The Nation Newspaper

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  • Tasks for presidential committee on N/East

    As the war against the deadly Boko Haram terrorist insurgency approaches its end, expectations from the people traumatised by this irrational and cockamamie war is now sharply focused, among others, on the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative (PCNI), for the rehabilitation of the millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the reconstruction of their destroyed schools, hospitals, homes, markets, bridges, roads and other infrastructure. The insane insurgency has affected most parts of the North-east, especially northern parts of Borno and Yobe states, that have long been in decline in many indices of human development, and areas bordering the dreaded Sambisa forest. The condition of the towns and villages, even prior to the insurgency, were not the best of models. There was very low enrolment of children to formal schools.  Agriculture was medieval. The implementation of any multibillion naira intervention project, complementary to the overwhelming efforts of the state governments, such as those by the Presidential Committee of the Northeast Initiative, PCNI, may have to consider revolutionary plans to reposition such towns and villages for sustainable modern development, peace and progress.

    Members of the PCNI are carefully chosen and well known men and women of proven integrity, who have excelled in their careers. They would not award contracts, as is the practise these days, without strenuous scrutiny for selfish reasons.

    Whilst there were enough schools and even basic facilities across most of the places affected, these were never fully occupied even before the lunacy started and got worse to this astonishing level. Enrolment is now at its lowest ebb and classes in most schools in the hard hit areas barely have children. Most of the children are involved in farming and hawking for survival, as well attending the madrassas but they hardly go to formal schools even when registered in the records.

    More than the rebuilding of infrastructure, the committee has to set aside special allocation, under a dedicated subcommittee to facilitate the enrolment of all children in those areas where going to school is a weighty issue. Incidentally, those areas are usually the poverty-stricken areas, where the insurgency thrived and grew like wild fire. Studies have shown that the problems are multifaceted. Heads of traditional institutions in those areas, who use to monitor the progress of the teachers and students and were involved in enrolment of their villages children, and who gave advice before the holidays are pronounced, no longer relate with the schools like before. Even the local government officials, such as the education secretaries, are not dedicated as they use to be.

    Other serious challenges facing primary education in the zone include shortage of committed, qualified brilliant teachers. The few who do get trained at the teachers’ training colleges are mostly those who could not make it to the universities. If Nigerian students have their way, no college of education or polytechnic would get students to train! Ironically the same teachers go ahead to teach the future doctors, lawyers and pharmacists. Whilst in some countries such as Turkey, education courses are only offered to the best students, those with the highest scores in the qualifying examinations. In Nigeria, students go for courses that may guarantee them very good remunerations!  The first choices for those with highest scores in JAMB are for courses like medicine, law, engineering, pharmacy, accountancy and architecture, and hardly ever education.

    One of the fastest ways to implement effective and near total enrolment is to involve the traditional rulers, especially in the North-east. Our traditional rulers know members of every family of their domain. Providing free breakfast in the schools has also been suggested, especially in the hardest hit, poverty endemic regions, but this may not be sustainable in the present economic circumstance. Another factor that militates against effective primary schooling in the zone is the lack of serious commitment by those who have benefited from the system, the old boys or educated elite from the areas.

    When therefore the PCNI sets out to rebuild the classes and other infrastructure in all those places that the insurgents have destroyed, in the long run, less than half of the key problems are permanently set to be resolved.

    The PCNI may also consider injecting fresh new approaches to the reconstruction of destroyed classrooms. In this 21st century, the concept for the construction of classrooms remains the same, except for roofing materials that have undergone some transformations from zinc roof, still used in some state schools, to aluminium roofing sheets and now stone coated roofing materials, pre-colonial blackboard still remains the same.  In some cases, these were made with concrete, making them difficult for the teachers to write on and the students to see well. A few school heads now include modern cardboards in project designs.  In many developing and even less endowed countries basic interactive boards are in now vogue. They expose their children to modern facilities from primary one! Different categories of these boards abound depending on the budget and level of the class.

    Research designs conducted by our architects are never tried to redesign our classroom concepts to make them safer, more comfortable and even cheaper to build and maintain at all times.

    The PCNI may also consider provision of solar energy for all infrastructure in the areas covered for rehabilitation in their plan. This, if done properly, lasts longer and provides power to supply water and light classrooms for studies in the evenings. There are also cheap and rugged laptops for use by primary school pupils that have been tested and found to be of immense importance.  PCNI may reduce the scope of their mandate but they should please not just plaster and repaint those burnt classes with all those billions. Nigerians expect excellent work, that is similar, if not better than the defunct PTF projects executed by our amiable President.

     

    • Prof Geidam writes from Maiduguri, Borno State.

  • The essential Fidel Castro

    Many thanks to Kayode Komolafe (Thisday back page of Wednesday November 30) for his informed pan-African tribute to the late Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz, entitled “History Will Absolve Castro”. He commendably “absolved” (as it were!) the late iconic Cuban Revolutionary leader of some posthumous ideological smear such as that of America’s President elect, Donald Trump’s dictated slander – that Fidel was “a brutal dictator”! Few hours after his death, the Western media was in frenzy with predictable posthumously distorted historiography of Fidel as “a rebel and strong man” who with iron hands muzzled the people of Cuban island. The received image of Fidel in Africa, (no thanks to CNN!) was that of a defiant anti-American strongman who survived countless assassination attempts by God-knows-who. Nobel Prize winner for Literature Wole Soyinka still agonizes on how common sense is increasingly uncommon here. Kayode Komolafe has however shown that “uncommon” and real sense grounded in history and pan-Africanism still abounds in this continent. He  objectively encourages us to see Castro beyond the Cold War prism as he beams a search light at a robust legacy of a revolution which had long achieved Millennium Development Goals well before UN adopted  them in 1990; a revolution that “has produced an educated people”, crashed to the barest minimum by global standard infant mortality, HIV infection rate and turned an island of 11 million people into a global capital of human solidarity with its positive impact in de-colonized Angola,  Namibia and liberated South Africa and recently Ebola-stricken Liberia and Sierra Leone. He reminded of what is not fashionable by news agencies to report today: that about 36,000 soldiers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) fought in the war to liberate some parts of colonized Africa, out of which 4,300 died!

    The remains of Fidel Castro, former Prime Minister (1959 to 1976) and President (1976 to 2008) of the Republic of Cuba have been laid to rest in the Cuban city of Santiago, nine days after his death at 90. As far back as 1975 Fidel Castro declared “We are a Latin-African nation….African blood flows through our veins”. Paradoxically very few global leaders lived and governed like a philosopher king like the legendary Fidel Castro. Articles and Reflections by Fidel after he stepped down from power in 2008 covered wide range of topics from politics to medicine, international diplomacy to climate change, Arab Springs to global peace.

