilling the system as a whole. Even when the often thoroughly maligned federal legislators occasionally demonstrate some commitment to the common good, by probing corrupt government officials among others, the executive arm appears not to respond accordingly. This attitude of the executive gives room for legitimate, non-partisan suspicion concerning its sincerity and readiness to fight corruption in a non-selective manner. The chagrined Nigerian masses with their problem of voicelessness or near-total helplessness, are understandably losing confidence in the executive. Their expectations or hopes have been blatantly dashed. Nigerians, regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds, need good governance not empty rhetoric while innocent people are being killed by some blood-thirsty sub-humans fit only for the hottest part of hell. The thinking was that President Buhari would protect us from ourselves, when Nigerians voted him into power in 2015.  We are still waiting for him to practically prove that there is no basis for fear.  Nigerians are interested in fearless, charismatic, messianic leadership with no space for partisanship or primordial ethnic/religious prejudices. Smelly, primitive politics will make the idea of a united country a wild goose chase.  Politicians only talk of national unity when it is expedient for them to do so. They are still embracing parochialism as an ideology. This is the reason why no amount of subtle harassment by the government and its agents will stop the so-called hate speeches by Nigerians who have been afflicted with that terrible disease called maximum poverty. It is the political class that is promoting disunity in the country. The ordinary Nigerians are not so ethnically or religiously conscious. Politicians continue to play the politics of divide-and-rule when it is convenient for them to do so. Visiting some markets in Kano, Maiduguri, Jos, Makurdi, Ibadan, Lagos, Abeokuta, Benin-City, Nsukka, Port-Harcourt and Aba will reveal the mischief and deceit of the Nigerian political class. In these markets, Nigerians of a diverse range of ethnicities and religions are doing businesses together without rancour. This is a vivid illustration of national unity.  This does not mean that there will not be some crises here and there once a while because no human society is completely trouble-free.  Crisis has no geographical, ethnic, racial or religious boundaries. It is a human phenomenon rooted in considerable antiquity.

    Again, in 1993, Chief M. K.O. Abiola of the Social Democratic Party defeated Alhaji Tofa in the presidential poll, even in the country home of the latter. It is important to note here, that Abiola was a Nigerian of Yoruba extraction. The issue of ethnicity and religion did not matter to the people who had been thoroughly short-changed by past political leaders. Nigerian politicians, a special breed of Homo sapiens, have always been using circumstantialism of ethnicity and religion to deceive a lot of people who are unthinking, due to dire material poverty. The permanent interest of these politicians is personal aggrandizement. Therefore, ordinary Nigerians must deal with them cautiously. However, a few of them are fine gentlemen by anybody’s definition.

    It is my pleasant duty as a Nigerian to ask this question: Are cattle more precious than humans in Nigeria?  If the images I saw on the television recently were true, then Nigerian cattle had started attending classes both at the secondary and tertiary levels of education. The people of Edo and Oyo states are very familiar with this ugly scenario. The governors here hardly complain because of the fear of the centre. The fear of EFCC is the beginning of’ ‘wisdom’.  The ordinary people suffer heavily as if there is an interregnum in the country .If you think that the north does not suffer also from this malady, then you are dead wrong! Cattle now jostle for the best positions on the campus of the University of Abuja. What a wonderful country!  If there is a moral, it is for the President to do something very quickly, more so, when the Fulani herdsmen’s incessant attacks of crop farmers reached monumental proportions between 2015 and now. Even a primary six pupil can easily do the arithmetic and get the correct answer. For Providence’s sake, why should the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association be threatening state governments that have just started a new architecture of sustainable peace via the lens of cattle ranching? As a third-party interventionists, the state governments, have formed some committees in order to engender lasting peace. The government cannot just be so slow about a problem that is capable of disintegrating Nigeria..  The reactive approach of government involving sending soldiers to trouble spots cannot bring about sustainable peace especially when the issue has been politicized. Who is fooling who? Can somebody please call the above association to order before they kill all the innocent farmers! They are defecating too much on our collective landscape. Both Taraba and Benue governments have come up with cattle ranching in line with best global practices and the sacred cows are boasting of annihilating the Tiv and Agatu among other ethnicities. Demons were let loose again in Plateau State, a few days ago. Is it a crime to be a Nigerian?  It seems some leaders are proud of primitive behaviour even in the 21st century!

