The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Sustain the gains on AIDS, TB and Malaria

    Atinuke recently completed her national youth service having graduated from the University of Ibadan in 2014 where she read Pharmacy. She was born HIV positive in 1990. Now 26, she has lived with the disease all her life. She had once coped with TB co-infection but being the fighter she is, had beaten TB hands down. Both her father and mother are also HIV positive, everyone is fine now, with undetectable viral loads, a clear indication of the progress in HIV/AIDS treatment.

    Atinuke and her family represents a generation of Nigerians whose lives were shaped by HIV/AIDS in its entirety, and they come not in small numbers, with 3.4 million Nigerians projected to be living with HIV/AIDS. For Atinuke and others in her shoes, they got a second shot at life and are able to live productive lives because of the programmes being supported by the Global Fund which provides treatment ensuring they can have children of their own who are free of the burden of the disease. It is instructive to note that several others are not as lucky as Atinuke, lacking every access to the life-saving treatment they require.

    HIV/AIDS remain a major development crisis. Since the pandemic began, it has killed millions, separated families, and destroyed and impoverished communities. In some countries, life expectancy has fallen by more than 20 years. The scale of the epidemic is causing informal social safety nets to collapse. Overall, health care is under pressure as health services struggle with mounting demand. Workforces are being decimated, with severe consequences for investment, production, and per capita income while posing as a severe threat to global health, development, and security.

    In retrospect, we have to appreciate the tremendous progress that has also been made in the fight against the three diseases achieving life-saving impacts that were unthinkable at the turn of the millennium. In 2000, just 50,000 people were receiving antiretroviral (ART) therapy in sub-Saharan Africa, but by 2011, it had climbed to over 7 million. Now, more than 17 million lives have been saved. Current projections show that more than 2 million lives are being saved each year. About 8.6 million people are receiving lifesaving antiretroviral therapy for HIV and 16 million people with HIV-TB co-infection have been treated. Nearly 3.3 million mothers have received treatment to prevent the transmission of HIV to their babies and 560 million people with malaria have been treated.

    However, if global funding for HIV / AIDS and TB were to remain static as we are currently experiencing, some of the consequences would include: 2.6 million new HIV infections every year, of which 1.3 million could be averted through scale-up. In total 3.9 million new HIV infections was projected for the period 2014-2016 and $47 billion of costs throughout the lifetimes of those additional people infected. Three million less people will be treated for TB and one million lives would be unnecessarily lost with uncontrollable multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) if we don’t treat TB now for as little as $30 per patient because MDR-TB can cost up to 1000 times more to treat. It will also mean 196,000 lives lost to Malaria per year and 430 million malaria cases that could have been prevented, according to Cost of Inaction, a report on how inadequate investment in the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will affect millions of lives across the globe.

    It is crucial to acknowledge that the fatigue in donor replenishment of the Global Fund is coming at a time that experts have suggested offers the most hope in the fight against HIV, TB and malaria. It therefore goes to show that the Global Fund needs a robust infusion of pledges from traditional donor countries most notably world economic powers such as Germany and China, to successfully hit, and hopefully exceed, the fundraising target of $13 billion for the Fifth Replenishment Round.

    It is in this regard that we must acknowledge the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and its global partners on the launch of The Fund campaign targeting countries like Germany, Japan and China to act in the interest of humanity and increase their contributions to the Global Fund. Across AHF country programmes, Nigeria inclusive, various activities have been launched, ranging from advocacy meetings with country reps at various embassies to staging press conferences to put the issue on the global agenda and highlight the sense of urgency.  In May, Japan announced a contribution of $800 million for the fifth replenishment of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria which shows AHF’s effort and messages is reverberating.

    Nowhere else can the Global Fund’s impact be louder than Nigeria where the Fund has provided HIV care and treatment to 750,000 people, ensuring TB treatment to 310,000 as it provided 93.4 million mosquito nets to households to ward off malaria. Nigeria also currently represents the Global Fund’s largest portfolio with a total of $1.1 billion allocated to fighting the three diseases from 2014-2016. Unfortunately, since 2010, the Global Fund has never achieved its targeted funding. Therefore, increasing and sustaining the funding to the Global Fund is imperative to sustaining the gains achieved over the last decade, and the last few years in particular.

     

    • Aborisade is Founder/Coordinator, Projekthope.

  • Character in political leadership

    “Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.” –Theodore Roosevelt

    Lack of strong leadership has become a bane in our country, Nigeria. Politically, economically, and socially, our country has continued to experience moral decay. This is manifested in political corruption, economic uncertainty, decline in family values, poverty, greed, crime, and so on. Sometimes, I shudder at some kind of people that are elected or appointed into political offices in Nigeria –people who talk anyhow, ill-tempered, ‘fantastically corrupt’, without foundation in leadership, without ideology, focus, goals, and direction. In other words, we’ve so many ‘characters’ in the Nigerian political drama that lack character!

    This reminds me of ‘The 7 Blunders of the World’ postulated by the great Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Three of the ‘Blunders’ that are related to this article are: Knowledge without Character, Wealth without Work, and Politics without Principles. And because we now have politicians without principles, that’s why we’ve what’s best referred to as ‘Political Prostitution’–defecting from one party to another aimlessly!

    Similarly, Dr. Myles Munroe also alluded to the fact that because political/governmental leadership now give priority to other qualities of leadership other than character, we’ve produced… “Charismatic Leaders without Character; Gifted Leaders without Convictions; Powerful Leaders without Principles; Intellectual Leaders without Morality; Visionary Leaders without Values…” This conforms to the saying that “the people get the kind of leaders they deserve.”

    If my memory serves me right, since the inception of democracy in 1999, the government seems not to ‘disappoint’ Nigerians when it comes to ‘Character Deficiency’ in political leadership. Take the House of Representatives, for instance: former Speaker (1999), Hon. Salisu Buhari resigned as Speaker because of press allegations of ‘Toronto University forged certificate’. We’ll not forget in a hurry the alleged bribery of $620, 000 between Hon. Farouk Lawan and Mr. Femi Otedola on fuel subsidy probe. The issue of ghost workers and BVN verification and of course, the latest ‘released drama’ of allegation and counter allegation of ‘Budget Padding’ that have torn the House apart!

    In my opinion, there’s a very wide difference between our politicians of today and the founding fathers. For instance, our founding fathers were after rendering selfless service to the nation; most of today’s politicians are after their selfish interest. Our founding fathers gave priority to character-building; today’s politicians are after creating crises. In the time of our founding fathers, Nigeria was well-respected in the international community because we had leaders of character. They exerted influence in the world arena because their words were congruent with their actions. But most politicians of today, their words are in sharp contrast with their actions. A politician who’s in party A, for instance, will sing all the praises for his party and its leadership in the morning; but guess what? The same politician, by means of ‘Political Prostitution’ joins party B, will inflict verbal injuries to the same party (A); it’s appalling, the level of moral depravity exhibited by some of them. It seems most of them don’t have something they stand for. Little wonder, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If a man hasn’t discovered something he will die [stand] for, he isn’t fit to live.”

