The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Ministerial list: Where Nigerians got it wrong

    The response of a large section of my compatriots to the ministerial list under the four-month old administration of President Muhamadu Buhari is, to me, a general mental disposition of the Nigerian citizenry that leaves much to be desired. The the stream of opinion that seeks to devalue the painstaking process that preceded the list submission further gets worrisome by the unfortunate enlistment of some supposed statesmen and respected social critics in the army that has been misfiring the shots. Whether sincerely or mischievously espoused, the view that the list of nominees is not worth the long wait is a mistaken one that sadly suggests that many citizens that sweated and sowed the seed of change on March 28 do not really understand what exactly must change for their dream Nigeria to be.

    What our country has always lacked are institutional frameworks or formworks which role is to statutorily reshape the varied personalities elected or appointed into governmental offices into a standard character-shape suitable for the manifestation of governance as an organic whole.

    Since independence, governance in Nigeria has been fully shaped by personality factors. In other words, it is the personal character-traits – beliefs, opinions, thoughts and personal idiosyncrasies – of the man that controls the power levers at any point in time that has always determined the shape, size and quality of governance. This is exactly why successive administrations in the richest black nation on the surface of the earth have, so far, failed to translate even half of our potentials into concrete socio-economic and political greatness.

    To really appreciate the need for Buhari, a leader the vast majority of the citizenry trust and believe in, to have waited for four months before announcing the names of some of his close associates as ministerial nominees, one only needs to look back into time to behold the untold disasters that character difference amongst the ministries of the same government has foisted on our collective destiny. It has always been the case that Nigerians expect a state apparatus to perform or behave as determined by the personal vision, mission, skills, vigour and zeal of its operator. This is why my people are wont to praise or condemn appointments purely on personality factors.

    Thus, at any point in time, Nigerian government has always cut a picture of a mixed-bag. A mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of comparative performance of ministries that are supposed to interrelate to produce a single unified result – good governance.

    If anything is alterable, logical and mathematical truths do not belong to the class of such amendable facts. So, our government as a melting point of positive and negative, each in its raw form, has always cumulated in the negative, simply because positive multiplied by negative is equal to negative.

    This is just why the institution and operation of artificial due process regulations have not and would never help us. Perhaps, we have relegated the truism that holds that no one can give what he does not have.

    Due process, ideally, is a device of entrenching sincerity and transparency in the handling of official transactions. It then follows that an administration that sets out to legislate a pattern of due process for governmental business must itself satisfy the preliminary criteria of integrity, credibility and discipline. Unfortunately, it is a common piece of knowledge amongst Nigerians that our past leaders that sought to demand equity never came with clean hands. Hence, a purely fictitious regime of due process has been deployed to rob us. Day and night robbery by the thieves that we have, in the past, appointed as our security guards and bandits we have crowned as knights of our markets.

    Now that we have Buhari whom even the Olisa Metuh’s of this world subconsciously believe in and trust as a man of integrity, honour and discipline, is it nor high time that we patiently tap from hindsight in order to acquire and deploy the foresight required for genuine change to be?

    Foresight capable of manifesting the truth in our individual and collective psychology – that Buhari, with all his reputed finesse, is but a passing phase in the history of Nigeria, a socio-economic and political milieu made of permanent socio-cultural nations. Therefore, should our new anchor of change behave true-to-type, as most had expected, by rushing to put in place egg heads who, in turn, would excitedly set out to do things differently, would the immediate gains that would result not end in nullity, in the long run, when successors in the mould of past jaundiced leaders may be unavoidable?

    Otherwise, the gains will be gargantuan and everlasting. I mean, the gains that will proceed from the establishment of governance frameworks such as the Treasury Single Accounts initiative and many other revolutionary systemic reforms which the new government has spent quality time to package prior to scouting for operators who would still be schooled and reoriented to operate their respective ministries according to some new uniform pattern to be unveiled in due course.

    Without being on Buhari’s team, I need no one to tell me that the four months that it has taken to nominate ministers has not been expended on mere list compilation. Rather, the suspense-filled period has been devoted, I am convinced, to evolving and mapping pragmatic patterns that would insure the running of ministries against the risks of personal whims and caprices of office-holders. A development that would not only, for the first time ever, introduce character into governance at the federal level, but also come with the realistic potentials of preventing official corruption. The latter, proactive and preventive measures against sleaze, rather than the curative we have been used to, is a sure dividend that would flow from the helmsman that has, in abundance, the quality of integrity and discipline that would foreclose the intentional errors inbuilt in past efforts – I refer to the type of loopholes deliberately designed and integrated into what we used to regard as due process in the past.

    However, it is not surprising that even the closest hint to this position from the government in this direction has, so far, failed to influence the perception of the many. The explanation from the seat of power that it took some considerable time to study, analyse and project ahead from the handover notes passed unto it by the past government, just four days to its exit. If anything, my people had never in the past heard any administration refer to such vital documents in its character and policy formulation and implementation. After all, Nigerians were aware that, once in power, our ‘leaders’ were always too busy to study such lengthy documents let alone act on the basis of what is contained therein. The regular ill-fate of panels’ reports and white papers in our clime is perhaps responsible for their scepticism.

    What a pity! Governance, in the past, had, thus, been perfunctory and the citizens made accustomed to devastating suspense and eagerness in respect of ministerial lists in a hasty bid of knowing where the pendulum of governmental patronage and favouritism swings. But, this is a government of change that has no choice but do things differently. Hence, it is not the individuals that have been nominated that really matters in projecting what is to come as much as the newly-packaged system they have been nominated to operate. Two Yoruba proverbs help to emphasize my drift on the benefits of having strong system/institutions rather than strong individuals. First, “The absence of openings on a wall blocks the entry of the lizard” and lastly, “None is immune against the pilfering proclivity in an environment that is stealing-conducive and enabling”.

     

    • Olokode a journalist writes from Lagos.

  • National Assembly and need for budget office

    At the dawn of the 8th National Assembly the cry as usual within our Fourth Republic political discourse beyond the startling false starts over leadership of the federal legislature, was the issue jumbo salaries and allowances of legislators and a need for openness in their finance. Rarely would you notice any call for institutional development or the need for capacity building for greenhorn legislators and other staff of the National Assembly to ensure they are able to effectively perform the task of legislation in a modern democracy.

    As a political scientist with the privilege of working and close association with the National Assembly for close to 8 years now, one is in a position to appropriately situate a major institutional lacuna in the operation of our federal legislature in particular and why the state legislature cannot but approximates mere “rubber stamp assemblies” unsuited to perform any salutary role of check and balances in a democracy in any meaningful sense.

