The Nation Newspaper

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  • Nigeria-Biafra’s newfangled narrative

    Observance of the 50th Anniversary of the declaration of Biafra on 30 May, was paradoxical.  The event was silent, but doubly loud. The point was made rather bluntly that the Nigeria-Biafra narrative has changed. If the sit-at-home order for the Igbo was a clarion call to non-violent civil disobedience, it achieved maximum effect. Compliance was unprecedented and near 100%.  Everyone took notice. This reawakening compels a decoding of the Nigeria-Biafra newfangled narrative in order to grapple with it properly.

    What happened? Like most social scientists, I find the natural law of cause-and-effect stimulating. It compels deductive reasoning, rationalization and justifications.  So, why do we have Biafran recidivism?  What are the causes? What was the tripwire that dredged up such long suppressed emotions? Why have we handled the Biafran issue so carelessly and with levity, as if related agitations were bereft of possible ominous consequences? Well, those averse to history or lessons therefrom, risk huge mistakes.  Hoping to wish away a crisis of any sort or magnitude is weak policy disposition.  Vexatious national issues that are ignored soon enough fester with dire consequences.

    By refusing to draw lessons from history, Nigerian government policymakers, by sheer indifference and at times, bluster bordering on arrogance, gave Biafran recidivism a boost, a cult-like hero and a rallying point in Nnamdi Kanu.   The federal government simply overreached in mishandling Kanu’s case. Incarcerating Kanu indefinitely without bail and in violation of the constitution altered the Nigeria-Biafra narrative dramatically. Kanu’s elongated incarceration served as a metaphor for the indefinite incarceration, suppression, disenfranchisement and marginalization of the Igbo nation via politics and executive fiats. Now certain realities can’t be swept away; and the hands of the clock can’t be turned back. Nigeria’s political leaders will need to confront the emerging archetype tactfully, but urgently. The leadership needs to employ the political sagacity of Shehu Shagari and Chuba Okadigbo that led to Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s pardon and return from exile; and adopt Goodluck Jonathan’s obliging spirit that led to Ojukwu being buried with national honours. It’s all about respect, inclusivity and true reconciliation.

    Indeed, there was a country called Biafra, which now belongs to the cadre of defunct nations like Tibet, Ceylon, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Yugoslavia. But the Biafran spirit and conviction subsist. Here is the upshot. For any 60-something year old, Igbo person like me, the reality breaks down thus: you’ve been a Nigerian for 60-something years, and a Biafran, for three momentous, but also horrendous years.  These are historical facts you cannot redact from memory, from history, or for that matter, from pass-on-down folktales. Moreover separatist agitations are not peculiar to Nigeria; they exist in Angola, Azerbaijan, Canada, Georgia, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and the U.K.

    Dialogue has its values. Whereas constructive dialogue may not end Biafran agitations instantly, it will no doubt keep matters on an even keel. Talking about the Biafran problematique is not by any means pandering to presumptive separatists. Such talks do not equate to the balkanization of Nigeria. Indeed, it is presumptuous, if not dubious, to suggest that those pushing for Biafra have a singular agenda – to breakaway.  As Nigerians, all they are saying is that the Igbo have equal rights and should not be subjugated or treated as second class citizens. So, the current impetus for Biafra is primarily an attestation that all is not well with and within Nigeria.

    What makes Biafra attractive to many is also offensive and scary to others.  Yet the reality is that no Igbo man in his right sense will publicly repudiate the call for Biafra. Paradoxically, many well-placed Igbo personalities don’t canvass openly for Biafra, for fear of reprisals. That is the paradox of Nigeria-Biafra, 50 years later.  Contextually, those who consider Biafran agitators as misguided are themselves not thinking through the politics, history and prevalent realities. The traumatic wounds and pains of Biafra are real and linger even after 50 years. The post-war 3Rs (reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation) initiated by Gen. Yakubu Gowon, has been fleeting, if not entirely vacuous. The Igbo have not felt any sense of belonging in Nigeria, as much as they feel vanquished.

    Managing the Nigeria-Biafra narrative should be stress-free, if Nigerian policymakers can think clearly. Tackling four issues will ameliorate the present challenges and assuage prevailing Igbo discontent.  First, Nigerians should begin the process of adding a sixth state to the south-east geopolitical region to strike a long overdue balance. Second, Nigerians should talk seriously of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction – note, I did not say an Igbo presidency.  These are two distinct nomenclatures and conjure varying degrees of emotive push. Third, Nigerians should commence discussions on the implementation of relative aspects of the 2014 Confab report, including fiscal federalism and devolution of power from the centre to the six geopolitical regions.

    Fourth and this is perhaps the simplest, but also the most important.  Three million Nigerians or Biafrans died in the civil war from 1967 to 1970.  We lost relatives and fellow countrymen on both sides.  So, why don’t we institute a Memorial Day of remembrance for all our war casualties, regardless of the side or ethnicity? As a gesture, let the Memorial Day observance follow the Democracy Day.  So, on May 29, Nigerians will honour her democratic ideals and the next day, May 30; honour all her fallen heroes, regardless of their ethnicity.   I suspect there will be some pushback against this proposal, but that is one way of assuaging prevalent demands.

    Nigeria should borrow a leaf from existing global best practices.  In the U.S., “Memorial Day started as an event to honour Union soldiers who had died during the American Civil War. It was inspired by the way people in the Southern states honoured their dead. After World War I, it was extended to include all men and women who died in any war or military action.” Memorial Day also “honours men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.” Nigeria has nothing to lose by using its legislative mechanisms to pre-empt possible difficulties or emergent crisis.  The beauty of this proposal lies in its simplicity.  Such an approach will help rally Nigerians towards a common purpose, toward true patriotism, which stands badly eroded and towards respect for each other’s rights and feelings; something we largely take for granted.

    Igbo investments in Nigeria are vast, diverse and domiciled mostly outside Igboland. Disenfranchised as the Igbo feel, there’s cognizance that most Igbo entrepreneurs and wealth creators don’t wish to divest from Nigeria, except as a last resort – that being a referendum-induced secession. That ennui will prevail so long as the Igbo are disenfranchised. What the Igbo seek is to make Nigeria truly equitable. Hence, fair appointments and competition must exist; and security of investment and equitable resource allocation assured. Ironclad guarantees will be needed. Meanwhile, tampering the clamour for Biafra remains a shared responsibility; there can be no conscientious objectors in the quest for an all-inclusive Nigeria. Politics, ethnicity, ideology, religion should not be a basis for action. Instead, patriotism, social justice, equity and peace remain the key drivers. Efforts to mollify Biafra agitations must be collective, and aimed at saving and making Nigeria whole again for all her citizens. Still it bears understanding that democracy in Nigeria cannot prevail absent a united Nigeria.

     

    • Obaze is MD/CEO, Selonnes Consult Ltd.

  • CBN, Money Supply, Inflation and Output

    The Central Bank has the onerous task of formulating and implementing appropriate monetary policy as a major economic policy that must of necessity work in tandem with its twin sister, the fiscal policy which is in the purview of Ministry of Finance. The complementary effects of the two basic economic policies pilot the political economy towards achieving macro-economic objectives of full employment of resources, low and stable price level, increasing economic growth, balance of payments equilibrium, promoting income redistribution towards reducing income inequality and promoting sustainable green economy. Inability of the two government agencies to make these two major policies to complement each other naturally leads to economic disequilibrium on many fronts. But importantly, the foundation of policy formulation of these macroeconomic policies is the existence of data that is clean and reliable.

    In the last 12 months or more, monetary and fiscal policies in the country have not been in harmony with each other such that the Minister of Finance, out of frustration at one point, called on the monetary authority to cooperate with the expansionary fiscal policy stance to bail out the economy from recession! While the fiscal policy authority was trying to finance capital projects, intervene in private sector projects particularly those in the informal micro and small scale enterprises as well as medium scale enterprises, the monetary authority was busy promoting restrictive monetary policy by imposing high interest rates and by implication, credit squeeze within the erroneous believe that high inflationary pressure in the economy was due to high level of liquidity in circulation.

