The Nation Newspaper

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  • Presidential election: pdp’s last cards

    From popular outcry, President Jonathan had promised Nigerians and the International Community that the elections on March 28 and April 11, 2015 would hold. And that Prof. Jega would not be removed or sent on terminal leave when the elections are just around the corner.  I had told Nigerians and the International Community that President Jonathan could not be trusted in his promises, as he would always go behind his promises to initiate or instigate moves that would undermine his own promises.  How can we explain the Pro-Jonathan’s protest by OPC for the removal of Jega as the nation witnessed in Lagos on Monday, 16 March, 2015, which was meant to scuttle the March 28 and April 11 elections he has promised would hold?

    When it dawned on the President and the PDP that the use of PVCs and Smart Card Readers-obviously meant to bring about free, fair and credible elections, devoid of rigging-was a foregone conclusion, protests and court cases were instigated by the Presidency and the PDP to stop the use of theses technological devices which ought to have been supported by the president who himself once promised to tackle corruption with the same technology he is now afraid of. This is  simply because the use of Card Readers would not allow those who had cloned and bought PVCs to use them without being detected at the elections.  Just because the INEC, the people of Nigeria and the International Community have insisted on the use of these technological devices for the election of March 28 and April 11, and that under no circumstance should these elections be subjected to another postponement, the PDP’s last important card is its attempt to create confusion of monumental proportion on the day of election.

    The plan is to ensure that Card Readers don’t work on the days of elections, in because of the ruling party’s morbid fears about the use of Card Readers that would definitely expose their rigging plans on D-day.  Now, the APC has accused President Jonathan’s administration and the PDP of planning to jam the Card Reader machines on voting days for which an Israeli has been hired.  The Israeli “had developed three prototype Card Reader Jammers to be carried in the pockets of trusted PDP chiefs on election day to disable the Card Readers so as to justify the PDP’s fears about the Card Readers.  Besides disabling the Card Readers, “the jammers will also disable all telephones, ipads etc, within the state’s radius of those carrying them on their persons”.  The plan is to deploy the Card Jammers to the strongholds of the APC like North West, South West, North East, Rivers State and other suspected areas in the North, South East and the South -South.

    The Israeli is already seen as a traitor to the International Community interested in free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria, and “an enemy of Nigeria and Nigerians who do not mind if the nation burns, as long as he has collected his pay”.

    For the production of 75,000 jammers, the nation would cough out S15m at S200 per jamming machine for the PDP!  On this serious matter, Nigerians, the International Community and the leadership of the INEC must see to it that none of the telephone service providers like MTN, GLO and ETISALAT cooperate or compromise with the Federal Government in this jamming game while the (NCC) must steer clear of this shameful scenario.  The leadership of INEC< with the cooperation of the International Community, must provide counter jammer to the PDP jamming machine.  Already, the International Community and especially the US have made it clear through the Vice-President of the US, Joe Biden, that INEC must use the PVCs and Smart Card Readers for the March 28 and April 11 elections in Nigeria (Punch, Friday, March 19, 2015, p.7)

    The questions that President Jonathan and PDP must answer at this eleventh hour are these: what plans do they have for successful elections that are free, fair and credible on March 28 and April 11?  What plans do they have for creating crisis by using technology (jammers) to prevent the Card Readers from working on March 28 and April 11?  How actually prepared are they for these elections?  And, finally, are they prepared to take responsibility for scuttling the March 28 and April 11 elections and the attendant consequences, should anything go wrong in accordance to their plan, wish or prayer?

    Or, by creating crisis at the coming election, do they hope that the Army would take over in order to prevent any elections and General Buhari from being sworn-in as the next president?  It should be pointed out that any attempt to take over the government by the military would lead to a situation worse than those of the Arab Springs where the Military and the Police had no choice but to surrender to the superior force of the masses of the people who drove out president Mubarak and got him tried for crime against the Egyptian people by the International Criminal Court.

    The Inspector General of Police has said: “no waiting at polling booths after voting” (Punch, March 20, p.2).  Traditionally, an electorate is expected to wait after casting his or her vote to ensure that the vote counts and is counted.  That is what INEC, the legally constituted authority to conduct and monitor elections in Nigeria, says.  Voters are well protected by electoral, and not police, laws.  The IGP should not usurp the powers of INEC and should be careful about his illegal directive, which is not tenable, because what he is saying is that voters should not wait to monitor what happens to their votes and collect the results on the spot.  This is yet another rigging device that must be thrown into the dustbin.

    On a final note, Nigerians must insist that election materials are delivered to the polling stations on time, as not doing so would affect those who are eager to cast their votes, especially if delays of election materials occur in the strongholds of the opposition party.  The Federal Government must also be careful about the way it manipulates the NTA for carrying news and advertisements about PDP to the exclusion of the APC, because the NTA is for all Nigerians and not for President Jonathan and PDP alone.  Surely this policy of exclusion would backfire, as it would further draw the wrath of Nigerians against the ruling party.  A word, we say, is enough for the wise!

    • Makinde, FINAL, Professor of Philosophy,

    DG/CEO, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology & Good Governance, Osogbo, The State of Osun.

  • 2015 elections: OPC got it wrong

    Ever since 1959, general elections in Nigeria have always been turbulent because of the fierce competition by major ethnic nationalities in the country to take over power at the centre. This cannot be divorced from the divide and rule tactics adopted by the British Colonialist to maintain their stranglehold on the hitherto independent economic partners, which they cobbled together for administrative convenience to gain economic advantage. The major political parties at the twilight of independence were formed on ethnic lines as a result of the mutual distrust and suspicion amongst the leading political elites who want to take over power from the British.

    This development further polarised the country and do further damage to the psyche of the potentially prosperous state. Consciously, the British colonialist ensured that they handed over power to the most reactionary section of the emerging ruling class whom they felt are amenable to control.

    Thus, Nigeria became a neo-colonialist state with a stooge as leader, a mere appendage of the British overlords and their Western Imperialist allies. Rather than work assiduously to heal socio-political and economic wounds, the ruling party at the centre the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) maintained the status quo and also embarked on the balkanization of the Western region to weaken it. And the needed drive towards nationhood was sacrificed on the altar of political expediency to maintain a numerical advantage for electoral domination.

    The birth of the United Progression Grand Alliance established to wrestle power from the ruling party at the centre was viciously attacked; the opposition leaders were intimidated, witch-hunted, arrested and detained on trumped up charges. The 1964 general elections were fraught with irregularities and the election was manipulated in favour of the Nigeria National Alliance, which is a merger of the NPC and Nigeria Democratic Party (NDP) led by the treacherous late Samuel Akintola. The unfavourably rigged 1964 general elections in favour of the ruling party at the centre and its allies in NNA was rejected and resisted by opposition party supporters; this sparked off a chain of violence reactions particularly the ‘wetie’ led by peasant farmers -the ‘Agbekoyas’, and ultimately the 1966 military coup. The 1979 and 1983 general elections did not fare better; both were rigged in favour of the ruling party at the centre.

