The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Nigeria’s doubtful democracy

    Every Nigerian, irrespective of party affiliation, jubilated after a successful conduct of the 2015 elections which got the greatest hype in the history of the nation.  The euphoria cut across board, not so for the feelings that the new set of politicians who have taken over the mantle of leadership are the confirmed messiahs, but far more that the forecast of mayhem after the election did not come to pass.

    Many, especially the international community, feared a cataclysm of unfathomable dimension as tension rose in the March 28, 2015, presidential polls. Some predicted that President Goodluck Jonathan was going to be the last president of a united Nigeria while it appeared as if the May 29, 2015 handover date was not going to be.

    For 17 years, in a post-military era, Nigeria has managed to maintain its democracy, however wobbly it has been.  The country has undergone various elections which were seen to be flawed in certain respects.  The beauty of it is that in spite of these imperfections, the military allowed the system to sanitize itself rather than rush to the rescue through coup d’état as it were in the past. As for the last elections, we cannot pretend that a lot of irregularities played up in its conduct. Only the blind could claim not to have seen the army of kid voters, the falsification of figures, the intimidation of opponents’ supporters and the like which went on in a large scale.

    Be that as it may, winners emerged and have been fully in control for one year plus.  It may be more appropriate to refer to those who could not realize their ambition to be one thing or the other in government as “the unelected” rather than “losers”, for the real losers are yet to emerge. They would emerge after their tenure and they would be among the supposedly chosen ones – those who are likely to fritter away the public goodwill bestowed on them and perform poorly. Recount the present condition of the likes of James Ibori, the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Lucky Igbinedion and others who won elections and lost their dignity years after. They won elections quite alright, but they became losers after.

    It is of essence, however, that this hard-earned democracy be continuously reviewed to strengthen it for posterity. The unrelenting presence of separatist movements in the country has seriously put to question the so-called democracy which the government professes.

    In every democracy, the electoral process has always mattered so much.  It is for this reason that much is expected from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the umpire in the nation’s political contests.  Dysfunctional card readers and inadequate distribution of permanent voter’s cards, as well as registration of under-aged voters, besides selling out and deliberate falsification of figures by INEC officials, are the major flaws recorded against INEC in the 2015 elections.  Indeed, a full-blown electronic voting system is more desirable than the use of dysfunctional card readers that, at best, serve us the way the low voltage supply of electricity serves our electrical appliances.

    As for the haphazard distribution of voter’s cards, one wonders why INEC always waits for four years before commencement of the review of voters’ lists and preparation of their cards. How rational is it to fix the exercise within a time frame?  Why can’t it be a continuous exercise in which anyone who attains the voting age walks into any INEC office with proof and gets a smooth registration and instantly obtains the card? Why won’t the system be flexible enough to allow any eligible voter to cast his vote in any part of the country regardless of the polling booth of registration?

    Also, the nation’s electoral statute book needs to be retouched, especially where it grants politicians unfettered liberty to change parties as they do with their underwear.  It is against morality and natural justice for a politician to climb to a position of power and give the party that served as his ladder the boot without losing the position. Such immorality should not be condoned by the government. Under such a condition, parties are rendered rather irrelevant, giving credence to the postulation that Nigeria has only ONE PARTY and that the party is nameless. The thinking is that this “party” is constituted by the most powerful people in Nigeria found in PDP, APC and others. They use these acronyms to hoodwink the masses and as tools for their machinations. Members of the faceless cabal use the parties like spanners to tighten or loosen whatever nuts and bolts they need to deal with, in line with their whims. If our democracy is to really qualify as a government of the people, for the people and by the people, it must be extricated from the grips of these powerful men and must be made to be robust in dialogue, negotiations, give and take, and statesmanship.

    For this democracy to make meaning, there ought to be a good measure of freedom under which autonomy is guaranteed to groups and ethnic nationalities. Absolutism is a negation of democracy, just as the system is not always a game of numbers. We cannot describe as democracy a situation where a majority votes to dispossess a minority of their economic rights. It is not also the making of laws that are skewed to favour a section of the country. In a union where democracy thrives, egalitarianism prevails and there is mutual cooperation, not the “Jonah in the belly of a fish” kind of union. Nigeria professes federalism even though on a false premise. True federalism, as is practised in countries that enjoy relative peace, has inbuilt principles that impede separatist tendencies which is prevalent in Nigeria today.

    In a democracy, the separation of powers is clear cut among the three arms of government where the executive executes laws made by the legislature rather than the laws they make in their bedrooms, and these laws are interpreted by the judiciary. In that case, no one man is seen as the feudal lord with the whole of Nigeria, or a state, as his fiefdom.

    Government lessons teach what a federal structure should be, all federating units coming together by an agreed, rather than foisted, terms, with measures of autonomy and 100% derivation, only contributing to the centre. If we study the details of a true federalism, we discover that, rather than this winner-take-all system, power devolves more to the federating units. That way, the federating units retain their dignity and do not feel used by the majority. It is, indeed, not a crime for one to love his people, his ethnic group, or project and protect the ideals of his people. What is essential in coexistence is to define terms, which Nigerians have not been able to do. Under this situation, crisis is perpetual. Although federal systems differ with countries and locations, a test of a true one is the amount of peace it guarantees as well as the intensity of the centripetal force it generates, in other words, how it draws the units together.  TRUE FEDERALISM is where none of the federating units would feel a deep sense of loss when their son is not in control of the centre.

    Our home-grown democracy is guided by laws that exclude fine and respectable candidates with integrity from the political arena, leaving the landscape to be populated by jobbers who do nothing else but scheme on ways to take over power by all means, with their eyes fixed on the common purse. That explains the high proclivity to malign, vilify and even assassinate opponents who, they feel, possess the spirit that matches the desires of the electorate. On reaching the echelon where high-powered decisions are made, they set out to dismantle the existing rules to make way for their machinations against the interest of the people. Why can’t career civil servants, university lecturers and technocrats in various fields contest elections without resigning their positions? Why? That is why we have so many shallow-minded men and ignoramuses in control of affairs, an unscrupulous lot that cares less about dignity or integrity.

    A true democracy is expected to produce statesmen who, to borrow President Muhammadu Buhari’s words, are for everybody and for nobody in the course of serving their father land.  The weighing scale for statesmanship is constituted in their spoken words, performance, promises kept, degree of controversies stirred up and how they were managed during their administration, even the ability to rise above tribal sentiments and jingoism. When government rumbles, all must find ways of stabilizing things, because government is like the stomach which, when it rumbles, all other parts of the body would be uneasy until a remedy is found.

  • The demon of inconclusive elections

    Since the advent of the current administration at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it has conducted about 137 elections, 70 of which are end of tenure elections, whilst 11 are bye-elections. However, more than 13 of these elections are inconclusive.

