The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • No end in sight?

    •President Jonathan should not play politics with phony power project commissioning

    Expecting that flicker of light in the dark tunnel that the current administration has thrown the power sector is increasingly akin to waiting for Godot. Having spun so many fables about performance and delivered far more alibis than electricity, the Jonathan administration seems to have been inextricably caught in the maze of its contradictory spins.

    Being an electioneering season, it is not unexpected that the administration would seek to showcase its achievement – if any. That perhaps explains why the president has ramped up  his campaigns in the South-west for the most part of the past fortnight. With pretty little to show after nearly six years in the saddle despite repeated pledges to make darkness history, power-starved citizens ought to find it amusing that the under-achieving Jonathan administration has embarked on an orgy of commissioning make-believe power projects in the twilight of its first term.

    One such is the 750MW Olorunsogo Phase II Power station, in Olorunsogo, Ogun State, commissioned by the president on February 20. The other is the ‘new’ turbine unit at the Egbin Power Station, near Lagos, inaugurated the next day – February 21 during which the Minister of Power Chinedu Nebo gleefully announced that the nation’s generation/transmission capacity currently hovers around 5,000MW – which he touts as achievement – using the 2011 output of 2,800MW as baseline.

    Clearly, if we are any confounded at the fraud now in-built into the computation of the power sector arithmetic and the perennial celebration of under-achievement that has become its companion, more confounding must be the administration’s amnesia coming after serial promises to cross the 10,000MW by December 2013. Jonathan’s Minister of State for Power, Zainab Kuchi, had in the course of a presentation to the Presidential Action Committee on Power in January 2013 claimed that the nation’s power generation capacity as at the end of 2012 stood at 6,442MW with peak quantity generation of 4,517.6MW recorded on December 23, 2012. Her projection at the time was that the nation would have achieved the 10,000 Megawatts of electricity generation by December 2013. That was after President Jonathan had stated times without number that the power sector conundrum would be cracked long before the end of his first term.

    Two years after that projection, the situation is hardly better. In major respects, it may have gotten worse. One proof is the claim attributed to the Federal Ministry of Power that the actual energy sent out to electricity consumers average 3,424.11MW – an output far less than the 5,000MW claimed by the minister in charge.

    Beyond the arithmetic, what must be of particular interest is that the challenges facing the sector, and which have long been diagnosed, have hardly changed in any substantial sense from what they were five years ago. Then, we were told that a gas-endowed nation cannot find gas to power its thermal plants; that investors would not bring their money into the gas sector because fiscal terms were unfavourable. The Federal Government has since procured another headache: pipeline vandalism – a problem which the Jonathan administration has framed as an alibi, to buy time even as the nation continues to languish in darkness.

    It ought to be obvious by now that the administration has neither the capacity nor the will to tackle the power problem. This in itself is tragic considering the over $20 billion sunk into the sector by the different Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations. And while the darkness lingers, the ill-served power consumer is still forced to bear the brunt via the avenue of the crazy, inequitable bills. It is a classic case of double jeopardy, which we might remain in, unfortunately, at least until the government begins to think out of the box.

  • Laughing at the dead

    Laughing at the dead

    •Without firing Moro and Paradang, a new immigration recruitment exercise lacks moral example

    Once again, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is in the process of recruiting to boost the organisation’s capacity to patrol our borders. This ordinarily should be cheery news to the numerous graduates roaming the streets in search of jobs. But we doubt if it would, given the sad incidents of last year in which no fewer than 18 applicants died in various recruitment centres while waiting to take the test into the service. Many others were injured.

    That was precisely on March 15, 2014. So, in about two weeks, it would be one year since the tragic incidents. To date, nothing has happened to show that the government regretted the unfortunate deaths of the youths who died in the course of looking for their daily bread beyond the usual immediate lamentation by government officials who promised heaven on earth when the incident was still fresh and Nigerians were seething with rage. How many of the promises have the Federal Government fulfilled? What investigation did the government conduct into the incidents and what are its findings?  Moreover, who has been punished for the negligence or incompetence that caused the tragedy?