    The Obasanjo military regime handed over power to their crony Alhaji Shehu Shagari in a disputed 12 2/3 calculation, which offends mathematics logic till date. The Shagari administration manipulated the 1983 elections in its own favour despite the people’s disenchantment with the regime and the clear clamour for change in leadership of the country. The Shagari government profligacy, wastage and maladministration led to political economic retrogression before the Gen. Buhari/Idiagbon corrective regime took over power to arrest the drift to a failed state. The regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida wasted over #40 billion on an electoral process spanning almost eight years, eventually the election was conducted on June 12, 1993, the elections was clearly won by the late Business Mogul and Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party Chief MKO Abiola but was criminally annulled by the military junta headed by General Ibrahim Babangida. The annulment led to a crisis that Nigeria is yet to recover from till date. To assuage the pains and the bruised ego of Abiola’s kinsmen the Yoruba, the stopgap military dictatorship of Abdulsalam handed over power to General Olusegun Obasanjo in May 1999. Following the insidious path of the past, Obasanjo rigged the 2007 elections to install late Umar Yar’Adua. The 2007 general elections were adjudged by both local and international observers as the worst of its kind in any part of the world. Late Umar Yar’Adua himself affirmed this assertion when he acknowledges the fact that the presidential election that brought him to power was flawed.

    Today, patriotic and well meaning Nigerians who believed the Nigerian state is the hope of the black race despite her pseudo federal structure will be pained that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration has worsened the ethno-religious differences of the Nigerian People. Unconsciously, many appeal to ethnic and religious sentiments to drum support for Jonathan to become president when late Yar’Adua became incapacitated to further govern the country due to his ill health, and eventual death. Rather than work towards the unity of Nigeria since he became president through a flawed election in 2011, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has continued to ride on ethnic and religious cleavages to rule the country. On daily basis, Nigerians experience has been one type of lamentation or the other since President Jonathan comes on board.

    Insecurity of lives and property is the order of the day, with the north east nearly severed from the rest of the country by Boko-Haram insurgents, albeit for the heroic efforts of the Nigeria Armed Forces in collaboration with the coalition force of Chad, Niger and Cameroun. Hopelessness, unemployment, joblessness, poverty, hunger and starvation pervades the land. Inarguably, unpaid salaries of workers all over the country and across party lines, unpaid pensions, wastage and mismanagement, stealing which is an integral part of corruption with impunity, youth restiveness and violence, kidnapping and other aggravated social vices must have informed why the Nigerian people clamour for change now.

    While OPC as an organization has the right to support any candidate of its choice in the coming March 28th & April 11th general elections, it is however criminally wrong for the organisation to impose its own will on Lagos state electorate to follow its opportunistic and misguided support for a failed and inept administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. Te right to peaceful protest is an inalienable right in a democratic society, so far such did not infringe on the right of others. OPC resort to intimidation, harassment and destruction of APC billboards and defacing of candidates posters is childish, unnecessary, criminally divisive and myopic.

    The OPC support for a Goodluck Jonathan continuation in office premised on the president’s promise to implement the CONFAB resolutions is grossly misleading, a tactical error and strategic opportunism given Mr. President’s plethora of unkept promises. It has been observed all along that the leadership of OPC will compromise the struggle of the Yoruba for egalitarianism, true federalism, regional autonomy and freedom for all sooner than later, hence the most conscious and revolutionary wing of the group, that is YOREM (Yoruba Revolutionary Movement), pulled out of the sinking ship of the OPC to form YOREM in November, 1999.

    Gani Adams represent political opportunism and blind gusto for material accumulation which is not an accident of history. The Yoruba people are not gullible and are therefore not taken-in with the so-called CONFAB report because we know the talk-chop is an avenue to recruit would be Jonathan for president campaigners. Most Yoruba delegates to the CONFAB who lacks the mandate of the Yoruba people are now Jonathan campaigners who are ready to plunge Yoruba land into crisis; why will the implementation of a CONFAB report be a second term issue? Thus, the Fasehun/Gani Adams marriage that Obasanjo had put asunder, the Goodluck Jonathan millions of dollars has joined together.

    All sons and daughters of Yoruba land should not to become a willing tool in the hands of the enemies of the Yoruba. Also, Yoruba should not allow their land to be turned into theatre of war by Jonathan’s cronies. That the action of the OPC is capable of turning Yoruba people against one another and plunge the land into an avoidable crisis and bloodletting. We appeal to all eligible voters to use their PVC to either elect or un-elect any government or Political party in the coming elections, our powers lies in our PVC. We disagree vehemently with those calling for the removal of the Chairman of INEC when elections are around the corner; we view the call for Professor Jega’s removal at this time as most unpatriotic, Criminal and unnecessary.

    The self-determination and social emancipation of the Yoruba is not for sale to the highest bidder. The genuine quest of the Yoruba for regional autonomy within a reconstituted genuine federal union or outside it cannot be compromised for the personal interest of a corrupt ridden government that has compounded the harrowing experience of the Nigerian people in the last four years.

     

    • Adewale Bally Balogun wrote in from Lagos

  • Postponement of the evil day

    President Goodluck Jonathan was given an honest report for the first time in his life in public office shortly before the February 14 2015 date for the general elections. He was told point blank by the members of his kitchen cabinet and sundry aides, that if the elections were conducted on February 14 as planned by INEC, his loss would be so comprehensive that it would set an unbeatable record of defeat that will stand throughout this generation!

    The strategists of the President came up with a battle plan. They advised that the first thing to do was to postpone the election so as to buy as much time as possible to turn the table against the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC). They asked for and obtained the permission of the President to come up with a script to change the obvious tide of the general elections. The document they came up with was rather simplistic. Having been cooked up by simple-minded fellows. They listed the issues on which the President has performed dismally and requested the President to take some actions, however farcical to correct the anomaly. Next they advised that the slant of PDP propaganda should shift from the decency of issues to the murky arena of innuendoes and slander against not only the candidates of APC but also notable officials of the party. They advised that since the President has very little by the way of achievements, personal attacks on the APC and its members would do just fine. Finally, they advised that since the funds available to the PDP are limitless, truck loads of cash, denominated in dollars, should be deployed to “buy” traditional rulers and opinion leaders, particularly in the South West zone.

    Suddenly, the parade of suspect “achievements” of the President dried up. Assaults on the integrity of the APC Presidential candidate took over. Concurrently, the President embarked on a number of activities. He succumbed to the over-due reduction of the prices of refined petroleum products. No one was fooled. In any case, the shylock marketers decided to make nonsense of the change in the price regime. The action of the President achieved nothing. They felt insulted by the belated decision by a President afraid to lose an election and desperately looking for purchased votes.