    One essential non-ideological leadership quality of Fidel is power of knowledge and education. As far back as 1986, Fidel Castro in a rare interview granted to two Americans – Dr. Jeffrey Elliot and Congressman Marvin Dymally – discussed a wide ranging number of issues, including US allegations of Cuba-Columbia narcotics connection, leadership and leaders, the Third World debt problem, apartheid, the arms race and Cuba’s relations with the United States and the then USSR. The three-day interview later passed for a book titled; “Nothing can change the course of history.”  The handy book shows the then 59-year old Castro as a most knowledgeable statesman of global events and issues in his country, the Third World and the world at large.  It throws more light on Castro’s personality and his vision of the world. A striking feature of Castro’s personality is his exceptional mastery of data and basic information to buttress logical analyses.  He could forget telephone numbers, “unless there’s a special motivation.”  “However, if you give me a figure on economics, I hear it or read it once and I don’t forget.  If you give me a figure on public health, on education, on economic programmes, or even scientific data, I don’t forget”.

    Castro one said that he has read Darwin down to Alex Harley’s Roots.  He described “Roots” as “a wonderful reconstruction of the human tragedy that was slavery.”  He read the communist manifesto and classic works of Marx, Engels and Lenin down to Churchill’s memoirs and anything published on Cuba that “I can lay hands on.”  He told his interviewers: “I can grab a book and forget you.”  Another essential feature of Fidel’ leadership legacy is his globally acknowledged selflessness and disinterestedness which by Nigerian “leadership” standard qualifies Fidel for canonization into sainthood.  According to Fidel, “Material goods do not motivate me.  Money does not motivate me at all.  The lust for glory, fame, prestige does not motivate me.  I really think ideas motivate me”, said Castro, echoing Cuba poet, Jose Martins words: “All the glory of the world fits into a kernel of corn.” It is commendable for President Raul Castro to honour Fidel’s dying wish “that no statues be erected in his honour and no streets be named after him”. According to Raul Castro; “The leader of the revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality”. Are Nigerian leaders accumulating mansions willing to learn from Fidel that all that do impact on humanity is vanity!

    Another remarkable quality of Fidel is his objective non-doctrinaire assessment of historic and sacred figures. For Castro, Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammed (Pbh) are the world’s greatest leaders because “… each of them had a doctrine, founded a doctrine and was followed by multitudes…they were religious leaders but leaders nonetheless.” His assessment of leadership qualities are also based on the requirements of different historical possibilities.  “If George Washington had been born 50 years after independence, he might have been unknown and the same hold true if he’d lived 50 years before it.” Fidel sees Indira Gandhi, Argentine-born Che Guevera and scores of French revolutionaries, America’s Roosevelt, Lincoln and Jesse Jackson as great leaders.  But Castro would not answer in the affirmative that he is a “leader”, remarking that it is an “old theory that associates historical events with individuals, and more so in the Third World where Western stereotype has equated “leader” with a “chieftain”.

    “I am amazed that in West, where you suppose that there are cultured societies and that people think, there’s such a strong tendency to associate historical events with individuals and to magnify the role of individuals.  I can see it myself: Castro’s Cuba, Castro did this, Castro undid that.  Almost everything in this country is attributed to Castro, Castro’s doing, Castro’s perversities.  That type of mentality abounds in the West, unfortunately, it’s quite widespread.  It seems to me to be erroneous approach to historical and political events.”

    Castro does not conceal his faith in human beings saying the potential capacity of human mind is infinite.  “It is said that people use only five to six per cent of their mental capacity.  Nobody can imagine the kind of computer a man has in his head.”  If there are “leaders” at all in Cuba, according to Fidel, they are doctors, manual and intellectual workers, school teachers and students, all armed militia and “the legion of anonymous heroes who constitute the people.” A great orator in his own right, Castro disagrees that he is a “masterful communicator” and humorously adds: “I have a great competitor and that’s Reagan”.  Castro addressed the UN General Assembly for 41/2 hours in September 1960 and often spoke for hours on end at rallies attended by millions of Cubans.  “I have a stage fright” says Castro, who scorns written speeches, which he describes as always colder and often the fruits of abstract inspiration.”  “When you’re in direct contact with the public nothing is artificial, nothing is abstract, you get better ideas, words are more persuasive, more convincing.” The world not just Africa would miss Fidel’s love for humanity. Fidel is dead! Long live Fidel !!

     

    • Aremu mni, is NEC member Nigeria Labour Congress.

  • Much ado about telecoms data price

    The raging debate over the proposed introduction of a price floor for data services by the nation’s telecoms regulator should be seen in the context of what it is: an indexation of the right of Nigerians to free speech. It illustrates most eloquently the fact that the fundamental human right to freely hold an opinion on any matter is respected in the country. And that is cheery news.

    But beyond the deafening din, there is the overriding need to distil the matter and make bare its fundaments. First, the nation’s telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) proposed a price floor for data services. The interim price floor of 90 kobo per megabyte was arrived at after consultation with telecom operators on October 19, this year. A price floor is the base price that an operator can sell its data. An operator can sell above the price floor but never below it. In simple term, it is the minimum price that an operator can sell a unit of data measured in megabyte.

    Media reports quoting a letter from the regulator to the operators said NCC clearly stated that the interim price floor was for the big operators and that the rate will subsist pending the finalization of a study on the determination of cost-based pricing for retail broadband and data services.

    The price floor regime was essentially to provide a level playing field for all operators in the telecoms space and to encourage small operators and new entrants to acquire market share and operate profitably just so they do not face insolvency. Both categories, small operators and new entrants, were exempted from the price floor. The regulator went ahead to define small operator as any operator with less than 7.5 percent of the market share while a new entrant is any operator that has operated less than three years in the Nigerian market.

    In the main, the directive from the NCC is not punitive. Here then is the misconception. The Senate must have misread the lines when it asked the regulator to suspend the introduction of the price floor regime. The Senate acted in the public interest. The NCC also acted in the public interest. The only difference is that whereas the Senate acted for the immediate satisfaction for the telecoms consumer, the regulator from its commanding height as the driver of the industry acted for the good of the consumer in the long run. Besides, the action of the regulator is not just in the interest of the telecoms consumers but also in the interest of the nation.

    The President of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Mr. Gbenga Adebayo has argued that the regulator was spot on with the introduction of the price floor for data as a way of arresting anti-competitive practices which has already set in and which is crippling the small operators. He has also confirmed through press statements and media interviews that the decision was taken after a consultative forum between the NCC and the operators. He stressed that operators need to be guided by a price floor to avert the danger of frustrating the flourishing healthy competition that has come to define the nation’s telecoms market.

    The position of ALTON was on Tuesday corroborated by the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Communication. Professor Danbatta told the committee that the intervention of the NCC was not designed to undermine the consumers, neither was it also intended to undermine the operators but to find a common ground whereby all the stakeholders, the operators and consumers, would enjoy the gains of participatory regulation which the regulator is noted for.

    He said: “We wanted to protect the Nigerian consumer from unhealthy price war in what may lead to a monopoly that may lead us to the days of NITEL. We did not increase any price but merely provided a regulatory standard to protect small telecom operators.”

