The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Olaopa and merit of National Productivity award

    Having watched Dr. Tunji Olaopa labour quietly in the trenches in the last decade without an expectation of being rewarded, I held back tears when a colleague gave me the news that President Muhammadu Buhari was going to confer on him the National Productivity Order of Merit Award (NPOM) for all that it is worth, at long last.

    Tunji Olaopa does not cut the picture of a classroom academic but very few scholars have influenced discourses on public administration and the general public space like he has done within the past two decades. I had a singular opportunity of reading over two dozens of his publications and can conveniently distil two themes in his intellectual adventure; namely, his treatise on public administration, and his intellectual interventions in public discourse and good governance in Nigeria. Evidently, Olaopa‘s seminal arguments on public administration are emanations from his doctoral thesis, his general experiences as a career civil servant and his stint with the bureau of public service reforms, an agency which he conceptualised in 2003 and which raison d’être was to provide technical backstopping to the re-engineering of  the nation’s public service.

    A cursory glance through his works reveals an uncanny passion for public service. These include dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and monographs such as Public Administration And Civil Service Reforms In Nigeria (2008), Innovation And Best Practices In Public Sector Reforms (2009), Public Service Reforms In Africa (2010), Managing Complex Reforms: A Public Sector Perspective (2011) and the Nigerian Civil Service of the Future (2014) and The Joy of Learning, the life and times of Professor Ojetunji Aboyade.

    On the civil service, Olaopa traced the history of the Nigerian civil service to the colonial service which was in force during the early years of Nigeria‘s independence. A potpourri of indigenous officers and expatriates, the colonial model civil service was designed as a mere secretariat of government business, but the need to expand its scope and replace the expatriates with local workforce gave rise to series of reforms and challenges. According to Olaopa, the height of this disarticulation in the nation‘s service occurred during the almost four decades of military rule. The regimented mentality and the customary command-and-control style of the military severely rubbed off on the psyche and operations of the civil service. The noticeable manifestations of systemic weakness were over-expansion of the service, unification of erstwhile regional services, nepotism, corruption etc.

    The colonial model started well in Nigeria and flourished up to the early post- independence years when the system opted for the replacement of expatriates under the Nigerianization scheme.  Although the expatriates were known for dedication and professionalism and even inspired the pioneer Nigerians who took over from them, the service was to witness a steady decline in quality service delivery and professionalism especially from the middle of the 1970s due to unhealthy inter-service rivalries for managerial talent and spurious promotions.  The dynamics of manpower utilization which hitherto relied on planning, forecasting, budgeting and control broke down as even job designs, description and performance were determined by nepotism and other shady factors.  In fact, such critical condiments of the public service such as officer deployments, job classification grading and posting became manipulated by politicians and senior service officials. The practice was for some unscrupulous officials to attach an occupational classification to a staff just to get the staff graded far beyond his mates. The author opines that it was this “character of the state” that dampened the competence and efficiency of the public service.

    Every succeeding regime grappled with reforms to ensure the much-needed transformation of the Nigerian civil service from merely ‘administrative to managerial culture’ to ensure optimal productivity.

    He offered strategies to plug the yawning gaps that have short-circuited the reform trajectory of the civil service. These gaps include: policy gaps, capacity gaps, process gaps, performance gaps and resource gaps.

    The depth of his arguments reveals him as an expert-insider; his works interrogate the dynamics of the reform of the civil service in Nigeria and calibrate the very essentials that would reinvigorate this all important institution of the government which is plagued by corruption, disarticulation and systemic weakness.

    On his adventure in public discourse, Olaopa upped the scale above typical Nigerian public commentators; he is not an armchair critic, but a purveyor of facts and solutions. Various writers have appropriated social criticism as a vehicle to protest those elements of the society they feel ineffective, dysfunctional or corrupt. Areas such as bureaucracy voyeurism, big government, racism and human rights often take centre stage in such essays. In recent times, such writers captivate the reader with not only their lamentations on societal problems but take care to convincingly demonstrate solutions to such problems and attempt to refine the people’s feelings about the society in which they live. The mindset of social critics in Nigeria can be understood as they are irked that the country has potential for greatness if only things are done the right way. The expectations which drive such critics to protest can be captured in the lamentations of Chukwudifu Oputa when he submitted that “Nigeria is great in size, great in population, handsomely blessed and richly endowed by a kind and prodigal providence with almost unlimited natural resources. The challenge is for all of us to make her even greater than nature portend…but if, and only if we are disciplined”

    With the array of his research works, Olaopa‘s contribution to the pool of knowledge on public administration is not in doubt. No comprehensive research or reading can be achieved on the Nigerian public service without a footnote on him. It is intriguing that this feat was achieved by a supposedly busy permanent secretary in the nation‘s civil service. Winston Churchill once said in his famous epitaph on Joseph Chamberlain that one mark of a great man is the power of making lasting impressions on the people he meets. Another is to have handled matters during his life that the course of after-events is continually affected by what he did. Here, one is wont to see the portrait of Tunji Olaopa squarely in this description.

    It is these uncommon traits and his propensity to contribute more to the uplift of the Nigerian public service that inspired his recognition for the coveted National Productivity Order of Merit Award for 2015.

    Although this one comes as an addition to the numerous feathers in our subject’s cap, the person giving the award this time around is President Buhari – the no-nonsense, austere Nigerian leader who is credited with integrity and a focus on merit. He has been called by history to clean up Nigeria. The quintessential Buhari would not say well done unless one merits it. He is not known for frivolities. He must have noticed a man who combines excellent service with turnkey research output to re-engineer and strengthen the public service.

     

     

    • Dr Afaha is a lecturer in the Dept of History and Diplomatic Studies, UNIABUJA

  • Rating OAU’s rating

    What Nigeria is hobbled on all fronts is a reality enormously supported by the existential woes of a disproportionate majority of its inhabitants. The country’s key institutions are effectively dysfunctional where they are not totally moribund. It is the reason behind its continual starkly horrible position among the columns of countries with uninspiring records on good governance and human development initiatives. Whether it is the Ibrahim Index on African Governance of  September 2014 which rated Nigeria as an eminent member of the group of the worst governed countries in Africa, or the UNDP Human Development Report of the same year which ranked the country low on all vital markers of development, the bald fact is that the most populous black nation on earth is very much in the woods of myopic leadership, wanton corruption, institutional anomie, pervasive lawlessness, unsustainable economic policies, and avoidable crippling youth unemployment.

    The knowledge factories of the country are not without their tell-tale signs of persistent decay and progressive decline in quality along the three legs on which they are propped, namely research, teaching, and community service. Nigeria’s higher institutions of learning regularly fare well in operating at a distance from the culture of excellence that defines other lighthouses of knowledge in other places, beginning from a few countries like Ghana and South Africa on the African continent. Having lost the light in their houses owing to a number of avoidable factors, it is hardly any surprise that the products of our higher institutions of learning are everything but round and sound. It is even of no surprise that parents who can afford it now prefer to dispatch their wards, posthaste, to other countries whose educational systems are firmly rooted in the earth of high standard and quality performance.

    But even when it appears some of our higher public educational institutions are casting off the burdening bog of lacklustre performance in the execution of their objectives, there is always some totally preventable disappointing reality that often stands out like a sore thumb. In the shining armour of a few federal universities in Nigeria inching towards a resurgence of the best tradition of a university, there is always a depressing chink.

    It is against the foregoing backdrop that one views the recent ranking of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) as the best higher institution of learning in Nigeria. According to reports in some national dailies and online news portals, an international institute which concerns itself with ranking universities across the world, Cybermetrics Lab of Spain, considered OAU as the primus inter pares for the fifth unbroken time, with the universities of Lagos and Ilorin trailing behind in the second and third positions respectively. The research organisation, which is owned by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, based its assessment on such areas as the curricular, research, academic and general administration of the university.

    Ordinarily this should delight the heart, considering the fact that the indices which the international research group considered in reaching its conclusion in the ranking of OAU as the best are critical to the continuous relevance of any university that is not a knowledge factory in name and structures mainly. Research, needless to stress, is the lifeblood of any higher institution of learning. It is the long-winding, circuitous, interminable path to the treasure troves of knowledge that can help to scale down mountainous socio-economic problems. The same is true of teaching, curricular design and administration. Where those are sensibly handled and intelligently coordinated, the entire country will be the better for it.

