The Nation Newspaper

Category: Discourse

  • Lagos is no jungle as Sonala Olumhense wants us to believe

    Lagos is no jungle as Sonala Olumhense wants us to believe

    Criticism is good. However, passing lies and half-truths as criticism is petty – not worthy from a respected writer in the mould of Sonala Olumhense. His column, published in Punch newspaper of Sunday, June 25, 2023 titled, ‘Lagos, Centre of Excess’, exposed his intent of rubbishing Lagos while disguised as criticism. 

    Citing the administration’s agenda as he gathered from the state’s website, Olumhense began: “The problem is that despite being Nigeria’s richest economy by a large margin, Lagos scores embarrassingly badly on most of those self-chosen themes. Last week, it emerged—again—as one of the four most unlivable cities on earth in a survey of 174 cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit.” 

    “The only cities worse than Lagos: Damascus, Syria; Tripoli, Libya; and Algiers, Algeria: each of them with such problems as conflict and terrorism.  Lagos has no such issues.  Yet.”

    It is curious that he adds a ‘Yet’ as if expecting Lagos to be engulfed in crisis anytime soon. Well, we should tell Olumhense, a former Nigerian editor, who has cocooned himself in Connecticut since the early 1990s, that Lagos is Nigeria’s most peaceful state now.

    Olumhense goes on: “The picture is no better should you zoom out the lens of history.  In 2022, in a ranking of 172 cities, only one was worse than Lagos.  Ten years earlier, in 2012 and during the governorship of Babatunde Fashola, only one city was worse.  And 10 years before that, in 2002 and during the governorship of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lagos tied for 127th out of 130 cities.”

    By the 1990s, Lagos was a crime haven. Bank robberies happened regularly just as citizens were robbed daily. This situation necessitated the creation of Operation Sweep by the military administration of Buba Marwa. By 1999, the Bola Tinubu led civilian administration renamed the squad as Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and revisited the security architecture, bringing about the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) which had the private sector contributed to policing. Till date, Lagos remains the only Nigerian state that generously funds the operation of a ‘federal police’, consequently making the state the safest in the country. If Olumhense thinks Lagos is unsafe, millions of other Nigerians and foreigners didn’t get his memo as people keep flocking to Lagos. 

    Unjustly rubbishing Lagos, Olumhense describes the state thus: “It is not a functional city. It is not a modern city and apparently does not aspire to be. It has been bad and unchanging for a very long time despite vast government revenues and large supplies of official bravado.”

    Yet, since 1999, Lagos has built a light rail, the first of its kind in West Africa. It has scrapped the usually decrepit but iconic yellow and black striped Molue buses as its major public transportation mode for a BRT system with comfortable buses, also the first in West Africa. And recently, it launched electric buses into its fleet. Sadly, hoodlums burnt some of these buses during the 2020 END-SARS riots which would have provided succour in these hard times of fuel subsidy removal. There are also the Lagride taxis and the strides the state has made in water transportation by building modern jetties and providing boats and ferries. It’s sad Olumhense does not acknowledge the state’s successes in transportation.

    Continuing in his vile piece, Olumhense condemns all 15 Lagos governors for failing to upgrade the state, and writes how the state has remained stagnant. Specifically relating to traffic management, he writes: “the traffic patterns in 2023 are the same as they were when Fela sang his famous “Ojuelegba” song about 50 years ago. On almost every road, any driver or truck pusher can drive in any direction at any time. No government has productively reviewed or changed the use of any to enable traffic flow to improve. Very often, in some cases, traffic from different ends of the same road simply blocks off the other, and new chaos erupts. That is not how a modern city functions.

    “Regarding driving, there isn’t much evidence that most of the people who drive in Lagos earned their licences. Driving is a combat sport and there appears to be no consequence for the most egregious behaviour. That is a jungle, not a livable city.”

    That’s hyperbole taken too far. Lagos is not a jungle and remains home to over 20 million people. And Ojuelegba, which Fela constructed his famous song, Confusion Break Bone (CBB), after, has long been redesigned. But wait, does Olumhense know the difference between driving through Apongbon and Oshodi since 1999? Does he know of the constructions at Abule Egba, Pen Cinema Agege, Fagba, Ikeja, Lekki, Mile 2, Iyana Iba and Yaba? Does he know that the roundabout at Allen Junction has given way to an American-styled four-way junction? Does he wonder why the state created the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA)? Does he know these are measures the Lagos State government has put in place to ease traffic? He needs reminding that these did not happen by magic. And talking of one-way driving, I challenge Olumhense to drive against traffic on Lekki Expressway, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way or Ikorodu Road to see whether he would get away scot-free. However, a friendly warning. He shouldn’t attempt to drive without a licence in Lagos else he may learn his lesson the hard way. 

    Knocking Lagos for indecent parking, Olumhense writes: “The state government gives licences to anyone who wants to build commercial facilities, with no provision for parking. Even big businesses such as banks and hotels are not compelled to build adequate parking facilities, the assumption being that roadside parking would suffice.”

    As a New Yorker, Olumhense may be ignorant of regulations Lagos has put in place for new commercial buildings to design parking before building permits are issued. Or that clearly defined setbacks are ordered for old structures. The City Hall, one of Lagos’ oldest event centres had a make-over about a decade ago. Chief on the redesign was underground parking spaces. It’s similar for many other commercial buildings in the state..

    But not content, Olumhense yaps about the environment like he really cares, writing: “no government in Lagos State has actively committed to the urgency of a comprehensive modern drainage and sewage system.”

    According to him: “What is considered to be drainage in Lagos is often built by individual property owners: perhaps a two-feet deep hole in front of the property over which the road into the property runs.  That superficial construction—which is often much higher than the road itself, is otherwise often uncovered, thereby becoming a receptacle.”

    We should remind Olumhense that in 2021 and March this year, New York also suffered a flood. Maybe he lampooned the American state he calls home over nature’s bounty. Perhaps he chose to ignore that in 2022, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) predicted that many states would be affected by floods. Thankfully, Lagos State did not suffer despite being among the states at the lowest sea level. This was because of proactive steps taken by the Lagos State government in regular refuse collection, street sweeping and desilting of gutters. He may also be ignorant that the Babatunde Fashola administration embarked on clearing  major canals in the state. Subsequent administrations in the state have continued this task.

    But like someone on a whining spree, Olumhense continues: “Among others: you often can find no safe sidewalk on which to walk or jog. And people do consider that to be critical when they think of a livable city. For instance, the five-star Marriott Hotel in the state capital, Ikeja, has rooms that are almost $1,400 per night, but none of its guests can confidently walk its Joel Ogunnaike Street pavement because of the smelly exposed drainage. Consider also, the commercial Allen Avenue where, in the 40 years since it was developed, the state government has failed to set it up so that people can park or shop. Shamelessly, it has a “broken drainage” system.”

    Maybe the columnist who failed as the publisher of City Tempo only knows how to sloppily spew out unbalanced write-ups. Does he take into cognisance how Lagos attracts the most migration from other Nigerians without anything like a special status? Does he know that Lagos remains a top African destination? 

    Firstly, Marriott Hotel has adequate underground parking, contradicting his position that the state does not pay any attention to parking needs. Also, I wonder if the drainages on the street were “two feet holes” constructed by “individual property owners” as he tries to portray. He also describes the street as smelly. What an exaggeration? Had he said a portion he passed smelled badly, he might have been fair. But to describe the whole of Joel Ogunnaike which houses more than five other hotels as smelly and unsafe is a big fat lie. He can come on any Saturday or Sunday morning and see people jogging or walking past as others take leisurely evening strolls.

    While write-ups like Olumhense’s can’t be wiped away from journalism, they should not masquerade as constructive criticisms. Lagos is not perfect but remains a work-in-progress which occupies its pride of place in the world, and qualifies as Nigeria’s Centre of Excellence, regardless of any denigrating report.

    • Ajayi is a concerened Lagos resident
  • Brf: Tested and trusted at 60

    Brf: Tested and trusted at 60

    By Hakeem Bello

    “One admirable thing about Fashola is that he executes every assignment as though his life depended on them. He is, to a considerable extent, the face of what the Catholic Church has in recent decades popularised as common good.” – Modestus Umenzekwe, President of Adem Commercial Complex Lagos, and a frequent road user, wrote in The Cable (8 September 2016).

    With yearly tributes over the past decade focusing on various attributes of Babatunde Raji Fashola, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Commander of the Order of the Niger, it is almost tempting to ask: what is left to be said?

    But, for a devoted public servant who, in over two decades, has left his imprimatur of dedication and single-minded pursuit of excellence as Chief of Staff and Commissioner in the administration of the current President as Governor of Lagos sufficiently to earn his support as aspirant, candidate and two-term Governor of the State and then capturing national attention as a Minister of the Federal Republic for two terms, the ink can never go dry on his essence.

    But BRF, as he is commonly known, at the outset, did not find public service attractive.  Indeed, before being literally conscripted to serve as Chief of Staff to now-President Bola Tinubu, he had put in 14 years of private legal practice with his career starting out in the law firm of Sofunde, Osakwe, Ogundipe and Belgore, where he engaged productively in general litigation in various areas such as company law, land, labour and commercial disputes, criminal law, matrimonial causes, chieftaincy matters, administrative law, and intellectual property.

    He also had a stint as Managing Partner with his friend, Wale Tinubu, in a new law chamber set up by both but retaining the name of the latter father’s chambers – K. O Tinubu – to meet the rising obligations of a young man who was then about to start raising a family with all the anxieties and sacrifices of running a private outfit.

    If BRF left indelible marks in his eight-year tenure as Governor of Lagos State and offered leadership, in the truest sense of the word, for which he got recognition locally and internationally with the International Crisis Group (ICG) in October 2015 presenting him the Stephen J. Solarz Award for his “commitment to resolving social, economic and security challenges in one of the world’s most challenging urban environments,” in his two-term tenure as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he was no less a “torrent of activity.”

    Taken from a tribute by Douglas Martin to the person after whom the ICG Award was named, Stephen J. Solarz, a former nine-term New York congressman, whose “torrent of activity” was then appropriately listed, Fashola’s activities and accomplishments as Federal Minister would fill pages.

    Unpacked in numbers, it would include the completion of the construction and rehabilitation of 13,117km out of the over 19,000km of Roads and Bridge infrastructure as well as other Housing Sector activities being worked on in 1,712 contracts and 1,649 projects being supervised as at May 2023; presenting and receiving approval for 336 Federal Executive Council Memos; touring the country fully by road to conduct inspection on 206 projects; visiting the National Assembly for legislative accountability over 90 times; and the activation of the economy of quantities supplied by sub-contractors in bitumen,laterite,sand,diesel and other inputs for road construction and other building materials at an unprecedented level.