    Given the decline in inflation rate within the last two months, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) managers would have realized that contrary to their opinion that the huge amount of money in the economy had been responsible for the inflationary pressure, it has been the exchange rate. For over 12 months as referred to above, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank had refused to bring down the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) even when credit creation was supposedly encouraged through improvements in liquidity ratios. It was a counter-productive policy to raise interest rates and expect investors to demand for credits at such high interest rates, even though the banks might be ready and willing theoretically to supply credit.

    If we check records of interest rates in developed economies and even emerging economies, lending and saving rates rarely rise above five per cent. The low lending rate is to encourage investors to come forward to borrow while the low saving rate may not encourage saving in deposit money banks but direct funds to the capital market which provide long term funds needed for expansion of production activities in agricultural, industrial and other physical product sectors, as well as the service sector. The gap between saving and lending rates in such economies is between one and two percentage points while the difference in Nigeria is between 15 and 20 percentage point!  Investors who borrow funds at such high rate in Nigeria should not be expected to invest in businesses with long term gestation period which is necessary for economic growth but for speculative and round tripping activities that are injurious to the economy. What we have seen over time however is that it is the government that ends up borrowing large proportion of the investible fund making banks to be rich and declare unholy profits when the production or real sector businesses are declaring losses and closing down.

    In many instances, the CBN Governor had come out to defend the retention of high MPR on the ground that inflation in Nigeria was caused by high level of liquidity in the economy. The appreciation of the naira in recent time and concomitant fall in domestic prices should serve to debunk the CBN management notion that the recent persistent inflationary pressure resulted from high stock of money in the economy. Furthermore, the recovery of huge sums of money in stores, unused buildings, water tanks, cemetery, et cetera implies that the CBN calculation of money in circulation is faulty and has resulted in over-estimation.

    Money that sits in banks vaults, though unproductive, can still be regarded as part of money in circulation because such money can be on the move anytime borrowers approach the banks. The money outside banks but hidden in those obnoxious places are not only unproductive but definitely not part of money in circulation. What this means is that the CBN had been building its policy on falsified data base with concomitant negative results. A very difficult part of it is that the CBN cannot get an accurate figure of the total money stock in those hidden places and I suspect there are still many undetected hidden places where billions of naira is idling away until there is opportunity for them to be exchanged into foreign currencies. I can imagine how the Governor of the Bank of England or the Head of Reserve Bank of the United State would feel when they see, on television, crisp dollars or pound sterling uncovered in some locations in Nigeria. Albeit, their currencies are international and they have complex and efficient way of determining and monitoring global/domestic money supply.

    The truth of the matter is that United States of America and Europe, including Great Britain, which own most of the recovered foreign currencies, run cashless economy. Therefore, banks can only issue few thousands cash to individual customers at any point in time while corporate customers operate on online transactions. So, all the millions of foreign currencies that were discovered recently must have come through illicit operations such as exchange of naira for foreign currencies at Bureau de Change, from black market operators and even indirectly through the CBN. If the CBN were to check the numbers on the crisp foreign currencies retrieved from the Ikoyi flats, it would see that they are some of the currencies supplied to a number of the Bureau-de-Change or to some banks in the area for distribution to various types of customers (industrial, commercial and personal end users) but cornered by one or few powerful Nigerians. This is one of the reasons why some of us are against the CBN supply of currency to Bureau-de-Change which are private businesses on their own and should be allowed to source for the funds they need, more so when most private individuals who earn foreign currencies from transactions do patronize these outfits to change their money than go to banks.

    Twice, I was on fact finding mission and visited some banks in the morning to request for withdrawal from my domiciliary account. In each case, the staff gave excuses that no foreign currency was available, even without asking if I have domiciliary account with them. In two instances, the bank staff offered to assist me by calling on some ‘bureau-de-change’ staff to provide whatever amount I needed. It is like the case of looking for new currency notes from the bank, you can hardly obtain but if you go to a party at weekend, you can exchange as much as desired from currency vendors. The need to deal with the messy processes in the foreign exchange market to avoid another round of massive depreciation of the naira is urgently required. The current level of intervention cannot be sustained for long unless the country is able to diversify its sources of foreign exchange earnings and reduce speculative activities on naira in the foreign exchange market. I have been advocating, unsuccessfully, since July last year that change in colour of the high denominations of naira with limited period of conversion of old to new currency will neutralize the nefarious activities of such speculators.

     

    • Tella, Ph.D. Professor of Economics writes from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

  • The Biafra conundrum

    On May 30, officialdom in Nigeria, both at the federal and state levels in the South-east and a bit of South-south, were embarrassed by the successful sit-at-home order made by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and a faction of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). If the concerned public officials have any sense of propriety, they would understudy why an order by the nascent Biafra groups that ordinarily should be an aberration, turned out a popular act.

    They will ponder why majority of Igbos at home, particularly the trading class, who do not easily give up their daily market drudgery – in the earnest philosophical conviction that the next day would bring a better tiding – opted to sit at home, following an appeal by some young men, who were not born when Biafra was declared 50 years ago? Again, they will be besmirched that what they cannot achieve with all the public power and influence available to them, as ‘duly elected’ officials; these pseudo-populist leaders, without power influence, have been able to achieve it.

    Obviously in panic, the South-east political leaders, epitomized by the House of Representatives’ members chose to test their own brand of populism, considering that populism has paid off for IPOB/MASOB leaders. The Reps last week, walked out of the Green Chambers in protest, after a bill to create a South East Development Commission, expectedly suffered a defeat, in the House. I have little doubt that the Representatives are more embarrassed by the success of the sit-at-home order, than failure to gain approval from the House, to move the bill beyond the second reading.

    If the South-east Representatives were more reflective, they would have organised their walk-out around a bill that will have some redemption on their dented reputation as the authentic voices of their people. Perhaps a walk-out, if their colleagues refuses a bill for the devolution of more fiscal powers to states or for a return to the regionalism or for the creation of an extra state for the South-east would be more appreciated. Again a walk-out with their colleagues from the South-south, in defence of resource control, will resonate better.

    Even an expanded walk-out, inclusive of the South-west and South-south legislators over fiscal federalism, would come closer to the agitation of the people of the South-east. But to work-out over a bill to gain a little extra share, from the dwindling corruption-infested national cake, when populist Biafra agitators are asking for dissolution of the nation, or in the least, devolution of power, is a non-starter if the competition is populism. Between a development commission that will be poorly funded, if ever, and the devolution of power to states to gift them a production economy, the people of South-east will choose the latter.

    Furthermore, save for being an imitation of the reactionary North East Development Commission, itself modelled after the NDDC Act, which itself, is no more than a bribe, to the exploited oil-bearing states in the Niger Delta, the South-east legislators should know that such a bill cannot pass in a National Assembly heavily skewed against the South-east, with the least number of representatives among the zones. Again, with the South-east adroitly surviving marginalisation by the Nigerian state, when compared to the developmental index of the other benefiting regions, what compelling arguments have they presented to sway their colleagues?

    But of course, the South-east legislators, albeit the South-east political leadership are not unmindful of their limitations in a federation rigged against their region. Most likely, the legislators were merely trying to save their political skin from the resurgent agitations for Biafra. But their challenge should not force them to take a jump with the hope that their colleagues would show some sympathy. What is urgently needed is a bipartisan South-east agreement on the minimum political interests of the region, which the people of the region will be enjoined to use their votes to enforce.

    As things stand, the South-east politicians may be compelled to make the demands of Biafra agitators a campaign issue to win the popular vote in 2019. Until the last sit-at-home appeal, turned a success, many of the politicians in the South-east and their kin in Rivers and Delta states would have openly dismissed the Biafra agitators as rabble rousers. But not anymore. Going forward, the successful outing will embolden both the agitators and public office seekers to use Biafra as bait all in pursuit of power and influence.