    Before November 2015, ‘’Inconclusive Elections’’ was strange to our election lexicon. This demon gained prominence in the aftermath of theKogi State Gubernatorial Election of November 21, 2015. Since then, almost every other election conducted by the commission has been bedevilled with inconclusiveness.

    This has in no small way eroded the confidence of the electorate in the electioneering system. This leaves one to wonder what happened to electioneering process especially since the 2015 general elections were declared nationally and internationally as a free, fair and credible. The elections not only entrenched the nation’s democracy,it reinforced the international community’s faith in Nigeria and in her democracy.

    And now, to worsen the confidence of the electorate in the ability of the commission to deliver the nation from the pangs of inconclusive elections, INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubuwas reportedin some newspapers onAugust 20as saying that it is very doubtful that the commission would be able to guarantee conclusive elections in 2019.

    Before the 2015 General Elections, the Western World had prophesied the disintegration of Nigeria by 2015. As it turned out, theelectionwas smooth and the outcome fostered peace and unity in Nigeria contrary to the pessimistic predictions of the West. Nigeria thus became an example and indeed a legacy for all emerging economies, especially that the Presidential Electionresulted in a change of government(change of political party), without violence and without election litigation. Going by the statement by the INEC boss, this achievement might be short-lived if the emerging trend of inconclusive elections is not reversed. In fact it might mean that in 2015, Nigeria merely postponed the evil day till 2019. It might mean that in 2019, the nation will enact the evil prophecy of its disintegration caused by inconclusive elections and attendantreactions of violence, anarchy and civil unrest.

    The above underscores the danger posed by the release of the demon of inconclusive elections in Nigeria. It must be arrested and completely annihilated from our election jurisprudence before 2019 and desirably before the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states.

    Since the KogiState gubernatorial election opened the floodgates to the demon of inconclusive election, it is important that we lend our voice on the illegality of the declaration by the commission that the said election was inconclusive (this is notwithstanding the fact that the matter is currently in court, the essence of this communication is to advise and guide the commission for future exercises).  It is important to state at the outset that the laws of Nigeria empowers the commission to make subsidiary legislations through guidelines, but such guidelines are never intended to supersede the constitution. The commission conducted election in Kogi State on November 21 and APC scored 240,867 votes, whilst PDP came second with 199,514 votes, making a difference of 41,353 votes. APC had won in 16 Local Government Areas in the state and whilst PDP won in the remaining five. Election was declared inconclusive nonetheless because the total number of registered voters in 91 Polling Units in 18 Local Government Areas was 49,953 voters.

    The commission relied on Page 22-23 paragraph 4, M of its Guideline 2015, which states that where the margin of votes between two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling unit where the elections were cancelled or not held, decline to make a return until another poll has taken place and the result incorporated into a new form EC8D and record into FORM EC8D for declaration and Return. It was after INEC Returning Officer (RO) declared the election inconclusive that the announcement of Prince Abubakar Audu’s unfortunate demise was announced. Both the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999as Amended and the Electoral Act 2010 as Amended talks about death after election but before swearing in and death after nomination but before election. No provision for death after conclusion of election but before declaration of winner. In determining who has been validly returned in an election, INEC must consider Section 179 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and Section 26,47,68,69 and 70 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. Unfortunately, despite the circumstance, the commission invoked its Guideline despite the above provisions especially 179 Constitution which APC and Prince Abubakar Audu had fulfilled.

    It is common knowledge that when voting takes place in an election, it does so on the basis of the accredited potential voters, Not all registered voters have Permanent Voters Cards, not all Voters with Permanent Voters Card will show up on the day of election for accreditation or voting, not all of them will accredit, not all of them will even vote after accreditation. Elections are won based on number of accredited voters who ended up voting, thus the number of registered voters is too far from the number of persons who actually vote. The basis of determining whether election should be declared inconclusive would have at best been the total number of accredited voters in the affected areas, since accreditation had already taken place. With due respect to the INEC chairman, declaring the election inconclusive because of 49,953 registered voters(majority of whom had no intention of voting) is a numerical pretext, this is because out of the 1,379,971 registered voters in Kogi State, only 511,648 voters accredited. Which means only a minute fraction of the 49,953 registered voters (far less than the number of difference between APC and PDP) would have voted and in any case, all of them cannot even vote for a particular candidate. Thus, if the commission had considered the margin between the two leading candidates in relationto number of accredited voters and not registered voters in the affected areas, it would have had no difficulty in declaring APC/Audu winner of the election in accordance with the procedure prescribed in Section 181 Constitution.

    In the circumstance, the draconian Guideline of INEC is thirsty for a review for the sake of the peace and unity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The total number of accredited voters or number of voters with PVC is the appropriate basis for invoking the said provision.

    Furthermore, Supplementary Election in the circumstance in Kogi State is alien to the Constitution and the Electoral Act. This is because, Supplementary Election can only be ordered by a Tribunal or Court after a partial nullification of election result. The Nigerian Law envisages only four kinds of elections: (i) General Election; (ii) Bye Election;(iii) Fresh or Rerun Election;(iv) Run-off Election;(Second Ballot or third Ballot). In FAYEMI V ONI (2009) 7 NWLR (PT. 1140) 223 @ 292-293, supplementary election was defined as a complementary election ordered by Court upon voiding of a portion or part of the whole or total result of an election. In ordering the election, the portion of the election not voided is saved and validated and an election is ordered in that part. For the commission to declare the Kogi gubernatorial polls of November 21, 2015 inconclusive and for it to declare a supplementary election unilaterally despite Section 179 CFRN 1999,AND 26,47,68,69 AND 70 Electoral Act is an unconscionable electoral illicitness. Section 26 of the Electoral Act does not even envisage a postponement of the election indefinitely as done by INEC in recent times.

    The commission must not only be an unbiased umpire, but must be seen and perceived by the vast majority to be an unbiased one. As INEC prepares for the Edo and Ondo elections, we implore the commission to reverse the trend of inconclusive elections in Nigeria. Inconclusive elections are imminent threats to democracy.

     

    • MessrsIbrahim &Nwosu are of Vanguard for Sustainable Democracy and Good Governance, Abuja.

  • Whither Nigeria’s Free Trade Zone scheme?

    For many years, Nigerian leaders have paid lip-service to the diversification of the economy; instead, there has been a near-total reliance on oil to finance the country’s development needs. Some have argued for more consistent investment in the agricultural sector, which is achievable because of the country’s agricultural potentials. In the years before and immediately after independence, the three regions relied heavily on agriculture to finance their development projects. The famous groundnut pyramids in the North, the cocoa plantations in the West and the oil palm plantations in the East provided the necessary funds for giant strides recorded by the leaders of the three regions in various sectors.