    Let me say at this point that the stimulus for this intervention again (I had on September 20, 2011 written on the same subject under a published piece titled “ Seventh NASS: Budget Office to the Rescue”) was the debate of the Legislative Agenda of the 8th Senate and the contribution of Senator Solomon Adeola representing Lagos West Senatorial District. On the face of it Adeola could be taken for a ranking and experienced legislator having served progressively as a legislator at state and federal legislatures for over 12 year at a stretch. In his contribution, Adeola said among other things that without the full functioning of the National Assembly Budget and Research Office, NABRO, the Senate would be remiss in the performance of their role as the legislative arm of government. He entreated that beyond the function of law making and oversight, a major power of the legislature is the “power of the purse” to allocate funds through Appropriation Bills (Budget) stressing that oftentimes in the past the executive arm of government usually want to circumscribe this power by expecting the Legislature to “just pass budgets” as presented without any modifications or inputs. Adeola said the executive often get away with it using their array of experts in MDAs and an incapacitated legislature working without the institutional backing of NABRO or consultants for Committees.

    I am in complete agreement with him as are many senators on the floor during that debate notable among who are Senators Bayero  Nafada, Duro Faseyi and Binta Magashi both of who were Deputy Speaker and members respectively of the Sixth House of Representatives under Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole as Speaker that championed the passage of the NABRO Bill. In course of the passage of the NABRO bill in the House of Representatives, I was part of the House of Representatives delegation of members and senior aides that went to Washington DC to understudy the US Congressional Budget Office, CBO, preparatory to the passage of the NABRO bill. In our democratic set up, NABRO is our equivalent of CBO in USA. According to US Senator Edmund Muskie while reacting to the erosion of US Congress control over budgets over the years in 1974 when the Act of CBO was passed, “The CBO…will provide the Congress with the kind of information and analysis it needs to work on equal footing with the Executive branch”. As we were enlightened on that study tour, the CBO was set up solely to provide facts and figures for the legislature in their scrutiny of Appropriation Bills or any other money bills and subsequently its faithful implementation. Manned by experts from diverse fields, they are continually studying and analyzing socio economic and political indicators and financial implications for any approval or disapproval by the legislature. Incidentally we met a Yoruba Nigerian in the CBO who holds a PhD in economics with specialization in developing economies working in US CBO!

    It is no wonder that armed with relevant data, the US Congressmen and women are able to confront the executive with alternative views and positions that in the end help to ensure success of policies or block anti people policies as well as strengthen democratic practice. Thus it is a delight to watch Congressional hearings in US Congress as both parties- the legislators and officials of the executive match wits with knowledge and relevant information before a consensus is reached on major issues or appropriations. That is not the case in our democracy and that indeed underscore the importance of Senator Adeola’s advocacy that the 8th Senate must work for the immediate proper functioning of NABRO if they are to make any impact in the 8th Senate.

    To the credit of the Sixth Session of the National Assembly, the NABRO bill was passed and indeed NABRO was inaugurated in the last days of that session. On May 26, 2011, in a ceremony to commission the NABRO office, the then Vice President Architect Namadi Sambo stated that the creation of the office  is a bold step in consolidating democracy as well as avenue for the National Assembly to fulfill its constitutional mandates. The then VP went on to say that NABRO which is patterned after US CBO, is important as it promotes transparency and accountability in government through in-depth analyses and review of budget estimates pursuant of passage of appropriation bills. He said the absence of NABRO as an institution to assist the National Assembly is partly responsible for the inefficiency in our budgetary system. One cannot but agree with his conclusion as did Senator Adeola.

    Indeed since that landmark commissioning, the NABRO may have existed on paper alone if we are to judge by its output since the commissioning over 4 years ago. Apparently it may have been short funded over the years of its existence as not to be able to attract relevant qualified experts from all fields. If that is the case then one is of the view that the fixation on the alleged jumbo salaries and allowances of legislators is misplaced. In the real sense of institutional building, the National Assembly may be underfunded if they cannot fund the effective operation of NABRO.

    As it is, it is not late in the day to do something about this institutional lacuna in our budgetary system. Helpfully there are many members of the 6th House of Representatives that are in the Senate in addition to the two aforementioned and other still in the Green Chamber. Indeed, former Senate President David Mark who was the chairman of the National Assembly when NABRO bill was passed is still around as a senator as well as the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji  Salisu Maikasua. So if the 8th Senate is serious about its Legislative Agenda pursuant of serving the people through a budget process that goes beyond what amounts to “rubber stamping” in passing Appropriation Acts, then it must at the shortest time ensure that NABRO is functioning like AMCON and Sovereign Wealth Fund that were passed at about the same time as the NABRO bill. This will be a cognate contribution to the change Nigerians voted for in our on- going democracy.

    • Chief Odunaro was Special Adviser (Communications) to Speaker Dimeji Bankole and now Media Adviser to Sen. Adeola.