    What does all this lead us to? Of course, we’re paying (and will continue to) for the dire consequences of character deficiency in our political leaders! Some of such negative effects of character deficiency in political leadership are: (1) It has created a psyche of high distrust among the general public –most Nigerians no longer trust the politicians and political appointees, no matter how good-intentioned they may be; (2) The character flaws of a politician often end up hurting the general public. For instance, the death of over 20 persons in the infamous Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment in 2014 was caused by sharp practices by the leadership. Yes, “A leader’s values may be personal”, said Myles Munroe, “But they are never private.” (3) It can tarnish the reputation of the government and the country. The current allegations of budget padding, physical assaults on one another on the floor of the National Assembly, for example, are brushes that paint the country black. (4) It causes backwardness and under-development of a state or a country. Of course, Nigeria as a country is where it is not because we lack resources or human capital, but because we lack political leaders of character who are resourceful with our abundant natural resources. Most Nigerians are living in abject poverty in the midst of plenty because of bad leadership over the years. Indeed, “character defects are like sleeping snakes that awaken and strike people…” wrote Myles Munroe.

    However, in as much as our political leadership is mostly saturated with character-deficient politicians, we still have an infinitesimal number of politicians with strong character numerous to mention. However for Nigeria to attain the status of a great nation, we desperately need leaders of impeccable character like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Jerry Rawlings, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Margaret Thatcher, Mrs. Funmilayo, Ransome-Kuti, Prof. Dora Akunyili, the amiable and inimitable Uche Anyadiegwu, Helen Johnson-Sirleaf, President Of Liberia, and Of course Prof. Stella Chinyere Okunna.

    All these were/ are great leaders of character with rock-laden convictions stronger than their fears! They were great men and women who exerted influence and leadership is all about influence. “The essence of influence is the ability to motivate people to take action and effect change”, wrote Myles Munroe, “You can’t lead if you don’t influence…” And genuine followers are only influenced by leaders of character!

    If only we have just 20 per cent of our present day politicians like the above, I bet that Nigeria would’ve been better than where we are now. When Theodore Roosevelt observed that character is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike; it tells us of the imperative of character in political leadership. All nations that have advanced economically, technologically and politically, are in my view, nations who have had political leaders with character at helm of affairs at different stages of the life of those nations.

    Character is the foundation of all aspects of effective leadership. There’s no true leadership without character. In fact, there’s no substitute for character in leadership! It is indispensable! Therefore, if we must make progress in Nigeria, our political leaders have no option but to build strong character. Because, according to Myles Munroe, ‘Leaders influence the mind-set of the followers; they influence the morality of the followers; they influence the commitment of the followers; and they influence the destiny of the followers’.

    It is my hope, prayer and earnest desire that our political leaders would wake up to the realization of the fact that Character Deficit is the main source of our sore troubles in Nigeria. To this end, we must give priority to character development in political leadership. In other words, there can be no effective (political) leadership without CHARACTER!

     

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

  • Nailing Lagos land grabbers

    Some years ago,well-known African Philosophy teacher 80-yearld old Professor Sophie Bosede Oluwole told the world about her anguishing experience at the hands of indigenous land speculators (land grabbers) popularly called omo-onile. She said she had bought a land in Lagos several years earlier. Trouble came when she wanted to develop it. Her account: “I bought my land 18 years ago. A fellow, who was six years old at the time now comes to me, saying his brother did not give him his own share of the money. I can’t understand whether he wanted to take his own share in the womb…Somebody would come and say ‘I was not around when you bought the land, pay me my own share”.

    Mamalawoas Professor Oluwole is fondly referred to, lived to tell the story. She was fortunate, unlike others who had more macabre encounters with the omo-onile. Some have been maimed for life. Others have died. Several more have been traumatized after having their land seized and resold without a kobo for compensation. Many more are locked in a cycle of unending court cases over trespass on their land that is taking forever to settle.

    Governments that have tolerated these vampires called omo-onile have violated the constitution that says government should protect life and property.

    So when last week Governor AkinwunmiAmbode of Lagos moved in to roll out a law nailing the nefarious activities of the miscreants, he met not only a popular demand, but also he adhered to the fundamental essence of government. He has continued to receive deafening applause for his action.

    The instrument, known as Lagos State Property Protection Law, will make the menace of land grabbing in Lagos a criminal act and a thing of the past. It stipulates a 21-year jail term for convicts. Ambode said: “The need for the law followed the fact that one of the issues that discouraged and hindered the ease of doing business in Lagos in the past had always been the menace of land grabbing.” He noted that a lot of would-be property owners encountered untold harassment from the exploitative land grabbers, declaring that the law now marked the end of the road for such people.

    “The main objective of this law,” Ambode says, “is to ensure that our investors, business men and the general populace carry on their legitimate land-property transactions without any hindrance or intimidation henceforth…The Property Law will eliminate the activities of persons or corporate entities who use force and intimidation to dispossess or prevent any person or entity from acquiring legitimate interest and possession of property…”

    The government has followed it up with the establishment of a Special Task Force on Land-Grabbers and a Neighbourhood Safety Agency and Corps to assist the Police and other security agencies maintain law and order across the communities.

    Given the virulent operations of the land speculators also called ajagungbale and how they have killed, maimed, defrauded, and retarded investments, property developments and housing delivery in this state of close to 20million persons, many agree that this law had been overdue. They have a point, if we consider some salient statistics.

    The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria said some years ago that Nigeria is in grave deficit of housing of about 18million housing units. Government (Federal, State and Local Councils) cannot fill the gap, as we thought they could with the Land Use Act which put ownership of all land in the hands of state governors. Even the so-called private sector mortgage system hasn’t been of help.

    Part succour lies only in individuals having unfettered access to land for housing in the communities. But there, the omo-onile chaps have ambushed this critical window of intervention. They present land titles which they alter or disown at will to swindle buyers. Then at various stages of building on your property they throw in more obstacles: You pay them huge sums for laying the foundation, for decking, roofing, erecting a perimeter fence, digging a borehole, for putting up any extension in your compound! At other times, as in the case of Sophie Oluwole, some other group of omo-onile surfaces to stop your project on the claim that there is a court judgement wresting ownership of the land from those who sold the land to you.

    Outlawing the activities of land grabbers completely as the Lagos State government has done is the answer to the nightmare the citizens have been subjected to all these decades. It is also in the interest of government because the authorities can now streamline the levies the land grabbers have been collecting into a tax regime to boost the revenue of government. The authorities must implement the law to the hilt. In the past, the people had been distrustful of government when it came to lifting such laws from the cold print and giving it prosecutorial teeth. The government should offer the people a new impression of seriousness in giving life to the law.