    But oil came and everybody went berserk. The impact of Nigeria’s near-total reliance on the black gold was tremendous and catastrophic for the economy. The farms were no longer lucrative because oil money came easy. It was not long before every other productive sector, including manufacturing, was abandoned in favour of oil wells and the unimaginable wealth that came with them. Successive governments behaved as if oil and its enormous wealth would be there forever, and that other needs of Nigerians, including food and manufactured goods would continue to be imported from countries that ordinarily are less endowed in natural resources.

    From the experience of past years, Nigerians often clamor for diversification of the economy in times of economic downturn only for their voices to peter out at the first signs of bloom. That appears to be the fate of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA, which was established by the military government, November 19, 1992, with the aim of accelerating the pace of economic growth in the country. On March 29, 1996, the federal government also established the Oil and Gas Free Zone at Onne. Clay-footed from the onset, it took another nine years before the Calabar Export Processing Zone was commissioned in 2001.Thereafter, everybody, including policy makers and implementers of the scheme went to sleep.

    Is it not ridiculous that more than 23 years after the scheme was established, very little is known about its operations? There has been very little effort at producing enough literature to guide stakeholders, prospective investors, policy makers and implementers on the viability or otherwise of the scheme. I was therefore surprised to chance on a book, A Review of Nigeria’s Free Trade Zone Scheme, which was co-authored by Chidi Nzerem and Oche Obe. The book highlights the potential benefits of the free trade zone scheme and reviews the various efforts made by the federal government and other agencies to reform it.

    The free trade zone scheme was designed to attract foreign direct investment, generate employment, enhance trade and industrialization, promote exports, enhance foreign exchange earnings, encourage transfer of technical know-how to Nigerians and contribute to the economic growth and development of Nigeria. In their analysis of key data on the impact of Nigeria’s Free Trade Zone Scheme covering 1996 to 2012, the authors noted that the overall performance fell below expectations. On foreign direct investment, for instance, the book highlights conflicting figures: whereas the Ministerial Committee for the Reform of Free Trade/Export Processing Zones claims an annual average of $200 million foreign direct investment inflow into the country, the International Labour Organization, ILO, claims that only $1.2 million trickled into the country in 2007.

    The book also shows that domestic involvement in the scheme has been disappointing. Eleven out of the 30 free trade zones already licensed are still inactive. On the stated objective of promoting exports, the authors concluded that “the free trade zone programme is presently not contributing in any significant way to exports from the country”. The free trade zones earned a paltry $8.3 million in foreign exchange and contributed only N58.4 million annually to government coffers through fees charged by the Free Export Zones and the Nigeria Immigration Service. On job creation, the free trade zones accounted for only 40, 000 out of the 148, 363 jobs created in 2012, just as only 250 companies, at the rate of 10 in each zone, were operational in the free trade zones.

    It must be stressed that the story of the scheme is not all about under-performance. Despite the dearth of relevant data, the authors established the “existence of a substantial number of Nigerians in top management positions in Free Zone Developers, Free Zone Managers and Free Zone Enterprises”, just as host communities are tapping into the positive sides of the programme. The salutary elevation of Onne, host community of the Oil and Gas Free Zone, from a sleepy fishing village to a semi-urban centre is one of the success stories highlighted in the book.

    Among other recommendations for streamlining the free trade zones to stimulate the economy is the need to establish a commission, which the authors believe will be in a position to “supervise a large number of free trade zone enclaves”. The authors anchored the entire work on the conviction that the free trade zones scheme will “enhance the economic growth and development (of Nigeria) through the creation of jobs and …benefit from other spillovers of the scheme”.

    With the current economic woes facing the country, the government should treat the Nigerian free trade zones scheme with the seriousness it deserves so that it could consciously accelerate the pace of economic growth and the development of export-oriented manufacturing in the non-oil sector of the economy. Economic indices of the past decade should have told us that reliance on oil to finance the country’s development projects is becoming increasingly old-fashioned and suicidal just as reliance on foreign loans to fund development projects in Nigeria has become unrealistic. Rather than seek loans from a country like China to finance development projects, Nigeria should learn how to catch the proverbial free trade zones scheme fish from that country. Indeed, China’s romance with the free trade zones scheme has had salutary impacts on its phenomenal strides in the manufacturing sector. China’s elegant journey from an agriculture-driven economy to the world’s factory and second largest economy in the world within a period of 30 years is attributable to the creation of Special Economic Zones.

    The era of paying lip service to the diversification of the economy should be over. Now is the time for policy makers to insist on deliberate efforts aimed at repositioning other contributors to the national economy that have suffered neglect over the years because of ‘the curse of the black gold’. Current efforts to revitalize agriculture, mining of solid minerals and manufacturing would attract the attention they deserve if Nigeria’s Free Trade Zones Scheme is accorded its rightful position.

  • Chibok: Blame game and politics of rescue

    The continuous captivity of about 200 Chibok school girlscaptured from their hostel since February 15, 2014 by a group of fanatical anarchists called Boko Haram terrorists has become a festering sore and a moral burden on the Nigerian state as hope wanes on the ability of the government to rescue them alive and intact.  The narrative has remained the same since the dithering former President Jonathan’s reaction of mum and denial and the jelly-footed, lethargic response of the security forces and the intelligence community. But for the steadfast and constant reminder of the Bring Back our Girls (BBOG) campaign group that took the campaign to the global stage, the nation would have gone to sleep as usual and forgotten about them.  No state in history has ever failed her people like the fate of these innocent Nigerians; whatever we do today, it is too little too late.  Our government has continued to vigorously pursue their release onlyat seminars, symposia and pages of newspapers by trading blames and speculating.

    Nobody appears to still have any clue of their condition and whereabouts; not even the ubiquitous intelligence community that could sniff out fresh wads of dough in the boots of cars during elections.  It is a shame that we are still living in delusion that foreign intelligence and American commandos as our development partners would come and rescue the girls for us.  The sad thing is that it only dawned on us in the face of the insurgency in the North-east that our security forces have become partisan and fractious, lacking the appetite to fight and fulfil their traditional roles.  They have become bogged down and distracted by undue political meddlesomeness.  This is the reason why with all our God-given resources as a nation, we are still not able to build capacity and equip our security forces and the intelligence community to help us fight insecurity, which insurgency is just an aspect.  Rather than invest in equipment, the politicians and some of the commanders at the Military High Command looted money meant to buy equipment to prosecute the war leaving the military humiliated and the nation embarrassed.

    There have been hostage situations in other countries in the world and at every such occasion those states have always risen to the occasion and conducted immediate rescue operation through their security forces.  In April 2004, the Russian Federation was jolted by the siege on the Beslan School in the Chechnya region where over 800 people, most of them children, were taken hostage by terrorists.  The drama and agony lasted for only 72 hours and the nation had its peace while 31 of the 32 hostage takers were killed and one arrested.  There were collateral damages and the parents and nation were not kept in suspense and the message was sent to the spine of all who may have such sinister motive that the country was equal to the task.