  • Diaspora Nigerians and their parents’ agony

    For Nigerians in the Diaspora and their parents at home, the centre is no longer holding and things are falling apart. Many Diaspora Nigerians are lost in ‘paradise’ and their parents at home are marooned in agony. It is becoming a case of success turning sour, of unanticipated outcomes of what initially was a glamorous venture . The current dilemma of Diaspora Nigerians and their parents had not manifested at the beginning.
    In earlier times, the 1950s and 60s, it was a pride to have your child studying/living abroad – in ‘Ilu Oyinbo’ – the White man’s land – which then was mainly a reference to Britain, the initial destination of most Nigerians in search of the golden fleece. But it was just for the duration of their study and they generally returned home immediately on graduation. In Nigeria, at that time, life was good. The returning graduate had a pick of prestigious jobs in the civil service. That period, one cannot really talk of Diaspora Nigerians. That was then. Fast forward to the 1980s and 1990s, and you experience a different Nigeria where life was hard and nasty. Going abroad still remained prestigious, but there was the undertone of escape from the harsh economic realities. It was a conscious effort by parents to give their children options. Older generation of graduates from Britain sent their British born children back to the Queen’s country. A new foreign destination gained popularity – now, much of the movement was westwards, to the new El Dorado, the United States of America, the focus of this presentation.
    Thousands of Nigerian youth sought university education in the U.S. and stayed back on graduation, getting sucked into the make belief promoted as The American Dream. Many of these students are now mature adults, raising their own families and practically disconnected from their native Nigerian roots, having spent the greater part of their lives in the Diaspora. Many left home as teenagers or in their early 20s and literally got bowled over by America’s glitz. Their parents, who were then mostly in their 40s and 50s, with financial clout and physical strength to visit regularly, are now ageing, even if many still have the financial ability, and are no longer enthusiastic in making unreciprocated visits to their children. On their part, many of the children are not interested in visiting Nigeria, primarily because of the ugly stories of widespread violent crime and pervasive lawlessness. This perception makes Diaspora Nigerians in the U.S. wonder at my eagerness to return to Nigeria within three weeks each time I visit America. They are often amazed at my attitude that even if Nigeria is a jungle, it is still home. One must, however, concede to them that whatever might be the downside of living abroad, especially in the U.S., it is still basically an orderly society and violent crime is not as widespread. In his column in The Nation newspaper of October 1, 2015 titled : ‘Nigerian Diaspora families’ Prof. Jide Osuntokun, all of whose children are in the U.S., wrote about how demanding it is for him to visit them due to challenges of ageing and his adult children’s unwillingness to visit Nigeria. This typifies the lamentation of many home based parents. The former Nigerian ambassador to Germany rued : “It is not very easy for me to get along with a situation where all my children are living abroad … In my case, I have to travel thousands of miles annually to see my children and their families at considerable cost to me physically and financially … My children and their spouses all work making it impossible when visiting to be catered for appropriately”. This is the frustration many parents face that even when visiting, at considerable cost, Diaspora children often do not have the luxury of time to share company with them. As a foreign correspondent in Washington D.C. between 1985 and 1989, I had to create time, at great inconvenience, to show many visiting Nigerians round the city because their hosts were tied to tight work schedules. Elite parents like Prof. Osuntokun who can afford to visit their Diaspora children are lucky. The agony is most grave for other less privileged parents many of who never saw their Diaspora children till they died. The pain, for parents of Diaspora Nigerians, is felt most at festive periods – Eid Kabir ( Ileya), Christmas and New Year – when other parents receive their children and grandchildren for the celebrations. Material inducements have not swayed Diaspora children to return home or even to visit. There is the case of a retired, wealthy Lagosian, with all his children in the U.S. who offered his Diaspora medical doctor son a big duplex in the swank area of Surulere, Lagos to run his hospital, if he relocates. The son rejected the offer. Father and mother used to travel annually to see the children but at a point, the father stopped visiting when none of the children reciprocated their gesture. There was another who tried to lure his son home to come and take possession of his considerable landed property. The son declined, advising the father to bequeath them to charity !! A situation where many Diaspora Nigerians are not married and others divorced, resulting mainly from the assertiveness of women with higher earning power, compounds parents’ agony.
    Not all parents of Diaspora Nigerians are in lamentation. A few have their children visiting, occasionally. Many are compensated with remittances from their Diaspora children which make life comfortable for them and other siblings. The $20 billion annual remittance by Diaspora Nigerians offers life line to many families. Diaspora Nigerians in the U.S. work long, tedious hours and given the rigorous tax regime of IRS ( Internal Revenue Service) and high cost of living, those sending remittances home are making a great sacrifice. And there are ageing, homesick Diaspora Nigerians, generally fathers, many of who migrated under the U.S. visa lottery, who are also in lamentation. While their parents are in agony at home, they are stranded in ‘paradise’ because their American born or naturalized children do not want to return home with them. They are stuck. The common refrain is : Hey, dad, you want to return to your country, good luck. Nigeria, to them, is their fathers’ country, not theirs !!

    Dr. Bisi Olawunmi is a Senior Lecturer at Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State and former Washington Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria. (NAN)

    •Email: olawunmibisi@yahoo.com Phone 0803 364 7571 SMS ONLY.

  • A second look at the office of First Lady

    (Open letter to Mr President)

    We are concerned women in Nigeria who have decided to write you on behalf of 69,086,302 females (women) estimated to be the population of women in Nigeria, according to the 2006 population census.

    The overwhelming support you got in this year’s presidential election to emerge as President of this most populous nation in Africa is an indication of the yearnings of citizens for change. Alas! That change is here. We are indeed happy for this.

    As women, we were particularly inspired by the strength of character, beauty of heart and intelligence of our dear wife of the President, Hajia Aisha Buhari, during the campaigns and thereafter.

    We had, therefore, hoped that given her pedigree of respect for all, education and compassion for the plight of women and children, this administration would do the women of Nigeria and indeed women and children of Africa a great amount of good by giving her an opportunity to function as First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But no, that is yet to happen. For this, we, the women of Nigeria in particular and Africa in general, are unhappy.

    We acknowledge that there is no constitutional provision for the existence of such an office, but we also know that necessity which brought about the creation and existence of such an office in the past has helped in no small measure to augment the activities of the Federal Government, particularly in the areas where women, children and disadvantaged citizens are concerned.

    Apart from her several donations of food items, medicines, toiletries and other valuables worth millions of naira to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and orphanages in various parts of the country, Hajiya Buhari has carried out many life-saving health intervention programmes, especially in the screening and prevention of the deadly cancer disease. Hajiya Buhari had so far carried out the screening of over 10,000 people in about five states within one year.

    For instance, 2000 women benefitted from her cancer screening and general health assessment programme in Cross River State. Similarly, in Yola, Adamawa State where the First Lady hails from, another 2,000 women were screened of cervical cancer in addition to testing for other health conditions like blood pressure, diabetics, hepatitis, kidney, liver and dental examination.

    In Enugu, more than 2,000 women also benefitted from her cancer screening programme and medical examination for other disease conditions earlier enumerated. These various humanitarian gestures came under her Women Health Initiative Programme.

    In a concerted effort to garner international support for her Health Intervention Programme in the country, Hajiya Buhari unveiled her vision and mission for Nigerian women and children in one of the United Nations side events in New York titled ‘Future Assured’ held on  August 30. There is no doubt that the First Lady will do more for millions of Nigerian women and children, if her office is given a constitutional role and strengthened with the needed funding support and legal framework. Her Excellency has also supported the Medic Aid Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) dedicated to promotion of cancer screening, prevention and treatment. The Medic Aid Foundation has lined up a number of activities like free cancer screening and 1million man walk against cancer during this year’s International Cancer Month which started on October 1 and ends  October 31. It is also pertinent to note the following points;

    • The United Nations, development partners and donor agencies recognize the roles of first ladies in the past and have collaborated with them on their pet projects.
    • The benefits of these pet projects are too obvious and numerous to mention.
    • The presence of our First Lady in a gathering as important as the just concluded UN Summit would have created an additional opportunity for networking and building relationship between Nigeria and other countries of the world.
    • The African First Ladies Peace Initiative is no doubt a laudable initiative. Nigeria can’t afford to be left out of this humane effort.

    As an able representative of the Voices of Women in Nigeria (VOWIN), I am pleading with Mr. President and other leaders that have served this country to urgently intervene to please allow the office of the First Lady to function. The advantages obviously outweigh the disadvantages. Mr. President’s fear of excesses and abuse of office are issues we understand very well. We assure our president that the complementary roles that will be assigned to our amiable Hajiya Aisha will be discharged effectively and responsibly.

     

    • Suffiya Abubakar, Director of Public Awareness, Arc Development Initiative, wrote in from Wuse, Abuja

  • Edohouqua Eyiboh: A life of dignity and integrity

    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time” -Mark Twain

    Late Elder Sunday Edohouqua Eyiboh lived a full life to his demise at the age of 79. He crowded into a single soul and life the renaissance spirit. He was a craftsman, an inspirational leader of men, a role model with reform mindset, a quintessential organiser and an astute administrator with entrepreneurial instinct. As a father and grandfather, he cultivated and sustained in his name generational competitive models spanning politics, law, entrepreneurship, aviation, engineering, medicine and cyber science.

