The Nation Newspaper

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  • CRS Super Highway and climate change debate

    While at the public presentation of the Environmental Impact Assessment EIA, for the Cross River Super Highway which held at the Channels View Hotel in Calabar on Wednesday last week, I saw a white guy, whose nationality I am not quite sure of arguing that the Cross River Super Highway should not be constructed because of carbon emissions and global warming and all that.

    But a quick search showed that, in 2013, world total carbon emission figures amounted to 35,669,000 metric tonnes.Out of this, China top the list after emitting 10,540,000 metric tonnes with average per capita of 7.6 while United States came second with 5,334,000 metric tonnes with 16.5 per capita.The European Union came third with 3,415,000 metric tonnes and 6.7, India is in the fourth position with, 2,341,000 metric tonnes and 1.8 per capita and Russia follows next with 1,766,000 metric tonnes and 12.4 per capita.In the sixth position is Japan which emitted 1,278,000 metric tonnes at 10.1 per capita and Germany in the seventh position with 767,000 metric tonnes at 9.3 per capita.

    Nigeria is not even on the top 30 list of global polluters talk less of Cross River State which still holds 50 percent of Nigeria’s remaining rain forest and Africa’s largest rain forest, but the world insists that we must preserve this forest to suck the pollution that we are not part of emitting.

    But at what cost really? Another question is….How did the West develop?

    The land area of Paris is 105.4sq/km, London is 1,570sq/km, and California is 423,970sq/km, while New York City area is 1,210sq/km.

    Atlanta is 342.9sq/km, Houston is 1,630sq/km, the industrial city of Guangzhou is 7,433sq/km, China’s capital, Beijing area is 16,410sq/km, Frankfurt is 248.3sq/km, and Istanbul area is 5,343sq/km, while Chicago is 606.1sq/km. The total area the superhighway will cover is 110sq/km.

    All these cities were developed after authorities cut down massive and large expanse of forests to develop the cities, industries, factories, roads, rails and other infrastructure that is now generating the pollution which the world wants the Cross River forest to suck up at the detriment of our own development.

    The Mexico banana farms and the USA wheat and corn farms came from felling forests. Terminal 5 Airport in UK was constructed on a Virgin National Park in spite of protests from civil society and environmental concern groups. In Switzerland and Germany, trees are fell to generate biomass energy and replanting follows.

    It’s important to note that capital spending, like the proposed super highway, creates an asset, and this gives a return over time in the form of growth.

    I agree like most economists have argued that infrastructural projects such as rail and roads create jobs, generate taxes and stimulate further spending. This is the economic multiplier effect that capital spending brings.

    Therefore, while an increase in public spending may create a deficit in the short term, the resultant increase in productivity will lead to a higher rate of economic growth and greater tax revenues.

    According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), for every one billion US dollars invested in infrastructure in developing economies, between 49,000 and 110,000 jobs are created.”

    I clearly understand that if forests are destroyed or degraded, large amounts of gases that cause global warming are released into the atmosphere but I don’t see how creating a very vital road, like the superhighway proposed by Governor Ayade, through our forest and re-afforesting same will so irreparably destroy or degrade the forest, if that did not happen elsewhere when they were developing their own cities.

    The government has said that 275,000 trees will be felled and 5,000,000 will be planted. The Cross River Green Police was created with that in mind and 1,500 cadets have been inaugurated.

    While the West through pittances called donor funding, is promoting this attempt to stall development in the name of conservation, in Third World nations like Nigeria, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Zambia, there is no corresponding effort to curb the activities of the giant polluters. Even Trump is promising not to respect the Paris agreement on emission control if he eventually becomes US President.

    My advocacy, rather than join those who say they don’t want the road is to say that the Cross River State government should pay heed to genuine concerns that are being raised by communities bestriding the route, activists, and lingering issues of compensation for those who will be losing land, and other related matters should be diligently attended to so that work can restart on the super highway project.

    For me I have chosen to support the super highway project and I will do the little I can and God willing, that road will someday become a reality to the good of northern Cross River, the entire state and Nigeria as a whole.

    For those who say the project cannot be done, let me end this article with a quote from Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum – The King of Dubai in chapter 2 of his celebrated book: MY VISION: Challenges In The Race For Excellence:”Many years ago, some merchants came to me and asked me to approach my father, Sheikh Rashid, on their behalf, and discuss the large port he was planning at Jebel Ali. Since the economy was in recession and we already had a large harbour at Port Rashid that met their needs, they thought the emirate did not need a new larger harbour.

    “I felt, I should convey the message and shortly after went at dawn to the Jebel Ali area, where I knew I would find my father. He was standing on top of a small hill examining the site. I passed on the message and waited for his reply. He looked at me intently and said nothing, then he fumbled with the ‘midwakh’ he was holding between his fingers. After a few moments, he looked at me again and then to the ground saying nothing.

    “I dared not ask him the same question again and waited until he had finished his examination and asked me to drive him home. Once we took off and after relaxing his feet against the corner of the door as usual, he said, “Listen my son, I never answered your question because I did not want the engineers to hear. But I can tell you that the reason I am building this port now is because there will come a time when you will not be able to afford to do so.”

    “Before my father conceived and implemented this project, nobody had thought of executing one of such gigantic proportions. Even now, I have no simple explanation as to how the idea occurred to him, but if I had to explain it in one word, I would use the word, ‘vision’.

    “In his great wisdom, God gave each one of us a share of material possessions, capabilities and talents. Some people may aspire to little more than their daily earnings, while others have far greater vision.

    “Just like mature trees, capabilities and feelings have deep roots, if we do not know the roots of things or how to explain or define them, this does not mean they are rootless. An enlightened leader is capable of developing a vision and using his imagination to perfect it.”

    Jalingo, an activist and social rights campaigner wrote from Lagos

     

  • Dogara: 365 days after

    Today, June 9 marks exactly one year since Bauchi-born Barrister YakubuDogara emerged as Speaker of the House of Representatives. In his acceptance speech on that day, Dogara made a solemn declaration that the House under his leadership “shall wage an unrelenting legislative war on Nigeria’s problems”. He told his colleagues that it was now their responsibility to fashion out the legislative instruments that will lead to Nigeria’s renaissance, adding, “Let the word go forth from here that it shall not be legislative business as usual again in Nigeria.”

    Since then, the Speaker has kept to his words and moved on with the Consolidation Agenda by embarking on a series of innovations in the conduct of legislative activities of the Green Chamber.

    Today, the House of the Nigerian people is not only busy discharging its constitutional responsibilities to the people, but doing so with the utmost zeal and patriotism.

    By law, the parliament discharges its duties and responsibilities through bills and resolutions which are the major yardsticks of assessing the performance of the legislature. Since bills, motions and resolutions are the basis of grading how well a parliament has performed or not; then one can say, without sounding immodest, that the House under Dogara has scored 100 percent.