    The outputs include cracking the most difficult road projects in our nation’s history and the initiation of a season of completion, commissioning and impact across the country. This was climaxed by the virtual commissioning by his former principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, of seven projects on Tuesday, 7 May 2023, a historic day when according to Fashola, “the Federal Government in collaboration with all Nigerians, have come together to open the Second Niger Bridge  in Delta and Anambra States, the Ikom Bridge in Cross River State and the Loko-Oweto Bridge in Nasarawa/Benue States and completed section of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway as well as the Federal Secretariats in Awka, Anambra State, Yenagoa, in Bayelsa State and Gusau, Zamfara State.”

    Read Also: FG constructed 9,290.34 km roads in eight years – Fashola

    The occasion provided an opportunity for BRF to explain why another major project which should have been delivered on the same day – the expanded and reconstructed Lagos–Ibadan Expressway – was not ready for commissioning.

    “…We have delivered 114km of the 127km Lagos-Ibadan highway. Mr President, please permit me to pause here by those who may wonder why the Lagos-Ibadan highway is not being commissioned also today. There is a critical section in the 4km last mile to Lagos; and though it’s technical, what has really delayed is that we found black cotton soil under the pavement and we have decided that we would remove it and we would replace it, so that we would do a proper job instead of a hurried commissioning. So that would be deferred till the next Administration and the expected completion date would be 30th June.”

    Overall, the economic impact of the exertions of BRF and other ministers responsible for infrastructure under the former administration is that the stock of our nation’s infrastructure to GDP has doubled from 20 percent in 2015 to 40 percent in 2023.

    However, while this is commendable, Fashola believes that infrastructure is a means to a bigger end in terms of its multiplier effect and impact in creating prosperity among the citizenry. “… During the period, the people I interacted with, the workers, the artisans, the people asphalting our roads, the food vendors, the suppliers, painters, people who roof houses those are the people for whom those things are initiated. But people don’t see them, I saw them. I have data on many of them in terms of the numbers we impacted, how many small businesses got to supply sands, roofing sheets, paints, cables, asphalt, and all of that, because that is really what infrastructure is all about; driving the economy, creating jobs, creating livelihoods for families. So, for me that was the big thrill.”

    As one who never let fear gets in the way of pushing the frontiers in the art of making things better, BRF is one who would also not shy away from issues of the day which requires elevated discourse. Hence, from issues around national security, restructuring and its variegated connotations, rights and duties across generations, the import of voting at elections, but most importantly questions of law and order and the place of the nation’s constitution, BRF’s clarity of thoughts are well documented.

    Indeed, being an unapolo getic patriot and firm believ er in his country, BRF has consistently been advocating that his fellow compatriots familiarize themselves with Section 24 of the Nigerian Constitution which spells out the duties of citizens.

    He took this campaign to the convocation of the Lagos State University on 22 June, while rendering his brief appreciation to the institution, where he was once a Visitor, for conferring on him a honorary doctorate, which he had earlier written to say would be accepted only after completing his tour of duty.

    “… The matter for today is just to say that from Professor Olumide to Professor Olatunji-Bello, from Governor Lateef Jakande to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the dream to create and keep LASU alive has been a matter, not only of personal sacrifice but also a lot of service and public duty. And my central message today is that from here, we must rise and cease to be a nation of rights and become a nation of duties because we all seem to know our rights, but how many of us know our duties. For those who have search engines on their phones, please just Google and read Section 24 of the Nigerian constitution.

    “It imposes duties on each and every one of us. As a new Government settles in at State and Federal levels, I implore us to familiarize ourselves with our duties and to do our duties. This is particularly with reference to Section 24(b), and I am not quoting law here, but I am just stating that our most important duty at this time is to positively project the good name, the image and the prestige of our country. And that for me is a duty we must all own….”

    As the administration of former President Buhari wound down, BRF intensified his focused activities towards fulfilling his ministerial mandates and also making important clarifications.

    On the last but one working day of the Administration, BRF was at work in Akure to carry out his duty and push forward the frontiers of public discourse while flagging of the Akure–Ado Ekiti Road’s expansion and reconstruction having finally overcome the “procurement” hurdles of source of funding and redesigning of the vital road to the people of Ondo and Ekiti States. He prefaced his remarks with an apology that he would take some time having been subject of a malicious campaign by those who misunderstood the huge effort going on to get the project to a solid and sustainable course and then dwelt on the paradox of infrastructural development like the road being flagged off, governance and public debt.

    He also spoke on the then ongoing debate over whether the then outgoing Administration should have continued “working” or should have drawn the line and waited patiently for 29 May to hand over. Again “breaking it down,” that the projects being commissioned or coming to fruition are the end products of proposals and Council memos which procurement processes started much earlier, he then added the poser on whether vital infrastructure delivery, like the one being flagged off, and governance should cease on account of a mandate that was then yet to extinguish.

    As a ringside observer and participant since our first meeting sometime in 2006, I have often wondered about the driving force(s) behind this unrelenting hard worker who is also ever unyielding in his principled stand on law and order, rectitude and uprightness, preparation and planning among other leadership qualities. Some of these I have discovered are the products of parental upbringing, training as a lawyer and, most importantly, an unsparing self-discipline and self-development that activated itself upon finding himself as a “free” undergraduate at the University of Benin after being a “handful” in his childhood and teenage years.

    Of course, from loathing public service as a young adult and passing through the tutelage of the one who eventually drafted him into it – Governor Bola Tinubu – he has come to appreciate the importance of public service as he recently told Niyi Babade, a former CNN correspondent and film maker, who sought him out for his views on the annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential Election in relation to the 2023 Elections.

    “My best days in government are those days when people walk away from my office with a smile. Those are my best days – a problem solved….”

    Also having become somewhat of a veteran in the challenging task of Election Planning and Monitoring, he has come to the personal conviction that power is only meaningful when deployed to serve the people. “For me, the purpose of power, the purpose of winning elections is to express the fullness of the superiority of thoughts into a developmental agenda. Power means nothing if it does not improve the quality of human life, of our environment, of our people. And that is why as public servants, we take our work very, very seriously. We do it with everything that we have and we hold nothing back.”

    Resisting every attempt to get him to speak on the acclaimed accomplishments of his administration in Lagos and downplaying the feedback to the effect that he is being celebrated among a cross section of the citizenry, BRF insists that the aspiration of every leader should be to improve on what they met and then move on. “We must all ensure that the standard is not lowered,” he told Mr Babade who had quipped about not all his colleague public servants believed in his concept of the essence of power.

    Back to the matter of driving force, I found my nearest answer recently in yet another end-of-tenure interview for the programme, “Conversations with History” on NTA. The probing anchor of the personality programme, Thecla Wilkie, had towards the end, and seemingly out of the blues, opted to revisit his 2015 screening by the National Assembly and the famous statement, “May your loyalty not be tested…” thinking that it had to do with bending the rules for some personalities for the sake of “loyalty.” Rather than getting upset, BRF used the opportunity to offer his most profound understanding of “loyalty” and why he has chosen to live “loyally” to any chosen rather than pledge it.

    He declared: “I don’t pledge loyalty, because you don’t know how that loyalty will actually be tested. So, I am loyal to you as my sister or my brother, will I take a bullet for you? So don’t even pledge it, do it when it comes because you don’t know how it will come. And that was the context in which I said what I was quoted to have said.”

    BRF then exemplifies his stance with a most touching experience he witnessed on his tour of duty as Governor.  “I have seen, and this is a very humbling story of life for me. There was a family who had a parent who needed medical help. First, they struggled to get the financial means. Having now got the financial means, it was now who among the children would donate a kidney to save their mother’s life. And they fought to the bitterest end. ‘She’s your mother, No she’s your mother too.’ That was their test of loyalty to their mother, but they loved their mother. I saw that first hand as Governor. I went back and asked myself what’s happening here. That was their loyalty call, they failed to the mother that gave them life. It was something I reflected on and I look back again at all of the stories of loyalty and all I see really is that life is a story of betrayals. But it’s a story for another day.”

    Having done so much in your 60 years, another decade, indeed decades of wonderful memories and accomplishments beckon from today to a man who is Almighty God’s gift to humanity, nation, family and friends. Sixty hearty cheers to a man who is tested and trusted, not by mouthing loyalty but by living loyally to his chosen noble causes.

    For me and the b.diRect Team , we say thank you for being an impactful part of our lives, and Happy Birthday Sir!

    •Mr Bello, FNGE, is Special Adviser, Communications to the immediate past  Minister of Works and Housing.

  • Seven Days of Umo Eno advent of the golden governor

    Seven Days of Umo Eno advent of the golden governor

    • By A n i e t i e U s e n

    Towering at six feet tall with a regular weight of 90 kilograms, and dressed this afternoon in a dark maroon suit, a white shirt with a spotted tie to match, Governor Umo Eno walked briskly into the sprawling State Banquet Hall to the ovation of the mammoth crowd, jam packed with his adoring supporters. It was his first official assignment as the governor of the beautiful and peace-loving people of Akwa Ibom State, South-South Nigeria.

     All was set this afternoon for the swearing-in of his newly appointed Secretary to the State Government, Prince Enobong Uwah, the champion of Uyo politics and scion of the famous Uwah dynasty, which Governor Umo Eno, a pastor and entrepreneur had chosen as the engine room of his nascent Administration. Straight from the Security Entrance, where he gained access to the Banquet Hall, Governor Eno, nicknamed as the Golden Governor, walked quickly across the front row of the hall, pumping hands, hugging friends and waving endlessly with a permanent smile playing on his lips; just as he was accustomed to, during his long tortuous campaign stump across the 31 LGAs of the oil-rich State. He was the cynosure of all eyes, exuding confidence and feeling at home before a crowd that idolised him and had stood by him against all odds for 14 months of political consultations and rigorous campaigns.

    Preliminaries are done with. Pleasantries are over. Some sort of decorum is restored in the hall. Standing now before the new governor, backing the curious crowd and about to take an oath of office as Secretary to the State Government, SSG, was the Secretary General of the Governorship Campaign Council, Prince Uwah. He is a natural choice for the job or as they say it the man the cap fits. His nickname is Hammer and the hall erupted with the chant of ‘Hammer, Hammer, Hammer’. He had also played the same crucial role as the Secretary General of the Governor Udom Emmanuel’s Campaign Council, during the second term campaign of the former governor. So the excitement of his constituents was both palpable and understandable.

    Soon, the solemnity of the occasion dawned on all, as Hammer began to read after the governor the oath of office followed by the oath of allegiance. He stood ramrod like a royal guard and a clean-shaven head like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. With his navy blue suit, white shirt and pink tie, he cut the image of a banker. In a moment, the SSG was through with the ritual. “So help me God”, he concluded, to the thunderous applause of the audience.