    The citizens also have a role to play if the law must work. The citizens would need to report omo-onile infractions to relevant agencies. Hotlines and social media contacts are needed for the public to reach the newly created operatives of the Neighbourhood Safety Agency and Corps.

    Law courts and the Police must be advised not to allow themselves to be compromised in cases patently meant to defraud property owners and thwart the spirit and letter of the new law. There have been occasions where security agents allegedly worked hand in hand with the land grabbers to perpetrate heinous acts.

    It is expected that with Lagos State taking this radical step of finally hemming in the land grabbers, its fellow South-west neighbours, notably Ogun which is on a new drive to boost investment and Internally Generated Revenue, will follow suit to save its citizens from the hoodlums euphemistically called omo-onile.

     

    • Ojewale is a writer in Ota, Ogun State.

  • Collateral assault

    Journalists are increasingly located in line of fire in conventional as well as simulated warfare where they are, for a fact, merely professional inquisitors and documentarists. By the nature of their vocation, they must relate with all actors across the lines of hostility so as to get a comprehensive view of contending issues at play and relay perspectives from all sides to their audiences. This operational rule ordinarily gives them a crosscutting reach that could be disconcerting to actors entrenched in the hostility of warfare at any particular instance. But then, it could be a vital resource for conflict resolution and truce mediation if properly tapped into by the contending parties.

    The threat to pen pushers – and effectively the freedom of information and expression – is not peculiar to any political civilisation or geographical boundary, though it is of more primitive shades in some climes than others. Under the regime of military strongman-turned civilian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, for instance, journalists have had death sentences willy-nilly slammed on them. Only last June, Egypt’s superior court confirmed the death sentence imposed by a lower court on six persons, three of who were journalists accused of leaking state secrets to Qatar. Ibrahim Helal, former director of news at Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel; Alaa Sablan, an Al Jazeera employee until last year; and Asmaa Alkhatib, a journalist with the Rassd News Network, were all arraigned in Cairo and sentenced to death in absentia.

    Then, there are places like Turkey where journalists are being hauled into detention on scant suspicion of having links with perceived enemies of the state. Following the July 15 failed coup in that country, no fewer than 43 journalists were detained as a part of investigations against followers of exiled Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was accused by the Tayyip Erdogan government of having masterminded the coup. Besides the detentions, Turkish authorities imposed travel bans on media personnel, while some 200 journalists have been barred from entering the Turkish parliament to do their job.

    A less primitive, but no less affronting hazard is the hostile disposition of Republican torchbearer for the 2016 presidential election in the United States, Donald Trump, towards mainstream American media. Faced with a deserved meltdown of his run for the White House, and badly trailing Democratic contender Hillary Clinton in recent opinion polls, Trump has made a pastime of savaging the media. Only last week, he tweeted: “If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%.” And that tweet was by no means out of Trump’s character. Journalists have never rated too highly in his estimation, such that at a campaign event in Pennsylvania penultimate week, he described them as the lowest form of life. “These people are the lowest form of life, I’m telling you,” he said, pointing at journalists covering his rally. “They are the lowest form of humanity.”

    Trump’s contention is that the media were biased and have been soft on the flaws of his Democratic opponent while being dogged in highlighting his own missteps, and so could effectively “rig the election for Hillary.” But truth be told, the media is not to blame for his campaign’s unraveling: it is Trump, not the media, who has been committing avoidable seppuku with unguarded utterances and unwise picks of political fights that have alienated vast segments of American voters. Actually, his fight with reporters is another chronically unwise pick. Asked at a press conference in June if that was how he would relate with the press as president should he get to the Oval Office, he said: “Yeah, it is going to be like this. You think I’m gonna change? I’m not gonna change.” Well, so much prospects he has for media support seeing him to that office! But we digress.

    Nigerian journalists and associated practitioners have always had their fair share of vocational hazards; but there was lately a tendency towards undue high-handedness by the government. Penultimate weekend, military authorities declared three persons wanted on the heels of Boko Haram’s release of its latest video on the abducted Chibok girls. The persons declared wanted were Aisha Wakil, a lawyer, as well as Ahmed Bokori and Ahmad Salkida who are journalists. There is no confusion, of course, that the enemy is Boko Haram; only that the trio were incidental targets because they failed, according to the military, to provide useful information to authorities despite having ease of access to the terror group. It is apparent though that the declaration was overhanded, because from indications, the persons declared wanted were available for prior invitation by military authorities, but no such invitation was ever extended. And they all said the military knew where to reach them.

    Why military authorities chose to scandalise the trio by declaring them wanted rather than take the more decent course of inviting them for questioning remains a guesswork. But matters got even more curious with the responses to that declaration. Salkida, who is based in Dubai, issued a statement saying he would be heading to Abuja shortly to hand himself in, and even suggested that the process could be hastened if the military obliges him a return ticket. There are no indications that the military warmed up to his challenge. Bokori promptly turned himself in to the military in Maiduguri and by public accounts, which the military did not counter, it was as though he was never even on the security radar, much less being expected to report. After groping around for some while, he was advised by low-level officials to go off and return the following day for another try at surrender. Aisha Wakil equally turned herself in at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja and was almost treated like an intruder. According to her accounts, which the military also hasn’t refuted, some front desk officers initially told her they knew nothing of her being wanted and were already turning her away when a supervisor stumbled upon them; and she was then held in furlough for some time as the authorities apparently worked out what to do with her.

    Now, if the motivation and rationale for security agencies in declaring persons wanted have not changed from what the public has always construed them to be, it is quite strange that Wakil and Bokori got such chilly reception from military authorities when they turned themselves in. But more questionable, I would say, is the ground on which they are indicted with having run foul of the law. If the offense is none other than that they have not been forthcoming with the identity and other details about their sources in the Boko Haram camp, they are well within a sacred creed of global best practice in journalism, namely strict confidentiality of sources. It is uncompromising protection of confidentiality that keeps those sources available and makes them accessible to that enemy fold, just as they are able to relate on the other side with Nigerian authorizes. Actually, the trio’s continuing access to Boko Harm should be an asset asset for the military in tackling the terrorist challenge: the link could be explored for genuine negotiation to free the Chibok girls, or it would at least afford some inkling into what is going on in the terrorist camp as would inform warfare strategy.

    But then, the trio as well have an onerous responsibility not just for conflict sensitive reporting or relaying of messages from the Boko Haram camp, but also for active mediation of a lasting truce with the terrorists. History will not be kind to them if they fail to use their peculiar advantage for the nation’s benefit.