    The 8th House set many firsts, with an unprecedented record of passage of legislations that have begun to change the pace of things in the country.

    Instructively, Dogara unveiled his legislative agenda even before he was elected and tabled same to his colleagues immediately after their inauguration; subjected it to debate before adoption by the whole House. Thereafter, the speaker, with a speed of light embarked on a review of obsolete and outdated laws by setting up a committee of experts which is still working but nevertheless has turned in  about 200 bills, while hundreds more are in the offing.

    The panel which comprises of legal luminaries working for months have recommended scores of bills for consideration with the aim of cleaning Nigeria’s statute books adopted from Britain under the Statutes of General Application in force in England as atJanuary 1, 1900.

    In December, the House set record by passing for first reading, 130 bills and on May 26, 19 bills were considered and passed under the watchful eyes of the Speaker who sat from 11am to 5pm on floor. The same thing happened on June 1, and June 2 with 25 more lawspassed and in all during which the speaker sat while the bills were considered and passed.

    It should be noted that the 7th Assembly rated high in terms of bills passage, 700 bills were presented in four years whereas in just one session, about 600 bills of high quality were presented in the current assembly for consideration, most of which were from the recommendation of the Statutes Reform committee constituted by the Speaker.

    Now, almost 80 of those bills, representing about 18 percent of the 600, have been effectively passed by the House as at the time of penning this article thereby setting another record in itself.

    On motions and resolutions, as at the last sitting in May, the House had considered 600 motions. Indeed, there can be no better way to perform than this. This is even so when the intent of the bills and motion are in tandem with the yearnings of the Nigerian people for a better life.

    Dogara also became the first Speaker, since return to democracy in 1999, to have stepped down from his exalted seat to sponsor a motion on the urgent need for rehabilitation, resettlement and recovery of the violence ravaged north-east region.He didn’t stop at that, in December, the Speaker again, stepped down to the floor to lead debate on a bill he personally sponsored, titled “The North East Development Commission Establishment Bill” that will soon be passed into law.

    Dogara didn’t restrict or limit his intervention on North-east to the hallowed Green Chambers of House, but has been championing the cause of the region and its people by embarking on visits to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs’) camps across the country and has also been advocating for the convocation of international donor conference to rebuild the region.

    In keeping with his agenda, in May, Dogara’s House embarked on sectoral debates on different aspects of the Nigerian economy with the aim of assessing how far Nigeria has gone with diversifying the economy and to know if the legislature needs to make any law or laws that will support and enhance the project for the overall benefit of Nigerians.

    Every appearance made by the ministers in the epoch-making session was beamed live on national television with ministers taking questions from lawmakers and putting Nigerians in the know of what they have been doing to diversify the economy in the face of dwindling oil revenue.

    In addition, a special session on the deregulation of the downstream sector and other changes in the petroleum industry was also held by the House where the lawmakers sought to know the nitty-gritty of the removal and how it will benefit the Nigerian people.

    As a follow up to the sectoral debates, a date has been proposed for members to debate the submission of the ministers before passing their recommendations to the executive.

    In yet another unprecedented move and in compliance with the 8th Assembly Legislative Agenda, Dogara, introduced electronic voting system and e-parliament in the House. It is worthy of note that, since 1999, legislation and resolutions were passed using ”voice vote” and efforts made by previous assemblies to change that couldn’t come to fruition.

    With the new system in place, records of members’ punctuality and voting patterns can easily be accessed by constituents and members of the public which is in tandem with Dogara’s commitment to #opennass.

    Other initiatives that will be introduced include the establishment and equipping of a Parliamentary Information Centre where information and documents of the National Assembly will be made available in a deliberate effort to further increase citizens’ access to the legislature and solve the problem of public access to authentic documents of parliament.

    As he rightly reminded his colleagues exactly one year ago that, members of the House are heirs to a long tradition where debates are robustly undertaken, where radicalism flows as an institutional prerogative; the House under Dogara has truly demonstrated that it is the bulwark for the defence of the rights and privileges of the common man, the champion of the rights of the weak and poor and anchor for the wellbeing of the Nigerian people.

    The responsibility now lies with the executive to compliment the giant stride by the 8th House by implementing resolutions and interventions but more especially the President to sign the bills into law so as not to repeat the mistakes of the last administration when former President Goodluck Jonathan refused to assent to scores of bills forwarded him while his ministers went public describing parliamentary resolutions as “mere expression of opinion”.

     

    • Hassan is Special Adviser (Media & Public Affairs) to the Speaker.

  • The coming of 4th Mainland Bridge

    Infrastructure development is critical to achieving human capital development in any society. The economic impact that infrastructure improvement has on nation building cannot be over-emphasised. Considering that about 85 percent of the people in the world reside in the developing world and transition economies, and with 67 percent of that population below age 35, the need for infrastructure development to support enduring development remains a matter of major concern for all nations of the world.

    Across the world, provision of crucial services is still far below required expectation as almost 1.6 billion people have no access to power, 1.2 billion people lack access to safe and potable drinking water while 2.4 billion are faced with the challenge of insufficient medical facilities. Ironically, the infrastructure’s budget of many developing countries is dwindling.

    Without a doubt, the growth of any country’s economy hugely depends on the status of its infrastructure. The dearth of needed infrastructure in a given society places serious limitation on human capital development.  It is in view of its crucial role to achieving rapid economic growth that advanced nations of the world commit huge investment to infrastructural development. J.F. Kennedy, a former President of the United States once put the relationship between infrastructure development and economic prosperity into a proper perspective when he affirmed that: “America has good roads, not because America is rich, but America is rich because it has good roads”.

    Essentially, the prosperity of a nation depends on the state of its infrastructure. From the ancient Roman Empire to the super economic powers of the 21st century, it has been clearly demonstrated that no nation can accomplish true greatness without evolving pragmatic strategies for long-term infrastructure development.

    According to the World Bank, every 1% of government funds spent on infrastructure leads to an equivalent 1% increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which invariably means that there is a correlation between any meaningful inputs in infrastructure development which reflects on economic growth, indices, hence the value of infrastructure cannot be underplayed.

    It is in view of the centrality of infrastructure development to the advancement of socio-economic course of the society that the Ambode administration in Lagos State, since its inauguration in May, 2015, has been at the forefront of infrastructure regeneration and development in the state. That Lagos has become one massive construction site, of late, is not in doubt. Presently, the list of concluded and on-going infrastructure development projects in the state is endless. Today, in Lagos, new blocks of classrooms are springing up in public schools, new roads and bridges are being constructed and commissioned while existing ones are being re-habilitated at different locations with quality delivery being the watchword.

    Similarly, the Light up Lagos Project has continued to improve safety for drivers, commuters, riders and pedestrians, thereby ensuring they don’t suffer from decreased visibility at nights.