    But of course, while Nnamdi Kanu is entitled to enjoy the limelight that the successful sit-at-home has projected, he will soon realise, like Uwazurike of old MASSOB, the limits of demagoguery and populism, more so, in a convoluted wretched third-world country like Nigeria. He may have gained some soft power, but there is very little he can deliver to the ordinary folks who are increasingly beholden to him for the new Biafra. In the least, he is not in any position to bring any form of succour to their debilitating economic sufferings.

    Unfortunately, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has contributed a great deal to foist this faith accompli on the politics of the South-east, by its style of brashly excluding the region from this government. With the dispersal of information and knowledge cheaply and timeously, particularly through the social media, it has become extremely difficult to convince otherwise, the excitable young men and women from the South-east that the Nigerian nation-state really want the Igbos as part of the country. The immediate consequence is that potentially dangerous centres of power, are mutating in the region.

    Whether the Buhari government gives a damn, is another matter altogether. But whether the government cares or not about the Biafra agitation and what it ricochets, the government has to face the reality of discontentment among a sizeable and vibrant part of its population. That is why the Buhari government, just like the South-east public power holders, should be embarrassed by the peaceful Biafra Remembrance Day, championed by IPOB/MASSOB. Considering Buhari’s hard stance in dealing with the Igbos for giving him inconsequential votes during the 2015 presidential election, he may find it difficult, to condescend to deal with the leadership of the agitators.

    But eventually, the Nigerian state must either give the region its due in Nigeria to stave further conflagration of the country or prepare to deal with the likely implosion in the offing. If per chance, the Biafra Remembrance Day had turned violent with some people forcefully stopped from going about their business, the government would have justified its hard-line stance, that many people in the region do not support the agitation.

    But alas, majority of Igbos have spoken loudly that they feel marginalised as Nigeria is presently configured. The answer to the mutating Nigeria crisis lies in making Nigeria a workable country, and that requires urgent political and economic reformation without further delay.

  • His Excellency, a fraudster

    As chief law officer of his state, the least Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello could have done was be statute compliant in his bid to regularise his voter registration status. That would have served the collective interest well – not only in keeping with Nigeria’s electoral laws, but also in offering a worthy leadership example to ‘Kogites’ as well as to other citizens beyond the state’s borders. But ‘His Excellency,’ with imperial impunity, steamrollered the minimal benchmark of excellence when he recently chose the crass and crooked option of double registration to getting his name onto the Kogi State voter register. And to compound that offence, he spurned registration points designated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the exercise and appropriated his Government House office for his warped agenda.

    Bello affronted the law in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) by the electoral body. The governor, according to INEC, had registered as a voter in Abuja on 30th January 2011. And we need concede that it is really awkward for a sitting governor to have his voter status outside where he holds office, because that meant he couldn’t even vote for himself in an election. But rather than transfer his records from the Federal Capital Territory to Kogi State as prescribed in the Electoral Act 2010 (as Amended), Bello commandeered INEC officials to his Lokoja office on May 23rd, this year, for another registration. From the audacity in a snapshot of that exercise that has since gone viral, you could guess the governor cared scantly about the law he was violating, or perhaps thought INEC had no capacity to find him out.

    But the commission does have that capacity. And it is about time electoral offenders got to terms with the reality that the loophole of multiple registration, which was historically exploited to pervert the voting process in this country, has been blocked since 2011. With its backend aggregation and cross-matching of all voter data, the electoral body is technologically muscled to detect and staunch extra records of any registrant in its data bank.

    And so the commission, in its recent statement, confirmed the Kogi governor as an electoral offender. It as well disowned the registration staff that abetted him. “We wish to make it clear that no INEC staff was authorised by the commission to re-register him or any citizen, or to do so outside our designated CVR centres,” National Commissioner and chair of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Prince Solomon Soyebi, said. But while the commission marked its complicit staff for disciplinary action, its options regarding the offender governor were constrained by law. “Section 308 (l)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as Amended) precludes lNEC from prosecuting him while in office. However, the commission…has cancelled his second and illegal registration forthwith,” the statement declared.

    It was bad enough that INEC was hamstrung in making an example of a high profile offender like Mr. Governor – which again illustrates the downside of the preemptive immunity our statute book confers on certain public officers, even when they flagrantly break the law. What was galling was the sheer effrontery of Bello’s camp in seeking to justify his ignoble act. The governor’s team accused his adversaries of overplaying the incident, and they were perhaps right that foes had seized on the misadventure to upend his political capital, which he sadly provided them the ammunition to do.

    But that by no means conferred the camp a mandate to airbrush executive impunity as it did. Because if his spokesman rightly represented his thinking, Bello perhaps felt he did INEC a favour by shortcutting the painstaking process of voter transfer outlined in Section 13(1) – (4) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as Amended) to engage in double registration, and by doing that at Government House rather than a designated centre. “The governor’s effort to transfer his card from Abuja to Kogi State has not been successful, hence the need to get registered in Kogi State,” his Director of Media and Publicity, Fanwo Kingsley, said in a statement. “As governor of the state, Bello is the chief mover of government policies. He must always lead by example…to woo others to go and register. There was nothing wrong with registering in the Governor’s Office because it belongs to all Kogites. Government House is People’s House,” he added.

    The pedestrian logic of Government House as People’s House being a licence for impunity hacks back to the late Governor Barkin Zuwo of the Second Republic, who was reported to have stashed up raw currencies from the public treasury in the State House and was amazed at public consternation upon being found out, because it was merely government money in government house! But we could also ask by what kind of example the Kogi governor thought he was leading.

    Under INEC’s rules for issuing the Permanent Voter Card (PVC), multiple registration profits nothing because backend data aggregation by the commission invariably throws up the multiple records that get eliminated. The issue is: the frontend abuse that Bello role-modelled heavily bogs down its operations. With little time available before the 2011 elections, the electoral body weeded out 870,612 cases of multiple registration, using the Automated Fingerprints Identification (AFIS) software, to certify a register having some 73million voters on it. And after the elections, it removed about 4million cases more to certify a voter list with 68.8million registrants for the 2015 general election. Besides the time and enormous connectivity costs involved in cleaning out the multiple voter data, abusers needlessly clutter up and, in effect, prolong the registration process, and they hugely waste consumables deployed by the electoral body for the exercise. Remember: those consumables are funded from the public till.

    That is why I think the commission gave in too easily on making a conspicuous example of the Kogi governor, as would deter other offenders. True, he is immunised from prosecution by Section 308, but INEC could have gone ahead to file a symbolic holding charge against him pending whenever he leaves office and loses his constitutional immunity. Since His Excellency stooped to imperial lawlessness, the law should have a way of prepping for imperial sanction.

    For Abubakar Momoh

    What hope should we now have in health-conscious living, when you were fastidious about it with your life and yet death sneaked upon you in your high noon? What confidence should we have in erudition, when your sheer eminence was not sufficient to keep the cruel ambush of mortality at bay? What light should we see in radical courage, when your distinction therein was abruptly overwhelmed by the cowardly stealth of death? What store should we set by the force of life’s prime, when you were radiantly aglow one day, only to become a whisper in the next? If death required credentials for an appointment, you had none that could meet his possible specifications. But you are gone nonetheless. Adieu!

  • Budget 2017 and Recovery and Growth Plan’

    After the infamous and rather ridiculous drama that characterized the 2016 budget, President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2017 Budget Proposals, tagged ‘Budget of Recovery and Growth’ to the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. The proposed total was N7.3 trillion, of which N5.06 trillion was for recurrent expenditure, while N2.24 trillion was for capital expenditure; representing 69.31 percent and 30.69 percent respectively. In the words of the President, “We propose that the implementation of the Budget will be based on our Economic Recovery and Growth Strategy. The Plan… provides a clear road map of policy actions and steps designed to bring the economy out of recession and to a path of steady growth and prosperity.”