  • Foreign investment and future of Nigeria

    Since the beginning of the Third Republic and return to democracy in 1999, our elected leaders spend more time travelling to Europe, the West, America and Asia looking and shopping for foreign investors.  When they return from such foreign trips, their intellectual wing in the academia and political jobbers take to the airwaves popping champagne that MOUs are being prepared for foreign direct investment in all areas of our economy. Whenever we have challenges with our economy, we start looking for foreigners; if it is a security problem, we expect that it can only be solved by foreigners. We are still struggling with the problem of feeding our population and beg foreign donors and agencies to come to our aid with all God and nature have endowed us with.

    We have refused to stand up for our country and we do not have faith that we can do anything for ourselves and yet we feel bad when they treat our citizens abroad like sub humans.   Our leaders make us to look inferior before the donor agencies and foreigners who unknown to them are not benevolent benefactors because every such  aids or assistance are tied to demands that are alien to our culture and belief system. These foreign nations with stable political and economic system that we run to at every twist and turn developed their countries through the patriotic efforts of their citizens making great sacrifices.  There is no quick fix and shortcuts for nations to get to the rank of the first world and be a developed country; if you have to get gold, you have to dig deep; it is not found on the surface.

    Before industrialization in Europe and the New World, as America was then referred to, the imperialists came to Africa and carried our fathers into slavery to work in their mines and farms to feed their growing population.  The Europeans only see slavery as evil after they had used African labour to build their factories and became industrialized.   The imperialists remained in most of the African countries to ensure a steady supply of raw materials for their industries using their trading companies as administrators.  They established schools that would provide them with administrators to harness their investment and again when they were done, they closed shop and our school system has not departed from that path of producing administrators and services.  No country survives on the trade-off of its economy to the superior technology of another sovereign nation.  The foreign investors are traders with mercantile mentality for profit maximization and at the close of business; he repatriates his profit to his home country leaving us with the short end of the stick.

    History has taught us that we do not learn from history that is why we are repeating the mistake of yesterday in the 21st Century.  In the 1970s and 80s companies like UAC and PZ controlled the nerve-centre of our economy which of course has never been a producing economy just as it is today, extracting the raw materials to the imperialists metropolis and returning to sell the finished product at a prohibitive cost to us.  During the same period, the Asians controlled the textile industries from Kano, Kaduna to Lagos using our people as slave labours like the caste system in India allowing them barely a survival wage.  During the economic recession in the 1980s the companies’ closed shops and the Asians went home with their profit leaving the factories like the empty shells of a canon, useless.

    America, the West, and Europe have reached the apogee of their civilization today including the Asian countries and are looking for territories and market to rehabilitate their population which they know that in no distant future they would not be able to cater for.   The solution to them was quick in coming and they sold to the world the concept of globalization.  The concept looked attractive to nations of Africa where people do not like to challenge their mental capacity to develop beyond subsistence agriculture.   We refuse to interrogate whether we have anything that we are bringing to the table when the world is reduced to a global village in the process of globalization.

    Europe and America have since conquered nature with superior technology and are today getting fuel from the rock through the technology of fracking as their resources are nearing exhaustion.  They are today in space prospecting for opportunity of life and relocating and leaving to us the famished earth.

    Africa has remained a virgin land and its people and population are unable to harness the abundant natural and human resources for the benefit of her people.  We are busy perpetually fighting one another over mundane things and religion; things that do not unite our people, promote our secularism and develop our economy.  Our leaders cannot think out of the box and we are welcoming with open arms and drums, the handover of our rich arable land to foreigners that were driven away from other climes.  When we invite foreigners with advanced technology to take over our economy, we are only denying our unemployed youths the much needed job and mortgaging the future of our children and posterity will judge us harshly.  Our leaders would rather prefer to behave like rampaging band of gorillas wasting everything along their way, looting our common patrimony to develop foreign land.

    Now is the time for our government to be circumspect and think through their policies once again.  Foreigners cannot solve our political problems; they cannot solve our economic problems and can never solve our security problem because they have no stake in Nigeria.  We have made mockery of ourselves enough; let us stand up to the challenges of our country.  It is mental indolence to think that the solutions to our problems lie in foreign investors whether it is in agriculture, science and technology, politics, economic or security.  Besides Europe and America, countries in Asia closed their borders when they faced the challenges of development and today, India, Pakistan, China, the  two Koreas, North and South, Singapore are all technologically advanced countries due to the patriotic zeal of their leaders.  But today, Indians and Chinese are not only enslaving our people in their companies, our leaders are going cap in hand to them to come and take over the running of our economy for immediate gains and not for the long term benefits because there is none.

    Our youths have to rise up now and engage the political class to reclaim what belongs to us as a nation.  We must challenge the rapacious and voracious appetite of our leaders for exotic food which all of us are beginning to develop the palate for. The war against corruption must be fought and won and it must be holistic; there should be no Jew or Gentile in the prosecution of the war.  We should hold our leaders to account; budget padding is corruption and no linguistic semantics can cure it. We should interrogate the validity of foreign investment; it is tantamount to mortgaging our future. We should interrogate activities of the National Assembly and the viability and wisdom of bicameral legislature; it is fast becoming a drain pipe of waste.  Our leaders should come back home and look inward.  We say no to foreign investment and no to mortgaging the future of generations yet unborn.

     

    • KebonkwuEsq, writes from Abuja.

  • Swap option

    This is not a bad idea provided, however, that the government does its homework properly not to short-change the country on the Chibok girls

    The video footage released by the Boko Haram high command has continued to generate controversies and reactions. Following the release of the video, the terrorists had indicated their willingness to release 51 school girls for hardened criminals captured by the military in battle. The parents, especially those who could identify their children in the footage, were unanimous in calling on government to expedite action. The militants had said that some of the girls were lost to strikes by the Nigerian Air Force. This fuelled fears among the parents that more girls will be caught in the cross-fire between the military and the murderous gang. Fears were also expressed over the disclosure that about 40 girls had been married off to the terrorists.

    Security experts are not  unanimous in the opinion on what should be done. Some think the militants were merely employing psychological propaganda as a weapon to force the Federal Government to release their colleagues, following bombardment by the military in the air and on ground. Others think the militants have been softened by the successes recorded by the military and are now more amenable to a negotiated solution. The Federal Government, too, is in a dilemma as previous attempts at negotiation under both the Jonathan and Buhari administrations had failed.

    The government is even more undecided because there is no clear picture of the authentic Boko Haram faction nor is it sure of the sincerity of the offer. Pressure on the government is not only from the worried parents, but also pressure groups like the Bring Back Our Girls campaigners (BBOG), the general public and even a faction of the military. The Buhari administration with prosecution of the war on Boko Haram insurgents as a priority must come up with a decision in days. We call on the government to take a swift, calculated decision on the matter. It has a duty to come up with strategic plans that will not only free the girls but win the war.