    In a bid to enhance service delivery of the BRT scheme, the Ambode administration equally launched over 400 air-conditioned buses on the ever busy Ikorodu road from Ikorodu roundabout to CMS. It is now the in-thing for residents of this area to board these buses which now make their journey more predictable. The proposed Oshodi Transport Interchange is another project aimed at improving the face of public transportation in the state.

    In-spite of the numerous strides of the Ambode administration in infrastructure improvement, perhaps the most audacious of the administration’s infrastructure initiatives thus far is the proposed construction of the 4th Mainland Bridge.

    At a brief state event, the Lagos State Government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set in motion the construction of the 38km bridge. With that singular act, Lagos is set to achieve a landmark feat in its 50 years of existence. The bridge, which is principally meant to address the perennial Lagos traffic gridlock concern, is equally geared towards socio-economic growth in the state. A Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative to be financed by Africa Finance Corporation, Access Bank and other private investor at a cost of N844billion, the project is to be delivered in three years.

    The bridge is to be made up of eight interchanges to facilitate effective interconnectivity between different parts of the state. It would be a four-lane dual carriageway with each comprising three lanes and two meters hard shoulder on each side. It will be constructed with a generous median to allow for both future carriageway expansion and light rail facility.

    More importantly, the bridge will provide the requisite transportation support to the rapidly developing Eti-Osa – Lekki – Epe corridor of the state. This is evident in the proposed alignment of the bridge which will pass through Lekki, Langbasa and Baiyeku towns along the shoreline of the Lagos Lagoon estuaries, further running through Igbogbo River Basin and crossing the Lagos Lagoon estuaries to Itamaga Area in Ikorodu. The alignment will also cross through the Itoikin road and the Ikorodu – Sagamu Road to connect Isawo inward Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at Ojodu Berger axis. The bridge, among others, would accommodate cyclists, pedestrians, two service areas as well as additional pedestrian crossing.

    Considering Lagos phenomenal population growth rate, it is obvious that if the recurrent Lagos traffic gridlock is to be tackled headlong, something more daring must be done. This has made the necessity of a 4th Mainland Bridge that will serve as an alternative route to the eastern axis and decongest traffic in the state a compelling one.

    Undoubtedly, vast gain would stem from the project as it is particularly anticipated to make life more comfortable for Lagosians. According to Governor Ambode, the significance of the bridge will be entirely treasured when it is imagined what the Lagos of today would have looked like without the 3rd Mainland Bridge.

    Aside improving the quality of life of the people, the bridge would also be a big asset that would be handed to the Lagos State Government at the end of the concession arrangement. The significant and value of the proposed construction lies in its capacity to rapidly decongest the traffic within Lekki Corridor and redistribute traffic towards Lagos Mainland which serves to meet increased future road infrastructure demands.

    For any government that worth its salt, particularly in developing countries, infrastructure development remains crucial to attaining growth across all sectors. This explains why the Lagos State government is continuously thinking and working to improve infrastructure across the state.

     

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.
  • Aisha Buhari: Soaring above detractors

    Aisha Buhari: Soaring above detractors

    Angula Jessica

    It must take more than a stroke of luck and tremendous goodwill for none of the mud thrown at Mrs. Aisha Buhari, wife of the President, not to stick. Only an impeccable character anchored on sound moral value would place someone with her position above the reach of the hands eagerly clutching to tear her down.

    Mrs Buhari’s position opens her to attacks, it is to be expected. The others before her, who used the title of “First Lady” anyway, were easily sucked in by the leeches of our political sphere. They were drawn into the circle of unbridled acquisition by these same persons who later used that same fact as the shackles that ensured compliance from women who had direct access to the leaders of Africa’s most populous nation. What followed for each of these wives were compromised litanies of stories that made Presidents look bad using wives as their leverage.

    For a woman whose husband rode into power on the strength of his abhorrence of corruption, the demand for Mrs. Buhari to be above board was unequivocal. Thankfully, she has not disappointed since Mr. President entered office. While this should be something that should be commended, it only made those who are desperate to see her falter intensify and proliferate the traps they are setting for the woman.

    They actually didn’t give Mrs. Buhari any breather, as the first salvo was fired right from the day of inauguration. The then N25,750 Cartier watch she wore to stand by her husband at the event was trumpeted as being worth N10million. The hullaballoo was apparently a barb aimed at her husband, Mr. President’s person in the attempt to accuse him of double standard and discredit the austere lifestyle that endeared him to Nigerians. Painfully, the plot to continually attempt discredit President Muhammadu Buhari’s person and government has not stopped but has only taken on a stridency that is as pedestal as it is illogical.

    Since the wrist watch hubbub, all other attempts made to raise doubts about the wife of the President have commonalities. They are usually targeted at raising dissent in the populace with the consequence that the stories whipped up to draw public ire against her are often not researched, which makes them defy logic and common sense. The stories are usually anchored by groups that fizzle out ,once their so call facts fall flat upon the slightest interrogation. Such campaign of calumny mostly ran in the online media where political opponents that are still smarting can hide behind anonymity to spew bile.

    The most recent being the lame bid to accuse her of brokering a N1.5billion bribe for members of the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal. There is no point dissecting the baseless allegation since its shallowness is self evident. What it proved was that detractors continue to see Mr. President’s family as the point to attack in the plot to weaken the anti-corruption fight.

    However, instead of being the weak link that opponents expected, Mrs. Buhari has proven that “Behind every successful man, there is a strong, wise and hardworking woman.” For instance she has been source of succour to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Boko Haram crisis with donation of relief materials to ease their hardship. (Even the good gesture of donations was the subject of a twisted misinformation campaign). Her goodwill extends also to orphanages where she has given the sense of belonging.  Beyond distributing relief materials, Mrs. Buhari has taken the additional steps to ensure her assistance to IDPs is sustained. Her passion for Boko Haram victims is such that she donated the proceeds of the launch of her book, “Essentials of Beauty Therapy” to parents of the abducted Chibok girls and murdered Buni Yadi boys.

    Mrs. Buhari’s involvement in healthcare has proven useful through the ‘Future Assured Initiative’ in Nasarawa state that caters for women and children with various health challenges. She has equally done advocacy by canvassing collective action on tuberculosis.

    When it comes to wives of presidents, Nigeria has never had it this good. Here is a wife of the President that is making impacts without being intrusive in the national political space. This is why those who think using Mr. President’s spouse as an attack spot must have a rethink. True, they are fighting a lost battle but it is more than that. While there is no constitutional provision for Mrs. Buhari’s role, as was the case with her predecessor, there is nevertheless the need to accord her all the respect befitting the wife of our number one citizen. More than her predecessors, she has brought class to being the spouse of the President and she has proven that it is possible to be in that lofty height and still be in touch with the everyday woman.

    This is the Mrs. Buhari I see and not the victim of political machinations that some want her to be. Like an eagle, she soars above the storm that opponents stir up for her. Apparently, all efforts to intimidate, compromise or demonize her only make her excel better.

