The Nation Newspaper

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  • Body language and building a new Nigeria

    After a very deep reflection from independence to the present time, one comes to the irresistible conclusion that the vicissitude of our nation and poor governance has been a failure of institutions or lack of it.  Governance has been a back and forth movement dependent on the personality, character, whims and intuition of the man at the helms of affairs.

    Even though we had the opportunity at independence to have an intellectually-driven leadership with some measures of ideological persuasions, there was scant regards to institution building and respect for rule of law.   The political class was driven by sectarian considerations of ethno-religious pursuit rather than pan-Nigeria agenda.  We had regional leaders in the cloak of nationalism who did very little to transcend their narrow parochial interest. They were venerated ethnic champions who did not possess cosmopolitan view of a greater Nigerian nation.

    The first republic was characterised by sleaze, bigotry and nepotism with no national loyalty.  The mutinous coupists of 1966 captured it appropriately when they described the political class then as VIPs of waste who made our country look big for nothing before the international community. Today, not much has changed as Nigeria was recently described as a fantastically corrupt country 56 years after by none other than the Prime Minister of Britain.  The mutinous young officers who sacked the first republic were idealistic but driven by patriotism and exuberance.  Their failure was largely due to ethnic coloration of the putsch; rightly or wrongly. The unbridled behaviour of the politicians was due to the body language of the leader which did not provide the vision, charisma and a high moral character to give direction which way the country should go.

    The Aguiyi Ironsi government was not given much time to heal the wound and improve the situation as he was soon murdered in what obviously appeared as retaliation of the failed coup. The Yakubu Gowon administration that took over was able to navigate the country through a protracted civil war but again lacked the vision of true nation-building with the humungous resources at its disposal and goodwill.  His government was out-manoeuvred and manipulated by the ubiquitous civil service that has become and remained a nest of corruption.

    Murtala Muhammed government was full of promise and vigour with its pan-African thrust but was short-lived but not before he took on the behemoth, the civil service and the super-permanent secretaries.  His time table was religiously followed by Obasanjo who did not have any original idea and statesman-like candour to create a lasting legacy other than keeping faith with the promise to hand over power.  This time corruption was not only budding but had tapped and fibrous roots spreading through the entire fabrics of our national life.

    When the gentleman school teacher, Shehu Shagari took over the mantle of leadership, he was surrounded by political vermin that did not discriminate between the national till and personal purse.  His amiable humane body language was all that the politicians needed to go on rampage to ravage the entire nation. The situation got so bad in the 1980s that citizens stopped short of feeding from the dustbins as no crumbs were falling from the master’s table.  It was elated Nigerians that welcome another coup de tat believing that military discipline and perceived patriotism could bring us out of the wood but we were wrong as events later showed.

    We have ceaselessly continued in the same circle of heist and graft of mind boggling proportion ever since while enthroning and entrenching ethno-religious irredentism rather than gravitate towards national cohesion.  The armed forces and other institutions are not spared this malaise of divisiveness as there are now traces of open partisanship in their acts and conducts.  The situation is not very different today as most people do not have food on their tables and the political class and especially government ministers talk down on citizens as slaves in the manor.

    As the nemesis of the politicians in his first coming in 1983, Muhammadu Buhari has come again after three decades with the same prescription for a nation in tethers and racing dangerously on the precipice.   But Nigeria has moved away from 1980s in all material particular. After experiment under different military regimes, and now in democracy, it has become obvious that we have moved from military dictatorship to the tyranny of democratically elected leaders.  In the name of body language of the President, there is now a tendency towards abuse of the rule of law, crackdown and bullying of citizens by security agencies and authoritarian grandstanding by elected representatives.

    Nigeria is still bleeding from ravages of the locusts and caterpillars of yesteryears and poor governance of PDP-led central government.  The election of Muhammadu Buhari is a protest against the ineptitude and weakness of Jonathan-led government just as Donald Trump is the protest against the failure of Obama’s policy and decline of the United States of America’s sphere of influence in global politics.

    Sadly, the human rights community, civil society organizations and student movements that used to be the moral conscience of the people have since become compromised for pots of porridge.  The docile populace that we are do not have the culture of resistance and protest and when we are able to gather together, it is always not towards the right thing.  Nigerians should be protesting against the unbearable hardship occasioned by decrepit infrastructure and high cost of living.  Nigerians should have shut down the National Assembly for corruption and outrageous emoluments.  It is our rights and other countries are doing it; from Romania, Turkey, France to the United States; just name it.

    We should make demands on our representatives to build institutions and not strong men and body language of anyone.  Those who have ravaged our common patrimony should pay with their liberty and return the loots; not the obnoxious plea bargains that short change the nation.  Nigerians should build a new culture and consciousness to protest on the streets, from the pulpit and from the mosque against bad governance and graft.  We should stop conferring ecclesiastical titles on known and confirmed felons.  We need new men just as we need new nation; not based on religion and tribe, not the body language of anyone but on the lofty aims that great nations are built.  We can get to the rendezvous of history through the enthronement rule of law and respect for the right and dignity of every Nigerian with committed and patriotic leadership.

     

    • Kebonkwu Esq, a lawyer writes from Abuja.

  • Waiting for Dele Alake

    When Henry Dele Alake showed up the other day at a book launch at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos, the audience hardly expected remarks concerning his plan for the future, far or near.

    He spoke profusely about Jackson Akpasubi, the author of the two books presented, who was also Alake’s professional protégé back in their Concord newspaper days. He revealed in characteristic humility that resourceful reporters are always the flame of success of celebrated editors, linking his own flourishing era to the enterprise of field men like Akpasubi in his time as Editor, Sunday Concord. At that time Alake’s editorship came close to lifting the paper to rival the achievement of Gbolabo Ogunsanwo’s Sunday Times in a much earlier epoch in the 70s. The great Ogunsanwo took Sunday Times to a height never reached thereafter by any weekly paper in Nigeria.

    Later Dele Alake was to reinvent the wheel when he served in the administration of Governor Bola Tinubu in Lagos State in 1999. Coming in as a member of Tinubu’s cabinet following a hard fought battle to dislodge the military for democratic governance, Alake promptly sought the renaming of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Sports. He saw it as an unwieldy and elephantine contraption ill-suited to deliver the efficiency required for the challenges of the liberal democracy just birthed. Alake is said to have secured Tinubu’s nod to rename the department as the Ministry of Information and Strategy. He became the first in Nigeria to be addressed as Information and Strategy Commissioner.

    The title was not a bombastic appellation: it gave its owner and those identified with the department an urgent obligation to sync information and the dynamics of reporting government services as one indivisible activity. You were no longer bogged down by needless procedures or bureaucracy to communicate government business to the people. In addition you were to disseminate information with the objective of striking long term partnership with those who elected you. That amounted to the erection of a strategy of relationship between government and the governed.

