The Nation Newspaper

Category: Dele Agekameh

  • Evans: A begging example

    Evans: A begging example

    After the hysteria that followed the arrest of Nigeria’s “Billionaire Kidnapper”, Chukwudidumeme Onuamadike, better known as “Evans”, and after several weeks of interrogations and further investigation, he has been arraigned on a two-count charge of kidnapping and conspiracy. He pleaded guilty to both counts. However, the circumstances leading to his arraignment and his plea of guilty have been subject to controversy.

    First is the question of why it took so long to arraign him in court. Investigations of this type depend on speed and efficiency of the police. If further investigations were necessary to unearth other members of his syndicate or their collaborators, swift action would ordinarily be best, especially as Evans has been singing like a canary since his arrest. Charging him after 82 days does not show appreciation for the urgency of any further moves by the police. There is also the fact of the suit filed by a lawyer seeking to compel Evans’ arraignment or discharge. It is already being suggested that the charges brought now were hurried along by the filing of that suit.

    One begins to wonder if there is not more to the Evans case than meets the eye. After all, there is money involved, money that Evans admitted never went to the banks. We want to see the police put together a complete case before going to trial for a change, instead of amending and re-amending charges all through the trial. However, Evans’ case appears to be as straightforward as it can get, without need for a lengthy trial, and the delay only raised questions.

    Another issue in his arraignment are the utterances of his lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, who only met the accused for the first time during his arraignment. The intrigue in this regard began after Evans denied any knowledge of the suit filed on his behalf by Ogungbeje asking the court to compel the police to charge or discharge him. Much noise was raised by the lawyer then about lack of access to his client.

    Now, upon his arraignment, the lawyer has cried foul again, claiming that Evans had revealed to him that he was forced to plead guilty upon threat to his life by the police. If nothing else grants credit to this claim, the refusal by the police to grant access to Evans surely does. Again, the question that begs answering is why the police considered this necessary. His lawyer may be a controversial choice, but it does not justify the secrecy and the antics of the police in this regard. The case may yet witness a new dimension bordering on his lawyer’s alleged large-scale extortion of the “billionaire kidnapper” by his captors, the Police.

    It was concerning also to witness the kind of celebrity status Evans attained immediately following his arrest. The police appeared to be sympathetic and the media, in pursuit of a sensational story milked the development until the resulting “human angle” emboldened Evans’ wife and family to plead on his behalf, for mercy or leniency. Evans has had a series of interviews with the media since his arrest in which he revealed a lot about his antics and what looked like remorse. He was portrayed as a pitiable figure unable to cope with the conditions of his detention facilities. One only hopes that the authorities and the public do not get carried away by this narrative.

    Criminals are infamous members of society who necessarily need punishment as a deterrent to future acts of criminality or to other would-be criminals. In Nigeria, we have not only had infamous criminals like Oyenusi in the late 60s and early 70s and Anini in the 80s, we have also had ‘famous criminals’ like Cecilia Ibru, former MD of Oceanic Bank and John Yakubu Yusuf, former Head of the Police Pension Board. The trend, not only in Nigeria, is that the hardened sort get what may be described as adequate punishment, while the white collar criminals with deep pockets often get to walk away with very light sentences (with preferential treatment) or grossly inadequate fines as in Yakubu Yusuf’s case. The problem is that even these controversial lines may be getting muddled in Evans’ case.

    With the posture of the police in this case and the bizarre stance of Evans’ lawyer after all that has happened since his arrest, one may be forgiven for being suspicious. There is nothing prosecutors all over the world love more than a confession. It makes things quicker and easier, going forward. That is why the hesitance of the Nigeria Police to move forward in this case is baffling. Already, there is talk in unofficial quarters about the possibility of a plea bargain in this case. If true, it would be rather unfortunate as after his series of confessions the need for such a measure is defeated.

    Another reason to be wary of the police in this case is the un-denied fact that Evans had been arrested in 2006 after a robbery operation went wrong at the point of splitting the proceeds. He was arrested in Lagos, transferred to Imo State under questionable circumstances and vanished from police custody in Imo. A policewoman who was then a Superintendent at the time, it is alleged, was instrumental in his escape from custody. Nothing has been said about the woman, not her name, her present rank if she is still in service. Not even a denial of the incident has been issued. Having kept Evans for so long, the public was expecting people like that policewoman to be brought to book, along with any other officers or outside collaborators of means. No big name has emerged, and so far, only an army corporal has been associated with Evans’ crime syndicate.

    The charges themselves have been a disappointment after all the time it took to bring the charges, bearing in mind that Evans has also been suspected of drug dealing, the many possible killings traceable to him and the number of kidnappings he is connected to, including those he confessed to. One hopes that the foundations for an unsavoury outcome are not being set in this case. It is doubtful that Evans’ lawyer can prove any inducement in his guilty plea.

    A few years back, another notorious armed robber, Shina Rambo, was released from prison after only serving 11 years in prison. With his notoriety and the sheer weight of his crimes it could seem light. The Robbery and Firearms Act and the Criminal Law of Lagos State both stipulate 21 years for robbery and a Death Penalty for Armed Robbery. Only recently, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed a law prescribing the death penalty for kidnappers who kill their victims and life imprisonment for those whose victims do not lose their lives.

    The police force and justice system now need to show the seriousness required to send the signal of zero tolerance to criminals who want to tow similar paths. Kidnappings have been on the rise and the National Assembly is set to follow the example of Lagos State. Evans’ case may have many interstate and international dimensions, but the immediate necessity of prescribing punishment is of greater importance. Any steps that have not been carried out in the past 82 days can be followed up with a convicted Evans behind prison walls.

    Now is a perfect time, with the profile of this case for the authorities to show that their bite is as potent as their bark. A person can be forgiven for being wary of the Nigeria police dragging their feet in secrecy on a very good case like this. The case of Evans is begging to be set as an example. Hopefully, the opportunity to set the tone for these crimes will not pass the criminal justice system by.

  • Kachikwu-Baru feud

    Kachikwu-Baru feud

    Hans Christian Anderson’s classic tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, seems befitting as an analogy for recent happenings in Nigeria’s political arena. The latest intrigue to come out of that arena involves a vicious debacle between Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Kachikwu has accused Baru of humiliating insubordination and disregard for due process in running the NNPC. These concerns, penned in a letter by Kachikwu to President Muhammadu Buhari, were leaked to the public last Tuesday.  As usual, the “wolves” have jumped on this story, and as some reckon, they may have even engineered it.

    In Anderson’s tale of an emperor who was known for his fondness for fine garments, two conmen posing as garment makers, managed to convince the emperor that they had created a very special garment that was so magnificent that it was invisible to people who are unfit for their positions or extremely stupid. Thrilled by the idea, the emperor contracts their services and they make a great show of dressing the emperor in his “invisible garment”. The emperor cannot see the so-called garment, but remains silent as he fears it means he is not fit for his position. The emperor then proceeds on a procession around town, but everyone remains silent also for fear of being branded stupid, until a child who does not know any better blots out the obvious – the emperor has no clothes on!

    Now, as anyone can guess, President Buhari is the emperor in this analogy. His obsessive anti-corruption crusade is his fondness and by extension, his weakness. In this present day scenario, however, the conmen are numerous and the emperor’s court that remained silent are represented by the president’s ministers, other appointees and advisers that keep singing his praises. Since he assumed office, the president has been treated, probably obliviously, to many invisible garments and has been left exposed and naked by members of his inner caucus who, perhaps, are more concerned about themselves than the president’s image or the overall direction of the country.