    Ghana is always ahead of most other African countries with respect to good leadership. Ghana has embarked on the ‘Ghana Cattle Ranching Project’. The main aim is to find a lasting solution to the perennial conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and crop farmers. The central government was ready to hold the bull by the horns. This project was also aimed at developing some time-tested strategies to improve cattle ranching culture in Ghana. The central government or regional administration never politicized the issue, in the interest of all Ghanaians. Here, the government is sincerely playing the role of a third-party intervention in community crisis management. Cattle ranching has a myriad of advantages. There would be better access to education and health care facilities. This is in addition to production and reproduction of healthier cattle with greater amount of milk per day. It also provides direct and indirect employment opportunities for people, thereby reducing crime rates to the barest minimum. Culture is not static, understandably because it is tied to the apron strings of social and physical environments. Human expectations, aspirations and sensitivities are not a fixity. The Nigerian government must understand this global reality in order to pave the way for sustainable development in several senses. Environmental degradation with a special emphasis on desertification in the extreme north will continue to lead to southward migrations of cattle among other ruminants for pastures. This situation necessarily puts more pressure on the south, thus leading to crises or conflicts on a regular basis between cattle herders and crop farmers. Currently, an awful sense of gloom pervades Nigeria’s post-coloniality. President Muhammadu Buhari is the most appropriate person to change the narrative in the interest of the survival of our collectivity.

     

    Professor Ogundele is of Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

     

  • Obiano’s mirage

    Obiano’s mirage

    One of the biggest myths in present day politics is that propaganda helps sell a candidate. In these climes, it’s easy to understand why this fallacy persists: the electorate in these parts are assumed to be gullible. So a large mix of propaganda as well as an appeal to the histrionics will sway the votes to any candidate, even if it is a drunken never-do-well.

    Truth however holds that with the increase in the number of Nigerians who happen to be graduates as well as the increased access of our youths to information, the value of propaganda to any campaign, are, as often as not , disconnected from the success any candidate intends to make in any elections. As a matter of fact, the electorate punishes candidates who resort to the use of propaganda as against those who do not dwell on campaign issues which is largely the real electoral value.

    I can cite a number of examples, however, here’s a particularly striking one: In the 2015 elections, while the APC,  then the  opposition party concentrated largely on issues, the then ruling party in the PDP harped more on propaganda: on the phoney islamisation of Nigeria, on whether Buhari had a school certificate or not. They did this with the thinking that 2015 was 2011. They thought wrong!

    2015 elections illustrate such truth: Electoral victories or one’s electoral value are the product of performance, track record and a balance of issues, while propaganda erodes such values.

    Sadly, the Obiano administration has largely failed to heed such wisdom acting much like an old dog that you cannot teach new tricks.

    The Obiano administration, haven frittered away the opportunities it had to  leave a legacy as well as earn the mandate of Ndi Anambra for a second term, has like the children of Israel in the biblical days, turned its face to the gods of propaganda to help save Obiano from the impending defeat that stares him in the face.

    Lies, twisted facts, fables that largely best, tales by moonlight, the propaganda machinery of the Willie Obiano administration has earned itself immense notoriety, earning itself knocks in the public sphere! It’s that bad, so bad that when the slogan “Willie Is Working” is blared, Anambrarians immediately interject that it’s “walking” and not working!

    The Obiano administration exudes various kinds of oasis as its development strides but honestly all we see are mirages. Examples abound!

    This government prides itself as a leader in the agricultural sector; it boasts of creating many feats in that sector; sadly these are half-truths if not outright lies. It claims it is exporting yams, ugu and bitter leaf, yet there is little or no evidence to support such claims. Anambra rice is like the line in Mark Twain’s poem: it is alleged to be everywhere, but there is none to buy. Faced with the widespread disaffection, his aides attempted to save some face, they ended up embarrassing the government some more, when one appeared with an ugu plant in the midst of yam tendrils!

    Moving away from the agricultural sector, let us berth on the state’s quality of infrastructure. Asides the 35 roads the governor concentrated and built in his hometown of Aguleri, (talk of nepotism and Obiano becomes a worthy poster boy), the eyesores of the three wobbly fly- overs and the bridge to nowhere at Iyiora, this administration of his is yet to complete not to talk of starting any new road projects.

    Road projects started by his predecessor, Peter Obi includes reconstruction of Abube Square Nando- Afor – Igbariam(Additional Road Spur to Nkwo Nando Square), the construction of Abba – Ifitedunu Road, Njikoka/Dunukofia LGA , Udeaja Junction- Affia Nkwo Market – Urezi Road, Ozubulu, Ekwusigo LGA, Omor – Umumbo Road Ayamelum Local Government Area, Access Road to Civil Servants Housing Estate,Isiagu, Ozzu -Umunachi Road, Ugwunwasike – Azu Ogbunike – Amawa – Osile – Ifite – Umueri – St Monica – College Amansea – Ndiukwuenu – Okpeze- Amaeteiti- Awgbu Road Phase 1, Amansea – Ndiukwuenu – Okpeze- Amaeteiti- Awgbu Road and bridge, Access Road to AUSCO farms Ltd Agu – Awka, Nteje- Umunya Road, Enugu/ Anambra State Boundary- Agu Awka Road,   Amawbia – Amansea Federal Road, Construction of Jetty/ Roads within the Naval Base and Roads Between Atani Roads.