    Rather than take the bull by the horn, the capturing of the Chibok girls and insurgency have thrown up all manners of experts debating on terrorism, parroting theories that have taken us nowhere.  Terrorism or insurgency is an unorthodox warfare that our security forces very well know.  The whole world is watching with disbelieve as we debate and sing discordant tunes on the where about of the girls;  whether they are still safe and alive or whether they are intact or married off or as the video showed by the insurgents recently, whether they have been killed by air strike by the Nigerian Air Force.

    We are told the girls are still in the Sambisa forest.  All the excuses and foot-dragging are signatures of failure and unacceptable.  Sambisa forest is not an evil forest populated with gnomes and characters from Soyinka’s, “A Forest of a Thousand Demons”.  If the insurgents could establish their stronghold in the place, there is no earthly reason why our security forces after two years have not been able to smoke them out whether they are living in bunkers or holes.

    It is astonishing that our leaders are still prevaricating instead of summoning the political will to deal decisively with the terrorists once and for all, while we allow any collateral damage to heal with time rather than to continue to be the laughing stock of the world as a big for nothing country.

    Nigeria had faced similar crises of insecurity in the past and the armed forces had acquitted themselves creditably well. They successfully prosecuted the Nigerian Civil War whose scale cannot be compared with the Boko Haram insurgents.  In 1980, the Nigerian Armed Forces helped to put down a fanatical religious insurgent movement, “Maitatsine” in Kano led by a Cameroonian called Muhammadu Marwa. In 2004, a self-styled Taliban staged attacks against police personnel and installations in North-east and attempted to establish stronghold in the Mandara Mountains between Nigeria and Cameroon.  The military came in and flushed out the bandits with little or no casualty recorded on its side.  In the sub-region, the Nigerian armed forces have been hailed to high heavens in their exemplary feat in combat.  Indeed, the Nigerian military had always projected itself in positive light and beyond any appearance of   political partisanship but not any longer as it now  engaged in political tuff against itself;  helping  or providing  protection  and  cover for one political party or the other, thereby losing its credibility and respect.

    A good military should be apolitical but patriotic.  It is training, equipment and the ability to drive the equipment when it matters that makes a soldier; it is not the uniform as the hood does not make the monk.

    We have gone beyond what the last government did or failed to do as this has been settled by the Nigerian people in the last election; this government should be focused on concrete deliverables rather than dwelling and blaming past regimes. The government should not see the BBOG group as irritants because they are acting as the conscience of the nation.  If we are beginning to see them as becoming political arising from recent demand for the President to resign, the ruling APC has been the greatest beneficiaries of their politics and campaign.  We should remember that if we do not like the way we look in the mirror, breaking the mirror does not change anything, we have to change ourselves.  The blame-game has become too monotonous; the President should give a matching order to the security forces of which he is the Commander-in-Chief to put an end to the Chibok girls  nightmare one way or the other.

     

    • KebonkwuEsq, writes from Abuja.
  • In Ondo, democracy will take its course

    In Ondo, democracy will take its course

    As the race for the Ondo governorship heats up, the signs are so clear that the APC is on course towards achieving remarkable success in the November 27 election. This is evident, for instance, in the sheer number of aspirants that have expressed interest in flying the APC’s flag in the election. This is indicative of the immense goodwill the party enjoys in the state and the confidence among the aspirants of the exceedingly bright chances of the APC especially against the background of abysmal performance of the PDP-led administration in the last eight years.

    It is not unusual in the context of such intense competition for the ticket of a popular party like the APC, that there will be diverse allegations, insinuations and innuendoes as regards the transparency, impartiality and integrity of the intra-party process. This has always been the case in all party primaries in the country since 1999. But no one can doubt that the APC has always demonstrated its commitment to demonstrably credible intra-party primaries at all levels. This was evident in last year’s presidential primaries as well as the transparent intra-party polls to pick candidates in Kogi and Edo states for example.

    As the highest-ranking party leader from Ondo State, I strongly affirm that the Ondo APC governorship primaries will be no exception. The APC as a party is committed to a free, fair and transparent process that will see the candidate with the most votes emerge as flag bearer. And from that moment on, the party, other contenders and the leadership will line up behind that flag bearer. To insinuate a contrary plan without any evidence is political mischief and we must be wary of those pushing this agenda to weaken the APC ahead of the governorship elections.

    The screening of all 24 candidates took place in a most transparent manner at the national headquarters in Abuja. Candidates have seen that they have been screened with no intention to disqualify anyone. Each candidate has a right to contest in the race. With the screening concluded, all that sailed through have the clear to campaign as hard as they want. Their concentration should shift to how they will become the choice of the electorate or become the candidate of choice by the electorate. All said and done, the people, in this case the delegates will ultimately decide.

    The attempt to scapegoat the chairman of the party and a few other leaders is unnecessary distraction. The primary will be conducted by the national headquarters of the APC based on the constitution of the party and not the whims of any state party chairman. The delegates’ list is under lock and key. Any complaints can be channeled through me to the national headquarters.

    Those attacking and cursing and encouraging hooliganism are only working to weaken the party. They might even be agents of destabilization.

    For each of the aspirants, victory will only be delivered based on the number of people they are able to convince to vote for them and ultimately how they square against our political opponent, the PDP.

    Just like in other party primaries both within and even in the most advanced countries, influential party leaders throw their support behind aspirants they believe can best represent the party’s values and ethos as well as help achieve victory in the general election. In the ongoing electoral process in the United States, for instance, Hillary Clinton became her party’s candidate largely with the support of the Democratic Party establishment while Donald Trump emerged triumphant in the Republican Party because the party rank and file defied the preferences of the party establishment. The most important determinant of the emergence of a democratic party’s candidate, therefore, is the will of the majority of the accredited party delegates. It is certainly an unfair underestimation of the intellect and character of the people of Ondo State to insinuate that 3000 delegates will have no minds of their own and can be herded in a given direction through any form of ‘imposition’ or ‘endorsement’. Indeed, once the party principle of free and fair primaries is adhered to the last letter, terms like imposition and endorsement become irrelevant and diversionary.

    It shall be no different with the Ondo State APC primaries. Endorsement or no endorsement, the most acceptable candidate will emerge in a free and fair process. Of course, it is only natural that some of those who have invested so much of their time, energy, intellect and other resources in the emergence of the APC as the formidable force it is today may throw their weight behind aspirants of their choice. There is nothing in the APC constitution that forbids this. Such speculations, however, lie within the realm of speculation and rumor. The critical factor is that no one can alter the delegates’ list. Once the candidate emerges, we the party leadership who have the responsibility will lead the campaign. No one who wishes the APC success in the general election will encourage any undemocratic manipulation of the intra-party selection process. I therefore congratulate all who successfully scaled through the screening process and enjoin them to canvass vigorously for the support of the delegates so that we have a truly keen, fair and free intra party primaries as a step to resounding victory in the governorship election proper.

     

    • Chief Akinyelure is Vice-Chairman, South West APC.