    Read Also: A’Ibom 2023: Umo Eno remains PDP candidate, as party files appeal

    Next, the governor read his prepared speech extolling

                    the virtues and enviable track record of the SSG. “You are coming into Office at the time our State is on the cusp of greatness, and as the Engine Room of Government, you are expected to deploy your organisational and people’s skills in managing our vast bureaucracy, which thankfully, is undergoing E-Governance processes…This is the Golden Era of our State, and we have zero-tolerance for weak links in our engine of operations. I am confident of the choice we have made in you. Go there, get the job done, for our State and for our people and afterwards, come the Happy Hours…”. The Hall erupted again with another thunderous ovation.

    But perhaps the best line of the governor’s speech was not in the written address. It was extempore and off-the-cuff. “I intend to run this business of Government with a private sector mindset…and usher Akwa Ibom fully into a golden era”. And many believe the Golden Governor has what it takes to accomplish the task, goals and mission he has set for himself. One strong believer in him is his very accomplished predecessor, former Governor Udom Emmanuel, who with Obong Victor Attah, another former Governor and modern father of Akwa Ibom State, headhunted Governor Eno for the office and role he is occupying today. Said Emmanuel publicly on the day he inaugurated the PDP Governorship Campaign Council in Uyo: “The man that is coming after me (Umo Eno) is a hundred times better than me”. For a very accomplished governor like Udom Emmanuel, who has broken records of good governance in recent time, to say that about Eno, means the State is truly poised for a golden era.

    Evidentially, Akwa Ibom has since the end of military rule in 1999, produced the best possible crop of leaders in Nigeria, from Obong Attah till now. Many, very often agree that Governor Emmanuel has surpassed them all. It would appear the full story of Governor Emmanuel has not yet been fully told. One thing that is certain and settled in the minds of Akwa Ibom people is that one of the greatest achievements of former Governor Godswill Akpabio was headhunting Udom Emmanuel to raise the bar of good governance and make Akwa Ibom a model State in Nigeria. By the time Emmanuel concluded his eight years in office last week, the poser on many lips was not what has Udom Emmanuel done with our money but where did he get the money in this hard times to accomplish so much! This is the same shoe that Governor Eno has stepped into for one week now. He is literally speaking in the shoes of a giant, as his predecessor had diligently and quietly brought Akwa Ibom State to the “cusp of greatness” to quote Eno himself in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.

    The good news is that in his first week in office, Governor

                    Eno has shone and shown signs of greatness. The child of a lion, as an Akwa Ibom adage says, dare not resemble a goat. Not surprising, Governor Eno swung into action immediately after his oath of office. First, he saw off his predecessor to his country home in Awa Iman, Onna LGA, before he made brief stops to thank his community people of Ikot Ekpene Udo, and pay homages to the No.1 traditional ruler of Akwa Ibom State, Nteyin Solomon Etuk, who is also the paramount ruler of Nsit Ubium, the Oku Ibom Ibibio and the President General of the Akwa Ibom Traditional Rulers Council. That same night, on his first day in office, he wound up in the company of his wife, Patience, and the deputy governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, at the inaugural State Banquet at the Ibom Hotels and Golf Resort which lasted till the early hours of May 30, 2023.

    Later that same day, May 30, 2023, Governor Eno announced his first five appointments in a Press Release signed by Dr. Nathaniel Akpadiaha, the Permanent Secretary in Government House. They included Prince Enobong Uwah, as SSG, Ekerete Udo, Chief Press Secretary, Anietie Usen, Senior Special Assistant, Otobong Edem Idiong, Chief of Protocol and Dr. Mrs. Uduakobong Inam, Economic Adviser.

    The next day, May 31, 2023, was hectic for the new governor

                    as top government officials, old and new, took turns to meet and brief him, inside his expansive and stately new office, considered as one of the most beautiful governor’s offices in Nigeria. The new governor is a workaholic. The earliest he leaves the office is 10pm. Even at 10pm, May 31, he left the office with some of his aides to visit Obong Paul Ekpo, the former PDP State Chairman, current National Ex-officio Member Of the Party and Member-elect of the House of Representatives, who lost his wife, after a protracted illness. He spent nearly an hour with the bereaved family and as a pastor, knew the exact words of comfort and consolation for Obong Ekpo, who was one of the pillars of his electoral victory. “In everything God wants us to thank Him and everything means everything…”

    Perhaps, one of the best of Governor Eno’s first seven days was June 1, 2023. It was just his fourth day as governor and he was learning fast and gaining a firmer grip of the ship of State. First, he did what no other governor has done in the State. He drove a short distance from his office in the company of Senator Eyaknyi, his deputy, to visit the Press Centre, where the CPS and SSA, M&P hold sway. It was his way of demonstrating the respect and importance he attaches to the media. Next was his most important assignment for the day.

    For the eight years of his predecessor, Udom Emmanuel, the first day of every month was the Government House Covenant Service. It is one of the days government officials as well as senior political stakeholders gather in the Government House Chapel by 6pm to praise God, pray, listen to sermons by guest preachers and worship God. Under Governor Emmanuel, this prayer programme was also followed by another prayer programme, known as Government House Prayer Service, held every third Saturday of the month at 8am. So, June 1, 2023 was the first Government House Covenant Service that would be presided over by the newly elected governor who is also a pastor and church founder. It was reckoned that the usual venue in the Government House Chapel would be too small for the expected crowd. The governor directed that the venue be shifted to the sprawling Banquet Hall next door. Even then hundreds could only find a standing position as the Banquet Hall was filled beyond capacity.

    Taking over the microphone soon after the praise, worship,

                    sermon and prayers, Governor Eno was at his best, both as a pastor and a politician. He began with the song MADE A WAY by Travis Green. It is a chart buster in Christendom worldwide and the congregation erupted in joy and took over the song from his mouth: “You made a way/Don’t know how, but You did it/Nothing can catch You by surprise/ You got this figured out…When it looks as if we can’t win/You wrap us in Your arm and step in/ And everything we need You supply/You got this in control/ And now we know that

    You made a way/And we’re standing here/ Only because You made a way/ And you move mountains/You cause walls to fall/ With Your power/You perform miracles/There is nothing that’s impossible/And we’re standing here/Only because You made a way”.

    By the time the song ended, the governor was moved enough

                    to jokingly remind the jam packed hall that Akwa Ibom State has got both a governor and a pastor in one person. “Now you know that God has given you two for the price of one”, he said. The crowd bursted into laughter. But that was not the highlight of the Covenant Service. The highlight was the testimony the governor shared on how God raised him from nowhere and helped him through the fiery furnace of political fire to become the governor.

     “I have to thank you, thank God who has made it possible for us to be here. It looks like a dream for me…But again, that song ministered to me several times when it was as if I was breaking down…I remember one day I got so boxed up and my last daughter, Ebenezer, came to me and said ‘Daddy do you really need all of this? What are you looking for? You don’t need this. You have trained us, we don’t lack anything, we’re okay. Please this attack is getting too much’

     “So one day, I walked up to the Governor and said, ‘Your Excellency, I think I want to quit, not because whatever they are saying is true but I think my family is really not ready for these insults. And the governor looked at me and said, ‘Pastor, did you take breakfast today? Let’s go and have breakfast’. And then we went on to attend a meeting and he said: ‘my option A is Umo Eno, my option B is Umo Eno, my option C and D is Umo Eno…’ That gave me some strength to continue…I know clearly that the shoe I’m stepping into is very big. Don’t mind him (former Governor Udom Emmanuel) when he says I’ll accomplish 200 times more than him. It’s a prophecy and I claim it because he is Elijah and I am Elisha. But you know, the God of this new beginning will go with us. And it’s only if he goes with us, that we’ll accomplish that which God has sent us to do”, Governor Eno said.

     It was at that same gathering that the governor gave Akwa Ibom people a glimpse of his soon coming appointments. He had never hidden his desire to preside over an inclusive government. But today, he granted many a deeper insight into the composition of his government. “We will work with you and with everyone else to set a new agenda for Akwa Ibom. That’s who we are. There’s really no time to say that this government has ended and this one has started. Like I keep saying to people, please don’t expect that kind of miracle that you don’t want to see the old faces again and there should be only new faces. It can’t work like that. We need the wisdom of the old to be able to navigate the new. And so you’ll see a mixed grill of the new and the old. There’s no way you can put away the old. After Solomon departed, the sons of Solomon did it and the kingdom split. You need to put both together. You need the ideas of the old”.

    To call a spade a spade, he went into specifics. “I won’t leave people that were with me in the trenches; people that went to 31 LGAs with me and suffered all the hard times with me for people who have long CVs. I am saying this because I’m receiving more CVs now than the people that were with me during the campaigns. That is not to say that you’ll not see the new. But more importantly, you’ll see those that were with us in the trenches”. He also said that his Personal Assistants will come each of the 329 wards of the State, and they will be active supporters of PDP who reside in their wards and contributed to the success of PDP.

      The next morning saw him in the home of his political grandfather, Obong Victor Attah, where he went to thank the respected elder statesman, for standing firmly with him, when Governor Emmanuel endorsed him as his successor on January 30, 2022. Later that evening and for the first time since he became governor, he stepped into the State-owned Executive Gulf Stream jet and flew out of the State; first to the monthly Holy Ghost Service in Redemption Camp, near Lagos, before he jetted out to Bauchi to attend the PDP Retreat for newly elected governors and national lawmakers. With the help of the State Executive jet, he was back to Uyo that same evening into the warm welcome of government officials led by Senator Eyakenyi, the deputy governor. Straight from the airport, he drove to the traditional marriage of the daughter of late Oron political stalwart, Pastor Onyong Asuquo.

    On Sunday, the seventh day of his tenure, he attended his

                    first Sunday service as governor, at the All Nation Christian Ministry International, Eket, the Church he founded 20 years ago, where he also indicated and justified his intention to look inwards for the coming Akwa Christmas Carol Festival. “This year’s Christmas Carol Festival will have a little twig. I would like us to localise our Christmas carol this year and I will tell how we are going to do it. This because we will use that platform to promote and raise our local talents. It’s a big platform that people all over the world will come or tune in to it. We will look at churches. I want them to get ready, the big and small churches, we will invite them, let all of us come out. I would like to see creativity that is beyond hymns”, he said.

      Whether in his appointments, visits or statements, the first one week of Governor Umo Eno is a pointer to a deft political move by a shrewd political actor, to quickly strengthen and consolidate his political base and assure same, as the Bible says that “the hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labour”.