    While I agree that OAU in research outputs, and to a certain degree in its curriculums in some programmes, is showing more than a promise to connect fittingly with the culture of best practices in the real academic world, I should like to observe that some chinks abound in the magnificent armour of the university in the areas of teaching and general administration. I have robust interactions with a few students of the university across some departments. They regale me with horrid tales of how comfortable some of their lecturers are with boycotting lectures or habitually turning up late for lectures. The ones who barely show up and those who stroll in thirty minutes late for a lecture of one hour all have something in common – arrogant silence. They often consider it below them to explain their inexcusable absences or justify their half-hour appearances. I have been told repeatedly about some of the female lecturers in the Faculty of Education giving such reprehensible excuses like going to the salon for their hairdos. Also, lecturers gladly ignore their lectures all in the name of going to pick their children in schools.

    There are other lecturers who consider it a transgression for their students to raise questions on their ‘lectures’. They frown gravely at the whole idea of being questioned on certain points, a development which astoundingly negates a core essence of a university. Nevertheless, a disproportionately high number of students continue to return positive assessments of these misbehaving lecturers whenever they are to attend to the lecturer assessment sheet designed by the university. Students betray their consciences to do that because they have been threatened by their lecturers and so fear the backlash of poor grade or delay in graduation. While there are diligent, disciplined and dedicated lecturers with enviable work ethics in OAU, I fear to report that those completely opposite at various levels are gaining wider space.

    Rather than dismiss these claims, the school management would do well to investigate them. They will not sweat much before they discover those mortifying practices. The organisation which rates the school in that cheering manner may be unaware of the trouble with teaching and the attitude of lecturers to teaching in OAU, but the top echelons of the school must never enjoy the self-deception encouraged by the tide of the positive rating. They must avoid the false comfort that such rating is likely to inspire, considering the subsisting dent in the area of teaching. Enviable research culture and good curriculums will not take care of the culture of teaching, just as shoddy attitudes of lecturers cannot help in grooming the round and sound students who can give good account of themselves anywhere.

    Moreover, there are equally appalling tales to tell in the area of general administration. Many of the non-teaching staff of OAU can be terrible when it comes to doing their jobs. They are mostly incompetent, unfriendly, and slothful. Even the school management can be very disappointing and draconian in their management of crises. Their recent response to the actions of the Non-Academic Staff Union of the university further revealed management inadequacy. Even issues concerning student welfare, protests, and demands are too often managed ineptly, thus affirming the view that Nigerian university mangers need more than a crash course in human and material management.

    OAU may have added another feather to its small cap; but its top officials must note that rather than mafficking, they need to rise stoutly to check the menacing tide which seeks to totally erode the quality and substance of teaching and general administration under their watchful eyes. Otherwise, Africa’s most beautiful campus risks becoming the white, outwardly glittering but inwardly rotten sepulchre the Nazarene talks about in his parable.

     

    • Adediran wrote in from Enuwa, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

  • Kogi 2015: Revisiting Wada’s second coming

    As the governorship election in Kogi State draws close, possible permutations on chances of respective contestants have started emerging from an assortment of quarters. Even conjectures regarding the likely party standard-bearers are unfolding while party primaries are yet to be conducted. In as much as these efforts may just be regarded as speculations, there exist some pointers that convey probable truths and worries about the forthcoming elections. Emphatically, the echoes of imposition of candidates are beginning to sound very loud especially in the camp of the present ruling party, the PDP, where the incumbent Governor, Captain Idris Wada, has indicated interest for re-election.

    Presently, the gossip being peddled is on Governor Idris Wada’s endorsement by his party’s national leadership.  This purported approval though best assumed as mere hearsay, has in a style reminiscent of rumours, sent a message that has been promoted by its beneficiaries to rapidly travel round the political spectrum of Kogi State.  Well, for many analysts, if at all this is anything to go by, it simply means that the PDP which Governor Idris Wada belongs to, is entangled in a risky  issue of skewed political disposition that may expose a  serious jeopardy resulting from political party impunity as witnessed in the 2011 PDP elections.

    Right now, even though Governor Idris Wada bills himself as the best candidate from the PDP for the forthcoming elections, nevertheless, his public rating has hit rock bottom as the suffering of Kogi people has become increasingly obvious with escalating unemployment and gross dilapidation of public infrastructure under his leadership. These compelling facts about Kogi State in Governor Idris Wada’s present tenure, no doubt, suggest the existence of an avalanche of intolerable and unprogressive actions of a leader.  Already, Governor Wada’s government has been tagged with many derogatory labels as regularly expressed in the media, thus making his tenure an embarrassment to the PDP. Consequently, the belief by many Kogi citizens is that there is no testimony to Governor Wada’s claim on strong credentials in governance aside from commissioned articles in the newspapers and paid advertorials. Indeed, these negative indices have signaled that Governor

    Wada’s ambition to contest for a second tenure can only find sustenance and victory in a flawed electoral process. Realistically, any party with such a candidate should be deeply troubled.

    Now that Governor Wada’s underperformance has become a major concern for the Kogi electorate, the likelihood that he would be made the PDP candidate in the forthcoming election will further distance the party from politics of consolidation and stability.  Simply put, the conclusion by the majority of Kogi voters is that Governor Idris Wada’s second coming is offensive to their sensibilities.  Thus, it is evident that any party that presents him would find it extremely difficult to win the votes of the majority. The point herein is uncomplicated because, barring a divine intervention or an act of God or sudden intervention of the national leadership of PDP for a fresh candidate, the opposing APC party will defeat the PDP with landslide victory in the coming elections.  Thus, any endorsement extended by the PDP leadership to Idris Wada for a second term in office will obviously expose the quality of its leadership and to a large extent, the party’s intentions for the Kogi citizenry.

    Presently, many observers of the Kogi politics believe that for progress to be witnessed in the state there would be a strong need to bring about leadership adjustments that will overhaul its governance. Unfortunately, Governor Idris Wada seems to be at variance with such a concrete reality because his recent remarks while speaking on how he would easily defeat the opposing APC party at the polls do not reflect an understanding of the complex political situation in Kogi.  In fact, Governor Wada’s  comments on his anticipated victory are not only shocking but they invite suspicion because instead of focusing on the major hurdle of party  primaries, he rather chose to delve into matters relating to the major electoral contest, thus, indirectly confirming that the party primaries is already a done deal for him. How he arrived at this, may not be very far from allegations that he has planned to manipulate the party primaries.

    Nevertheless, given Governor Wada’s poor track record and lack of evidence on fresh initiatives, it is hard for any objective mind to feel optimistic about his assumptions of electoral triumph. Indeed, for a large section of the Kogi electorate, the popular public opinion has shifted unfavourably against Idris Wada. Thus, his rumoured choice as the PDP candidate will not only make Kogi election unexciting and uncompetitive but will be PDP’s gravest error since it exited the status of national ruling party in Nigeria. Indeed, if Governor Wada eventually emerges by hook or by crook as the PDP candidate in the forthcoming elections, the picture that will be portrayed is that the PDP has advanced a failure strategy and has again repeated the unpopular approach of party imposition. On this, some analysts predict that such may not only guarantee the PDP an early loss at the Kogi polls but might make the PDP unfit to be victorious in any of the twenty one local government councils in the state.  If this happens, it is unlikely that the PDP would get any moral consolation when it gets defeated at the elections.

    Besides the fact that Wada’s purported party endorsement is already feeding the APC propaganda mills, it is important to state that the main political battle for the PDP right now is not necessarily the struggle between its candidates or even between intra political camps but rather between Idris Wada and the majority of Kogi citizens.

    The simple reality about Kogi politics is that the incumbent Governor, Idris Wada has fallen far short of the people’s expectations and does not seem to have the faintest idea of how to make Kogi work. Consequently, his second coming must be tamed by his party leadership, especially now that it has been reported that some high-minded appeals have already been made by PDP party faithful to Governor Wada to step down for another PDP member in the coming election.  It will be most honourable for him to accept such soft landing because Lord Lugard’s House certainly deserves a new occupant and the PDP will do well in giving the Kogi electorate a candidate that will enable them make a good choice. On the other hand, a refusal by Governor Wada to step down, might not only lead to the sinking of his party’s ship in the forthcoming elections but expose his selfish politics of defiance that will only end up watering the seeds of victory for APC opposition party.