  • Types of emergency

    The terms of the federal government touted economic emergency, in my view, will only scratch the economic crisis we currently face because Nigerians have a poor emergency culture. For the crafty especially the privileged, a state of emergency is an opportunity to exploit the system, not a time for selflessness. So, they crave disorder and panic. If it fails to materialize, they invent one for in emergency, they thrive.

    The best reflection of who we are is our behaviour in the traffic.  Once chaos starts, the public official who should make the traffic work turns it into an emergency and with a siren meant only for emergency, he glides through it. If you don’t allow him an easy escape, he orders his security to force his way. After himsteps in the vagabonds whose SUVs also blare the siren like a state official, an ambulance or a fire fighter.

    The siren also suits their ego. With the sound of siren, law enforcement agencies throw their salute while other road users scamper off. That is what will happen if emergency powers are donated beyond thestandard for every other person. If we create a special window, the vagabonds and the privileged will ride through it to further mess up the economy while the genuine businesses are clogged down.

    The use of executive fiat, to grant foreign exchange subsidy for religious tourism, is an example of the chaos the so-called economic stabilization powers will be used for. So, while genuine businesses are allowed to drag through the chaos of sourcing foreign exchange, the emergency powers will be abused to grant the privileged power merchants and the vagabonds, an opportunity to rake in billions of dollars without work, as in the days of the import licence rackets.

    Instead of the privilege of a siren for a few, what we need is law and order for every business, while the opportunities are quickly expanded. In my view, the first emergency we should make laws for, is one to allow states more economic opportunities. The central government has excessive powers and potential resources. So, we need emergency constitutional amendment, to empower states to exploit the opportunities lying fallow in their states, while they wallow in penury.

    The President should therefore call an expanded National Economic Council, made up of the Federal Executive Council, leaders of the National Assembly, governors, leaders of the state legislative assemblies, organised labour, leaders of important professional organisations and party leaders, to agree on emergency constitutional amendment to expand the economic opportunities in Nigeria.

    One example. It is a national folly to designate several abandoned expressways, federal highways, when common sense dictates that some states can take it over, repair and toll it so that work is created and the road users can have respite. Also states and clusters of states should have rights over railways. The emergency laws should be how to help the states prosper. But of course, we need emergency amendments of our laws to give the states the teeth and more economic resources to take over these responsibilities.

    The expanded National Economic Council should also determine how to allow the states explore the mineral resources in their states. Few days ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Taraba State, and was reporting that the state is greatly endowed with mineral resources. This is true of many states in Nigeria. Ondo State is reputed to have huge deposits of bitumen, yet the state owes workers. About 28 states owe workers, despite their endowments. It is foolish.

    For me, any emergency law not geared towards the release of states to engage in greater productive activities is misplaced. As I have argued severally on this page, the federal government, particularly the government of ethically favoured President Muhammadu Buhari owes every part of the country economic development. The plan to cheaply access the Universal Basic Education fund is merely a proposal to spend saved resources, not how to create wealth.

    So, the President should encourage regional economic integration, joint projects in transportation, agro-allied industrialization, inter-state commerce, joint electricity projects, among several others. The touted emergency proposals will merely provide opportunities for the greedy hawks around him, to further ridicule his economic credentials. Competition is the game, not privileged opportunities for a few.

    As the president ought to know, the multi-layered crisis plaguing Nigeria revolves around diminishing economic rights and opportunities. Whether it is the Boko Haram crisis, or the Niger Delta insurgency, or the Fulani invasions, or even the agitation for Biafra, the underlying propellant for all the crisis is a failed economy. Take the hotbeds of the Biafra agitation, Onitsha and Aba; they are the dying economic nerve centres of the South-east.

    To stem the crisis, the economies of those centres have to be re-energised, just as the Lake Chad water has to be restored to stem the Boko Haram crisis. The armed herdsmen need to be taught new tactics to rear their cattle. Cattle rearing should be turned to business. So, an Ijaw, Fulani, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Itsekiri or any willing Nigerian, can decide to engage in cattle rearing as a business. That will save lives and properties currently worth a penny for gun-trotting herdsmen.

    Another emergency law we need is one to stop the legislature and the executive the unsustainable opportunity to continue to plunder our national resources. For the executive arm of government, they must come to terms with the unsustainability of the so-called security vote. Also the legislature, particularly the National Assembly, must stop the crazy appropriation of huge chunks of the national budget for themselves.

    One thing the president can do immediately is to recruit competent economic managers. Those currently in charge are not delivering. So, we need new hands and heads. The president must also realize that some of his trusted aides are helping themselves instead of the country. The mere fact that those aides were with him during the difficult years is not enough reason to give them more responsibilities than they can handle. Some of them are also corrupt.

    Our country is seething with despair. In the rural arrears, the insecurity of unsafe farm lands, because of armed herdsmen, has aggravated poverty. They also attack on the highways. I was a victim last Thursday. Luckily, I escaped just by the whiskers. Around 7pm, between Udi town and the 9th Mile corner in Enugu State, the vehicle I was in ran into a road block by a bend. Luckily the armed men panicked, as our driver swung the vehicle and turned back the way we came.

    I consider my escape a miracle. God’s grace. I later learnt the attacks happen regularly. The fingers point at herdsmen. Our villages are also dying in the hands of petty thieves. Soup pots, a gallon of palm oil, a television set, and sundry items have become victims of the searing poverty. While a woman is away to sell a prized cock to buy soup ingredients, her house is raided and her garri is stolen. Danger and despair reigns. Youths roam. No work. No opportunities. Relations who use to send some money remain incommunicado.

     

  • Kogi at 25: Between mourning and celebration

    Kogi at 25: Between mourning and celebration

    The people of Kogi State should have been on the street for a weeklong celebration following the Silver Jubilee of the creation of the State after 25 years of its sojourn, if the square pegs were rightly put in their square holes. Silver Jubilee ordinarily calls for joy and celebration but the people of Kogi State are rather singing glooming songs in lamentation, owing to the reign of unpaid workers’ salaries, growing infrastructural decay, prevailing uncontrollable impunity, and poverty leading to hunger, illness and high mortality rate.

    It is no longer news that the emergence of the present administration in the state has brought untold pains to the people of Kogi State and has caused more harm to their welfare than every other successive administrations as it appears to be a clear picture of individuals who were dragged into government without any workable policy and programme to run the state. Majority of the people of the state will continue to lament the demise of Prince AbubakarAudu whose sudden death created the vacuum that culminated the emergence of the current governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello through the unpopular choice of my great party, the All Progressive Congress, APC.

    While kidnapping, armed robbery, begging, hunger, and unemployment are the order of the day, Governor Bello and his handlers are busy deceiving the people through media propaganda without underscoring the plights of the people. Students are roaming the streets instead of being in school as their schools have been shut down for want of salaries being owed teachers.