     

    Angula,is an Oil and Gas expert based in the United Kingdom.

  • Obasanjo’s criticism of Justice Idris

    Obasanjo’s criticism of Justice Idris

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently launched a stinging attack on the authority of the Federal High Court and the competence of Justice Mohammed Baba Idris after the judge ruled that details on the spending of recovered stolen public funds under Obasanjo’s government between May 1999 and May 2007 should be widely published including on a dedicated website.

    Justice Idris’ judgment, which followed a Freedom of Information suit brought by Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), also called for publication of records of spending of recovered funds under the governments of former president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and former president Goodluck Jonathan.

    Reacting to the judgment, Obasanjo reportedly said: “They said the money recovered from Abacha, I should account for it. What stupidity! The man who asked for it, the man who gave the judgement or who answered them are all stupid, with due respect. I don’t keep account, all Abacha loots were sent to Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and every bit of it was reported to Minister of Finance. My job was to write where we can get help to recover the money. Every penny that comes out of it went to CBN, so if they want to know what happened to the money, they should call CBN governor or call the Minister of Finance. But again, it shows ignorance, total ignorance, which is lacking and you wonder, are these people educated? They can also approach the man who helped us in recovering process to give the list of money recovered and where he took it.”

    This statement, coming from a former president, flies in the face of leadership by example and can only help to frustrate the objective of the Freedom of Information Act, and by extension, undermine the authority of the country’s judiciary and erode the rule of law.

    Judges are not infallible but there’s nothing stupid in Justice Idris insisting on transparency and accountability of leaders who once held a position of trust and control over the public treasury. Judges don’t act or give judgments according to their personal whims and fancies: they apply the laws as they find them.

    Although judges may sometimes fail to live up to the ideal – and the present is not a case of such failure – the principle should be generally understood and respected that judges would draw conclusions from the evidence before them in accordance with legal precedent, ordinary norms of legal reasoning, and established constitutional and legal principles.

    If judges have to decide cases on the basis of what politicians or someone else wanted the law or the result to be, the very principle of independence of the judiciary would be forfeited. While it’s within Obasanjo’s right to disagree with the judgment or even criticise it, calling Justice Idris “stupid and ignorant” simply for doing his job amounts to inappropriate political criticism as it threatens the judge’s independence and integrity.

    It’s unfair to see individual judges as ‘fair game’ because they cannot publicly defend themselves against inappropriate criticism.

    But Obasanjo’s attempt to browbeat Justice Idris simply for upholding the Freedom of Information Act is hardly surprising especially given that he ignored wise counsel to sign the Bill into law during his time in government.

    What is the point of “government of, by, and for the people” if opinion leaders and former presidents like Obasanjo by words or deed seem to want to dodge responsibility for their action or inaction while in office by implicitly promoting policies of secrecy?

    Imagine if the disclosures of corruption, compendiously known as Dazukigate, which weakened the ability of the country’s military to fight and defeat Boko Haram, and debased institutions of governance, have remained a secret.

    If anything is to be learned from the country’s current experience with disclosures of corruption among high-ranking government officials, politicians and the military, it’s that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari must open public affairs, including regarding details on spending of recovered funds under governments since the return of democracy in 1999, to public scrutiny.

    Non-disclosure of Dazukigate would have deprived the Nigerian people of a much-needed opportunity to know what former President Goodluck Jonathan was doing while in office, and to cleanse some level of government.

    Justice Idris’ judgment is without doubt a great victory for transparency and accountability in the country. Thanks to Justice Idris, Nigerians will now be able to know exactly how recovered stolen funds were spent including under Obasanjo’s government. They will be able to find out if recovered funds were appropriately spent on real projects, mismanaged or re-stolen.

    The judgment recognizes that corruption is never flaunted in the open and it’s invariably practiced through secrecy; secrecy found in every level of government from local governments to Aso Rock Villa and National Assembly.

    It buttresses the point that openness promotes the appearance of fairness and enhances public confidence in the integrity of government action. Openness serves as a check against incompetence, venality, or bias; and promotes the constitutional values of encouraging elected officials to act in the public interest. This in turn can stimulate more knowledgeable public consideration of transparency, accountability and human rights issues and perhaps even encourage individual citizens to come forward with constructive suggestions.

    Thus, by ordering publication on a dedicated website of projects on which recovered funds were spent by the governments of former presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan for inspection by the citizenry, Justice Idris has enhanced the status of the Freedom of Information Act as a veritable legal framework of protection against governmental deception and arbitrariness.

    Without the disclosures ordered by Justice Idris, high-level official corruption will continue to flourish with official action and with almost absolute impunity. And Nigerians will continue to be denied effective enjoyment of their human rights if they don’t know what their leaders and government are doing and unable to hold them to account.

    Nigerians do not demand infallibility from their leaders and institutions, but it’s difficult to accept the proposition that a judge granting Nigerians the right to know what their leaders and government are doing is “stupid and ignorant.” Nigerians indeed have a right to compel their public officials particularly the high-ranking among them like Obasanjo to keep the avenues of information open so the public can know and evaluate their work, accomplishments and derelictions regardless of whether they are in or out of office.

    How Buhari responds to Justice Idris’ judgment will without question be a significant aspect of what defines his anti-corruption agenda.

    One immediate step for Buhari to take is to instruct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Accountant General of the Federation and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria to put in place mechanisms for the full and effective enforcement and implementation of the judgment by Justice Idris.

     

    • Olaniyan, is Legal Adviser, International Secretariat of Amnesty International, London.
  • Five years of Amosun

    Five years of Amosun

    Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, the Alake and the Paramount ruler of Egbaland, is not a man given to frivolities. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly either. As an ex-serviceman, he still retains that Spartan discipline which is a hallmark of the military. Oba Gbadebo stunned participants of the National Defence College, Course 23, Group 3 who had paid him a visit in his palace sometimes in 2014 that “‘when this town was to be founded in 1830 by Egbas, … Ifa oracle told them that when you have the 10th Alake, Abeokuta will change. So when I got here in 2005 as the 10th Alake, in the first six years, nothing changed and I almost disbelieved the Oracle; not knowing that in 2011, a government will come and put into practice what was foretold by the Oracle….”

    Oba Gbadebo is in a vintage position to know. Historically, he is a custodian of contemporary history and tradition. Politically, he was almost dethroned for daring to advise the immediate past state government to uplift the road infrastructure of the state capital.

    The monarch has good reasons to the effusive. Abeokuta is now a new city away from the massive rustic village it was in the very recent past. Indeed, many cities in the state have experienced transformation never seen in the history of the 40 year old state.

    Although Governor Ibikunle Amosun inherited huge economic and social deficit on assumption of office in 2011, he was undaunted. He soldiered on with uncommon zest erecting policies and programmes aimed at positioning Ogun State among the elite states in Nigeria.