    That child in the crowd has manifested in different ways in Buhari’s administration, with the latest inadvertent manifestation in the person of Ibe Kachikwu. In truth, Kachikwu may have simply been addressing personal concerns to his person and his office, but what he may have inadvertently done is call out the president on his style of leadership.

    In his letter, Kachikwu states that he had been unable to secure an appointment to personally convey his concerns to the president “despite very many attempts”. His letter also alluded to the possibility that Baru and others had falsely painted him as corrupt, “anti-north” and in collusion with militants in the South – buzz words that are likely to sway the president. What this means is that, whether through the influence of others or through his own wilfulness or neglect, the president had insulated himself from an important member of his cabinet.

    If memory serves, Kachikwu is not the only one from the president’s ‘court’ that has raised alarm about the president’s confidants and advisers. Sometime in July this year, Aisha Buhari, the first lady, also referred to a cabal of “hyenas and jackals” within the president’s inner circle who had hijacked the presidency and were making the president dance to their tune. The first lady would later be described as a “suicide bomber from Yola” in a phone conversation between alleged members of that cabal. Such has been the rancour within the president’s inner caucus, pointing to a problem in the president’s leadership style.

    If Kachikwu’s allegations are to be believed, Baru is apparently a member of, or closely related to this cabal that we have been hearing about. Kachikwu backed up his claims by referring to repeated attempts by the cabal to gain approval from then Acting-President Yemi Osinbajo during the president’s medical leave, in circumvention of Kachikwu’s authority, which the vice president declined and referred back to Kachikwu. As the leaked letter revealed, the vice president’s reference was never honoured, only for the approvals to be granted upon Buhari’s return.

    On the assumption that these claims are true, it is difficult to rule out foul play at some level, with the net of liability reaching the president himself. The concern is, even if the president’s team is engaged in illicit games, no one seems to have warned the president about the possible (and actual) damage to the image of integrity that saw him sweep aside the past administration. The opposition has been watching and exploiting and this leak and others have been linked to the president’s detractors who ironically have also played the role of the child in the emperor’s analogy, by voicing the obvious truth about Buhari’s exposure.

    The foundation of Buhari’s government has been the relative free hand given to members of his cabinet and other appointees to pursue policies that ought to benefit his administration as a whole. However, such a strategy can only work if there is coherence in the motives and objectives of each individual appointee. As the Department of State Security, DSS, and Ibrahim Magu saga shows, there is little or no coherence within the presidency and the first lady’s theory is strengthened by the outcome in that case that turned out apparently against the president’s own wishes.

    Buhari’s leadership style was easy to maintain in his first outing as military head of state, where the chain of authority is clear. Even then, many observed, rightly or wrongly, that the late Tunde Idiagbon, Buhari’s number two man, was largely the real power-house of the government, in line with Buhari’s style of extensive delegation. Now, under a civilian administration, the lines are not so clear and the free reign approach has led to more problems than solutions. Buhari’s retention of the position of Minister for Petroleum Resources is certainly out of character, based on his leadership style. This fact and the way the Baru-led NNPC have behaved so far, can lead one to other conclusions.

    The overbearing confidence of the ‘northern wing’ has also brought a new dimension in a system that thrives on federal character. The president’s weakness to address this or his ignorance of the existence and effects of this dimension, contributes to the problem. This is why, even in sensitive positions, non-northern appointees like Kachikwu, while being sidelined, still feel the need to restate a nationalist, as opposed to anti-north, disposition.

    It is also significant that the emperor in the classic tale continued his procession as if nothing had happened even after the child revealed what was apparent. Will Buhari now do the same? There are reports that the president has met Kachikwu over the matter and possibly Baru too. Therefore, the president’s next move or lack of reaction will be very crucial in confirming or allaying fears over the truth about his integrity.

    However, the Kachikwu-Baru clash is not an isolated event, as many cries about the president’s apparent ‘nakedness’ have elicited no reactions from the man himself. From the Katsina DSS recruitments to selective prosecutions, the cards continue to stack against the president but his appointees continue to ignore the signs.

    Those that criticised Kachikwu over his handling of the matter should see the positives in the way events have played out. Buhari’s attention has finally been called to the matter. Perhaps, elevating Kachikwu to the position of a full Minister for Petroleum Resources (if the hyenas and jackals will concede) and personally working very closely with him, (as it should be), is one way that confidence in the president’s integrity can be somewhat restored in this matter.

    It appears the threads of Buhari’s garment of integrity and anti-corruption have worn out in the course of his administration, but the man carries on as though his popularity is as strong as when he took power. But who will tell the Emperor?

  • ‘War’ on NGOs

    Almost throughout its post-independence existence, the Nigerian government has struggled with the provision of essential services to the populace while being perpetually unable to deal with the country’s infrastructure deficit. In July this year, at the quarterly presidential business forum held at the presidential villa, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, admitted that the country had no money to deliver essential services. The public service gap thus created has been filled for decades by domestic and international Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, that out-do local authorities in the provision of basic public services, recommendation of vibrant policies and development of vital research and data.

    It is, therefore, shocking that a hare-brained scheme now in process at the House of Representatives, is set to frustrate the work of NGOs in the country. It will generally destabilise the third sector (civil society) that plays a key role in providing constructive criticism and checking the excesses of government. The Non-Governmental Organizations Regulatory Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2016, which is widely referred to as the “NGO Bill”, is not only a step in the wrong direction,  but coming after recent moves to regulate and control social media, it is also a signal of the direction that the government is headed – totalitarianism.

    One of the first disturbing features of the bill is the establishment of yet another commission, one that has powers to establish subsidiary organs and borrow money, adding to a perpetually growing and oversized government and increasing government overhead. This means that more funds in a vastly insufficient treasury will be drawn away from capital projects. The waste and recklessness proposed alone should be enough to defeat the bill, but there is more. Beside the fact that most of the functions of the commission are already being handled by other government agencies, the import of all the provisions is that the government will be essentially in control of the resources and activities of NGOs. The bill aims to place civil society in a government designed box, where dissent and criticism will be impossible and where straying out of the box will be punishable by imprisonment.

    The provisions of the Bill are so hostile and the red tape it contemplates so cumbersome that it is guaranteed to lead to a fast decline in assistance from international organisations presently involved in operations in the country. In the past few years, hundreds of organisations have entered Nigeria, and continue to do so, most recently in the north where Boko Haram and low level of education and development are crushing hopes for a better future for citizens in that region. To create an environment where these organisations have to contend with multiple legislation and scores of agencies to perform traditionally government roles, is unfair to the potential beneficiaries and will surely be counter-productive in the long run.

    When pressed about the rationale behind the bill, Hon. Umar Buba Jibril from Kogi State, the sponsor, was quick to point to similar legislation within ECOWAS and Africa generally. Surely, it is not news that African countries continue to display legendary bad judgment in decision making when it comes to regulation and governance in general. His response is made further exasperating by the fact that there is readily available precedence within the continent for the damage this particular bill can do.