    Besides, public hospitals are under lock and key as medical workers in Kogi State have been on strikes for over many months, making private hospital owners to smile to the banks in a state where people found it extremely difficult to eat two square meals.

    It could be recalled that the people of Kogi State supported and voted for the APC massively during the last presidential and gubernatorial elections in the state which saw General Muhammadu Buhari defeating President Goodluck Jonathan even when the state was under the control of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The way the state is being run by Governor Bello and his cohorts if not checkmated, will drag our great party in the mud especially the integrity of President Buhari and the destiny of the APC, in the state.

    The cabinet members of the present administration in Kogi State are mostly card carrying members of PDP, including the handpicked Local Government Areas’ caretakers committee chairmen, which according to investigation, appear as a political scheme employed by Governor Bello to draw sympathy from the opposition PDP, should the court case turn against him.

    Suffice it to say that, I am not in any way attacking the personality of the governor as I assisted and contributed in no small measure to his emerge as the first runner up during the primary election that produced my late principal, the iconic politician, Prince AbubakarAudu.

    While I am not in any way writing to be noticed or attracting public sympathy, it is pertinent to accentuate that, positive criticism remains the life-wire and beauty of any democratic leadership which seeks to promote sound leadership that is centred on delivery of democratic dividends.

    Unarguably however, it behoves on President Buhari to urgently save the image and destiny of the APC in Kogi State as the party is currently at the verge of collapse. President Buhari needs to call all the party’s stakeholders in the state or conduct an independent perception poll of the present status of our party in the state. It is not far from truth to say that the APC is presently the opposition party in the state despite winning the governorship election due to the party’s acceptability hinged on President Buhari’s popularity and the leadership prowess of late Audu who was coasting to victory before he answered the clarion call.

    At 25, most people will expect the state to assess how far they have gone in capacity building like Delta State that was created on the same day with a robust Economic Summit with quality national and international audience.

    Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo while speaking on Friday in Asaba at the Economic Summit to commemorate Silver Jubilee of Delta State creation said there was increase of trust deficit in the country as according to him, most Nigerians do not trust their leaders. Prof. Osinbajo who appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the federal government also said that character plays pivotal roles in leadership. This implies for example that, if we as a party must be in control of Kogi State, then we must put our house in order so as to have the trust of the people and assure them of what our party stands for.

    The present competition between our party and PDP can only be won in the nearest future if we start planning well towards protecting the pregnant future. The present administration of Kogi State has been deceiving people through its paid media propaganda of conducting credible staff audit exercise but it is astounding to say that, till the day the report was purportedly submitted on a live transmission on National Television Authority, there were still more than half of the state’s work force that had not done the screening, making some experts to wonder how the cooked report was obtained. Let us bear in mind that less than half of the civil servants in our dear Kogi State have received salaries since January 2016.

    Needless to say that, the report was not enclosed with signature of any of the members of the screening committee because of the doctored contents in the report, thereby making it a mere paper document.

    The President as a God-fearing leader with outstanding integrity may need to know more about the woes our governor has subjected her citizens to by conducting a credible poll among workers, market women so as make enquiry of the level of poverty that is ravaging the state as a result of poor leadership.

    If nothing is done to check the present awful trend, the decision of the federal government to diversify the economy by revamping the Ajaokuta Steel Company may meet a jolt as the present economic ecosystem in the state remains hostile.

    If the APC, intends to sustain its electoral victory and win the trust of the people once more, the APC-led government through its various machineries can conduct opinion poll by asking royal fathers, religious leaders, and students of Kogi State origin to examine the sincerity of the present government in Kogi State as there is a glaring disconnect between the government and the governed.

    As a bona fide Ebira man, it would have been a thing of joy seeing my fellow man in the Lugard House; however, for the welfare of the people of Kogi State and destiny of our party, continuity of my silence may turn out to be a crime.

     

    • Dr Ohikere, a media consultant writes from Abuja.

  • As ANC unravels…

    Political dogma has its limitations in conferring electoral advantage on the dogmatiser over time. That much iscrystal clear from the fortunes of South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), in the country’s recent local elections. President Jacob Zuma often boasted that the ANC would rule his country “until Jesus comes back.” With the country’s long history of apartheid, and the liberation struggle that founders and leaders of the party, including iconic legend Nelson Mandela championed, Zuma took blind loyalty of the average South African voter for granted.

    Now he must be ruing that overarching presumption. If you asked him today, he wouldn’t dare predict easy victory for the ANC in the next national elections billed for 2019.People knowledgeable about the South African electoral system say the outcomes in local elections do not necessarily translate to set patterns for national elections, but they concede that local election trends provide a basis for reasonable projections on national elections.And already, the ruling party has been routed from vital constituencies and given a bloody nose in others in the municipal elections held in that country early this August. By last week when the mayor of South Africa’s largest city and economic centre, Johannesburg, was elected, the historic rout of ANC from commanding heights of the country’s local politics was nearly complete. The party’s nemesis was the right-leaning opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), whose lengthening shadow now threatens to eclipse the ANC in future elections. There is, of course, a third force: the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which has become the beautiful bride to be courted in South Africa’s electoral architecture that gets increasingly prone to coalition deals.

    President Zuma’s hubris before this time wasn’t without good reason. Since the end of the white minority rule of apartheid and the country’s transition to democracy with its first national election in 1994, the ANC has held South Africa in electoral iron grip. The liberation movement-turned politicalparty ruled virtually unopposed, such that the party leadership’s announcement of its candidate list for any election invariably signalled the unofficial but final line-up in electoral outcomes. With the country’s 54million population, of which black people make up the lion share of about 80 percent, voters consistently handed the ANC clear majorities in national, provincial as well as municipal elections. The cultic following of veneratedMadiba, NelsonMandela, who led the ANC in the first election and became the country’s first democratically elected president, sealed the party’s messianic status andundiminishedpreeminence. Not that there haven’t always been other political parties, just that their electoral value wasn’t worth their names on paper.

    Now the domination of the ANC is being effectively challenged and its fortune severely dimmed -and that is if the party is not altogether in its electoral twilight. In the municipal elections held early this month, the ANC’s share of total national vote dipped below 60 percent for the first time ever. By the direct ballot of voters, the ruling party lost control of two key metropolitan areas – Nelson Mandela Bay, which covers the city of Port Elizabeth; and Tshwane, which hosts the capital city of Pretoria – to the Democratic Alliance, and only edged into a close race with the opposition party in Johannesburg. Meanwhile, the DA retained its control of Cape Town, which it has held since 2006.Under the South African system, voters in local elections choose members of district, metropolitan and municipal councils, who in turn elect mayors of the municipalities to office.Julius Malema-led EFFcame a distant third in the municipal poll. But in the absence of clear electoral majorities by the two big parties, the nano-party became the kingmaker, and its coalition with Democratic Alliance saw the opposition party through to taking the mayoralty of Johannesburg last week.

