The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Local brand, global outlook

    Local brand, global outlook

    • In 16 countries and counting, Dangote Industries morphs into a great Nigerian multinational

    About a decade ago, Dangote Group was a large trading concern dealing in an assortment of commodities.

    Yes, it was a monopolistic shark exerting commanding control in its areas of business like rice, sugar, cement and whatever else it set its mind to import. It also enjoyed some sweetheart deals and waivers from a series of Nigerian governments.

    But all these will not detract a nit bit from the Midas of Aliko Dangote and his rampaging ambition to rule the world of commerce and industry.

    In 2006, Dangote decided to transform his huge trading outfit into a real sector business and in just nine years, Dangote Industries has become the largest manufacturing conglomerate in Africa with strong presence in 16 African countries.

    Just last week, the company opened its $600 million, 3.0 metric tonnes cement plant in Tanzania. This plant is reputed to be the largest in East and Central Africa.  It is also reported to be the largest single investment in Tanzania. The investment which comes with a 25-hectare jetty will provide employment to about 7000 people when fully operational.

    Apart from Nigeria, its home country and Tanzania, its most current plant, Dangote has major mining and manufacturing concerns in Cameroun, Zambia, South Africa, Congo Brazzavile, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal and Ghana.  According to reports, the firm is said to have already awarded contracts worth $4.34 billion for the construction of 11 new cement plants – ten in Africa and one in Nepal, Asia.

    The industrialist, who is also recorded as Africa’s richest man, considers cement production as strategic for the growth and development of Africa in a dual-pronged way — cement is most essential for construction while cement manufacturing is a huge source employment creation.

    Though his critics also think that with so much expansion across the continent, it would be expected that cement would be cheaper in his home country, Nigeria, the price of the commodity has nevertheless  reduced drastically in recent times to about N1500 per 50 kg bag (less than 1dollar) from an all-time high of about N3000 about two years ago.

    It is interesting to note that Dangote Industries has made bigger and more impactful investments in some of these African countries than long-established multinational corporations with colonial linkage had made in decades. It has therefore become more imperative that eventually, only Africans can catalyse the development of Africa.

    During the inauguration of the Tanzania plant, Aliko Dangote underscored this point when he noted that, “one of our key strengths lies in our ability to understand the peculiar needs of Africans and how to do business successfully on the continent.  That is why we made Africa the centerpiece of our multi-billion dollars investment. We believe that it is only Africans who can develop Africa. We are also motivated to create an African success story because we believe that entrepreneurship holds the key to the future economic growth of the continent.”

    There is no gainsaying that if Africa could by some alchemy, clone half a dozen more Dangotes, she would have no need to keep looking to the West for grants, aids and development support. He is also a challenge to other African leaders and money men, especially those who ship stolen money and  wealth acquired on African soil into vaults in the West for safe-keeping. Such funds help fuel the growth of already developed economies; when they are not lost entirely.

    The Dangote paradigm is commendable and worthy of emulation. Though many Nigerian banks and telecommunications firms have gone across the borders to the West coast and beyond, Dangote is unique in its sheer size, structure and specialization.

    It is indeed a worthy Nigerian brand gone global and spear-headed by an eminent Nigerian ambassador.

  • Blues at the bourse

    • Bears run riot as Nigeria’s stock exchange shed N3.25 trillion in one year

    The horizon appears grim: severely shrunk revenues caused by the sustained dip in the price of oil; a stifling environment that continues to constrict and shrink private sector activities; pervading gloom occasioned by high unemployment rates, in the atmosphere of rising but increasingly hard to meet expectations.

    Too say the Nigerian economy has fallen into terrible times would pass as an understatement. That much is replicated in the general economy, beyond the precincts of the stock exchange.

    Still, we refer here to the travails that have constrained the Nigerian equities market to a losing streak over the last one year.