    Now Alake happens to be one of the figures who used part of this political ground plan to first displace the military in 1999 and secondly to form the broad coalition that midwifed the current All Progressives Congress (APC) at the centre.

    At the book launch Alake spoke copiously about the roles he played during the momentous days that the events threw up in the country. He excited the crowd as he recalled how he and late MKO Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election crisscrossed the length and breadth of Nigeria to campaign. He titillated the imagination of the public. The charismatic Abiola has become a folk hero Nigeria never had as their president. Nigerians insist that the current national challenges persist because we have not had a just and acceptable closure in the June 12 matter.

    Alake may have perceived the electrifying animation in the hall when he mentioned MKO Abiola and what he Alake did as his media adviser that led to the man’s election as the president-elect. Alake appeared to have grasped the attention of the audience when he promised that soon he would write a book on those heady days.

    And that was my takeout that day. A book capturing or relating the events that have dramatically shaped the politics and history of Nigeria is badly needed to redirect us, especially if it comes from the mind of a key player. American writer Clarence Day says: “The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man; nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out but in the world of books are volumes that live on still as young and fresh as the day they are written; still telling men’s hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead”.

    Too often, in our society, notable citizens have been known to be helpless victims of the falsification of their noble achievements. This illusory portrayal is then passed on as real to posterity in the absence of a pre-empting counterpoise and incalculable harm alas is done to the polity!

    I believe that Nigeria’s recurring social economic and political challenges are, in a way, the direct consequences of the dearth of books on compatriots who have been influential in our history to relate their story for succeeding generations to study, analyse, understand and learn from.

    For instance I recall how Abiola used the imagery of a transformer to drive home the pivotal role of leadership during the June 12 campaign. This was how his campaign team put it: All Nigeria needs is one transformer. In the bill-board that ran the advert, the body copy contained the message: “This country has the resources to ensure stable power supply. All it takes is one Achiever who can transform what seems impossible to be possible. MKO Abiola has the courage and honesty of purpose to unite us in a bold new move to solve our problems.” Thus Abiola’s image makers projected him as the man who could deal with the flawed and failed leadership Nigeria had been cursed with over the years.

    Nigerians are waiting for Dele Alake’s book to retell the story of an age which promised us a transformer and indeed delivered one. At the moment we are back to a challenging period when we need a genuine game changer.

     

    • Ojewale is a journalist and writer at Ota, Ogun State.

  • Dogara: Political Icon of the Year

    The Board of Editors voted for you in recognition of your antecedents as a dogged patriot, a torch bearer, a staunch believer in the principle of the separation of powers and ultimately the defender of the democratic faith. We have followed your path since you emerged the Speaker of the House. We also know that there have been battles here and there. But you are still here and we recognize the courage you have shown maintaining the delicate balance between the independence of the legislature and working with the executive and more importantly, your safeguarding the principle of separation of power without rocking the boat.” These were the exact words of Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun newspaper Eric Osagie when he led management staff of the paper to formally notify the Speaker of the award as Political Icon of the Year 2016.

    Tomorrow, the Speaker will step forward for this recognition, which comes with its own concomitant responsibilities.

    Coming from a very humble background, one would have said that he was not cut out for politics because from his days at the University of Jos to the early part of his legal practice; nothing in his life indicated that he will become a politician. His life, is a personification of the awesome grace of the almighty God who has consistently led him in all his endeavours.  What distinguishes and endears him to people is his uncommon humility which is seldom the case with people occupying high positions in our country. He plays politics without bitterness and reaches out to even his staunchest critics and self-declared enemies.

    I recall that just few hours after his election as Speaker on June 9, 2015, the Speaker started the work of reaching out to his opponent in both words and actions as he said in his inaugural speech that, “together we will heal the wounds and divisions of this contest. Together we shall work to deliver good legislation and good government to our people.”

    At around 2am, we drove to the residence of Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila in Apo Legislative quarters in Abuja in company of scores of members where he truly began the work of healing the wounds and divisions of the election.  It was the Speaker’s singular decision even against the wishes of many of his strong supporters and allies in the House that saw to the emergence of Gbajabiamila as the House Leader. He continued to appeal to and pacify those opposed to it and the rest as they say, is history. Tomorrow, the House Leader is leading members, friends and colleagues to accompany the Speaker to receive this award in Lagos.

    The next big challenge was the constitution of the standing committees of the House. In that too, Dogara was able to navigate the tumultuous waters displaying uncommon political and leadership prowess. In spite of initial misgivings by few of his colleagues everything went smoothly and one after the other he kept reaching out to them.

    I recall that the House Chief Whip Rt. Hon. Alhassan Ado Garba once told me that he was shocked and that if he had his way he would have dug the ground and buried himself when he heard a knock on his door and lo and behold it was the Speaker – the very man whom he did everything to stop from emerging and even continued to oppose his leadership. Once the door was opened the Speaker only told him that “Alhassan we are brothers please come let’s work together. Let’s put our differences aside and begin the work of remaking Nigeria.”

    Interestingly, for these same and many other reasons the Leadership newspapers bestowed on him the award of Politician of the Year 2015. Of particular interest is that these recognitions are coming despite desperate, calculated and well-planned efforts and attempts by his traducers to tarnish his hard-earned reputation as incorruptible and patriotic leader. Thankfully, the Speaker has been able to come out clean, with his head high.

    The tales of lies, mischief, distortions, and allegations peppered with tongue-in-cheek drumbeats and obvious fabrications have now crumbled on their very head. Nigerians now know the truth because as Winston Churchill said “Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.”

    There is nothing greater than the truth and Dogara’s life story reflects nothing but the truth. It is his life, his way and what defines his person. Here is one who achieved greatness through sheer hard work, honesty, commitment to common cause and antique shrewdness.

    It is Dogara’s philosophy that leaders should at all times live exemplary lives of service, sacrifice and selflessness. The Speaker always says that justice is needed in building a civil society, and that for societies to grow, leaders must understand the workings of justice which is necessary in any democracy for equality to thrive. In fact, he strongly believes that establishing both principles is necessary for Nigeria to make any meaningful progress.

    Today, the House of the Nigerian people, the green chamber, is at peace with itself and busy legislating for the good of the people. Indeed, Dogara’s efforts and leadership have started yielding positive fruits for the country as record numbers of bills are being passed on daily basis. In just one and half years, more than 150 bills have been passed by the House just as work is being done on about 800 more. Of the 18 non-budget-related bills signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, 17 are House bills and all emanated from the statues reforms committee set up by the Speaker.

    In addition to this, Dogara is also strongly leading campaigns for the financial and political autonomy for local governments which saw the leadership of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees paying him a “Thank you and solidarity” visit recently.

    Worthy of mention is the Speaker’s interventions on the humanitarian crisis in the North-east where he is championing calls for the convocation of an international donor conference to rebuild the region in addition to his sponsoring of the North East Development Commission Establishment bill which is now awaiting presidential assent; to his many visits to Internally Displaced Persons camps across the country providing succour and relief materials to them.