    Danbatta said that there were some telecom operators that lacked the capacity to compete with the big operators in the field and there was the urgent and compelling need to protect such operators to enable them to remain in business and gain reasonable foothold in the market. No regulator can be faulted on this.

    ”A situation where a dominant operator provides services far below what is obtainable in the sector in order to attract more customers may lead to a situation where smaller operators will be forced to shut down. We stepped in when we noticed price war in the sector. The price war was already reaching undesirable level that we had to step in to prevent a monopoly like the days of NITEL,” Danbatta told the Committee.

    In other words, the intendment of the price floor was to protect the telecoms consumer, promote healthy competition among operators by allowing the small players the opportunity to co-exist with the big players without suffering grave economic injury that would sound their death knell.

    To fully grasp the wisdom in the regulator’s intervention, Nigerians should ponder why the CDMA’s (Code division multiple access) operators could not effectively compete in the data business with the GSM operators. Some CDMA operators are merely gasping for existential breath. They need to be protected.

    The introduction of a price floor should not be interpreted to mean an increase in tariff. On the contrary, it will lead ultimately to low tariff because it will encourage robust competition, admit more investors into the market and give the consumer the option of choice. It is the most effective tool to avert a drift to a monopolistic market.

    Any Nigerian who is of age will remember the anguish visited on the public by the state-owned NITEL in those days. Then telecoms services were not available, accessible nor affordable.  This country cannot afford a return to those dark days.

    The Nigerian telecom regulator has had a rich history of consultative and participatory regulation which strikes a balance between protecting the consumer and encouraging the operators (investors). This robust regulatory style has in the past one year alone earned the NCC global recognition including from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a model regulator for the emerging markets.

    Suspending the price floor regime is akin to postponing the dawning of the full majesty of the telecoms industry especially as Professor Danbatta is rallying his team to expand and deepen the broadband market.  The glory of the industry can only fully manifest in an atmosphere of multiple choices which is the fodder for healthy competition. The regulator, noted for its active engagement with consumers through its telecoms consumers’ forums and outreach programmes, may need to engage the consumers further on this to get their buy in. The National Assembly should also see the logic behind the price floor: It is not anti-people.

    On the contrary, it is one of the most consumer-centric decisions to be taken by the regulator.  The Nigerian telecoms market has been internationally acknowledged as both revolutionary and resilient. The immediate past Secretary-General of the ITU, the eminent Dr. Hamadoun Toure, never ceases to use the miracle of the Nigerian telecoms narrative to underscore what good regulation can do for any nation’s telecoms market. At the just-ended ITU Telecom World in Bangkok, Thailand, he said there must be something Nigerians are doing very well to have kept the country’s telecoms bourse within the league of the very best in the world. He narrowed the reason to regulatory efficiency.

    The regulator, the legislature and the operators have variously echoed that their actions were for the common good. The challenge is for these stakeholders to find a common ground to convince the other critical stakeholder, the consumers, that a price floor for data (not voice) is not meant to hurt them but to proactively stave off an impending implosion in the telecoms data market which dire consequences can only be better imagined than experienced.

     

    • Umukoro, a blogger, writes from Lagos

  • Torment on Lagos -Ibadan expressway

    Of late, plying the Lagos -Ibadan expressway has become a torment for commuters, especially those residing along the Mowe-Ibafo axis of Ogun State. It is rather sad that a journey that should ordinarily not take more than 15 -20 minutes now takes over four hours and even more. Recently, a fatal road accident involving multiple vehicles occurred on the road, claiming three lives. This unfortunate incident caused a serious gridlock that almost brought the whole of Lagos to a standstill.

    Being a major road that links Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria to other parts of the country, it is of course one of the busiest roads in the country. The situation of the road becomes even more complex with the growing population of residential communities along the Mowe-Ibafo axis. This greatly increases vehicular movement along the route.

    However, ongoing repairs on some critical sections of the road which began about six months ago have enormously compounded the situation. It is disconcerting that the repairs of a major exit route with economic relevance and implication is taking so long. Julius Berger Plc which handles the repairs has been foot-dragging on the job to the consternation of many. Initially, when the construction firm began the work, it didn’t give commuters sufficient reason for optimism, considering its lackadaisical approach. Though, the firm has since relatively braced up, but the agonies and frustrations of commuters along the road linger on.

    As a result of on-going construction work which necessitated the narrowing of a long section of the road, especially the popular Long Bridge, gridlock lingering into the dead of the night has become a usual episode. Many residents are now compelled by the traffic situation to sleep outside their homes in order to avoid the terrible gridlock. The sorry sight of school pupils trekking hazardously home, sometimes through the scorching Lagos sun due to shortage of public transport since they were all trapped in traffic while transport fares tripled, would make even a heart of stone to melt.

    Aside the niggling gridlock on the road and resultant stress, security of lives has also become a serious concern. Since the road has been narrowed and traffic now move at snail speed, that is if it is even if it moves at all, robbers and other evil minded people now daily unleash terror on commuters along the route. In the last few weeks there have been numerous cases of daring gangsterism on the road in which commuters lose several valuables such as handsets, wrist watches, money, laptops among others. One of such incidences that is still very difficult for one to hurriedly forget involved a middle-aged woman who was thrown down the bridge by these dare devil hoodlums. The fear of hoodlums along the route has now become the beginning of wisdom. To worsen things, security personnel rarely patrol the road, as bad as things stand.

    The manpower lost to the traffic jam per hour, per day and per week is unquantifiable and irrecoverable as time and resources are daily lost to the traffic. It has been alleged that there are lots of intrigues behind government contracts and construction. Or how does one explain a construction work that has affected millions of lives and little seems to be achieved in terms of concrete results? The snail pace with which the company is working is not in tandem with the realities of the 21st century where things are done with civility and human considerations.

    Sadly, Julius Berger plc doesn’t seem to care a hoot about the condition of commuters and residents along the route. There are even unconfirmed reports that in spite of the much anticipated Yuletide season traffic rush along the route, Julius Berger’s staff working on the road would soon embark on their annual end of year vacation. If this were to be true, it only goes to show that our nation has become a banana republic where anything goes!

    Recently, there was a colossal road collapse in one of the Asian countries aired on CNN, where a major part of an express way collapsed leaving a gaping hole that claimed almost the entire road. Interestingly it was fixed within three hours and opened for people to traverse without any problem. That is how things are done in developed and progressive societies. There is a consciousness of time and conservation of energy and resources. Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind in science and technology, we must move at the same pace with the developed world if we want to discard the status of a third world country. It is quite unfortunate that such a repair work could take well over six months to complete. And no one is even sure of how long the work is going to take. Initially, the federal government said work would end by last November. This, of course, has turned a mirage.