    According to Vanguard newspaper, the Nigerian bourse has shed a whopping N3.255 trillion in the 12 months from 30 September 2014 to 8 October 2015. More explicitly, the market whose capitalisation stood at N13.61 trillion on 30 September 2014 fell to N10.26 trillion on October 8, a net loss of 23.9 per cent one year later.

    Following that bearish trend is the All Share Index (ASI), which also dropped by 26.9 per cent from 41, 210.10 basis points to 30, 123.20 points in the corresponding period.

    If it is any consolation, there is sufficient evidence to point at in the Nigerian bourse story as merely reflecting the realities faced by the larger economy at this time. After all, it would seem unimaginable that the equities market will continue to thrive at a time factories are daily drawing shutters on their operations; and at a time economic activities are slowing down.

    What these imply is that the factors behind the trend could very easily be explained. Foremost on the list, of course, is the dip in oil prices that has put a lot of strain on spending across the board.

    Related to that is the continuing devaluation of the national currency, the Naira; with the resultant negative impact on inflation rate and hence, the market.

    There is also the factor of uncertainties brought by this year’s general elections, as a result of which many of the so-called foreign investors cashed out.

    We have also heard some analysts hold the tardiness in the appointment of ministers as contributing to the fostering of uncertainty on the economy, though a more rigorous reason would appear the general freeze over spending, to kickstart President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

    Not a bad one, given how corruption has eaten into Nigerian life.  Still, the president must know that the fight against corruption should not end up corrupting — and compromising — the economy.  There is therefore need for balance and moderation, without sacrificing the basic anti-sleaze principles.

    All of these no doubt (although to different degrees), together with the general perception of insecurity across the land, could well serve to explain the situation.

    We recognise that there can be no such thing as magic bullet to redress the situation. The challenge really is how to create an enabling environment for businesses – particularly indigenous businesses – to thrive.

    Indeed, the craze for the so-called foreign investment continues to be inexplicable.  In 2008/2009, these same foreign portfolio investors cashed out at the onset of the global credit crisis, thus precipitating the collapse of the Nigerian bourse.  It appears no lessons have been learned from that — for that situation appears playing out again.

    The anxieties over the so-called expulsion by the American lender, JP Morgan, obviously flows from that same obsession with anything foreign.

    We have said it again and again – and we think it bears repeating – that the current fixation with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and their hordes of portfolio investors is somewhat misplaced. It is also worth stressing that a country’s equities market is a reflection of its economic fundamentals.

    To that extent, the market can only lift when the larger economy is doing well. As for the Nigerian bourse, stability and meaningful growth would only come when the Nigerian investor truly holds the ace.

    At the moment, the best that Federal Government can do is to continue to promote a healthy environment for doing business. A huge part of the challenge is continuous investment in critical infrastructure without which costs of production would continue to be prohibitive.  The government should also put in place policies to make businesses truly competitive.

    With deepened and better investment in critical infrastructure — in power, rail and road — local firms would better compete, since they would enjoy lower production and transportation costs.

    With upgraded infrastructure deepening the local economy, holding stocks would become much more profitable. That way, confidence will not only return, it would likely stay up for a long time (other things being equal); and the bourse will bounce again.

    This fundamental approach holds alluring prospects; far better than putting our fate in the hands of fickle foreign investors, who bale out at the first hint of trouble.     

  • Curbing crimes and terrorism

    SIR: Is there any country in our today’s world that is crime-free? The answer is a categorical no. Governments in many countries are battling to curb crimes in their countries. Since evil traits and tendencies inhere in human beings, people(s) of diverse races perpetrate crimes or criminal deeds. They indulge in criminal acts like armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, cyber-crime, and others. But governments exist to extirpate the perpetration of criminal deeds among us. So, the absence of a government in any country will cause that country to descend into an anarchic condition. In Nigeria, the executive arm of government is charged with the maintenance of law and order, and prevention of the perpetration of criminal deeds. The police are tasked with the duty of combating criminal activities in Nigeria.