    “This kind of award…serves as a motivation and without motivation we cannot achieve much. We cannot innovate without motivation and whether we like it or not, politics remains the only way through which leadership can be recruited in many countries and the only way we can institute governments. So, it (politics) has come to be with us; we cannot run away from it. It can only take people and not angels to improve on existing situations; so when leaders who truly love what they do are motivated, this increases the chances of having better leadership, which will translate to the development of the country,” the Speaker said on December 6, 2016 when management of The Sun newspaper delivered the award letter to him.

     

    • Hassan is Special Adviser on Media & Public Affairs to Speaker Dogara

  • Reforming the public service

    The public service of any country as a sub-governmental machinery is not only part and parcel of the springboard for public policy formulation, but also the body through which public policies and services are dispensed.  A labyrinthine entity which embraces the core civil service and other public-oriented service dispensing agencies, it is the instrumentality by which the campaign promises of the members of the political class are translated into concrete realities.  It is the wheel that drives governance; its quality partly determines the quality of the government of the day; and its performance speed partly signifies the efficiency and effectiveness of the government in power.  It is of course and generally speaking, the warp and woof of good governance.  It is so vital in the life of every government that no government can dare treat it as dispensable.  As tough as  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was while in government, he did underscore the importance of the public service to governance.  His words: “there can be no effective government without the … service which is the machinery for ensuring the implementation of government policies and safeguarding public welfare.’’

    At different junctures of Nigeria’s political history, it has been discovered that the Nigerian public service has been bedevilled by a number of pathologies which have been encumbering its performance.  For long, the Nigerian public service has been generally inefficient and ineffective;  its ethical orientation has been obviously warped;  its methods and procedures have, at one time or the other, been found anachronistic and the corruption that pervades its rank and file has been adjudged freak.  Indeed, it was on account of these and many more that the service has been subjected to reforms and purges almost with rhythmical regularity.  Reminiscent of these were the over a dozen reforms and purges which began in 1934 with the Hunt Commission and of which the notable and recent ones are, the Udoji Reform of 1974; the great Murtala Mohammed purge of 1976; the Babangida Reforms of 1988; the Abacha purge of 1995; the death-aborted reform of Yar’Adua and the feeble and inconclusive attempt at reforms by Goodluck Jonathan.  While some of these reforms and purges have certainly changed the face of the Nigerian public service, it is still worrisome to note that, even up till today, the Nigerian public service still remains unwieldy, grossly inefficient, barely effective and incurably corrupt and thereby suggestive of the existence of a very serious reform gap.

    In reforming the public service, scholars and practictioners have come up with different templates.  According to Ahanonum, a reform aimed at turning around the service for better performance must address the following aspects:  in-depth restructuring of personnel; introduction of reward system that has nothing to do with the personal profile of the worker but with well-targeted achievement; elimination of unproductive procedures and bottle-necks; fragmentation of the accounting hierarchy with a view to narrowing down the volume of public funds handled by one authority or individual civil servants; tying responsibility squarely around the individual performer rather than the system of various responsibility which has held sway; giving the worker more sense of belonging to the political and social community; retooling the workers to be more enthusiastic about their work and punishing the workers for any alleged misconduct only after fair hearing.  To this may be added, catching up with international best practices.  The influences of this thought are of course discernible in the Obasanjo reform package between 2004-2007 which thematically focused on key areas of improving service delivery and promoting good governance with emphasis on budget and management and procurement system; accountability issues; human resource management; operation and system issues; and value re-orientation and integrity.  If all these were done during the Obasanjo democratic years, what then was and is still the need for other reforms by the succeeding governments?   Apart from the fact that reforms in human society are always a sporadic and a ceaseless exercise which will often be dictated by the prevailing challenges and developments within and without a state, and also within the service itself, the fact remains that, our public service has failed to meet people’s expectations because of the missing gap in our reforms which lies majorly in “value re-orientation and integrity” issues.  Granted that all structural and institutional re-engineering are done, if a state’s public service is still deficient in proper values and integrity, the outcome of such reforms will at best remain fuliginous and superficial.  The proper values and integrity of a public service consists in unity of vision; patriotism; respect for the ethics of the service and the rule of law;  and without any fear of being accused of breaching the rule of secularity of the state, I include spirituality – selflessness and “other-regarding”.

    A wider view of these values and integrity indicate that the larger Nigerian society in which the public service is situated and which it also serves, is morally bankrupt or stripped of the right values and integrity.  This being so, it is very hard therefore for a public service to rise above the society that has produced it.  A society gets the type of leadership it deserves, it is said.  As with leadership, so also it is true with the character and quality of a state’s public service.  Here then lies the dilemma of reforming the Nigerian public service.  This is better articulated in this questionnaire:  how do you reform a public service which is ethnically polarised as the society in which it is situated?  How do you reform a public service which is as morally bankrupt as its social ecology?  How do you reform a service whose visions are as divided as those of the society from where it emanated?

    How do you reform a public service whose vacant positions are for sale and the members of the society are willing to buy instead of protesting?  How do you get rid of corruption in the public service when the society continues to tell the story of the “ten lepers” to a mandarin who graciously declines to take gratification just to convince him to succumb?  How do you reform a service whose members are recruited from the society where majority of its members carry the cross of Jesus Christ on their chests, without carrying his deeds in their hearts and conduct?  How do you reform a public service in a society that is ready to throw red carpet reception for a corrupt public officer?   How do you reform a service whose some of its members are recruited from a society whose majority  has read the Hadiths of Prophet Mohammed in holiness and pureness several times and are still addicted to shady deals in service?

    Whatever answers we may provide to these questions, certainly, the sub-structure determines the super-structure.  The public service of a state of course mirrors the state.  It cannot therefore be isolated from the larger society for any radical or meaningful reform without first reforming the larger society.  Our failure to do this first has been the bane of all the past attempts to successfully reform our public service.  Is the Holy Koran not therefore, scientific enough to have concluded that the condition of a people cannot change unless they change their hearts?  This is why the present government‘s call for change in our society will, if we yield, go a long way in positively changing all the negative idiosyncrasies that have made most of the gains of the structural and institutional reforms in the public service imperceptible and pale.

     

    • Dr. Adebisi writes from Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

  • Arik: Too costly to be allowed to fail

    It was Jawaharlal Nehru who once said: “Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.”

    Year 2016 marked the 10th anniversary of Arik Airline. The airline rose from the ashes of the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways and efforts to create another one in partnership with Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic.

    When Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide saw this vacuum, he thought he could fill it. According to information on Arik’s website, he bought a Hawker jet aircraft. “Colleagues and contacts in the gas and oil industry started using the Hawker jet to fly themselves around Nigeria,” continues the report. “So, another jet was acquired and, before long, a corporate jet business was launched. The next step was to find the right people and the right aircraft to build an airline that would set new standards and change the face of aviation in Africa. Arik Air was born — an airline with whom “Nigeria and the rest of Africa would be proud to fly.”