    A similar Act, which by all indications was instrumental in preparing our current NGO bill, was in operation in Kenya. The operative word here is “was”. The said Act came into operation in Kenya in 1992, during the regime of President Daniel Arap Moi. In actual fact, the 1980s and 1990s have been described by some as the darkest in Kenyan political history, as Mr. Moi and his Kenyan African National Union, KANU, party actively and brazenly shut down dissent and suppressed critical voices in the country. Only last year was the Kenyan twin of the bill, the Non-Governmental Organisations Co-ordination Act (Kenya), repealed by the Public Benefit Organisations Act (2013) which although was a vast improvement, was still met with controversy in the country.

    The Kenyan version of the bill contained vague grounds for the denial of registration of an NGO as does our current bill and it set up a board made up of government appointees and an insignificant number of representatives of the NGOs. Our bill has 15 government appointees, including the “Executive Secretary” and only three representatives of the NGOs as members of the board. What we know about the Kenyan NGO board is that it got corrupt, lacked accountability, harassed NGOs and generally abused its powers. We also know that the Act led to reduced funding from international organisations in Kenya. Yet, Hon. Jibril is prepared to lead a charge backwards by 20 years, despite the warnings in the Kenyan example.

    Also, last year, another African country, Egypt, passed a similar legislation that attracted widespread international criticism. Maina Kiai, a UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of assembly and association, described it as a law that threatens to “devastate the country’s civil society for generations to come and turn it into a government puppet”. This is exactly what this NGO bill threatens to do here in Nigeria.

    NGOs are named as such because of their necessary independence from government. This independence extends to their choice of projects and sources of funding. As we are a civilised society, everyone knows that rights are qualified only at the point where they intersect with other rights or come into friction with laws. Despite some shortcomings, we have an elaborate system of laws that properly cover the activities of NGOs.

    The bill portrays the NGO landscape as a free-for-all market where anything goes, but this cannot be farther from the truth. There are already provisions for their registration, records and documentation at the Corporate Affairs Commission, under Part C of the Companies and Allied Matters Act which also regulates their activities. NGOs also have to file annual returns under the Companies Income Tax Act with the tax authorities, submitting audited accounts amongst other things, while their respective integrated tax offices are mandated to monitor their activities to ensure compliance with their financial objectives. The Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, also registers NGOs and is empowered to monitor their cash and currency transactions.

    Another laughable feature of the bill is the totality of Part IV that mandates “self-regulation” and establishes a “Nigeria National Council of Voluntary Agencies”. To seek to gather together, by force of law, “voluntary agencies” and demand that they self-regulate, defies logic. Sane governments encourage self-regulation with incentives, whereas the Nigerian government is forcefully taking control of voluntary organisations and using the incentive of duty waivers as bait. The sponsor has also alleged that some NGOs in the North-east fund insurgents. He needs to be asked whether the Terrorism Act (and many others) is there for window dressing.

    In the end, the NGO bill is a waste of legislative time and the fact that it has passed first and second reading in the House shows a desire to complicate charity through irresponsible law-making. A recurrent theme in the bill is the idea that NGOs are partners of the government engaged to follow government’s development agenda, however flawed. NGOs rather, are partners of the people in their everyday struggles and have no obligation to foster any interests of government as an institution. This is where Hon. Jibril, the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara and their team of honourables get it wrong.

    While everyone is concerned about their precious religious bodies, the bill threatens to do deeper and more lasting damage than we realise. Our lawmakers are taking us backwards and plan to erode the civil society space with the corrupting touch of government. We must, therefore, resist this move, for the sake of the many victims in our society whose only recourse are the NGOs rendering selfless service. Indeed, we are all victims, so we must not again fall victim to Jibril, Dogara and their cohorts.

  • IPOB as poisoned chalice

    The python has really continued to dance in the South-east region of Nigeria. Last Wednesday, the acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adamu Abdul-Kafarati, heard the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on a motion ex-parte banning the activities of the group known as Independent People of Biafra, IPOB, pursuant to provisions of the Terrorism Act 2013 (as amended). The motion was granted, thus signifying judicial and executive endorsement of the controversial “pronouncement” by the military.

    None of the prominent voices that criticised the military after its earlier pronouncement of the group as a terrorist organisation did so out of the belief that such a move would be unjustified. Rather, the critics, like Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, raised technical legal issues about how such a proscription should come about. Now that the legal hurdle is out of the way concerning the proscription, we ought to set our minds on how best to proceed while also trying to anticipate the possible reactions of the group to this development.

    Officially proscribing the group presents both good and bad news for the country. The good news is that the move, which was preceded by a similar action by the leaders of the South-east, indicates a move forward from the initial situation where the door for sympathy and open tolerance for the many dangerous actions of the group was still open. The bad news is that the problem of identity crisis which the group appeared to have been struggling with has now been settled by the government.

    Nnamdi Kanu, the self-acclaimed “supreme leader” of the group has all along been trying to sell the group as a non-violent movement while his rhetoric at other times encourages violence from his supporters. His claim of non-violence is also negated by the contemplation and actual setting up of a “Biafra Secret Service” while openly soliciting for funds and arms from Nigerians at home and abroad. The fear now is that any pretences of non-violence have effectively been thrown out of the window since the group has been outlawed. Forthwith, any IPOB activities now will be criminal activity and will be met with the force of the state. In this case, the scales may have just been tipped towards a violent movement, if the group desires to remain active.

    As some have opined, the madness of the group may in fact, be methodical. It is one possibility we cannot write off. Kanu may be irrational and criminally eccentric, but his actions can be viewed through an altogether different lens or prism. It would seem that the federal government has played right into his hands. It is a classical play made by terrorists and other questionable organisations around the world, to hound the state into responding violently, capture the acts and use the images to garner sympathy at home and abroad. With IPOB already writing to the international community about a non-existent genocide against Igbo’s in Nigeria, we may have to come to terms with the reality that the group is ready to strategically sacrifice lives to generate sympathy from the international community.

    Many criticised Odumegwu Ojukwu, the late Biafran hero, on the use of the same tactics during the civil war, when he refused to accept food and supplies from Britain and other federal government friends while Igbo’s were dying of starvation. Inducing the security forces to wield their big sword is not beyond IPOB. Right now, the whereabouts of Kanu and his parents are said to be unknown and there is fear that they may have been harmed by soldiers. For a group populated by desperate and angry young people who have shown a penchant for violence, an extended period of uncertainty about Kanu’s whereabouts may be dangerous for the region. With or without their head, IPOB’s options just became very limited and the security forces need to be prepared to act, within the confines of the law though.

    One cannot expect that the group will simply disband and abandon their cause. The dangers of a fully militant IPOB is that it may be as difficult to put out as Boko Haram or the Niger Delta militants which, even with the amnesty programme, cannot be confused for being disarmed or disbanded. These groups are funded by deep-pockets who see advantage in keeping them operational and any such people in the South-east that shied away because of the relative ‘openness’  of the group before now, may find a more secretive IPOB easier to engage and use as they deem fit.

    History is replete with legitimate and recognised bodies using clandestine groups as a secret tool in manipulating outcomes. The Provisional Irish Republican Army, PIRA, was formed many years after a failed civil war by the original Irish Republican Army. It later became the unofficial “terrorist arm” of the Irish Republicans and was finally proscribed as such by the UK government. The IRA plagued the British for over 30 years, enjoying underground support from the government of the republic and secretly from other NGOs and individuals because the PIRA’s activities suited their interests. The situation is much different but one can draw parallels and find lessons there.