    He came with a blueprint of where he wants the state to be. Amosun is always quick to tell his audience that “My plan is to make Ogun state what New Jersey is to New York (in USA). We intend to exploit our proximity to Lagos to our advantage”.

    Although he might not have fully attained the goal, Ogun is well on course and the citizenry are reaping the benefits. It was BusinessDay newspaper that first announced the new status of the state. The newspaper declared Ogun State as the fastest-growing economy and first choice for industrialists and entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The state won an award to that effect.

    To the newspaper, Ogun State, won the award “because it has the highest number of businesses established in its domain and that the government has made the environment more attractive to investors. Ogun also has the highest Gross Domestic Product in the last one year…”

    ‘SecurityWatch’ magazine followed suit. It named Amosun as the most security conscious governor in West Africa.

    If those were national and regional recognitions, the report of the World Bank, ‘Doing Business in Nigeria 2014’, rates Ogun as one of the top five states in Nigeria “that made the biggest strides towards the national frontier of good practices”! The biennial report was released in October 2014.

    This iconic feat by the government can be better appreciated when juxtaposed with the situation of the state before the advent of Amosun. The World Bank, in its 2008 and 2010 reports had ranked Ogun State among the lowest overall performing states in Nigeria in terms of ease of doing business. Put bluntly, doing business in Ogun State that time was a high-risk venture!

    But Amosun confined that to history. According to the World Bank, “thanks to concerted effort, Ogun improved on three of the four ‘Doing Business’ indicators benchmarked.”  The report observe further that in Ogun State, “The construction permitting system was radically overhauled, with the state government …decentralising the approval system and set up a new committee monitoring delays. “Building permit applications and payments can now be made simultaneously in district offices. Private professionals issue environmental-impact assessments in accordance with the conditions and templates set out in a framework agreement.

    “The digitalisation of the Property Records by the state Bureau of Lands also introduces a refreshing edge into property acquisition and documentation in the state. The effect was the ‘Home Ownership Charter’ which, apart from the speed of availability of property document, slashed the fee payable on land titles by as much as 70 percent”, the report noted.

    But Ogun state didn’t just move from zero to hero overnight. It was the fallout of series of strategic and deliberate actions. For instance, before the advent of Governor Amosun, security was a big headache. Policemen were largely incapacitated by lack of requisite equipment and political will to deal with criminality.

    But the governor changed all that. He invested heavily in security equipment in a manner never seen in the history of Nigeria. In one fell swoop, the state government imported 14 high-grade Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) for the police. The governor also bought 1000 AK-47 rifles, two million rounds of ammunition, 500 bullet proof vests, 500 bullet proof helmets as well as 600 patrol vans fitted with communication gadgets to ensure mobility and presence of security officers. The effect was that crime statistics in the state plummeted to the relief of residents as robbers flee the state.

    Political thuggery, occasioned by intolerance, also became history as the governor allows constructive criticism and liberalised the media space for dissenting voices.

    The era of ritual killings equally became history as the government consciously gave special attention to the various dark spots and relaxation centres across the state for policing.

    Suddenly, Ogun state, once notorious for its high crime rate, became one of the most secured states in Nigeria. The new security status encouraged Investors to view the state as investors’ preferred destination.

    Indeed, former President Jonathan, during his 2015 re-election campaign in Abeokuta confirmed that 56 new firms have berth in Ogun state within the first four years of the Amosun government. The figure has since risen to 88.

    Indeed, security remains the biggest attainment of the Amosun government. Residents now sleep with two-eyes closed as they realised that the government and security outfits have bandits in check.

    Long before the national economic downturn, Amosun had prioritised the rebuilding of the finances of the state. He introduced prudence into public financing and accounting system. He blocked leakages in the state financial system and put his experience as an accountant to bear as he unfurled an innovative financial re-engineering plan. He grew the Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state from the paltry N730m he inherited to over N5bn. He also slashed salaries and allowances of political office holders to free fund for developmental projects.

    Interestingly, the financial re-engineering has ensured that the state remains insulated from the harsh economic vagaries currently ravaging the country.

    Expectedly, the surge in the income the state afforded the government to embark on an ambitious urban renewal programme where 20 roads and 12 bridges situated across the three senatorial districts, were constructed. The Urban Renewal programme is perhaps one sector where the Ogun government has drawn most applauds as alluded to by Oba Gbadebo.

    The agriculture sector also witnessed remarkable turnaround. In a single intervention, 86 pieces of multi-million naira land clearing and preparation equipment were launched by the governor.

    To further prove that the state is serious with the idea of reclaiming its glory in the agriculture sector, the state government enthroned a policy where investors-local or foreign, interested in agriculture will only need to pay 20 percent of the cost of agriculture land.

     

    • Balogun, is a media aide of Governor Amosun.
  • Kachikwu and burden of deregulation

    Kachikwu and burden of deregulation

    Every administration of the federal government since 1999 has made a hazard at reforming the country’s petroleum sector with the same objective of making it meet the dual target of satisfying internal fuel demand and fetch optimum foreign exchange (forex) income for the country.

    However, whereas the role of upstream petroleum sector in earning the bulk of the nation’s forex might carry the greater scope of Nigeria’s economic burden, the downstream petroleum industry hosts the prime templates for government’s performance appraisal given the role of fuel in powering social and economic activities in-country.

    Thus, providing adequate and affordable fuel supply for the country’s citizens has remained the most prized social benefit with which the petroleum sector is associated. And sustaining this benefit has been the toughest challenge recent administrations of the federal government have inherited.

    Decades of experience have shown that the good intention of running costly domestic fuel subsidy programme has created unmanageable market distortions that incubated corrupt and sharp market practices, encouraged cross-border smuggling of subsidized products, created supply gaps, and ultimately sparked riots and loss of lives.

    Each regime of the government had inevitably tried to adjust the internal fuel price against prevailing economic realities but none has been bold to bite the bullet like the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which is faced with the task of articulating decisive reform measures that must end the cycle of waste in the petroleum sector.

    The bold step of the current government is supported by solid empirical premises. The Buhari-led government came into office at a period of acute fuel scarcity arising from falling capacity of the state to meet the cash call from fuel importers in the country. For months, the new government was saddled with the crisis of restoring normalcy in the economy which suffered the deep shock from acute fuel supply gaps that grounded every sector of the economy: aviation, road transportation, commerce, freight forwarding and haulage, small and medium enterprises, banking operations et cetera.

    The fuel subsidy debt overhang of nearly N500 billion inherited by the new government obviously formed a big sink hole in the treasury at a time flow of income from upstream end of the petroleum industry was thinning down on accounts of declining production and falling oil prices. Thus, while the nation’s estimated daily average fuel demand was rising proportionately with the speed of economic growth, and the subsidy bill associated with high volume importation continued to escalate, federal forex income took a dive as crude oil prices plunged from over $100 per barrel to less than $40 per barrel.