    To make up for the neglect, nay betrayal of members of the Armed Forces deployed in combat against Boko Haram terrorists, the President donned an ill-fitting military fatigue and went to the safest areas of operations to mouth some inanities. The bemused troops smiled and wondered about the quality of the Commander-in-Chief under whose command they were serving. The action of the President achieved nothing. The gallant troops ran Boko Haram terrorists out of town after town. They wondered why it took a pending election for the President to do what he had to have done years before. And if the President believes that the recaptured areas will be ready for elections, he needs to do a rethink. There are an estimated 1.5 million internally displaced persons. Their rehabilitation cannot be achieved in time for the elections. If it was, the people would most certainly vote against him.

    To score some cheap votes from the families and loved ones of the 291 girls abducted about a year earlier, the President came up with an inexcusably laughable “ray of hope”, to the effect that since terrorists had not displayed the corpses of the girls, it meant they were still alive! What kind of logic is this? How puerile can a President in desperation get!

    Suddenly, the electricity tariff was slashed in half, less than two weeks before elections! Given the way things are done in Nigeria, the ridiculous 50% reduction cannot be effected before Nigerians vote President Jonathan out of office. In any case, where is the power supply for which the tariff has been slashed? Even the Presidential Villa has huge standby generators and large stock of diesel for use when public power supply is cut off without warning. Nigeria still remains the world’s largest importer of power generators on earth.

    For all practical purposes, the President relocated to the Southwest, the zone which helped him win the 2011 elections. Thinking that the traditional rulers and opinion leaders are up for sale, he embarked on what an insider described a “a dollar rain”! The first set of opinion leaders humoured the President with assurances of “endorsement” even when they are quite sure that no one was going to vote for any candidate because they were bribed to make ridiculous and empty public statements. All of this chicanery was going on well until the dollar train reached Ijebu Ode. It was at this stop that the indomitable Awujale of Ijebu Ode and the paramount ruler of Ijebuland, told the confused President what others previously visited ought to have told him; namely that traditional rulers do not canvass votes for politicians. God bless the Awujale for saving the face of the proud Yoruba people. It is surprising that Mrs Jonathan failed to raise an alarm when her husband proceeded on this charade that “this dollars you are sharing, there is God o!”

    The laughable theatre of the absurd continued with the commissioning of an overhead bridge in Kano! This President certainly has a warped sense of the duty of his high office. The commissioning of an over-head bridge ought not to fall on the laps of a serious President who is aware of his status and the responsibilities of his office. He went ahead to name the over-head bridge after the highly respected late Emir of Kano, thinking perhaps that the people of Kano would vote for him and his indecent, clumsy and illegal ouster of the present Emir of Kano, the cerebral and fearless Lamido Sanusi.

    Whilst the President was disgracing himself and his high office, the fellows who had put their mouths in the over drive mode continued. They spoke like medical experts. One even put on the toga of a prophet, predicting all sorts of nonsense. The President’s wife, who is irrepressible and unbeatable when it comes to indecent conduct, overreached herself when she ordered the electorate to stone those with a different political persuasion. In civilized climes, that woman would have been arrested for inciting violence. But in Nigeria, that would be the day.

    Key officials and members of APC, who are not candidates in the forth-coming elections received more than their fair share of slanderous attacks. No more can be said or written about this issue because it is sub judice. Illiterate or at best semi-literate political jobbers started parading themselves as spoke persons for the Yoruba race! One sunny March day, these rascals took over the ever-busy Ikorodu road and enacted truly horrific brigandage. They wanted Prof Jega out of office, so that their sponsors can appoint a malleable and spineless man to do their bidding by manipulating to process to produce a dubious victory for President Jonathan.

    Unfortunately, the contrived postponement also gave Nigerians the opportunity to expose some of the illegal and indecent acts of President Jonathan. Perhaps the public would not have gotten to know about the scandalous land grab, for which President Jonathan obtained approval from one of his own appointees. An area set aside for the future expansion of the international airport and appropriately one Ebele Integrated Farms mistook name “Aviation village” for an “agricultural village”!

    The era of President Jonathan and the PDP is over.  The postponement of the general elections has not achieved the desired objective. The President should immediately commence the evacuation of his personal belongings from the Villa. Bye President Jonathan!

    • Colonel Ola Majoyeogbe is a retired military intelligence officer, security consultant and public affairs analyst.

  • Why goats steal yams

    Our dear President Goodluck Jonathan, like most political leaders under constant public gaze and oftentimes, glare has had his fair share of ‘moments to regret’. Different leaders have different ways of dealing with the aftershocks of these blunders. Some indeed can be laughed off. Others can be logically reconstructed with clever ‘wordneering’. The thing though is that there are certain attributes that help a bumbler to talk himself out of a sticky ‘moment to regret’. It may be a gift of the garb, locally known as ‘sweet mouth’ or the confidence to admit that it was a ‘stupid thing to say’. Or indeed to keep quiet and at least some will afford the benefit that the bumbler had seen the light and was internalizing his painful regret. Our dear President Jonathan, will rather and in the most unconvincing fashion defend the indefensible and make things worse, or  ‘pour sand in his own garri’

    The thing about corruption is that whether we like it or not, it is simply not a laughing matter. Corruption is at the root of all our national problems and why the country is statehood in failed mode. So when a president burdened with a systemic corruption perception goes on a literary journey for which he is poorly equipped and declares that his government is not as corrupt as acclaimed – because all the talk about corruption is based on lumping stealing with corruption. This has since been summarized in the new Nigerian phraseology dictionary: ‘Stealing is not corruption’. A president overly defensive and seriously allergic to the mention of corruption, portrays a serious disconnect with the anger of his hungry people. The impression of the average Nigerian on the president’s attitude to corruption can be summed up in the well-known Nigerian phrase – ‘Wetin concern agbero with overload?’

    In a recent media chat, the president likened the Nigerian situation of endemic corruption to ‘goat and yam’ For those not conversant with folk tales and wisdom, what he means is that if you leave your yams in a barn and allow access to goats, the goats will in a compulsive manner feast on the yams to the detriment of the owners. That the goats cannot be blamed is true. But I think that it is uncharitable for Mr. President to liken our public servants and even the corrupt ones to goats. I do not share the view that they are compulsively corrupt or just cannot help themselves.

    So let me help Mr. President with my own folksy perspective. Nigerian people are blessed with a huge barn of yams sufficient to feed everyone. What has happened though is that those we have mandated to watch over the yams against insects and other elements have transformed to goats and are eating the yams ravenously, destroying yams they cannot ingest and not keeping watch over other destructive elements. The resultant shortage of yams and therefore hunger amongst the people has made them not only angry with the goats but reluctant to farm as their harvest will only be enjoyed by the goats. An atmosphere of distrust amongst the people has set in and the general tendency is that we are all now fighting each other to grab the remaining yams. What we should be doing Mr President is that we should all be out cultivating yams in the full assurance that those mandated to watch over our yams are playing that role faithfully.