    This is why it is imperative for the government not to repeat the same mistakes it made especially with Boko Haram. Having proscribed IPOB, careful monitoring to prevent it from growing into a mammoth is needed. The government has disclosed that a lot of funding for IPOB’s activities come in from France, so further work needs to be done in the light of recent events to warn that any association with the group is tantamount to criminality.

    The South-east leaders also have the most important job to do. First, they must be sincere about their motives. As much as the Biafra question is a sensitive issue in the east, they cannot let those sentiments get in the way of comprehensively dealing with the IPOB situation. Although most people outside the east would prefer that the entire Biafra question be put to rest, the South-east governors need to draw a line between traditional Biafra campaign and Kanu’s hate-propelled brand. They must ensure that the people in the east understand where the line falls.

    The Terrorism Act is very thorough about association with declared terrorist organisations. Every individual in the crowds that troop to receive and visit Nnamdi Kanu is now in danger of breaking the law. This includes Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State and Femi Fani-Kayode who have been known to fraternise with Kanu. Now that the government has made its declaration, what would be its response if these large crowds continue to gather in the name of IPOB?

    Right now, the name IPOB has been soiled and there is no coming back from it. The group has been successfully demonised, with the help from its members, and it is left to be seen if the dog that has been given a bad name can indeed be put down. IPOB has become the poisoned chalice, not just for its followers and Biafran supporters in general, but for all Nigerians. The group has been backed into a corner from where it can only attack or submit and its reaction will resonate around the country, for good or bad.

    It is obvious that the country can scarcely deal with another militant group. Boko Haram has the advantage of being drawn from locals who have superior knowledge of the terrain, so also with the Niger Delta militants. That is why the security forces should be well ahead and on top of strategies to curb the utilisation of such advantage in this particular case. While these warnings may seem like overkill, they are made in the hope that for once, we will not let history get past us and repeat itself. How Nnamdi Kanu metamorphosed from a protester in London canvassing for the protection of the Nigerian state over the menace of Boko Haram to a hate-spewing bigot, remains a mystery, but we cannot and should not let more peaceful Biafra dreamers and sympathisers be sucked into the net of IPOB.

  • Biafra: The fire this time

    Aldous Huxley, a famous English writer and philosopher once said: “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” In the last few days, it has become increasingly clear that the group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and Nnamdi Kanu, their “supreme leader”, are on a mission to justify these words by all means. The federal government is also not absolved in this regard – a history of over-reaction and high handedness on its part also looks set to repeat itself and tip the scales in favour of the carnage that IPOB group seeks.

    For a couple of years now, Kanu has been a thorn in the side of the Nigerian government. His hate speech and threat against the Nigerian state including ordinary Nigerians had compelled the government to order his arrest and prosecution for various offences, including treason. His arrest led to a protracted period of detention. When he was finally released on bail, it was on clear and stringent conditions that he apparently left behind in the courtroom.

    Now, having incited his supporters to one mindless act after another, the culmination of their incendiary actions and remarks and the high-handed response of agents of the government, have become a threat to the frail stability of multiple inter-ethnic locations across the country. One almost feels sorry for the government that has to check excessive reactions of its agents in the face of unbridled provocation by the IPOB cohort as it happened in Abia State last week.

    Though the skirmish in Abia State was regrettable, the crass disregard for civil decency that has been exhibited by Kanu and his followers from the onset has been astounding. All along, his message has veered so much off-course of the traditional Igbo marginalisation theory, to the extent that even Ralph Uwazuruike, the man who claimed to have recruited him into the original Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has repeatedly condemned and washed his hands off Kanu. It is also of great concern that the broadcasts that were personally made by Kanu on the platform of his foreign domiciled Radio Biafra, were, indeed, not seeking to promote Igbo interests but rather, pandered to ethnic division and hatred of the other tribes in Nigeria.

    While this balderdash was going on, surprisingly, seemingly moderate Igbos, including Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, had thought that they could ignore Kanu’s treasonable excesses by dismissing his actions as immature and eccentric. In the same vein, these moderate Igbos had been riding on the coat tails of IPOB’s message of hate, to reiterate the Igbo marginalisation mantra.

    For a people whose enterprising nature and economic dexterity is readily recognised anywhere in the land, and demonstrated through repeated appointments into sensitive areas of government including positions at the head of the military, in the recent past, the argument of marginalisation just cannot hold sway. That no Igbo president has emerged since the civil war, is directly traceable to the efforts to secure the position through strong-arm tactics and the same threats as we see today, instead of the politics of charm and alliances that everyone else is busy consummating.

    In an interview with Al Jazeera after his release on bail, Kanu was quoted as saying: “We have one thing in common, all of us that believe in Biafra, one thing we have in common, a pathological hatred for Nigeria. I cannot begin to put into words how much I hate Nigeria”. The question is: If Kanu detests the country so much, why has he not renounced his citizenship?

    Albert Einstein, arguably one of the most regarded scientists in history, a German-born Jew renounced his German citizenship at a time when German ideals were incompatible with his beliefs. That, surely, is the civilised thing to do instead of rousing vulnerable youths in the name of hatred to destabilise the peace of other Nigerians, including well-meaning Igbos who will be caught up in any fighting that might result from the irresponsibility of a few bigots.

    It is apparent that Kanu has constituted a law unto himself. Images of shabbily clad, desperate young men dubbed “Biafran Security Forces” being ‘inspected’ by Kanu are routine online. His supporters have attacked military checkpoints with crude tools, burnt a police station and hunted for northerners who were marked for death by them. Kanu is also seen in a separate video urging his supporters to “burn down” Nigeria if he gets re-arrested, and this, after brazenly breaching the terms of his bail. Right now, he does not seem like one who will report to court on the next date for hearing of his case.

    It should be noted too that the Army itself has been caught on camera mistreating members of the group in an inexcusable act of ruthlessness. Although the military high command has launched investigation into this detestable act, it goes to show the excesses of some public officials in their behavioural pattern against the same public they are paid to protect. And as they say, two wrongs can never make a right.

    Now, the questions some need to ask themselves is: Is there any justification for supporting, in public or private, such a divisive figure as Kanu? And for those who will not openly condemn him for what he has become, what are they waiting for?

    Surely, there is no middle ground between hate and legitimate efforts to protect people’s interests within a civilised society. Right now, with his utterances, Kanu is not towing the path of Mandela or even Odumegwu Ojukwu, as he would want people to believe. Definitely, he is moving towards a warped Igbo supremacy quest modelled after Adolf Hitler, without the brains, wit or might, to execute it. The outrageous claims of possessing ‘nuclear weapons’ can only be an indication of a mentally challenged individual, which could spell greater doom for all those who follow his path.

    It is a big relief that the government has been able to douse the flames of reprisal attacks against Igbos in Jos for the hunting of northerners in the east by Kanu and his cohorts. However, this fragile peace is subject to puncture by even the slightest whim of these unstable young men who are unable to grasp the full consequences of their actions.

    It is worth a reminder that the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War or Biafra War, which are still etched in the sub-conscious of many of the leaders of the South-east, are real and should never be revisited. As for the government, the time has come for careful diplomacy in handling Kanu by gently coaxing him to talks with the Igbo leadership. This is so because his acts are fast crossing the threshold of decency and common sense.

    Already, the military has declared IPOB a militant terrorist organisation, while at the same time, the committee of South-east governors and the leadership of the Ohanaeze, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural group proscribed the group – all with good reasons. Illegal formation of parallel security forces not recognised by the state, attacking state security forces, and hunting down innocent people definitely justify these actions. It is sad, but the Igbo leaders’ action came a little too late because the leaders had all along been too reluctant to decide on what to do. Hopefully the greater interests of the Igbo people should now prevail.