    But now Nigeria is convulsing with violent crimes. Armed robbers operate in Nigerian cities in broad day-light, unchallenged. Being equipped with sophisticated arms and weapons, they put our ill-equipped and demoralized policemen on the run. More so, kidnapping has become a booming   business in Nigeria. Dare-devil kidnappers had abducted high profile Nigerians in the past. Those unfortunates didn’t regain their freedoms until they paid huge sums of money to the kidnappers as ransom.

    In the recent past, Donu Kogbara, who would dazzle us in her weekly column in Vanguard newspaper with insightful, incisive, and educative articles, spent weeks in the kidnapper’s dingy dungeon. And the Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, was kidnapped in his farm by the peripatetic and murderous Fulani herdsmen. It is believed that the families of Olu Falae and Donu Kogbara paid ransom to their abductors.  The wife of Steve Nwosu was a victim of kidnapping, too. The kidnappers stormed the house of the ace journalist, bundled his wife into their car, and sped off. Has Nigeria not regressed to the Hobbessian state, where life is short, brutish, and nasty?

    Truly, human lives are worth less than a shekel in Nigeria. Our security agencies are not living up to our expectations. They appear to be overwhelmed by the felonious and murderous activities of kidnappers and armed robbers. In developed countries, police personnel rely on intelligence gathering to combat crimes. They are pro-active while performing their onerous duty of fighting crimes. They can pre-empt the plans of armed robbers and kidnappers by acting first. Can that be said about our police force? The Nigerian police force is inept and ineffective.

    The fact is, Nigeria is now in the grip of terror. Not a few people believed that President Buhari’s ascendance into the loft of power would bring about the cessation of bomb explosions in Nigeria. Now, in Nigeria, bomb explosions are occurring with increasing frequency with lethal and devastating consequences instead of abating. The murderous Boko Haram insurgents are running riot in the North-east now. Recently, they exploded bombs in Abuja, the federal capital and killed scores of people, there. And they stormed and attacked a town in Yobe State, killing tens of people there.

    The maintenance of law and order is an antidote to the emergence of anarchic situation. And the containment of terrorist groups, kidnappers, and armed robbers in Nigeria will guarantee us peace and unity. So it is incumbent on our President to re-engineer our security apparatchik, and devise effective methods of eradicating kidnapping and other criminal activities in Nigeria.

    I would like our President to know that Nigerian’s strength lies in its diversities. And the disintegration of Nigeria can cause political instability in our neighbouring countries as millions of armed and displaced people will migrate there.

     

    • Chiedu Uche Okoye

    Uruowulu – Obosi, Anambra State

  • Follow the money

    Follow the money

    Northern governors should work with the DSS to flush out Boko Haram sponsors

    There is no terror without money. This seems the maxim that has informed the decision of the Northern Governors Forum to inaugurate a committee to flush out Boko Haram sponsors in the North, especially in the Northeast.

    Under the chairmanship of the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, the forum that comprises 19 states has drafted the attorneys-general and commissioners for  justice of the member-states as members of the committee.

    “The days of the deadly sect are numbered, considering the current bombardments of the insurgents by the troops,” commented Governor Shettima when the committee was being inaugurated.

    We commend the establishment of the committee.  Though a bit late in coming, it is better now than never. This is because we expected that this committee should have revved into action years ago, especially when the fanatics were making quick work of the cities and villages in the region. Many families were displaced. Infrastructure was paralysed and the effectiveness of government was curtailed as the bandits roared from town to town and hoisted flags.

    The committee has been given a two-month deadline to accomplish its tasks. Although the identification and mechanics of funding of the sponsors form its major assignment, the committee will also extend its searchlight to the ancillary surge of evil in the region. They include cattle rustling, armed robbery and kidnapping.

    The Borno State governor-chaired committee would also analyse the “various emergent security challenges confronting the northern states and determine how best to incorporate them into the penal code for proper and effective administration of justice.” But it is not intended to conflict with the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    This involves, according to Governor Shettima, a review of the Penal Code with a view to identifying the weaknesses and strength of the existing arrangement of the criminal justice system. He noted that while the committee should “look at the condemnable activities of the sponsors of the insurgency,” it should “come up with legally pragmatic, appropriate and proportionate punishment.”