    The 2016 municipal elections marked a turning point for the dominant ANC, with voter support for the party dipping to the lowestsince the advent of South Africa’s popular democracy in 1994. And why are voters pulling their support? Many South Africans obviously don’t seetheir lives bettered much since the end of apartheid, and they accuse President Zuma of mismanaging the economy. The voters now look beyond the liberation struggle credentials of the ruling party and are demanding leadership accountability on the economy – Africa’s biggest now since Nigeria was displaced, but which reports say is teetering on the brink of recession. In the particular case of Madiba’s country, voters are angry, not just at the high unemployment rate and weak growth prospects of the economy, but also at corruption scandals that have dogged the heels of the President Zuma.

    Voters are asking questions because the cultural narrative isn’t holding up anymore. One young voter was recently quoted as saying: “Our government has run out of excuses, we cannot continue to blame apartheid for our failings as a state.” The dogma had been to deplore the history of apartheid and celebrate the liberation struggle and its drivers, which the ANC largely embodies. But the success of that narrative had apparently eased the ruling party into complacency mode, such that following the recentmunicipal elections,Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged criticisms of the ANC as “arrogant,self-centred (and) self-serving.” Even though he considered those labels unfair, he did say the party would do some soul searching.

    On the other hand, the municipal elections signalled a renaissance for the Democratic Alliance, which only last year elected its first black leader as part of efforts to shake off a notion that it mainly serves white interests – having had its roots in the Progressive Party led by liberal whites who campaigned against apartheid during the era of white rule.

    The South African experience shows that there is a crunch line of voter expectation on which political preferences are erected. And that is a lesson that should not be lost on us here in Nigeria. Voterscannot live by endless promises of future bliss, they want to have some practical reliefs in the immediate term as reward for their electoral choice. They made a choice out of many options, and only such reliefs justify that the choice was well made.When those reliefs are deferred for too long on mere assurances of a future Eldorado, there is a strong invitation to loss of faith in leadership.And the challenge gets really compounded where, in place of reliefs, burdens are piled on citizens by the government they voted for, with arguments that such burdens have become inevitable and essential to survival.

    The proposed nine percent tax on telecommunication services now in the works is one such burden too many, if we may use that cliché. Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu was reported last week as advising Nigerians to brace up for the impending tax, which he said was inevitable to grow infrastructure in the telecoms sector. But with the prevailing standard of living today, I would wager a bet that if Nigerians were compelled to make a choice, most would settle for the infrastructure as they are than take on an additional tax.It is not news that the average Nigerian citizen is presently contending with the severest economic hardship in our nationhood history. And we already know how we got here: the leadership failure of past dispensations served the country poorly and broughtthe economy to near-ruination. But that was why a different choice was made when the 2015 elections provided the chance. That choice should not now be a platform on which citizens are milked lifeless. Please spare us this telecoms tax.

  • INEC, inconclusive polls and 2019

    Democracy would perhaps lose its defining egalitarianism if it foreclosed the free expression of viewpoints by its adherents – including often illogical perspectives by forces that seek to misinform, diminish and divide. Against this backdrop, we should appreciate public communicators who have achieved that delicate, firm balance between researched opinion that informs and leverages society and humdrum commentary that diminishes and stunts.

    The unfolding debate over assessment of the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, especially with regards to the so-called ‘inconclusive polls’ represents an arena where a lot of positions that lack rigorous, objective thinking have taken centre stage. Given that perception is reality, this situation is hugely worrying and needs to be dealt with immediately to clear the often contrived fog foisted on public perception.

    Curiously, many commentators on elections either do not know, or choose to ignore the key fact that conduct of election is a closely structured exercise. The often contrived failure to conform to due process and rules of engagement will result in a verdict of inconclusiveness by the electoral umpire or in nullification of the poll by the election petitions tribunals down the line.

    Currently, two major pieces of legislation guide the conduct of elections in Nigeria. They are the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended as well as the Electoral Act 2010, as amended. In addition, Section 153 of the Electoral Act empowers INEC to also issue regulations, guidelines and manuals for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the Act. Thus, the commission periodically publishes Election Guidelines, Codes of Conduct for Political Parties, Accredited Observers, Journalists, etc. It also developed Political Party Finance Manual and Handbook.

    The necessity for declaration of inconclusive polls stems from the need to account for results from every polling unit during an election exercise. INEC itself brought more clarity to this issue recently when its chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, visited a Lagos-based newspaper. “The constitution of this country provides condition for making return in an election”, he said. “If that threshold is not met, can INEC make a declaration? We can’t, under the law, and if you do so the court will nullify the election.”  When I first saw the headline of this article, however, I didn’t exactly have the clarity.

    The headline, “INEC can’t guarantee conclusive elections in 2019 –Chairman”, got my iris dilated. But when I read Yakubu’s direct quotes inside the story, I was relieved. This, in my humble opinion, brought to the fore the excrescency of interpretative journalism, where interpretation provides the theme and the facts illustrate it; where the theme is primary and the facts are secondary.

    I couldn’t agree any less with INEC boss when he said, “The most difficult election for the commission to conduct are off-season elections, because the attention of everybody focuses on a particular constituency and the political actors and gladiators and their antics have time to mobilise nationwide to descend on a particular constituency, which made the conclusion of such elections very difficult.”

    That was manifested in Bayelsa. That was what we also saw in Rivers. That was why seven people were killed in Rivers elections last year, including a corps member and two solders. That accounted for the reported deaths of 14 people in Bayelsa election last year, including three soldiers and four policemen. All political eyes were fixated on the states in their respective election dates. The political parties and their stalwarts had their attention and resources directed to a those areas. It was a do or die affair!

    Will it be fair, therefore, to compare the outcome of the elections in these states with that of a general election? Just imagine if the death ratio is taken to the general election. Assuming the spate of deaths is mirrored across the states in a general poll. In arithmetic progression, that would be almost 400 victims, including 108 soldiers. Would you call that an election or a war?

    The Rivers and Bayelsa experience would likely reincarnate in Edo State. The politicians are already raising the political temperature to feverish proportions. I will be surprised if the winner is decided at first ballot count. I will not bore you with section 26. The spirit and letter of that act suggest that safety and security should not be sacrificed on the altar of conclusive elections.

    All said, why does it appear elections are increasingly becoming inconclusive at first count? I want to suspect that there are more off-season polls now than ever before. Annulment of election naturally steers them away from general election. In addition, our polls are now credible and thus more competitive. “What I want Nigerians to understand is that our democracy is maturing,” Yakubu had explained. “If it matures, it cannot be the way we used to do things before. The mind-set would have to change. Days were long gone when politicians do everything they can to be declared winners, knowing that the case would end up in court.”

    However, INEC would need to speed up some of its proposed reforms, such as amendments to its guidelines. This includes removal of the eight million uncollected Permanent Voter Cards. It also includes vigorous prosecution of electoral offenders and initiating further enactments to stem electoral violence.