  • Uzodimma on performance scale

    Uzodimma on performance scale

    • By James Udemba

    It the 15th edition of the Professor Eni Njoku Memorial Lecture which held recently at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, something significant happened. The Guest lecturer, Reverend (Professor)!Chinedu Nebo, a former Vice – Chancellor of the University and a former Minister of Power in the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, veered off his topic to heap praises on Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, holding him up as a practical example of what good governance is all about. If  members of the opposition PDP in Imo State were around, they would have accused the Governor of shopping for praises. Coincidentally, Uzodimma, who was to serve as the Chairman of the event, was not physically present due to exigencies of other state duties. Again, Professor Nebo is not known for sycophancy given his pedigree as a Venerable of the Anglican Church and an accomplished Professor of Metallurgical Engineering, who rose to the position of Vice – Chancellor of the University and the pioneer Vice – Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti.

     On that day, he simply narrated what he observed on his last trip to Owerri, the capital of Imo State and asked the representative of Governor Hope Uzodimma to pass his message of of commendation and appreciation to him. What was his experience? He said he drove through Owerri- Okigwe highway and didn’t encounter any potholes and the journey time was significantly reduced unlike what it used to be. Because he has been a regular user of the road, his testament carried a lot of weight. He was nobody’s praise singer. He appreciated what some people would rather not see. Fortunately, two other eminent professors and former deans of the Faculty of Biological Sciences, who were present at the event, corroborated what Nebo observed, thus opening the floodgate of honours, praises and commendation for the Imo State Governor.

     Indeed, it is instructive that Uzodimma had served as the guest lecturer at the 14th edition of the Professor Eni Njoku Memorial Lecture series. What it means is that the organizers found something of value in him and decided to tap from it. And as if that was a cue, other Nigerians and indeed the Nigerian state needed to applaud the administration of Hope Uzodimma in the last 40 months , they certainly grabbed it with both hands. From Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, Igbos resident in the oil – rich states of Rivers and Bayelsa , crowned the Governor Onyendu Ndigbo na Rivers and Bayelsa, that is the Leader of Ndigbo in Rivers and Bayelsa. Just the same day, the Government of Rivers State conferred on him the highest highest honour of Grand Service Star of Rivers State ( GSSRS). Shortly after, the Federal Republic of Nigeria conferred on Uzodimma the national honour Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), while the Progressive Governors’ Forum – a group of 18 governors of APC – elected the Imo State Governor as their Chairman.

     It is significant that each of these honours, recognitions or commendations has a history. In other words, none was done in a vacuum. Take for instance, the Professor Nebo’s commendation. Apart from the Owerri- Okigwe highway, Uzodimma has built more than 100 solid roads running into several kilometers. He has done the Owerri – Orlu highway. He rebuilt the MCC – Uratta – Toronto road and all of these were commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari. Each of the 27 Local Government Areas has a five –  kilometre road  being built by Uzodimma. So, road users, including non – residents of Imo State, like Professor Nebo, are daily testifying to the road revolution of the Governor in addition to other democracy dividends which he has relentlessly continued to deliver to the people.

     For Igbos resident in Rivers and Bayelsa States, they were moved to honour their beloved son, Uzodimma, as the leader of the race because no other governor had taken the welfare of Ndigbo so seriously as Uzodimma. As a people whose economic interests are supported and sustained through the ports, they were overwhelmed with joy when Uzodimma flagged off the dredging of Oguta Lake, Orashi River to Degema and the Atlantic ocean. They are obviously quite excited that the potential of a sea port in the East is just but a stone throw away. They are happy that the economy of the South – East will receive a boost through the initiative of the Governor. They also know that the cultural ties between Igbos and the people of the Niger Delta region will be restored when the dredging is completed and commercial activities resume along the coastal areas.

     According to the the secretary of the organising committee for the reception by Igbo residents in Rivers and Bayelsa States,  Hon. Obiora Umeh, apart from what Uzodimma has done for the people of Imo State which are being acknowledged all over the state, the steps he has taken to rejuvenate the economy of the entire South – East through the dredging of the rivers up to the Atlantic ocean is unprecedented. He noted that such a visionary leader ought to be encouraged, hence his adoption as “Onyendu Ndigbo in Rivers and Bayelsa States”. He went further to assure the Governor that their members from Imo State will be at home during the November election to ensure that he is returned to the office for a second term. 

    While Igbos in Rivers and Bayelsa states see Uzodimma as the champion of their cause, former Governor Nyesom Wike sees him as a national icon whose patriotism has gone a long way to unify the country. In a letter he sent to his Imo State counterpart notifying him of the award of the highest Rivers State Honour of GSSRS, Wike described Uzodimma’s contribution to national development as worthy of emulation. Said Wike” I am pleased to notify you of my approval for conferring the highest Rivers State Honours on you as Grand Service Star of Rivers State (GSSRS). This award recognizes your outstanding commitment and contributions to advancing national unity, equity and justice and your valuable support for Government and people of Rivers State” It was noteworthy that the award was given from a PDP governor to an APC Governor. Before then Wike had publicly declared in a national television that Uzodimma will certainly defeat anyone challenging him in the November election. Could that be why the opposition PDP was jittery and accused Uzodimma of shopping for awards?

     However, as the Americans would say, they ain’t see nothing yet. Nobody saw the national award from the federal government coming. Although one can not say that it came from the blues, given Uzodimma’s antecedents as a patriot who believes in the unity of NIigeria. In truth, the award was well – deserved. In the last ten years, Uzodimma has taken the message of unity and peaceful coexistence among all ethnic nationalities to every state of the federation. Through lectures, reactions to unfolding events and private discourse with stakeholders, Uzodimma has always emphasized that being together in one indivisible country will be of benefit to everyone. Indeed, in his lectures he had also invited  his Igbo brothers and sisters to take advantage of the numerical strength of Nigeria to advance their economic interests, instead of contemplating leaving the country. To his credit, he has been consistent and unambiguous in describing the economic and political benefits accruable to all the ethnic groups in a United Nigeria. That perhaps explains why many individuals and groups have applauded the bestowment of the national honour  of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) on Hope Uzodimma. From the NLC, NUJ to the Imo State Council of Elders, from traditional rulers to road transport workers and from market women to prominent Nigerians, the verdict is the same: the national honour of CON bestowed by the Federal Government on Governor Hope Odidkia Uzodimma is well – deserved.

     Expectedly, accolades have continued to be heaped on Uzodimma since the announcement was made. Some remember that the Governor in a bid to cement national unity had appointed none indigenes of Imo state to his cabinet. Some also remember patriotic spirit with which he undertook his duties as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs and Excise where he was reputed to have saved billions  of Naira for Nigeria. And some have appreciated him for being a pan – Nigerian who continues to preach unity even while not relenting in drawing attention to the  obvious marginalization of his race in the politics of Nigeria. Such a patriot no doubt deserves to be awarded the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger ( CON).

     It must also be in appreciation of these and other admirable leadership qualities that the Progressive Governors’ Forum elected Uzodimma its Chairman within the same week that the Federal Government honoured him with the national honour of CON. This forum is made up of all governors elected under the banner of All Progressive Congress (APC). While it is conceded that any of them could have been the chairman, the antecedents of Uzodimma in the party and the circumstances of his emergence are worth being noted. First, Uzodimma is a first time governor who will be seeking reelection in November this year. Secondly, he didn’t join APC from inception. So why did his colleagues and the leadership of the party settle for him? It was the Bible which emphasized that a man diligent in his work will dine with Kings. Uzodimma has been committed, passionate and diligent in the running of the affairs of the APC, especially in the South – East where he is fondly referred to as the Governor General of APC. The results of his hardwork are glaring.

    Read Also: Diri, Uzodimma, Sylva, Melaye, Anyanwu make INEC final list for governorship polls

    Before Uzodimma joined APC and sought the goveenorship ticket, the party was about to be rejected by the people of the state on account of the leadership style of his predecessor. He not only won the goveenorship election for APC but has since consolidated on the victory. All the bye – elections held in the state since he became Governor were won by the APC. During the last general election, APC swept both national and state legislative seats – further attesting to the popularity of the Governor due to his unprecedented achievements in office in the last 40 months. It is also instructive that in the entire South- East, it was only in Imo State that APC scored the majority of the votes in the recent presidential elections.  

    Again,  as the man given the responsibility to coordinate the activities of the party in the South – East, Uzodimma has been diligent in the discharge of the task. It is to his credit that APC is now accepted in the South – East more than it was three years ago. It is to his credit that APC has made more inroads and now have more elected federal and state lawmakers in the South – East than it did three years ago. For a man who carried out this mass mobilization, a recognition as the chairman of the Progressive Governors” Forum is not misplaced.

     However, the adage that says to whom much is given, much is expected is now applied to Governor Hope Uzodimma because all the awards and responsibilities bestowed on him require more hardwork and commitment. Again he has to do a balancing act of attending to his duties at home and offering leadership in the national sphere. But as one who is adroit in handling responsibilities since his adulthood, Uzodimma will certainly deliver. What these awards  mean is that people outside Imo State are appreciative of his leadership qualities which have brought immense development to the state in addition to the national space. With his reelection just few months away, Uzodimma should be confident  of success knowing that the day of reward for all his hard-work is coming.

      Yet, I  dare say that for Governor Hope Uzodimma, CON, “it is morning yet on creation day” because I see greater honours and accomplishments ahead of him.

    Udemba is an Owerri based public affairs analyst.

  • Fuel subsidy gone for good

    Fuel subsidy gone for good

    • By Ali M. Ali

    The   Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is, currently, huffing and puffing, spoiling for war because, the   newly minted regime of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has walked its talk of decisively   ending   the fuel subsidy regime. The Union is threatening industrial action by Wednesday, June 7th   unless the government   continues with this   clearly untenable   culture of “fraud” and “rent.” The reaction of the Labour Union is both bewildering and hypocritical.

    It is confounding because all the major presidential candidates in the February   national polls said they were going to end the “fraud” that was the fuel subsidy.

    It’s duplicitous therefore, for the Labour Congress to grandstand. It won’t get any accolades. I am skeptical if Nigerians would heed the call. They didn’t in 2016 when they asked us to shun work following former president Buhari’s upward review of fuel charge.

    Discerning Nigerians have since concluded that the trade Union is hostage to vested   political and business   interests. It dances to their drumbeats. That explains, in part, why it speaks through both sides of the mouth. One moment, the Labour Union is hobnobbing with apostles of subsidy abrogation, the next it is grandstanding because a certain President Bola Tinubu has walked his talk. Different rule for identical pledges, one is tempted to conclude.I am dead certain some key elements in the top echelon of Labour Congress are captives of   political interests. The Labour Party’s presidential   candidate Peter Obi actually labeled   subsidy as “organized crime”. 