     

    • Onyegbule wrote in  from Ogori Magongo

  • Impacts of FMBN on housing delivery in Adamawa State

    I had the privilege of being the guest speaker during the ground-breaking ceremony for the Bindow Housing Estate, Yola on 19th August, 2015. The ceremony flagged off the programme of His Excellency, Senator Muhammad Bindow Jibrilla, Governor of Adamawa State, for improving housing delivery in the State. I would like to congratulate him and the people of Adamawa State for the good works he has so earnestly begun.

    It is a good time for housing in Nigeria. The Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari has targeted the delivery of one million housing units per annum, as part of his bold measures to close the supply gap for housing in the country. Based on the empirical evidence that the construction of a three-bedroom unit creates up to 17 jobs, the President’s housing initiative will create 17 million jobs.

    Part of the recent major developments in the housing sector was the approval of the National Policy on Housing. The policy makes provision for social housing for low- and no-income earners; emphasizes private sector-led housing delivery; more robust financing; improvement in institutional capacity to deliver housing; and inclusion of local content and adoption of local building materials.

    As the foremost institution facilitating affordable housing in the country, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is proud that the people of Adamawa State have always embraced the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme of FMBN. This ensures that we are ever ready to support housing initiatives in the State. As at April 2015, the State contributed a total of N2.97 billion to the NHF scheme, being 2.5% deductions from workers’ monthly income.

    The FMBN has in turn invested a total of N2.8 billion in supporting the provision of affordable housing in Adamawa State. This was by way of disbursing N1.62 billion under FMBN’s Estate Development Loans (EDLs) to the State-owned Adasolid Properties Ltd, and to two private developers, for the construction of about 500 housing units which have been successfully completed and sold to NHF contributors in the State. Another EDL of over N800 million for additional 240 units is being finalized.

    With the housing units already delivered, we estimate that FMBN has contributed to the creation of no less than 8,500 jobs in Adamawa State.

    Aside from Estate Development Loans, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria has also provided affordable mortgage loans of about N1.18 billion to 833 beneficiaries through Adamawa Savings and Loans Ltd. I wish to assure that FMBN will be providing mortgage loans at an affordable interest rate of 6%, repayable over 30 years, for the off-takers of the Bindow Housing Estate, Yola as part of our contribution to the success of the new housing project.

    In line with addressing the shelter needs of our most unfortunate fellow citizens that were affected by the insurgency and violence in the North East region, I wish to assure that the FMBN will also be actively involved in the implementation of the Federal Government’s resettlement programme for Internally Displaced Person (IDPs), being anchored by the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing & Urban Development. I am reliably informed that as part of its contribution, the Adamawa State Government has expeditiously provided unencumbered land for this worthy intervention.

    In general, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is focused on service improvement and operational efficiency. The National Housing Fund scheme has become the cornerstone of the strategic deployment of our corporate resources. For instance, we deployed the NHF e-Collection Platform for transparency and accountability in the NHF process, while providing the contributors, including those in Adamawa State, access to up-to-date records of contributions online.

    Our products portfolio is being boosted to include services to the non-salaried/informal sector which accounts for about 85% of the national working population. We are also focusing on cooperative societies and trade unions. Our latest products are the Nigeria Diaspora Mortgage Scheme which will provide opportunities for Nigerians living abroad to acquire houses in the country after minimum of two years of contribution to the NHF. We have also innovated by developing the Home Renovation Loan which will enable contributors have access to quick loans to improve their housing conditions, at very affordable rates. These products, which will be launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari very shortly, will also make impacts in housing delivery in Adamawa State as with every state of the country; but in particular those states that have signed up to the National Housing Fund.

    I would like to make some recommendations. No nation can develop structurally and economically without housing being on the front burner. As the efforts at eradicating the threats of insurgency and violence have intensified, Governments at both the Federal and State levels must, as a matter of urgency, commence the rebuilding of lives and property.

    In this regard, I would like to commend Governor Bindow Jibrilla, who has shown leadership in addressing this national imperative in earnest. The ground-breaking for the Bindow Housing Estate within his first 100 days is indeed very commendable.

    It will be recalled that after the World War II, the conquering U.S. Government embarked on the European Recovery Programme. This programme, popularly known as the Marshall Plan, helped to rebuild European economies that were battered by the war. While the activities of the insurgents in the North East remain deplorable, we are happy that we continue to see various efforts at rebuilding our towns and villages, and more importantly, lives.

    Construction is one of the most effective ways of rebuilding lives and the economy. It does not only help in effectively reclaiming lost territory and pride; it revitalizes trading activities; boosts social interaction; and restores a sense of normalcy in daily life. However, much more than these, housing construction will provide our teeming youths the much-needed employment from which they will gain a sense of belonging in the society; and, therefore, shun anti-social and criminal tendencies.

    As part of the strategies in providing a suitable environment for housing construction-led boom, I would like to make some assertions. Closer collaboration between the Federal and State Governments is very important in making unencumbered land available for housing development. This will also improve intergovernmental agency partnership in housing delivery. Review of the legal and regulatory framework for housing and mortgage finance, especially the reduction of time and cost of transfer and titling of property, is very germane.

    Increased workers’ enlightenment on the benefits of the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme and interaction with Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria is also very important. As mentioned earlier, FMBN is embarking on a Home Renovation Loan Scheme that will be of immense benefit to workers. However, the prospective beneficiaries are contributors to the NHF Scheme.

    Finally, there is need for improvement in stakeholder collaboration in housing delivery. While FMBN will continue to reach out to every potential and existing contributor, it requires the support of state governments and labour groups for us to fulfill our mandate under the Scheme.

    I wish to reiterate the determination of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to sustain its drive for affordable mass housing delivery for low and medium income earners. Although the Bank is facing funding challenges due to reliance on only NHF contributions at present, we will continue to improve our work processes and service delivery to satisfy the yearnings of NHF contributors within the limits of our resources.

    On behalf of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, I would like to congratulate Governor Bindow Jibrilla once again, and assure him and the other state governors of our enduring support in housing delivery as a key strategy of moving the nation forward.

    • Gimba Ya’uKumo, OON, is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria

  • Comments

    ‘Somebody that has the ears of Father Kukah, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar III and other responsible/respectable people in the National Peace Council should please tell these people to distance themselves from associating with the likes of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and other controversial members of the council, to salvage what remains of their integrity in the eyes of discerning Nigerians.  Where were the likes of Father Kukah, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, etc, when Jonathan’s men and women were stealing Nigeria dry?  Why did they fail to tell them to “follow due process” in committing their atrocities then?  — Musa Shuaibu Karshi

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    I belong to the school of thought that advocates that   those who have crippled the economy of this country should be brought to book – whether military or civilian. – From Comr. Onuoha Francis, Owerri.

    ‘’But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and Brimstone which is the second Death.’’ Revelation 21:8. – Anonymous.

    Please tell Mr President to set up special court for corruption because the judiciary is too corrupt. The people concerned have started lobbying the judges and the traditional rulers. – Anonymous.

    Many thanks for your analytical article on Anti-Corruption Matters. I opted for a probe down to our independence and the late Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh. Now I submit to your superior argument in limiting the ongoing probe to the recent past and using the lessons learnt to build a future corrupt-free Nigeria. – From Dr Jones Utuk, Uyo. 

    Re: Anti-corruption matters. Prof. Ben Nwabueze seems not to be patriotically consistent. It will be recalled that the Professor headed the team that recommended the  confusing hydra-headed Unitary Constitution under the military. He also led the committee that recommended the National Conference for Jonathan’s administration and ‘ran away’ when it was being debated. Like Gbadegesin rightly stated: “The finger that commits a crime will suffer the penalty.”

    If ex-President Good Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) was satisfied with what he inherited in the Presidency (stealing and corruption) that was his Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) ‘family affair.’, there is ‘A time to kill, and a time to heal;’(Eccl.3:3a). God has sent President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) to kill corruption and official stealing before they kill Nigeria-Detterent. Let those who feel cheated now seek justice at the Judiciary-the third arm of government . Carry on PMB, the international community is with your administration. – From Ladipo O. David, Gwagwalada.