    It is against this backdrop that we view with suspicion, the report that the government had set up a committee to oversee the ongoing recruitment into the NIS, when the incidents of last year remained an unfinished business. We are worried because the Federal Government had consistently proved that it lacked the capacity to punish where some of its own are concerned, no matter the crime committed.

    When the jobless youths died last year, Mr. Abba Moro was the Minister of Interior just as Mr. David Paradang was the Comptroller-General of NIS. Both men, regrettably, still sit pretty in office today, about one year after fellow compatriots died as a result of bad planning that led to shoddy handling of the interviews. We wonder how the government wants the relatives of the dead to feel seeing that no one was punished for the loss of their dear ones. It is like mocking the bereaved.

    Interestingly, it is the same Mr. Paradang who is urging young Nigerian graduates to take keen interest in the service. The NIS comptroller-general said in Abuja during a visit to him by the Africa Youth Patriotic and Development Mission, led by its Executive Director, Mr. Adefila Kamal, that “Nigerian graduates interested in the NIS job should take advantage of the new recruitment exercise because the NIS would ensure that the new recruitment is fair and credible.

    According to him, “Nigerian youths are needed to patrol the country’s borders and hence the need to recruit capable hands into the service. Nigerian graduates should have faith in the ongoing recruitment into the NIS; a committee has been set up to oversee the exercise for credibility sake.”

    The committee should not only ensure the credibility of the exercise; it should also look into the safety of the applicants. It is not reassuring enough that the government had set up a committee to oversee the process; what is important is the rigour that goes into the exercise. We are happy that Mr. Paradang himself appreciated the deficiencies in the last recruitment as this was evident in his statements during the visit of the youth body to his office.

    The point ought to be made that while a genuine recruitment of job seekers is desirable, it does not make any moral sense that Moro and Padarang should preside. It only forgives a sinner who has not repented. It is cynical, and a bad precedent for wrongdoing in office, and it is like rewarding the bereaved with compensating efficiency. That undermines the values that firing them would have added to public service in Nigeria. It comes across as desperate political move.

  • Leave Jega alone

    Leave Jega alone

    •Any plot to remove the INEC boss tempts danger and disruption for Nigeria

    The warning is potent and unequivocal. Some senators belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on February 26 cried out that the hierarchy of the ruling party under President Goodluck Jonathan planned within a week to oust Professor Attahiru Jega as the umpire of the postponed presidential and other polls.

    Whatever the merit of the alarm, we want to sound it loud and clear that all those who contemplate Jega’s ouster are not only cowards but weak-minded subverts of our law. They are courting disaster for this democracy, a system that now stands frail from ceaseless pounding of lawlessness from the bigwigs of the president’s party and their peevish cohorts.

    They mouth the rule of law in one breath, and in the other they act as dedicated gangsters who now see Nigeria as their fiefdoms of avarice and rapine.  The APC senators’ warnings may have been dismissed as partisan ranting, but they have not spoken out of a vacuum. Henchmen of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have not had flattering words for the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). They have accused him of holding meetings he is not on record to have held. They have accused him of cohabiting with northern hegemonists without evidence. They have also tried to tar him with partisan prejudice by saying he meets with elements of the opposition APC, also without proof.

    The president has openly shown displeasure with Prof.  Jega over his disagreement with him over whether the postponed elections should have held. In the last presidential chat, he let everyone hear that he had the powers to remove Jega, although the media weighed in on words to the effect that he had no intention to eject the electoral umpire. The point though is that his intention is not material to the law. He has no powers of any arbitrary sort to remove Professor Jega as the arbiter of the polls now scheduled for March 28 and April 11, 2015.

    The APC senators, led by Senator George Akume, noted that the cynical strategy to remove Jega is the well-worn path of sending him on a terminal leave. They know that if they do that, they can settle on a pliant figure to conduct the polls and do their bidding in rigging the polls in their favour.