    It is, however, unfortunate that there are claims of deaths from the hands of the military in Kanu’s camp. If it is true, it is should be properly investigated. While fighting hate and indecency, we should not descend into the same ugly depth as the defaulters. It is hoped that the right thing is done in all quarters, to avoid a repeat of past horrors. Nigeria needs peace, but surely, not the peace of the graveyard.

  • For sale: Nigeria Police Force

    The Muhammadu Buhari administration came into power with the promise of a full scale war on corruption at all levels. While many see the fight against corruption as being one-sided and a witch-hunt of the President’s political rivals, the truth is that now people feel more emboldened to expose corruption, whether for selfish reasons or for the greater public good.

    In the latest bout of allegations and counter-allegations that has almost become routine in public sphere in the Buhari era, Ibrahim Idris, the incumbent Inspector General of Police, IGP, has been caught up in a web of accusations of corruption levelled against him by Isah Misau, a senator and chairman of the Senate Committee on the Navy. Misau accused the IGP of being unable to account for payments received from private companies and individuals for services rendered by the police, amounting to about N10 billion monthly. He also accused the IGP and the Police Service Commission, PSC, under the chairmanship of Mike Okiro, a former IGP, of receiving payments from police officers in exchange for favourable postings and promotions.

    But in a shameful manner, the police, through Jimoh Moshood, the Force Public Relations Officer, responded by raising counter-allegations against Senator Misau, labelling him a deserter from the police force and also accused him of forgery after Misau produced a retirement letter. There were other allegations of impersonation and attempts to discredit the senator who was also accused of frequenting Indian hemp joints.

    One can get lost in the sensationalism of the dirty back-and-forth between the senator and the police and miss the vital pieces of information worth pursuing in the ensuing drama. However, the issue of greatest concern is the matter of payments from several companies, including oil companies and private individuals which have been described as “internally generated revenue”. The police is not a revenue generating organisation and these payments are surely not being remitted to the federation account. A fact that may also be missed by many is that these payments cannot be new. The past IGPs would have been recipients of similar payments and the accountability of the money generated may have also been an issue in past times if this matter is properly investigated.

    With this in mind, one would assume that the senator, who had been part of the police would have been aware of the existence of such payments in the past. It raises questions as to why he has taken it upon himself to launch a specific attack on the present leadership of the police force. Whatever his intentions, which may probably be selfish, the issue is now firmly in the public domain. One only hopes that, as in many cases before this, the matter will not just be swept under the carpet as soon as public consciousness shifts to other matters.

    Another telling point is the reaction of the police. The shame of the response of the police force is not only on the leadership of the force, but also on the entire nation as a whole. The ill-advised counter-allegation is in many ways, an admission of guilt, and a very childish way of deflecting blame that should not be seen in such high offices. The horror of the situation was televised live when the police PRO was engaged in a shouting match with the senator on Channels Television a couple of weeks ago. It was gut-wrenching to watch the shameless display.

    To make matters worse, the PSC, which seems to be treading a bit more carefully than the IGP, has now cleared the senator of the allegation of forgery by confirming the retirement letter. Even if it were found to be false, raising the issue after the senator raised accusations against the police is already indicative of irresponsibility on the part of the police leadership and that should not be taken lightly.

    The police in Nigeria is about the most corrupt public institution in the country. Public confidence in the institution has been dangerously low for as long as one can remember. That is why groups like the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, and many similar organisations thrive. The present IGP himself came into office in ostentatious manner by immediately accusing his predecessor of carting away choice police vehicles and leaving the runt for him.

    Soon after, he was himself involved in controversy over questionable disposal of police vehicles and allegations of diversion of about N7.2 billion meant for the purchase of armoured personnel carriers and the renovation of around 102 police stations across the nation, all in violation of the 2016 Appropriation Act. The House of Representatives summoned him over these allegations but not surprisingly, it came to nothing.

    Many more allegations have since come to light. Earlier in 2016, Sahara Reporters reported that senior police officers had accused the IGP of engaging in sexual trysts with subordinates amongst other acts that make him unfit for his role. This indicates that he may not even enjoy the confidence of his own men and may have been an unpopular choice to begin with. The allegation of promotion racketeering against the IGP and the PSC may also have had base in the recent appointment of Imohimi Edgar as Commissioner of Police in Lagos State. It was an uncommonly fast-tracked promotion as he was just promoted Deputy Commissioner, DC, in April this year and then moved to acting commissioner within five months. Although, he is credited with the firm handling of the recent Badoo killings in Lagos, nevertheless, his appointment was far and above many of his superiors still left in the cold. It is also a practical affirmation of the allegations against the present police leadership.

    The issue of private payments to the police is not a uniquely Nigerian problem. While it is generally not encouraged and met with raised eyebrows, it has unfortunately crept into many police systems. Recently, the UK police had to answer for private payments received from companies and communities which ran into about £20 million. The payments were said to have been occasioned by cuts in the police budget that drove companies to pay for the extra manpower in investigations and communities paying to bring back police presence to areas where they had to be pulled out.

    The difference here is that while in the UK, the generated funds are applied directly to visible and verifiable employment of more equipment and personnel, the Nigerian situation involves utilising men who are already answered for by public funds (estimated at about 10,000) to protect companies and private individuals – many of questionable character. The received payments are unaccounted for and instead, are added to the IGP’s slush fund of illicit spending.

    The government needs to take formal notice of these funds and build a structure around its utilisation that promotes accountability and transparency. Receipt of these payments may not be a bad or unacceptable thing in itself, but after years of unaccountability, the allegations made by Senator Misau may have finally cast necessary attention unto this police “revenue”. Whatever his particular interests, the senator may have inadvertently done the nation a service. One would now expect him to hand over the matter to his counterparts on the senate committee on police affairs, while he returns his attention to the Navy where it ought to be.

    As for the IGP, his fate lies squarely in the hands of the President, who needs to do more in ensuring that his appointments match the declared zero tolerance for corruption. From the information now coming out against the IGP, it appears he may not be suited for such a role in a government that is serious about fighting corruption and restoring sanity to the country’s public offices. There is more than just smoke in this ugly episode and the members of the public now wait on thePresident to put out the fire ravaging the police leadership.

  • JAMB: Quantity vs quality

    The recent announcement of the new cut-off mark by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME, in the 2017/2018 academic session, has sparked mostly unfavourable reaction from Nigerians. The outcry is not only justified, but it shows to some extent, that we have not lost our minds as a country and more importantly, that there is a will amongst the populace to see the education sector restored to past lofty heights.

    No one needs any further evidence of the rot in education in Nigeria. Employers routinely groan over the throngs of unemployable graduates that besiege them during recruitment exercises. Many of the graduates get into public offices where they continually display their ignorance with abandon. Sadly, Nigerian students who receive their instructions in English their whole lives are often required to take compulsory English Language tests to qualify for admissions into educational institutions outside the country. This is an indication that those institutions must have had experiences unflattering of Nigerians before resorting to such measures.