    It is obvious that the various security agents have not been working in concert. This has led to the prolongation of the war, the high cost in men and materials as well as the ridicule to which Nigeria has been exposed before the international community.

    To date, about two million Nigerians are believed to have been displaced and turned into refugees in their own country. Even those who have courageously held on or prematurely returned home have been exposed to starvation. These non-military aspects of the operation have been less competently handled, thus compounding the woes of these otherwise comfortable compatriots. President Muhammadu Buhari as commander -in -chief must begin to walk his talk. One of the reasons he was voted in as president last year was because of the expectation that he would bring his experience as a retired general to bear on the task at hand.

    We identify with the fears of the parents and other critical stakeholders and therefore call on the government to explore all possibilities of freeing the hapless, innocent school girls, who were abducted in April, 2014. In doing this, we are not unmindful of the government’s responsibility to ensure due diligence in identifying the authentic faction of the Boko Haram organisation to deal with. Who are those actually in custody of the girls and what mode will be adopted for the negotiation and release? This must be carefully worked out, perhaps with the assistance of foreign experts.

    We expect that by now, the video clip would have been thoroughly and professionally analysed. We also call on the government to carry the parents of the abducted girls along on effort to free them without necessarily divulging security secrets. It is obvious that government has failed in communicating its plans and actions to the public. In a war of this magnitude, silence cannot be considered golden. The Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, the National Orientation Agency and the public relations unit of the various services should meet more regularly and find better ways of calming frayed nerves.

    The war against insurgency is a national task and it behoves this administration to deliver on this sacred trust. Indeed, intelligence gathering is very important in successfully prosecuting military operations. And, this involves not only the relevant arms of the armed forces, but also the civilian population. It is their land and ancestral home and they will do anything and everything to keep it. They are natural allies who cannot be ignored.

     

  • Rebranding the civil service: From profession to professionalism

    The structural, political-economic injustice and general cynicism about reform which stifle development and nation building in Nigeria will not stop us from innovative experimentation. Indeed, one of the significant efforts which have been directed at reawakening the consciousness of Nigerians to the potentials inherent in the country is the massive efforts at rebranding Nigeria, a strategy I thought is worth considering within framework of a civil service change agenda. Under the indefatigable energy and the charismatic forcefulness of the late Prof. Dora Akunyili, the rebranding was targeted at rethinking the Nigeria brand that has taken a massive battering since independence. What made rebranding critical and urgent? Simple: Nigeria has an unarguably terrible image problem that requires critical reversal. The image problem however goes beyond a mere attempt at transforming the way the world sees us. According to Akunyili, “if we do not make any concrete effort to address our image problem, the situation will continue to get worse, and Nigerians will not only be ridiculed as a people, but investors will also be discouraged from coming to invest in Nigeria.” Thus, Nigeria’s image problem is intrinsically connected to her development malaise.

    Thus, “good people; great nation” became a powerful brand slogan that flew with the power of technology across Nigeria. It became truly a catchphrase that caught the fancy of the people. There were jingles and adverts. But then, it gradually fizzled out. Why? Simple: The power of a strong brand is not its advertorial beauty but its authenticity. Jeff Bezos puts it well: “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” Nigeria’s current reality is not enough to force the rebranding slogan into the very hearts of citizens. So, while the slogan has a sonorous quality in the mouth, the heart recoils at its shallowness. It is clear to ordinary Nigerians that Nigeria lacks a development reputation that makes a rebranding slogan authentic.

    Which raises the question, what is the new identity that the Nigerian civil service wants to create in the minds of the public as customers, the politicians as partners in progress, the international community as keen observer with stake in the Nigerian Project, the press as interlocutor, the youth as leaders in the now and in the future, PMB as an integrity brand, and other stakeholders? Two, can the civil service choose a rebranding track without getting into the trenches to do a deep-seated reengineering to get the basics of the profession and its administrative system right? Three, is basic housekeeping in the MDAs enough without the launch of a strategy or a civil service change agenda that has a robust culture change component? How long will it take to create the right work culture, performance-rooted accountability praxis including a social compact with the Nigerian public that is the brand to build on in order to transform the civil service into an intelligent, information-rich, professional, entrepreneurial service that is sufficiently inspired to uphold the vision of a transformed Nigeria as evidence that system inadequacies and those malpractices with which the service is associated have been eliminated?

    What is needed to ground a real reputation that can be sold to Nigerians therefore, is another kind of rebranding which is germane to Nigeria’s real image in the sight of her citizens and in the perception of the world. Essentially, Nigeria’s development profile and democratic status are unflattering. This is starkly demonstrated in the existential agonies of her citizens—pandemic poverty, pervasive unemployment, decreasing income, infrastructural decay, galloping inflation, etc. The rhetorical strength of the rebranding slogan is not sufficient to suppress these realities. Something else is required; something that stands at the heart of the institutional renewal that could transform the governance dynamics of Nigeria and give her a new brand that sells without much effort. Why I’m I suggesting in this piece that what needs a rigorous and committed rebranding first is the Nigerian civil service system? Why is the civil service necessary for rethinking the governance dynamics in Nigeria? I can readily think of seven solid reasons: (a) there is the service presence throughout the country and its strong binding character; and therefore, the difference that would be made to the Nigeria’s brand with (b) the civil service enhanced administrative and managerial capacity; (c) effective policy-making and regulation; (d) effective coordination between institutions of governance; (e) creative leadership at different levels of administration; (f) transformed service delivery at the cutting edge and frontline level; and (g) strategic intelligence in the ‘continuity and change’ the civil service provides to the successive administration, can only be imagined.

    Yet, all these are compromised by Nigeria’s current development troubles because there is a directly proportional relationship between democratic governance in Nigeria and the institutional capacity of the civil service. Nigeria’s governance woe is the function of its politics, its decision making processes and implementation inadequacies and it would be ‘technicist’ to reform one and not the other though when public administration fails, Nigeria’s image suffers. It is therefore impossible to rebrand Nigeria without a prior rebranding of her civil service system. And with the civil service, rebranding transcends advertising a mere slogan. Rebranding is inherently reforming! It would require much more than paying lip service to reform. It would require deep-seated rethinking and change in the profession and the management system in a process that must be seen by all stakeholders to be managed without any iota of politicization, as just a bit of perceived politicization will sure discredit such a change initiative.

    Take two examples. In ancient pharaonic Egypt and modern Germany, the civil service began its life as a vocation, a specific and peculiar calling that is not just available to all. At a specific point in the expansion of ancient Egypt, the pharaoh realized the need for an administrative class that will help in coordinating the task of governing the state. The task of tax collection, for instance, would pose a huge administrative challenge requiring centralisation. And centralisation would also later give rise to specialisation, especially represented by the gigantic administrative headache posed by the building of the pyramids. The governance genius of the pharaoh however consisted in the realisation that such an administrative class must be properly trained and capacitated to carry out its national responsibility. This was the origin of a special scribal class that was not only professional or educated but also essentially patriotic. The civil service eventually evolved from a primitive administrative necessity to a full-fledged vocation in modern times.