    They include the reconstruction of Anambra State Integrated Livestock Farm Nkwelle Ezunaka, construction of Achina-Oneh- Agbudu -Ogboji! I can go on and on but for space and time. What is however baffling is the fact that the government has so degenerated into the theatrics of the absurd, that it now claims roads started and finished by its predecessor. Take for example the Ideani-Uke- Umeoji roads and Igbariam -Nando roads were started and finished by Obi, yet the Obiano administration has claimed them as its projects.

    Is it education, where the state has lost its place and is struggling to remain within the first 10 position or is it healthcare where the lumpen proletariat now prefer the services of roadside chemists and native doctors than our general hospitals and primary health care clinics? Where births of new born babies are handled with lanterns because these hospitals cannot afford fuel? Where maternal mortality rates are at its highest in the history of the state?

    What is therefore baffling is not the aspiration of Obiano for a second term; it’s his right as a citizen of the state, but the amount of propaganda deployed by his handlers – vile as well as insalubrious – reminds one of the dark days in Anambra, leaving a taste of bile in one’s mouth.

    Thankfully, Ndi Anambra are wiser than they were four years ago. It is my belief that come what may, the people will vote with a mind not receptive to lies or the appropriated images of heroes who would shudder at the sight of their image next to Obiano’s.

    Change is coming!

     

    Arinze writes from Awka, Anambra State.

     

  • Buhari on unpaid workers

    The rhetorical question by President Muhammadu Buhari, on how anyone (governors) could be able to sleep when workers (civil servants) have not been paid their salaries for months, despite federal interventions and the release of billions of naira to states, from the so called Paris Club refund, with an advisory that it should be used to pay the outstanding salaries have sparked a huge debate. Except for a few states, majority of states owe arrears of salaries and pensions, some for few months, and many others, for more than a year, especially at the local government level.

    While the governors are scrambling to exonerate themselves from the implied accusation of wastefulness, misappropriation and unconscionable conducts, the internet warriors have in turn raised a number of posers for the President in the social media, asking how he can sleep when those issues are lingering. On their part, the governors have gone ahead to demand for the balance of the Paris Club refund subtly warning that the money is not a favour but a right and so the President should give them their money so that they can plan ahead.

    Of course, the President is right to raise the poser on how the governors or anyone can be able to sleep when those who have worked for months have not been paid. But he misses the point when he thinks the solution to the inability to pay salaries lies in the benevolence of the federal government or the refund of excessive deduction from the federation account made by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, to pay the national debt owed the Paris Club of wealthy nations. While the refund could solve some of the challenges in the interim, it is not a long term solution.

    For this column, it is intriguing that while the governors have the presence of mind to raise a committee representing the six geo-political zones to meet with the President to persuade him to authorise the release of more refunds, they lack the will or is it the vision to demand for a more enduring solution to the challenge. Or are they playing the ostrich to the glaring fact that the present national economic structure is not sustainable? Perhaps their concern is just to wobble and fumble to the next election, instead of the durability of the system they are supposed to be its statesmen.

    Regardless of our pretences, most of the states would not survive the present economic turbulence unless the federal government releases some of the economic rights forcefully appropriated through obnoxious decrees during the several decades of military rule, and now duplicitously enshrined in the 1999 constitution, as amended. To make genuine progress, the President should realise that the states will not become viable through the benevolence of the federal government. So, even more important than the Paris Club refund is to make a case for the review of the exclusive and the concurrent legislative list in favour of states.

    For me, the governors’ preference for just the immediate gain, instead of also pursuing a constitutional amendment, to gift the states more economic opportunities, so that they can work and earn more income, exposes them to the President’s accusation in a more fundamental way. The question from the President should actually be how the governors can be able to sleep, when they know that under the present constitutional arrangement, they will remain perpetually dependent on the benevolence of the federal government, when they could come together and demand a federal constitution, to gift the states, the opportunity to individually make progress depending on handwork.

    This column once again advocates that the challenge facing our country is the over-concentration of power at the centre. Those who choose to play politics with this fact wish the country ill. Many of our governors and their states, in action and conduct, are not better than mere vassals to the centre. Their daily survival is dependent on the releases from Abuja; in other words, if the monthly stipend ceases or diminishes as in the recent months due to fall in oil price, the entire landscape is left on a tailspin.

    While the federal government should have enough resources to occasionally intervene when a state is in distress, it should not through legislation take over the entire economic activity of the country. The present scenario leaves the governors running from pillar to post, instead of having the right to exploit all the natural, material and potential resources in their states, for the welfare of their citizens. With little or nothing to do, except presiding over the sharing of the monthly allocation from Abuja, most of the governors spend their time idling away or playing politics.