    Two fundamental things are wrong with this fiendish design. One, it is against the law. The president has no powers under the law to remove the INEC chief without the support of two-thirds majority in the senate. The president is probably aware of this, and that accounts for the alleged subterfuge of going through the route of an epistolary brigandage. They are alleged to be plotting to ask the head of service to write Prof. Jega to proceed on a terminal leave. The INEC chief has said his term of office does not end until late June this year. So why not ask the man to complete his duty to his fatherland? But because of fear of the outcome of the elections, some desperadoes in the inner sanctum of the president, with his apparent backing, have decided to ratchet up the tension in the country. As the APC leaders quoted from the memo of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation dated 11th August 2010, “I am to further inform you that paragraph 1 of the Circular clarified that the content of the Circular is only applicable to core officers who run the civil service to retirement at thirty-five (35) years of service or sixty years of age and not for a definite tenure as is the case under reference.”

    Prof. Jega is not a core officer of the civil service but he was appointed for definite tenure. He does not fall into the bracket of those who can be slammed with an indefinite leave prior to leaving office.

    Two, even if the INEC chief falls into that bracket, it reeks of indecency for the presidency to plot his ouster knowing full well that every right-thinking person will believe it is done out of spite and fear. It therefore lacks commonsense to contemplate Jega’s ouster under whatever guise.

    The Jonathan administration was unhappy with the press statement from the INEC chief when he attributed the election postponement to the failure of the service chiefs to guarantee security, especially in the northeast because of the rampaging presence of the Boko Haram sect. The service chiefs have come under vehement hammer over what many see as the undue militarisation and corruption of the top tier of the military. The same military has been accused of lack of spunk and discipline in mowing down the vicious sect in the northeast. Gains have been recorded in the past weeks, and much of it has been attributed to the skill and ferocity of the neighbouring countries, especially Chad Republic. The president, in ceremonial combat fatigue, visited the reclaimed territories while it is still not clear how much our military contributed to the good news.

    Yet, the same military is now being urged by Jonathan loyalists to conduct the polls, even though the Court of Appeal has said it is against the law, and only in emergencies can soldiers play a role in the civil society.

    We must draw the nation’s attention to a group that operates under the amorphous name Southern Nigerian People’s Assembly. Some of the members include former Federal Commissioner of Information Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, former Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, a member of a Yoruba group called Afenifere, Femi Okurounmu and former information minister Walter Ofonagoro. This group that lacks wisdom or any discernible patriotic zeal has called for Jega’s ouster, and the nation should beware of them.

    The president cannot claim ignorance of the bombardment of advertorials in the media from his known loyalists calling for the replacement of Professor Jega. If the president cannot restrain them, it is because he is in sync with them. That is dangerous. The nation is fragile enough as it is, and we do not want the president to take the tension up by any notch.

    Optimists have asserted that Nigeria is familiar with crises of this sort and we, somehow, finagle our way into peace. That is ominous optimism. The first and second republics, the June 12 crisis, and other crises have never been resolved. We went through patchworks only to return to the sanguinary moment we experienced before. Bloodshed and systemic disjuncture often tore down the society. Even though Nigeria has managed to survive, it is not always a guarantee that the past survival will determine the next one. It could be the disaster next looming. That is why the best path is law and decency. Following a path of ousting Jega negates this spirit and tempts anarchy.

  • Spare Nigeria of an impending jaga jaga!

    SIR: When Prof. Attahiru Jega replaced Prof. Maurice Iwu as Chairman INEC, Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief and hoped that, finally, the “wuruwuru” and nightmares that characterized the much derided and vilified 2007 elections were over! Attahiru Jega was roundly welcomed and he proceeded to conduct the 2011 elections in a much more respectable and credible way than his predecessor. And the seeds of hopes for a well-organised 2015 were planted. The 2015 elections, Nigerians hoped, would be the country’s affirmation of its belief in the democratic process.

    That was until that fateful day when in the glare of television lights at the INEC Media Centre, he made the announcement that INEC was postponing the elections earlier scheduled for February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11, 2015.

    Anybody who had been following Prof Jega all along would confirm that that was not the erudite professor of Political Science addressing the Press. His immaculately white capstan in which he was garbed could not hide his bewildered befuddlement. He approbated and reprobated. “Yes, INEC is ready to conduct the elections,” he said. Yet, in the next sentence he gave a litany of reasons that make the Roman Catholic Church’s Litany of Saints tame which revealed INEC’s unreadiness to conduct the elections.