    When we talk of the civil service, we refer to an institution that has at its centre a specific idea of a unique bureaucratic persona defined by some unique sets of attributes and mentalities. In this sense, a profession becomes a calling or a vocation when it becomes integrated within an ethical framework and is attached to larger vision and purpose beyond itself. It is in this sense that a bureaucrat is ‘called’ to serve the state and a purpose beyond him/herself. Thus, what the priesthood is to God, the civil service is to a nation.

    According to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the US judge, “every calling is great when greatly pursued.” The civil service in Nigeria has suffered terrible reversal since the postcolonial realities in Nigeria de-professionalised it as a calling. The civil service has thus lost its honour, spirituality, professionalism and its ethical imperative. A typical civil servant has to now struggle strenuously with issues of commitment, trust and loyalty to a cause that transcends the need for a livelihood. Greatly pursuing the essence of the civil service calling implies that the civil service must first be reformed before it can serve as a reforming tool in Nigeria.

    As a profession, the character of the civil service revolves around specific ethical questions: What is the soul of what a person does as a public servant? What gives a civil servant strength when the stress of work becomes too much? What lies at the core of public service? What makes anyone a good public servant? Is my spirituality a plus in my workplace? Is the civil servant sufficiently incentivized in pecuniary and non-pecuniary sense to derive sufficient pride and value in his work as a professional to be most productive? The answers to these ethical questions solidify around a set of institutional reforms that enables the screening of those public servants genuinely ‘called’ into service.This calls for a deeply committed reform of the human resource management system of the civil service. And that requires a rigorous reform of the career management hub of the service and its responsibility for managing talent, career, deployment and the optimal utilization of human resources in the civil service. This reform will go in tandem with the intervention of all central personnel agencies of government.

    Specific reform issues will deal with recruitment, training, deployment, specialization and professionalization. For instance, the civil service profession is circumscribed by a specific ethical framework that guides the understanding of what the public servant can be and what s/he can do or not do. Each public servant is integrated into an ‘integrity system’—around the values of accountability, transparency, fairness, responsibility, efficiency and neutrality—which sustains professional conduct.

    Most importantly, rescuing the profession of public service requires reforming the accountability mechanisms throughout the service. it is accountability that forms the basis of the public service in the first place; it is what tied the public servant to the public s/he is serving. The public servant could function in the first place because s/he could be trusted and held accountable by the government and the public. For Thomas Paine, “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” For me, a civil service system that wants to be professional must first reform its accountability. This is the hard thing we must determine to do very well.

    • Dr. Olaopa is Executive Vice Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), Ibadan

  • Naija paradox: A Camerounian’s first impressions of Abuja

    My neighbour’s friend was in Nigeria for the first time from Cameroun. She was around to procure a visa at the Czech Embassy in Abuja.

    It was late in the evening when she arrived at his place in a satellite town in the Federal Capital. After a few minutes in the house she noticed the electricity going off.

    “They have taken light”, my neighbour explained casually.

    “Who? Why?”

    “NEPA, the electricity people. It is always like that.”

    “Does that mean we are going to spend the night in darkness?” the guest asked, alarmed.

    “We have a generator”, Neighbour said, pointing at a corner of the sitting room. “We’ll soon put it on”.

    The guest went over to take a close look at the small generating set. “Does every house have a generator?”

    “Most do”, neighbour replied calmly.

    That got the guest excited. She dialed a number on her handset as she returned to her seat and was soon gleefully chatting in French, apparently with someone back home in Cameroun.

     “We have arrived at the house in Abuja but there is no light in Nigeria!”

    The following morning they set out for the embassy in Asokoro. Soon they drove into heavy traffic caused by a checkpoint in Nyanya.

    “There are so many police checkpoints. We came across many on the way from Lagos yesterday”.

    Neighbour just nodded, although this checkpoint was mounted by soldiers. He could see though that she was impressed by the network of roads and overhead bridges as they drove toward the city. As they crossed into the smart Asokoro District, she could no longer conceal her excitement.

    “There are so many beautiful buildings. This city is beautiful”, she exclaimed.

    Neighbour explained that it was one of the city’s neighbourhood of the rich.

    Then she remembered that she had to print out some documents for the embassy. They drove around but could not find a cybercafé.

    “Why are there no cybercafés?” she blurted out finally, perplexed.

    “Maybe because every home here has its own internet facility”, Neighbour offered lightly.

    On the way back from the embassy, they headed for Neighbour’s office at the Federal Secretariat in the Central Business District. The transaction at the embassy had been easy and smooth so guest and host were in a good mood.

    As they drove past, he pointed out the city’s landmarks along their path.

    “That is the Force Headquarters of the Police, Louis Edet House.”

    “Edet? That is a Calabar name.”

    “Yes”, Neighbour replied, impressed that she recognized a name of one of the Nigerian groups closest to Cameroun. “They named the complex after him because he was the first indigenous Inspector-General of the Nigerian Police.”

    “Nice buildings everywhere. This city is very beautiful,” she declared, moving her head from side to side as they approached the Federal Secretariat complex.

        They drove into the multi-storey car park in Bullet Wing of the complex. They did not find a parking space until the last floor of the park. As soon as the car stopped, she jumped out to gulp an aerial view of the Abuja landscape. Neighbour followed on her heels, identifying the major landmarks as she snapped away with her camera.

     “That is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That is the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank…”

    “Wow! Look at that rock over there!”

    “That is Aso Rock”, Neighbour explained proudly. “It is behind the Presidential Villa, the seat of the government. That rock is the reason why the place is called the Aso Rock Villa.”

    “You mean I am standing close to the seat of power?”

    “Yes. You can see part of the villa from here, those white structures over there.”

    “Oh, I am going to post all these pictures on my wall. I want my friends to see that I am near Nigeria’s seat of power!,” she giggled.

    Then she got to see from close range the secretariat. On getting to neighbour’s office block, she said, “Your office is in this gigantic building? You mean we’ll enter there now?

    “Yes.”

    “How many storeys is the building?”

    “Eleven. We’re going to the seventh floor.”

    “Does it have staircase or elevator?”

    “Both.”

    “We don’t have something like this in Cameroun. We cannot afford it. It will destroy our economy!”

    As they reached the ground floor of the car park, Neighbour became aware of the sound of the generator. It means there’s no light!

    The guest’s heart sank.

    “There is no work today? It means we can’t go to your office then?”

    “There’s work. We’ll take the staircase.”

    “How can you work in government office when there’s no light?”

    “Leave us alone,” neighbour chuckled. “That’s why we are Nigerians”!