    It is such idleness that gave Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State the recent brainwave, resulting in his treating the programme of the Rochas Okorocha Foundation as a state affair. While Rochas is entitled to invite Jacob Zuma, whose foundation, is collaborating with Rochas Foundation, to a mutual function of their foundations, he does not possess the right to use the resources of Imo State, to host his private visitor or even to erect a statute of Zuma. But with nothing seriously occupying his time, the man has to look outside the shores of Nigeria, to keep himself busy.

    Unfortunately Imo State is among states owing salaries to workers and even pensioners. Confirming the level of idleness for even the workers, Governor Okorocha, several months ago unilaterally reduced the weekly working days of the state workers to four days. Then he had argued that the workers should spend the elongated weekend working in the farm, to augment their meagre wages. Now that they are owed arrears, perhaps he would grant them a few months leave, during the farming season.

    But even more unfortunate is the loss of President Buhari’s argument in the governors’ call for more Paris Club refund and the attacks on President’s own failings. It is a fact that failure to pay salaries should be a crime, for which the culprit should not have the luxury of sleep. In sane climes, it is unthinkable that one can employ workers and when it is time to pay the wages, the employer would not pay, and then go about pretending that the non-payment is no big deal.

    It does not occur to the governors that the payment of a wage is a contractual obligation, and a failure to pay, as at when due, should result in payment of damages, in addition to what is owed. Perhaps President Buhari and the governors should realise that the constitutionally guaranteed right to life includes: “the right to live with basic human dignity – with the basic necessities of life, such as food, health, education, shelter etc….”; as succinctly proffered by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice P. N. Bhagwatti. So, our president and governors do not deserve any sleep, until those basics are achieved.

  • Africans and Harvey Weinstein case

    Sometimes, the way Westerners behave in certain situations baffle many Africans. The treatment of pets is one of such situations. Africans generally, don’t treat pets like babies as most Europeans and Americans do. Pets such as cats and dogs are not kept and fed routinely at home by their owners in Africa. In traditional African settings, dogs roam the streets and alleys in search of what they will eat while cats prey on rats inside the ceilings of not only their owner’s homes but also those of nearby homes. Dogs do return to the owners’ home occasionally especially at night but cats rarely do that. Africans who have not been contaminated by Western ways don’t cuddle cats and there is nothing like walking the dog in African culture. What inspired this piece is not about the different way Africans and Westerners treat pets but the way Africans would have reacted if Harvey Weinstein were to be an African in an African country.

    For those who have not heard of the name, harmless-looking 65 years old Harvey Weinstein, until very recently, was a very big man in the film industry in the United States and invariably the world.  He, together with his younger brother Bob, founded the film production and distribution company known as Miramax, and later on, ‘The Weinstein Company’ (TWC). Miramax and TWC often collaborate with giants in the show business industry such as Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) and Sony Entertainment and like these big names they are also global players and have scores of award winning productions to their credit.  Some of their productions include ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and ‘Mandela Long Walk To Freedom’. Over the years many actors and actresses have won prestigious awards and became famous after appearing in films produced by these companies. In Oscar acceptance speeches since 1996, Harvey Weinstein was, according to Wikipedia, thanked a total of 34 times by actors and actresses –second to only Steven Spielberg with 41.

    Individuals were not the only ones who were appreciative of Harvey Weinstein’s role in enhancing their positions. In honour of his contribution to the British film industry, he was appointed an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2004. He was also made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour in recognition of his efforts to increase the popularity of foreign films in the US. But despite all these and his huge financial contributions to the Democratic Party especially to its candidates during presidential elections, Harvey Weinstein, like Humpty Dumpty crashed from his elevated pedestal this month – October.

    The first thought that usually comes to the mind of many when a successful businessman is reported to have fallen is bankruptcy.  But Harvey Weinstein has not taken a fat loan that his companies were unable to redeem. His companies were not insolvent, they were still doing well. His fall was due to allegations by some actresses that he has harassed them sexually! Since the first allegation was made, 45 women all above 20 years in age had come forward to narrate to the press how he assaulted them.

    Most of their revelations are not very serious. To most African men, they are actually laughable.  From the few I have endured reading to the end, there was no allegation of Harvey drugging his victim before committing any act. There was also no case of Harvey pouncing on any woman, bringing her down by force before in the typical manner we are used to hearing in rape cases.  The allegations made against him ranged from he told me this or that, he touched my hand or my lap without my consent, he spoke to me while he was taking his bath in the bathroom or he came out of the bathroom tying only a towel round his waist. Africans are against violent rape but what the women claimed Harvey Weinstein had done to them did not amount to rape or even assault. Most of the allegations are stuff expected from kids in a kindergarten.  But in the western world, uttering certain words to a woman, touching any part of a woman’s body or exposing some parts of the man’s body in the presence of a woman without her consent was unacceptable and as a result, Harvey Weinstein has become like a leper!