    Mr President needs to know that as the head guard, when the people complain that the barn is being ravaged, we do not expect him to tell us that not all the yams are actually being eaten and that some or perhaps most are being destroyed by the feet of rampaging goats or in Jonathanspeak tell us that – ‘ All these things people say all over the place that goats are eating the yams and causing shortages is not correct. I was discussing with a former stock keeper who told me that on inspection he found that in most cases the destroyed yams were not eaten but merely destroyed.

    I don’t know why people should confuse eating with destroying. You know in my village if you cry that goats have destroyed your yams, people will ask you first whether the goats used their mouth or their legs, before knowing what to do with the offending goat. If you say the goat ate with mouth, they will ask for the complexion of the goat – this will let them know whether the goat did it out of hunger or wickedness.’ Is this the reaction of someone who appreciates our emotional connection to and dependence on our ‘yams’?

    The president should understand, that using the barn example he is the head guard appointed by the people to take care of their barn of yams and also supervise the allocation of yams for different purposes. Nigeria needs a head guard who understands that his work is to protect the yams for common benefit. His work is not to allow the guards to uncommonly transform to goats. Using the president’s analogy, Nigeria needs a head guard who is not so fond of yams that he and other guards become goats once they see yams!

    Rather we need to transform our guards to dogs so that our yams will be safe and we can all be fed and happy. Currently, we are in a situation whereby the yam owners are meeting to decide whether to appoint a new head guard or keep the present one. How does the president think the conversation will end? Yes, some owners will point to the poor rainfall, others will talk of errant goats, others will wonder why we cant distribute the yams immediately upon harvest, others will wonder why those who did not participate in the tilling and weeding but waited to harvest should be considered as owners. Many questions but in my view the main question will be whether the head guard has done his job to the satisfaction of the owners. The owners can see for themselves and will decide by themselves. Forget the rainfall, mode of distribution etc – has the head guard effectively done his job? Mr. President, that is the question that would have been answered on the 14th February and should be answered on the 28th March but must be answered by 29th May this year.

    An important consideration is the identity of the others interested in the head guard job. The chief applicant was once the head guard. Those alive at that time attest to the fact that he is allergic to yam even in the pounded form. Rather than behave like a goat he behaved like a lion and that is what worries some owners. Much as they detest the goats, they do not want a head guard with fondness for goat meat. Those rooting for a change of guard insist that the lion has transformed into a guard dog on account of the fact that we have come out of the jungle and are now in a domesticated environment under democracy. Which is why there is even a meeting in the first place to decide whom to appoint. What the owners are hearing in support of allowing the head guard to continue is that he is working on using technology to secure our yams. I think the owners are afraid that the kind of goats under the head guard and the reckless abandon with which they eat will end up eating the yams and embedded microchips, yam chips. The president’s problem is perception. So Mr. President, using your analogy; will the owners act to save their yams or the goats?

     

    • Edo ukpong is a Legal Practitioner

  • Osun and the unpaid salaries: Matters Arising

    Political leaders, historians and policy makers would not forget the years between 2007 and 2009 in a hurry. The global recession that spread across the world during this period resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment and slumping commodity prices. Many multi-national companies were unfortunately swept away by the depressive economic gale.

    Across the world, economic theorists warned sternly that recovery might not appear until 2011 and that the recession would be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. One of such economists of this century, Paul Krugman, in his comment on the economic downturn described it as “seemingly the beginning of a second Great Depression.” Expectedly, governments and central banks in Europe and America responded with both fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate national economies and reduce financial system risks.

    In its findings on the cause of the meltdown, the report of the U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, in January 2011 described the crisis as avoidable.  The Commission listed some of the causes to include among others: widespread failures in financial regulation; dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance, including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.

    Nigeria and indeed African countries were, to some extent, so lucky the depression wind did not blow across the black continent. We escaped the economic downturn. This however, is not to say that African countries and in particular Nigeria, did not taste the sourness of the economic downturn.

    Everyone thought Nigeria would learn from the global crisis. Today, the economic reality pointed otherwise. The operators of the country’s politics, monetary and economic policies have told the nation that they are either incompetent to run the nation or are too greedy and self-centred to run people-oriented government.

    Today, the economic crisis has left many states paralysed due to what many tagged the Federal Government’s financial recklessness and twin factors of corruption and poor economic policies. Workers across the 36 states have been groaning under this economic hardship owing to backlog of unpaid salaries, arrears as well as pensions.

    The situation in Osun is however slightly different as workers have been paid up to November while in some states worker are owed up to six months salaries. Osun is a different kettle of fish in the sense that the Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, was foresighted enough to prepare for a situation that the whole country currently found itself. On the federation account – Osun is actually in the 34th position on the rung of allocation ladder – collecting between N2bn to N4bn. And the state has a monthly salary wage of N3.6 billion to fulfill.

    Despite this huge bill and low allocation, the state under Aregbesola had always paid it’s workers’ salary as and when due, mostly between 24th and 26th of every month. Besides, it was during his tenure that the monthly pension to retirees jumped from N150 million to over N650 million, which the pensioners also collected promptly monthly. Not only this, workers also enjoyed thirteenth month salaries, first, half of their basic and in subsequent year, full basic salary.

    This smooth and orderly arrangement began to suffer mid July 2013 when allocation from the Federal Government abruptly nosedived. Allocation coming to Osun significantly reduced from N4 billion plus to about N2.5 billion. Federal Government blamed this reduction first, on theft of crude oil to the tune of 400, 000 barrel per day; but later attributed the dwindling fortunes to decline in oil price at the international market.

    Before Federal Government came out with these reason, Aregbesola and his Edo State counterpart, Adams Oshiohmole, had raised the alarm over the continuous reduction in states’ monthly allocation by the Federal Government. It got to a stage that some states, Benue for example, contemplated slashing workers’ salary so as to be able to meet its monthly financial obligation to workers. This was vehemently rejected. It led to workers been owed up to eight month salaries.

    Amidst this reversal in the fortune of the states, Osun was able to meet its financial commitments to its workers. This was made possible by Aregbesola’s prudence and foresight. When he assumed leadership in Osun, oil price was as it’s all time high and so extra fund was dripping from excess crude account. Aregbesola did not fritter this excess fund. He opened Omoluabi Conservative Fund and kept saving the accruing excess crude fund.

    As if he knew that after a period of surplus economic hardship would follow. When eventually sources of the excess crude oil suddenly dried up, Aregbesola had something to fall back on. For the next six months – that is well into mid 2014 – when most of the states could no longer meet their monthly statutory obligation, Aregbesola was drawing from his Omoluabi Conservative fund to augment the now significantly reduced allocation to pay salary.