    It is time for the federal government to pay close attention to the activities of the company handling the project as it is taking rather too long for its completion. More importantly, there is need for quality control as one side of the bridge that is recently completed is already developing potholes; this is between Wawa ends of the Long Bridge while coming to Lagos. It is important that the Federal Ministry of Works steps in right now to ensure proper assessment of the job so that it won’t be a case of a shoddy job; a situation where Nigerians will be left to suffer the same cycle of hardship on the road all over again.

    Perhaps, more importantly, it becomes imperative to have alternative routes connecting other parts of the country to Lagos. The fact that the nation cannot boast of other such routes is, indeed, the shame of a nation. Also, special consideration should be given to the grading and tarring of access roads on both sides of the Long Bridge as this will also a long way in reducing stress on the road.

    If, indeed, we are concerned about human lives as a people, now is the time for the federal government to pay better attention to the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and other such critical roads across the nation.

     

    • Mrs. Aruya wrote in from Arepo, Ogun State.

  • Dogara: Championing interfaith dialogue

    For many devout Christians, the idea of combining the practice of their faith with active partisan politics is so antithetical that the mere thought of it is seen as a sign that one has backslidden. This is because active partisan politics, especially in Nigeria, is said to be a dirty game and adjudged to be associated with the things that Christianity vehemently preaches against: lying, covetousness, stealing and mentioning God’s name in vain, amongst others.

    Therefore when a group of politicians under the aegis of Northern Nigeria Christian Politicians converged on Abuja penultimate Saturday to honour the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, David Babachir Lawal, many critical observers were quick to dismiss it as an incongruous gathering. Not a few also wondered aloud about the capacity of politicians to hide under any guise to advance their cause.

    Never one to miss such an opportunity to articulate his thought, Speaker Yakubu Dogara would use the forum to hit squarely at the very issue that has continued to draw the northern part of the country backward: distrust among Christians and Muslims.

    “There are those who said look, time has come for the North to go back to those days of Sardauna where those who call themselves, or are referred to as the core North, will deliberately fashion out ways of patronizing their Christians brothers in the North,” he said.

    Dogara, who praised the efforts of some notable northern Muslim political leaders in cementing the hitherto fractured relations between the two dominant religious groups in the north, admitted that had northern Muslim leaders prevailed on their Reps not to vote for him, he would never have emerged as Speaker.

    It is his belief that the support he got from northern Muslims and the appointment of Engineer Lawal as SGF by President Muhammadu Buhari, is sending strong signals to all northern Christians that there is now as open invitation to them from their Muslim brethren for a renewed friendship that will foster unity and religious tolerance in the region, as in the days of the late sage and Premier of defunct northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto.

    As the speaker noted, one can say without fear of contradiction that it takes only a person of President Muhammadu Buhari to appointment a Lawal, a Christian from Adamawa State as the SGF, which is the first time such a plum position is ceded to northern Christians despite strong opposition from those who believed in maintaining the status quo.

    “It may interest you to know that among Sokoto State members, we lost only two votes. If all the members from Sokoto State alone had decided to vote for my opponent, there is no way we would have won that election. And in Zamfara, we lost one vote. But what does that speak to us? It speaks volumes: It’s an invitation to all of us to go back to the ways of our founding fathers. What ways?  When we used to work together and when we used to live together as brothers and sisters. That is the only way that we can live in peace which is a key ingredient for development. Without peace, we cannot even practice our religion. And as long as we don’t enjoy peace in our region, there is no way that we will experience development because even if we are developed, lack of peace will destroy it. Syria is a case in point. So that is the challenge before us. As they open their arms to embrace us, we should also open our arms to embrace them so that we can write a new political history” he told the gathering amidst thunderous applause.

    “For some of us who think Nigeria is a mistake, or that the North, having aggregated so many ethnic groups and then two dominant faith, is a mistake, I want to advise us to have a rethink.” According to him, “the one who put together Nigeria and the North is God and He has a purpose or reason for putting together the North or Nigeria that way. Therefore, anyone fighting for the disintegration of this country will not succeed because I believe God has a plan for Nigeria and likewise, anyone fighting to eliminate any faith in Northern Nigeria or for the destruction of Northern Nigeria will not succeed because I believe God has a plan for northern Nigeria too and until God is done with his plan, the north will remain as it is and similarly Nigeria will remain as it is. If anyone can upturn that, it means he is greater than God”. Gladly no one is greater than God.

    On his emergence as Speaker, he noted that Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, supported by many prominent northern Muslim leaders, worked tirelessly to bring about the present leadership of the House so as to give a sense of belonging to northern Christians in the APC government. Coincidently, whereas Dogara, hails from same place as Tafawa-Balewa, Tambuwal is not only from Sokoto just as Sardauna, he is also the governor there. It is worth recalling that just as Sardauna was able to galvanise support and rally people from all ethnic and religious groups in the north and even appointed northern Christians such as Sunday Awoniyi, Jolly Tanko Yusuf and others of blessed memory as his close aides and associates, Tambuwal too, seems to be treading Sardauna’s noble path in his time.

    This writer recalls with nostalgia, that on August 18, 2014, Tambuwal, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, along with the then Sokoto Governor Aliyu Wamakko, on the invitation of Dogara, visited Tafawa-Balewa to launch constituency outreach programme for his Bogoro/Das/Tafawa-Balewa Federal Constituency, the first of such visits by any top ranking northern Muslim political leaders in our recent history.

    They went not for politicking but with a strong message: peace and unity. When he mounted the rostrum to speak at the event, Tambuwal reminded the people of the long term relationship between Tafawa Balewa and the Sokoto caliphate which started with the late Premier Sardauna and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and urged the people to embrace peace. Less than one year after, Dogara, with the support of Tambuwal and others became Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    This is why the speaker appealed to his Christian brethren to, as a matter of necessity, reciprocate the gestures extended by our Muslim counterparts and forge a new era of northern unity as it existed in the days of Sardauna and Tafawa-Balewa. Not only that, he also had a strong message to the rather disparate Christian groups in northern Nigeria, “your growth will remain stunted for as long as you fail to provide a leadership for yourselves that is focused and ready to lead.”

    “We really need leadership and this event speaks to leadership. Without leadership, you cannot achieve anything. And if we thought in the Christian community in the north that progress is automatic, then we are mistaken.”

    “Alexander the Great said something which was quite true of his time and even now. He said he is never afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep but that he is always afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. So that tells you that without leadership we cannot make progress. Leadership is so central and important that with the wrong leadership we won’t make progress. Therefore, as a community, we cannot afford to just stay without leadership, without organisation, without a platform where we articulate visions and how we can pursue them and hope that we can make progress. If we do that, we will be deceiving ourselves”.

    It is Dogara’s conviction that working together, we can forge a strong union and take back the region to the good old days when it was the envy of others.