    The company’s growth was rapid. By the end of 2012, Arik Air had successfully flown over 10 million passengers in less than six years of operation across a network of 41 domestic and international routes. It was operating an average of 120 flights daily from its two hubs at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Nigeria. At the peak of its growth, Arik was the darling of many Nigerians. It commanded 55% of the airline load in the country.

    However, it is said that success breeds complacency and complacency often leads to failure.  Soon, the airline’s management took the wrong turn, somehow. And the centre could not hold any longer. Delays in flight departure and outright cancellation soon became the hallmark of the airline. One after the other, all the core values of the airline were gradually compromised; safety and reliability; honesty and integrity; and respect for the dignity of our customers, fellow colleagues and our communities became hollowed and mere rhetoric.

    Last Thursday, the Federal government of Nigeria, through the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), announced a takeover of Arik Air to prevent it going bust.  Akin to the euphemism “too big to fail” that gained currency from the act of government bailout of US and European banks in the years following the subprime loans bust of 2008, Nigeria’s biggest national carrier, Arik Air, is being forced into receivership because it will be too costly to allow it to fail with a whopping N300 billion debt overhang.

    Like other similar interventions by AMCON, especially in the banking sector, this one too is aimed to “instill sanity” in the country’s aviation sector and to prevent a major catastrophe. Before now, AMCON intervened to save Aero Contractors, another airline on the verge of total collapse, with greater relief to the aviation industry. Similar interventions by AMCON in the banking industry have helped brought stability in the financial sector of the country. Since its establishment in 2010 AMCON has acquired about 13,774 Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) worth N3.6 trillion from 22 commercial banks, in the process saving our banking system, while its provision of financial accommodation of N2.2billion protected about N4.7trillion of depositors’ funds and interbank takings as well as saved approximately 14,000 jobs.

    AMCON has, through these interventions in the past, helped a lot of businesses bounce back and hit the path of recovery. In one of his numerous interactions with the media, the Managing Director of AMCON, Ahmed Kuru, underscored the raison d’être of his organization’s interventions thus:  “We don’t want any business to suffer because of their debts. We are not out to kill businesses but to encourage them to grow by following the global best practices in debt reconciliations and settlements. Our desire is to recover the money for the nation through painless processes.”

    Reports have it that the beleaguered airline was indebted to the tune of over N300bn, with AMCON alone owed N135bn; while its obligations to aviation fuel suppliers, insurance firms, aircraft maintenance organizations, the Federal Government and the various aviation agencies, as well as food vendors, made up the balance. This was a clearly precarious situation that pointed to the fast deterioration of the Arik Air services on both its domestic and international routes.

    A BBC reporter in Nigeria, Martin Patience, captured his experience with Arik services in the following words: “To fly Arik often means never getting off the ground. I was at Enugu airport when I was told my flight was cancelled. The man beside me at the check-in desk just shook his head – all his flights had been cancelled for the past two days.

    “Customer service at Arik Air is at times non-existent. When the airline cancels a flight, most of the time its ground staff flee rather than deal with the fallout from irate passengers.”

    “As the company’s troubles mounted at the end of last year, 70% of its international flights were delayed.”

    “The firm’s staff bears the brunt for an airline that even by Nigerian standards is a byword for utter dysfunction. Last month the company was forced to issue a plea for passengers not to attack its employees.”

    This writer, too, has had his own share of this experience. Indeed, hardly will you find a frequent flyer of domestic flights in Nigeria without a bitter and hard-to-forget experience of flying on Arik.

    Nothing explains this recurrent unfortunate experience by Arik customers better than lack of strict adherence to the tenets of corporate governance by its management.  Its poor services became a far cry from the airline’s sublime objective “to operate above and beyond the highest standards of safety and security and to offer a superior level of customer service and to deliver on all promises made to our guests.”

    Early this year the patience of Arik passengers was pushed to its limit. A video that went viral on the Internet on January 5 depicted the customer liaison manager of Arik being assaulted by a group of aggrieved passengers whose flight to Johannesburg was cancelled three times. The management of the airline was quick to blame frequent flight cancellation on aviation fuel shortages in the country. Although that could be true to some extent, there are other failings from the management of the airlines that became noticeable, such as the strikes embarked by its staff or the shutting down of the airline offices throughout the country by a couple of unions that brought untold hardship on its passengers last December.

    Many other serious failings of the management of Arik were reeled out by AMCON in the wake of the takeover of the airline by the corporation. They include, among others, poor corporate governance, demotivated pilots, poor safety measures, which is unacceptable in aviation business and the airline’s inability to meet its financial obligations.

    Arik management may attempt to contest the takeover, as the Deputy Managing Director, Captain Ado Sunusi, is reported to have said, but in the reckoning of stakeholders, the Arik takeover by AMCON is a welcome intervention. As clearly stated, AMCON intervened to afford Arik the opportunity to go back to regular and undisrupted operations, avoid job losses, protect investors and stakeholders’ funds as well as ensure safety and stability in the already challenged aviation sector.

    What can be a better option for Arik than this? In all honesty, can the management of Arik afford its blooming debt burden?  What has become evident is that the Buhari administration has seen positive results in these takeovers by AMCON and has been inclined to encourage it to the delights of Nigerians. Surely, AMCON is in good hands of its Managing Director and his team enjoying his experience and expertise as a thorough-bred banker and risk management guru. I have two pieces of advices to all stakeholders.

    The first is for all stakeholders in this unfolding event to manage their expectations of AMCON’s takeover—we should not expect magical turnaround of Arik in a month or two. The rot in Arik that have seen it plummeting from commanding of 30 aircrafts in its heydays to just nine today cannot be purified in few months’ time.

    The second is for all to put their sentiments aside and cooperate with the new managers and the receivers in their efforts to see to it that Arik navigates out of the current turbulent weather to a steady cruising level that will eventually land it into safer rebirth.

     

    • Hassan contributed this piece from Abuja.