    Anyone of those institutions wondering why an English-speaking country with English as its official language of instruction in its schools, would produce some of the products they do would have gotten some insight into the roots of the problem if they got hold of a Nigerian newspaper last week. JAMB had announced a cut-off mark of 120 for universities and 100 for mono-technics, polytechnics and colleges of education, out of a possible 400 marks. In effect, intending university students can scale through with the equivalent of a fringe “E” grade which is 30% and a prospective polytechnic or college of education student will be qualified with what would otherwise be an outright failure or “F9” grade which is 25% under the grading scale ordinarily adopted in Nigerian educational institutions.

    JAMB was created in 1978 as a way to address a perceived problem of admissions that plagued students in the years of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s military regime. The supposed problem was that the federal universities that numbered seven in 1974 and the additional six established in 1976 conducted their own entrance examinations. That led to multiplicity of admissions. This was somehow seen as a problem and wastage of resources in conducting the examinations. JAMB was then established and lowest cut-off marks had been at 180, at least, since sometime in the 1990s.

    However, in all these years, both private and public universities had gone on to conduct their own entrance examinations known as post-UTMEs or adopt higher cut-off marks than JAMB prescribed. This is as a result of the decay in the standard and reliability of the examinations conducted by JAMB over the years. It seems JAMB, which was supposed to be a solution to a “problem” has now become the problem itself. Therefore, some warning signs have been there for us to have anticipated what finally happened last week.

    In June last year, JAMB announced the scrapping of the post-UTME tests conducted by Nigerian universities that have apparently lost faith in JAMB’s effectiveness. The decision was met with almost the same outrage by the academia at the time. That decision was only lifted the week before last, with the board admitting that the decision was a mistake. The farce unfolding would later lead to last week’s announcement of the new cut-off marks. If one did not know better, it would seem that JAMB was trying desperately to further destroy our already ruinous educational system.

    But in its response, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of JAMB, said the decision was made by stakeholders made up of vice chancellors of universities together with rectors of polytechnics as well as provosts of colleges of education in a vote-style decision process. This makes the announcement even more depressing to take as this explanation suggests that some heads of public institutions of education are complicit in the degrading of the educational sector. In further explanation, Oloyede stated that the cut-off marks were the minimum allowable, while 180 remained the upper ceiling prescribed by JAMB. It was also pointed out that the post-UTME examinations by the schools are still allowed and as such, the universities ultimately decide where to draw the line.

    The problem with that reasoning is that JAMB has created a leeway for exploitation of the system that was already plagued by malpractices and underhand activities. The same JAMB lamented that up to 17,000 students were illegally admitted at the last intakes after scoring less than the official cut-off marks of 180, only to turn back to effectively “legalise” the defaulting students. In the last 10 years, about 40,000 students gained admissions into Nigerian universities through this way.

    There are many ways to view JAMB’s recent decision, but one thing is certain; it is bad for education in Nigeria. Even students, under the banner of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, who one would imagine may not be so averse to the news, took up placards to protest the decision at JAMB headquarters in Abuja, following the announcement. No matter how loudly we lament, it is obvious that the system has been rigged for failure right from its foundations. What this actually signifies is that the public school system is effectively dead and we are only just propping up its carcass and trying to pass it off as credible.

    While we are expressing outrage about the crashing of the threshold for entry into the universities, we should stop to think about the products that are going into those universities. In 2013, the lowest cut-off marks from different states for entry into the Unity Schools through the National Common Entrance Examinations was 2 (Yobe), 3 (Taraba) and 4 (Zamfara), out of a possible 200. The highest cut-off marks were 139 (Anambra). It is unclear, but it seems the highest cut-off marks now may have dipped to 68.

    It is bizarre for us to feign surprise, because some of those students are the ones that possibly need 120 and 100 to get into tertiary institutions now. Where federal character is applied in the education sector in what has been described as a “celebration of mediocrity”, what do we expect? Now, applicants with cut-off marks of 100 out of 400, will head to colleges of education and become the teachers of tomorrow in the same jaundiced and defective system that produced them in the first instance, thereby creating a cycle of mediocrity. It shows that JAMB’s move is but an effect of the rot that begins way up the line. Measures like the one taken now by JAMB are the things that ensure the system stays rotten. The much publicized Computer Based Test Centres introduced by JAMB are a welcome development, but it is ironic that some students that have never been properly instructed in the basics of computer operations will have to take tests in those centres. This may have also contributed its own quota to the “mass failure” experienced this year.

    To be frank and sincere, JAMB may have clearly outlived its relevance. A spokesperson described it as a clearing house for the public tertiary institutions and one has to wonder what use it really serves if the decisions are made by the heads of those institutions. If that is the case, the body should be scrapped, and the computers and all other resources deployed in maintaining the body should be sent to the schools where they are needed most.

    Now, the waste of resources is in maintaining JAMB itself. If it will not be scrapped, there is no reason why it cannot be reduced to a department under the ministry of education that oversees matriculation examinations conducted by the institutions themselves with resources provided to them.

    Therefore, nothing short of declaring a state of emergency in the education sector, with urgent measures put in place to correct the fault lines in the system, will do. The present administration has begun with free food in schools, but the mental rejuvenation and development of the children should take priority, even though food is also important.

  • Rebuilding Nigeria (2)

    Last week, this column dwelt on many issues begging for solution in Nigeria. One of them was the devolution of power. Another was the clamour for the creation of new states based on ethnicity, especially now that the country has moved away from regional or zonal arrangements to federal and state governments.

    A case in point here is the case of the Gwari people. Since most of the calls for the creation of new states are to give ethnic minorities a voice in national consciousness, what about the Gwari people who have been caught up in Abuja, Niger, Nassarawa, Kaduna and Kogi states? How do they get their own state? There are undoubtedly many more groups like this and the creation of states for any other minorities will lead to clamours from these other groups for whom the government cannot create a state.

    It is therefore, proposed that the number of states pre sently existing cannot and should not be exceeded for this reason and for the reason that with more autonomy going to states, many newly created states, if this happens, and a number of already existing states, may not even be able to sustain themselves. Instead, there should only be a possibility for merger of states if the citizenry can agree through referendum, for the purposes of combining resources for sustenance.

    Which brings us to resource control and derivation principle. This is closely connected to devolution of powers. Also, this speaks directly to the Niger Delta people’s call and their view of restructuring. Without doubt, there needs to be some changes in this formula to reassure people from the region that any restructuring is inclusive of their interests. The proposal contemplates state control of their own resources. This can be implemented across board, but with a modification regarding oil and gas/petroleum resources. These resources can be granted a special status with varied rules regarding control. This is already the case, but with 13% derivation, the Niger Delta region will continue to agitate, not with the widespread decay of the environment in the region. While other states may enjoy 60% share of profit from resources, if any, while 40% is remitted to the federal government, oil producing regions will retain 30% of profits from their resources and remit 70% to the  federal government because of the importance and value of this product. As a consequence however, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and all other quasi federal agencies will be dissolved as part of plans to ease federal costs.

    Also, no special agency of this kind may be formed in any part of Nigeria, including the newly passed North East Development Commission, but special intervention funds can be availed to the state governments or administered directly by the federal government, through committees. The present clean-up of the Niger Delta which has been given a time-line of 20 years will also be maintained in partnership with international organisations and the relevant state governments.

    The issue of state police is also a vital part of the devolution process. For any real restructuring to take place, this may have to be considered. The scourge of herdsmen in recent times has left state governments at the mercy of federally controlled police force, having no real power to secure their territories against roving herdsmen who defile lands within states without regard to local ownership and authority. Also, community policing can be served through state control of police force. However, an association of Inspector Generals/Police chiefs will sit at federal level and advice the President on common issues. This body will be similar to the governors forum, but only for the purpose of cohesion and sharing of information, while keeping the federal spirit alive.