    The committee is also expected to probe the complicity of families. Said the Borno State governor: “The committee should also focus on parents who because of some pittance sacrifice their children as suicide bombers. Such parents must be made to face the full wrath of the law.”

    During the Jonathan administration the issue of who backed the insurgents never enjoyed any systematic attention. Rather, it fell into the web of politics and ethnic recriminations. So while politicians and tribal warlords bickered over who fuelled the militants, the innocents in the region groaned. Many women were whisked away from their homes and numberless maidens raped and taken as wives. Young men were drafted into their ranks while the reach of government power shrunk.

    Governor Shettima was at odds with the Jonathan government and he was made to look like an alarmist when he observed that the insurgents were better armed than the Nigerian Army. This disconnect between local politicians and the Jonathan administration that hardly visited the region could have partly explained the belated setting up of the committee.

    Now that the committee has swung into action, we expect results. There are good signs from the recent campaigns of our military. The President, Muhammadu Buhari, moved the command from Abuja to Maiduguri. That has perhaps explained the successes so far, and the military has set a deadline to dispatch the goons.

    Still,  the insurgents seem to be regrouping. They have found it difficult to coalesce into standing armies and can no longer conquer territories and dislodge the Nigerian Army. So they now resort to guerrilla tactics. Suicide bombs have become their new staple.

    The twin bomb blasts in Abuja; and the double bomb blast in Maiduguri, killing 42 worshippers during evening prayers on Thursday October 16, and a follow-up attack  on Friday morning, on October 16, underscore the need for the Nigerian political elite and governments to rejig strategies for dealing with the scourge.

    But while the state governments in the North have a responsibility to examine the roots and whereabouts of the sponsors, the real tasks lie with the federal intelligence agencies, especially with the Department of State Security (DSS).  It is their duty to monitor, track and locate the sponsors.

    But from arrests made in recent months, it is clear that a variety of persons in the North back the terrorists, and that shows that a lot of work needs to be done to root out the collaborators. In August, for instance, 30 shop owners were arrested in a raid at Benishiekh and Mainak towns of kanga Local Government Area of Borno state.

    More recently, one Mohammed Maina was arrested with money and stimulants. These arrests should be not be ends in themselves but means to an end. They can be used to track their comings and goings and their associations so as to reach their centres of organisation.

    The Northern Governors Forum has done a good thing, but they have to work with the intelligence agencies to subdue the insurgency.

  • Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (1952 – 2015)

    Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (1952 – 2015)

    • A lesson in legacy and democracy

    It is a telling lesson on the importance of positive performance in power that former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha reportedly rushed back to the country from Dubai,  where he was receiving medical attention, out of fear of extradition to the UK to face corruption-related charges. His death at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital on October 10, aged 62, seemed like the culmination of insecurity out of power, though official sources said he “died of complications arising from high blood pressure and diabetes which affected his kidney.”

    No less a person than Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson confirmed that a feeling of insecurity was a major factor in the tragedy. Seriake said in an emotional state broadcast that reflected the sense of loss of Alamieyeseigha’s Ijaw ethnic group: “We acknowledge the anger, the genuine sense of anger and disappointment, and the outrage held by our people at home and in the Diaspora and all well-meaning Nigerians and lovers of justice around the world for the way our leader was harassed, pounded and forced to abandon his treatment abroad. We condemn…the propaganda and the orchestrated harassment that led to his untimely death.”

    It is noteworthy that, in the end, a controversial 2013  state pardon of Alamieyeseigha by former President Goodluck Jonathan proved inadequate to redeem him as he remained wanted in the UK  where he was facing money-laundering charges but escaped mysteriously to safety in Nigeria. It is understandable that he was still haunted by the possibility of prosecution in London, after jumping bail in 2005, and got jittery in Dubai following reports that the UK had requested his extradition.