    The reactions to this announcement have been a flurry of activities, statements, protests and what have you against and in support of the decision. Somehow, some unanimity was reached about the constitutionality of INEC’s action. INEC has the right to make such a change, especially, since the change still fell within the window of opportunity established by the Nigerian Constitution.

    Since then, Prof Jega’s attempts at explaining the issues involved in the decision have been more confounding. The more he tries to explain the features of INEC’s arrangements for the elections to “key stakeholders,” the more complex his explanations have become and the more questions have arisen. So, we are left in a worse situation listening to him than before he began speaking.

    From my humble perspective as a Nigerian, three things MUST not happen from now on! First, Prof Attahiru Jega cannot, must not, should not resign or be fired as Chairman of INEC until after the elections are o-v-e-r!

    Secondly, March 28 and April 11, 2015 are sacrosanct elections days in Nigeria. Nothing, absolutely nothing, must CHANGE those dates.

    Thirdly, anything that can undermine Nigerians’ belief in the integrity and credibility of the elections must be done away with, in the interest of Nigeria. Already, word is going around, in spite of Prof Jega’s explanations, that the Card Readers, yes Card Readers that INEC intends to use at the polling stations are being deployed for the purposes of sending fictitious data to INEC’s Data Centre, which will then be used by INEC to make pronouncements on the outcome of the elections.

    These three issues are potential time bombs for a country already on the precipice of major turbulence. The country should be spared of these dire circumstances. We cannot afford to get out of “wuruwuru” and then move straight ahead into “jagajaga.” So, help us God.

    • Prof Angelicus Onasanya,

    Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

  • Presidential obscenity

    Presidential obscenity

    Ebele Integrated Farms Limited’s over 90 hectares of land is corruption writ large

    The sullying content of an advertorial published in the media by Purpose Driven Initiative (PDI), a non-governmental organisation accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of vilely acquiring 94.04 hectares of land in Aviation Village, Abuja, through Ebele Integrated Farms Limited that he purportedly owns majority shares in, is deplorable.

     The advertorial titled: “Let us talk about corruption. This is how the Nigerian government conducts business and fights corruption,’ declared: “A sitting President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, incorporated a company, Ebele Integrated Farms Limited in which he is a major shareholder on December 30, 2011…Ebele Integrated Farms Limited applied for and was granted 94.04 hectare plot of land, Plot 1689 in Cadastral Zone EOS Aviation Village, Abuja on January 13, 2014.”

    What the law says: The 1999 Constitution (as amended) under the Fifth Schedule Part 1(Code of Conduct for Public Officers), Section 1 provides: ‘a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities.’ Despite the fact that the same Fifth Schedule, section 2 provides that “without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing paragraph, nothing in this sub-paragraph shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming,” it is clear to the discerning that the sub-section does not condone public officers’ acts of putting themselves in a situation where their position conflicts or gives them undue advantage over others. This is what happened in the president’s land grabbing expose. It defiles and defies the law. It disrespects the high innocence and majesty of public his office.

    The law forbids the president or any public officer from simultaneously holding any position with the one being currently occupied. And quite contemptuous of the law is the fact that Mr. President registered a company with his native name as a sitting president, hiding under farming and thereby deploying his clout in a corrupt manner to secure such strategic land for himself and the company. Questions: Who pays for the land and at whose expense? How many of the executive heads of agencies and states, especially those ones under the control of the ruling party, can ignore requests for land from the president’s company with his name prominently stated as its leading director on its letter-head? Is this not arbitrary and cynical? Is this not a clash of interest in the discharge of public duties that section 1 of the Fifth Schedule frowns at? How can Mr. President’s anti-corruption crusade be taken seriously by anybody, not even his aides that are privy to his proclivity for grabbing not only just land but also anything in sight?