    A glance at the budget proposals would make one adjudge it a fantastic one! For instance, there’s an increase of 4.6 percent of the capital expenditure from the 2016 Appropriation Bill. That is, from 26.12 percent in 2016 to 30.69 percent in 2017. I think this is the first time we’re having capital expenditure up to 30 percent since 1999. Because it’s the capital projects that have direct impact on the masses. Kudos to the president!

    Another take-away from the 2017 Budget is that proceeds from oil revenue will be used to resuscitate agriculture and industries. Hear him: “You may recall that oil itself was exploited by investment from agricultural surpluses. We will now use oil revenues to revive our agriculture and industries.” This, in my opinion, is a fantastic idea! I’ve always asked, “Why can’t we use money from our oil boom to develop other sectors of our economy?” To this end, I think the President was on point! However, the implementation is a different ball-game altogether.

    Again, the President acknowledged the bureaucratic bottle-necks that usually hamper the speedy execution of projects and the ease of doing business. Consequently, he declared, “I will be issuing some Executive Orders to ensure the facilitation and speeding up of government procurements and approvals. Facilitation of business and commerce must be the major objective of government agencies.” This promise has already being fulfilled with the recent signing of three Executive Orders (the Ease of Business, Budget Submissions and Made in Nigeria Products) by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo.

    But having gone through some key areas of the budget, juxtaposing it with the inconsistent economic policies of the present administration, and the realities on ground, one is tempted to ask, “Is the 2017 Budget really a Recovery and Growth Plan?

    One sticking point is the financing of the N2.36trillion Budget Deficit through borrowings. But will the borrowings be done for capital expenditure or recurrent expenditure or for both? Where the borrowings will be channeled to wasn’t spelt out in the budget. If the borrowings are to finance recurrent expenditure, it’ll be an unwise economic decision. Because borrowing should be done to invest in ventures (capital projects) that’d bring returns, and not the other way round. Robert Kiyosaki, a financial guru opined that if money is borrowed for Consumption, it’s a Bad Debt, while the one borrowed for Production is a Good Debt.

    The disparity between the budget deficit and the capital expenditure is another area of concern to me: N2.36 trillion was budgeted for the deficit while capital expenditure is 2.24trillion, representing 32.34 percent and 30.69 percent respectively. I’ve no problem with the deficit per se, because it has become an incurable disease in Nigerian budgetary system. But why should the deficit be 1.65 percent higher than the capital expenditure?

    At the President’s budget presentation, he said, “We will increasingly grow and process our own food, we will manufacture what we can and refine our own petroleum products.” I’m attracted to the phrase, ‘refine our own petroleum products.’ At what capacity are the four refineries working? According to the NNPC, as at January, the capacity utilization of the four refineries was 36.73 per cent. Again, Does the President have the political will to clip the wings of the ‘oil cabal’ that’re bent on perpetual importation of petroleum products?

    In the 2017 budget, the total allocation for the Ministry of Petroleum Resources was N69.55 billion. Out this amount, N62.46 billion is to be used for recurrent expenditure, representing 89.8 percent of the total, while N7.093 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure, representing 10.2 per cent of the total allocation. And of course, it’s practically impossible to build a new standard refinery even with the total budget of N69.55billion; let alone with a paltry sum of N7.093billion of capital expenditure! So, how do we ‘refine our own petroleum products’ with the present (almost moribund) four refineries? At present, Nigeria is importing about 80 percent of petroleum products. And so long as we continue to import, the pressure will be on the naira. This will make economic recovery and growth somewhat difficult since the budget is based largely on oil revenue.

    Furthermore, the 2017 Budget proposals still retain the allocation of N500 billion to the Special Intervention programme consisting of the Home-grown School Feeding Programme, Government Economic Empowerment programme, N-Power Job Creation Programme, Conditional Cash Transfers to the poorest families and the new Family Homes Fund. The N-Power programme is laudable, but I’ve problem with the School Feeding programme and the Conditional Cash Transfers to the poorest of families! We need to ask some pertinent questions here: should feeding of the pupils be top priority? Will it eradicate poverty from their families? What criteria will they use to determine the poorest families to ‘transfer cash’ to?

    If we must recover from the recession and expedite growth in the economy, the President must appoint the right people into positions. Nigeria is in dire need of philosopher-kings (technocrats) more than ever before in this present economic crunch!

    As I said earlier, the Government Economic Empowerment programme (GEEP) and the N-Power Job Creation programmes are good. On Democracy Day, May 29, I listened to the live broadcast on radio, the Scorecard of the Social Investment Programme; and I heard the testimonies of those who have benefited from the programme. The Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment Programme, Mrs. Mayam Uwais gave a detailed step-by-step process on how they selected the contractors and the beneficiaries of the programme. Also, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, the Minister for Information and Culture, said that about 12,000 cooks were empowered, 25 million meals served for over one million pupils, and so on.

    However, I’m still not convinced of the Home-grown School Feeding programme and the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme. What the government would’ve done is to economically empower the parents of the pupils so they can cater to the needs of their children. By so doing, for instance, the children can eat their fill. This conforms to the Chinese proverb which says, “If you give a man fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for life.” Also, the money allotted to the two programmes would’ve been used to build more factories or revive the moribund industries, and increase the agricultural sector allocation. This, of course, would create more jobs and boost food security. Because, according to the President, “the proposed allocation to the [agricultural] sector this year is at a historic high of N92billion.”

    Finally, we’re now 24 months into the administration, and there are no indicators of economic recovery, soon. Though the government said that the moment the 2017 Budget is signed into law by the president, we’d witness massive developments. And that the economy will come out of the recession by the third quarter of this year. Well, as a positive-minded Nigerian with an unbiased but open-mind, I look forward to seeing the realization of the ‘Recovery and Growth Plan’.

     

    • Chijioke is of the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.

  • The time to prepare for the 2020 Olympics is right now

    The closing of each Olympics is also the closing of all talks on the Olympics; this shouldn’t be.

    It is exactly three years to go till the next Olympic Games.  For Nigeria, the Olympics istaken like a marker in the now regular four yearly jamboree.

    The closing of each Olympics is also the closing of all talks on the Olympics, it becomes stale news.  Then in the next one, some ambitious people will be expecting some medals from the team again.

    Taking a good look at Team Nigeria, the first thing you always see is the large contingent.  In the past, the international media had criticized us on this large contingent of officials and athletics.  Invariably, they return with no, or few medals.  My mother lives in England and tells me that there, Nigeria is known for breaking many records – all the wrong records that is!  Even now, the next Commonwealth Games comes up in just ten months in Queensland, Australia. So far, all that has been seen is the parade of the Games torch. But I want to believe that preparation is at advanced stage now.

    I have watched an advertised study report on the dismal performance of Team Nigeria at a past Olympics (not Rio 2016).  It was put together and aired on CCTV then.

    Three remarkable people deserve kudos here;

    1)      The Paraolympians.  They come into reckoning once every four years before being forgotten again – but they are the ones who redeem the nation’s Olympic image, breaking world records and bringing in the gold medals.

    2)      You will read of this here for the first time- Lawrence Iquaibom, the 1984 Olympian was the only African, only Nigerian to serve as Referee in weightlifting at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

    3)      Table tennis player ArunaQuadri who retired after Rio.  He bowed out as the first African to reach the Olympic Quarter finals, beaten only by world Number One Seed, Ma Long from China.

    China dominates in table tennis, Russia is good at gymnastics for Jamaica, it is the sprint races. Japan, that our football team beat in the opening match, maintained its top ten spot on the medals table.The East African bloc has its grip on the long distance races: Which One Is The Nigerian Team Good For?

    Nigeria is not without a Ministry of Youth and Sports, as well as National Sports Commission NSC, Nigeria Olympics Committee NOC, Local Organizing Committee (LOC); name it, we have got it.  But they seem to deploy a modus operandi of letting the young ones (athletes) work hard to feed them fat.