    As a time is ‘for everything’ so also is a time to start a clean-up. Buhari has the right to determine that time as the President – whether 1914, 1960, 1985, or 2011. No Nwabueze nor Kukah, nor Obasanjo, nor Peace Committee, nor ethnic or religious group should direct the President when that time should be. Buhari wants to redirect Nigeria from this route to hell. The penchant for colouring the truth in Nigeria according to person, place or religion will destroy us. Is truth divided? If somebody is proved to have committed a crime why can’t our leaders have the courage to agree that such persons face punishment? This elite restlessness about the anti- corruption policy of this govt shows really the true beneficiaries of the status quo. – Anonymous.

    Thank you for that piece titled: Anti-corruption matters. Leave Prof Nwabueze alone, one million SANs cannot stop Buhari against the treasury looters. Let anybody says whatever he likes. PDP ruled us for 16 years and Nwabueze did not advise Jonathan to probe PDP regimes of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua. Buhari must not listen to any ethnic group, because I see no reason people are saying it is against their ethnic group alone. PDP must be ashamed of themselves and keep their mouth shut. In the history of Nigeria, no government has ruined the economy of Nigeria like the PDP. I stand to be corrected! Thanks. – From Elder Isaiah O. Fakunle

    Gbadegesin, thanks for enlightening the readers of the necessity of PMB’s insistence of fighting corruption. PMB is not interested in crucifying ex-President. I feel sorry that our renowned Professor thinks otherwise. Let us all show patriotism in building a new Nigeria. – From Femi Ayoola, Isale Aaje, Ipetumodu, Osun State.

    I want to appreciate the writer of ‘Where are they now?(II)’. Don’t relent in writing with your magic pen. Continue digging dip. Any discovery I will send to you. PDP has sentenced this nation to death; now that God has delivered his people, He said have no mercy on them. We all have to be praying for Baba Buhari.-  From Dr Theo Wilson.

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

    Omotoso,  how did you omit Ayo Oritsejafor, your signature piece, “Where are they now?”; Ayo’s ascension to the presidency of the Christian Association of Nigeria (C.A.N) utterly diminished Christendom. Phew!   Anonymous.

    They need to be prosecute them for their wrong doing in last administration. They are behind Nigeria problems. From Gordon Chika Nnorom

    Your piece reminds us of the Scripture that says ,”A time for every purpose under heaven “…”A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.”(Eccl.3:1,5b). Nigeria’s politicians are self-focused. Hence, they do not know what and when to embrace per time. However,the list topped by an 85-year-old greedy fellow, left out the ever-relevant “Villa’s Chief Priest” from Warri, and head of delegation to Jerusalem, who virtually sold CAN to PDP. They ALL deserve to be remembered as they gradually withdraw themselves into oblivion. Long live Nigeria! Anonymous.

    Within this article, it is mentioned that my old columnist at Guardian newspaper is up for hire. It is a pity that most of us his readers have shifted our interest and love to the ever-robust THE NATION.We expect the “changed”Abati to establish a newspaper after departing Villa and continue to enlighten the world on “ the mis-understood will-power of Jonathan”; or he goes back to the stable of The Guardian. He has almost become a dark spot in Nigerian journalism. Good luck. From L. O. David, Gwawalada, Abuja.

    Why is it that THE NATION never speak against the APC? From Gbolahan. 

    They deserve to be remembered, especially my ex-gov Gabriel Suswan from Benue State. From Joseph, Benue State.

    I have always craved for someone who would follow up on our men in power and after! Please keep up the good work. From Olumuyiwa Gam-Ikon.

    Great job. Wish you expand the article to others like Pastor Oritsejafor. From Bode Benson.

    I should ask after the co-ordinating minister of the  Economy under president Jonathan? What about the best governor in Nigeria, Dr, Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State. The man many awarding organisations in Nigeria adjudged the best governor, not by what he actual did for Deltans, but how much he was willing to pay for several awards he received? Some said he had gone to China for deserved rest. Please when you see him, tell him Deltans are waiting for him to refund of the billions he allegedly paid for the various contracts that were never started. From Young Francis 

    You need to do a book on the title: where are GEJ’s men/women foot sojas?2009-2015. Anonymous.

    But it seems you have forgotten or afraid of Yakubu Jang,son of Jonah Jang, who allegedly has properties in almost every street of Jos. The only school drop out turned billionaire in Jos… From Mr. Dalong, Jos.

    In your piece titled: Re: No hiding place refers. You mistakenly wrote “as happened in the cases of Charles Taylor and Laurent Gbagbo of Liberia and Sierra Leone respectively “. It should read Cote d’Ivoire instead of Sierra Leone. Please. From L. O. David. Gwagwalada, Abuja.

    You have said it all. It is a great lesson to learn and think twice whenever you find yourself in position of authority. The PDP members thought they have power to rule us for 60 years. But God disgraced them all. If I were God, I would not allow some PDP senators who are against a democratic government and the actualisation of June 12 enjoy the number four citizen of Nigeria for eight years. Psalm 1:4. Thanks. From Elder Isaiah. O. Fakunle.

    All the atrocities mentioned by you except Dr Akinwumi Adesina, teach us to remember the future while we have the opportunity to hold positions today. You forgot to mention the tortoise, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala and the garrulous, Maku! They are all around. They cannot talk, now. From Lanre Oseni.

    When some people are on seat of power, they tend to forget they will one day, but now, where are there? Their country is hot for them now. Anonymous.

    I really enjoy the piece titled: Where are they now? From Yemi Giwa

     

    For Olatunji Dare

    I’m an unknown fan of yours over the years. Your article touches many informed citizens. What is the way out? The Judiciary should check the excesses of the National Assembly once the masses who elected them have objections. We should set a limit to their earnings in relation to what obtains in other areas. Also, the legislators should be part-time instead of full time with excess recess without performance, thereby raping our treasury. We should look at ways of putting all these in the constitution, which is to be reviewed. From Mudi A. Gold  

    It is very unfortunate that our lawmakers are yet to agree to cut their jumbo pay in spite of Nigerians’call for their reduction. It seems that the lawmakers were in National Assembly for their selfish interests and not that of Nigerians who voted for them. Nigerians should recall them if they refuse to reduce their pay. Nigeria needs to develop rapidly with the resources. The few people in National Assembly are wasting the money meant for infrastructural development. ‘Stomach infrastructure’ is not in our agenda for change. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia. 

    The National Assembly members’pay is really outrageous. Nigerians have to urgently move en mass to Abuja and chase the ‘thieves’ away. Labour should lead the protest, but are they bothered to embark on such? We are doomed. Anonymous.

    Re: Quis custodiet ipso custodes? Bravo Prof. Dare. It’s a pity that as Nigerians  are celebrating the dawn of a new era,the “polio-ticians”, the political contractors with ‘forged invoices ‘at the National Assembly have refused to see reasons with us. They still smile home with the world top-most remunerations, little work. Both the Federal and state governments are struggling to pay salaries, even N18,000 minimum wage is almost impossible. Yet, they feel unconcerned. After winning elections, our politicians should undergo a basic course in Political Economy. As for the refractory ‘guardians’ and law-breaking law-makers, they are part of our problems instead of helping to proffer lasting solutions. Judiciary in collaboration with the law enforcement agents should be up to the task. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is dead – RIP. We are now running away from corruption to permanent collective treasury looters called National Assembly. Buhari needs our persistent prayers. From Ladipo O. David. Gwagwalada, Abuja.

    I like to commend the innovation of The Nation cover page carrying the photograph of Navy’s destruction of illegal refineries in Port Harcourt. Please continue to carry President Buhari’s achievement in this corner piece daily in your paper. I love the innovation. God bless The Nation.