    Halfway up the staircase he could see she was panting. But it did not seem to affect her enthusiasm as she continued to survey all around her like Alice in Wonderland.

    “This is very big! And very neat too!!. You mean Nigeria built all these?”

    “Yes.”

    “So why can’t you provide light if you can build this and all the big, big roads and bridges that I have seen on our way here?”

    Neighbour didn’t think she wanted an answer.

    But she repeated the question later in the office as some of neighbour’s colleagues gathered to chat with her.

    “Our past leaders did not help matters”, one of them volunteered an explanation. “Many of them were 419ners!”

    Neighbour’s director laughed ruefully at the explanation. “Does she know what is 419?”

    “Yes, of course,” the guest replied smartly. “We watch Nigerian films. They always mention 419 and wayo. They often talk about people stealing government money.”

    “Anyway, that will soon become a thing of the past”, Neighbour interjected patriotically. “We now have a God-sent President who is fighting corruption. Haven’t you heard about people refunding money since Buhari came into power?”

    “I always saw headlines in your newspapers mentioning billions and billions but I don’t follow the details. If you convert those figures into CFA, you can buy Cameroun!”

    Everybody laughed.

    Then there was a call to her phone. As she prattled away in French, Neighbour could pick her words.

    “Abuja is fine o. Abuja is cute. But the problem is that there is no light in Nigeria!”

    When Neighbour interpreted it, the director burst out in laughter.

    On their way back home they passed through Asokoro again.

    “Tomorrow when we are coming to town, I don’t want us to come in your car. I want us to ride in that thing”, she said pointing at one of the brightly-coloured tricycle taxis.

    “Why would you prefer to ride in keke?” neighbour asked, genuinely bemused.

    “I love them. You can feel the air and see everywhere around you from inside. They’re fine!”

    At Nyanya, neighbour showed her the motor park that has been left in disuse since a bomb planted by Boko Haram killed scores of people there in April of 2014.

    “Do you know what Boko Haram is?”

    “Of course! The terrorist group. We have them in Cameroun too.”

    Apparently, she was aware of the incident.

    “So that’s the spot?” she asked with a mixture of curiosity and horror.

    Later in the evening, they took a tricycle taxi to the Customs officers’ residential quarters in Karu, a neighbouring community. The pleasantries soon led to an animated discussion on the state of the nation.

    “Things are very difficult now”, their host summarized his contribution bristly. “Instead of the government addressing the problem, they say they are fighting corruption. People are suffering.”

    The Camerounian visitor who had listened quietly all along decided to join the discussion.

    “How can you address economic problems without addressing corruption? Your country is blessed and everyone in Africa envies you. But corruption is your problem. I studied Accountancy and have an ACCA. I can just imagine what this country will be like if you are able to address corruption.”

    The host appeared mortified.

    On their way back home in a keke taxi, the Camerounian returned to the discussion. “Just imagine what Nigeria can do with all its resources when you have tamed corruption!”

    Neighbour just chuckled.

  • Is this the change we voted for?

    The last couple of weeks have witnessed the heaviest public criticism of the Muhammadu Buhari administration since he came to power.  Much of it has been on account of the unresolved social and economic problems facing the country.

    Unfair criticism of the Buhari administration especially on account of escalating prices of foodstuff and the liberalization of the currency exchange needs to be challenged before it overshadows the commendable job the President has done in fighting terrorism as part of overall effort to secure the country, reducing corruption and yes, arresting the economic slide before it sinks the nation.

    Wherever they go these days, in London, Dubai, Beijing, Washington, New York or Tokyo, Nigerians get the good feeling of being asked the question, how is President Muhammadu Buhari?

    It is a proud moment for many citizens that the country is being perceived differently now that it has a different kind of leader creating a positive buss abroad, the kind of sentiment that can lead to foreign investments when properly capitalized upon.

    The lavish praise the President gets abroad and the wide public support he enjoys among the lower segment of the local population is, by contrast, given a short shrift in the local press, mainstream and online. At its lowest point, this unambiguous media rebuke has created a wave of sympathy for anyone with a view that runs counter to the President’s.

    Boko Haram terrorist leader, Shekau or the pipeline vandal form the Delta region is more likely to get newspaper front pages today than the Minister of Labour, Governor EmekaNgige or the Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun talking about jobs creation in the economy.

    I don’t say that media criticism is not reflective of the feeling of the citizens.

    President Buhari has himself on numerous occasions admitted that the change mantra has brought with it pain and suffering which he likened to the pains of labour. It is a passing phase.

    When they ask the question, is this the change we voted for, the critic forgets how far we have come from the scam-tainted years of the PDP rule.

    How many people have given a thought to the possibility of Nigeria doing something that the combined strength of Europe and America have failed to do?

    There are many today who take for granted the declared victory over the Boko Haram terrorists, forgetting the reign of the bomber who made it almost impossible for regular attendance in Churches and Mosques in many of our cities, including the Federal Capital City, Abuja.

    Victory over Boko Haram has brought peace not only to Nigeria but to the countries in the Lake Chad region.

    The world leaders are still at work trying to contain the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, ISIS, which threat sadly continues to become more potent.

    Everyone living in Nigeria knows that there is a major movement against corruption as part of the ongoing change. This war has forced the return to the treasury of billions of Naira and millions of Dollars stolen by past officials.

    On account of this war, government suspects that the biggest trigger of the opposition to the change agenda is the army of the corrupt. With the enormous resources at their disposal; money that is unearned, these forces are ready to throw in everything to gag the Buhari administration.

    When he assumed office, President Buhari said he understood the outcry of Nigerians and was determined to right those wrongs. I will remind of his inaugural speech where he said: “At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us.  We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.”(Emphasis added).

    He has said times without number that his government is dedicated to the poor. As can be seen from the 2016 budget, this is a government that is determined to hugely empower the disadvantaged groups- the poor, the jobless, the widows and the orphaned children including those of the North-East.

    As a listening government, the President was prepared to open the door to additional food imports but given the processes involved, the turnaround in any such import of commodities would have taken a long time as to coincide with the harvest of home grown grains and cereals now in progress. The market would have been deluged and the local grower given the short end of the stick.

    Calls on Hausa radio by a rabble-rousing section of the opposition for the “reopening of borders” to “allow food come in” are redundant and mischievous because all the county’s borders remain open till date.

    Following the budget, the administration has begun rolling out several social welfare programmes. The direct cash transfer to the poorest of the poor, the school feeding and the recruitment/skills training of about one million jobless citizens are such an example.

    In addition to hard work, all leaders need luck on their side to create what is sometimes seen as economic miracles. As leader, President Buhari never had the luxury of high oil prices as did his predecessors in office.

    When he first emerged as the military Head of State, General Buhari saw oil price, the mainstay of the nation’s economy sink to as low eight Dollars a barrel.