     

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

  • Ondo: Time to subvert dominant paradigms

    I shall in few months be saddled with the task of providing responsible leadership, a leadership that would take our people from poverty and stagnation to productivity and prosperity, from pains and lamentation to joy and laughter.” —— Ondo State Governor-elect Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) after his official declaration by INEC as the winner of the Saturday, November 26 governorship poll.
    It is my intention to deploy the above epigraph to interrogate the new socio-economic and political dynamics that must inevitably replace the eight-year old governance order in Ondo State starting from February 27, 2017. The keywords and/or phrases in the statement may have already pointed to the direction that the Akeredolu-led administration will travel in the state’s next political dispensation. The epigraph, to me, pre-supposes that critical governance architecture as well as its directive principles will be scrupulously geared towards, as well as revolve around the people of the state for a completely new lease of life. It also pre-supposes that the archaic, unproductive and lethargic state bureaucracy that gulps probably more than 80 percent of state revenue would be drastically reduced if the people’s “pains and lamentation” must turn to “joy and laughter” at the end of the day. One is therefore inclined to see the statement as the author’s overarching social contract with the people of Ondo State in which a common thread can be identified that also pre-supposes that a “responsible leadership” of the Akeredolu administration will liberate the people from “poverty and stagnation” whereby their “productivity and prosperity” will be harnessed and enhanced so that their “pains and lamentation” will turn to “joy and laughter” which ultimately translates into higher quality of life and new and improved standard of living for them. This is no doubt a daunting but not impossible proposition.
    Judging from the post-election equanimity that pervaded the length and breadth of the state despite the serious acrimonies within and between parties, talk less of the ‘bad blood’ between the major contestants prior to the election in a state known for its recalcitrance and bull-headedness as followers had dug in behind their candidates – followed by myriads of congratulatory messages even from unlikely quarters – Akeredolu’s electoral victory may have triggered some kind of feeling in the people that a messiah may have arrived to liberate them from the bondage they have not only been subjected in the Mimiko administration but a needless socio-economic deprivation that has been their lot probably since the time of Pa Adekunle Ajasin. Because of this high level of expectations which for all practical purposes was reminiscence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s electoral victory in 2015, the governor-elect may not wait until his swearing-in to get cracking even if it’s by operating a mini, shadow administration either from his redoubt in Owo or the state capital. At the minimum, head-hunting of highly intellectually endowed indigenes whose creativity can extract water from a rock and their persuasive prowess so enchanting that they can sell ice to the Eskimos, if not groups with sound minds working on major policy directives of his government should be in top gear by now. This advanced preparation for governance should be of utmost importance if the subversion of the moribund, lethargic, unproductive self-conflicting and self-contradictory socio-economic paradigms that has rendered the state comatose, stale and inchoate must be accomplished and replaced with new life-enhancing, productive and sustainable socio-economic paradigms. This tectonic shift is necessary.
    With the country facing such an unprecedented revenue depletion in its history which has brought into the fore and has called into question the sanity of the country’s military governments which created states that are never viable as they’re now unable to meet the very minimum obligation of paying salaries of their workers, no one needs to be told that unusual leaders with strong political will – as is being witnessed with Buhari at the centre – are what the political scientists ordered in the federating units as well. The governor-elect has demonstrated that he’s audacious enough to take the road less or never travelled and embark on unusual propositions that would be aimed at recalibrating the socio-economic templates to spur real growth and sustainable development. The people of Ondo State has scaled through the first test of the type of leadership needed to change the governance architecture when they elected Rotimi Akeredolu whose principled antecedent is undoubtedly one of the key hallmarks of “responsible leadership” to which he alluded in his maiden victory speech.
    Perhaps Akeredolu’s next test on the road to running a successful and result-oriented government is for him to figure out what should be the nature, character and style of the All Progressives Party (APC) in the state in such a way that a robust and symbiotic relationship would exist between the political arm and administrative wing of the party in which the governor-elect now has the dual responsibility of leading. How he juggles these extremely important responsibilities would not only have telling effects on how long these two structures would endure in the state, but the level of health and wellbeing or otherwise of one has a direct correlation on the other. Aside the fact that there should be a fundamental restructuring of the party in the state in light of the internecine ‘war’ in the leadership prior to and after the primary, it may be extremely imperative to look at bringing in new hands whose only objective is to grow the party and are not in any way covetous of or interested in any positions in the government while members of the present leadership are assigned new roles in the next political dispensation. There’s perhaps nothing as nauseating and morally reprehensible to those with the acute understanding of what political parties should be and what should be the guiding principles of their members than the promiscuous shuttling of key players between parties when they perceive that their narrow political interests are more likely to be enhanced in another party or are threatened where they are, as the case may be. Nigerian political parties will remain weak and incapable of galvanising its members, let alone the general populace towards any noble ideals as long as this aberration continues.
    While it can be argued that it may not be the most auspicious time for anyone to be in the top rung of political leadership in the polity as our mostly self-inflicted socio-economic problems has become such a complex labyrinth that seems intractable, the unfortunate present reality of our time equally presents us with the opportunity to chart a new course whereby those tangible and intangible pillars that has stood on our developmental pathway are deliberately subverted and completely jettisoned for the sake of our collective good and progress. It’s a time like this that leaders who’re still preoccupied with frivolities of power must be separated from the deep who can dive well into the deep. One would hope that Akeredolu belong to this latter category.