    Alamieyeseigha came to politics from a military background, having been trained at the Nigerian Defence Academy. He retired from the Air Force in 1992 as a Squadron Leader. His reelection as governor in 2003 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after a four-year term, resulted in an unravelling from which he never recovered.

    There is no question that Alamieyeseigha who governed oil-rich Bayelsa State from 1999 to 2005 was stained by official corruption. While still in office, he had one million

    British pounds stashed in his London residence; the loot was discovered during a search by London Metropolitan Police. Another hefty sum of almost two million British pounds was found in his bank account in the UK.

    He lost his governorship position when he dramatically surfaced in Nigeria and was impeached by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly. His subsequent prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) resulted in a plea bargain after he pleaded guilty to theft of public funds and money laundering. He forfeited money and property to the government, and got a two-year jail sentence in 2007.  He reportedly spent no more than two days in the cage post-sentence, having been held in detention for two years since his apprehension.

    Notwithstanding the foregoing, the man famously called “Governor General of the Ijaw Kingdom” was intriguingly hero-worshipped by the Ijaw people. He was credited with the establishment of the state-owned Niger Delta University and enjoyed the confidence of Ijaw nationalists. It would appear that, to his ethnic group, his failure to achieve socio-economic development that matched the state’s rich resources was a pardonable inadequacy.

    From a more objective viewpoint, Alamieyeseigha’s power years cannot be described as exemplary, particularly in a country faced with serious developmental challenges. He may not have appreciated the virtue of spending public money for public purposes. His legacy is not an edifying lesson. He proved not to be the kind of political leader that should be emulated.

  • Soldiers on the loose

    Soldiers on the loose

    •Army authorities should apprehend soldiers who brutalized LASTMA officials in Lagos

    There was a time when the military was more respected than feared. The Nigerian Army was reputed to be a disciplined force. Unless drafted to quell civil unrest, it could only be imagined what they did on the battle front by their orientation and disposition. That tradition is largely lost now. The new turn probably informed the lamentation by a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Salihu Ibrahim, that the Army he was leaving behind in 1993 had become a Force of anything goes. If anything, things have got worse in terms of discipline and military-civil relations.

    Apart from constantly harassing the public, the Army has become notorious for taking on officials of paramilitary organisations and civil groups. On a number of occasions, they have been locked in open conflict with policemen and men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.

    On Monday, it was the turn of an official of the Lagos State Traffic management Agency (LASTMA), Mr. Peter Owolabi. The poor LASTMA official had to be battered for daring to enforce the law. And, to show that the soldiers who descended on the poor man, the soldiers who could not fathom why a common LASTMA official would dare caution them, blocked the Bus Rapid Transit Lane around Obanikoro in the former capital city. It did not matter to them that it would amount to gross indiscipline which is punishable under the law, nor did it bother them that the dedicated lane was for the free flow of traffic in the congested city. They were sure that no authority under the sun could call them to order.

    And, to confirm their position, their commanders have not considered it necessary to issue a statement since the ugly development. There has been no visit to the brutalized official, no apology to LASTMA and the state government, Owolabi’s employers. The soldiers are indirectly, thus being told to repeat the ugly incident should any other law enforcer attempt to make them obey civil rules.

    That was not the first time the soldiers and some of their officers would flagrantly disobey the laws of the land. On many occasions, they had been seen driving in the wrong direction at great discomfort to other road users. They are sometimes known to have forced gas stations to sell to them at whatever price they may dictate, and are hardly patient to join other would-be buyers on the queue.

    This is supposed to be a new dispensation, one that has promised to mobilize Nigerians for rebuilding the country. We, therefore, call on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, to order a probe into the incident with a view to identifying the soldiers and discipline them according to the rules to serve as deterrence to others. The same impunity had informed had informed the shooting of tax-paying citizens in the past.