    At the federal level, there will be a National Guard who may be called into any state where there is widespread unrest or may be called in by the president possibly with the military where it is determined that a state government has lost control of the state or is working against the country as a whole. Also where herdsmen have to cross into other states, the owners or controllers of the herdsmen must notify local police of their route and activities within state boundaries. Any unreported movement should be considered as hostile and treated accordingly by state police.

    And to the argument for part-time legislators in line with the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, it is proposed that all elected legislators be appointed on a part time basis to reduce overhead cost of governance.

    Based on these arguments, I believe that the following recommendations should be considered for any restructuring programme: Writing of a new constitution with true federal and democratic character; maintaining current state structure or less, if states agree to merge, but not more; creation of state police; devolution of power to state governments; having a weaker centre; part-time role for legislators to reduce governmental costs; no seccession; sustainability study and report to be submitted by all states to confirm availability of resources for fiscal independence.

    Where unsustainable, referendum for joining stronger states could be carried out; and  the guiding principle shall be the finality of any resolutions made and this must be contained in any new constitution/amendment.

    While the above points are not exhaustive, but represent the key points to be considered, the following are the recommended vehicles for carrying out any deliberations and arrangements that may be put in place in the event of any restructuring:

    1. Creation of a committee: Much like the constituent assembly envisaged by President Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela now, but acting outside the government, to be made up of not more than 120 people. The large numbers of delegates at previous national conferences was a problem. The committee should be made up of
    2. All Attorneys General of states and the Attorney General of the Federation or their representatives,
    3. 20 distinguished members between 25 and 40 years of age with advanced education, as the effects of any results will be felt in the mid to long term and therefore directly affect this group.
    4. All living past Presidents and Vice Presidents.
    5. 20 elder statesmen evenly represented from all regions.
    6. Other vital stakeholders.
    7. This committee will be responsible for rewriting or amending the constitution as considered appropriate.

     

    1. Upon consideration by the committee lasting not more than six months, referendum for the key outcomes, condensed into easy yes /no questions e.g new constitution or not etc.
    2. Four-year transitional period for the resolutions reached by the committee

    These suggestions are for the purpose of analysis and wide-spread deliberations in order to avoid the present near state of anomie now hovering over the country. It is true that many things are wrong in the country today due to insincerity and incompetence of some of our leaders. But like they say, the longest journey on earth starts with a step. We should critically look at the myriad of problems confronting the country and then take them one by one and proffer enduring solutions if we are to continue to live as one indivisible country.

    It appears that in our almost 57 years of independence, all we have succeeded in doing is to create ethnic bigots and tyrants who, rather than work assiduously for the growth and development of the nation, have allowed primordial interests to rule over them. This is the time to make sacrifices for the future of this country and the wellbeing of generations yet unborn. If things are allowed to go the right way, it is quite obvious that all these agitations mushrooming all over the place would be brought to an end.

    What Nigerians want is a country where everybody will have a sense of belonging, where there is a level-playing field so that everybody could realise his or her own ambition without necessarily having to suffer discrimination of any kind. In other words, Nigerians want a country where people are equally treated without anybody or group of people being treated as second class citizens.

  • Rebuilding Nigeria (1)

    Calls for restructuring Nigeria have continued to gain ground in recent times. This is coming on the heels of many disturbing events that have exposed the cracks in Nigeria’s unity. Problems arising from a weak federal structure, bad governance over the years and the inadequate responses of government to many years of genuine agitations of groups around the country, have led to this impasse.

    From the present state of things and the widespread clamour for some form of restructuring, it looks increasingly inevitable that a major change will have to occur in order to save the country from imminent disintegration. This call for change has been generally termed “restructuring”. The uncertainty about the nature of this restructuring is connected with the differing ideas on what such a change will comprise.

    The varying views about a possible restructuring as being mused by people from one region/geopolitical zone to the other, is, no doubt, inspired, by the particular grievances or interests of groups within the different zones. Besides, this simplistic view of restructuring, stakeholders who are more versed have taken a conceptual view of the subject, differentiating between economic, political, fiscal, administrative and other forms of restructuring that they consider should be the focus of any drive to quell the growing agitations. It is believed by this class that one or more of these modes of restructuring will be enough to address the problems without resorting to a complete overhaul of the system as we know it. Such a view may be erroneous.

    It seems that only a change at the level of an overhaul will suffice at this juncture. This point is supported by the sheer volume of the report of the last National Conference that was organised by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to tackle many of the same agitations facing the country now. The 898-page report containing over 300 recommendations/resolutions is indicative of broad, sweeping challenges that, if resolved, will leave the present constitution so altered as to be unrecognisable. It is also indicative and demonstrative of lack of faith in the constitution as drafted, with the stigma of traditional military centralism.

    In truth, the 1999 constitution has served the country better than people realise, but there is a need to break away from the stigma of military influence with the passing of a new document that will be perceived as truly democratic and sensitive to all interests as far as the unity of the country can accommodate. There is need for a finality, through the creation of a new constitution that majority of citizens shall accede to through referendum. A piecemeal treatment of issues as the 8th National Assembly is currently undertaking will lead to the same calls for restructuring, perhaps, for the rest of the life of the nation. To avoid this unpleasant consequence, a final resolution to all issues, duly signed by all states and confirmed by the citizens should be effected. Such new document shall serve as the symbol of re-democratisation and the springboard for true federalisation as has been canvassed for so long.

    Without mincing words, one of the biggest problems of Nigeria at present is over-reliance on oil and lack of diversification in the economy. Although the country is presently engaged in a huge drive to divest the economy from petroleum profits, the sheer importance of the commodity to the federal and state governments, reduces government’s will to truly diversify the economy. The truth is that the private sector is the major vehicle that can drive diversity. Definitely, not a federal government that is eager to maintain its stranglehold on constituent states. This is so because the government which is bogged down by huge personnel costs and overhead occasioned by a teeming federal service, will find it difficult to attract private investments in critical non-oil sectors that will drive growth in other industries.

    It is imperative, therefore, to say that the country is at a critical juncture in its history, and if issues are not settled within the next few years, the country runs the risk of recreating the carnage that now plagues Venezuela. Venezuela is witnessing a complete breakdown of law and order and there is no sign of an easy solution to the situation President Nicolas Maduro now faces. The opposition in the country has now seized the opportunity of the unrest to create a parallel authority, with widespread support and sympathy from a largely dissatisfied populace. Interestingly, some lessons can be borrowed from the Venezuelan situation which will be highlighted subsequently.

    The direction here will be shifted to key areas of interest in the current restructuring debate with reference to the 2014 national conference and present realities in the polity. The aim is to determine the propriety or otherwise of these positions towards a final resolution of issues and achieving a solution that can endure and be supported by all.

    This is the area where devolution of powers comes in. This is a vital area of reform that can potentially bring the country in line with true federalism. The state governments have wide powers concerning their respective states, but this power is limited in critical areas that can help a state to function at its own pace. The major hold of the federal government over the states is the monthly allocations state governors receive from the centre, which leads to slow growth of industries and poor development of the potential many states possess. Resources go to waste while state governments await hand-outs from the federal government. Therefore, change in this area will aid the diversification process of the Nigerian economy, if states become responsible for their own finances.