    He rode the trajectory of the self-made man. He began as a genius of the manual dexterity. He became a carpenter after he completed his primary education at the QIC school at Akpautong. While he gloried in his craftsmanship as a carpenter, his eyes were glittering for opportunities. So, from the earnings  of his toil and courage in his convictions, he took a notch higher at the Teacher’s Training College, Ndon Eyo in present Onna Local Government Area where he obtained his Teacher’s Grade Three Certificate.

    He won a berth in the classroom as a teacher. But his thirst for knowledge did not abate. So he pursued and secured his Grade Two Certificate at the Teacher’s Training College, Ndon Eyo. After plying himself with these qualifications, he taught at various primary schools and rose to the position of headmaster at various times and in many schools, where some great men and women of honour and character had their pupillage under this great brood of worthy leadership tradition.

    His value lay not only in his pedagogic skills in the classroom, but in the loftier realm of school administration. So, he was appointed to the Eket Divisional School Board as member. He acquitted himself so well that his appeal leapt across school administration. He was also appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the Cross River Newspaper Corporation (publishers of the Nigerian Chronicle).

    All along, his engagement with the society as a community organiser, role model and politician blossomed. As a politician, he chimed in with the prevalent ideological wellspring of his people, and rose to become the organising Secretary of the  National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Eket Chapter. He also became Supervisory Councillor, Ibeno/Edo Local government council, Supervisory Councillor, Esit Eket Local Government Council and Chairman, Esit Eket Local Government Council.

    He was a leading edge character driven by the zeal of his hindsight, insight and foresight of life. He triggered prosperity through multidimensional investment in education. He was a founding Project Leader, Community Secondary School, Akpautong and Proprietor, Esit Eket Community Nursery School. As a renaissance man, he also knew how to earn income from strategic design thinking and change management. He launched into an integrated marine and land transport logistics concern in the oil and gas industry and became a director in Esuwdeik Nigeria Limited.

    With his hands, he made things as a carpenter. With his voice, he moulded lives in the classrooms. With his nobility, he organised his people to higher ideals of community and sacrifice. Before his health started to flag, this man of faith, dignity and integrity had left high values behind as sublime legacies. He shall never die as his name is spoken in this, and the generation beyond. His demise has only ended a life, not a relationship with his wife, two sons (one of whom is Hon Eseme Eyiboh, former member and spokesperson, House of Representatives), two daughters and formidable grandchildren.

    Late Elder Sunday Edohouqua Eyiboh may not have lived long enough, but his good life was long enough.

    “Everyman’s life ends the same way. It’s only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguished one man from another” – Ernest Hemingway

  • COMMENTS

    COMMENTS

    ‘Disciplined leadership is important to infuse and inculcate the right attitudes that are synthetically accrued to meaningful progress. Dr. Bukola Saraki should learn what morality is all about by evaluating himself and taking a hard look at his conducts so far. If a man goes into public office, he must be prepared for the consequences. He must make himself proof against calumny. In this, honesty is crucial. From Adegoke O O, Bako, Ibadan, Oyo State’

    For Olatunji Dare

    Disciplined leadership is important to infuse and inculcate the right attitudes that are synthetically accrued to meaningful progress. Dr. Bukola Saraki should learn what morality is all about by evaluating himself and taking a hard look at his conducts so far. If a man goes into public office, he must be prepared for the consequences. He must make himself proof against calumny. In this, honesty is crucial. From Adegoke O O, Bako, Ibadan, Oyo State.

    Sir, I just read your column. Any nominee who acted the last paragraph will not only be stoned but may fetch jungle justice from friends, family and even his wife or the husband as the case may be. Anonymous

    If any ministerial nominee thinks he is bold enough, let him confront the Senate President by telling him he doesn’t have the integrity to screen him and see if such a nominee will not be disqualified. Anonymous

    Re: Beyond the list. You have written the thought of millions of Nigerians that ministerial nominees should have attached their portfolio to help the Senate. Note that our educational system encourages people to read what they are not passionate about. We should also consider the qualifications of the Senate members who confirm the list. Recall the charge of forgery, the fake list of the vote of confidence…The list should just go and PMB can swap the ministers after observing their Key Performance Indices (KPI) in office. This crafty Senate leadership is not cut out for our desired CHANGE. The incoming ministers should understand that they are to make sacrifice now and render selfless service to the nation, not looting. Be ready to disappoint your expectant “hangers-on”. From Elder L .O David, Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State. 

    Mr. Dare, leave Saraki alone. Where were you when Asiwaju went to Code of Conduct Tribunal in 2011? You were quiet. You are very partial. I will never read your comment again. From Tokunbo.

    Dare, I would have expected you to, at least, investigate other political office holders, especially governors, past and present, and tell the public your findings in respect of fraud or corrupt practices. If your sword of attack is directed at Bukola Saraki alone, any reasonable reader will assess you as a mere archetype of personified journalist who lacks ethics. Anonymous

    Nigerians waited four months for the president to announce his ministers. We can still wait for him to attach portfolio to each nominee, publish their names and give Nigerians two weeks to comment on what they know of the nominees. This will reveal the type of change we should expect. From Sankey, Kaduna.  I am not a politician but an old Shell retiree, retired 23 years ago. Reading through your “At Home & Abroad comments, I broadly salute you and say well done. If Saraki is truly educated and honourable, he should at this point put in his resignation. Best wishes. From Engr J.K. Gasper.

    A very beautiful piece. Let’s hope one of the nominees would be bold enough to speak up…

    I cannot think of a more appropriate and damning response to your biased intervention on the Saraki matter than what Professor Ayo Olutokun aptly captures as “The Corruption of Anti-corruption”, on the back page of The Punch of September 25. From Kuteyi R.R, Ondo.

    I read your column Beyond the list.” If the Nigerian media wants to help or join the fight against corruption, it must do so across board. Ex-Presidents, ministers, governors and others have plundered this nation, and most political office holders (past and present), including National Assembly members, have done worse than Saraki yet the media is shockingly silent. HARDBALL reported the rape of a four-year old pupil and expressed so much shock as if he lives abroad. Similar and worst cases are all over our public media. You know the baby factories that are producing and selling babies for rituals and so on. And the flourishing abortion clinics across Nigeria. What is the Nigerian media doing to STOP all these beyond isolated alarms? The same media asked Nigerians three times to reject Gen Muhammadu Buhari for the office of President but is today celebrating him without apology. We need soul searching. From Sam Gar

    Dare, what has the accused box picture got to do with the list? Please, be serious. Anonymous

    Will it not be abnormal for an accused in 13-count charges with criminal undertone to screen respected, untainted and cherished ministerial nominees of the President of the biggest black nation in the world? Please do a favour, let him know that he needs to be preparing for his defence on 21st, 22nd and 23 Ocober. From ‘Wole Olatunbosun.