    It need be pointed out again that in a democracy, the military is subject to civil authorities. As many as elect to willfully flout the laws of the land should be brought to justice, if only to assure citizens that they are safe. The senior officers should be good examples. When they are orderly in all things and at all times, purged on the contempt for civilians who are sometimes described as “bloody civilians”, the forces would begin to act as members of an orderly society.

    We call on the federal government to reconsider the strength and size of the Nigerian Police Force. Obviously, 30,000 officers and men are inadequate to police Lagos. While not unmindful of the instruction to the Inspector General and the Police service Commission to recruit 10,000 more Policemen to shore up the strength nationwide, this is a mere drop in the ocean. There can be no substitute for allowing the states to police their territories. The involvement of the military in purely civil matters like traffic management might have fuelled the superiority complex that sometimes drive the soldiers.

    Nigeria is not in a state of anomie. The federal government has a duty to act immediately to halt the dangerous trend.

  • Buhari right on Amaechi and ‘old brigade’

    Buhari right on Amaechi and ‘old brigade’

    SIR: I have heard many say these past days that: “how come there weren’t young people under 40 years (ministerial nominees), sent to the Senate by the president for confirmation as ministers of the federal republic of Nigeria?” Allied to the foregoing again, that, “they were populated by old people, thereby recycling old hands again and again leaving no room for young people who aspire to national political offices.”

    The queries are in order without a doubt. When will Nigerian youths be thrown into the political ring to contribute to the nation’s life? I follow international events and the news media and see many people in Asia, Europe, Gulf countries holding sensitive governmental positions and here is the thing: most are in their early to mid-30s.

    Regrettably, the average Nigerian youth today is not a nationalist. Majority of them are apple-polishing ethnic jingoists used by political persons to pursue fractious issues of ethnicity, secession, political brigandage, demagoguery and many other negative quirks that space will not permit.

    How then therefore can youths be entrusted with the affairs of state, when they do not pursue national interests?

    However hard you try to disparage some of our elders, majority of them are progressives and have a broader positive outlook about Nigerian-ness unlike our youths. It is a fact that ‘those old ones’ desired ‘to be,’ early in life, not in words but in deeds and became.  People who desire to be anything within the ambit of reasonableness excel and succeed in their chosen line of work.

    While many of the old people in Nigeria have chosen to be like Joseph Broz Tito of Yugoslavia – the youths have gone the way of Slobadan Milosevic.

    Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, prior to the screening of former Ekiti State governor Kayode Fayemi for ministerial position urged all people of Ekiti to rally behind the former governor. It would be a disservice if Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is left in the lurch having sacrificed so much for his party. Nigerians are waiting to see if genuine efforts, sacrifice are virtues that will be rewarded in the ‘change’ dispensation.

    The strategy of many politicians in Nigeria is to appeal to the sensibilities of youths with jingoistic sentiments especially those with dull speculative resume. Amaechi refused to fall for that trap. Nigeria, today is a bitty and disillusioned society, and is very much in need of many people across all geographical divides like him – bold enough not to play the politics of: “my brother, our brother,” but to stir up a nationwide development.

    Buhari was right in appointing Amaechi as a minister because ours is a society where there is a need for risk-takers, for many, to have an iron grip on almost every situation if we must move forward.

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt.

     

  • Africa’s unbalanced sheet

    Africa’s unbalanced sheet

    •Nigeria performs woefully in two new reports on the continent

    Two recent reports, touching on the African condition, call for sobriety in the face of analyses  by influential Western media, that  trumpet significant economic growth and opportunity on the continent.

    The first, the Mo Ibrahim Governance Index, which rates 54 African countries on such criteria as security, human rights, economic stability, just laws, free elections, corruption, infrastructure, poverty, health, and education, says that progress has for all practical purposes been stalled on these scores since it last reported in 2011.

    Twenty-one nations fell below their previous mark on the Index.  Gains reported four years earlier in human rights were eclipsed by deteriorating safety, and lack of economic opportunity, especially in the resource-rich countries, and by growing vulnerability of the banks.  Conditions in 11 of the commodity-exporting countries, including Nigeria, grew worse, according to the report.