    He has since been expelled from both the board of TWC which he co-founded with his brother as well as that of Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences which is responsible for assessing films/actors and awarding the highly esteemed Oscar prizes.  Well-known names in the US mass media, business and in politics such as Hilary Clinton whose campaign fund he donated a huge sum of money to during the last presidential elections has since been denouncing him. On being interviewed on TV, Mrs. Clinton even went as far as to say that she was going to donate part of the money Harvey donated to her campaign fund to charity. Worse of all, his wife is reported to have deserted him and his brother has also been denouncing him. He has now gone into hiding and there are unconfirmed reports that he has been taken to see a psychiatrist in the U.K because to Westerners, only a mentally sick person could do what he has been alleged to have done.

    I make bold to say that if it were to be in Africa, these allegations of assault were made, they wouldn’t have made a dent on Harvey Weinstein’s reputation. If he had actually slept with the women through only intimidation but not with violence, he would have become an idol to many men and a few women would have even admired him secretly.

    This cavalier attitude of most African men in their relationship with women poses some fundamental questions that need to be looked into without our racial binoculars.  The first poser is: Why are Africans still behaving this way despite over 100 years of Westerners trying to wean us from such mentality and ways which to them are uncivilized? The second poser is:  Which of the ways (African or Western) is nature likely to approve? Thirdly, with all their decency towards them, will the African woman prefer a white man to a black man as husband? Since we started this conversation with how Africans and Westerners treat their cats and dogs, let’s also end with them. Which way (African or Western) do you think nature would approve of? And which pets, those of Africans or those of Europeans and Americans are happier? Would the pet of the African man be envious of his well-fed but home-bound counterpart owned by a Westerner?

    We are not here to provide any answer but all we dare suggest is that the near opposite ways Africans and Westerners behave in some situations must have something to do with the way we are made. For though science and religion are not quarreling over the genetic makeup of human beings as they do over our origin, the behaviour of Westerners and Africans often call into question the claim that the genes of human beings everywhere are the same.

     

    • Maduku, a retired Nigeria Army Captain (Infantry) and novelist, lives in Effurun-Otor, Delta State.

     

  • Zuma’s apotheosis

    It was a giddy leap to sainthood for South African President Jacob Zuma in Nigeria penultimate weekend. His country is Nigeria’s power peer in sub-Sahara Africa, if presumptuous to rule in the entire continent. But Zuma came calling, not as a state guest of his Nigerian counterpart, but in quasi-private capacity on the fare of Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha. He came unheralded on a visit that has since been duly explained was to sign a memorandum of understanding between his Zuma Foundation and Okorocha’s Rochas Foundation College for Africa.

    Zuma arrived in town amidst controversy as had dogged his eight-year-long presidency, during which he has survived eight no-confidence votes in the South African parliament. His trip was not made public in Pretoria until he was nearly air borne, and neither was there much hype of imminent ingress of a personage like him in Nigeria – at least, not enough for the public to be expectant.

    Besides, the South African leader hit the skies en route the Okorocha rendezvous barely as his country’s supreme court pronounced a unanimous verdict binding him to trial for 783 corruption charges that were spuriously pulled by the National Prosecuting Agency (NPA) in April 2009 to pave the way for his presidential run . A South African high court had last year ruled the agency’s decision to pull the charges “irrational” and ordered that they be reinstated, and those were exact conclusions reached by the supreme court in its ruling on appeals brought by both Zuma and the NPA against the trial court.

    Zuma’s scheduling of the Nigerian trip must have been long before the supreme court verdict, so I do not share the umbrage at Okorocha for not barring him on that score. Actually, I would wager that a last minute change was made in the plans to keep the Buhari presidency out of reception formalities. Thus, the South African leader flew directly into Sam Mbakwe Airport in Owerri, where the Imo governor in company with former President Olusegun Obasanjo received him. Others in the welcoming party included former Jigawa State Governor Saminu Turaki and former Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman Maurice Iwu.

    By the norms of diplomacy, it is unlikely the presidency originally planned to avoid Zuma on this trip; because President Muhammadu Buhari twice visited South Africa for different reasons in 2015, and he had audience on both occasions with his South African counterpart. Though Zuma had himself undertaken a state visit to Nigeria in 2016, diplomatic conventions would prescribe he schedules a tangential audience with Buhari even on this occasion. Only a last minute rejig of programming could have eliminated that.

    But while Okorocha could not have upturned the long scheduled visit by Zuma, it was entirely his call what the two-day reception programme involved. And we have seen it involved unveiling a giant bronze statue of the South African leader in Imo’s capital city, to which a N520million price tag has been attached in reports. Instructively, the Imo government has not controverted that cost line even once.

    An official account of the visit said Zuma also picked the Imo Merit Award – a honour kept for persons who’ve made a difference in developing their community and humanity; and as well the traditional title of ‘Ochiagha Imo’ conferred by the chairman of Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Samuel Ohiri. For icing, he also had a road named after him in Owerri.