    No wonder he set a bad precedent, which his supporters claimed was inherited from former President Olusegun Obasanjo who, as they asserted, secured 100.12 hectares of land, Plot No.1 Cadastral Zone E09 Kuje, Abuja on June 27, 2005, to self for same farming purposes through Obasanjo Farms Nigeria. Also, Bala Mohammed, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), appointed by the incumbent president and who also approved the land for his benefactor, took to this reprehensible ruling party’s pattern when he also incorporated Bird Trust Agro-Allied Limited on May 31, 2012; and reportedly put himself as its major shareholder before subsequently going ahead to secure for self through his company, a 40.4 hectares, plot 1683 in Cadastral Zone E05 of same Aviation Village in Abuja on April 11, 2014.

    We wonder about the number of several unknown top government functionaries of the ruling party that have been emulating the president’s illicit and unfathomable primitive acquisition of public land in the FCT. At the rate at which the land is being grabbed by those in power, we wonder what is left of the remaining land originally designated for aviation purposes at the Aviation Village in the Abuja Master Plan.

    This singular act puts a serious question mark on the moral and ethical right of President Jonathan to continue to rule the country. In better-managed climes, his indiscretion on the Abuja land grab is sufficient to make him resign from his position, not to talk of him still hopeful of contesting the March 28, 2015 presidential election.

    We state without equivocation that the grabbing appetite of the president is obscene and shameful, and condemn his involvement in such public immorality. The president and the governors across the states, according to the law, are trustees of the land kept in their custody since all land belongs to the people. So, it is abominable for the president to acquire land meant for public purposes for personal end under the guise of embarking on farming. Public officers can acquire land for farming but we doubt whether it should be by grabbing the ones hitherto allocated for a justifiable public cause even before the president got into office. Mr. President and others involved in this ignominious land grabbing should forthwith return them to the original owner. This is much more so that what was reported was not all about farming but more of other commercial activities. This is the least expected of the president since no one would want to initiate impeachment proceedings against him over the matter.

  • A president and a statesman

    A president and a statesman

    •Alhaji Shehu Shagari, president of the Second Republic, turns 90

    Even at 90, he remains true to type – self-effacing, taciturn and stately. In an age in which statesmen and former leaders are quick to take positions in a roiling polity, Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari remains dignified in his silence. His was the rare privilege of mounting the saddle as the first executive president of Nigeria in the Second Republic at the beginning of Nigeria’s experimentation with Presidential system of governance.

    It was the second coming of civil rule in 1979 after the upheavals of the 1960s and the military interregnum. The General Olusegun Obasanjo-led military regime was gracious in returning power to civilians once again. The National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which had the most semblance of national spread had preferred Shagari as its presidential candidate against sturdier, more educated and more charismatic aspirants like Malam Adamu Ciroma and Maitama Sule.

    Shehu Shagari aspired to go to the senate having secured a form to that effect until he was drafted into the presidential race. He did not only win the keenly contested three-horse race during the NPN primary, he also won the presidential election beating political giants like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the National Party of Nigeria (NPP) and Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).

    It was a close race between Chief Awolowo and Alhaji Shagari and the ballot had to be decided by the courts in favour of the latter. That he could win against all the political juggernauts of his time and emerge as Nigeria’s first ever president is no doubt a mark of the Nigeria’s skewed leadership selection process which has continued to dog her till today.

    On the other hand, Shagari’s emergence must also signpost his essence as a very genial and unobtrusive personality. It is indeed these traits of character that must have galvanized his long, illustrious career in the civil service and in politics. Educated at Sokoto Middle School and Kaduna College which was initially a teachers’ training institute, he taught science for many years in Sokoto and Zaria Middle Schools. He also had a long track record as a civil servant that he was reputed to be perhaps the longest serving in the Colonial service of his days.

    He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and was a minister in Alhaji Tafawa Balewa’s in 1958. Prior to this, in 1954, he had been elected to the Federal House of Representatives for Sokoto southwest. He went on to hold several ministerial positions in the following ministries under Balewa: Economic Development (1960); Internal Affairs (1962); Works and Survey (1965).

    And during the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon he was appointed a Federal Commissioner for Economic Development and later, Finance (1971).  His is a rich trajectory of public service in the different milieus of colonialism, post-colonial civil rule and military administrations leading up to the Second Republic when he won the number one seat.