    Mauritius topped the Index, followed by Cape Verde, Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia, in that order.  Instructively, the countries that have moved up on the Index are the ones that have diversified their economy, among them Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Madagascar, and Tunisia.

    In the critical area of infrastructure, Nigeria was ranked 39 of the 54 countries on the Index, below Ivory Coast, Cameroun, and Djibouti.

    Overall, however, what emerges from the survey is not so much deterioration as stagnation, contrary to the picture in many influential Western publications of an Africa unbound.

    The second report, from the World Bank, paints a grimmer picture of the Nigerian and African condition.  It states that Nigeria and other sub-Sahara African nations account for half of the world’s poor.

    Several decades ago, East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia and sub-Sahara Africa together accounted for 95 per cent of global poverty, according to the report.  In 1990, East Asia accounted for 5 per cent of global poverty; the corresponding figure for sub-Sahara Africa was 15 per cent. In a stunning reversal some 25 years later, East Asia’s share of global poverty was down to 12 per cent, while sub-Sahara Africa’s shore of palpable  poverty shot up to 50 per cent.

    The report notes that poverty is declining in all regions – in sub-Sahara Africa, it fell from 56 per cent in 1990 to 35 per cent in 2015 — but it is becoming deeper and more entrenched in countries that are either conflict-ridden or overly dependent on commodity exports.  Nigeria exemplifies both conditions.

    Like the Africa Governance Index, the World Bank report attributes the enduring poverty to conflict and dependency on commodity prices, but adds a third factor:  rapid population growth.

    The lessons for Nigeria here are clear.  It is time to stop bemoaning the nation’s dependence and move aggressively to diversify the economy.  The vast agricultural and mining potential are waiting to be harnessed.  But this cannot be done without a solid network of roads and rail tracks, navigable waterways, and steady power supply.

    The war on official corruption must be pursued without compromise.  Under former President  Goodluck Jonathan, 400,000 barrels – or 20 per cent of daily output – was being stolen, and the government appeared powerless to do anything about it.

    Vast fortunes accrued to favoured or well-connected persons as subsidies for bogus imports of refined petroleum products, and contractors claimed hefty fees for work not done at all or only half-completed.  The checks and balances that should undergird the presidential system of government were inoperative.

    These leakages will have to be plugged and corrupt officials brought to justice.

  • Golden voice goes home

    Golden voice goes home

    •But to no golden acclaim, as even the media, constituency of NTA’s Mike Enahoro, seem oblivious of their own

    Two deaths.  Two diametrically contrasting reportage — and a disturbing picture of a distracted media, and a nation logging a suspect moral conscience.

    This appears the unflattering set-up, at the deaths of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelsa governor and Mike Enahoro, former colourful NTA Network News anchor, both incidentally from the South-South geo-political zone.

    We share in the intense private grief of Chief Alamieyeseigha’s family, the former governor dying at the not-so-ripe age of 62, in the midst of so much family storm, reportedly involving his wife and son.

    But Alamieyeseigha’s public profile, from his controversial governorship, to his controversial impeachment, trial and conviction for corruption charges, and finally to his no-less controversial presidential pardon after serving his time, was nothing but notorious.  Yet, it was to his passage that the media sensationally latched.

    Is William Shakespeare wrong after all, claiming even the heavens themselves would trumpet the passage of great souls — great meaning more of popular than notorious?

    This question is valid, given the way the media barely mentioned the passage of Mr. Enahoro, 75, true golden boy, with a golden voice, in the golden era of television, when NTA ruled the roost.  While Alamieyeseigha’s passage hugged the front pages of newspapers, led electronic news bulletins and ran riot on social media, Enahoro’s passage was almost an after-thought, buried inside the mass of news.

    Yet, he was among the best in his generation; and his tale ought to be gloriously told, if only for those not old enough to know him in his active years, that Nigeria had not always been a monopoly seedy news, dominated by barren and noxious public figures.