    Truth is bitter as always, but has to be told all the same. Well done for saying it the way it is.  From Tony Iheanacho, Jos.

    Since Senate President Saraki has a case to answer over illegal assets declaration, he is not entitled to preside over ministerial nominees screening. From Chika Nnorom

    Re: Beyond the list

    That was a masterpiece. The likes of Dino Melaye know that Nigeria’s Senate confirmation is for sale. This is the Senate’s harvest period, they waited long for it to come. Dino should not fool us. As for Saraki, red oil trying to wash the soap! What do you get, rubbish? Yes, let him forever get stuck “in the hole he dug himself into”. Good morning Nigerians. From Moses Imiegha.

    Happy Independence! As long as there is ‘free’ oil from the Delta, so long will Nigeria remain no man’s land. Less the talk about federalism!

    The case on Saraki is political and should be handled with care. Hence, we may be sitting on a keg of gun powder as a nation. From Dr Albert Olajide Akinyemi, Ikole-Ekiti

    Beyond the list was the tonic I needed after much thought about the nation. The Federal Government should not allow any political solution to any judical matter in this country any more. Let the so-called Senate President continue his lying, the truth is that he was stoned in Ilorin. Sir, those senators that supported Saraki cannot go back to their constituencies and tell them. They are all liars. Your ink shall never dry. From Abdulrahaman Yusuf. 

    Re: Beyond the list is a piece that calls for sober reflection. Why is it that Yorubas are always after themselves? I advise they borrow a leaf from the other tribes. From Steve 

    I always appreciate the flow in AT HOME AND ABROAD. I will like to comment on Beyond the list. The legislature can overturn the judgment of the court simply by enacting or amending a law. Please see S.E.C. V. KASUNMU (2009) 10 NWLR (Pt. 1150) 509. Anonymous

    According to Senator Dino Melaye, the screening of ministerial nominees by the Senate would be thorough and that the era of ‘bow and go’ was gone. Senate President also reiterated the facts as follows: Nominees must be someone worth the salt, reliable and able to meet the constitutional requirements. What a good talk and contradictory statements when he added that, in the whole world, we have espirit de corps. Well spoken of Bukola so to say or, can I say you rub my back I rub your own? It can be in form of test just the same obdurate manner one of the states in Southsouth may choose to run apptitude test for its prospective appointees. An era of no mean leaders. From Abang, Joe. Calabar.  

    The list of ministerial nominees unveiled turned out to be a mixed bag of heavily corrupt, superbly corrupt, barely corrupt Nigerians. Nothing to cheer. Rather for any of them look at Saraki in the face, they are most likely to lobby him not to be exposed. Whether charged in the court or not. the thieves we know. Anonymous

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin 

    The hue and cry by some of our people over Innocent Audu Ogbe as Benue State ministerial nominee is uncalled for. Hon Ogbe is eminently qualified to be a minister. His character and integrity have never been impugned or doubted. This apart, he is a gentleman who is consistent and reliable in his political career. In the interest of justice and fairness, the Tiv cannot take the gubernatorial and ministerial slots. That would amount to selfishness and greed arising from discontentment. People who truly know and worship God must keep away from greed and selfishness. Benue State belongs to all Benue indigenes of which the IDOMAS too are. From A.B Tsav CP(rtd).

    Even within a monomagamous family, eating or sharing from a pot is a knotty issue. Is it not better, therefore, to allow the status quo to remain untill we can evolve a perfect arrangement for coexistence? From Olu Eniola, Agbara, Lagos.

    Re: Confronting the nationality question. We should move on in Africa and Nigeria with what we have, how we have been adjusted and the boundaries we have demarcated, Africa and Nigeria respectively. The more we seek readjustment, the more destabilised and quarelsome we shall be. Africans and Nigerians should work on just three things to develop: make merit their mission, choose leaders on merit and develop technology. The world has moved beyond boundaries and realignment. There is no continent and country that is free of adjustment and alignment . Technology had rubbed those off. From Lanre Oseni.

    Your arguments on Confronting the nationality question is nothing but fallacy. Fallacy according to Chamber’s Dictionary means ‘an apparently genuine but really illogical argument; a wrong but prevalent notion.”  Sir, please fight and toil for good governance for the multiple ethnicities of Africa, Nigeria in particular. Reject immunity for impunity by public office holders. That is all we need now and every other thing will fall in place. In this present world of mass movement of peoples, where are the cultural boundaries? Anonymous

    “In this season of startling disclosures stemming from principle or malevolence and everything in between, propelled by so-called social media that thrive on rumour and gossip and high scandal…” Haba! What is wrong with social media? Are you not okay with the accessibility and opportunity…enjoyed by all? I can guess: not at ease with the large traffic, huh? Anonymous

    Sir, not minding the inherent defects witnessed in these media…yeah, recognition and acceptance have been given…think you should let it be! K.O.Anonymous

  • Counting the gains of ports regulation

    For many years, doing business in Nigerian ports was roundly condemned as a harrowing experience. This stemmed from the high level of inefficiency that characterized the operations at the ports such as unnecessary delays in the turnaround time for ships and high cargo dwell time.

    The consequences of these were that sub-standard goods found their ways into the country, the national treasury was denied its due accruals, youth unemployment blossomed and the masses were short-changed as the image of the country dimmed in the comity of nations.

    The fear of an unfriendly ports climate therefore became the beginning of wisdom for a lot of foreign investors. Unfortunately, Nigeria, since independence and until recently, was conducting affairs at the seaports like a typical civil service set-up. A tinge of reforms introduced in 2006 when the ports terminals were concessioned to the private sector by the federal government yielded little results.

    Concessionaires re­portedly capitalised on the absence of a regulator to introduce scathing charges that have swelled the cost of doing business in Nigerian ports.

    Empirical evidences abound of the Federal Government’s port reform programme.

    A Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) report released by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption (TUGAR) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) with the support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Nigerian ports established that an importer or agent will require a minimum of 79 signatures of government officials to clear his/her goods at the nation’s gateways.

    This was viewed by stakeholders as rather unfortunate because the concession of ports to the private sector was aimed to accelerate the pace at which the country’s ports will become the preferred cargo destination for, not only Nigerian importers but also, shippers from some West African and Central African countries.

    Several years into the implementation of the seaport concession scheme, the cost of doing business at the nation’s seaports kept going up with shippers and their agents alleging that terminal operators have continued to maintain a regime of arbitrary charges for port services.

    They were also complaints over similar cost regime by foreign shipping agents, the multiplicity of levies on imports and   inadequacies of other stakeholders in the seaport sector.