    He was right. Obi assured that it would be the first thing he would banish the moment he assume presidential powers. And NLC cheered. They hailed him. He was “in their party” after all.Today NLC is puffing, flexing wizened muscles and threatening to shut down the nation because the president isn’t  “in their party” .That is how I see it and a number of Nigerians who are unimpressed by NLC’s disposition. Obi scored bull’s eye however.

    I concurred and total agreed with his description that   subsidy is  “organized crime”. From a manageable N261 billion naira in 2006, fuel subsidy has snowballed in to a monstrous 7 trillion in 2023.Only ‘organized crime” approximates this astronomical rise. I am not alone. The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima revealed just last week of the existence of a powerful oil cabal wanting the fuel subsidy regime to last forever.Former Minister of finance Mrs Okonji Iweala who tried to clean the messy and fiscally challenging subsidy regime has emotional scars to show for that intrepid attempt. She initiated an audit and discovered that over $2 billion dollars were bogus claims. She advised government not to pay. The oil cabal kidnapped her 83-year-old mother in return!I am in total sync with Shettima when he said, “we either end subsidy or subsidy would end Nigeria”Obi must have read the   2012 House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management comprehensive report to poetically captured the nature of the subsidy regime as organized crime.

    The shocking details of that report exposed a cocktail of woes that combined to make subsidy administration a cesspit of depravity and sleaze.The report confirmed widely held notion popularized by the likes of former Central Bank Governor and maverick economist that fuel subsidy was a buzzword of “renting”, for “scam” and patronage. In the wake of the fuel price hike on January 1st, 2012,Sanusi argued, forcibly, before an enthralled crowd of “stakeholders” at a town hall meeting, with all the logic of a polemicist, at his disposal   why the subsidy regime was anachronistic.His persuasive arguments were punctuated by thunderous applause by a motley swarm of government ministers, state governors, captains of industries and Labour leaders.He dismissed the puerile argument that scuffling fuel subsidy would bring “hardship” and “difficulties”‘”This is not an economic argument,” he said.

    ”The economic argument” he continued would “be this is the cost of removing subsidy and what   is the cost of not removing it?”  he rhetorically asked.He concluded on an unnerving and chilling note. ”This government (JONATHAN’S) can continue to paying this subsidy till 2015,it won’t come down…but the next government would be saddled with a debt burden that it can’t maintain and the Greece situation would be nothing compared to where we are!”Sanusi warned, eleven years ago that “if the dollar gets to N200, inflation hits 18% and oil crashes by 30 to 40 percent, then we would know what crisis is…instead of slowing down, you want to continue paying one trillion naira subsidy to who?”We are presently in the reality Sanusi predicted more than a decade ago.

    With Nigeria’s total debt profile nearly 47 trillion naira and a suffocating 95 % debt-servicing ratio, the new regime of President Tinubu has had to brave the odds by walking this tough path of eliminating subsidy.

    Read Also: Tinubu right to remove fuel subsidy- APC Professionals

    During the campaigns, Tinubu was emphatic. Subsidy would go. Some 8.7 million Nigerians believe in his capacity and voted for him. I am flummoxed therefore, that Labour is calling for industrial action.The House Ad Hoc committee probed   a three-year period from 2009 to 2011. It discovered a progressive increase in subsidy intervention budget and zero accounting. 

    In 2006, subsidy for both PMS and HHK was tolerable, being N261.1b in 2006, N278.8b in 2007 and N346.7b in 2008. Five companies including NNPC were involved in 2006, 10 in 2007 and 19 in 2008 contrasted to 140 in 2011,sayid the report in its preamble.In 2023,fuel subsidy has skyrocketed to an incredible 7 trillion per annum.  Every month, the government spends a whopping 400 billion to subsidize fuel for an indeterminate number of  consumers nationw.

    The various organs responsible for efficient   execution of the subsidy regime encouraged a culture of skullduggery and financial brigandage. They flatly   and deliberately refused to keep a reliable database, thereby frustrating accounting process.

    According to the House Ad Hoc Committee report “We found out that the subsidy regime, as operated between the period under review (2009 and 2011), were fraught with endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency. Much of the amount claimed to have been paid, as subsidy was actually not for consumed PMS. Government officials made nonsense of the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) Guidelines due mainly to sleaze and, in some other cases, incompetence. It is therefore apparent that the insistence by top Government officials that the subsidy figures was for products consumed was a clear attempt to mislead the Nigerian people’’.

    The report continued “Thus, contrary to the earlier official figure of subsidy payment of N1.3 Trillion, the Accountant-General of the Federation put forward a figure of N1.6 Trillion, the CBN N1.7 Trillion, while the Committee established subsidy payment of N2, 587.087 Trillion as at 31 December 2011, amounting to more than 900% over the appropriated sum of N245 Billion. This figure of N2, 587.087Trillion is based on the CBN figure of N844.944b paid to NNPC, in addition to another figure of N847.942b reflected as withdrawals by NNPC from the excess crude naira account, as well as the sum of N894.201b paid as subsidy to the Marketers.

    The figure of N847.942b quoted above strongly suggests that NNPC might have been withdrawing from two sources especially when the double withdrawals were also reflected both in 2009 and in 2010. However, it should be noted that as at the time the public hearing was concluded, there were outstanding claims by NNPC and the Marketers in excess of N270billion as subsidy payments for 2011” In present day Nigeria, NNPC is claiming outstanding N2.8 trillion unpaid subsidy by the government.

    The Group Managing Director told reporters last week soon after meeting with President Tinubu. This colossal outstanding is twice the fund allocated to education in the 2023 federal budget.

    At 7 trillion naira annually, subsidy is gulping one third of the N21 trillion naira total federal budget. This is certainly not tenable. The fuel subsidy is gone for good.

    The government now is freed of the burden. The freed resources should be channeled to specific ends. Nigerians are groaning under the weight of hyperinflation.

    Economic activities are on a downward slop.Thankfully, the president is a listener.

    Ali M. Ali is a journalist and former Deputy President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

  • Subsidy removal is in Nigeria’s best interest

    Subsidy removal is in Nigeria’s best interest

    • Tinubu must stand firm

    By Femi Soneye

    For nearly two decades, the Nigerian government has literally been robbing Peter and handing the proceeds to Paul through a programme that has denied millions of poor Nigerians access to basic social amenities.

    That programme, the payment of subsidy on petrol was introduced in 2000 during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    At the time, Nigeria was experiencing supply challenges from its refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. To get around the problem, the Obasanjo administration set up a committee to review pricing and distribution of petroleum products.

    The committee in its recommendation advised President Obasanjo to set up a Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Committee (PPPRC).

    That committee would later in 2003 become the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), which lasted till 2021 when it was scrapped by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

    Essentially, the subsidy on petroleum represented government’s attempt at reducing the cost of petrol bought by citizens through the provision of direct financial support to oil marketing companies to offset their cost of transporting petroleum products from loading points to their retail outlets.

    In addition to this objective, the subsidy programme was supposed to stimulate economic growth whilst keeping the cost of petrol low for Nigerians.

    On the surface, the subsidy scheme was a laudable programme by government, but it would turn out not only to be a drain on government resources but more importantly, an avenue of further enriching a few wealthy Nigerians whilst making the poor poorer by denying access to basic social amenities which government ought to have provided with the funds channeled toward the subsidy programme.

    The amount spent on subsidy between 2005 and 2023 totaling over N21 trillion speak to a colossal waste of public funds on a programme that has added little value to the lives of millions of Nigerians.

    A recent report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) shows that whereas N13.7 trillion was spent on subsidy between 2005 and 2021, N8 trillion was spent between 2022 and the first half of 2023 alone.

    According to a breakdown of annual subsidy spending provided by NIETI in the report shows that in 2005, starting year for the survey, N351 billion was spent while the figures for 2006-2010 were N257 billion, N272 billion, N272 billion, N631 billion, N469 billion and N667 billion. 

    In 2011, spending spiked to a whopping N2.1 trillion.For the years 2012-2017, spending on subsidy was N1.36 trillion; N1.32 trillion; N1.2 trillion, N654 billion, N240 billion and N154 billion.

    From 2018 to the first half of 2023 government spent N1.1 trillion; N508 billion; N864 billion N1.43 trillion, N4.4 trillion and N3.6 trillion.

    The NEITI report further showed that concerning spending on petroleum products by the five income groups in Nigeria, the richest 20 per cent consumes 75 percent of petrol in the country while the poorest 20 percent consumes just 1 per cent of the product.

    Still on income groups, NIETI, quota data supplied by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, said the richest 40 percent consumes 90 percent of the fuel while the poorest 40 percent consume 4 percent of fuel subsidy spending.NEITI attributed the disparity in figures to the vehicle ownership structure in the country where the rich have multiple cars with the use of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) accounting for 96 per cent of total products consumed in the country.

    “This implies that 90 per cent of PMS subsidy benefits go to the rich, and just 4 per cent to the poor,” the NIETI report noted.

    A report by This Day newspaper last month noted that a study measuring the impact of subsidies on all fuels including kerosene showed that the rich enjoyed twice as much benefit from subsidy on petrol while benefits from subsidy on kerosene was evenly distributed.

    The paper noted though that the price of kerosene at N1500 per litre in the black market where it is mostly found is practically beyond the reach of the poor.

    It is clear from the breakdown of figures supplied above by NIETI that subsidy regime is clearly unsustainable.

    Read Also: Subsidy: Abdulrazaq slashes workdays to three for Kwara workers

    What began as a genuine concern by government to equalize the price of petroleum products nationwide, has led to several unintended consequences such as diversion of petroleum products to neighbouring countries, smuggling by government officials, subsidizing the lavish lifestyles of the rich whilst the poor for whom government principally took the decision to subsidize and not the least, channeling government resources away key sectors where government spending is truly needed.

    With Nigeria’s total debt stock projected to hit N80 trillion by the end of 2023 further subsidy payments could cause a total collapse of our already fragile economy.

    As a trained accountant President Bola Tinubu well knows the implication of spending above one’s income.

    A World Bank report said recently that Nigeria spent 96.3 percent of its revenue to service its debt in 2022. This is clearly unacceptable and certainly not sustainable even in the short term.

    As much as the removal of subsidy will hurt Nigerians especially against the background of the double-digit inflation and spiraling prices of commodities, it is the best decision government can take at this time.

    No nation, no matter how powerful and prosperous can survive in the long term with the kind of subsidy regime in place in Nigeria.

    Funding the programme has depleted the resources of the nation to the extent that in a report released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in October 2022, the company disclosed that it recorded zero revenue from export of oil due to payment of subsidy. That month alone government paid N199 billion on subsidy.