  • Ogun and politics of debt management

    ‘You will never get to your destination if you stop to throw stones at every dog that barks at You ‘
    —Winston Churchill

    Nigeria indeed is a unique nation blessed with unique and dynamic people.But it is thoroughly perplexing the way Nigerians perceive issue pertaining to credit facilities. We see every issue concerning obtaining loan or bond as another route to slavery and servitude. We view it from a very negative prism.
    Unfortunately, that perception is flawed. One of the keys to being financially successful is understanding when loans are a good solution for your situation. According to Wikipedia, a loan is when you receive money from a friend, bank or financial institution for future repayment of the principal, plus interest.
    Loan is a positive financial weapon of development, but due to the cash-and-carry nature of our economy, it is being seen as a weapon of bondage. In advanced world, loan is used as a good financial tool to fast-track development. Simply put, loan is using a money you don’t have to get what you need. In other words, it is using other people’s money to develop your people or your land to pay back at a later time.
    It accelerates development and downloads tomorrow today.This is why advanced economies of Japan and USA are on the fast-lane of development yet they rate among the highest global debtors. In Nigeria, Lagos rates highest in indebtedness.But has this indebtedness stalled the growth and development of Lagos State? Has it retarded the development of US or Japan? The answer is a resounding NO.
    Surely, Loans are never a good idea if you don’t possess the capacity to pay back within the required time frame or when it is not deployed judiciously. What must not be compromised by the citizenry is that the money so collected must be utilized on developmental projects. It must be used to work for the people.
    Indeed, it is like a man that took a credit facility to build a five-star hotel and he is to re-pay over a period of 10 years. Even if the man dies, the hotel will still be there for his children to see and enjoy from.
    What need to be consider when issues concerning accessing loan facility is being considered is: Does the man or government seeking for such facility has the capacity to pay back? Is the reason for such loan salutary? Are the people to administer the loan credible and would judicously utiise the fund?Those are the salient questions to consider and not political sentiments.
    In the case of Ogun State, the answer to the three posers is YES. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBC) recently rated Ogun as third nationally in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) collection. In the report, the NBC, while assessing states for the duration of January to June 2016, rated Ogun just behind Lagos State and oil-rich Rivers State.
    According to the report, Ogun State, “with its internal resources has been positioned the third highest IGR among other Nigerian states. The state, within six months in 2016 generated revenue of N56.29 billion. Ogun made this increment from N10.84 billion in 2011.. “
    The report indicates that Ogun took a 500 percent leap from what used to be in 2011 to an olympian height in 2016. The import of such rating is that the state possesses the innate capacity to generate enough revenue to repay any financial indebtedness.
    Happily enough, the fund is being used for the people. Proof of shrewd and effective utilisation of the financial resources is evident. Eye-popping and ambitious infrastructural transformation is sprouting in several parts of the state. Millennia projects designed to position the state for the challenges of the 21 century are being executed.
    One of such is the construction of a 10-lane expressway which promises to launch Ogun into the big league of states with modern infrastructure. When completed, two lanes on either side of the expressway would be built with concrete and will be reserved for trucks and other heavy duty vehicles. The advantage of this is massive.It will reduce accident rate on the road as well as preserve the lifespan of the road.
    The expressway would also host the rail transport project being planned by the state government. The rail project is to connect the Federal Government rail line at Sagamu interchange. This will greatly reduce the travel time between Abeokuta and Lagos.
    When completed, the rail line will further ensure that more people can live in Abeokuta or Sagamu and work on the Lagos Island.
    This vision is also being complemented with the development of an array of housing estates located along the Abeokuta-Sagamu corridor. The benefit of such a single project could then best be imagined as it would further pump-up the adrenalin of the states high-flying IGR.
    The loan being sought by the government would assist in ensuring the completion of various projects scattered across the state such as the 35-kilometer Sango-ijoko-Akute-Alagbole-Ojodu road. Urban roads as well as Rural roads are equally to the considered.
    Interestingly, the managers of the state are not resting on their oars. The state today is the industrial Mecca of Nigeria having attracted over 120 new companies under six years with scores still on the queue waiting to come in.
    But really you won’t blame Nigerians for being skeptical when it comes to accessing loan facility. Many a government official had in the past obtained such facility only to divert it to pedestrian usage or simply siphon such fund.
    However, the case of Ogun State under Senator Ibikunle Amosun is different. Since he assumed office in 2011, he has made judicial utilisation of financial resources a priority. He has constructed over nine bridges and 400 kilometres of urban roads across the state.Indeed, he negotiated a singe-digit interest for the loan he seeks.

    •Balogun, is a media aide of Governor Amosun.