    Mike Enahoro dazzled among the galaxy of NTA stars of his generation: Bimbo Oloyede (nee Roberts), Bode Alalade, Sienne Allwell-Brown, Ruth Benamesia and, of course, Julie Coker; and in sports, the late but great Yinka Craig.

    Enahoro’s signature Ishan costume, deep baritone voice, comely elocution and arresting fluency, as he read prime time news, held viewers in thrall.  NTA claimed 30 million Nigerians were hooked to its network every night — and certainly, it crowed in a commercial punch line, “30 million viewers cannot be wrong”!

    It’s unclear if NTA ever statistically proved its 30 million viewership claim.  But something was certain: Mike Enahoro made a positive impact on viewers — he was suave, he was debonair, he was dashing; his Ishan news anchor persona symbolised respectable culture and tradition, in a contemporary, cosmopolitan setting.

    Besides, he oozed a grand and good background, given the positive exploits of his Enahoro siblings, who had made great marks in journalism — and politics.

    Tony Enahoro, the eldest of them all, first moved Nigeria’s motion for independence in 1953.  Old man Enahoro would stay in the trenches, even at the twilight of his life, as Nigeria of his dreams was not adding up.  Peter Enahoro, Peter Pan,  the great Sunday Times columnist and youngest ever to edit Daily Times, is another sibling.

    Mike Enahoro, with his NTA exploits, was only raising the family’s robust public service legacy a notch higher.

    That was why it was scandalous that the media, which Enahoro represented with so much aplomb and distinction, were literally scratching their heads — Enahoro who? — at his passage!  But then, that shows how disoriented the media have become; and how polluted the Nigeria Enahoro left behind was.

    Still, when the history of this era is written, Enahoro would stand proud among its true icons — patriots that gave their all, for their country to be great.

    Sleep well, great television personality; and role model in his generation!

  • If I were President Buhari

    If I were President Buhari

    SIR: Since the emergence of General Mohammadu Buhari as the President, the country has witnessed a fresh approach to development, while his fight against corruption has brought a new lease of life to public service.

    He has also taken time to choose his ministers, trying to ensure that those that would make the cut are men and women of proven integrity. Despite the fact that some of his previous appointments have received criticism from some quarters, the President cannot be faulted for taking such decision as he must have weighed the consequences of such appointments before arriving at those decisions.

    However, if I were the President, I would, as a matter of urgency, begin to look at ways on improving the fortunes of Nigerians by embarking on programmes that would impact positively on the entire country. The first initiative I will embark on is to set up the National Land Development Authority. Under the scheme, each local government would provide land for farming and it will produce what it grows best.  This will encourage massive farming in the country and in turn provide jobs for the teeming youths, who complain of unemployment.

    The produce from the farms would be sold at different locations in the country, while others would be exported. Apart from getting paid for the jobs they do, the farmers would also have some portions of the farms to themselves which they can also use to better the lot of their families.

    The farm settlements would also give rise to the employment of other professionals, who would be needed to work on the farms. Professionals like engineers (civil and mechanical), health workers and other artisans would be required to work on or around the farm. The scheme would also help in giving employment to graduates in their local government area after their national service instead of their fruitless search for jobs.

    It would also reduce migration to urban centres as the communities would be automatically urbanized due to the provision of amenities in the local government area.

    The farm settlement, which would be regulated by the Federal Government, would also encourage the development of housing estates in those areas. The apartments would house the farmers and their families, while those who also work around the farms would not have to travel far distances as they would also get the opportunities to live in the housing estates.

    Also, I will set up a Nigerian Communities Development Corporation and scrap the ministries of health, works, housing and agriculture and I will have director general in the commission manning their respective department.

     This corporation will also be responsible for all federal roads and general infrastructure nationwide as the National Land Development Authority will be under its umbrella.

    • Rev Omeaku Cole Chiori

    Lagos