     

    For Kunle Abimbola

    Re: Kukah cooking poisonous broth (Republican Ripples, The Nation, August 18)

    I was really disappointed with Rev. Father Matthew Kukah’s statement.  There is no place in the Bible that says you should leave a thief with his stolen goods.  Likewise, it is not a sin collecting it back, while the thief faces the law.  Common and elite theft are all the same in the eyes of the law.  — Yahaya Halidu, Kaduna, +2348103765713

    I commend your expose in Kukah cooking poisonous broth — explosive and hits the nail on the head.  As a Catholic, I used to hold Kukah in high esteem.  Sadly, he has diminished in stature by justifying corruption.  I truly appreciate your write-up — Barrister Iyasere Florence, +2348080788418

    That was brilliant — your piece on “Kukah cooking poisonous broth”.  The Kukah Show is the unmasking of a masquerade — and a rather scheming media manipulator!  Perhaps editors will begin to show more discretion in giving platform to all kinds of characters, some of them phonies.  Kukah’s unmasking as a sophist apologist for corruption is straight from the Book of Revelation. — Dr. Bisi Olawunmi, +2348033647571

    Somebody that has the ears of Father Kukah, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar III and other responsible/respectable people in the National Peace Council should please tell these people to distance themselves from associating with the likes of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and other controversial members of the council, to salvage what remains of their integrity in the eyes of discerning Nigerians.  Where were the likes of Father Kukah, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, etc, when Jonathan’s men and women were stealing Nigeria dry?  Why did they fail to tell them to “follow due process” in committing their atrocities then?  — Musa Shuaibu Karshi, +234811855811.

    You stood on higher tower to view things around Nigerian and, at the end, you saw everything.  The National Peace Council wants to continue with its mandate of peace.  So, let Father Kukah extend his peace crusade to past governments; and let everyone that pinched money from both federal and state governments step out to EFCC for confession; and after, let them all return all they have stolen.  Then, there will be peace. — Richard Tyotsugh, Abuja, +2348078749725.

    Thank you so much for this clinical analysis of our National Peace Council visit to President Muhammadu Buhari.  I asked myself: what manner of elders are these?  But God has used you to address the issue. — Henry, Awka, +2349053534936

    An excellent take, your signature piece, “Kukah cooking poisonous broth”.  It was easily an excellent read.  Tell you what: noticeably, Bishop Hassan Kukah has morphed into a twisted chimera, since he was made secretary of the misbegotten Oputa Panel, authored by the avuncular narcissist!  But the erudite and mischievous clergyman, with his geeky back flips, makes me suspect Christianity as a huge specious fraud.  Next, Bishop Kukah could as well harangue the hoi polloi for murmuring that the epic emoluments of the buccaneers, pretending to be legislators, are oppressive and obscene, in the context of the Nigerian famished desert of Biblical privation.  More, chances are that Bishop Kukah may not have heard of the altruistic feat of Cardinal Sin, the resolute Archbishop of Manila, who sided with the insufferable Filipino people, under the yoke of the Marcos couple.  — Eghosa Imade, +2348066572500

     

  • Wanted: Maximum security for Buhari as corruption fights back

    [dropcap]A[/dropcap]s President Buhari digs in without looking back in fighting corruption in Nigeria, corruption is ferociously fighting back like a wounded lion. The most corrupt political party in Africa and the world, PDP, was the first to start the blackmail and intimidation. What the brigands tell us is that the President should hit the ground running and stop chasing shadows.

    When it suits them, they tell us that President Buhari is clueless and unprepared for the big business of governance and hence the pretence to be fighting corruption. In another development, they tell us that Boko Haram has killed more people in a very short time when compared with the same time frame during ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure.

    The ‘Pay me, I write for you’ Diaspora internet warriors in Jonathan’s camp joined in hitting at Mr. President to form his cabinet as a matter of urgency and give them what he promised. The charge and bail lawyers and charge and write writers among them said the president’s inability to appoint his cabinet three weeks after being sworn in clearly shows unseriousness and unpreparedness on the part of the President who prepared for leadership for sixteen years.

    They are angry. They are frustrated and frightened. Jonathan made heavy investment on them to help him to realise his dream of governing Nigeria for 10years, but the project crashed like a pack of cards. They are yet to come to terms with what hit them. Pains, tears, abusive languages, hate speech and name calling have become their ways of life these days.

    Frustrated left and right, they sought the help of General Abulsalami’s Peace Committee to intervene to rescue them from the bottomless pit they are going into. The Peace Committee moved in with their blackmail and intimidation also to suppress the anti-corruption machine of Mr. President. Hear them: ”I think what we are concerned about is the process (of fighting corruption).

    It is no longer a military regime and under our existing laws, everybody is innocent until proven guilty”. The Peace Committee spoke about former President Jonathan’s commitment and his spectacular deeds as president, whatever that means. But when we look back to see the deep rot in the system and reckless looting of our institutions, the so-called spectacular stuff in Jonathan’s deeds vanish into thin air.

    Those who benefited from Jonathan’s billions of naira and dollars to help him win an election he was bound to lose have resorted to their own arm-twisting and subterfuge. They insist that President Buhari must start his war on corruption from the days of IBB in 1985(30 years ago). After abusing President Buhari, after accusing him of being a Boko Haram sponsor, after denying him of votes from the South East and South South, they are setting an agenda for President Buhari.

    They are now shamelessly dictating to Buhari what to do after selling their votes for a mess of porridge. After marginalising themselves politically, the shameless hungry politicians in Ohaneze are now complaining of marginalisation of Igbo. How many votes did Igbo give to President Buhari? Did we not tell them that Jonathan will not win this election? Did they listen to us? Did they hear us? They abused and shouted us down. Now, you cannot eat your cake and have it.

    Please go to where you took your bath and pick your clothes. You have ruined and destroyed Igboland with your greed and political naivety. If you call your boat a useless boat, children will use it to play. Woe betide a nation whose leaders are children! I thank God that APC South East has risen to rebuke the children in Ohaneze for defending Jonathan who ran the most fraudulent and corrupt regime in the world.

    According to Mr. Osita Okechukwu, the South East APC spokesperson ”We have yet to find any sentence where any of them, even our revered icon, erudite, and constitutional lawyer Professor Ben Nwabueze, in any form denied the mindless, pervasive and unbridled corruption which pervaded ex-president Jonathan’s regime”. There is nothing more to add than to ask Ndigbo and the children in Ohaneze to move on with life and borrow a leaf from Ijaw nation that had moved on since May 29 2015.

    President Buhari has been stunned into disbelief by the gamut of rot PDP left behind after 16 years. According to Governor Oshiomhole: “If Nigerians know what these people did, they will stone them to death”. These scavengers were not interested in building Nigeria, they were not interested in creating jobs, they were not interested in moving Nigeria to join the human race, and they cared less about what Nigeria becomes in future. They were only interested in their pockets. It was a big scramble to pocket anything in sight and damn the consequences. It was primitive accumulation of even what you do not need. It was bazaar. PDP leaders who were less than 0.5% of the population stole 80% of our common patrimony without caring a hoot. Others called it mindless looting, I call it total madness when people do not know when to say enough is enough. These people are ready to do anything to keep their loot. They are sleeping in hospitals abroad pretending to be sick. They are using blackmail and subterfuge as a cover up to divert attention. They are shouting from the rooftop to deceive the gullible, but there is no hiding place for the enemies of progress. They want to run away from justice and keep their loot.

    This is the reason why I want maximum protection for Mr. President. The world and concerned citizens of this country must help this President to succeed. Those who looted Nigeria for sixteen years are too rich and too dangerous to be ignored. They can do anything to retain their loot. They can destabilise the government with their huge resources. They can topple the government of President Buhari if we do not do something tangible to protect the man.

    If anything happens to the President now, the war on corruption will come to a standstill and the looters will smile away. I know that God will keep President Buhari to do this great job but we have to do our own duty also by being vigilant. If you are surrounded by enemies, you must be vigilant all the time.

    ‘The world and concerned citizens of this country must help this President to succeed. Those who looted Nigeria for sixteen years are too rich and too dangerous to be ignored. They can do anything to retain their loot. They can destabilise the government with their huge resources’

     

    • Joe Igbokwe wrote in from Lagos.

  • Authority Stealing

    I was very young when the legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, sang the evergreen number ‘Authority Stealing’. I didn’t quite get what he meant by that until I grew up to understand the cankerworm of corruption that has eaten deep into the fabric of our public and private institutions. The song is more relevant and meaningful in today’s Nigeria, especially about the mind-boggling and unbelievable sleaze that took place under the watch of President Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP-led Federal Government reported in the dailies.