    •Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com

  • Understanding Ayade’s theory of expanded government

    Understanding Ayade’s theory of expanded government

    During recessions, the public gets frightened and holds back on spending, resulting in more layoffs, which in turn produces less spending in a vicious circle of economic decline”.
    The above quote from one of British most influential economists of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), was a warning about the danger inherent in the attitude of the capitalist western world and indeed, America to shrink the money supply as a response to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
    It will be recalled that when the Great Depression hit worldwide, there was an urgent need for economists to ponder over the slowdown in the economy and devise a way out. While Keynes was convinced that something as large and intractable as the Great Depression would have complicated causes, it was rather unfortunate that leaders of leading economies of the West found themselves helpless in the face of the overwhelming economic morass. Keynes, however, came up with an antidote to the economic slumps which at the time appeared to some of the leaders as rather too simplistic.
    In fact, as part of his own intellectual response or solution to the economic chaos, the foremost economist shared his theory and proposed a solution with the late American President, Franklin Roosevelt. Ironically, Roosevelt, derisively dismissed Keynes theorizing with the words: “Too easy.”
    Nigeria is currently at that bend, a tipping point where America and most the countries of the West once found themselves in the ’30s. Nigerian economy is today on its knees, a situation where the government is seeking external borrowings to fund budget; there is higher energy costs; spiraling national debt. There have been massive layoffs, failure of several states to meet their wage obligations to their workforce; foreign firms exiting Nigeria en masse; plummeting value of our local currency, the naira. These are a few defining features of our prostrate economy.
    Undoubtedly, we are now in an abnormal economy, where there is a high level of unemployment. Expectedly, not everyone is spending his or her earnings as it ought to be. Since Nigeria’s recession moved from technical to a full scale recession, there is no more circular flow of money in the economy, where one man’s spending becomes part of another’s earnings, and your spending becomes part of my earnings.
    In fact, with the increasing job hemorrhage everywhere in the land, the prospect of one’s spending translating to another’s earning is just as illusory. The tendency to hoard money is now a preferred option among Nigerians.
    The cure for this, Keynes postulated, was for the government to expand the money supply by putting more bills in people’s hands. Accordingly, consumer confidence would return, people would spend, and the circular flow of money would be reestablished. Just that simple! That was John Maynard Keynes’ cure out of the economic quagmire that afflicted Europe and America at the time.
    The situation in Cross River, as in Nigeria, is no different from the global economic fracture of the 1930s
    As a neo-Keynesian, Governor Ben Ayade’s thinking is strictly in tandem with the tendencies that made Keynes’ application practicable. The situation in many states of the federation as a whole is worsened today as governments continue to shrink by laying off people and cutting down spending. This policy has proven as purely monetarist with no provable record of its workability anywhere.
    Right from when Governor Ayade took over the reins of governance, he made it abundantly clear that the welfare and survival of citizens would form the cardinal thrust of his policy, even as he seeks to industrialize and recalibrate the economy of the state.
    As a demonstration of his commitment to his bond, apart from ensuring regular and prompt payment of workers’ salaries, the governor carried this a notch higher by de-freezing the nearly 30 year-old recruitment embargo into the state’s civil service as well as tax waivers to low income earners in the state.
    Ayade has often espoused the theorem that when an economy is in recession such as we are currently buffeted, it is the duty of government to spend its way out of it in order to sustain the circular flow of money.
    Underlying Keynes’ argument was the importance of intervening in a recession. And so, like Keynes, Ayade comes across as a new style economist, who, while conceding to those still clinching obtusely to the classical Adam Smith theory of supply and demand economics, understands the importance of intervention.
    A couple of months back, he had ordered that a general staff audit with a view to fishing out spook workers be carried out across ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) even as political appointees were not left out in the exercise. By the time the roll call was over, a legion of ghosts was uncovered with about 400million naira discovered to being paid to them. In fact, if anyone thought ghosts were restricted only to cemeteries alone, the staff audit revealed clearly that they are also found in workplaces.
    However, the difference is, the ghosts in the workplaces earn salaries, while those in the cemeteries do not.
    A whooping N400million was saved from the staff auditing. Elsewhere, this humongous amount would cleverly have sneaked into the ‘voice mail’. But not with Ayade. That is the money, in addition to the inflows from about 30 newly created Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), he has decided to put back in the hands of his people. These are people who have lost their jobs, their dignity and self-worth as well as responsibility to their dependents. And in so doing, confidence is being clawed back. People are spending and the circular flow of money is being reestablished.
    As a great proponent of Keynesian theory, what Ayade has done by expanding the government is playing the role of a modulator between two opposing theories of Adam Smith and Keynes with the introduction of what, if you will permit me, I will call the ‘AYADESIAN Theory’.
    In the application of Ayadesian model, the governor has demonstrated that the forces of demand and supply must operate at two different levels- the level of public service and at the level of the capitalist structure. The policy adopted by the governor in the face of the overbearing recession is what can rightly be described as playing the role of a conciliator between Keynes and Adam Smith.
    At the public service level, the platform on which the governor is operating, the focus is on the vulnerable. Central to this, is government’s intervention to mitigate or reduce the tension usually occasioned by the struggle to survive or at best, the survivalist tendency in humans. In any society, it is the failure to apply this principle that often morphs into social tension. Definitely, Ayade understands the correlation between unemployment and crime
    At the heart of this polemics, is the desire to reduce social tension in the land, which often times pushes people to do the unthinkable. And this is where Ayade feels equally obligated to.
    So when society is at peace with itself because the citizens have been offered a sense of dignity through public sector intervention, government can now focus on infrastructural development by sourcing third party funds from such international agencies like the World Bank, ADB, and sundry international finance institutions to finance capital projects. This allows government funds to become social equalization while projects funds come in from deep thinking.
    While the goal of most state governments is to build skyscrapers as well as flyovers, which are increasingly becoming landmarks in many of the states’ capitals, and a measure of political achievements, these do not in themselves, transform the human persons. If anything, the success of any government at the end of the day will be measured by its sensitivity to the vulnerable in the society. This is because no human person suddenly becomes transformed on account of the presence of flyovers. Which is why the growth of a nation is indexed on per capita income, rather than magnificent edifices.
    Just as Keynes’ methodology was pooh-poohed back then by leaders who questioned and sneered at his solution, so is Governor Ayade’s today being ambushed by some ludicrous armchair critics constantly baying for his blood for refusing to join the bandwagon of governors cutting salaries and reducing man hours as an antidote to the exacting economic crunch, just as others are engaging in outright sacking of their workers.

    •Obogo is Special Assistant, Media, and Deputy Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ayade.

  • Open letter to President Buhari

    Open letter to President Buhari

    I write this letter in response to the growing anxieties and pains stalking the land, especially the unintended fire storm which my comments elicited on the social blogosphere some few days back. Candidly, I only wanted to express my frustrations at the shape and turn of things in the country and take you to task on previously given assurances that you feel the pains which Nigerians are grappling with. While thanking you most profusely for feeling our pains, we would be better off, if there are immediate remedial steps which can bail us from further hardships. The pains for want of a better word are unimaginable and any hint of its continuing will not augur well for us as a people.
    To be sure, it is such a good thing for you to give us assurances of feeling our pains but until and unless it translates into tangible improvement of our individual and collective lives, then it means next to nothing for the vast army of despondent and hungry Nigerians who have been battered and almost swept away into oblivion by no fault of theirs. Under these circumstances, nothing can resonate and revive them as a change of fortune. Only a drastic change in the economic situation will make living any meaningful in today’s Nigeria.
    The truth of the matter, sir, is that never have we witnessed on this scale the excruciating pains and feelings of hopelessness now pervasive, not even the hardship of the second republic comes any close. Never have we sunken to this depths of despair with prospects of further decline. We feel captured, vanquished, obviously betrayed and worried as citizens of this country. Every Nigerian is worried and it is not unusual to hear tales of lamentations when two or more of our country men and women congregate these days. The tales are so frightening and mind-wreaking that even the rich are not immune. These are indeed perilous times.
    As we stagger under the weight of spiralling inflation, reversed and dashed opportunities, continued decline in crude oil prices, massive unemployment, recession and increasing blame game, where lies the much needed salvation? Mr. President, am afraid that nothing but the reversal of this painful experience will do. Perhaps, you are trying your best but it only becomes meaningful when Nigerians can feed and experience a new lease of life.
    We are paying for the sins of the past, mainly of running a mono-cultural economy which is mainly oil based but only creative imagination is required to bail us out at the moment. As the current President, history will summon you to its judgement room to answer some certain questions. What immediate steps did you put in place to stem the slide would be one of such questions? History beckons and nobody but you would be put on the spot.
    I recall that you rode into office on the popular assumption that having spent a dozen years chasing the Presidency because of a well articulated plan to reform, revamp and revitalise our national economy. You are a little into your mid-term cycle and before long, another cycle of electioneering campaigns will commence. What are your achievements in the interim? I ask because it is not yet certain that much has changed in the experience of the ordinary Nigerian.
    The task of rebooting the economy is entirely yours and no amount of excuses or tepidity will do the needful. What is required is a clear understanding and necessary intervention to take us out of the woods. Nothing short of that will suffice. We are hungry. We want access to cheap food. We want opportunities. We want jobs and security. We want the state to response to threats before they blow out of proportions. In other words, the rhapsody of change, which you promised is yet to be fully or even partially fulfilled. Before long, there would be need for us to compare and contrast notes. It would be done with the best of intentions and the overall interest of the Nigerian peoples at heart.
    Courage and purposeful leadership are required to steer our national ship into an oasis of plenty from this long trek in the wilderness of want and lack. Offset the debt of promises you freely made to us during the last campaigns. The tide of history will not permit for inexorable march in the direction of failed promises. I can assure you that the Nigerian youths would score you objectively and reasonable before long.
    I recall that you promised to jettison the odious practices of the past by building a more equitable and egalitarian Nigeria during the campaigns. The poetry of electioneering is over and you are now faced and confronted with the daunting task of governance, which is not easy but it is your call. You must make needed sacrifices, your famed integrity will be called to question, decisions must be made with the consequences in mind and finally, it is expected of you to bequeath a value system that will take us forward into the future.
    As a retired soldier, I leave you with the Cadet Prayer at West Point Military Academy in the United States: “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole truth can be won”. Embrace the whole truth and do not let people within your immediate circle deceive or delude you into believing otherwise-Nigerians are tired and pained at heart. Come to our rescue. Fix our country and our lives, that’s all we ask for by voting you into office.
    Thank you for your time and do have a wonderful experience fixing the Nigerian situation.