    No doubt the concessioning of the seaport led to the modernisation of the operations of the ports and a great level of efficiency. Yet, the gains did not translate to reduction in cost of doing business at the ports, a development blamed on the fact that the federal government did not immediately appoint a regulator for the ports sector.

    Then came the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC). Declared the economic regulator of the ports by the federal government in February 2014, eight years after concessionaires took over the management of the seaports, the gazetting  of the functions of NSC  under the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (Port Economic) Regulations, 2015,   has lent credence  to the endorsement for its activities and the excellent manner it has discharged its responsibilities and thus affirming the agency as an economic regulator and strengthening and protecting it against unwarranted disobedience to its directives from the stakeholders.

    The NSC has acquitted itself by ensuring that all the stakeholders comprising of representatives of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food & Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) and freight forwarders among others are regulated and work for common good.

    The executive secretary and chief executive officer of the NSC, Hassan Bello, has been lucky to act as a mobilisation and stabilising factor to all agencies at the port. But the NSC must do more. Beyond what is in the statute book, there is a need for the council to harness other potential areas of the port sector with a view to enthroning real competition and bringing down the cost of doing business at the Nigerian seaports.

    The uncompetitive nature in the nation’s seaports, cargoes and vessels  have, over time, been responsible for the diversion of goods to  ports located in Nigeria’s neighbouring countries such as Cotonou, Republic of Benin, Accra and Tema , Ghana; Lome, Republic of Togo  and  Dakar , Senegal.

    Despite diverting cargoes to these foreign ports, these cargoes later find their ways into Nigerian markets through smuggling. In the end, while Nigeria loses huge income in import duties, levies and other charges payments, these neighbouring countries gain.

    It is rather strange that as strategic as our ports are to commerce in the African continent, our ports operated only eight hours daily. Fair enough, a 24 -hour operations that NSC introduced, is a good development even though it ought to have come much earlier than now. Never again must our ports be allowed to operate the bureaucracy of the civil service. They must be seen and operated as businesses to make them the desired maritime destinations to service not only Nigerians, businesses and corporations in the sub-region.

    Available statistics from the Federal Ministry of Finance indicate that about 60 percent of goods shipped into West African countries are meant for the Nigerian market. However, the poor management of our ports has resulted in the bulk of the goods destined for Nigeria going through the ports in Ghana and Benin Republic. This has resulted in a backlog of uncleared goods at major ports, in particular, the Lagos, Onne, Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, and Sapele – and huge demurrage to importers. It also encourages the smuggling of goods from neighbouring countries into Nigeria.

    Interestingly, since the NSC took up the leadership role, port users have witnessed tremendous improvement in complaint and arbitration mecha­nisms; prompt issuance of Ship Sail­ing Certificate and the consequent avoidance of demurrage accumulation against shipping companies and other effects. This is in tandem with international best practices.

    Also, government now enjoys improved revenue generation; improved infrastructural development; creation of efficient market; reduction of cost of doing business; improve­ment of the nation’s Global Competi­tive Index and consequent attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

    The ports regulator has equally ensured the professionalization of freight forwarding practice. This on its own leads to touting , sanitisation of the ports environment, harmonisation of clearing processes and procedure and consequent reduction of clearing charges.

    Without doubt, Nigeria is the regional maritime hub. But the NSC must also be equipped and supported in its drive to help reduce the number of days spent in clearing goods at the ports and for it to achieve the much vaunted quest to make the ports more competitive.

    What this means is that government must not lose sight of other problems hindering the effective operations and management of our ports which the ports economic regulator has already started addressing.

     

    • Ogungbesan wrote in from Apapa, Lagos

     

  • Journalism without conscience: Call for action

    I confess to a hidden pain: I miss the newsroom. I love the newsroom; its organized madness; its unconventional setup. First, the newsroom of the analogue era: the clanging and clattering of the typewriters.  But I have jumped the gun. In the morning and midday, the newsroom is serene and sane, too sedate for a restless soul. But as the mid-day gives way to afternoon, the newsroom starts coming alive.

    The foot soldiers in the endless war of gathering materials and writing history in a hurry for posterity start finding their ways into the newsroom, armed with the day’s materials meant for tomorrow’s headlines.  By now the commanders – the line editors and other top editorial chiefs have taken or are taking their seats in readiness for the day’s production battle. Yes, it is a battle, one that must be won.  For the paper must be produced and must be taken to bed and must be on the newsstands by tomorrow morning.

    During the analogue era, the typewriter is the AK47 of the foot soldier called the reporter. Oh! No I loved reporting. I loved being a reporter. Perhaps, the reason for the awards while one was in the newsroom. They remain to be cherished for life. Now the clanging and clattering of typewriter is becoming a soothing music to the ear- all hands are on typewriters. Soon editors who are on edge to meet the deadlines and cast the headlines start barking orders as if they are on the parade ground. At one corner, the big television set is blaring the latest news and a reporter is on hand monitoring development, another is sitting by the radio, yet another has a midget tape close to the ear and scribbling away- he’s transcribing a major interview that will make all the difference on the newsstands tomorrow.

    Inside a fairly large cubicle, one of the two or three doting the vast hall, that is the newsroom, some senior editorial members, call them the egg-heads, are putting their heads together- these Generals in the battlefield called the newsroom are brainstorming over the events of the day to determine the stories that will make the front page, the headlines that will sell the stories and the pictures that will be most striking and most topical.

    At another cubicle could be found the hatchet men called the sub-editors. A sub-editor is in his own world. He is the one who can put a knife (read pen) through a 400-word story written by the reporter and trim it to less than 250 words and still retains the essence, the beauty, the message and all the five-Ws and H in the story. Sub- editors are the silent and the unsung heroes of the newsroom. A newspaper that is blessed with good sub-editors is the one that is blessed with great newspaper with elegant, beautiful and cultivated language; it is the newspaper in which errors are at the barest minimum.

    If such newspaper is blessed with a first grade production team, then it has gotten it all. In another cubicle in that newsroom is the production team. These guys conceive, plan and produce the newspaper, they plan the pages– in the analogue age, it was cut and paste, before producing the films that will now be taken to the press for printing. In a daily newspaper, that was done all night and by morning the paper is ready, hot fresh with hot news and ready for the newsstands.

    In the digital age, what has changed are the technology and the tools of production and facilities for communication.  In this digital age, a reporter could actually write his story, send it online to his sub-editor and just stroll in to the newsroom.  His sub- editor could also edit from the comfort of his home and send online to the production editor.  The organized chaos of the newsroom is still there but technology has made the production process a lot easier. And much less laborious.

    For the print media, technology may have changed the phases and face of production, but it has not in any disturbing way, inflicted negative impact on content in the context of compliance with journalism ethics. For the print media, credibility remains the watchword, even in the face of stiff competition and shrinking market.