  • Between Buhari, Senate and SGF

    Nigerians are never shy to interrogate their leaders. Query their policies. Pry into their history. Place them on the scale of integrity and draw divergent conclusions. With President Muhammadu Buhari, however, there is one settled opinion. Most, if not all, agree that the man from Daura, in Katsina State is not corrupt. Almost all believe he is incorruptible and incapable of shielding corruption in any form, no matter the personage involved. And this is why his letter read in the Senate on Monday, January 23, carried acoustics of caution and concern, if not consent.
    The object of the President’s letter is the indictment of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Engineer Babachir David Lawal by the report of the Senator Shehu Sani led Ad-Hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North-east. The report had accused the SGF of breaching the Public Procurement Act and the Federal Government Financial Rules and Regulations on the award of contracts and consequently called for his resignation and prosecution.
    In an instant reaction to the Senate’s call, the President instructed a panel led by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, to thoroughly investigate his SGF. The outcome of this investigation was the terse and unambiguous letter read on the floor of the Senate by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki. In it, President Buhari told the Senate that the Senate Ad Hoc Committee did not observe the cardinal principle of fair hearing and thus may have violated section 36(1) of the 1999 constitution, stressing further that the report violates “all principles of law as enunciated in our legal system as well as the rules of the National Assembly committees on handling of public petitions”. For this acute deficiency, President Buhari says he is unable “to approve the recommendation to remove and prosecute Babachir….” Buhari also noted that the report calling for the SGF’s resignation was signed by only three out of nine members of the committee. This for the President, effectively makes the content of the paper a minority report which cannot be given effect to.
    No question, Buhari’s decision not to remove the man he simply calls ‘Babachir’ is not cheery news for the Senate or few elements within the Senate. But because the President is clearly not a man to caress or condone corruption in any form, his letter spurred a momentary silence that depicted faces on a journey of rare introspection; with their conscience as their closest companion.
    The Shehu Sani-led Committee report in its face value and delivered so flawlessly was enough to stir the soul of the Senate. And so emotions sizzled. Voices jangled. And soon calls for the resignation and prosecution of the SGF echoed. The voice votes that followed was only a mere ritual. The men in the red chambers pronto, called on the President to sack and prosecute Lawal. But some who know the law and its dynamics advised caution.
    But a sincere, dispassionate and pungent question that must be asked here is whether Lawal and Rholavision were given fair hearing on a matter so weighty. Yes, the committee claimed to have invited the SGF, but is that really enough?
    Worse still, Rholavision Engineering Limited, in a press statement, debunked the report of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee with what many now see as iron-cast, irrefutable evidences. First, on the allegation that the SGF did not resign from Rholavision until September 2016, it showed incontrovertible documentary evidence that Lawal indeed resigned in August 2015 with a letter of instruction on his personal letter-headed paper to a firm of solicitors dated August 28, 2015. The company also attached as an annexure to its press release an acknowledged letter of the bank instructing it to replace Engineer Babachir David Lawal with Barrister Hamidu David Lawal as signatory to the company’s accounts. Contrary to the committee’s claim, the company’s bank statement shows that Babachir ceased operating the company’s account even before he resigned. From which bank and how did the committee then obtain a different statement of account?
    Importantly, Rholavision and some independent Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and media houses also established beyond doubt that Rholavision was not even the company given the much talked about N220 million so-called ‘grass-cutting contract’ even though the Senate Committee created the impression that the company founded by the SGF executed the contract. In any case, the sad impression created by the committee that the contract was for the clearing of invasive grass in the IDP Camp was crassly misleading. The contract awarded to Josmon Technologies Limited, was for the clearing of invasive grass along River Kamadugu and the channelling of the river for irrigation to enable fishermen in the communities on its banks to resume their fishing activities and to prevent flooding in the communities during rainy season.
    Indeed, Rholavision was only given a consultancy services contract worth about N7million by PINE, not N220 million as erroneously claimed by the committee. And, Rholavision duly executed its N7 million consultancy contract. This was duly certified and paid for in two instalments.
    It is important to note that Rholavision, was co-opted into the project as consultants because of their experience in the North-east, having been engaged in the clearing of thypa-grass from the Hadejia/Jamaara River Basin in 2013 – a contract they executed for the Africa Development Bank, (ADB).
    If the Senate had therefore exercised a little patience, if not restraint, to ensure that the SGF and Rholavision appeared before it, this present storm it created from allegations that carry a manifest tinge of credibility questions would have been resolved amicably.
    Now the media is on a binge orchestrated by vested interests opposed to the SGF, feasting on the Senate Ad Hoc Committee report and garnishing it with more tales, outright lies and calculated misinformation. Some publications have claimed without verifiable evidence that Josmon Technologies is a front for Rholavision Engineering. Others alleged without verifiable evidence that Josman paid over N195 million as kickback to the SGF and Rholavision. But even this calls for some simple reasoning. For indeed, if the said contract worth was about N272 million or N220 million as variously reported and this contract has been fully executed and so certified, one cannot but wonder how much was then expended on execution if kickback alone extracted N195 million from the contractors. Still, in spite of these confounding allegations, the committee did not insist that Lawal should appear before it or even invite the company they linked to him.
    As an aside, it sounds preposterous that the Senate, made up of very senior citizens, professionals and distinguished leaders, even thinks that it has the power to deny the President the prerogative to continue to work with an SGF of his choosing – one who has no criminal charges against him in any court. Under our constitution, the SGF is not one of those positions that are subject to Senate statutory confirmation. At best, the SGF is an aide of the President. The Senate, with the greatest respect, cannot compel the President to hire or fire persons over whom it (Senate) has no statutory confirmatory powers. Appointment to the office of the SGF is clearly not subject to the confirmatory powers of the Senate. The Senate should therefore deeply appreciate the President’s response on the matter as a mark of great regard to it as a major institution of state. One is inclined to interpret Buhari’s mature response to the Senate as simply confirmatory of his good democratic credentials.
    Perhaps the haze that beclouds this report and the critical issue of fair hearing easily explain why President Buhari could not heed the Senate call. Because even history may hold a mirror for him to agonizingly see what may be a glaring miscarriage of justice if he sacks his SGF on misty findings.

    • Dr. Owegbe wrote from Aladja, Delta State.

  • The trials of PMB

    The trials of PMB

    Nigerians are victims of their poor reading culture. If it were otherwise, most of the mega billionaire-clerics, feeding fat on the spiritual thirst of poor Nigerians would have been out of business, once their followers appreciate the message conveyed in Wole Soyinka’s Plays: The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero’s Metamorphosis. In the Plays, WS explored the antics of a dubious prophet, Brother Jero, who supped on the credulity of his followers. Despite missteps as President, PMB is not a false prophet, even if his foes swear otherwise.
    But unarguably, PMB’s legacy is on trial. Evidence: The reactions to the President’s ill-health portrays a deep seated animosity among a reasonable number of Nigerians, particularly the dispossessed middle class and the suffering poor, perhaps eagerly lead on by a branch of the bandit elite, which PMB’s anti-corruption policy is bringing to their comeuppance. In a classical instance of misplaced aggression, these Nigerians unflinchingly wished PMB death on the false prophesy that his passage will bring them certain economic redemption. Their hunger was feeding their anger.
    Some smoggy internet marauders even went ahead to pen swanky obituaries on behalf of notable world leaders in celebration of their wishful thinking. Others made crafty video recordings of a dying scarecrow, being wheeled into the theatre most likely en route to a morgue, if we are to believe the rogue voice-over, in the recordings. The social media generally became awash with tales of ailments and incredulous diseases afflicting the man, who only few months ago, was touted by many as the messiah that will redeem a blighted and prostrate Nigeria. For this morbid group, a bloodied sacrifice is necessary for any renewal.
    Like every human, the president must be wandering why his best efforts remain unappreciated. With many Nigerians including the top chief of state security celebrating and heartily welcoming Chief James Onanefe Ibori, back to Nigeria, after serving a term in British prisons for corrupt enrichment, PMB must be wondering whether his self-sacrifices for a better Nigeria is worth the efforts. He would be asking himself: how come many Nigerians gleefully and unabashedly wish him death while many others are in joyful jollification with Chief Ibori even when his public persona and that of Chief Ibori are diametrically opposite?
    Again, he will most likely be asking – between him and the people he had risked his old age comfort and health status to save from the rampaging and pernicious gangsters, masquerading as leaders, who is now the problem? Perhaps as Cassius said to Brutus in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings”. Ordinarily, the ordinary Nigerians should be praying for the quick recovery of their president for his singular effort in fighting corruption and recovering billions of naira and several millions of dollars of our common patrimony, stolen by the departed marauders, even if some buccaneers around the president are also helping themselves.
    But rather, many are even baying for a return of the old order. So, whose fault is it that instead of celebrating PMB, a mob is baying for his blood? One plausible reason is hunger. As they say: “a hungry man is an angry man”. Nigerians are hungry, and they expect PMB and his team to do something about it. The prices of basic food items are furiously being priced out of the rich of the average Nigerian. Whether it is the staple food made from imported raw materials, like bread, or the fully local options, inflation has made the cost of one square meal a rarity for many homes.
    Add that daily challenge to the runaway cost of transportation or even daily needs like sachet water, the public rating of PMB is in for more trying times. Things have gotten so bad that to be considered remotely associated with the present government is an albatross of sorts. While anyone connected, is prohibited from making any form of complaint over the prevailing hardship, the mob openly pray for some of harm to visit any of those remotely connected with the present government.
    Allegations of corruption hanging around those close to the presidency are a ready weapon in the hand of the mob to rubbish the staggering efforts of the anti-corruption agency, like EFCC. The daily reports of the seizure of the assets and recovery of humongous billions of local and foreign currencies from the bandits who ran roughshod over our common patrimony in recent times, makes little difference for this group. While they may curse and wish death for the rogues whose daredevil stealing is unearthed and reported daily, they are not ready to excuse the government on that ground for their sufferings.
    How PMB got snookered into having lieutenants, who many confidently believe are also as corrupt as the ancien regime, is another major albatross hanging on this government. Perhaps, PMB may reconsider his obstinate determination to keep some of his lieutenants who have cases of corruption hanging on their neck. Part of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s undoing was the common believe that he did not abhor corrupt officials around him. While PMB has a reputation of being incorruptible, he is increasingly falling into the categorisation of his predecessors, considered vicariously corrupt.
    Another undoing of the reputation of PMB is his inability to dent the infrastructure challenge facing the country. Of course the biggest culprit is the deficit of megawatts of electricity, which his minister’s best effort has not made any difference in. The result is the death of many micro, small and medium enterprises across the country. While the rogue regimes that preceded him made a bazaar of the enormous resources spent in that sector, the high hopes placed on his reputation to make an instant change, remains a mirage. Again the expectation that the promised road and railway projects will generate employment and regenerate the economy have so far remained a mere dream.
    To add salt to the festering injury, a rogue group of Fulani herdsmen have given PMB’s ranking, its worst shellacking. Operating as outlaws, this intractable group have raised eyebrows about the fidelity of the present government to the unity of our country. Swashbuckling, imposing and contemptuous of the laws of the country, these evil men have been variously accused of pursuing a religious and ethnic agenda, two combustible grenades, capable of bringing Nigeria to an ignominious end. Whether in southern Kaduna, Agatu in Benue, Jos South, Enugu, Bayelsa, Niger, Taraba, indeed in several parts of the country, the murderous herdsmen may turn out PMB’s worst nightmare.
    With honest Christians and determined Muslims, now praying fervently, as requested by the leaders of both faiths, for the full recovery of whatever is ailing our president, we are all optimistic that our prayers will be answered. So, it is my earnest hope that the president will soon be as fit as a fiddle to confront the many challenges facing his nearly two year old government. I have the believe that if the president can rein in the criminal herdsmen and tame the hyperinflation making many Nigerians paupers, his huge efforts in fighting corruption and the Boko Haram will be better appreciated.