    He rolled up his sleeves, worked on diversification strategy of the economy only to be eased out of power just as they began to take hold. Thereafter, his successors abandoned these efforts.

    On his second coming, this time as a democratically elected leader, the collapse of oil prices has challenged President Buhari to quicken efforts towards the diversification of the economy with emphasis given to agriculture and solid minerals mining. Every crisis, it is said, is an opportunity. Not so in Nigeria. This is a country that inherited massive technological inventions from Biafra, yet failed to take it forward. We must not lose this opportunity to diversify the economy and our foreign earnings presented by the present oil crisis.

    As the country hopes for a bumper harvest this year, government is taking steps to ensure that no farmer will sell at a loss or fail to find markets for their harvests. Grain silos are being readied nationwide to receive excess produce for warehousing to ensure food security, avert market glut and price collapse. By this, government will ensure a minimum guaranteed price.

    In dealing with challenges of the economy, the administration is devoting attention to ridding the country of its notoriety as a difficult place of doing business.

    The government has been making quiet but significant progress in this area, thanks to the leadership given by the National Economic Council under the Vice President and the combined efforts of the Ministries of Trade and Investment, Finance, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Budget and Planning and the Customs under new leadership.

    Everyone in this sector is doing everything in their power to boost up Nigeria.

    President Buhari’s infrastructure initiatives will see country making progress with intractable projects such as the Second Niger bridge, the East-West expressway, the green field Lagos-Abuja expressway and important national railway projects, Lagos-Calabar and Lagos-Kano which had been on the drawing boards for as long as anyone can remember.

    These projects will be counted among the accomplishments of the administration alongside the 4,000 MW Mambila power plant which the President has declared a national priority. Government has also taken several bold steps to boost renewable energy. It has opened the door for a new conversation on the environment with decisive steps towards the clean-up the Ogoniland in the Niger Delta.

    The removal of subsidies on the petrol products has saved the government more than two trillion Naira annual expenditure.

    President Buhari’s foreign trips have brought many things to the country. He has energized our foreign policy. Beyond the enormous goodwill reaped from “resetting” age-old but damaged relations with neighbours and distant partners and friends, the President has attracted foreign development assistance and direct investments (FDI). It is generally accepted that good foreign relations bring foreign direct investment. So much is currently being done one year into the administration. This is in spite of the world economy being sluggish and recession-stricken.

    It bears repeating that President is a different kind of leader, who just happens to be a victim of the tyranny of high expectations. He has brought positive intention, commitment, honesty and personal integrity into governance. This is why the country’s poor hold him so dear; this is why the world is in love with him.

    His knack for prudent spending and effective management of resources is in the belief that this country can only prosper when there is transparency, reduced corruption and a drastic cut in bureaucratic red tape.

    His decision to have a small cabinet, reducing government ministries from 46 to 24 has the effect of relieving the treasury of the burden of salaries, allowances and miscellaneous expenses now being counted in billions of Naira.

    President Buhari should be credited for the unblemished record of his ministers. This is a government that has stayed above scandal for a year.

    If all of these are not desirable changes, to be appreciated and adored, it is hard to know or determine what some of our critics want.

    As to the question of these leading to a resurgent economy, it all means that in a democracy everything takes times. The President needs our support with understanding and patience. No matter how hasty a president wants to bring changes, there is no magic wand in that office to make everything change from bad to good or make all of us prosperous with a wave of the hand. This change is on course. It requires patience.

     

    Shehu is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

  • Still on Buhari Vs Babangida: Finally the defining moment

    Personally I would urge Buhari to forgive Ibro (IBB).  But in terms of national interest, patriotism and nation building, I would never forgive IBB, let alone urge Buhari to do same. The Buhari/Idiagbon regime was toppled for personal and foreign interest.  The French and Ivorian government (led by late Felix Houphet Boigny) wanted to get rid of Thomas Sankara and they knew Buhari would be in the way if they did so. Add to it the fact that Buhari/Idiagbon planned a mission on British soil by attempting to abduct Umaru Dikko and also detaining a British Caledonian (now British Airways) plane when they detained a Nigerian Airways plane, then you would know why they were targeted men. Thus, IBB was used to sabotage his government by vandalizing the home of the late Obafemi Awolowo to make Buhari unpopular with Yorubas, stiffen the economy through the help of the Americans and once Idiagbon was out of the way, they attacked. The following year Sankara was killed by his best friend Blaize Compaore in Burkina Faso. Compaore would go on to be great friend to IBB who was his mentor while Houphet Boigny was their general father and leader..IBB..Gusau and his cohorts wanted to impress the world..but did they? While attending the Kennedy Leadership school in Fort Bragg, IBB alongside others like Abacha and Mobutu Se Se Ko were taught by the CIA how to destroy and disorganise a society.  In the end he disorganized the Nigerian society step by step as outlined a bit by Odion in this article. The damage was deliberate and colossal.  Bambam

    Can you please tell me one particular thing Buhari has done that benefited twenty percent of Nigerians. Nigerian football team was also stranded in Atlanta because of no fund. Tell me if he denies us the joy of football which will capture 60 percent of Nigerians, tell me what he will do right?  08064532104

    With respect to the gruesome murder of Dele Giwa, the search for the perpetrators became elusive when the press zeroed in on the government as the culprit. If the late Dele Giwa was investigating a drug case, don’t you think that the drug cabal or cartel could have been responsible for the murder as such a crime was not beyond any drug cartel. In an investigation of a crime of that magnitude no possibility should be neglected. Dike, Esq: 08033072852

    Buhari too toppled  Shagari. Why are you not talking about (our) amiable leader? Do not fuel crisis for the north. Instigate Buhari more than this nothing untoward will happen. Happy northerners on the throne. We are born to rule forever.

    Bashir Mod: 07063013018

    “Without Remorse ” is the title of a novel I just finished. The process of Dismythologising the cult of hypocrisy masquerading as leadership epitomized by IBB has just begun. 08035916439

    Thank you very much for your piece.

    Godwin Alumuku. 08036130004

    Like you pointedly summarized that,”IBB’s eight-year reign set the nation on a ruinous course from which she is yet to recover”, the self-styled military president formalized corruption through ‘Egunje’ in public service, brought on board the politically empty new-breed politicians padding nation’s budget, seeking immunity for impunity and pension today, leaving the entrenched mess for PMB to clear.

    Elder L .O David; Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State: 08059096244

    May God bless you and give you more courage to tell the truth and write the truth. 08054550893

     

    Nigerians must be united in the crusade against corruption, bad leadership, ethnic/religious intolerance.

    Feyi Akeeb Kareem, Coordinator, CDHR&NAVC, Ogwashi-Ukwu,

    Delta State: 08098245620

    Excellent piece! I have always believe that IBB is the architect of institutional corruption in Nigeria. Every institutional vice can be traced to IBB and his reign.

    TrueFairGame