    Rather than abate, the economic crisis showed no sign of abatement, forcing many states to economic stagnation. Yet Osun trudged on until the reserved fund emptied. Why Osun’s case is manageable today was as a result of financial prudence of the Aregbesola administration. The present predicament in Osun is not peculiar to the state; other states are affected. In some states, the situation is even worse.

    Osun debt profile has nothing to do with the prevalent economic conditions. The situation, brought about by Federal Government’s uncontrollable financial misappropriation unleashed this hardship on all states, both PDP and APC controlled. Like any other state in the federation, Osun went to the capital market for bond. The state did not however bite more that it could chew. Its debt profile is within its economic capacity. In terms of solvency, Osun is solid. For the avoidance of doubt and to expose the wanton lies of opposition, it is germane to refer to what the Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO) in the Presidency, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, said last year shortly before the August 9 governorship election.

    As usual, the opposition party had gone to town on its campaign of calumny that the state was indebted to the tune of N350 billion. But the DMO, shortly after, revealed that the state is one of the best states in the federation with public debt management. He also  noted that his office recognised Osun as the first to take the Sukuk, the Islamic bond. The state later won an award for this in Dubai, the United Arab Emirate. Nwankwo said at that forum: “We want to make sure that all segments of the society is captured in the bond market (Sukuk) because there are some groups of people or individuals who do not want to participate in ordinary bond because of interest. “Our office, DMO, and others are working hard to introduce Sukuk in Nigeria. We are delighted that Osun took the initiative and helped in introducing it in Nigeria. So, by that, Osun is one of the best states in public debt management.”

    The workers in Osun know that the governor is deeply concerned about their welfare. In fact, he is one of, if not the best, worker- friendly governor around. It thus stands to reason that in this adverse time, the workers would be standing firmly behind the governor so that they can jointly swim across the present murky economic water.

    •Owolabi, a journalist is a final year Law student at LASU, Ojoo.

  • Who is afraid of Ajimobi?

    Several years ago, the only reason I visited Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, was to attend “compulsory” social functions…mark the word: “compulsory”! And hardly did I spend nights there. The only hotel l felt safe in was Premier Hotel. As a matter of fact, to me it was the only “correct” hotel in the city. A city I rather referred to as a large village. It was too sleepy for my liking. The roads were terrible and the sights were an eye sore. You needed to see the heaps of filth that had become hills and mountains.

    That was the Ibadan I knew. Today, I know a new Ibadan. The beginning of the new Ibadan for me, started last year when l grudgingly embarked on a journey to the city for another social event.

    Confusion greeted me right from the toll-gate end of the city on the Lagos Ibadan Expressway. In the past, I needed not watch out for signboards that greeted “Welcome to Ibadan”. I only looked out for the filth, the decay and blood red eyed young men. But on this day, I was confused because the “signs and sights” of “Ibadan” were nowhere to be found? I wondered if I had wandered into another city. Where is the Ibadan that I knew? Behold, it was gone! At that point I recalled what I had been hearing about the activities of the state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Transformation, Restoration, Urban renewal, I thought it was all “politricks” but here it was, staring at me like “politruths”

    Ibadan was wearing a new look – clean roads, good roads, new structures, orderly parks and befitting markets. I thought I was dreaming- the same dream I saw happen in Lagos. After having a pleasure drive round the city, I attended my function and still decided to find out what happened or better still, find out who this man, Ajimobi was. I suddenly envied the people of Ibadan for being blessed with such a visionary leader.

    I never got to meet him then but the impression was that he was not popular with the people. What! Why? A man who had so transformed the state and instituted peace, security and development that had long eluded the people? Something is definitely not right here, I said to myself.

    My curiosity got the better of me and l began to grab every opportunity that would help me get a better and perhaps true picture of how people really felt about this man. l got a few but the most recent one got me thinking the more. I had the opportunity of observing at closer quarters, the people’s feelings and perceptions during the governors recent tour of local governments in the state. My findings jolted me.

    First was the reaction of a people who from findings were skeptical of the administration since inception only to witness magical transformation within two years. I am not talking about the very evident Ibadan now. I am talking about areas other than the city that were hitherto forgotten territories – Ibarapa, Oke Ogun, Ogbomosho, Ono Ara and all the places visited.

    During this tour with the governor, the people trooped out in their thousands to see him. Based on what I had read about him not being popular with the people, I expected that as they trooped out in their thousands, the governor would also get a thousand stones and missiles hurled at him!

    But no, the joy on their faces was priceless! They were clearly happy to see their Governor. Men and women, old and young, professionals and artisans, everyone seemed ecstatic to see the Governor.

    At nearly all the rallies too, there was a semblance of cooperation between the security men and the crowd. Even the crowds from the notorious Bere area to Mapo hall were not as unruly as they used to. Agreed, everything could not have been very perfect because we live in a complex and heterogeneous society. An example of that were few cases where over-excitement almost marred certain aspect of the occasion, but these were quickly curtailed.

    All that joy and happiness said a lot to me. Why are the people so happy? If they did not like Ajimobi, why did they come out in all the local governments to welcome him? Why did they not stone him and curse him for whatever reasons were cited by those who wrote in various media that Ajimobi was not liked by his people?

    I tried hard to justify the unjustifiable. I tried to separate Ibadan from the other towns. Quite right, Ibadan had been lavished with new roads, a new bridge and infrastructural development as well as aesthetics. So, these other towns, these hinterlands, what did they get in infrastructure because there was obviously no flyover bridge like the one in Mokola Ibadan? I realized that these people were happy because their narrow and bad roads had been repaired and widened, thereby facilitating their movement with their agricultural products. Farmers now had access to tractors. Their children – university and secondary school graduates had been employed into the civil service while others were part of the 20,000 engaged in the Youth Employment Scheme of Oyo state (YES-O).

    So, who is afraid of Ajimobi in a new Oyo State? Definitely not the same people who feel so lucky to have such a visionary leader. Not the people who never knew that succor could come to them. Not the people who can now sleep with both eyes closed. Not the people who love him so much that they would cast their vote twice for his second term bid, if voting more than once was possible.

    These are the group of people who I think are afraid of Ajimobi: Unrepentant hoodlums whom the security forces have caged; unscrupulous politicians who want a return to the old order where money meant for infrastructure were shared among them; enemies of the state, physical and spiritual, who want the state to remain in perpetual darkness and backwardness!

    Who is afraid of Ajimobi? I believe this governor has out-performed the rest and performed beyond the people’s expectation. Ahead of the 2015 elections, the people’s choices have been easier because they only have to choose between governors who achieved nothing for the state and a performing governor. They have to choose between inexperienced leaders and a vastly experienced Ajimobi. They have to choose between conservative personalities and a progressive governor.

    Who is afraid of Ajimobi? Not those who are enjoying the new lease of life in the state. Those who are afraid of Ajimobi are those worried that the governor is educating the people so much now that they are better exposed and now know what true leadership means.