  • Funding the amnesty programme

    The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was formally set up on June 15, 2009, by the then President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He decided to take the bull by the horns after the years of indecision and foot-dragging by the Obasanjo administration, which had won notoriety for the way it treated the Odi people in Bayelsa State and the Zaki Biam community in Benue State, with unprecedented strong-arm tactics and bestial vehemence.
    Due to the novelty and unprecedented nature of this stratagem that the federal government was introducing to solve a nagging violent confrontation with the various groups of militants purportedly fighting on behalf of the larger Niger Delta common-wealth, many people expressed scepticism about the sincerity of the federal government in introducing the amnesty deal. As the case was, the Doubting Thomases did not only beam their searchlight on the perceived insincerity of the Yar’Adua administration, they also placed little premium on the reliability of the die-hard militants abandoning their safe havens in the impenetrable creeks of the Niger Delta, surrender their sophisticated weapons and embrace a set up that may, on the long run, prove to be a large-scale ambush.
    Having experienced the unfulfilled promises and engagements of the outgone Obasanjo administration, many observers took the initiation of the amnesty programme with a pinch of salt and adopted a “siddon look” attitude to the novel intervention, at the embryonic stage.
    These dark clouds of doubts appeared in the horizon due to the half-hearted implementation of the interventionist Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the Niger Delta Development Commission, which many believed were not fully energised or adequately funded to perform the roles they were meant to play. Others were of the belief that the institution of these agencies of government amounted to a glaring duplication of efforts and hence a waste of scarce funds which never impacted on the larger mass of the Niger Delta people.
    It is no gainsaying the fact that the coming on stream of the Presidential Amnesty Programme greatly reduced the uncertainty and danger in doing business in the Niger Delta, which hosts the oil and gas exploration and exploitation on which the Nigerian nation depends for its economic survival. Comparatively, whereas in the 2006/2008 period, a maximum of 800,000 barrels per day production was attainable because of the strident dangerous environment in which the multi-national petroleum companies were working in the militants-infested creeks, the figure rose to a peak of 2.3 million barrels per day after the setting up of the amnesty programme. This increment of 1.5million barrels per day brought the nation’s oil and gas daily revenue to $120.45m.
    In spite of the direct consequence of the new conducive environment in the creek that commensurably increased the nation’s revenue earnings, there was the largely-held view (which persists to this day) that the funds allocated for the amnesty programme annually is mainly used to offset the monthly stipends of the ex-militants whose number runs into almost 30,000 persons. Not many are aware that the programme is more than a veritable social welfare scheme designed to sate the anger of militant warlords and their foot soldiers
    The programme was designed, partly, as a holistic package of human capital development modem to train the teeming but unemployed restive youth and to tap their latent energy and employ it for avenues of human endeavours.
    At inception, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was divided into three segments viz: Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-integration (DDR), which were implemented sequentially with the ongoing reintegration of the disarmed and demobilised militants into the larger society so that they can participate fully and actively in the economy and consequently eke out a living.
    It is gratifying to note that that the federal government has earmarked the sum of N65bn in the 2017 budget for the re-integration of the transformed ex-militants under the amnesty programme. Though it is not true that the Buhari administration has set aside the sum of N29bn to tackle the resurgent militancy in the region, it is pertinent to say that the federal government should increase the allocation to the amnesty programme which has, to a large extent, curtailed militancy and pipeline vandalism in the hitherto volatile Niger Delta region. With the emerging scenario of some ex-militants who were not captured in the first phase of the programme and the rising cost of training those in institutions of learning here and abroad, there cannot be a more appropriate time for the operational allocation to the Presidential Amnesty Programme, to be increased to meet the exigencies of the current dire economic situation in the country.
    As a further mark of government’s sincerity and commitment to the implementation of the tenets of the programme, it directed that the monthly stipend due to all the ex-militants be paid directly to them in order to eliminate diversion and misappropriation, as was the case in the past. In addition to the monthly stipend, the eligible ex-militants were also entitled to the human capital development segment of the PAP, which has, undoubtedly, created a new cadre of Niger Deltans who will drive the economy of the region and engender better living conditions and standard among the people which has worsened since oil was discovered in Oloibiri on January 15, 1956.
    This cadre of ex-militants were enrolled in many schools and institutes in Nigeria and abroad i.e. Russia, United States of America, United Kingdom, Malaysia, South Africa etc., to learn some technical trades, acquire vocational skills and liberal education that will be useful in the general uplift of the people of the region and even beyond. These includes welding, fitting, diving etc. while some others with basic educational qualifications were trained (or undergoing studies) as marine engineers, welders, flight attendants, divers, pilots etc. By this, it has become evident that the Niger Delta has begun to earn due respect and accolades for academic brilliance and technical know-how, rather than notoriety for pipeline vandalism, bunkering and kidnapping of foreigners and other acts of economic sabotage which impacted negatively on the nation’s economy.
    It is gratifying to point out that many ex-militants such as Nicholas Goodness, Lucky Azibanegein and Terubein Fawei, among others have made Nigeria proud in Public Relations, Network Engineering and Telecommunication, in the United Kingdom by coming out in the First Class Honours grade while other made the second class honours grade in Robotic System and Mechanical Engineering.
    The fact that they were capable of noble endeavours helped to establish the vision and positive nationalism of late President Umaru Yar’Adua who set up the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the first instance.
    The commitment and roadmap of the present administration to increase the budgetary allocation to oil the greater responsibilities being borne by the Presidential Amnesty Programme is, therefore laudable. But beyond the allocation of more funds to the PAP, the government should also focus on the total transformation of the Niger Delta to put an end to the perennial agitation of the people of the region.