    In the fullness of time, Fela’s song suddenly came alive on radio and television stations as a sign-off for documentaries about corruption in Jonathan’s era.  In that song, Fela sang about the irony of a common thief in Nigeria who stole items worth about N7, 000 and sentenced to death or lynched by a mob compared to a government official who stole millions of naira with his pen and was celebrated by the society. Fela sang that the common robber requires a gun to rob while the government official needs only pen to rob because gun does not have power like pen. This is the meaning of authority stealing.

    What we are hearing these days is unbelievable and little wonder that the Nigeria economy has been left prostrate. The amount of money discovered to have been stolen in the last six years is enough to totally destroy the lives of the people of a country and we were moving towards that precipice until Buhari won the March 28 Presidential election. The list of looted funds from some sectors of the economy include: N3.8 trillion cash withheld by NNPC (between 2012-2015), $2. 1b missing Excess Crude Account funds, $3. 9b proceeds of 160m barrels of crude oil lost (2009-2012), $13b NLNG dividends mostly unaccounted for, N109.7b royalty from oil firms unremitted by DPR, $6b cash allegedly stolen by Jonathan’s former ministers, $15m botched arms deal cash yet to be returned and N183b funds unaccounted for at the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC). There is also the allegation that the Nigerian Ports Authority is yet to account for N160 billion it generated in one year. Added to this is the alleged $4m centenary project fraud involving former Secretary to Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, who presented a private project as government agenda and purportedly goaded former President Jonathan into signing it and yet there is the questionable $4.5 billion waiver fraud in the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission.

    These are only some cases of sleaze discovered so far and still counting. One may be tempted to believe that the amount of money stolen under former President Jonathan is more than all the money stolen under former Presidents Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdul-Salaami Abubakar and Olusegun Obasanjo put together. This is happening in a country where over 90 million of her 140 million population live in abject poverty while more that 10 million children are out of school and more than 1.5 million citizens are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) due to insurgency in the North East. We should not be surprised about our level of poverty with this mind boggling stealing.

    Little wonder Nigeria was in total darkness as 4,000 megawatts of electricity dropped to 1,800 at the tail end of Jonathan’s tenure. Stealing and corruption were the same reasons there was scarcity of petrol during the same period whereby the product was sold for as high as N400 per litre and it was not available. Nigerians can now see that the Jonathan administration was wicked, deliberately punishing Nigerians in the last six years for no reason.

    Nigerians can feel the Buhari government’s impact in the critical aspects of their lives, power and petroleum, just because of his integrity. The two sectors only responded to Buhari’s body language and with changes in the leadership of the oil sector, everything seems to be falling in place.  In power generation, 1,800 megawatts suddenly jumped to 6,662 in less than three months when Buhari has not even started his own reforms in the sector of adding 4,000 megawatts yearly. What happened was that the Malitoli contract that was stuck became active with the emergence of President Buhari whom the contractors know brooks no nonsense. The gas which they complained was not available became suddenly available and this has boosted power supply from a  company like Egbin power station which  generated 500 megawatts of electricity in 2013 but now generates 1,100 mw and will soon start to generate its installed capacity of 1, 320 mw. Nigerians are so excited about this magic of power supply that residents of Adebayo area in Ado-Ekiti a few days ago celebrated uninterrupted power supply for 24 hours, which has not happened in the last 40 years. If this continues, we may soon be celebrating One Year of uninterrupted power supply like our next door neighbour, Ghana.

    As Governor Adams Oshiomhole rightly noted, ’ As you can see, under two months, without minister of energy, power has stabilised. The only thing Buhari has invested is power of integrity.’

    We saw the new Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai leading troops in battle fronts in Borno as against the Service Chiefs under Jonathan who sat in Abuja with big tummies to discuss arms procurement contracts which were never executed, while Boko Haram annexed about 15 Local Governments in three North-Eastern states. In less than three months of Buhari’s Presidency without a cabinet, Boko Haram has been vigorously fought and we are getting results, electricity has been stable as generators are now on holidays in many homes, even as sanity has returned to the petroleum industry as Kaduna, Warri and Port Hacourt refineries, which had not worked in the last 16 years, have started working. And why is EFCC just waking up to its responsibility? Is the chairman Ibrahim Larmorde responding to Buhari’s body language also?  The leadership of the commission should also change in my opinion.

    We now know why the campaign slogan of Patience Jonathan was ”don’t vote for Buhari ooo I don’t want to visit my husband in prison because Buhari will jail everybody”.  What Patience Jonathan did not add is that Buhari will only jail those who looted the treasury. Nigerians know they have stolen so much and that is the reason Patience and company were afraid. Under the PDP, everything and everybody was denominated in naira and kobo: integrity, merit and honesty were discounted while mediocrity, dishonesty, corruption and nepotism were elevated to state policy.

    Nigeria would have collapsed if Jonathan was re-elected and not a few Nigerians share this belief. Why are the refineries suddenly working without any major Turn Around Maintenance? Why is electricity stable without any money spent on power yet from the Buhari administration? Why is fuel supply suddenly stable and the product affordable and available without a Minister of Petroleum in place? So many dramatis personae of the Jonathan administration should not just be dispossessed of their ill-gotten wealth but must face the full wrath of the law.  President Buhari should not waver or look back in his bold move to fight the scourge of Authority Stealing which is worse than armed robbery. There is no amount of blackmail and distraction from those who are involved in corruption or benefited from it that would halt this present progress of Nigeria to greatness. We are gradually returning to Nigeria’s golden era where all of us would be proud to be called Nigerians.

    ‘President Buhari should not waver or look back in his bold move to fight the scourge of Authority Stealing which is worse than armed robbery’

     

    • Jamiu wrote in from from Ado-Ekiti.

  • Obingwa INEC fire: Matters arising

    On August 2 in Abia State, a  midday fire gutted the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at Mgboko, the Obingwa Local Government headquarters and turned the complex and everything therein to ashes. It is a common belief in the African setting that “when an owl cries at night and a baby dies the following morning, there is a correlation.”

    Electoral materials used in the governorship election in Obingwa were in the custody of INEC at the local government. The materials were apparently in the store-room of the ill-fated office complex. And they were supposed to be conveyed from the local government to the premises of the governorship election petition tribunal in Umuahia for forensic inspection on August 3, only for suspected arsonists to set the building on fire and reduce it to rubble.

    Following the record of events in the aftermath of the April governorship poll in Abia state, which saw Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) being declared the winner by INEC, it is evident that all was not right with the election. Little wonder two candidates in the election, Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Chief Anyim Nyerere of the All Progressives Congress (APC), headed for the tribunal to challenge the outcome.

    Without prejudice to the legal tussle going on at the tribunal, it may suffice to rewind the drama that played out at the state collation centre in respect of the results from three council areas, viz: Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North.

    MUTILATED RESULT SHEETS: One remarkable experience at the PDP-dominated collation centre worth recalling here was that virtually all the results were re-written at the state collation centre, under the guidance and assistance of the eagle-eyed INEC ICT staff and the State Collation Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, who kept on pointing out the discrepancies that characterised the result sheets of the LGAs, especially the five in contention.

    So, while some of the INEC Electoral Officers, along with their returning officers were helped to reconcile the figures in the full glare of journalists and election observers, others were simply excused to go into the INEC building to perfect their results, leading to cancellations and mutilations in the result sheets.

    CANCELLATION OF RESULTS OF OBINGWA, OSISIOMA, ISIALANGWA NORTH LGAs: The climax of the drama came when Ozumba mustered an uncommon courage after perusing through the results from Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North. Along with the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Selina Oko, he declared the results cancelled. He based his action on the reports from the security agencies and international observers which, he said, stated that the election in those areas was substantially marred by violence and irregularities.

    CARD READER THEFT: On May 5, 2015, two officials of ICT Department of INEC in Umuahia, Nnamdi Nwabuko and Herbert Ejiofor, were caught by security agents, while attempting to take away seven Card Readers and some sensitive electoral materials in the custody of the commission. They were detained, interrogated and later released by police in Zone 9.  Police also quizzed seven additional INEC staff members, who were suspected to be accomplices in the act.

    A few days after, security operatives also recovered five additional Card Readers and two laptops, allegedly belonging to INEC, from where they were hidden at a spot near Nwabuko’s residence.