    Nigeria is represented at most major international competitions by ill-prepared and demotivated athletes.  Sometimes their officials even leave these athletes behind after competitions, abandoned and stranded in their hotels with bills unpaid.

    Last year, a team of U-17 Girls was hastily assembled and taken to Jordan to compete in a FIFA age-grade competition.  This was after two (2) days of camping in Abuja, for girls who have NEVER before played in a real football tournament in their lives.

    But still staying with the Olympics, Sampson Siasia too deserves kudos – Coach Samson, not minding the backlog of salaries owed, struggle hard with junior football team.  After all the fits and starts (defined by Coach Fanny Amun as ‘Wobbling and Fumbling’), Siasia’s team brought back  one bronze medal after winning a playoff match against Honduras.

    But where would any Olympic athlete possibly come from?  From he grassroots!  And such a one would still have to be groomed and prepared by regular training, dedicated camping and frequent competition.

    Good news for any sports lover here. It is great to find that a new set of governors are in the saddle now, and quite a few of them are taking steps to get back to the basics and revive school sports in their various states.

    Governor AkinwunmiAmbode of Lagos State is taking sports business seriously.  On February, 11th this year, he signed the Sports Trust Fund into law.  Same day he signed the Sports Commission Act into law.  And he has added a one-of-a-kind aspect to the celebration of Lagos at 50.  IN addition to the regular wining and dining that accompanies such events nationwide, Governor Ambode has added Sports Clinic for the youths as the state.  And it will be conducted by no less a personality than former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.  Holyfield, on arrival last week promptly donated medical equipment worth $3m (Three Million Dollars) to the state.  Hopefully Olympic level pugilists would be spotted and groomed from those clinics!

    I am also impressed by the efforts of Governor Udom Emmanuel.  Bearing in mind that it is a catch – them – young exercise that would produce future Olympic stars, theAkwaIbom state helmsman built a mini sports complex in Itam , in one of the secondary schools in the state. That it was built and commissioned in an Olympic year makes it even more significant, for me.  Many more of such mini sports complexes are in various stages of construction in schools across the local governments of the state, for students‘ use.

    And it was a delight to even the Sports Minister Solomon Dalung to personally declare open the first ever AkwaIbom Youth sports festival for primary and secondary schools. Thiswas in March in Uyo; thereafter the state was able to fish out boys to make up a team which participated in the new La Liga U-15 tournamentinOwerri, in April.

    Before now, across the states, it was only the individual schools, private and public thatwere separately having inter-house sports competitions, with little else added.  But Mr. Udom Emmanuel’s method is exactly the way to scout for and then groom future champions.

    Fact remains that hurried, ad-hoc preparation for the most prestigious sporting event on earth will hardly deliver a worthwhile outcome.

    And now, since every four years the rest of the world gets better and better prepared for the Olympics, I wish to say, if those in charge kingly listen:

    The time to prepare for Tokyo 2020 is now.

     

  • Beyond propaganda: Promises made, promises kept 

    One popular maxim in journalism and indeed a true life axiom is that facts are sacred but opinions are free. It is based on this  paradigm that the two year anniversary of the 8th Senate under the able leadership of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki would be reviewed.

    Despite the various distractions and negative propaganda  that are being churned out,  the real facts  on ground show that the 8th Senate  has indeed taken its  legislative duties and interventions  to higher levels in terms of keeping promises earlier made through its legislative agenda and in moving the country forward. At all times, the Senate has been able to demonstrate that when facts are separated from mere tissues of propaganda, it will be clear that the legislative institution is delivering on its mandate.

    Available statistics show that the Eighth Senate has done better than its predecessors since 1999 in terms of works done. For instance,, the senate just last week broke the jinx over the 17 years  Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB). It is note worthy that the passage of this bill is in line with the agenda the senate set for itself after its inauguration in June 2015. By this singular action of the 8th Senate, this bill when concurred by the House of Representatives  snd assented to by the President is expected to  create a conducive business environment for petroleum operations

    Apart from this, it will equally enhance exploitation and exploration of petroleum resources in Nigeria for the benefit of Nigerians as well as help optimize domestic gas supplies, especially for power generation and industrial development and  encourage investment in Nigerian petroleum industry

    The passage of the PIGB by the senate will  optimize government revenue, establish profit-driven oil entities,  deregulate and liberalize the downstream petroleum sector. The proposed law would create efficient and effective regulatory agencies, promote the development of Nigerian content in the oil industry as well as protect health, safety and the environment in petroleum operations. No doubt, the PIGB will lead to the establishment of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Investment Pact Scheme and this will ensure that components of industry equipment can be manufactured locally.

    Also, for the first time in the last one decade of budget processing, the 8th Senate kept to its promise to open the budget of the National Assembly for public scrutiny. It changed the  narratives of the secrecy of the National Assembly budget by moving from a one line budget item, to a 33 page budget details. Sponsored Civil Society Groups who believed the promise to open up the budget will never be done were caught pants down when the National Assembly budget was made open against their expectation. What else is transparency, if not this promise made and indeed kept.

    Mischief makers have always fed some gullible members of the public that the funds in the budget of the National Assembly is shared literally between members of the two chambers by dividing the budget figure by 469- that  is the number of members of the National Assembly. Simply put, bring out your calculator and share the budget with either 109 senators or with 360 House of Representatives members and they go to town with exaggerated figures what they believe is the earnings of the legislature.

    With this attitude, they choose to ignore allocations to other departments, institutions and purpose within the National Assembly like the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), National Assembly Civil Service Commission (NASC), the National Assembly Management and the over 5000 legislative aides,  among others. Now the bottom of that  campaign of calumny had been removed.

    While there have been inadequate appreciation of the role of the legislature in our democracy, one can argue that the situation is understandable.  But a retrospective mind would recall that in any military rule, whether in Nigeria or any other country that has had the misfortune of military involvement in politics,  the legislature is usually the missing arm. Indeed,  both the executive and the judiciary arms are what comprised the government in a military setting. However. It is obvious that none  of these two arms is as representative of the peoples’ interest as the legislature.

    So, within the prism of the role of the legislature,  the 8th Senate under Saraki has proved and lived up to expectations despite all odds. On a comparative note, in the 5th Senate,  a total of 370 bills were considered, 360 of the bills passed first reading and 196 passed  the second reading. Whereas in the 6th Senate, 225 bills were processed and in the 7th Senate 526 bills were considered in four years. But in just two years, the 8th has received 394 bills,  which almost doubled what other sessions has done in four years.

    Still on the legislative interventions of the 8th Senate, when it assumed legislative duties and to its chagrin, discovered the ripe off on the economy through the fragrant abuse of the waivers import duties on rice importation. The Senate took the initiative  by setting up committee that came out with the revelation of how much the nation bled under the import duty regime. The ripe off from the import duties stood at over N447 billion. The abuse of the import duties on rice dates back to 2013

    From the available records, the Senate as at press time has received request from the presidency to screen 196 presidential nominees,  out of which 185 were successfully screened. In fact,  it is on record that the 8th Senate gave a hundred percent clearance to the ministerial list.  None of the ministerial nominees despite protests from some quarters were dropped.

    The facts of the matter is that only nine out of the presidential nomineees did not scale through the Senate screening for appointments into their substantive offices.  These included nominee for office of chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),  Ibrahim Magu and two ambassadorial nominees.  One  was a retired judge from Imo state who is 82 years old and refused to answer questions from the screening committee.  The other nominee from Ondo State was disqualified due to report of the Department of State Security (DSS)  indicting him.  Whereas,  the  nominee for the office of the Chairman of the National Electricity Regulation Commission  (NERC)   did not even show up for screening and the three other nominees from the Niger Delta Development Commission  (NDDC) were disqualified for one reason or the other. Yet propagandists went to town accusing  the Senate of not co-operating with President Buhari led administration. This is spurious claim not supported by facts.