    •Moremi Ojudu

  • The good problem in Ogun

    We currently have a problem in Ogun State. Yes, we do. But it is a good problem. The problem is that in this season of economic recession, the Ogun State government is embarking on the construction of a 10-lane major expressway.
    The expressway connects Abeokuta, the state capital, with the Lagos-Ibadan expressway through Sagamu Interchange.
    Now, for some people, this is a major problem. They wondered why the state government would bother to expand the existing expressway and not simply toe what appears like the easy path, which is keep patching the road and leave it as it is. Some wonder why the state government would not first complete ongoing projects like the Sango-Ojodu road before venturing into this one. Yet there are those who simply wonder why the state government would bother to fix any road or build any infrastructure rather than spend all the money on maintaining the comfort of civil and public servants, both serving and retired.
    In short, the number and variety of opinion is almost equal and directly proportionate to the number of interest groups within Ogun State with each advancing arguments that solely suit its purpose.
    So what exactly is the interest of the state government in this matter? As far as the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is concerned, it is nothing more than the overriding need to continue to improve the state of infrastructure in the Gateway state. “I have heard people ask; why do we want to start another road project again? It is because we are resolute that we need to improve our infrastructure. No sane investor will come here if they know that infrastructure is not in place, if the environment is not conducive to do business. That is why we need to continue to push to make sure that our infrastructure is in place,” the governor said recently.
    Indeed, perhaps unknown to some of the public commentators on the need or otherwise for the 10-lane expressway at this time, is the fact that the project was conceived and awarded in 2013 and the state government only waited until it got development partners willing to assist with the construction.
    Not only that, right now, a considerably large number of international conglomerates, including Coca Cola and SAB Miller, the world’s largest brewer, have concluded plans to locate their factories, including in some cases residential quarters for staff, along that road.
    None of these businesses is investing anything less than $100m in Ogun State. In fact, some are in the range of billions of dollars. For Governor Amosun, now that there is still a considerable land size for road expansion, is the time to think ahead and put a world class road infrastructure in that corridor rather than wait until these factories are fully built and then have course to demolish structures for road expansion.
    Now, that is forward thinking. A good example of such forward thinking is the present day Ikorodu Road, Lagos. When it was built as a six lane expressway over 40 years ago, a lot of people then felt there was no need for such but today, government would pay anything to be able to expand Ikorodu road!
    Besides that, almost 40 years after it was constructed as a 6-lane expressway, the size of the road was one major reason the Lagos State government was able to attract World Bank financing for the construction of the BRT corridor. The World Bank will not support such projects on roads that are less than six-lanes.
    Today, the problem in Ogun State is that Governor Amosun is also thinking ahead by embarking on the construction of a 10-lane expressway that will be an impressive gateway to the Gateway state.
    Perhaps also unknown to many critics of the project is the fact that the size of the road is one of the factors considered by multilateral agencies that have concluded plans to assist Ogun State in financing its construction. So what the state government is doing by starting the project is to show commitment by investing its own counterpart funding while the multilateral development partners would take over from there. Funding for the project is going to be released in phases while the construction of the road would also be done in phases.
    What has just commenced is the first phase, which stretches from around the place known as MTD junction, very close to Government House, Oke Igbein to around the President Muhammadu Buhari Estate layout in Kobape area.
    ‘Did you say multilateral development partners? Is the governor not mortgaging the state through the acquisition of loans?’ These are some of the questions that have also agitated the minds of the people.
    Again, these are good problems. And you will agree with me that they are good problems if only you knew that the sort of fund the Governor Amosun-led administration is using to develop critical infrastructure in Ogun State usually comes for periods of over 40 years and they attract ½ or maximum of one per cent interest rate.
    Interestingly, similar facilities had been used for developmental projects by previous administrations dating as far back as the time of late Chief Bisi Onabanjo, which the Ogun State government is still repaying today at an almost negligible one per cent interest rate.
    As good as such explanations may sound, some are still wondering, why 10-lanes? Well, the answer to that good problem is that two lanes on either side of the expressway are to be built with concrete. Those two lanes are dedicated for trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles thereby reducing chances of collision between these “kings of the road” and smaller cars as well as preserving the road.
    Not only that, the road is also going to host the rail project of the Governor Amosun-led administration which will run parallel to connect the federal government rail line at Sagamu interchange and greatly reduce the travel time between Abeokuta and Lagos while ensuring that a lot more people can live in Abeokuta or Sagamu area and commute to work on daily basis to the Lagos Island. This also explains why a lot of the housing estate development projects of the state, including the likes of AAK Degun Estate, Orange Valley Estate, HID Awolowo Estate, PMB Estate and the new Makun City, to mention a few, are located along that same axis.
    Yet, there are still fears that this road project will affect the chances of the state government completing other ongoing road projects in different parts of the state. Why start this one when you have not completed the existing ones, some people have wondered?
    Although these are well-founded concerns, they however did not put into consideration the fact that the Sagamu-Abeokuta expressway was picked by development partners who are assisting with the financing, based on their independently conducted viability study. Other projects that have attracted the attention of development partners like that include the Sango-Ojodu road, Agbara-Atan-Lusada road and the Ilara-Ijoun road among others.
    Not only that, the construction of the 10-lane expressway will not in any way stop the completion of other ongoing projects in the state. In fact, in the course of the 2017 Fiscal year, the state government will complete many of the ongoing projects while new ones, especially rural roads that will impact on our agricultural output, will also be constructed. And they have all been adequately captured in the 2017 budget, which was recently presented to the state House of Assembly.
    Indeed, in the 2017 Fiscal Year, the state government has budgeted for the following roads among several others: Sango-Ojodu-Abiodun road; Ilara-Ijoun Road; Lafenwa-Ayetoro Road; Mowe-Ofada road; Magboro Road; Brewery–OGTV; Ijebu Ode-Ibadan junction road; Agbara-Atan-Lusada road and at least a minimum of 100 rural roads that will aid the focus of the Governor Amosun administration on the agriculture sector.