    The account cited Zuma saying he had not expected that level of recognition. “With what the leadership and good people of Imo has done, I feel that what I have done for my people is ‘yes’ and ‘correct.’ I was an ordinary freedom fighter who struggled to liberate South Africa…” he stated. Okorocha, for his part, described Zuma as a unique man with a heart of gold, and a dogged freedom fighter who means well for his people. “We honour you because of your love for education, so that our unborn children will read about it and be motivated by your life of doggedness…,” he said.

    The two men could well have spoken from a virgin planet named Illusion, because Nigerians and no less zestfully South Africans were swift in taking down Zuma and his host for the gratuitous honours. That response follows from the sheer circumstances.

    Zuma is a charismatic politician with reputed antecedents in his country’s liberation struggle against apartheid rule, but his presidency stank of sleaze from Day One – both in his public and private lives. Besides the corruption charges linked to a 30billion rand arms deal in the 1990s that were lately reinstated by the supreme court, he fell under judicial hammer in 2016 when the apex court ruled that he broke the law by failing to reimburse the public treasury monies used to upgrade his private country home in Nkandla. He has since repaid.

    Also this year, South Africa’s ombudsman demanded a judge-led inquiry into allegations that Zuma profiteered from ties with the wealthy Gupta family. He denies the charges, as have the Guptas, and no inquiry has yet been raised. But British public relations giant Bell Pottinger, ace auditor KPMG, and frontline consultancy McKinsey have bit the dust on account of their links with both. That isn’t mentioning the economic hara-kiri in Zuma’s ouster of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister in March, which tipped the country’s credit ratings into ‘junk’ territory.

    Neither is Zuma exactly a moral beacon. Having married six wives – two since becoming president in 2009 – he was tried but acquitted of raping an HIV-positive family friend in 2006. The catch is: he was blameless on the rape charge, because he stated during trial that he had unprotected sex with the woman and showered thereafter to avoid possible infection. Four years later, he admitted having a baby with the daughter of another family friend. Meanwhile, his populist touch hasn’t translated into economic empowerment for most black South Africans, with his hold and that of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on the power lever rapidly slipping. In effect, the unveiling of a Zuma statue earlier this month in Groot Marico, northwest South Africa, was met with protests.

    On the other hand, Okorocha is famed for withholding arrears to pensioners in Imo State, and it is moot that salaries and allowances for serving workers are up to date. Yet, to have spend N520million of the state’s lean resources on Zuma’s statue! The probity of that stated costline is one thing, while the economic sense of the expenditure is another; and neither helps the anti-corruption crusade of the Buhari presidency whose party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has Okorocha as chairman of its Governors Forum. Besides, the value judgment is curious, with repeated xenophobic attacks in Zuma’s country that have claimed the lives of many Nigerians – one of them as recent as few days before the Imo spectacle.

    But the biggest tragedy is the partisan mode into which Okorocha and the APC have retreated. APC helmsman John Odigie-Oyegun was reported last week to have endorsed the Zuma event, praising Okorocha for his “feat in bringing…significant figures on the African continent.” Okorocha, for his part, lashed at the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which it accused of sponsoring the criticisms. “If all we need do to attract good things or investments to Imo is erecting statues…we owe no one apology,” he was reported saying.

    With showfests like we saw in Imo, the Buhari government’s anti-graft war is unraveling. Watch out for that indication in the next outing by Transparency International with its Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

    Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.

  • NDIC: Stemming the tide of bank fraud

    Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has, in the past few years, featured prominently in annual awards in appreciation of its contributions to the growth of the Nigerian economy. This has largely been due to the zeal with which the leadership of the corporation has run, and continues to run, its affairs in the last couple of years, which has won it several achievements, awards and recognitions.

    NDIC prides itself on its core mandate of protecting bank deposits reflected in its motto: “Protecting your bank deposits.” The organisers of the latest award by BusinessDay, which took place on October 14 in Lagos, broadly reviewed the pragmatic and tangible transformations, which the corporation has brought into management and execution of its mandate including mitigation of corruption, insider abuse as well as containing non-performing loans in the nation’s financial system. Specifically they noted that   cases of fraud, forgeries and outright theft involving bank staff significantly declined by 48.12 percent (from N18.02 billion in 2015 to N8.68 billion) in 2016, while the actual losses to the nation’s banking industry dropped by 24.29 percent (from N3.17 billion in 2015 to N2.40 billion in 2016).

    NDIC’s managing director Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, who personally received the award on behalf of the corporation, attributed the recent success of the regulatory body to its re-branding project in 2013 which entailed the overhaul of the its processes, procedures, systems and methods of operation in line with global best practices in deposit insurance.

    Banking fraud costs the banking industry $67 billion per annum globally as revealed by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. For example, in 2014, the US State of Cyber Crime Survey showed a year-on-year increase of 141 per cent in the number of financial institutions reporting losses of between $10 million and $19.9 million.