    But for New Journalism, defined by online publications and what has come to be known as the social media, it is another kettle of fish. Let’s get it right from here. This is not a general thumbs down for this latest genre of the profession. It came with a lot of advantages, one of them being its instantaneous nature- you are reading, viewing or hearing as events are unfolding.

    This is also not a blanket condemnation of practitioners of the new journalism. Many online publications and bloggers have demonstrated professionalism and commendable conduct beyond what may be ascribed to professionals working on a platform that enable you to have the news on the go.

    But this cannot be said of a whole lot of online publications, blogs and other social media users who have turned their platforms to a veritable avenue of blackmail, a tool of extortion and medium of getting even with enemies, real or perceived.

    Journalism as a profession is at a critical juncture. Practitioners and other stakeholders must come together to chart the way forward and draw up a new Code of Conduct that will accommodate the peculiarities of new journalism. I am an apostle of press freedom and anything that will tamper with that freedom must be resisted.

    But then the freedom to tell the news ends where other citizens’ rights start. As practitioners,     we owe it a duty to the society that the innocent are not injured in the course of our trade.

    The easy entry and easy exit nature of online publications makes the challenge a herculean one. Now, professional blackmailers, cub reporters who did not earntheir first promotion in a reputable media setting, and, in fact, people without journalism or communication training at all have taken over this platform  parading themselves as publishers and wrecking psychological havoc on individuals and ruining reputations that take decades to build. In the final analysis, they are ruining the integrity of citizens whose activities are capable of deepening the economy, boost employment and promote Nigeria to a higher level in the committee of nations. Many of these so-called publishers perpetrate this crime with so much impunity assured that everything in our system is configured to make them get away without even a slap on the wrist.

    This trend needs to be arrested. Press freedom does not include freedom to publish falsehood; to impugn on people’s integrity and people’s reputation without any justifiable reason(s). Nigerians deserve to be protected from the onslaught of these morally challenged persons parading themselves as publishers and inflicting harm on fellow citizens in the name of journalism.

    A fundamental way out of this ignominious and criminal conduct, I guess is to tighten the legal noose around illegal acts. Libel is a crime in our statute book, yes. But people get away with it because they know that in our judicial system, justice is often delayed and thereby denied. The judicial system should be reworked and made to deliver justice promptly and without delay. If you know that in the event that you commit a libel, you could be in jail in less than a month after the crime, you will have a second thought before setting out to do the crime.

    Also the Nigerian Press Council (NPO), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), will need to look at how they can quickly rescue this lofty profession from the hands of quacks, blackmailers and marauders before they drive us into collective infamy.New code of conduct to accommodate the peculiar modus operandi of the online publications may be desirable now.

    These professional bodies may also want to consider an enlightenment campaign targeted at members of the profession in all genres of journalism. Such campaign will extol the virtues of conforming with journalism ethics and will rail against unprofessional conduct.

    Moral persuasion through seminars, workshops and conferences could also help in the campaign to bring sanity back to the profession.

    Indeed the task of rescuing this noble profession from the clutches of the practitioners of journalism sans conscience; from blackmailers and gangsters parading themselves as professionals is one for all men of conscience, in and out of the media industry. It is what we owe this worthy profession.

     

    • Adedoyin, journalist, writer and corporate communications practitioner wrote in from Ikeja, Lagos.
  • Fashola: Transformation all the way

    Fashola: Transformation all the way

    On March 2, 2013, The Economist of London, arguably the world’s most influential magazine, published a special issue on Africa, a follow-up to its “Africa Rising” series run in 2011. In an article entitled “Governance in much of Africa is visibly improving, though progress is uneven”, the magazine cited two Nigerian governors as outstanding. One was Kayode John Fayemi of Ekiti State, regarded as sophisticated and IT savvy. The other was Babatunde Fashola for his stunning work in Lagos State.

    Said the conservative weekly which often holds critical views on Third World leaders: “Lagos, (Nigeria’s)commercial capital, long a byword for chaos and skullduggery….Already home to 20m people, the city is expected to double in size within a generation. When most of the infrastructure was built in the 1970s, the population was perhaps 2m. But help is on the way. The governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, has begun an impressive campaign to clean up the city….Now, there is an orderly queue for taxis. The Chinese are building a vast modern rail network. Public buses have been assigned separate lanes. When the governor heard that they were being used by unauthorized vehicles, he strode one morning and made a citizen arrest of a colonel. …the transformation of Lagos is worth trumpeting. Its economy is now bigger than the whole of Kenya’s. Tax revenue has increased from $4m to $97m a month in less than a decade. Tax rates have remained the same, but the amounts being collected have risen dramatically”.

    Interestingly, both Fayemi and Fashola have been nominated to become ministers in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. It shows that the forthcoming cabinet is most likely to work in a way which will impress not just Nigerians but also the international community. There is a general belief that Fashola will be the next Minister of the Federal Capital territory. If that happens, Buhari will make history by becoming what literary scholars call a mythmaker. No southerner has ever headed the FCT Ministry. Therefore, Buhari will be setting a precedent by appointing Fashola the FCT Minister. He will break a major political taboo in Nigeria, thus casting the president in the image of a true nationalist, a pan Nigerian leader of the finest hue. Yet, it would seem that Buhari’s reason for wanting to send Fashola to the FCT is not so much to break any political taboo as to make Abuja a truly international territory. Fashola is a perfect fit.

    If Fashola is deployed to this ministry, he will go fully prepared, as Professor Chinua Achebe said of Nigeria’s current literary star, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  I told a correspondent of the Voice of America (VOA) in a recent interview that anyone who could turn Oshodi from a bedlam and eyesore which caused traffic gridlock of epic proportions into an orderly, beautiful spectacle, complete with a garden and recreational facilities, could easily make Abuja an international tourist destination where people go for business, as is the case with Dubai and now Abu Dhabi. No one should be surprised at the transformation Lagos underwent under Fashola’s leadership. Right from the day he took to law practice, Fashola, who had all his life been too playful, decided to turn a new leaf by putting all his mind, heart and soul into everything he set out to do. He thus became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) at almost the callow age of about 40 years. Everyone who ever met or worked with him when he was the Chief of Staff in Lagos State testifies to his clarity of vision, solidity of character, integrity and organizational skills.