    •Soyinka is Senior Special Assistant (Media) to Governor Amosun.

  • Constitutional roles for traditional rulers

    One of the defects of the 1979 and 1999 constitutions is the deliberate denial of any role whatsoever for the traditional rulers. If you go through the 1979 and 1999 constitutions, there is not a single role for our traditional rulers. It was not so before.

    Section 34(ii) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1963 states that (2) The Senators representing the Federal territory shall be:

    (a)        The Oba of Lagos, who shall be an ex-officio member of the Senate; (b) a Chief selected in such manner as may be prescribed by Parliament by the White-Cap Chiefs and War Chiefs of Lagos from among their own number; and two other persons selected for that purpose in such manner as may be prescribed Parliament.

    Section 4 of the Constitution of Northern Nigerian Law, 1963 states that There shall be a Legislature for the Region, which shall consist of the Governor, a House of Chiefs and a House of Assembly and which shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the Region.

    5 (1) The House of Chiefs shall consist of – (a) all first- class Chiefs, who shall be ex-officio members of the House; (b) ninety-five Chiefs having such qualifications and selected in such manner as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the Region (c) an adviser on Moslem law.

    (2) The seat in the House of Chiefs of a Chief other than first- class Chief shall become vacant in such circumstances as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the Region. (3) In this section— “Chief” means any persons who is for the time being recognized by the Governor as a Chief;” First-class Chief” means any Chief whose officer is for the time being graded as that of a first-class Chief under any law in force in the Region.

    Section 4 of the constitution of eastern Nigeria Law,1963 states that there shall be a Legislature for the Region, which shall consist of the Governor, a House of Chiefs and a House Assembly and which shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Region. 5 (1) Without prejudice to the provisions of sections 9 and 34 of this constitution, the House of Chiefs shall consist (a)  all traditional Rulers, who shall be ex-officio members of the House  ( ) first class chiefs appointed to represent provinces in the Region (c) fifty-five Chiefs having such qualifications and selected in such manner as may be prescribed by the legislature of the Region; and (d) such special members(not exceeding five) having such qualification as may be selected by the Governor, acting in accordance with the advice of the Premier. (2) The seat in the House of Chiefs of a member other than an ex-officio member shall become vacant in such circumstances as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the other Region.

    Section 4 of the constitution of the Western Nigeria law, 1963 states that there shall be a Legislature for the Region, which shall consist of the Governor, a House of Chiefs and a House of Assembly and which shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the Region. 5(1) The House of Chiefs shall consist of— (a) the persons for the time being holding such chieftaincies as may be prescribed by the Governor, who shall be ex officio members of the House; (b) eighty-seven Chiefs having such qualifications and selected in such manner as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the Region; (c) such Special members, being Chiefs (not exceeding four) as may be selected by the Governor, acting in accordance with the advice of the Premier; and (d) if he is not a member of the House of Chiefs apart from this paragraph, the President of the House  (2) (a) The seat in the House of Chiefs of a member other than an ex officio member or a Special Member shall become vacant in such circumstances as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the Region; (b) The seat in the House of Chiefs of a Special Member, including a Special Member appointed by the Governor at any time  before the coming into force of this Constitution, shall become vacant if he is removed from office as a Special Member by the Governor, acting in accordance with the advice of the Premier (3) In section—”Chief” means any person who is for the time being recognized as a Chief under any law in force in the Region.

    The Constitution of Mid-Western Nigeria Act,1964 Section 4 states that there shall be a Legislature for the Region, which shall consist of the Governor, a House of Chiefs and a House of Assembly and which shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Region. 5—(1) Without prejudice to the provisions of section 9 of this Constitution, the house shall consist of—— (a) the Oba of Benin, the Olu of Warri and the persons for the time being holding such other chieftaincies as may be prescribed by the Governor, who shall be ex-officio members of the House; (b) fifty-one Chiefs having such qualification and selected in such manner as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the Region; (c) such Special Members, being Chiefs, as may be selected by the Governor, acting in accordance with the advice of the Premier; and (d) four members selected by the Governor, acting in accordance with the advice of the Premier, to represent the interests of groups of persons resident in the special areas within the meaning of subsection (4) of section 14 of this Constitution, being groups whose interests, in the opinion of the Governor acting as aforesaid, are not represented by members of the House of Assembly for constituencies in those areas (2) A person shall not be a member of the House of Chiefs by virtue of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section during any period when he holds office as Governor and the number of persons who are for the time being members of that House by virtue of that paragraph or paragraph (c) of that subsection shall not in the aggregate exceed ten (3) The seat of a member of the House of Chiefs shall become vacant— (a) in the case of  member other than the Oba of Benin, the Olu of Warri or a Special Member, in such circumstances as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the Region; and (b) in the case of a Special member, if he is removed from office as such a member by the Governor, acting in accordance with the advice of the Premier. (4) In this section “Chief” means any person who is for the time beign recognized as a chief under any law in force in the Region.

    If you look at the present 1999 constitution and the 1979 constitution which we operated between 1979 and 1983, you will never find any role for the traditional rulers. We pretend that they don’t exist yet when we have crisis be it religious, ethnic, communal, land or political crisis, we run to them for help.

    I once asked my friend, Oba Adebiyi Adegboye Adesida, Afunbiowo II,(1950-2013), the Deji of Oyemekun(Akure) during his reign, whether the institution of traditional rulers will go into extinction or not in the face of modern-day challenges, he replied:  “Never, never. We survived the colonialists, we survived the politicians in the first republic, we survived the military; we are going to be around for a long to come.”

    No doubt, that institution will be with us for long. It is our link with our past. As Justice Oliver Wendel Holness (1841-1935) said: “Historic continuity with the past is not a duty, it is only a necessity.”A constitutional amendment has become necessary to give the traditional rulers important roles in governance.

     

    • Eric Teniola, a former director at the presidency,

        lives in Lagos.