    I believe these are the elements that are afraid of Ajimobi and they are shaking really bad because the people are set to return the governor for a second term.

     

    • Shokanmi, is a consultant with Olsphere Investment Limited, Lagos

  • Sustaining our democracy

    As Nigerians gear up for another round of electing their leaders into various offices in the country, including the most coveted position of the Executive President of the nation, the Good Governance Group (3G) hereby commends the resilience, maturity and equanimity of purpose so far displayed by the people.

    As we march towards the fifth attempt at choosing our leaders through the ballot in this dispensation, it behooves on us, irrespective of our preference for any of the political parties or their candidate/s to remain focused on those things that unite us more as a people co-existing under the same national umbrella rather than those divisive factors as ethnicity, religion/creed.

    Against this backdrop of not allowing the labour of our heroes past at fostering and nurturing true democratic ethos that provide life for our people and provide it abundantly to be in vain, and considering the pivotal role of a regional power and hope of the black race, providence has placed on our shoulders as a people.

    The Good Governance Group would remind compatriots of the critical role elections have played in the annals of this country right from the 1965-66 experience leading to the ‘wetie’ imbroglio in the Southwest which snowballed into military incursion into power and eventually degenerated into a civil war, the NPN Landslide electoral heist that led to the termination of that Republic by Buhari-Idiagbon regime, not to talk of the ill-fated 3rd Republic of June 12, 1993, that resulted in loss of many innocent lives and ultimate sacrifice of the symbol of that struggle, late Chief MKO Abiola.

    Consequently, we call on our political class to, like Caesar’s wife; be above board by eschewing all forms of violence and unnecessary beating of war drums, subsume their individual ambition within a larger context of what is good and expedient for the nation’s growth and survival.

    The group implores our law enforcement officers, be it the Police or the Army, never to condescend to what could desecrate their hallowed institutions or erode their respect at the international level in our global village and remain vigilant and patriotic by upholding the doctrine of impartiality in discharging their lawful duty of maintaining law and order during and after elections in an atmosphere that is devoid of intimidation and undue harassment of fellow countrymen/women.

    In a context of this nature, winners would certainly emerge while others are bound to lose the contest. For the overall good, we expect the winners to be magnanimous in victory by extending an olive branch to the loser/s while the losers should equally be gallant in accepting the result since we cannot always win in every contest but the people could be the ultimate win if truly we aspire to serve them in all honesty.

    Perhaps more than at any other time in our checkered history as a nation, we live in an uncertain and most trying times, but ironically, these times are used to make history by people of conscience and great mind as the onus falls on President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that Nigeria comes out of these elections stronger, better and more united than ever even if the results do not go his way.

    As a main custodian of the people’s mandate, freely given in a free and fair contest in the last four years, history beckons on him to demonstrate his genuine love for this nation by matching words for action if the electorate, the real sovereign decides not to re-elect him as their President, come March 28, 2015.

    In similar fashion, most Nigerians expect whoever emerges as the next President to have learnt enough lessons in our collective quest at evolving responsive and responsible leadership direction to not only Nigerians but the one that rekindles hope and promise in all Africans.

    This is the only benchmark that can herald a new Africa from the rubrics of colonialism and neo-colonialism.

     

    Gambo is the covener Good Governance Group

  • Jonathan’s trojan horse arrives South West

    President Goodluck Ebele “Azikiwe” Jonathan has firmly convinced himself that in the history of all ages, there has never been a space without master; and that there wouldn’t be any in Nigeria of today. The attacker always comes up against a possessor in various  forms since the greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of oppressed.

    The possessors and the oppressed in this instance are the Nigerian people and the attacker is Mr Jonathan himself. The Presidency’s confusions and vacillations seemed to increase with each new month of the calendar. To him, the only alternatives are victory or destruction. He has enlisted the unshakable obstinacy of violent ethnic militias in the Niger Delta, South East and now South West to inflict maximum injuries in the minds of those who will not consider him electable.

    Like a thunderbolt, the calls for the removal of Prof Attahiru Jega, the chair of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), was first echoed by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, (MASSOB). The calls culminated in advertisements in both prints, electronics and the social media. The campaign is so strong that few days ago, the disbanded MASSOB militia protested in Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, among other locations in the South-East, calling for the immediate removal of Jega.

    These protests were attended by violent and untoward destructions as choreographed by the PDP and President Jonathan. Characteristically, the evasive Jonathan maintained dignified silence as though he had no hand in it. While the wanton destruction of property and harassment of law abiding citizens lasted, the Nigeria Police provided cover for the arsonists to have a field day. No words of rebuke or order to clamp down on the protesters came from the Commander-in-Chief. Mr Jonathan, in the past, has broke up protests against his government with the same police and the armed forces. Incompetent and lazy, vain as a peacock, dry and without direction as he has been, the president could be pardoned for not showing leadership.

    The aggression didn’t end there. The Oodua Peoples Congress and the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation in Lagos on Monday morning led other protesters to storm the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, demanding the sacking of the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, before the March 28 elections.

    The bus of the campaign group and the members of the OPC, who massed at the 7UP/Toll Gate end of the expressway, led the protesters, who were chanting anti-Jega songs, giving reasons why Jega should be sacked. The OPC members carried guns, cutlasses, pocket knifes among other weapons, occupying one end of the busy highway while some members of the groups harassed some motorists and passers-by plying the road.

    Some people, who were clad in black vest, said to be beneficiaries of the SURE-P, also constituted a sizable portion of the protesters.

    Heavy traffic built up along the highway as the protesters, who were well protected by heavily armed soldiers and police presence, took over one part of the road, grounding movement of other road users. The protesters took time to distribute leaflets containing seven reasons why the INEC boss should be sacked. The leaflet also contained what the OPC described as the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan and why the President should be re-elected.

    Earlier, the National Cordinator of Oodua Peoples’ Congress, Chief Gani Adams has explained that his group resolved to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term, because of the promise to implement 633 recommendations of the report of national confab. “Yet some civil society groups have kept quiet on these issues. So, we need to move this country forward on the basis of structure and not about saying Buhari will come to perform miracle. When Buhari was in power, it was Buhari/Idiagbon government, not only Buhari. Idiagbon did much of the job in government. Buhari was just the administrator. Idiagbon was the master-strategist of that government”, he said.

    But prior to the violent protest of the outlawed militia, the All Progressives Congress, APC had alleged that it had uncovered a plot by its Peoples Democratic Party counterpart to fund ethnic militias to protest and demand Jega’s sacking. This allegation has not be refuted by either the PDP or the presidency.

    Vain and tactless and with incredible naivety and speed, Mr Jonathan has truly recruited and resuscitated the bloodcurdling OPC whose banal activities in South West Nigeria in the past almost laid the once urbane and sophisticated ethnic group prostrate. The consequences of arming militia terrorist group partly gave birth to Boko Haram insurgents and Niger Delta crisis for which the president himself is guilty of, and later became its victim when they bombed his house as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State.