    •Agho, a lawyer sent in the piece from Port Harcourt

  • The fire this time

    Has anyone heard lately from the National Orientation Agency (NOA), as the ethics – some would rather say propaganda – organ of the Federal Government is known? Established since 2005, that agency is said to be tasked with “communicating government policy, staying abreast of public opinion and promoting patriotism, national unity and development of the Nigerian society.” Its official motto is a sweeping call on all citizens to “do the right thing: transform Nigeria.” But there has been none of the assigned tasks going on at the agency in recent times, and all you hear from its end is silence – a deafening silence.

    Yet it seems to me that there are of late little nuggets in our nationhood experience around which positive narratives about the Nigerian democracy can be crafted, if only to encourage enduring practices along those lines. And the ethics agency comes handy in canvassing those narratives. In any event, sincerity of purpose in national discourse demands that citizens acknowledge little nuggets of positivity, so that criticisms of errant conduct in the polity, when warranted, are justified.

    Let’s face up to it: Nigeria is presently at the lowest ebb of nationalistic fervor. Conversation amongst the citizenry as of this moment has hardened around partisan, religious and ethnic / regional loyalties; such that even where issues at stake ordinarily have crosscutting relevance for all of us, extraneous sentiments are willy-nilly injected to blunt or utterly negate the universal application.

    Wasn’t that what happened with the protest marches last week over the crushing effects of the present economic downturn in the country? I doubt that anyone denies that the hardships resulting from the depressed economy constitute an experience common to most Nigerians. But when some celebrities and civil society activists called protest marches tagged #IStandWithNigeria in major cities on Monday to vent the public’s distress over the economy, establishment sympathisers were swift to whip up suggestions of partisan motivation by the march organisers. And not to be outdone, they bootlegged the protest march and staged a counter-rally in Abuja tagged #IStandWithBuhari, which was obviously aimed at upending the anti-government marchers. The curious part, as it emerged in online video accounts of the counter-rally, was that when asked their motivation, some participants didn’t even know why they were there. They confessed though that they were invited by some persons they hardly knew, who promised them unspecified rewards.

    My interest here is: the Police initially threatened to muscle down the protest marches; and their threats compelled Afro-Pop artiste, 2Face Idibia who was initially thrown up as the face of the march organisers, to back out at the last minute. But the marchers went ahead with their plan as scheduled, and better reason eventually prevailed with the Police as they allowed the street processions to hold unhindered. As it turned out, the Police’s conduct showed up a little nugget of democracy’s triumph, and as well marked a new chapter in the security codebook for handling public rallying in this country. I have always canvassed Police adherence to global best practice in this column. Integrity demands my saying I glimpsed that adherence in the Police’s conduct regarding the marches last week.

    Reports showed, for instance, that in the cities where the marches held, Police personnel accompanied the marchers without obstructing them. Actually, it was a pageant of free expression in Lagos as State Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni literally walked the distance with protesters railing against the authorities from the National Stadium to the National Theatre, on the mainland, while police vans packed with armed but passive operatives tagged along without disrupting the procession. When all was said and done, no untoward incident had occurred and no injuries suffered by any participant in the protest marches. It was in order that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo later praised the Police for “handling the protests with professionalism and respect for the rights of citizens.”

    You could sniff the sweet scent of democracy’s triumph in yet another civil action staged on Thursday, last week, by labour and civil society activists, still on the bruising pangs of the depressed economy. It was helpful that bootleggers were not at work this time as marchers stormed Lagos and Abuja highways to protest the harsh living conditions.

    Led by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Bobboi Kaigama, placard-wielding protesters marched in Abuja to the gates of the Presidential Villa where they demanded audience with the government. According to reports, they pitched in unmolested at the Villa gates when security operatives blocked their advance, until the Acting President sent an emissary requesting that they choose representatives to be allowed inside Aso Rock to meet with him.

    The protesters eventually met with Osinbajo, in company with some government officials including Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige and Petroleum Minister of State Ibe Kachukwu. They reportedly presented an 18-point demand to the Acting President, who in turn explained the efforts being made by the administration to tackle corruption and revamp the economy, among other things.

    In a simultaneous street procession in Lagos, protesters blocked a section of Ikorodu Road, which is major highway artery, as music bands entertained them with songs. But they sooner obliged pleas by security operatives to open up access on the highway to motorists. And the beauty is: there was no single incident of violent encounter between the protesters and security agents while the procession lasted.

    That there were no flare-ups or scuffling by protesters with the Police during all of the marches last week vindicates the argument that peaceful rallying against government, unfettered by security agents, is healthy for democracy and expands the space for national discourse. And neither is it injurious by default to public peace. If the Police and other security agencies needed any proof to guide their future conduct regarding peaceful rallying, I would say they had a good dose of that last week.

    American author James Baldwin, in his famous work ‘The Fire Next Time’ from which I obviously adapted the title for this piece, says, “There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.” It is because autocrats dread to confront the weakness of their perspectives that they preemptively insist on them and shut out alternative views. And just to think of it: what could be healthier for a multi-dimensional polity like ours than a leader’s audience with protesters becoming a platform for dialogue, camaraderie and photo opps, like it turned out with the encounter by Acting President Osinbajo with labour and civil society activists last week?

    These experiences of the past week, in my view, offer some cue for Nigeria’s path forward in this democracy journey.

    A quick word on home vaults

    Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman Ibrahim Magu late last week told the House of Representatives that the agency recently recovered $9.75million in cash, among others, from the home of a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Kaduna.

    Earlier in the week, the Police panel that probed the December 2016 legislative elections in Rivers State displayed for media cameras tons of cash said to be part of N111.3million recovered from funds the state government allegedly used to bribe electoral officials. And not too long ago, the Department of State Security (DSS) cited mind-boggling sums allegedly recovered in cash during sting operations on the homes of Justices that are now being prosecuted for graft.

    It is understandable that these cash piles are not domiciled in bank vaults for the simple reason, allegedly, that they are proceeds of graft. But it is curious how such quantum of cash exited the bank vaults in the first place. Monetary authorities need some soul searching.