    Still on interventions and promises kept,  within the period under review, it was through the legislative efforts of the senate that the fraudulent activities in the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) was discovered and over N20 billion was saved from the implementation of the  policy. The same is the position with the fraud in the NNPC to which some top oil magnates are undergoing interrogation for their role in this economic sabotage ranging into billions of Naira.

    The Senate in the  cause of its duties mandated the National Electricity Regularity Commission (NERC) to abolish the fixed charges on electricity consumption as well as the bulk metering of villages and communities to be stopped. The same  is the role played by the Senate when the  National Communication Commission (NCC) increased arbitrarily the data price. The senate intervention made the NCC to reverse the policy.

    Just two months ago,  the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN) commended the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki for his intervention which led the Federal Government to introduce an Import Adjustment Tax policy in 2016 that has encouraged pharmaceutical industries in the country to thrive.

    The National President of PMG-MAN, Mr. Okey Akpa, gave the commendation when he led other national executive members of the association on a thank you to the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki.

    It could be recalled that last year, when PMG-MAN came to the Senate, Saraki assured them that the Senate would advocate for reduction in the prevailing Common External Tariff (CET) on the importation of pharmaceutical raw materials, to boost local production of drugs that would enable Nigerians all over the country have access to cheaper medications.

    What else do you call this, if  not evidence of promise made, promise kept.

    • Chuks Okocha is Special Assistant to the Senate President 

  • Champions League: Sustaining transformational power of global football

    FOOTBALL is rapidly witnessing a transformation all over the world, with a massive global audience on social media and television. This confirms the UEFA Champions League final’s status as the world’s most watched annual sporting event. An estimated global television audience of 180 million in over 200 territories tuned in to see FC Barcelona beat Juventus 3-1 in Berlin, growing by 18 per cent from the 2014 final of Real Madrid – Atletico Madrid. Successfully engaging football fans all over the world on Twitter and Facebook during match nights, Heineken has given the Champions League an enticing social media appeal.

    There were 108 million tweets about the 2016 final during the evening of the game, with 500 million engagements on Facebook during the 2015/2016 season, while it was watched by more than 165 million people across 200 countries. It is indisputable that since the Heineken-UEFA partnership, the Champions League has grown to become the biggest sporting event in the world, arguably beating the FIFA World Cup. It has grown from being just a football competition to an experience that connects football fans every night, and across media platforms.

    Through this amazing football experience, Heineken has inspired fans to put everything into watching the game with friends, enjoy Heineken beer and experience the greatest Champions league football moments. Heineken is using its sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League to promote its brand essence and motivate the youths to explore opportunities presented by the game. In February 2017, Heineken delighted football fans and beer consumers all over the world by announcing a three-year extension to its current agreement with UEFA to sponsor the UEFA Champions League. The new agreement means Heineken continues as a major partner of the world’s most prestigious club football competition until the end of the 2021 season- a partnership that also includes the UEFA Super Cup 2018, 2019 and 2020. For over a decade, Heineken has successfully sponsored the UEFA Champions League, delivering memorable and unique fan experiences to 4.2 billion people in over 220 countries.

    Since 2007, the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by Heineken has visited over 35 countries in Africa, Asia, North and South America. With these series of engagements, Heineken has provided amazing opportunities for fans globally to touch the trophy and experience the feelings of champions without being registered as professional football players in Europe. In Nigeria, football is a unifying factor – providing neutral meeting grounds for football fans and Heineken consumers regardless of gender, education, social level, political affiliation or ideology. Most importantly, with the Heineken Champions Planet, Champions League match nights have fostered new relationships, strengthened friendships and created conversations globally. At the start of this season’s UEFA Champions League, Heineken launched “The Prep Talk”, a campaign that sees Jose Mourinho, a two-time UEFA Champions League winning manager deliver a passionate address to fans across the globe, urging them to be a part of every match night no matter where they are or their times zones.

    This phase of the campaign marked the 11thyear of Heineken’s sponsorship of the tournament with global and regional versions of the campaign film shared online and broadcast on television. Currently, the video has received over 50 million YouTube views and beamed across 90 countries globally. Senior Director, Global Heineken brand at Heineken, Gianluca Di Tondo said: “Preparing for UEFA Champions League match night makes the experience even better. With a little bit of thought and effort, fans and their friends will have a greater experience. Sometimes a little inspiration is needed, and who better to motivate them to ‘Champion the Match’ than Jose Mourinho.” In April, the brand also announced a partnership with Jose Mourinho for “No More Excuses” – a campaign to remind and incentivise fans to be part of the UEFA Champions League match nights. Fans’ excuses for not connecting during match nights are addressed and selected participants with relatable reasons are rewarded.

    This way, Heineken has created a synergy between the brand, the global football fans and the UEFA Champions League. The firm had during the kick-off of the UEFA Champions League Season 2016/2017 with group viewing by football fans and wants the youths to not only watch the game, but explore the opportunities that come with it. The UEFA Champions League is a premium football event featuring quality players. The best of the team across Europe play in the Champions League. Heineken is working on how to get more businesses involved in the game in the interest of the economy.

    The firm’s retail outlets have partnership with DSTV to ensure that the broadcast is done in a way that everybody can access it. It is also to ensure that more people have access to the viewing the game in a legal way. The youth is connecting to the Heineken brand. Basically, the brand is telling consumers not to just watch Champions League, we are also telling them to champion the match. Consumers should prepare with their friends, have a plan and enjoy themselves. They should go to Champions League viewing centres not just to go and watch the match, but to say that they have had an experience with their friends. •Okosisi, a sports enthusiast and brand analyst, lives in Lagos.

  • Ambode: Stamping innovative leadership on Lagos @ 50: An insider’s perspective

    TODAY, Lagos as a State in the entity called Nigeria is 50! Hurray!! To God Almighty be the glory!!! Despite surging and surfing through currents of constraints and challenges, the State has not only survived, candidly, the Centre of Excellence, Lagos, is yet growing stronger in all facets of development. In this regard, the story of Lagos rising from a tiny fishing colony to aspiring model megacity cannot be complete without mentioning the leaders that had mounted the saddle over these eventful years. Lagos has his own share of leadership selection, succession and struggles both during the military and civilian regimes spanning her 50 years chequered history as a State with Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson emerging as the first Military Governor in May 1967. Presently, as Lagos is today, it is a city-state that is already a megacity (as the population is more than 10 million).

    Unknown to many, there is a Lagos State Development (LSDP) with the overarching objective of making Lagos a model megacity that is safe, secured, productive and functional by the year 2025. Worthy to mention within the context and content of this write-up, is the progressive era of three Governors that has lifted the lid off maintenance and managing the status quo approach to leadership. If one agrees with the popular leadership practitioner, John Maxwell, that “leadership is influence”, and also that “everything rises or falls on leadership”, the initiator of that progressive period of transformation in Lagos is none other than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who held sway from 1999 to 2007. Kudos should be given to a foresighted strategic planner and thinker in Asiwaju who could be likened to an architect cognitively concerned with conceiving a master plan or blue print of the Lagos of his heart. Succinctly stated, the strategic planner and thinker, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu laid the foundation of what can be referred to as the modern Lagos (just like Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore).

    Asiwaju is also adept in financial engineering lifting the bar in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to higher heights than many could imagine! He is a man with uncommon vision and passion with a flair for commerce and mastery of the grassroots politics. His adroitness in handling grassroots politics with myriads of acolytes and adherents has made him stand out among contemporary politicians of his time, nationally and internationally. Next in line was Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, anointed by Tinubu to the chagrin of many top party leaders. He mounted the saddle, from 2007 to 2015, and commenced building on the foundation laid by Tinubu.