    In introspection, it’s easy to now see that President Jonathan’s successful gamble with the postponement of the polls has brought him a victory more staggering and more fatal in its immense consequences than could be comprehended. Nigerians are not certain if Mr Jonathan would heed the note of caution, almost of despair, creeping into his second term bid.

    It’s yet unclear, day after day, who stands the most to gain from the chains of chaotic governance guaranteed by the PDP and Mr Jonathan in the last sixteen-years. It could be the people who barely sleep with one eye opened in virtual darkness. It’s possible it is the masses who stay awake all through the nights on empty stomach. If Mr Jonathan didn’t stand to gain from the  missed opportunities and aborted chances, why did he soil his hands with innocent people’s blood?

    In all of this, the plush official denizens who literarily took possession of his gutter government must have been having a field day.

    That Mr Jonathan awarded N9 billion contract to the OPC for the protection of pipelines in a country where you have hundreds of thousands of soldiers, policemen, Navy, Air Force, DSS and Civil Defence is a classical example of a gutter that becomes government.

    Feted and flattered by the ethnic militia as a reformist, even by the witches and wizards, the president becomes deprived of knowing how fateful his presidency has become. With the roaring dollars all over the place, Obas defaming their crowns, Christian leader cheering obsessively on the arrival of another easy money, assurances of God’s divinity issuing forth from the ‘Throne of Grace” for his continuity gambit, echoes of victory is all the president could hear.

    Well-meaning Nigerians know a thing that is unknown to the hired crowd or they pretended not to know. Should Jonathan stay beyond 2015 in Aso Rock by whatever means, the nation’s decadent economic situation would be worsened to an unbearable, even hopeless extent. The darkening time would have firmly gripped a people whose only hope  in the face of many failings was to have a voice in the affairs of their governance.

    As things stand, whoever lights the torch of electoral fraud can wish for nothing but chaos. Nigerians are already living in the solid conviction that in our time, nothing of such will be tolerated, not even a descend to the merest of manipulations. The renaissance of democratic ethos must take its full course so that Nigeria may make an imperishable contractual contribution toward the global strive for democratic space. That is the plight of the people in their proud nation and their unshakable belief in its indivisibility.

    • Erasmus, A Public Affairs analyst write in from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Ndigbo, Fani-Kayode and 2015 presidency

    There is no doubt that the only way the Igbos apart from political accident can produce the president in the country is by zoning. If not for the sudden demise of President Umaru Musa Yar Adua in office, and President Goodluck Jonathan’s contest of 2011 Presidency against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoning arrangement, PDP would have fielded a southeast presidential candidate, and a North Central running mate in this forthcoming presidential poll. That was why the then PDP national chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor was very frank and courageous at the peak of the late president Yar Adua health saga when he publicly declared that PDP would abide by its presidency zoning arrangement.

    But immediately Jonathan assumed office as president, the presidency and its hawks ousted Ogbulafor from office and roped him in, in alleged corrupt practice to silence him. Some prominent Igbo politicians in the PDP and their Northern counterparts which include Senator Ken Nnamani, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Senator Ben Obi, Prof ABC Nwosu, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Prof. Ango Abdullahi and others met severally then and even signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) that they would work together as a people to ensure that their political interest and aspiration would be met. But before one could bat an eyelid, the Igbo political leaders in the PDP have capitulated and sold out to the Jonathan’s ambition in 2011. Typical of an Igbo man who is always handy to be used to betray his people, many of the Igbo political leaders jumped into the Jonathan’s campaign train to the disappointment of their Northern counterparts. There were settled with contracts, appointments, and cash in exchange for their political opportunity and by the extension right to produce the presidency in 2015.

    Ahead of the 2015 polls, they saw the political trend with the formation of All Progressives Congress (APC), the alignment between the North and the southwest which has become the possible game change, they stuck with the Jonathan’s ambition even when it is obvious that Jonathan’s government in the last five years plus has failed the Igbos woefully. In the last five years of Jonathan administration in Igbo land, It has been more of political promise, less action. From the Second Niger Bridge, Enugu-Onitsha road, Enugu-Port Harcourt road, Onitsha port to the refusal to commission Prof. Barth Nnaji’s Geometric power plant in Aba that was ready for almost two years now. The list is endless. But some few Igbo treacherous leaders who are beneficiaries of the President Jonathan’s government and the massive corruption that has characterised it in the last five years have continued to shamelessly campaign for his re-election in Igbo land with nothing concrete for the Igbos.

    These categories of Igbo leaders include former governors, incumbent governors, serving ministers, former ministers, leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and several others. So much public funds have been made available to them by the Presidency, and they are busy justifying their loots by engaging in all kinds of hatchet political jobs. They are everywhere on the pages of newspaper, in the churches, communities, on the streets sponsoring pro-Jonathan rallies with looted public money, abusing Buhari and APC. They are deluding the people that Buhari will islamise Nigeria if he is elected President, but failed to tell them why President Jonathan has not Christianise the country in the last five years, if it is easy.

    In this their hatchet job, none of these so-called Igbo political leaders in the PDP is talking or negotiating anything better for the political future of the southeast in power equation of the country. What matters most to them is the immediacy, which is their private pockets, business interests, and that of their families, and relations. Others can go the hell. That is why majority of them have remained with the tag “Any Government In Power” (AGIP). It is for this reason that some Nigerians and the Director of Media and Publicity of the President Jonathan campaign organisation, Chief Femi-Fani-Kayode could summon courage to insult the sensibilities of the Igbos in the name of campaigning for President Jonathan by re-writing the civil war history.

    Addressing journalists in Umuahia Abia State recently, Fani-Kayode, said there had been “mind boggling allegations” against Buhari over his roles in the massacre of Igbos in the ‘60s and should therefore not be allowed to continue to run from his shadows. He said Buhari’s hands reek of the blood of innocent Igbo civilians massacred in cold blood hence such atrocities could not qualify him as a presidential candidate but a candidate for the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. Citing the horrendous massacre of Igbo civilians, including women and children in the North, and the killing of Igbo men and young boys at Asaba after the town was “liberated” by federal forces, Fani-Kayode insisted that Buhari’s name had always popped up in connection with those heinous \crimes against humanity. “It is important for us to remember that day because one of the allegations against Buhari that was to be put to him at the Oputa Panel was that he was among the division that took part in the massacre and that ordered those killings,” he said, adding that Buhari should speak up and explain if he was in Asaba on that fateful day and if so apologise to Igbos and Nigerians in general before atoning for his sins.

    It had been expected that some Igbo leaders would have called Fani-Kayode to order over the unguarded utterances especially concerning the Igbos and the civil war, but as we know the fear of incurring the Presidency’s wrath appears to be their handicaps because they lack integrity.If Buhari was serving in a military division where Igbos were killed during the civil war does that mean that Buhari killed them?  Why was Fani-Kayode trying to re-write history of civil war for the Igbos, and when has he become the Spokesman of the Igbos or Ohanaeze?