    The Tinubu administration must stand firm in the face of resistance to the removal of the subsidy. It must set sentiments aside and do what is needed to set Nigeria on the path to economic recovery. Nigeria is in dire straits.

    Buffeted on all sides by economic and social challenges not the least of which is a deplorable security situation that has cost thousands of lives and disrupted economic activities especially farming, government cannot continue to waste scarce resources on what is clearly an unprofitable venture.

    To re-energize the economy, government needs to re-direct funds to critical sectors to spur growth and development. Spending N40 billion daily to subsidize one litre of petrol at the cost of N600, is not smart economics by any stretch of the imagination.

    Nigeria’s health and education sectors long neglected by successive administration could benefit significantly from massive injection of funds.

    In addition to funding of these two key sectors, funds freed from subsidy payments should also be channeled towards development of infrastructure.

    Also, putting an end to the regime of subsidy will induce government to pay serious attention to our refineries to boost domestic production of petroleum products thus reducing our dependence on imported fuel. This will have the added advantage of creating more jobs locally.

    Another advantage of killing subsidy payments is that it will engender the true pump price of petrol, which will help improve product availability and attract investments to the sector.

    More importantly, removing subsidy will eliminate the long queues at petrol stations across the country and free Nigerians from endless pains and sufferings that come with fuel scarcity.

    *Soneye, a political commentator, is the Publisher of Per Second News

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  • May 29 and the vision of a new Nigeria

    May 29 and the vision of a new Nigeria

    By Mohammed Adamu and Lisa Olu Akerele

    PREAMBLE

    In 1630, during the rush for the ‘New World’, an immigrant Puritan lawyer from England, John Winthrop, sailing aboard a ship named Arbella, delivered to his fellow immigrants, a religious sermon which would become historic for the reason that it elevated a beautiful biblical metaphor of moral exemplary-ness into a secular adage of leadership and development.

    John Winthrop had chosen a text out of the book of Matthew (5:14-16), from the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, and in which Jesus was saying:

    “A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid”. Meaning that there’s no hiding place for the one who stands upon the elevated plane. Who dares to climb the moral high ground, like Caesar’s wife, must live above board.

    The ‘city upon a hill’ metaphor, which was later adopted by politicians to project America as a beacon of hope, freedom and self government, was excised from a larger biblical piece by Jesus, which read thus:

    “You are the light of the world. A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it giveth light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works”.

    And whereas Jesus sounded sanctimonious in the projection of righteous exemplary-ness, quite the flip of it, John Winthrop, in his aboard-the-ship sermon, had parodied Jesus’s text with a more secular undertone that drew the attention of his audience to that famous Robert Ingersoll’s trinity of democratic virtues, namely of “duty, honor and country”.

    By the way Winthrop’s parody did not open with Jesus’s existential affirmative of “You are the light of the world”. And perhaps it was because whereas Jesus was addressing a lighted entity which already existed, Winthrop was merely romanticizing the dream of a future America, but which he was already happy enough about, to dress in the figurative words of Jusus.

    Said Winthrop: “we must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword”.

    THE CODE OF PRESIDENTS

    And in a rather pleasantly ironic twist of fate, Winthrop had gone to become the first Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts, where he was said to have had the words of the ‘city upon a hill’ metaphor chiseled in stone and donned on the ‘Boston Common’ as a memorial of the dream of the immigrants and as motivation for self governance.

    In fact Governor Winthrop would be elected 12 times in a yearly election circle, majorly for his establishment of a ‘conservative aristocratic theocracy’ and for his articulation of individual liberty side by side with the enforcement of ‘civil order’, -a concept which they said had helped to form “the basis of the early American legal system”. It was too, a product of that dream.

    The ‘city upon a hill’ metaphor would come to be variously used especially by former American Presidents, and particularly by John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan who had not infrequently used it to inspire leadership, service and development in the American political space.

    John Kennedy’s first usage of the ‘City upon a hill’ metaphor, ironically, would be some nearly 300 years after Winthrop, at the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1961, where he read a powerful speech admonishing state assembly lawmakers about leadership and governance across the three branches and the three tiers of government.

    Said Kennedy on that occasion: “Today the eyes of people are truly upon us -and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill -constructed and inhabited by men, aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities”.

    Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, in his 1989 Farewell Speech titled ‘The Shining City Upon a Hill’, had uniquely embellished his usage of the metaphor with the anecdotal binoculars of a political seer who proudly said that he saw the vision of an America as:

    “a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teaming (he said) with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity”.

    And although Kennedy proudly spoke about a nation already sitting ‘upon the mountain top’, Reagan, some ….. later, had the humility to still speak about it as a ‘dream’ in making or as a piece of ‘work’ still in progress. The lesson being: you are never ever done with nation building. And maybe reason too, they say that democracy is a journey, not a destination.

    MAY 29TH

    This should be the dream of every patriotic Nigerian. Or if for Sunday reasons we had been in a nightmare, let’s all resolve from the 29th of May 2023, to dream a dream.

    This should be our dream all, irrespective of tribe and tongue, religion or geography; this should be our dream irrespective of partisan leneage; irrespective of geopolitical differences and notwithstanding even our fiercely contending electoral interests which are before the courts.

    It is time we all put our differences away, and maybe for the first time, in unison, began to envisage Nigeria as the ‘City upon a hill’ that God has always intended it to be! It is time we buried the hatchet and unite around the one mutually-beneficial objective of awakening this ‘sleeping giant’, Nigeria, so that it assumes its rightful place as the cynosure of all eyes.

    Let May the 29th be the date that we make this solemn promise to ourselves and to our dear country, of unanimously breaking away from our rancorous past and forging a united future whereat, though tribe and tongue may differ, as we are wont to give lip service to, at least in brotherhood yet we should stand.

    It is time we inspired ourselves, and claim the glory, as in the pontifical words of the Prince of Peace, Jesus, who affirms we are: “the light of the world”; and that being therefore “A city that is set upon a hill….. In the same way, (we must) let (our) light shine before others, so that they may see (our) good works”.

    It is time we reminded ourselves, in the inspiring words of Kennedy, that after May the 29th:

    “the eyes of people (will) truly (be) upon us”; and that like Kennedy had said of America some sixty years ago, “our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill -constructed and inhabited by men, aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities”.

    We have to let go off the dragging past and move onto a beckoning, promising future. We have severally dreamt the dream of Reagan; it is thus time that we began to build for ourselves the reality of the dream of Reagan, about:

    “a tall, proud (Nigeria) built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teaming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity”.

    This should be the Nigeria of our dream after May 29.

    EPILOGUE

    But it is time also that we told ourselves the blunt truth, as in the words of John Winthrop, that after May 29th:

    “The eyes of all people shall (not only) be upon us, (but) so that if we (ever) deal falsely with our God in this work (which) we have undertaken.., we shall (continue to) be made a story and a byword”. 

  • Minister of State appointment is a constitutional aberration, Keyamo tells Buhari

    Minister of State appointment is a constitutional aberration, Keyamo tells Buhari

    By Festus Keyamo

    A Heart Full Of Unquantifiable Gratitude To President Muhammadu Buhari, Gcfr, and recommendation To address The constitutional conundrum of “minister of state”

    Being valedictory speech by Festus Keyamo, San as minister of State for Labour and Employment at the council Chambers, Presidential Villa, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023.

      Mr. President, you first appointed me as Minister of State inthe Ministry Niger Delta Affairs in August, 2019 and you later redeployed me as Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

     Today, I cannot find the words to express the depth of my gratitude to you for finding me worthy, out of over two hundred million Nigerians, to be nominated and subsequently appointed to serve as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. My curriculum vitae has been greatly enhanced – forever.

    From my very humble beginnings in a small dusty town in Delta State where I was born and raised by my struggling parents, all the way to the Council Chambers at the Presidential Villa where I had the honour and privilege to participate weekly in decision-making for my country in the last four years, it has been like a fairy tale. I give God all the glory.

    What I am about to say, therefore, is not and should not be construed as an indication of ingratitude. Far from it. What I  am about to say is just my own little contribution to our constitutional development as a relatively young democracy and to aid future governments to optimize the performance of those they appoint as Ministers. 2

    Mr. President, the concept or designation of “Minister of State”is a constitutional aberration and is practically not working for many so appointed. Successive governments have come and gone and many who were appointed as Ministers of State have not spoken out at a forum such as this because of the risk of sounding ungrateful to the Presidents who appointed them. However, like I said earlier, this is not ingratitude.

    As a private citizen, I am on record to have gone to court a number of times to challenge unconstitutional acts of governments for the sake of advancing our constitutional democracy, so it will be out of character for me to have gone through government and be carried away by the pomp of public office and forget my role as a member of the Inner Bar and my self-imposed role over the years as a crusader for democracy and constitutionalism.

    Mr. President, I crave your indulgence to explain this constitutional conundrum of “Minister of State”. Sections 147 and 148 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), deal with the appointments and responsibilities of Ministers of the Federation. The said sections state as follows:

    Section 147

    “(1) There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President. (2) Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President.

    (3) Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with 3  the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution:- provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State.”

    Section 148

    “(1) The President may, in his discretion, assign to the Vice-President or any Minister of the Government of the Federation responsibility for any business of the Government of the Federation, including the administration of any department of government.”

     Furthermore, the 7th Schedule to the 1999 Constitution provides for the Oath of Office to which each Minister must subscribe. There are no different Oaths for “Minister” and “Ministers of State”. They all take the same Oath of Office.

     In addition to the above, the Ministers-designate appear before the Senate and are grilled and cleared AS MINISTERS, not as Ministers in some instances and Ministers of State in some other instances. It is at the point of assignment of portfolios that successive Presidents then reclassified some as “Ministers of State”.

    Some may want to justify this by saying the President is given the discretion by the Constitution to assign whatever responsibility(ies) he likes to Ministers. Yes, I concede Mr. President can do that, but not by a designation different from that prescribed by the Constitution. Simply put, it is akin to the President assigning responsibilities to the office of the VicePresident and re-designating that office as “Deputy President” under our present Constitution. That is clearly impossible. Why then should that of the Ministers be different? 4

     What is more, Ministers are appointed pursuant to Section 147(3) of the 1999 Constitution to represent each State of the Federation. Therefore, Ministers sit in Cabinet as the eye of Mr. President in each State of the Federation. It is therefore against the intendment of the drafters of our Constitution for a  representative of a State to be reclassified as against another representative of another State.

     The Schedules of Duties of Ministers and Ministers of State that intend to cure some of these anomalies hardly help the issues. Firstly, the Schedules of Duties are observed more in breach by the Permanent Secretaries and Directors who really cannot be expected to serve two masters. And in any case, many of the roles of both Ministers are so ambiguous that the bureaucrats would always interpret them to satisfy the ones they see as the “Senior Ministers” or “main Ministers” for fear of being persecuted by them.