    Faced with acute forex crunch, meeting the high forex demand from fuel importers became increasingly unsustainable, forcing the government to quickly seek ways of cutting the nation’s volume of imports.

    Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had explained that the nation’s three refineries were quickly revived to drastically displace large volume of imported petroleum products to meet multiple economic objectives creating full commercial values from the plants, weeding out importation costs from petroleum products and cutting demand pressure on the country’s lean forex reserves.

    However, the cost savings and other benefits associated with import replacement from the local refineries are as much as the capacity of the plants. At full production capacity, the refineries with total nameplate for 445,000 barrels per day can only pump out some 18 million litres of white petroleum products. Average national peak demand is estimated at 32 million litres per day.

    Full resolution of the entire crises, according to eminent economist, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, is to lay basis for sustainable local production of the country’s total daily fuel demand to weed out all the costs associated with importation. These costs, according to him, constitute great part of the disputed subsidy bills.

    But investors point at any level of subsidy as major threat to cost recovery. Major multinational oil firms in the country had argued strongly against President Olusegun Obasanjo’s mandate on them to refine 50 percent of their production in-country on the basis that the domestic market was not liberalized for fair competition.

    Previous governments, beginning with former President Obasanjo had driven limited or partial deregulation to the extent that all petroleum products in the market except petrol were deregulated prior to 2015. It was on the basis of the substantial progress at liberalising the fuel market that investors like Dangote group, Orient Petroleum and Refining Company Limited, Amakpe Refinery, Integrated Oil and Gas Limited and Niger Delta Petroleum Resources all initiated local refineries.

    To encourage more investors and guarantee commerciality of the investments, Kachikwu had taken the bold step to finish the last lap of the market liberalization process by removing the only remaining price cap on petrol. Before him, previous ministers had removed price caps on aviation turbine kerosene (ATK) also called Jet A-1, household kerosene (HHK), dual purpose kerosene (DPK), automotive gas oil (AGO) also called diesel, low pour fuel oil (LPFO) also called fuel oil, base oil and other refinery products.

    Thus the role of Kachikwu in the entire deregulation process can only be interpreted as conclusion of a process he inherited in his function as a key driver of a government economic reform process.  And by completing the deregulation process, the minister has enhanced the capacity of the government to meet its social service obligations to the teeming population.

    Decades of subsidy regime had suppressed government’s capacity to meet other social service and infrastructure development obligations to the people. Until now, fuel subsidy had retained the highest single fund allocation in the nation’s annual budgets, weakening government’s capacity to attain appreciable level of performance even in the under-funded sectors.

    Despite the huge funds pumped into subsidy in the past, the objectives were hardly met as the prescribed prices were only limited to most urban centres in Lagos and Abuja areas only.

    Executive Chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho had argued that fuel subsidy actually widened the gap between the rich and the poor, pointing out that the subsidy regime provided cheap fuel for rich men with large fleet of cars while the poor that use public transportation systems hardly benefited from it.

    Former Secretary of the Commonwealth of States, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, had during an investment forum in Lagos declared that the Nigeria’s continued reliance on foreign refineries for our domestic fuel needs defies logic.

    According to him, it is an unacceptable paradox for major crude oil exporting country to also be a major refined products importing country. He noted that the best step for the country is to lay the basis for investment in local refining.

    Also, former chairman of Neimeth International, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, stated at a business mentoring programme in Lagos that the acute refinery capacity gaps in the country presents commercial opportunities to investors. He called on government to level the playing ground to enable businessmen unleash their creative geniuses in competitions that would ultimately drive down pump prices of petrol.

    It is therefore expected that the deregulation of the downstream petroleum market would bolster investors’ confidence in the domestic refining while the resulting boost in capacity will ultimately eliminate importation and all the associated costs that currently keep pump price at N145 per litre.

    It is envisaged that when import associated costs comprising freight, insurance, demurrage, port charges, jetty charges and sundry fees are wiped from the pricing templates, rising internal competition in the domestic market will naturally find a level for petrol below N100 per litre.

     

  • One year of Buhari presidency

    One year of Buhari presidency

    Whose fault is it that the government of President Muhammadu Buhariis increasingly being cast negatively, despite his best efforts to bring sanity to our national ethic in the past one year? Could it be that the majority of our political and economic elites, within and outside the parties, really want Buhari to fail, so that the nation would continue on the usual trajectory of acrimonious movements without any progress? Or could it be that the enemy is within, such that Buhari and his trusted aides, in an effort to be in charge of the presidential project, are inadvertently derailing his presidency?

    While it may be difficult to place a firm handle on what is exactly demystifying PMB within his first year in office, except the obvious national economic crisis, I guess that even the most ardent supporter of the Buhari presidency would agree that the din of negative vibes spewing across the country is increasingly overwhelming the echo of achievements the regime may have accomplished in the past one year. For instance, it is very strange that despite the significant and unprecedented effort to expose and recover our common resources from those who flagrantly abused their public office, many Nigerians act as if that achievement is of little import.

    Perhaps, it is the common saying that a hungry man is an angry man that is at play in the assessment of the Buhari presidency in the past one year. For indeed, Nigerians are very hungry and any discussion outside the realm of the economy do not resonate with many. While this column had joined others to raise the alarm earlier than now about the economic challenges faced by Nigerians, particularly since the Buhari presidency started the tortuous journey to bring sanity into our national life, I do not agree, as many prefer to say, that the Buhhari presidency has failed.

    Without doubt, the Buhari presidency urgently needs to change tact with regards to managing the national economy. Perhaps, it is time for the president to cast his net further afield, in search of those who have the competence to manage the national economy. Part of the game plan should include creating clusters of economic activities across the geopolitical zones. Also, as presently constituted, some parts of the country, particularly the South-east and South-south, feel alienated from the Buhari presidency. The mistrust may be mutual, for while the zones did not predominantly vote for the president, the president in turn has neglected them, substantially in key appointments.

    The president would have been able to tell them to go to hell, as many had suggested at the beginning of this presidency, but for the grave challenges that has come with it. First, is the resurgence of the so-called Niger Delta Avengers, who is taking advantage of the disaffection in the Niger Delta to wreck more havoc to an economy that is already crawling. Of course, those urging the president to crush the criminals fail to see the correlation between crushing the criminals and his first budget, with the dwindling oil income, even as negotiating with them, may give away a huge chunk of the budget to placate the criminals. A case of two evils. Of course, ignoring the South-east has also thrown up a new wave of separatist movement for Biafra with all the security challenges for an already overstretched national security apparatchik.