    Fashola approached his work as Lagos State governor with unusual fervor; he felt challenged and inspired by the examples of global transformational leaders. He devoured various books on leadership, including Leadership by Rudy Giuliani, New York mayor from 1994 to 2001 who restored competitiveness to the city and displayed greater leadership than even President George Bush W. Bush during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. Fashola also studied From Third World To First: The Story of Singapore from 1965 by Lee Kuan Yew. He went on a study tour of these phenomenal cities. He actually took time out during the International Bar Association conference in Singapore in 2008 to have a private meeting with Singapore’s founding prime minister, the legendary Lee Kuan Yew, on leadership. So, when Fashola began the project to turn Lagos into a megacity, he meant business. The result today is out for all to see. His impressive record has attracted the attention of international media like the CNN International, BBC,  Financial Times of London and many others. Daily Telegraph of the United Kingdom described him on October 24, 2014, as the “the man who tamed Nigeria’s most lawless city”. In April, as he was preparing to leave office, the International Crisis Group, one of the world’s most respected research organizations, honoured him as one of the seven outstanding personalities around the world for tackling security, economic and social challenges in a very imaginative way. Earlier on January 1, 2014, another globally influential think tank, Lo Spacio della Political (LSDP), based in Italy and Belgium and composed of natural and social scientists as well as writers, had named him, alongside the economically creative Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, a Global Thought Leader for 2013. In Nigeria, practically every newspaper and magazine has honoured him with the Man of the Year award. The same goes for other organizations.

    Fashola came into office with concrete ideas about high public office. He never used siren, most unusual of a Nigerian state governor. He never moved in long motorcades, with security detail relating menacingly to the public. He never accepted any chieftaincy title, as he preferred to be known as simply Mr Fashola. He rejected the award of honorary doctorates from different universities and also politely turned down a high national honour from Dr Goodluck Jonathan when the latter was the president. He is convinced that it is not right for public office holders to accept all manner of awards while in office. After all, we have seen high public officers fall from grace for scandalous conduct.

    As has been pointed out several times, Fashola’s stellar performance helped to revive the dying progressive politics of the South-west. He was from 2007 the only Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governor in the whole country until stolen mandates were recovered in Osun, Ekiti and Oyo states. People in the South-west voted ACN in 2011 because the electorate was promised governance resembling that of Fashola’s Lagos State. Consequently, the considerable number of states under its control made it possible for the ACN to play a decisive role in the emerge of the APC, which made history last March by defeating, for the first time in Nigeria’s history, a ruling national party.

    Mallam el-Rufai, the current governor of Kaduna State, displayed courage and vision while serving as the FCT minister from 2003 to 2007 during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency. If Fashola assumes leadership of this ministry, Abuja will in not too distant future begin to compete with world cities like Dubai. It will be ceaseless transformation all the way. Mark my word.

    • Audu is chief executive of an indigenous engineering consulting firm

  • Yoruba elders and herdsmen

    For sometime now, there has been speculations and reports that following the abduction or kidnapping of Chief Olu Falae, an elder statesman, some Yoruba leaders were contemplating and agitating over what action to take against the Fulani herdsmen in, not only, Ondo State, where the old man was kidnapped but the entire South-west.

    The alleged kidnapping of the former Secretary to the Federal Government and one-time Minister of Finance, by the herdsmen in the first place did surprise not a few Nigerians, in view of the fact that no arrest and interrogation of any herdsman or men were made by anybody, including the Nigeria Police and other security agencies in the country.

    So, a lot of reasonable people did not take this matter of the allegation that the Yoruba ethnic nationality was taking or preparing to take any umbrella decision to expel any herdsmen from any part of Nigeria seriously.  The allegation sounded like a movie.  The best way to handle such long tale was to ignore it in the interest of your time and sanity.

    Otherwise, how could any Nigerian contemplate the expulsion from another part of Nigeria of any Nigerian to another part of it?  What could be the constitutional and national consequence of such an action within the country as a body corporate?  For the sake of argument let’s assume that the wild allegation was true – that it was the herdsmen, six of them that kidnapped the chief. Would the action of these six demented criminals justify the blanket action on the entire herdsmen in the South-west?

    Every tribe, ethnic group has her own share of the good, the bad and the ugly.  And that is why there has never been and there will never be any law that will be enacted to force people as a whole to carry any vicarious liability on behalf of others. People will continue to bear liability for their own actions only – either positive or negative.  This is the standard of any civilized society. People must be assumed to be innocent until proven otherwise.

    One question that has been agitating my mind and I believe most Nigerians is – how did Chief Olu Falae come to the conclusion that it was Fulani herdsmen who kidnapped him?  What incontrovertible evidence did he have or put forward to Nigerians that it was truly the herdsmen that kidnapped him?  To say they dressed like herdsmen or spoke Fulfulde (the Fulani language) or they looked like Fulani was not and shall never be tenable for various reasons.

    Since when did it become a law that only Fulani should speak Fulfulde, dress in any particular clothes or manner?  Under what law did the Fulani get any different colour identity or any other identity that is legally and lawfully exclusive to them as a mark of a tribal identity?

    It is one of the commonest things to find better Fulfulde speakers among the Fulani who are not Fulani.  There are still those who look like the Fulani in all their physical features but are not Fulani. There are also those who dress like the Fulani but are not Fulani especially during cultural festivals.  There are also other tribes that dress like the Yoruba, speak Yoruba fluently, yet they are not Yoruba.  We also have other tribes such as the Berom, Tarok, Shuwa, Mandingo, Tuaregs both local and international who are herdsmen but they are not Fulani.

    Are the Yoruba elders telling us today that the Fulani or their herdsmen who have lived for hundreds of years in Yoruba land who speak the Yoruba language and have become almost entirely absorbed in the Yoruba culture of dress, dance and other Yoruba activities should today go out and commit any criminal activity and the Yoruba as an ethnic group be forced to take a mortal liability for it as a people?  The dress, the language, even the marks (meant to identify different tribes) have failed as the marks of most tribes look alike. As for physical attributes you need to ask people sometimes before you know where they come from or who they are tribally or even ethnically.

    Do we need to remind these respected, educated, enlightened, cosmopolitan and urbane Yoruba elders that the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria clearly spelt out under Section 41(1) thus: “Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout (my emphasis) Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereto or exit therefrom”.

    As Nigerians, we must try as hard as possible, no matter, our ethnic, tribal or other differences to respect the laws of the land and refrain from doing anything that can cause ill-feeling, disunity, ethnic or religious crises where it is absolutely dangerous to do so like it is in this case.  There is nowhere that the herdsmen in the South-west in general or Ondo State in particular held any tribal, ethnic or any corporate group meeting where a decision was taken to kidnap Chief Olu Falae or any Yoruba man or woman for that matter.

    It is also true that so far there is no identity parade or security report that identified and verified that it was the herdsmen of the village farm of Olu Falae that kidnapped him.  Even if there were such facts, they would still be subjected to the rigours of our law courts to establish the level of the culpability of such herdsmen, their sponsors, if any, and their motive for such criminal act.

    Even with that, there would not be any vicarious criminal liability on anybody, including the blood relations of such criminals.  It is a very dangerous thing to lump an entire ethnic group together and accuse them of committing a crime that only six crazy and deranged criminals committed. They should be found and fried for their criminal action.

     

    • Bayari, a former national officer of the Myetti Allah Association, sent in this piece from Jos.