    He went further to exemplifying and amplifying servant leadership values and virtues. BRF, as was referred to by his admirers, having been part and parcel of the Tinubu administration especially as Chief of Staff, learned a lot as a mentee or protégé of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Once sworn in as Governor, he hit the ground running by strengthening and sustaining institutions and programmes already initiated by his mentor. He forayed also into certain areas of governance that endeared the heart of Lagosians to him. In the saddle presently in Lagos, Governor Akinwunmi Adedapo Ambode, a man with uncommon passion for development laced with adept and adroit financial engineering, ushered in the slogan: “Itesiwaju Ipinle Eko, Lo Je Wa Logun!” meaning we are committed to the progressive development of Lagos State. Ambode, after the last general election of April 2015 that sharply polarized the State on tribal line and lane, for the first time in her 50 years of chequered existence, mounted the saddle rolling up his sleeves (remember one of his numerous campaign visual expressions) in practical demonstration of government of inclusion with his vision of “One Lagos”.

    Succinctly and saliently stated, Lagos has evolved over years of prudent and pragmatic planning starting with Asiwaju Tinubu to become the richest State in Nigeria. Going forward within the context and context of this piece, there is the need to look at the term, innovative leadership.

    Innovative leaders manage the process of innovation. In certain instances, the onus lies on the leader to initiate new ideas needed to engender the organization prospering, while in others, the innovative leader champions the way in fostering and recognizing followers who brings new ideas to the table (Source: online.stu.edu). Watching as a scholar, researcher and insider in government, Ambode’s approach could cognitively and candidly be referred to as innovative in colour, content and context. Innovative Strides of Ambode in Lagos: Construction of 114 Roads Project The 114 Roads Project apparently the first joint State-Local Government collaboration yielding delivery of 2 roads per Local Government Area. This initiative really connected the dots of rural, semi-urban to urban road network State-wide. In the course of monitoring and evaluating, it was observed that many people at the grassroots have been engaged, empowered and economically better off.

    In one of such monitoring inspections that I led, I and my team was told of how a landed property after completing the road project in that Local Government was sold for more than four times the value before the commencement of the 114 roads project. Lagos Light Up Project This is another first of the Ambode administration.

    This was State-wide spanning Lekki, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Agege, Ojodu-Berger, Alimosho, Ojo, Badagary, Somolu, Mushin, Ikeja, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, and to nooks and crannies of Lagos such that visibility at night is enhanced. According to an empirically based evaluation conducted by the Monitoring and Evaluation Department of Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos State, the innovative project has enhanced positively socio-economic activities as more jobs are indirectly created as people work more hours than hitherto. In addition, crime rate has been reduced in the State. There is no fear of sustainability as the administration has appointed facility managers, sector by sector State-wide, to see to the day to day functioning of the project.

    Rent to own mortgage scheme Having identified a short fall of 2.5 million housing deficits in Lagos, the government of Lagos State innovatively crafted a scheme referred to as “Rent-To-Own”. According to a research that the author of this piece conducted in 2010, one of the areas Lagosians did not feel the impact of the erstwhile government in power was in the area of housing. The Ambode administration decided to take the bull by the horns. The Rent-to-own policy targets both the low and medium income earners as individuals are required to pay 5 per cent of the value of the housing unit as commitment fee and the balance is spread over 10 years.

    Thus, the tenant lives in the property while paying monthly after which he becomes the owner of the property at the expiration of 10 years. This is unique nationally and internationally. General and food security initiatives It is the Governor’s opinion that with a safer Lagos, the economy will be boosted with attraction of more local and foreign investment resulting in employment generation with more taxes accruing to the State over time.

    This is both visionary and innovative in leadership approach. The Rapid Response Squad (RRS) established during Asiwaju Tinubu’s era, strengthened with the establishment of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, a public private partnership initiative during the Fashola’s tenure, and both institutions are now sustained by the Ambode’s administration. The present government fortified the RRS with brand new modern security equipment and vehicles worth a whopping sum of Four Billion, Seven Hundred and Sixty-Five Million Naira (N4.765bn) during a recession of the economy at the national level! This is commendable.

    The government at Alausa knowing the link between food security and general security initiated a collaborative programme towards ensuring self sufficiency in food production. This collaborative effort between Lagos and Kebbi produced the “Lake Rice”. The brand name “Lake” is innovatively crafted from an amalgamation of the first two letters of Lagos and Kebbi. Kudos should be given to both Governors Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State and his Kebbi State counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu. It is instructive to note that that at the unveiling in December 2016, the price of the commodity was further reviewed downward from N13,000 to N12,000 to allow more citizens to benefit from this initiative. Seemingly, for the very first time, the Presidency was elated with this uncommon collaboration lauding both Governors while President Muhammadu Buhari appealed for more joint scheme among States.

    Massive Infrastructural Renewal… It is heart warming that within the last 50 Days, many landmark projects were commissioned in the Centre of Excellence. There are litany of projects some already completed while many others on-going at frenetic speed. Ambode has silenced many critics of former administrations in Lagos cynically denigrating their achievement in infrastructural development with a jaundiced opinion of concentrating core development along the upscale Ikoyi-Victoria Island-Lekki corridor while jettisoning other areas of the State. Notable among these projects are:

    The Transformation of Ojodu-Berger (a major gateway to Lagos), Jubilee Overhead Bridge at Abule-Egba, Ajah Overheard Bridge, Admiralty Way, Lekki, Freedom Road, Lekki, Upgarding of Strategic Arterial/Inner Roads in Epe (Epe-Itoikin Road, Epe-Mojoda to Ijebu Ode Road) to the Ogun State Border, Epe Marina Project, Aboru Link Bridge plus Aboru Extension of Network of Roads in Alimosho, Omotayo Banwo/Kola Iyaomolere/Adetunji Adegbite Street, Agboyi-Ketu (opening up Ogudu to Ketu-Alapere to Mile 12). In addition, Massive Intervention in provision of Traffic Infrastructure such as slip roads, lay bys, pedestrian bridges spanning Oworosonsoki, Ojota, Alapere, Ogudu, Ojodu-Berger, and Signalization of Lekki-Epe Roads at points where there existed roundabouts to aid flow of traffic thus reducing travel time, etc. Ambode with the speed and strength of horse has penetrated everywhere in the State with massive infrastructural renewal projects. It is relevant to state that even virulent opposition voices are applauding the present administration in this area.

    It is on a good note that Chief Bode George, a chieftain of the opposition party, was appraising and applauding the giant strides of the Ambode administration. In his own words as reported in major newspapers on 14th February 2017, he saliently stated inter alia: “I have never met this young man, but I must say that I am impressed with his performance so far especially in the area of infrastructural developments”. Educate Lagos: Another initiative of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration which offer free text books for students in both primary and secondary schools in Lagos State. In addition, there is unfettered access to 1,600 videos on numerous subjects, 2,000 study aids in key subjects areas, vocational training videos, online courses on coding, Yoruba historical videos, etc. Included in the package, is the Digital Library which enhances speedy development in education and social sectors. Free Wifi @ Parks The Governor flagged off the Free Wi-Fi Services at Lagos State owned Parks.

    This was flagged off at the Ndubuisi Kanu Park, Alausa Ikeja. This is the first of its kind in Nigeria. This is part of the smart city initiative of the present administration. It is a step towards building a global and competitive economy in which Lagos will be hub of business and economic activities. Going forward, this initiative in partnership with MainOne Cables, will be replicated in virtually all major parks in the State so as to enable and empower Lagosians freely express their opinions via the new citizen gate portal. Lagos up to date with pensions and salaries Despite the economic crunch and constraints in Nigeria, it is gladdening to note that the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode does not owe pensions and salaries.

    The government deserves a pat on the back for this gracious gesture bearing in mind the competing needs vis-s-vis dwindling revenues at all levels of government in a time like this. It is remarkable that the government of Akinwunmi Ambode pays civil servants regularly by 22nd or 23rd of every month since inception. Increased Internally Generated Revenue (IGR): despite the economic glut nationwide, the IGR under the watch of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who is not only a chartered accountant but a financial engineer has increased. It is pertinent to state succinctly that as an insider in government that a lot of water passed under the bridge before this feat could be achieved. There were myriads of meetings and consultations where a lot of ingenuity, ideas and innovations were injected resulting in the figures coming out at the end of the day.