    ‘The peace-loving Abia indigenes at home and in Diaspora are patiently waiting to see how the perpetrators of the willful destruction of INEC property at Obingwa would get away with the impunity under President Muhammed Buhari’s watch. It is obvious that the days of impunity are over’

    FORENSIC INSPECTION OF INEC DOCUMENTS AND FLAGRANT BREACH OF TRIBUNAL ORDERS: Election petition tribunals, according to the law establishing them, enjoy equal powers as the conventional law courts. Consequently, their orders and rulings are as enforceable as those of the courts. To that extent, they have the powers to either uphold or annul the results of an election.

    Unfortunately in Abia state, specific orders of the three-member Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, headed by eminent jurist, Justice Usman Bwala, which are critical to Otti’s petition, have repeatedly been flouted with impunity by INEC. For instance, repeated orders of the tribunal compelling INEC to make the relevant documents used during the election available to Otti for forensic inspection had continually been flouted, frustrated and stalled.

    The act of hooliganism and barbarism exhibited by political thugs, who were hired to ensure that the inspection of electoral materials in Obingwa did not succeed, were actually not unexpected for obvious reasons as follows: Obingwa is the local government area of Gov. Ikpeazu;  it was the local government that generated the whooping 82,240 votes for PDP, the highest ever recorded by any local government in the 2015 general elections across the federation; the result of the forensic inspection of Obingwa electoral documents was expected to further arm Otti with greater evidence to dislodge and rubbish the Obingwa result and prove that it was not only unrealistic and controvertible but fraudulent.

    Conversely, the inspection could also have afforded PDP a rare opportunity to prove to those who still doubt its victory at the polls that the Obingwa result was not imported, manipulated or fabricated but a true reflection of all the ballots magnanimously cast for the party by duly accredited voters in the area.

    This opportunity was recklessly thrown into flames by the arsonists, who hoped to reap from blowing up the electoral documents in the midday fire.

    The frustration posed by INEC and PDP-led administration became more manifest when, contrary to the demand for electoral materials used in Osisioma for inspection, INEC deliberately brought those used in Aba South LGA.

    Even more ridiculous was the fact that the ballot boxes contained materials for the Presidential and National Assembly polls rather than those for the governorship. This has been the dilemma of a petitioner in a 21st Century general election in Abia state.

    After the fire at Isialangwa South LGA office of INEC, now followed by the Obingwa INEC, the state government on August 16 raised alarm that it had uncovered plans by its ‘’political enemies’’ to also burn down the INEC headquarters in Umuahia. A media statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Godwin Adindu, said that the reason for the plan was to instigate a relocation of the governorship tribunal to Abuja.

    It is still unimaginable why the administration’s political enemies would resort to burning down INEC or choose to set ablaze electoral documents which they hoped to heavily rely upon to prove their petition at the tribunal.

    The alarm should not be taken as false or cheap propaganda by Ikpeazu and his media team. Rather, security operatives should look beyond that because with the successes recorded in Isialangwa South and Obingwa INEC fire incidents, anything is possible in Abia, considering the desperation by Ikpeazu to remain in power.

    The peace-loving Abia indigenes at home and in Diaspora are patiently waiting to see how the perpetrators of the willful destruction of INEC property at Obingwa would get away with the impunity under President Muhammed Buhari’s watch. It is obvious that the days of impunity are over.

     

    • Christian Nwafor wrote in from Lagos.

     

  • Making a scapegoat  

    In seizing power from General Gowon (80), the then military ruler General Murtala Ramat Muhammed (1938-76) told the nation on July 30, 1975: “This Government will not tolerate indiscipline. The Government will not condone abuse of office.” He kept his word.

    He retired over ten thousand public servants including top military officers. He set up a committee that reviewed the performances of all public officers. At the end of the exercise, only two Ministers were found not guilty, Alhaji Shehu Shagari (90) and Shettima Alli Mongunnu (89).

    At that time, Nigeria had twelve state governors. Only two of the governors, Brigadiers Oluwole Rotimi and Mobolaji Johnson were cleared of corruption. Quite a number of public servants, Ministers and Governors had their assets seized. No one was prosecuted for corruption.

    In taking over power from President Shehu Shagari, the then Major General Muhammadu Buhari (72) told the nation on January 1, 1984:  ”The change became necessary in order to put an end to the serious economic predicament and the crisis of confidence now afflicting our nation”. He said: “The situation could have been saved if the legislators were alive to their constitutional responsibilities. Instead, the legislators were pre-occupied with determining their salary scales, fringe benefits and unnecessary foreign travels, et cetera, which took no account of the state of the economy and the welfare of the people they represented”.

    To mark his 100 days in office on April 7, 1984, the then Major General Muhammadu Buhari further told the nation: “We took over from the defunct civilian administration at the Federal and State levels a financial situation of vast indebtedness. In fact, the depth and seriousness of the financial predicament of the State Governments and, by implication, of the nation has become clearer and clearer, day by day. The Federal Government had to assist State Governments recently with a sum of over N 600 million as loan to enable them pay all arrears of wages and salaries before the end of April 1984”.

    At that time he was 42 and still vibrant, resounding and resonant. As a military officer with regimental discipline he turned to decrees to administer the nation. They are: (1.) The Constitution and modification decree 1 of 1984, which he signed into law on February 9 1984 (2.) The state security detention of persons decree of 1984, which he signed into law on February 9 1984, (3.) the Federal Military Government Supremacy and Enforcement of Power  of 1984 which is known as Decree 13, which he signed into law on May 13, 1984,(4) the Exchange  Control (anti-sabotage) Decree 1984 otherwise known as Decree 7 which he signed into law on April 5 1984, (5) the counterfeit currency special provision decree 1984 otherwise known as Decree 22 which signed into law on May 17, 1984,(6) the Public officers Protection against false accusations Decree 1984 which he signed on April 17 1984, (7)the robbery and fire arms special  provision decree 1984 which set up special tribunal for the trial of armed robbery and special cases, (8) Political Parties (Dissolution and Prohibition) Decree, 1984: this Decree provides for the dissolution and Prohibition of political parties and other similar organisation and forfeiture, disposal and discharge of the assets and liabilities of the dissolved political parties and state creation movements and (9) the Banking (Freezing of Accounts) Decree, 1984: which empowers the Head of the Federal Military Government, where he suspects or believes that any person has been involved in certain offences, including bribery and abuse of office, to issue or cause orders to be issued authorising an investigation into the accounts of such persons and restricting the operation of such accounts on such conditions as may be prescribed in the order. He also set up the recovery of public special Military tribunals amended decree 8 of 1984 which he signed into law on April 5 1984.

    In setting up the Decree 8, he created, in addition, tribunals in five zones of the country. The Enugu zone made up of Anambra, Imo, Cross Rivers and Rivers states was headed by Air Commodore M. Muhammed. For the Jos zone which comprised Plateau, Bauchi, Gongola, Benue and Borno states. Brigadier Peter Ademokhai was named as the Chairman.

    For the Kaduna zone made up of Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Sokoto states and the Federal Capital Territory. Navy Captain M.A. Elegbede was named as the Chairman. For the Ibadan zone made up of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Bendel and Kwara states, Brigadier C.B.  Ndiomu was named as the Chairman. As for the Lagos zone made up of Lagos State, Brigadier P.U. Omu was named chairman.

    Major General Buhari at that time was young, vibrant and patriotically adventurous. On August 7 1985, he was toppled at 6.00 a.m. via an announcement by the then Commander of the Armoured Corps of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier Joshua Dongoyaro. On that day, Major General Ibrahim Babangida took over as the head of state.

    Major General Buhari was detained for three years thereafter. He was first detained in a Government House at Alagbaka in Akure, where he became my neighbour before he was eventually transferred to Benin City.

    On November 24, 1993, General Babangida signed the forfeiture of assets (release of forfeited assets Decree 24) and returned some of the forfeited properties to former governors under General Gowon including Faruk and his wife, Brigadiers Samuel Ogbemudia, David Bamigboye, Alfred Diete-spiff and Chief Edwin Clarke who served as Gowon’s Minister of Information. The Decree rubbished the anti-corruption crusade of General Murtala Muhammed.