    As if all that is dangerous has aggregated in Nigeria, the support of the South-west and the North-central for the Buhari presidency is increasingly getting tenuous with the zones roiling in the rage of meddlesome cattle herdsmen, who instead of bringing succour to their kinsman’s presidency, have foolishly opted to exacerbate an already troubled presidency. Even more worrisome is that the South-west power elite, which travelled on the unchartered course of aligning with the north, to berth the Buhari presidency, now appear to be in a quandary, with what is obviously a wrong prescription for our troubled economy.

    But regardless of its many challenges, the Buhari presidency has the needed moral clout to stir up a new Nigeria. The real challenge is how to debrief the retired General from his old economic prescriptions and convince him on a modern trajectory for a national rebirth. If that can happen, PMB has the required single-mindedness to forge a new nation from the disparate nation-states and divergent forces that has held us down. But, part of the learning curve should be the decentralization of the economy. For instance, the so-called national grid is a minus. The same with so many other unified misadventures.

    Yet, without a conscious change in our national ethic, particularly as it concerns the public reaction to the variants of abuses of our national patrimony; our country would not likely make the needed progress. Surprisingly, even when glaringly, the abuse of public power is at the root of many of our failures; for instance, the obvious rise in insurgency, while the misuse of the funds earmarked for arms lasted, many educated Nigerians talk glibly, and argue as if the billions of naira stolen does not concern them. So, if this most recent scenario of abuse of resources and its direct impact does not make any meaning to many vocal Nigerians, how would they appreciate that the perennial bad roads, inefficient hospitals, poor electricity supply and the hordes of our national challenges are substantially the direct result of a malignant corruption, which PMB has avowedly set his mind to battle.

    Before the federal government through the ministry of information, released the interim report of the billions of recovered assets in naira, and several millions in pounds, dollars and other currencies last Saturday, I had listened to many Nigerians taunt and mock the Buhari presidency about the recovery efforts. For these group, the failure of the president to announce as promised, the recovered funds during his first May 29, democracy day, anniversary broadcast, was a more serious offence than the allegations against those put in custody of our public resources, but who rather took undue advantage of the trust and stole to their heart’s desire. Even as the news of the huge sums and assets so far recovered broke, some were still taunting the government for the ‘small recovery’; without any form of angst against the looters.

    With such a suspect national ethic, it is doubly difficult for the Buhari presidency to arouse the needed national consciousness to start the journey to building a modern society. Of note, the judgment of many Nigerians with respect to matters of state first get sieved through the prism of ethnicity, religious bigotry and now the gravest of the handicaps, economic adversity. So, when the Buhari presidency boisterously announces that over N2 trillion in cash and assets has been recovered from looters in his first year in office, the first reaction of many is to check the names of those involved. From their names, a sizeable chunk of the cynics would try to dismiss it as a witch-hunt, depending on the predominant group in the list, with ethnicity and religion as the lynch pad.

    And now added to the mix a doddering economy that is excruciatingly hurting many Nigerians. For now, the tribe of supporters for the Buhari presidency is decreasing.

     

  • Fashola’s cross

    The tragedy of a single story has been well documented from time immemorial. The folly of a single narrative that makes many men form strong opinions on issues, people and circumstances. However, a single narrative has sometimes defined men of principled character and indefatigable temerity. Such men are few in Nigeria. Very quickly, the few ones that threatened to cast themselves in such mould fade like comets on a dark night.

    When Babatunde Raji Fashola burst onto the scene, he was relatively unheralded. After receiving the blessings of the seasoned pro-democracy titan, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who had governed Lagos admirably for eight years, he was ushered into office. He wasted no time in proving the doubters wrong and leaving the critics embarrassed as he strode like a colossus reshaping, reorganizing and reinventing Lagos. Citizens far and near chorused the name of this revolutionary that took on the notorious ‘Oshodi’ by the scruff of the neck and revamped it before our very eyes. His colleagues looked on in envy, as he seemed to project the famed Midas touch. Indeed, the subtle clamour for a Fashola presidency rang loud along the citizens’ corridor. Our very own Lee kwuan Yew in the making.

    Moving forward, the All Progressive Congress won the May 2015 elections and the rest is history. Our dear Fashola emerged the Minister of Power, works and housing. I remember sitting in front of the television, pregnant with excitement, as his portfolio was reeled out by the President himself.  The despair of waiting so long for the ministerial list was immediately assuaged by this announcement. In spite of all these optimism I couldn’t help remembering the fanfare that had greeted the appointment of the great ‘Cicero’, Bola Ige. It was a tale of hope dashed and promises unkept.

    This appraisal may appear coming early in the day but its not.  It’s a well known saying that the early footsteps can predict the outcome of a journey.  No matter how hard or fast you run on the wrong track you are unlikely to reach your destination. I sincerely admire the man Fashola and I want him to succeed. At this critical juncture in our nation’s existence we need patriots and visionaries not just technocrats. According to Marcel Proust, the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. The current blueprint for power as its currently being implemented cannot work. The honourable minister claimed the power privatisation process is faulty. And I agree with him. The paradox now is why the Federal Government doesn’t immediately kick-start legislative and legal mechanisms to revisit the entire privatisation process. You can’t build something on nothing. It’s clear even to the most undiscerning eyes that the current distribution companies (DISCOs) and generation companies (GENCOs) lack the capacity to deliver. The sponsored advert in one of the nation’s daily that the GENCOs were helpless due to pipeline vandalism is the final straw. The farce called power sector privatisation is the most ridiculous I have ever heard of. You literarily foist a company on a particular region without competition and without recourse to any other option. This can’t be called liberalisation. This is economic slavery. A power policy that is essentially gas driven yet no coherent gas policy and pipeline protection clause was factored into this arrangement!

    I don’t blame Fashola for this nor do I blame the APC led government but I blame the dearth of ideas, the lethargy, the lack of political will to think outside the box in solving the problem. Most of all it saddens me that the government appears to have resigned to fate. No Nigerian in all honesty minds an increase in the electricity tariffs as much as the injustice of paying more for power that is non-existent. As a metered consumer I probably won’t raise any hue and cry as long as I only pay for services rendered. It is another matter entirely when I’m on estimated billing and I don’t see power for a cumulative three days in a month yet I have to pay for darkness. Where is our sense of fairness and justice? For the first time majority of Nigerians heard of system collapse that crashed our power generation to zero! Yet Nigerians on estimated billing still paid for this power collapse and the ‘saviours’ that bought over the power sector still smiled home to the bank. Their monies guaranteed in spite of glaring inefficiency. Even the old NEPA was never this bad.

    The well-worn ballad about funding has been heard for far too long. Over N2.7 trillion was spent on our power sectorbefore privatization. The problem has been how it was spent and the ever-present corruption that has taken permanent residency in our country. As regulators of the sector, what penalties have been issued to the GENCOs and DISCOs for underperformance in the last one year? Instead we gifted them with “a cost reflective tariff”.  We haven’t seen any concrete attempt to create a service performance template by which the GENCOs and the DISCOs are being benchmarked. What happens when a DISCO consistently defaults or demonstrates lack of capacity to deliver? Will the gas pipelines be privatized as well, knowing this is an integral part of the entire power sector reform puzzle for now? These are burning questions begging for answers.