    This underlines the determination of NDIC to target regulations that will plug loopholes that usually allow for fraudsters — particularly insider abusers — to strike. It is doing so in response to the growing complexity of the systems that banks nowadays depend on to deliver their services. This complexity in bank systems is evident in the growing number of channels through which banks now deliver their services, including websites and online banking platforms, mobile apps and social networks. All these channels represent a new set of opportunities for fraudsters to gain access to bank’s information system.

    The oversight functions of NDIC lie at the heart of the effective fraud detention and deterrence. The NDIC carries out its supervisory activities of insured institutions in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). In 2009, for example, the NDIC commenced the adoption of Risk-Based Supervisory (RBS) approach. The joint special examination conducted by the NDIC and CBN in 2009 revealed systemic distress in the sector, which necessitated the introduction of various banking reforms.

    Apart from the NDIC’s oversight, banks need to buckle up on oversight too, especially about internal control mechanisms. Because it is the ability to detect activities that are at variance with internal controls that will raise in “red flag” indicating possibility of fraudulent activity occurring. In this age of the IT, NDIC is encouraging banks to strengthen the skills of their internal auditors. The legacy system provides that auditors are drawn from the operational side of the bank operations and may therefore lack detailed knowledge of how the bank’s IT systems work and their potential vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is has become pertinent that banks have specialist IT auditors who can provide essential support for the work of the internal audit team. Such changes will build depositors’ confidence in the banks. Indeed, it is part of the NDIC mandate to guarantee the payment of deposits up to the maximum limit in the Act. As recently as 2016, the NDIC provided deposit insurance coverage to 26 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), one non-interest bank, 974 Micro Finance Banks (MFBs) and 42 Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) in operation. In 2016, the NDIC continued to play its role as deposit insurer by ensuring the prompt payment of insured sums and dividends to insured/uninsured depositors and other eligible creditors of the closed DMBs, MFBs and PMBs.

    While the regulatory bodies like the NDIC are bringing forth policies that will help protect deposits in our bank, banks need to do more in understanding the pattern of internal fraud and the motivation that pushes staff to commit fraud. This is essential because fraud experts believe internal fraud is the most common way for banks to suffer loses and can take place at any level of an organization. It is a well-known fact that staff in positions that give them a high degree of access to IT systems, such as database administrators, pose a greater risk.

    Banks management will do well to factor criminologist Donald Cressey’s theory on how workplace fraud evolves. His “fraud triangle” consists of three elements: pressure, opportunity and rationalization. Working on the first two elements is essential in stemming fraud. Pressure on staff to out-perform colleagues or take revenge needs to be discouraged. Giving marketing staff crazy targets is a source of pressure. Element of opportunism comes with poor internal controls or where the individual occupies a position of trust meaning oversight is always key in bank operations.

    The age-old principle of “Four Eyes” need to be strengthened, i.e. when someone initiates an operation others persons need to validate it to ensure it is in line with the bank’s internal control.

    Working in harmony with banks, NDIC is committed to putting in place policies and internal controls that deepen the mechanisms designed to protect deposits.

     

    • Hassan, a business and financial analyst, contributed this piece from Abuja.

  • When NGOs run amok

    Soon after World War II, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) began to play visible roles in international development to the extent that they were given free rein in many regions of the world and this is where the likes of such influential bodies such as the Lions Club International and the Rotary Club have played preeminent and quintessential roles in the health sector, providing succour to those afflicted by polio and river blindness.

    It is estimated that there are over 10 million NGOs in the world today, with around two million in India alone. Russia is estimated to have about 277,000 NGOs and China with 440,000 registered NGOs.

    Thus, where positive growth and change in economic index is expected to bring about sound development, NGOs have always keyed in into government programmes to ensure that the desired goal of government which is geared towards happiness of the greatest number is achieved.

    Ipso facto, it becomes worrisome when NGOs in the country take on the Frankenstein posture to intimidate investors and cow them.  Of  utmost concern in this respect is the activities of a foremost environmental NGO, Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth which is now a pawn on the chess board in the hands of some disgruntled and dissatisfied elements who do not recognize the indices of development or  deliberately obliterate it  from their minds for selfish goals and reasons.

    One is wont to believe that in the frequency of an action belies some real motives, as they  say, there is no cause without its corresponding effect, positively or negatively fashioned. When ERA recently  staged a protest at the Ring Road in Benin City together with some group under the aegis of ‘’Civil Society Coalition’’ to drum support for a cause, peace loving people of Edo State thought they had genuine intentions. Meanwhile, the real purpose and object of the protest was to institute a smear campaign and hate against Okomu Oil PLC over unfounded allegations of land grabbing and impunity and to expel the company and its over10,000 workforce from Edo State. ERA and its coalition alleged that Okomu had carried out sustained destruction of some forest areas. It mobilised some group of people who were labelled as farmers, conservators, environmentalists  and community dwellers.