    In taking over on May 29, 1999 from General Abdusalam Abubakar, President Olusegun Obasanjo set up three panels to probe the administration of General Abdulsalam. The three panels were headed by Dr. Christopher Kolade, Brigadier (rtd.) Oluwole Rotimi  and Alhaji Igudu Inua. No one has so far been prosecuted. But it was understood that the Kolade’s panel recovered some money to the coffers of the central government.

    Now President Muhammadu Buhari is back in power, fully experienced and fully cautious. At 72, having passed through many ordeals he is now more scrupulous and punctilious. In the last few weeks, the country has been treated with stories of massive looting by the Goodluck Jonathan government.

    It appears it is the misfortune of President Muhammadu Buhari to head a corrective regime instead of a regime of continuity. Things have to be so bad that he has to step in to remedy a worse situation. That is the cross he has to carry. To his credit and in the words of President Barak Obama, “he is a man of integrity”- a befitting testimonial that is very rare among leaders of today’s world.

    No more decrees to govern this time. No more Supreme Military Council to guide him. He has to rely on his conscience and his God. The Constitution has bestowed on him the sole authority to shape our lives, about 180 million of us – all blacks. In the immediate, he has to reconstruct his government and recover the loot from the officials of the previous government.

    If he recovers the loot without prosecution, he is bound to lose a lot of goodwill. If he prosecutes few, he will be judged selective. Even if he prosecutes at all, he should be prepared to face the consequences for corruption has a way of fighting back. President Buhari has a big burden on his shoulder to carry, but I am sure he will never walk alone.

     

    • Eric Teniola, a former director at the Presidency, lives in Lagos.

  • Increasing electricity generation

    Nigeria, a major oil producer, understandably generates most of its electricity (80%) from hydrocarbon powered turbines but it remains difficult to understand why in the face of the failure of the fuel powered systems to provide the needed electricity, other available energy sources have remained significantly unharnessed.

    For Nigeria, a nation of over 170 million citizens located in the heart of the tropics, occupying a vast land area of 923,768 km² of high solar insolation, the inability to generate electricity from renewable sources to augment the current level of less than 5,000MW has sadly remained a major blight in the development of all sectors of its economy.

    Today, most developed nations give prime consideration to electricity generation from the renewables as mutual complement to generations from the conventional systems. Each of the following countries enjoys adequate power supplies from the conventional generation methods that may include the combination of Gas turbines; Hydro falls; Coal turbines; Nuclear power plants etc., in addition still embarks on energy generation from renewable sources especially solar where ideally available. The total electricity generation from solar by these countries that are among the 14 largest solar energy generation countries, some situated in lower solar insolation areas than Nigeria,  is quite revealing.

    Germany: Enjoys much less sun resources than Nigeria but has been the world’s top solar electricity generator for several years ahead of China, Japan, Italy, and USA. As at February 2015 and still increasing, German overall installed sun electricity generation capacity was 38,458 megawatts (MW).

    China: Total installed solar electricity capacity at the end of 2013 was over 12,000 megawatts and by September 2014 attained over 18,300 megawatts.

    Japan:  Between April 1 and October 31, 2013 (less than 8 months) about 4,000 MW (4 GW) of new solar photovoltaic was installed in Japan. As at end of 2014, Japan had attained a level of over 15,000 MW from distributed solar scheme. Japan is the first country in the world to surpass the 1 GW of cumulative PV capacity. It should be noted that Japan’s sun resources are much less than Nigeria’s.

    United Kingdom: Solar power use in United Kingdom though relatively unexplored until recently, has increased very rapidly. As at the end of June 2013, of the 2,400 megawatts capacity installed, 1,700 megawatts were small-scale residential and commercial installations that benefited from feed-in tariffs. In 2014, Solar PV accounted for 12% of renewable electricity capacity in the UK. The total UK installed solar capacity generated from homes, buildings and solar farms is now about 4.7 Gigawatts. UK with its relatively poor sun endowment today generates more electricity from sunlight than Nigeria currently generates from all of its conventional power generation systems put together.

    The key to the successes of harnessing immense electricity from sunlight by the afore-enumerated countries, most of which do not enjoy as much sunlight as Nigeria, derives from the implementation of well-articulated citizens driven DISTRIBUTED GENERATION (DG) schemes. Distributed Generation is a scheme that employs small sized units owned by private citizens or bodies to generate electricity for their use with excess generated over needs discharged/sold to the grid at accepted conditions. DG systems employ numerous small plants that can provide power onsite with little reliance on the distribution and transmission grid. All those roof-top PV installation noticeable in most houses in developed countries are silent power generating DG components. DG technologies yield power in capacities that range from a fraction of a kilowatt [kW] to about 100 megawatts [MW]. DG from renewable energy sources provides lower-cost electricity and higher power reliability and security with fewer environmental consequences.

    A detailed assessment of the following indices necessary for the successful implementation of solar distributed generation scheme should clearly portray the potential viability of the Solar DG scheme in Nigeria.

    NEED/DEMAND: The huge need of electricity in Nigeria as it currently stands is significantly enormous. Experts have variously estimated Nigeria ideal electricity generation in line with needs to be between 25,000 and 40,000 MW. Total current electricity supply stands at much below 5,000MW. There is no question about the very high need of electricity to satisfy the huge demand in Nigeria. IDEAL INSOLATION: Insolation is a measurement of sunlight intensity over a given area for a defined period of time. Sun intensity is not only high in most areas of Nigeria; sunlight is present all year round in all areas. Nigeria is disposed to naturally endowed benefits of ideal insolation by location, and should therefore harness the gifted options of free electricity generation from the sun through the solar distributed generation scheme. POLICIES: A clear policy must be in place that removes all ambiguities and strengthens the legal framework of all aspects of the DG scheme including creating legal backups for all –Incentive, Finances and all other drivers of the scheme. Such policies must among other vital covers grant conditions for, Easy and assured grid Connection; Purchase and payments for power generated and exported into grid; Set a minimum share of power to be produced from renewable sources; Set a reasonable goal for solar electricity procurement in the various service territories.

    WILLING/QUALIFIED PARTICIPANTS: Almost every Nigerian family, including the poorest, has at least one electricity generating set. This proven enthusiasm succinctly represents the fact that there would be overwhelming number of willing participants to choose from. Albeit, meeting the standard conditions of owning a property that has good roof size and orientation in selected areas for the projects. Even at a minimum average generation of 5kw per generator, the 36 states plus the FCT can each generate an average of up to 500MW within one year-{Japan with less sun resources achieved about 4,000 MW between  April 1 and October 31 2013 (less than 8 months).   INCENTIVES: In all places the DG scheme has succeeded, the major driver for enthusiastic citizen participation derived from the very attractive incentive the scheme offers to individual generators. Such incentives include:  Net-Metering (NEM) which consists of Credit earnings and Debit payments on difference between metered generations exported into the grid and metered consumption taken from grid. Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) which involves -Payment for all generated electricity even if directly consumed; -Rebate on standard electricity bill for using energy produced and Additional benefits for electricity exported into the grid. Tax Breaks particularly for corporate entities for the electricity generation beyond a fixed minimum level. If the incentives are properly drawn up and implemented, Nigerians would fall over each other to get into the scheme.

    FINANCE: Electricity generation from any source is very financially intensive. Even with the recent drop in PV prices, solar electricity generation ranks higher than the conventional generation methods in cost. Distributed Generation as defined are owned by the generators and as obtains the world over, each participant bears the costs of the system. To depend solely on each participant to procure the systems may never yield the prompt significant generation desired. Thus, a viable Government guaranteed repayable financing for each qualified participant can be worked out. It has been shown that complete recoup of all investment on the generating system is achievable within 10 years. This is considered as viable for a complete DG generating system (not including batteries) which has a minimum functional life of 20 years with no mechanical parts and requiring no costly servicing.

    Solar renewable energy source unarguably remains not only a viable tool towards achieving energy security in Nigeria, but can through the Distributed Generation scheme offer Nigerians as much satisfaction from electricity provision as the GSM technology has provided in telephony.  Solar Distributed Generation discounts the enormous need and investment in transmission infrastructures and remains a viable solution to Nigeria’s inadequate electricity supply.

    • Uanikhehi is President and Fellow, Solar Thermal Electricity Promoters Association of Nigeria (STELPAN)

    Email— locitrax@yahoo.com