    Though his presidency was in a time of global economic turmoil occasioned by the oil price tumble of the early 80s, he had no radical answer to the problem as his import licence regime and exposure of the economy to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were no panaceas to the economic ills of the day. However, he will be remembered for his party’s national housing scheme and for investing in the steel mills in Ajaokuta and Delta. He also tried to mechanize agriculture with his Green Revolution initiative which did not out-live his era.

    His otherwise impeccable long public service was almost tainted by a certain permissiveness of nature which gave his appointees leeway to corrupt and abuse their offices. It is as if he was incapable of reprimanding his underlings. It is this seeming leadership flaw that damaged his presidency and led to a shambolic election in which desperate lieutenants hijacked ‘victory’ in some parts of the country. The aftermath of this electoral rascality eventually gave the military the impetus to return to power. Shagari never really had a handle on his presidency nor did he really seem to understand true democratic ethos.

    However, he is considered a man of high personal integrity and dignity; he was never indicted or known to have abused the numerous high offices he occupied. Unlike what is preponderant today, he has lived a lean and Spartan life despite his long exposure to public offices. In this age of mind-numbing graft, he is indeed a statesman.

  • Esther’s excellence

    Esther’s excellence

    • Little Miss |Okade is a great one for Nigerian excellence, even in the Diaspora. Still, everything must be done to ensure she doesn’t lose her childhood

    A Nigerian has made the headlines internationally for bright reasons, and this is commendable especially against the background of the country’s image issues. The phenomenal story of United Kingdom (UK) – based 10-year-old prodigy Esther Okade who has been accepted for a course of study at the Open University in the UK stretches the limits of the possible. Esther will study for a degree in Mathematics following her A-Levels success, which included a B grade in Pure Mathematics. It is a reflection of her feat that she is being celebrated as “Britain’s cleverest girl.”

    Particularly striking and noteworthy is the information that Esther was homeschooled and has never experienced formal schooling. Her mother, Omonefe, who is a mathematician, was quoted as saying: “By the time she was four, I had taught her the alphabets, her numbers, how to add, subtract, multiply and division. I saw that she loved patterns, so I developed a way of using that to teach her new things. I thought I would try her with algebra and she loved it more than anything.” It is interesting that the homeschooler has been in the spotlight from the age of six when she passed her General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) with a C grade in Mathematics.

    It is fascinating that Esther is expected to study for the degree at home, which would represent a continuation on a non-formal educational trajectory. She intends to pursue a PhD subsequently and go on to establish a bank, reports said. On her ambition, her mother said: “She wants to be a millionaire.”

    Indeed, it is speculative to reflect on whether Esther will reach the finishing line, and in what shape; but it is relevant to observe that some critical commentators have accused her parents of an alleged negative interference with her growth as a child. It is significant to note that Esther’s younger brother, Isiah, may reportedly outshine her by passing his A-Levels at the age of six. This picture has attracted criticism of their parents, specifically, that they are “depriving the kids of their childhood, by pushing them too hard.”

    Beyond the glory of prodigious academic achievements, the Okade phenomenon poses a central question about how to strike a balance between intellectual intelligence on the one hand, and emotional and social intelligence on the other hand, in the context of childhood.

    It is instructive that, in all probability, Esther’s admission to the Open University could not have happened outside the particular framework as the university system generally requires age qualifications that imply a consideration of maturity. Even in Esther’s peculiar case, which was described as an “interesting process,” it is illuminating that her mother said, “We even had to talk to the vice-chancellor. After they interviewed her they realised this has been her idea from the beginning and in December last year she was told she had been accepted onto the course.”

    It is pertinent to consider whether Esther’s experience could be replicated in Nigeria? Apart from the reality that homeschooling is rare in the country, it is perhaps even more fundamental that the level of educational awareness and development in the society constitutes another likely hindrance.  The truth is that Esther’s accomplishment and the flowering of her mind cannot be divorced from the socio-economic conditions in her country of residence.

    There may be similarly prodigious children in Nigeria whose manifestation is obstructed by the milieu in which they have found themselves. The definitive lesson to be learned from Esther’s excellence is that the society owes its young ones an enabling environment for the expression of their potential.