    Member of the 100 Resilient Cities: Lagos was recently admitted into the 100 Resilient Cities. This is another first of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration. What makes a city resilient? Simply and squarely stated, it is the elasticity to manage change in the midst of unforeseen circumstances. Lagos was adjudged to be admitted into the 100 Resilient Cities according to the President of the 100 Resilient Cities, Mr Michael Berkowitz, “Lagos was chosen among over 1000 other applications for its innovative leadership, infrastructural strides and influential status, not just in Africa but in the world”. This is one attestation of the Innovative Leadership style of Ambode in the Centre of Excellence.

    Conclusion There are many perspectives, depending on individuals, about what Lagos is to them. Having read many people’s stories relating to how they perceive Lagos, I am fascinated by the succinct and salient way the award winning Nation’s newspaper and famed journalist, Sam Omatseye depicted it: “But it was a city where I first found my tongue and feet. Where I kicked my first ball, wrote my first sentence and ran to safety … during the civil war… made my first friend, loosed my tongue into its first song…etc. (Sam Omatseye, The Nation: 08th May 2017). To the author, it was a city where I had the vantage opportunity, one of the magnanimity of Lagos, after concluding my PhD (Management by Research) in Malaysia, to making my vision vividly expressed having spent 7 years sojourning and savouring governance in South East nations of Singapore and Malaysia. It is a dream coming to pass. Thank you Lagos for the space, support and succour. •Dr Ekundayo, J. M. O, Director, Monitoring & Evaluation Department, Ministry of Economic Planning & Budget, Lagos State can be reached through his email: HYPERLINK “mailto:drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com” drjmoekundayo@ hotmail.com

  • Ambode and Diaspora festival

    On Wednesday May 3, Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode was host to the committee on Diaspora Festival, Badagry, 2017 led by Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs. It was the first time a governor of the state would demonstrate overt commitment and interest in a festival whose content, context and concept have demonstrated so much potentials to open up the state to outbound tourists via the ancient city of Badagry close to two decades now. In his response to the presentation earlier made by Hon. Abike Dabiri and this writer on the need for the state to blaze the trail in harnessing the benefits associated with Diaspora engagement and reintegration into the state’s socio-economic make-up and how international tourism would flourish with the festival, the governor declared that Lagos remains the capital of the black states in the world and that Diaspora Festival will do well to position the state for diaspora reconnection and eventual return. Governor Ambode further declared  the festival as an elongated programme of the 50th anniversary of Lagos State which he stated, shall continue until the end of the year and that the Diaspora Festival, Badagry 2017 would form a cardinal part of the events commemorating the creation of Lagos State.

    The governor unequivocally expressed government’s commitment to recreating and developing potentials in Badagry and advised that a framework for its sustainability on annual basis should be put in place. The governor concluded saying ‘We’ll support everything that is Badagry’.

    One cannot but applaud the governor’s uncanny ability and insight to decipher potentials and opportunities for growth and development where it seems none to others. Diaspora festival is a peculiar kind of festival that is a common phenomenon that has become a force in driving international tourism along the coastal states of West Africa. In Ghana it is referred to as Pan African Festival (PANAFEST); in Gambia it is called Homecoming Roots Festival, in Senegal it is Goree Diaspora Festival, and in the Republic of Benin it is referred to as Voodoo Pilgrimage Festival, to mention just few. These festivals have been designed to attract the historic African Diaspora back to their cultural and ancestral roots. The importance attached to the festival by these countries is reflected in the fact that the presidency of the respective countries is involved in its organization. This is premised on the history of enormous socio-economic opportunities and potentials the diaspora has come to symbolize for many countries across the globe. Many of these countries have created ministries of diaspora and tourism for the purposes of diaspora engagement and building their economies through cultural connections.

    The formation of the diaspora is generally premised on dispersals of people into spaces which could either be voluntary or forceful. In mapping the history of African Diaspora, three historical dimensions can simply be configured: the people of African descent that had migrated from Africa in the pre-historical period about 6 – 7 million years ago to populate other parts of the world (based on the proven hypothesis that Africa is the birthplace of humanity); second is those that were the consequence of forceful dispersals as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade starting from the 15th century; thirdly, those Africans that found their ways in foreign lands as a result of failure of social, economic and political order in their respective countries  and the economic pull of the global North. As a fall out of these historical trajectories, people of African descents are to be found today in all continents of the world.

    It is however to be noted that these groups of African ‘emigrants’ have evolved and developed into economic, technological, intellectual and social capital in their countries of residence. But inherent in the complexion of the diaspora is the fundamental issue of vestigial discrimination culminating in constant nostalgia to link up with the primordial or ancestral homeland as the ideal final home of return, hence there is always the element of personal or vicarious relations to the homeland development in an ethno-communal consciousness, though not all diaspora share this ideology.

    Therefore, beyond sending remittances and other indirect investment through stocks, bonds, and deposits accounts and the growth of specific sectors such as tourism or information technology through means other than direct investment which have been very instrumental to economic recovery and development of many countries all over the world, the diaspora can also promote trade and foreign direct investment, create businesses and spur entrepreneurship, and transfer new knowledge and skills. In the contemporary African socio-economic world  that labours under lack of investment and international business acumen, lack of professional and technical skills, isolation from global networks of knowledge, and exclusion from global supply chains, proper and coherent  diaspora engagement policy can fill this vacuum and reposition Africa for global reckoning. The reason therefore is not far-fetched why the African Union in 2005 declared African Diaspora as the ‘sixth region’ of the continent. But much still needs to be done in this respect.   

    The Diaspora festival is in itself a global tourism product which has been described as a ‘nostalgic tourism’. It celebrates the identity, culture, history, heritage and tradition of a given people in a given destination usually in the primordial homeland at a given period. In other words, the festival aggregates both the tangible and intangible cultural resources as expressed in the history, artefacts, monuments, places of memory, religion, topographical attraction and the rustic environmental ambiance of the homeland as instigator for homeland nostalgia or pull factors for the diaspora temporal or permanent return. The festival is usually weaved around the tragic history of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as occasion to celebrate African history, freedom and achievement of the Black race.

    The adoption of the Diaspora festival by Governor Ambode with the symbolic Door of Return ceremony as against Point of No Return, a vestige of the gory slave trade history in Badagry is awesomely historic. The state will go down in history as the first in Africa to symbolically open its door to diaspora return and engagement. In developing tourism, the state needs such a mega event as Diaspora festival or  Diaspora tourism to drive and achieve its tourism development target as contained in the Lagos State Development Plan 2012 – 20125 of attracting 150 million annual tourists arrival and that tourism revenue to contribute 10% to the State’s GDP. The state remains the most endowed in terms of tourism resources and if fully harnessed and developed will catapult the state from its present fifth position to first economy in Africa in no distant future.

    Diaspora festival as a nostalgic form of tourism has the potentials to turn around the history of tourism in Lagos State. California is a state in the United States of America whose economy is dependent virtually on tourism. Today California is the 6th largest economy in the world. As a matter of fact the economy of the global North is hinged 70% on tourism. Tourism has become an integral part of the global economy that cannot be ignored. Lagos is well positioned for fantastic tourism development and a huge potential to become a major tourists destination in Africa with its socio-economic performance indicators of being host to over 2,000 industrial establishments, 10,000 commercial ventures, 22 industrial estates, responsible for 30% of the nation’s GDP, and accounts for 80% of national aviation traffic, 70% of national maritime cargo freight, 50% of national energy consumption.

    What is more, with a population that hits 20 million in 2015 according to the UN making it the third largest city in the world and the socio-economic indices and demographic details enumerated above, and monumental efforts of the present administration towards infrastructural development, reclamation of marinas, security and the erection of world class statues in strategic centres in the state are steps consciously taken by the governor to prepare the ground for thriving tourism business in Lagos State.

     

    • Olaide-Mesewaku writes from Badagry, Lagos State.