    While I respect the rights of others to hold opinions that do not resonate with mine as expressed here, it would appear some are on a mischief trip. Since the emergence of Yakubu, it seems some have made throwing flaks at him as their mission in life. It’s not the aim of this piece to obliterate any happiness they cling to by so doing – except to give illumination, as I see it, to the straight-minded.

     

    • Gaya is Vice President (North), Nigerian Guild of Editors.

  • Clarion call for restructuring

    Many disasters and problems we have had in Nigeria had been basically man-made by Nigerians – leaders and followers alike to fellow Nigerians.  Can we call buildings collapse natural?  Many of these had led to deaths in our cities.   If it is not Boko Haram, it is the Niger Delta militants at work, with very sophisticated weapons taking lives at will.  What about the damage to the Niger Delta areas being caused by oil spillage and other environmental degradations?  The Fulani herdsmen are not spared of their contributions to the string of calamities, as if cattle rearing is just beginning in Nigeria!  What about the inexplicable rampant kidnapping for ritual purposes?  There seems to be no end to it.  No one is in doubt that with all these, good governance in Nigeria may not be in sight for a while.

    How then can there be a ‘nation’ when lives are taken in large numbers and money is being looted or stolen in billions?   Law and justice have been strangulated by the so-called “Rule of Law” which has made it impossible to call the big thieves to order, while the little thieves who steal for survival are not spared.  Why won’t the poor people steal, when they have no jobs or they do not receive salaries due to them accordingly? Many Nigerians struggle for political offices not because of the services to be rendered or jobs to be done, but because of how much will be available for sharing, stealing or looting!  Service to the nation is no longer the order of the day.  What is in there for me is the goal and main objective.  What an irony of faith?  Politics for stomach infrastructure and politics for easy living, for self, and family remain the “in thing”.

    In the US, the thinking of the ordinary people is as enshrined in the constitution “We the People…”  In Nigeria, the struggle is “me for my family and my pocket”, to suck Nigeria dry.  No wonder, many politicians and public office holders are busy scrambling for whatever they can scoop of what is left in our treasuries.  The reason for this is that corruption has changed our political paradigm.   It will certainly take a very long time for a reversal of the corruption trend in Nigeria. Only very few people seem to have much at stake in the direction the country is drifting.  Our President does not seem to be able to find the solution as he is being hampered on all sides as he struggles to fight the uphill corruption fight.

    It is an open secret that Nigerians say openly and shamefully that “it is a mess to be called a Nigerian”.  What an unpatriotic statement!  No wonder the brain drain continues and Nigerian professionals and technocrats are moving to other lands for   greener pastures on a daily basis. The spirit of patriotism has waned and the psychological and emotional ties to their fatherland and motherland have been severely weakened, if not completely severed.  This must be halted as a matter of urgency.

    On a daily basis, the cry for severance, breakaway, restructure, etc. rents the air.  All news media channels – electronic and prints and social media are inundated with calls from ethnic groups to be treated as equal partners in progress and development.  Equality of access to a nation’s resources is necessary for peace and progress in   Nigeria and this is not so at the moment.  We should do all that is possible to put an end to marginalization of ethnic groups and every semblance of citizen classification (overtly or covertly) as first, second or third, must be jettisoned.  Equal (opportunities) citizenry of Nigeria has to be the new order, if Nigeria will continue to be “ONE”.

    I am not one of those who predict dooms for the nation.  Rather, I think about how we can move our nation – Nigeria forward.  Over a long period of time I have seen and realized that those who mean well for Nigeria never get to work for her.  I have also noticed that when many of them struggle to get to the positions to help Nigeria, they get frustrated and discouraged, because the atmosphere and environment for progress is not congenial to proper development.  The level of corruption everywhere, is so pervasive that it is impossible to make meaningful moves towards success.

    Wither Nigeria, with all the factors which do not augur well for continued progress and development?  The killings by Boko Haram and the militants, the harassments of innocent Nigerians in virtually all parts of Nigeria by the herdsmen, the ritual kidnappings, the kidnappings for ransoms, remain the order of the day.   Budget paddings and the pervasive corruption and indiscipline are so colossal, endemic, ubiquitous and perhaps incurable.

    With the current state of affairs in Nigeria, I am tempted to think that, the earlier the entity called Nigeria is fragmented or restructured the better it is for peace and progress to return.  There are far too many ethnic groups to expect a miracle harmony. It may also be presumptuous to expect two dominant religions to continue the never ending completion at the expense of the ordinary citizens.  The earlier the restructure is effected the better it will be for each fragment to survive either as separate nations or as sub-units of the United States of Nigeria!  The tribes and tongues are just too many to be successfully harmonized.  The British colonial masters knew this ab initio.  Our experience so far with democracy should have convinced us that our model of democracy is far from being ideal for a nation as diverse as Nigeria.

    I am aware that this is a bitter pill, I have put in the mouth of many Nigerians with this statements. Of what use or benefit is the present ding dong relationships between religions, tribes, states and cultures in Nigeria?  One will ordinarily think that there is strength in diversity.  Our diversity, on the other hand, is crippling us, as many tribes are being made to feel inferior/superior to one another. The net result is uneasiness, anger, displeasure and strife among the people who are supposed to be brothers and sisters.

    Must we wait until Boko Haram kills more people before we save the lives of those remaining?  Must we wait until the militants destroy all the pipelines and the oil structures before we let them go or we realign with them?  The Biafra people have never stopped clamouring to go.  Should Nnamdi Kalu be allowed to die in prison only to find out that Nigeria will eventually fragment or break into separate nations?  The Fulani Herdsmen will not stop their war until they realise that they might soon be needing visas to cross to other lands/states/nations, soon to emerge!  There is war on all fronts in Nigeria.  The wars must end and the most obvious and permanent solution is restructuring and we already have the template!

    The pride in motherland Nigeria is waning fast.  The only pride we can count on is in ‘Soccer’ and we can’t even successfully transport our soccer ambassadors to the RIO 2016 Olympics, without the hitch of having them stranded in Atlanta, Georgia. We also made negative headlines on it around the world!  How can a nation in disarray breed a patriotic citizenry?

    Our diversity and large population do not result in joy, peace and progress of the ordinary citizens.  Nigerians are suffering and wallowing in abject poverty.  Governments do not seem to care for the welfare of the people, as long as the leaders’   salaries are paid ON TIME!  Other workers can go without salaries for months on end!  What a nation with no sympathy for the poor workers!

    This is the time for decision and we need to act fast.  Let’s all be wise and come together as brothers and sisters with different philosophies.  We need to recraft the modality for our peaceful co-existence.  Definitely, tribes and tongues are different, we still can come together as united sub-units. If we need a referendum to actualize this, let us institute one now.

     

    • Prof Akinyemi writes from United States.