      Secondly, parts of the Schedules of Duties seem to suggest that the Ministers can delegate functions to the Ministers of State. This is a constitutional impossibility. It is only Mr. President that can delegate Presidential powers as one cannot delegate what he does not have (delegatus non potest delegare). In any case, how can someone who took the same Oath of Office with another delegate functions to that other?

     Thirdly, the Schedules of Duties leave so many gaping holes that bring conflicts between the Ministers and Ministers of State. In addition, the provision that “Ministers of State” cannot present Memos in Council, except with the permission of the Minister, is another anomaly. It means the discretion of the Minister of State is subsumed in the discretion of the Minister, yet both of them represent different States in Cabinet.

     It also follows that it would be difficult to assess the individual performances of the Ministers of State since their discretion is shackled under the discretion of the Ministers. Original ideas 5 developed by a Minister of State are subject to clearance by another colleague in Cabinet before they can sail through for   consideration by Council. The drafters of our Constitution obviously did not intend this.

     As a result, many Ministers of State are largely redundant, with many going to the office for symbolic purpose and just to while away the time. Files are passed to them to treat only at the discretion of the other Minister and the Permanent Secretary.

    Yet, the Ministers of State will receive either praise or condemnation for the successes or failures of such Ministries.

    I understand that when this practice first surfaced in the First Republic, it was used as a contraption to give a semblance of “Government of National Unity”, when in actual fact no “real power” was ceded to the opposition members co-opted into government who were mostly designated as the Ministers of State, so as to keep them in check under the leadership of the ruling Party’s Ministers. But, over time the custom has come to stay and now it has been established as a norm, even  regarding Ministers from the same ruling Party. In fact, one political absurdity that has emerged from this is that some Ministers of State won more votes from their States for the party in power than the “main Minister”.

    THE WAY FORWARD

    Many Ministerial Retreats have been held to try and resolve the issues between Ministers and Ministers of State. President Obasanjo held four of such Retreats, with the last one holding at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, from 23rd to 25th February, 2001. Yet, the problems persisted.

    Mr. President, unknown to many successive Presidents and the general public, these conflicts gravely affect the optimal  performance of Governments. What is the way forward? 6

    Obviously, the argument that two Ministers are cramped into some Ministries in order not to unnecessarily proliferate Ministries and therefore save Government’s money is no longer tenable. This is because Government does not need any extra infrastructure or more money to maintain all Senior

     Ministers or even a bit more appointed as is now the custom. This is because the present Ministers and Ministers of State have their separate offices, cars, security personnel and  personal aides. So, what is the point?

     There are enough Permanent Secretaries within the system to be assigned to each Minister, or in the least, one Permanent Secretary can serve two Ministers. Since the Schedules of Duties of both Ministers already reflect the broad Mandates of the Ministries, the Ministers can be named in line with those Schedules of Duties, instead of continuing with this unconstitutional arrangement. For instance, there is no reason why we cannot have a Minister of Labour and another Minister of Employment.

     In my case, whilst the Schedule of my colleague had to do more with Labour and Productivity, mine had to do more with Employment. The Directorates in my Ministry that were under my office would then be fully under the Minister of Employment, without any double loyalty to the Minister of Labour and Productivity.

      We can also have a Minister of Trade and another Minister of Investment. We can have a Minister of Education (Tertiary) and another Minister of Education (Primary and Secondary); we can have a Minister of Mines and another Minister of Steel; we can have a Minister of Works and another Minister of  Housing and so on and so forth.

    In all of these, no extra infrastructure is needed to sustain this suggested arrangement. The present infrastructure and present personnel in the Ministries can very well sustain it. It 7 will be at no extra cost to government. This is preferable than successive governments continuing with this present unconstitutional arrangement.

    Finally, I want to place it on record again that Mr. President gave me maximum support as his Minister to function optimally. So, this treatise is not a personal complaint. This is just a respectful recommendation for record purposes and for the sake of posterity. It is also intended to correct an anomaly that has existed for ages.

    Thank you, Mr. President.

    FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb(UK) Honourable Minister of State, Labour and Employment.

  • Tinubu: The power of ‘aforiti’

    Tinubu: The power of ‘aforiti’

    By Louis Odion, FNGE

    His bonhomie was unusually absent that night in 2009. He spoke little, his luminous eyes mostly staring at us intensely with an expression difficult to fathom. The “Governor of Example” (BRF) and this writer ended up being the last to leave the putative den of the “Lion of Bourdillon” in Lagos at past midnight. 

    Not until we were outside at the car park of our host’s Ikoyi home (sufficiently beyond his earshot), did the then Governor Babatunde Fashola (the one who had been Jagaban’s Chief of Staff for five years) share his observation: “Louis, I can tell Asiwaju is very, very depressed tonight.”

     Drawing on an intimacy earned from working very closely with Asiwaju, BRF’s diagnosis could hardly be faulted. Lately, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) had suffered a series of reversals in courtrooms in Osun, Ekiti and Edo in pursuit of mandates “stolen” in the 2007 governorship polls in what had become multiple convoluted legal tussles.

     Having immersed himself as the chief inspiration and sole financier of the legal kerfuffle unfolding simultaneously at multiple fronts, Asiwaju was thus the one who often bore the burden more. So absorbed, so invested was he in those difficult moments that one could, in fact, be pardoned to imagine that even in his sleep, Jagaban probably still found himself mixing it up with the adversaries he earlier contended with all his waking moment. In the same vein heavyweight boxing champion Joe “Smoking Joe” Frazier once admitted he sometimes found himself in dreams engaged in ferocious fistic combat with eternal rival Mohammed Ali, only to wake in the middle of the night covered in hot sweat.

     Such was the exacting climate under which “stolen mandates” were recovered in Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and Osun after epic battles championed by Tinubu, the man young Nigerians (the millennials and Gen Z) do not seem to know or have been misled to hate and deny credits as arguably the biggest champion of multi-party democracy in the Fourth Republic.

     The instinctive warrior never shy to insert himself in a battle for others, but often with eyes on the greater prize not easily perceived by the shortsighted.

     The one who curbed Obasanjo’s imperial aspirations and excesses particularly in Yorubaland and who, from 2003, began to stitch, one thread after another fragile thread, what would blossom into the historic coalition that sensationally unhorsed a ruling party at the centre in 2015.

    To be sure, the man from Lagos is no saint. True saints would only be found in heaven. However, there is something extraordinary about Jagaban. His agglomeration of laser focus, daring, Trojan stamina, improvisation, organisational acumen and mental acuity is surely never seen in any other politician in all of Nigeria’s recent history. It speaks to a forbearing virtue or what the Yoruba call “aforiti” central to “iwa” (good character) which partly defines the Omoluabi ethos often invoked to describe the Yoruba identity and epistemology.

     An integral part of “iwa” is, of course, loyalty to friends or values subscribed by the community. Jagaban is a study in loyalty. He expects no less from those for whom he is prepared to take a bullet. (Ask President Buhari or Baba Akande.) In exile, he taxed himself to fund Radio Kudirat set up in the U.K. to battle military dictatorship in Nigeria. As well as provide for fellow exiles pushing for June 12 while its symbol, MKO, was languishing in Abacha’s gulag in Abuja.

     “Revolutionary” Tony Nyiam (of the April 1990 coup fame) once told this writer how regular stipends from Tinubu helped alleviate the adversities of exile for him and  a number of other June 12 activists. Of course, he gave from the proceeds realised from either properties he sold discreetly back at home or returns from his chain of gas stations in the U.S. being managed by his wife, Senator Remi.

     Ever so inventive, he mooted the idea of using the name of the Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, as collateral in Thailand for shipments of rice on credit to be sold clandestinely in west Africa to fund NADECO struggle.

     Greater is even the loyalty shown by assisting the dependants when their breadwinner was no more or in a position to repay. In death, no one has stood by MKO’s family more than Tinubu. As Lagos governor, he instituted a special monthly welfare package for some members of his family, a scheme still sustained by the state government to date.

    When told about the precarious financial position of Concord Press (owned by MKO) in 1999, he made a generous offer to buy the company’s idle giant power generator on behalf on Lagos State Water Board. The money offered would have been sufficient to offset the long arrears of salaries owed Concord workers and re-finance its operations. But just before the deal could be consummated came a caveat emptor in a national newspaper placed by one of MKO’s children. It did not take long before Concord Press, the asset most dear to Bashorun, finally went under.

     The virtue of “aforiti”, it bears restating, is not a province for those given to instant gratification. Nor for those who switch political loyalties for electoral convenience or casually break oaths for any accommodation, however transient. Rather, it is a mantra for the committed marathoner, for the patient sower who plants in faith, ?hoping for boom with the same zeal they are prepared for bust. The pot truly seeking the honey in pepper must endure the ravages of fire.

     Such resourcefulness was very much in evidence in the way and manner Osun was recovered in 2010. In 2007, the electoral bandits stole too much for the owner not to notice. But it would require exceptionally ingenious application of forensic testing of the ballots by Englishman Adrian Forty to establish what everyone had suspected: ballot stuffing on a mindless scale. All thanks to Tinubu.

     The same wizardry came in handy in unearthing illicit exchange of text messages between the presiding judge and the defence counsels to confirm offer and receipt of dirty cash, thus extending the frontiers of Nigeria’s jurisprudence in general and criminal investigation in particular.

     Finally sensing his fall from power, the story is told that the embattled infantry General, who had exercised a stolen mandate for almost three years, now pleaded, “Bola, fimi sile o! Awon lawyers ti gba gbogbo owo mi tan!” (Bola, leave me alone! Lawyers have emptied my pockets!) shortly afterwards when he and Jagaban met at an Owambe.

     Elsewhere in Ondo, forensic examination of ballots revealed even more comical details. Among those listed to have voted PDP’s Olusegun Agagu was one-time “baddest man on the planet”, Mike Tyson, widely known to be domiciled in faraway U.S.  So pervasive, so audacious were the forgeries that famous poet/journalist Sam Omatseye, otherwise registered and permanently based hundreds of miles away in Lagos, was also implicated to be among those who voted Agagu in Akure!

     Indeed, few days away, Tinubu will be crowned the 16th leader of the most populous black nation on earth. How fitting that he is ascending the golden throne his mentor, MKO, was denied. Suddenly, his trademark cap with distinctive embroidered broken shackle, perhaps the worst contraband to be caught with in Abuja between 2015 and 2022, has turned the hottest fashion item craved by new fortune-seekers.