  • A needless endorsement

    A needless endorsement

    SIR: I read the news of the endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan for second term by Afenifere and other social cultural groups in Yorubaland with mixed feelings. Mixed feelings because the groups, including the two factions of OPC had the rights to endorse whosoever they like for president, but the endorsement is contrary to the position of all major socio-cultural groups and even individual’s positions that President Jonathan administration marginalized the south-west region in his appointments and patronages. As a matter of fact, I was privileged to attend a meeting of the Yoruba Unity Forum at the Ikenne-Remo residence of the late sage about three years ago; the major discussion that day was marginalization of the Yoruba by President Jonathan-led federal government. I could remember that a communiqué was produced and a petition was equally written and a delegate sent to President Jonathan. It was heart-warming that President Jonathan made some redress with the appointment of Brigadier Gen. Jones Oladeinde Arogbofa as the Chief of Staff. However, issue of marginalization in terms of developmental projects has not been fairly addressed. Save the rehabilitation of Lagos/Ibadan expressway, which was a Pan-Nigerian Highway, establishment of a university in Oye and a polytechnic in Ondo State respectively, I have not seen any physical development embarked upon by the federal government in the South-west which could have compelled the sudden change of position. In actual fact, what I believe led to the sudden change in the disposition of Afenifere, OPC, et al, to the administration’s marginalization of the South-west was the appointment of many stalwarts of these organizations to the recently held constitutional conference. As a matter of fact, the disposition of many members of the confab during the last year Yoruba Unity Forum’s meeting at Ikenne confirmed this. And if this is so, it amounts to betrayal of trust. This is because for many years, Yoruba depended on Afenifere for direction on critical national questions. Indeed, I have read several interviews by the leaders of the groups, who based the support for President Jonathan on the pretext that the recommendations of the National Conference would be implemented if he wins the next election. This position too, is superficial. This is because, if President Jonathan wins, he would still need the majority votes in the National Assembly for the recommendations to sail through. Even, the Afenifere’s recommendations which the group wants implemented are parochial. This is because it is not meant to serve the interest of Yorubaland, but those who drafted the recommendations. If not, the opinion of all Yoruba people would have been sought on this before going to the conference, but this was not so.

    President Jonathan needs the endorsement of nobody in Yorubaland. What he needs is performance. Yoruba are the most politically sophisticated people in Nigeria. Majority of Yorubas are independent-minded and could read between the lines. Late Obafemi Awolowo became idol because of his performance as premier of the region, sincerity of purpose and for meeting the yearnings and aspirations of his people in and out of government. If a party is dominant in Yorubaland, it is only doing the biddings of the people. Once it derails, it is rejected.

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso

  • Negotiate with them

    Negotiate with them

    •Police authorities can only worsen the situation by resorting to arm-twisting of policemen who have served strike notice

    The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Sulaiman Abba, issued a gratuitous threat to his fellow officers who want to embark on industrial action. The IGP ought to have responded to the allegation that the authorities have failed to live up to their duty to the law enforcement officers. The men, mainly those who were promoted from the ranks of sergeant to inspectors and others elevated from inspectors to assistant superintendent of police (ASP) were said to have kicked against promotions that brought no financial benefits to them.

    Beyond the 10,000 men directly affected by the non-payment, others are said to be spoiling for a fight if only to underscore the demands for better condition of living in the barracks, welfare system and prompt payment of salaries and allowances.

    Last year, widows of policemen and soldiers felled in battles against the Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast and a Nasarawa local militia embarked on street protests to call attention to their neglect. In response, the IGP visited Nasarawa where he promised to facilitate payment of the benefits to the slain officers’ next-of-kin. While we commended the IGP for moving to the scene and meeting with the women, we had called for a transparent and functional payment system in the Police Force.

    We restate that position that, rather than talk tough at the men and cite rules forbidding policemen from constituting themselves into unions or embarking on strike, the police authorities should demonstrate good faith by ensuring that all payments due to those called out to curb crimes in the society are remitted without delay. It is a right, not a privilege.