    The only sustainable power sector reform is one that is hinged on an energy mix that incorporates hydro, solar, wind and coal. This has been well articulated by the power minister. I would implore the government to divest the maximum creative energy and will power to this sector. It would make or mar this administration. Indeed it’s been often said that solving the power problem is key to unleashing the huge productive potential of a giant that has slumbered for far too long.

    Fashola taking on this assignment was always going to be a potential banana peel. Many have tried and failed spectacularly. The critics have started baring their fangs as usual. Some have even suggested that his performance in Lagos was a fluke. That Lagos was set up for success. This is another narrative in the unfolding story of the man Fashola. A reputation so arduously built hangs perilously in the balance. The onus rests on him to come out of this unscathed.

     

    • Olayinka writes from Ilorin, Kwara State.

  • Biafra Day: Of Separatists and Supremacists

    No sovereign state stands idly by in the face of a challenge to its authority or territorial integrity. It matters little that the challenge may be from just a rabble of youthful agitators with no military prowess, but only sufficient nuisance value to unsettle the public peace; the very thought of a challenge to sovereignty ventures in the dangerous realm of treason and cannot simply be ignored. Matters get not a bit compounded if the agitators take recourse to violence, and in the process claim casualties from among security agents posted on duty ostensibly to avert an escalation of the insurrection temper. Rouge killing of security agents is scarcely tolerated anywhere in the world, and it is a sure invitation to over-handed reprisal – both in instant retribution for the killing, and as a deterrent against reoccurrence.

    These are universal principles, even though evil regimes have applied the same rules in exerting bloody repression of legitimate aspirations by unarmed civilians for freedom or statehood, like the former South African apartheid regime did to black nationalists in the Soweto Massacre of June 1976. Fact remains, however, that the principles are in themselves conscionable and rate high on the moral scale.

    It seems quite obvious that these were the principles at play on Monday, last week, when members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra(MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) marched out in some southern cities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the secessionist vision of a Biafra republic. The dream republic was, of course, still-birthed on the heels of its proclamation in 1967 by the late Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu, kindling a three-year civil war; and it remains effectively so even now. Ordinarily, its remembrance and commemoration within decorous limits should be a legitimate pressure handle for indigenes of the constituent areas to draw the nation’s attention to perceptions of marginalisation that warranted the secessionist declaration in the first place. After all, even with all its imperfections, we are in a constitutional democracy – a dispensation hallmarked by freedom of speech, opinion and association, among others, as the law of the land guarantees.

    But then, reports indicated that the Biafra Day rallies in Onitsha, Owerri, Aba, Enugu, Asaba and other cities across the region last Monday featured wild cat violence, including attacks on security personnel posted on duty to oversight the rallies, erupting like dry fodder in harmattan fire. Most reports cited MASSOB and IPOB activists as overreaching the limits of decorum by a long stretch, thereby eliciting heavy-handed security response that invariably resulted in fatalities. Statistics conflicted as regards the casualty figures – some accounts citing as high as 30 to 40 civilian deaths, which the police eventually disputed. That really is no matter, as the American humorist Evan Esar (1899–1995) once defined statistics as “the science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.” A relevant baseline seems to be that at least five activists were killed in Onitsha, in reprisal for the killing of two policemen. Activists were also reported killed in Asaba and maybe other places, while scores were injured and many others arrested for prosecution.

    Typically, the fatality rate has been a blame game between pro-Biafra activists and the security agencies. The police swore that they were shot at, with their members felled and safety hazarded in other grievous ways by self-provoked violent demonstrators. The activists, however, denied that they attacked security personnel, saying they did not even bear arms. In particular, Media and Publicity Officer of IPOB Emma Powerful accused the Army and the Police of lying in saying pro-Biafra agitators attacked them. He was reported to have said in a statement:  “IPOB under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu does not carry any weapon, whether dangerous or not. That is why even the clergy, doctors, lawyers and people of diverse professions could identify and show solidarity with us.”

    But anyone who knows scratch about the Nigerian security architecture also knows that the military don’t get called into civil security matters until the situation explodes beyond the control of the police. And that could only be in cases where the security threat, like a protesting crowd, has shown an edge in deployment of brute force and firepower over the police’s civil remit. We know, for instance, that the military were called in to intervene in Onitsha, among other places. The 82nd Division of the Nigerian Army subsequently said it invoked extant Rules of Engagement to resort to self-defense, and also protect the strategic Niger Bridge. A statement last week by the Deputy Army Public Relations Officer, Colonel H. A. Gambo, added: “All (military) efforts were in order to de-escalate the palpable tension, as well as ward off the apparent threats to lives and property in the general area. In the aftermath of the firefight that ensued, many of our troops sustained varying degrees of injury.”

    Even though Anambra State Police Commissioner Hosea Karma, in a post-crisis press conference, denied knowledge of any civilian fatality in the state, the military confirmed that much. “Five members of MASSOB/IPOB were killed, eight wounded, while nine were arrested for due legal actions,” Gambo said in his statement.

    Well, no one should ever hazard killing, or taking rogue shots at security personnel on their duty beat. They are certified agents of the sovereign and should be so honoured, and they are indeed symbols of the society’s collective safety and mutual preservation of order. If they are not respected and diligently spared rogue assaults, communal peace and order would break down and anarchy would unfurl. This isn’t just a Nigerian thing, it is a universal principle. You cannot shoot a police officer or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent in the United States, for instance, without expecting fatal consequences.

    Having said this, I think there is something fundamentally wrong about security Rules of Engagement (RoEs) which provide that when certain members in a protesting crowd attack security personnel on duty, the entire crowd should become fair game for lethal response by the assaulted personnel. That seems to be what happened with the Biafra Day rallies, accounting for the reported fatalities. Some activists were said to have been hunted down while worshipping in churches, with the officiating clerics arrested. Many of those, obviously, are among persons now being prosecuted for the disturbances.

    Civilised societies of the world must have other RoEs that safeguard the basic right of disenchanted people to free expression in a democracy, while isolating rogue elements, who really may not share the cause of the mass of the people and may just be mischievous infiltrators in a mixed multitude. It should be the duty of security personnel in such societies to separate civil protesters, who should be entitled to freely ventilate alternative opinions, from malefactors that deserve to be cracked down on and apprehended.

    Bottom line: the Biafra Day killings, on both sides, were brutish and unfitting for a purported democracy. Protesters should not be willy-nilly mowed down by security personnel just because there were some persons in the crowds that were violent, and who had launched misguided attacks on the agents. But also, intending demonstrators must regard it a sacred duty to diligently prime their mass actions against security violations by rogue elements. That should be the behavioural norm in a free and pluralistic society.