    The group alleged a refusal of Okomu Oil Plc to vacate a 13,750 hectares of land spread across three local government areas of Edo State. The hectares of land is said to cut through Ovia North East and particularly around the Owan town axis also in Ovia North East and Uhunmwonde Local government areas of Edo State. It was claimed by the coalition  during the protest that the land grabbing for oil palm and rubber plantations in the state was an affront on rural communities. According to the coalition, over 60,000 rural farmers had been displaced from their farmlands in the affected communities while others were currently facing eviction.

    What is of interest is the fact that the coalition was acting out a script for its own selfish design. Were it to be true that over 60,000 farmers were displaced in Edo State, the news of such would have been awash in the social media and in news tabloids nationwide. At what point did this displacement take place?

    It should be pointed out that Okomu has as its neighbour a Forest Reserve under the control of the Federal Ministry of Environment. Displacement as it is, is always an event that will attract government attention just like in the case of displaced persons camps spread across the country and even in Edo State arising from the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Another crux  in the hate agenda   championed by ERA is that Okomu Oil Plc has no EIA certification which is untrue. Nigerian law stipulates that  land for agricultural purposes must undergo EIA when it is more than 500 hectares. What then is the rationale for the smear campaign against Okomu Oil Plc? This is a fundamental issue that must be resolved by ERA.

    One can say that ERA had allowed itself to be used by some faceless persons who are out of tune with government policy to make agriculture a mainstay of the economy. Okomu Oil Palm Plc currently employs over 10,000 workers in its rubber and palm plantations and has put to good use the land previously lying fallow without generating any economic activities over the years before its transfer to Okomu Palm Oil Plc.  The activities of Okomu Oil Plc is in the public domain and its websites can be visited and facts verified to ascertain its operations after all, the company is quoted in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    The title to the land was originally held by a notable timbre magnate and later by a top politician who acquired the 13,570 hectares for agricultural purposes and left it underutilised for many years backed up with a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O). In search of land for expansion, Okomu Oil Plc showed interest in its acquisition and had the land duly transferred to it as could be seen from chain of titles showing who were the  original purchasers, as these evidence of titles are in the public domain in the Land Registry. Where  then did the  issue of land grabbing come in?

    Further still, why were there no protests by ERA and  its coalition when its acquisition were held by the timbre magnate and the top politician? Clearly, again, this was a deliberate hate campaign to shut down Okomu and throw out its over 10,000 work force by competitors who desire same land for their palm plantations. On  the displaced 60,000 farmers, where were they at the time the  timber magnate and the top politician held the land? It is a simple matter for ERA and its coalition  to provide facts and figures of names of persons who owned the land at the time of its acquisition.

    It is also pertinent for interested members of the public to establish the claims of ERA and its coalition by prudent investigation to verify the genuineness of the claims being peddled around.

    Only recently, the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki set up a committee on agriculture comprising major players such as Okomu and PRESCO Plc in Edo State to lead the way forward in making agriculture a major revenue earner for  Edo State. That is not all, in fervent pursue of that drive, the governor recently undertook a visit to Indonesia and Malaysia as part of efforts to shore up the agricultural potential and capacity of Edo State. One  asserts  that Okomu is a palm oil giant in the state and in the country and if Nigeria is to join the league of nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia, Okomu can be trusted to supply its quota to the national effort.

    One does not have to dig deep to unravel the veracity contained in the allegations of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth against Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc. For  example, how is it possible for 60,000 people to live on less than 14,000 hectares of farmland?

    What income did they generate to sustain themselves?

    These are questions which answers are not far-fetched and it is the reason why one is palpably concerned that some mischief makers have decided to nestle in idle and unprofitable attack against an institution providing a means of livelihood for many who could have been jobless and homeless.

    Much more importantly, for want of a better thing to do, ERA should expand its horizon, refocus and to re-strategize  to focus on its areas  of concerns with toxic wastes and other issues bedevilling the environment. There are key stakeholders in Okomu Oil Palm Plc, particularly those who have bought stakes in the company by way  of shares and should be reassured that all is well and that the company is still a going concern. It should be worthy of mention that other key stakeholders in the Okomu Oil Palm Plc are the federal government, which own some percentage of the company’s shares and the Edo State government which is represented on the board of the company by Chief David Edebiri, the Esogban of Benin Kingdom.

    Against the backdrop of the foregoing, there is no iota of doubt that all efforts to make the cookie crumble has not succeeded as ERA and its coalition have been in pursuit of a mirage and walking on intangible shadows that is only seen and cannot be held in flesh and blood, creating fictional imageries and scenarios where none exists. Where facts are contrived and turned on its head, they support only the figment of imagination of the supplier, that is of those who allege them to be a reality, whereas, it is a dissonance of logic and a contradiction of the true state of affairs. This is the level to which Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth has degenerated to while claiming to be friends of the earth but in reality are enemies of the people.

     

    • Idowu is a public affairs analyst.