    Whereas those in the North whom people like Fani- Kayode tagged enemies of the Igbos did not only protect Igbos property in the region, they returned them to the Igbos immediately after the civil war. People like the late Biafra warlord Chief Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu reclaimed his father’s house in Kano after the war and willed it to one of her daughters at death. That is why it was easy for Igbos in the North to start life quickly after the war. Before the Boko Haram insurgency 80 per cent of Igbos are earning their living in the remote areas of the North where you hardly find an Ijaw man. This is because Ijaw men are not good at adventures. So who is trying to pitch Igbos against the North ahead of the rescheduled polls? When has Igbos become cheap products for sale to the highest bidder?

    Ahead of the rescheduled presidential poll, the political atmosphere is very clear. The direction is change and the Igbos should not be behind because immediately the change occurs, these political hypocrites called Igbo leaders in the PDP that have been hoodwinking the Igbos with Greek gift from President Jonathan will be the first to shift base. They are not truly Igbo political leaders, but political harlots who are specialists in the elitist conspiracy of divide and rule method to remain politically relevant. Igbos must shine their eyes.

     

    •Jacob Nwaezeorah, a retired civil servant wrote from Nsukka, Enugu State

  • Impunity is killing NSITF

    The organised labour in this country will recall with nostalgia the enactment of the Employees Compensation Act otherwise known as ECA, 2010. The Act, which repealed the Workmen Compensation Act, represents the legal instrument for the running of the Employees Compensation Scheme otherwise known as the employment injury scheme. The ECA, 2010 also saddles the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) management board with administering the scheme in such a way that an average injured employee with injury in the course of work or even at work will enjoy rehabilitation or compensation as the case may be.

    But so far, the scheme is yet to meet the yearnings of the Employees because of serious “Nigeria factor”. Immediately the Act was signed and ready for implementation, the first move by the board was to engage a consultant for recruitment. The consultant charged hapless prospective employees N1, 000 each. It was quite strange to see a social security organisation like the NSITF displaying such crude mercantilist tendency. Till date the millions of naira collected from the unfortunate jobless Nigerians in the name of providing jobs for them remain guesswork. What even makes the whole thing more grating to the ear is the alleged agreement by the NLC president, a member of the board of directors, to the job scam.

    With this loss of proper conception in the early morning hours of the scheme, the agency completely lost touch with what it is projecting to people and has since been mired in one mess or the other.  The Federal Ministry of Labour that should provide the necessary supervision by ensuring that the activities of the agency pass the litmus test of public service rules abdicated its role for alleged fear of losing face with the presidency.

    The recruitment that the consultant did was littered with anomalies so much that the in-house union was alleged to have cried blue murder. The in-house union was alleged to have complained to Management that contrary to the practice in NSITF and Public Service Rule; officers above the age of 50 years were given fresh and permanent rather than contract appointment.  And from what we gathered some pensioners were recruited fresh and have even been allegedly confirmed.  Quite a number of former retired or retrenched staff of NSITF receiving monthly pension were given fresh appointment and fresh confirmation of their appointments.

    The in-house union was alleged to have also complained that the post-qualification experience for the advertised vacant positions in national dailies in April 2011 was at variance with scheme of service of NSITF and Public Service generally as there was no explicit requirement for cognate experience.

    After the 2011 recruitment exercise, subsequent recruitments were allegedly carried out without interview as letters were just being issued either in churches, mosques and various cultural organisations. The recruitments are done without planning. Not even the top executive management made up of the MD/CE and three Executive Directors know the number of staff currently in the service of NSITF. The board has completely appropriated the functions of management. It was even alleged very recently that claims from employers in respect of their injured employees that is aboveN100, 000 have to be approved by a committee of the board. In the end, what members of the committee would take as sitting allowances would far exceed the figures they would be sitting to vet and approve.  And you say NSITF is not in a mess. How else would any sane Nigerian describe what is happening?

    While government appointed the MD and three executive directors to run the scheme, the board allegedly stripped them of their executive management functions and put the same in the hands of a serving police officer with power to fire and hire and transfer to “Siberia” without transfer allowance. In Abuja alone, there are four branch offices of NSITF in addition to the head office. The branches are in FCT, Mararaba, Kagini, and Gwagwalada with an average of 200 staff. Some of the staff allegedly sit on plastic chairs procured by themselves. Tell me how one branch manager can effectively manage over 200 staff in an atmosphere where there are alleged inadequate furniture and fittings?

    The medical histories of the staff are not known.  In the good old days when any of the agencies of government recruited, such workers were referred to government hospitals for their medical reports.

    Between 2011 and 2014, well over N12 billion was alleged to have come to the agency from the Federal Government as the ECS contributions for their staff. This is different from the alleged take off grant the agency received from government. Meanwhile, the ECS contributions from government have no accompanying payment schedule for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of the staff. The executive management team is not in charge and so the team is watching from the sidelines. And it is not because there are no experienced staff members in the agency. The few ones remaining are alleged not to be anywhere near where their input would matter.

    Now the same agency has been given additional mandate to provide unemployment benefit and benefit for the aged. The board as presently constituted is not technically sound to run this additional mandate. Modalities to determine the age bracket of the aged and employable unemployed are technical in nature and above the technical competence of the present board.

    The NSITF board is allegedly the board of Trustfund pensions plc- a pfa established by NSITF with other social partners. In the wisdom of the founding fathers the board of Trustfund pensions plc was to be chaired by the MD of NSITF, to be supervised by the board of NSITF as appointed by government.  But today it is no longer the case. With the alleged connivance of PenCom, the NSITF board is also the board of Trustfund pensions and of course every Nigerian knows that over N50 billion worth of pension assets is in the custody of Trustfund.

    Finally, another point I wish to stress is the issue of the recruitment of collecting agents by the board. The collecting agents are paid commission for their collections.  Now in the face of the unplanned massive recruitment of staff still going on, is there any need for such collecting agents? The monthly wage bill of NSITF is allegedly close to N1 billion. How does the agency meet the cost of industrial hazards?  Each time some of the pressmen on alleged monthly “brown envelope” sing the praises of an individual who in their thinking brought NSITF to life, it’s funny. The same individual is alleged to be choking the NSITF to death. Nepotism, mismanagement, vindictiveness and lack of corporate governance remain the new face of NSITF. If Nigerians know how much was allegedly invested on computerisation they would marvel.  Such expenses are secretly guarded. But one thing is very sure, the figure is not known to the Executive management team of the agency. The reign of impunity is killing NSITF.  Yes, the Jonathan administration has signed ECA, 2010, but are the right people managing it? Let an independent auditor look into the books of NSITF, and we shall see how much that place stinks.

     

    • Akerele sent this piece from Abuja.