     But a quarter century ago, his dream was no more than a chance to return to the senate after Abacha died in 1998. A meeting in Lagos altered that trajectory. On arriving Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos after five harrowing years of exile in the U.S/UK, his first stop in his green Mercedes was Concord Press premises (less than a mile away) to reunite with his old “co-conspirators” in the June 12 struggle, Messrs. Dele Alake, Segun Babatope and Tunji Bello (editor of National Concord, Editorial Board chairman and editor of Sunday Concord respectively).

     After bouts of long, fraternal bear-hugs with old comrades amid bitter-sweet reminiscences on the darkness that had pervaded Nigeria in the preceding five years, the returnee hinted a plan to return to the senate where he was chairman of the Appropriations Committee until Abacha’s coup of November 17, 1993.

     “Why not contest the Lagos governorship instead?,” Bello interjected. Alake and Babatope shared that view, perceiving a vacancy in Lagos’ emerging politics after Abacha.

     “Well, to be honest, that has not crossed my mind,” he replied and before leaving Concord that day, promised to reach out to his base and consult widely.

     The vacuum the Concord editors were seeing was in the abdication by the “Prince of Hope” (Ademola Adeniji-Adele). Upon his release from military detention in 1996, the erstwhile chairman of Lagos Island council had received a tumultuous welcome in Lagos, thus becoming the new darling of the progressive community, having played a pivotal role in June 12 protests in 1994. And when Abacha announced a transition programme, many began to see him as the next governor.

    But in a moment of grave indiscretion, Adeniji-Adele would allow himself to be lured into moving the motion for Abacha’s adoption as GDM’s “consensus presidential candidate” at the party’s national convention in Maiduguri in April 1998, at the expense of the revered and consequential Dikko Yusuf. Just like other teleguided parties memorably characterised as “the five fingers of a leprous hand” by Bola Ige.

     Confronted by Segun Adeniyi and this writer in an interview we conducted for Sunday Concord shortly afterwards, Adeniji-Adele told us in confidence that he had been directly threatened by a notorious army Major close to Abacha, listing that as a pre-condition for him to contest the coming elections. In his own calculation, he did not consider that a significant price to pay “if only to reclaim Lagos and use it to defend Abiola’s interest”.

    But the jealous Lagos progressives never forgave that betrayal. It took Abacha’s death two months later for Adeniji-Adele’s political stock to crash from the zenith of fame into the valley of infamy. The revanchist spirit that generally gripped the land thereafter meant that anyone associated with Abacha instantly turned a leper. The heartbroken progressives in Lagos were now looking for a new bride. 

    That was the moment Tinubu arrived. So, he could not be said to have forced his way into Lagos governorship in 1998. Rather, unique circumstances of the moment anointed him for the historic journey ahead. His first acid test soon came over alleged discrepancies in the form submitted to INEC.

     A lesser mortal would probably have buckled in the heat of vicious smear campaign that ensued. But sometimes, the truth is not so straightforward. In the rush to submit the nomination form for Lagos governorship in 1998, Tokunbo Afikunyomi, a fellow NADECO returnee, did the filling. In some regards, he mixed up some information.

     Unfortunately, once the form got submitted, all the depositions therein became binding. To claim otherwise elsewhere is perjury. Out of malice, political opponents twist this to mean he told lies about his past. It is one of the burdens Jagaban has had to bear ever since.

     As an editor of a national newspaper with more than a casual knowledge of what transpired at the time, I can attest another exaggeration in Tinubu’s much trumpeted drug story. Ahead of the 2003 polls, someone with deep connections in the national security establishment was interested in AD’s governorship ticket in Lagos. Apparently privy to the original court papers, he twisted the story to present Tinubu as villain and was looking for any newspaper to publish the story dangling a blank cheque, with a view to tainting him ahead of the AD primaries.

     Once he found a platform and the contrived story was uploaded, conspiratorial Obasanjo jubilated thinking he finally got Tinubu in the bag. Malicious mischief was barely concealed in a confidential memo immediately dispatched to the United States by the Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun, earnestly seeking clarity on the rather “disturbing story about Tinubu’s drug trafficking in the U.S. in the past”.

     Responding swiftly in no unmistakable language in a public statement, the State Department declared Tinubu was not involved in any drug trafficking nor convicted for any drug crime.

     In all the wild goose chase, the real substance of the story was not more than the fact that someone abused Tinubu’s trust. Being naturally a magnet for people, his Chicago residence was open to all folks from Nigeria in the 80s. It turned out that one of those who had been allowed access got entangled in a drug mess, warranting U.S. investigators to list him as a person of interest and his bank accounts frozen in the interim. But after months of forensic investigation, they found nothing against him, except the “offence” that due tax was not paid on some cash found as fixed deposit, for which a surcharge was imposed.

     This essentially is the actual meat of what would be misappropriated to feed the apocryphal tale about “Tinubu’s massive drug involvement in the U.S.”, now grown into a cottage industry in the past two decades, spawning a vast army of media experts and procured pundits surfacing in every election season, elaborately theorising a petty lie.

    When it was time to share the spoils of APC’s victory in 2015, it is common knowledge that Tinubu was virtually left empty-handed, without being able to nominate anyone of consequence in Buhari’s first cabinet. Party leaders he earlier helped install also forsook him. The new one he was allowed to nominate on the eve of the 2019 polls was again defenestrated soon after victory was secured. Such serial heartbreaks would certainly leave a lesser mortal broken.

    But again, Tinubu’s “aforiti” shone forth.

    Perhaps the unkindest cut of all is the betrayal of close disciples who had climbed on his back to power and glory. Like the biblical Apostle Peter who forsook his master three consecutive cock-crows before dawn, thrice many had denied Tinubu too. First, immediately they got appointed in Abuja in 2015. Next was 2019 after APC got re-elected. And later on the road to APC presidential primaries of June 2022 when they reckoned Jagaban was not the anointed of the “Villa cabal”.

    Still, the man kept faith.

    Upon being declared winner of the February 25 polls by INEC, wherever he went or whomsoever of consequence he met, Jagaban formed the habit of flaunting his certificate of return as “my own World Cup”. But on account of his tortuous and thorny odyssey to Aso Rock in the past twenty-five years, that may as well pass for a testament in tenacity.

  • 9th National Assembly: Gbajabiamila’s record of excellence

    9th National Assembly: Gbajabiamila’s record of excellence

    It is time for the stewardship account as the 9th National Assembly  gradually winds up. The duo of Dr Ahmed Lawan and Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamila have been at the helm of affairs in the last 4 years. They assumed the positions of Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives respectively in 2019, amidst huge expectations.

    The 8th National Assembly was embroiled with controversies following the ‘parliamentary coup’ of Senator  Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara who outsmarted the ruling party and emerged Senate President and House of Representatives Speaker respectively, against the decision of the party. 

    The unsavory development in the parliament, unarguably affected the change mantra of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, who ousted the incumbent president due to the mass support of Nigerians who were in dire need of transformational leadership. The ambitious plan to fasttrack much needed development was bugged down by primordial political interest of the legislative leadership.

    In 2019, the ruling party got its act right and ensured that the preferred candidates of the party, who are ideologically aligned with the transformational agenda of the progressives emerged. They are: Senate President Ahmad Lawan, Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-agege. For ther House of Representatives, the party settled for Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamiala and Idris Wase.

    The decision has paid off in the light of massive achievements under the leadership of the 9th National Assembly. Gbajabiamila, in particular, has demonstrated great astuteness and capacity as a legislator and proved to the many Nigerians that the government can truly serve the interest of the people.

    Buoyed by the mantra of the 9th National Assembly, codenamed, Nation Building: Joint Task worked well for the nation in many respects, Gbajabiamila ensured  a delicate balance of checks on the Executive arm of government, without necessarily being confrontational and hostile.

     This strategy unarguably remains the masterstrokes that propelled the 9th  National Assembly to  succeed where the previous Assemblies had failed. Landmark legislations like the Petroleum Industry and Governance Bill, PIB that was precariously hanging in the balance for years became a reality. Also, fundamental issues that border on true federalism, devolution of power, which form the major plank of the agitations of the various interest groups got some attention in the constitution amendment process that was enabled by the House of Representatives under the leadership of Hon Gbajabiamila and the Nigerian Senate. 

    It is also imperative to note that the much anticipated amendment of the nation’s  Electoral Act came through under this current National Assembly. They elevated national interests over and above personal interest by strengthening the extant law to address the loopholes in the electoral system of the country. This has further deepened the nation’s democracy and raised the hopes of Nigerians for free, fair and credible elections. 

    The NotTooYoungToRun bill that was passed under this current Assembly, opened the political floodgate for many young and brilliant Nigerians who were hitherto restrained from contesting because of age barrier. Many of them today, like the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, who is under 30, and many more gained entry into the nation’s leadership cadre.

    Under Gbajabiamila, the PIB was also passed into law. It will address the inefficiencies in the oil and gas sector and also end the rip-off of Nigeria by the International Oil Corporation, IOCs, ensure better deals for the host community and open up other ancillary sectors and create massive employment opportunities.

    In line with the global trend of E-governance, the Gbajabiamila-led House of Representatives set in motion the  E-Parliament in order to strengthen the legislative performance of members and ensure inclusiveness in governance..

    Gbajabiamila made history as the first Speaker who showed more than passing interest in parliamentary transnational diplomacy.  He has been to many countries to douse tension and to look out for the interests of his country men.

    He was in Ghana to champion a better deal for Nigerian traders who were affected by the obnoxious trade policy of the country. He met with the authorities in what he referred to as Back-door diplomacy and succour came the way of traders whose means of sustenance was about to be whipped out.

    He extended the same patriotic overtures to the Chinese government and the South African Authorities in the heat of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other Africans.

    Another landmark achievement is the restoration of the budget circle from January to December is another major feat. The new order has strengthened investors’ confidence  in the nation’s economy, and enables Nigerians and companies to plan, ensure implementation of capital projects which averaged about 30 percent implementation rate.    

    Those accusing the Gbaja House of Representatives of being a rubber stamp legislature are either ignorant or being mischievous. The House which has on several occasions summoned Federal ministers and  Heads of government agencies to account to the cannot be labelled a rubber stamp.

    Gbajabiamila facilitated truce between the Federal Government and by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) culminating in the suspension of the protracted strike.  

    When doctors down tools over poor conditions of service, it was Gbajabiamila that waded in and ensured that normalcy returned to the nation’s public health  sector. 

     The House that was galvanized by Gbajabiamila to protect the vulnerable Nigerians during the COVID-19 pandemic, and during the periods of national distress cannot be said not to be serving the interest of the people. In all, Gbajabiamila has demonstrated that he is indeed a pro-people leader who truly cares about the general welfare of the people.

    •Adams Ogunniyi writes from Abuja