    The rank and file of the force had embarked on a similar strike during the Obasanjo administration. All threats failed to prevent the strike that exposed the society to a free reign of the men of the underworld in February 2006. Eventually, the Obasanjo government had to order the release of funds to the police authorities to settle the commitments. That was after drafting of soldiers proved inadequate in ensuring that civil matters usually handled in the police stations could not be handled by any other persons. We urge the IGP to learn from that experience and engage the men in dialogue forthwith.

    It also bears pointing out that salary and emoluments of workers are covered in the budget. Why then did the police fail to pay as and when due? The IGP should realise that this is an election period when the services of the Police Force would be required all over the country to safeguard men and materials involved in the exercise.

    The Nigerian state has a responsibility to all citizens, to promote their welfare and security and, to ensure this, it must directly and particularly cater to the wellbeing of law enforcement officers. Over the years, the policemen have been poorly kitted for the task assigned them. This has made them soft targets of rampaging criminals. This is hardly a template for a motivated force. Rather than talk back at the angry men, the Inspector-General should undertake to balance the rights of his men against their responsibilities. Only then could the image of the Police Force improve and the men genuinely encouraged to lay down their lives for a caring society.

    Another strike by the Police Force at this point could only further complicate matters in a tension-soaked country. It can and must be prevented.

     

  • Electricity consumers groan

    Electricity consumers groan

    •In spite of all the vaunted reforms, darkness and inefficiency assail the average Nigerian

    If there is any area where the Federal Government has consistently failed the nation, it is in the supply of electricity. To Nigerians, adults and children alike, darkness is the order of the day; it is what they all have grown up with. Indeed, electricity problem in Nigeria has gone beyond words and complaints.

    A major issue at stake now is the problem of consumers paying for electricity that is never supplied. We call this a cruel rip-off. A newspaper reported that electricity consumers in parts of Lagos and Ogun states, for example, have complained that the claim of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that it had frozen tariffs for residential consumers for six months was “fraudulent and deceitful”.

    The consumers cried out amidst rising bills being distributed to them by the power distributing companies in spite of reduction in electricity supply that has constantly put many homes in darkness. Yet the revised multi-year tariff order 2.1 as approved by NERC came into force on January 1, 2015.

    A major highlight of this tariff order provided a six-month freeze on tariff increase for residential consumers (R2) who made up about 80 percent of the country’s electricity consumers. This means, as the Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, said, “the commission has not increased the tariff for residential consumers”. According to him, “while the scheduled increase will apply to other cases of consumers from January 1, 2015, it will not affect residential consumers until after June 2015”.

    However, Dr. Amadi’s statement has been debunked by consumers who saw it as deceitful. For example, the consumers in Lagos and Ogun states have claimed that they were served higher bills for January this year compared to what they got in December 2014. One consumer actually said that she was billed N 6,300 in January 2015 compared to N 4,200 she paid in December 2014. This has led to the ugly situation where aggrieved customers threatened to beat up one of the workers of the distribution company in charge of the area.

    It is unfortunate that NERC has no answers to the consumers’ complaints. It is also unfortunate that the NERC has not fulfilled its promise of frozen tariffs for residential consumers. Most unfortunate is the fact that there is no justification for the rise in tariff, especially when it is not based on an improvement in electricity supply. It is obvious that the new electricity companies have not gotten over their inherited challenges, especially with the problem of gas and other related issues.

    Moreover, the new companies appear to be following the greedy footpath of the old companies by dishing out indiscriminate and crazy bills as a way of making more money than they should get from consumers. This is where prepaid meters are necessary to curb the cheating of consumers who are deliberately billed for electricity they did not consume.

    But even more wicked is the unacceptable charge for consumers, irrespective of whether or not they use electricity for months! This is to say people should not be made to pay additional charge as “ground rent” other than the amount of electricity consumed, as it has been the ugly practice by the electricity companies. We are not happy that all this is going on in spite of the fact that the government keeps on giving the new companies money even after selling the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to them. We insist that NERC should ensure that Nigerians are not forced to pay for services not rendered to them; such an act is borne out of corrupt practices for which the nation has become notorious.