    There is no doubt that certain regions will be more fortunate than others based on the demand for their resources, but this must not be seen as a disadvantage for any region but an advantage for all. After all, California in the United States is the fifth largest economy in the world, ahead of the United Kingdom’s economy, despite having no petroleum resources. This was achieved because it created an enabling environment for technology companies and its “culture economy” generated an estimated $293 billion in 2014. There are many opportunities for states outside Lagos and the South–south to generate profits without depending on revenue allocation. By adopting a bottom-up flow of critical financial resources from states to the federal government, states can become more creative in revenue generation.  In this arrangement, the federal account can be credited by states on pre-determined percentages of their profit instead of the reverse. Understandably such a measure will need time to be fully implemented, and this shall be accounted for subsequently.

    Again, there is a growing clamour for the creation of new states. Creation of new states will not solve current agitations concerning marginalisation. In the South-east, for instance, populated by the Igbo ethnic group, there have been calls for a level playing field through the creation of at least one extra state in order to be equal with most other regions of the country. The problem in this thinking is that it is backward-thinking based on the regions existing sometime earlier in the history of the country, when late Major General Johnson Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was at the helm.

    The South-east should not be a bloc for any purpose in this regard as the country is now constituted by a federal government as well as state governments and should not be divided by zones or regions. The devolution of powers to state governments as envisaged above will negate any need for this political posturing and all states can cater for their own interests, rather than any regional or zonal interests based on ethnicity.

  • Today’s Nigeria and Awo’s Counsel (2)

    Last week, this column brought to you excerpts of an address delivered by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, on Monday, May 15, 1967, on the occasion of his installation as the first chancellor of the University of Ife (now rechristened Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU) at Ile-Ife, Osun State. The 50-year-old speech presented a clear food for thought. Below is the concluding part of the analysis:

    Calls for restructuring are in no way new to the country, as restructuring was also a major issue right from the beginning of our journey. For instance, the Mid-western region (today’s Edo and Delta states; formerly Bendel State) was created in 1963, despite opposition by Chief Awolowo’s Action Group and others. It was created on the back of the clamour by Mid-westerners. However, there were similar calls from other parts like the COR (Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers) which never materialised.

    The creation of 12 states by the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon and the subsequent states’ creations until the present 36 states, General Olusegun Obasanjo’s shifting of the political system from the parliamentary system to the presidential system, were all forms of restructuring amongst many others. They were decisions taken in response to agitations or for exigency as circumstances demanded. The reality is that after all these episodes of restructuring, we are still talking about restructuring today. This is indicative of underlying issues yet unaddressed, that if left permanently unaddressed, will leave us with this bitter clamours that are more self-serving than they are progressive.

    In the 1967 speech, Chief Awolowo made a medical analogy that may, perhaps, explain the re-occurrence of the same issues throughout our history. On the problems plaguing the country at the time, Awo suggested that what was needed was a palliative, borrowing the medical parlance, to douse the tension already created, before a more robust, curative solution could be introduced. He further warned that “an inflexible insistence on a curative, when there is so much sharp disagreement among all the doctors (stakeholders) in attendance, may prove fatal to the patient (Nigeria)”.

    This is instructive of the critical point the country now finds itself. We have all been taken with the calls for radical changes to our polity because of the diverse issues we face that seem too daunting for any progress to be made. With the words of caution of the late Awo, it may be prudent to begin with measured steps to address the fundamental disagreements that exist so that the major decisions made afterwards could be smoother and met with greater receptiveness from the diverse peoples of this country.

    Also instructive in the speech is Awo’s summation of the function and role of the military in governance through the years. He described the military as an essentially corrective regime, whose task is “to perform a quick and successful surgical operation for the purpose of removing, from our body politic, a malignant and debilitating morbid growth”. On that premise, he pointed out that the military “was never expected, and it would be too much of a risk for it to attempt to undertake the massive and never-ending task of rebuilding or reconstructing our body politic”. As we all know, after the time of the speech, this was exactly what happened and the polity is still reeling from the devastating effects today.

    However, now that the many deeds have been done, we must focus on the way forward without forgetting the crucial lessons of the past and the wisdom of those, like Awo, that came before. As Awo said, the re-building or reconstructing process is a never-ending task and we must not be taken by all the noise of restructuring into thinking we can immediately and conclusively find a one size fits all solution at one go. There needs to be an understanding that it is a process, and we must first address the most fundamental issues towards settling disputes and fostering agreements on major issues. We need to craft a common narrative for the nation, as this is critically lacking. Until we do, no amount of restructuring will suffice.

    We must identify institutions and systems that carry too much military signature and either dismantle or recreate them into democratic structures. The mark the military has left on governance and the economic structure of the country is extensive, even as its nature makes it unqualified to make such structures. The delicate task of democratisation of these structures is dependent on unity and camaraderie. While the military ignored the diversity of the various peoples in the country, we can build on that diversity to create a unified nation that, in the least, meets the basic and fundamental tenets of nationhood.

    Permit me to also recant here, the exact words spoken by Awo on that occasion of his installation as the first Chancellor of OAU, Ile-Ife. I quote: “Whether we are conscious of or acknowledge it or not, the fact remains stubborn and indestructible that poverty, disease, social unrest and instability, and all kinds of international conflict, have their origins in the minds of men. Unless we tackle and remove, or at the very least, minimize these evils at their source, all our efforts in Nigeria to bring about happier circumstances for our peoples, and all the endeavours of mankind to evolve a better world, would be completely in vain.

    “It is only when the minds of men have been properly and rigorously cultivated and garnished, that they can be safely entrusted with public affairs with a certainty and assuredness that they will make the best of their unique opportunity and assignment” (to genuinely contribute to the progress and development of the country).

    The late sage garnished his speech by quoting copiously from Haddock: “The power to think, consecutively and deeply and clearly, is an avowed and deadly enemy to mistakes and blunders, superstitions, unscientific theories, irrational beliefs, unbridled enthusiasm, fanaticism.” According to Awo: “It will be seen, therefore, that the power to think clearly, correctly, and scientifically, is the greatest of all the powers that a man can possess”.

    Truth is, from this particular speech of the late sage, it could be seen that Nigeria is a country in motion without movement. Whereas, we pride ourselves for having won independence almost 57 years ago, there is hardly anything inspiring about the country. Today, all our leaders do is to steal and or mismanage our common patrimony at the slightest opportunity.

    With poor and abysmal infrastructure, lack of basic amenities for meaningful existence for the citizenry, coupled with bad governance at all levels of our political existence, there can only be one thing and that is, the future of the country is bleak. Regrettably, the neglect of the people and abdication of responsibility by our leaders, have now metamorphosed into unimaginable crimes and criminality like kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent upheavals that have, so far, defied any solution all over the country.

    Right now, we are presented with a golden opportunity to amend our constitution in order to tackle the myriad of problem staring the country in the face. So far, what are we seeing? Our lawmakers at the National Assembly whose prerogative it is to facilitate a constitution that will put the growing agitation all over the place to rest are already betraying symptoms of myopia and selfishness which will invariably lead to a colossal failure of the whole exercise. This is so because rather than tackle burning issues affecting the polity, they have set their priority on self-preservation by granting themselves immunity. Could that be immunity from good reasoning?

    At any rate, to get out of this straight-jacket, we must reflect on the spoken and unspoken words of our past great leaders like the late Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo, of evergreen memory. May God help us; help this country!