The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Wale Oladipo’s unguarded outburst

    SIR: One has waited to hear from the National Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wale Oladipo that he was quoted out of context when he described General Mumhammadu Buhari (retired), the APC presidential candidate, as semi-illiterate. Since he has not retracted the uncalled-for use of wrong words in describing once Nigeria’s Head of State, he has portrayed PDP in bad light. I am a supporter of PDP but if this statement credited to its national secretary remains, it will neither do the party any good nor win it elections.

    Is Wale Oladipo actually an academic professor or just a title he got from somewhere? Remember a magician who went with the name Professor ‘P’. Oladipo, if at all he is a real professor, should have checked the academic background of the man he described as semi-illiterate.

    From best of my knowledge and little research I carried out on Buhari’s educational qualification, Buhari attended the best military schools in the world. In case the ‘Professor’ doesn’t know, Buhari graduated as a military officer (Lieutenant) in Royal Military Academy, Aldeshot UK. He attended the Defense College India.  Col Buhari also attended the US Army War College Carlisle in Pennsylvania from 1979 -1980 and earned his command as a Brigadier General. The respected General Collin Powel attended the same school in 1976 to become Brigadier General. Some of Buhari’s classmates include General Beltson, General Thomas P Carney, General Bill Matz, General David E.K. Cooper etc.  All of them are alive and can be reached and they will give glowing tributes of the man, Buhari, they know as their classmate.

    My appeal is that, if at all PDP’s Wale Oladipo should earn a reply to this unfortunate use of gutter language on Buhari, it should be from officers of the APC. Let the reply not be by the real Professor, Yemi Osinbajo, who is Buhari’s running mate. The research should include a proper check on Wale Oladipo’s family, social and educational backgrounds.

    Wale Oladipo should be made to realize that if he considered PDP first, he should have known that the nation’s First Family would not attempt addressing Buhari in such a gutter language. If this controversy is allowed for public discourse, which I am afraid it will take that dimension, the First Family would be worse for it. Think of the average intelligence dispositions of President Goodluck Jonathan whenever he was interviewed in local and international electronic media; also consider the grammatical ‘shelling’ of Dame Patience Jonathan, etc. Sleeping dog should be left alone, I advise.

     

    • Dr. Bernard Tamuno

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • To the rescue

    To the rescue

    •New national health law guarantees victims of auto crashes and violent crimes prompt medical attention

    The heartening news could not have been more opportune than now –when patients with medical emergencies, in road crashes or victims of armed robberies, in dire need of medical attention, are  callously rejected by public and private health institutions, on the basis of a so-called Police report.

    The signal of hope, regarding their care, is the National Health Act which President Goodluck Jonathan just signed.

    One of the new law’s finest implications is its worthy acknowledgement of human life as something to be accorded utmost care and attention.

    The law provides that there will be no excuse for failure of health services for Nigerians.  It also stipulates severe punishment and imprisonment terms for removal of human organs and also the reproductive and therapeutic cloning of human kind.

    Dr. Muhammed Lecky, Executive Secretary, Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC), a watchdog group on the national health system,  declared: “Now that we have the Healthcare Act, we expect that health services for Nigerians would be transformed’’; — and we add: especially under an administration in which healthcare is witnessing incredible retrogression.

    We hail the coming into being of the law but regret that it is belated; coming over 54 years after Nigeria’s sovereign existence as a nation.

    We bemoan a situation where successive administrations in the land took the lives of accident/emergency patients with levity under various guises. The most common and reprehensible guise is the insistence that Police report must be produced before accident victims or anyone with gunshot wounds could be treated.

    The genesis of this trend, peculiar only to Nigeria, emanated from the up surge in armed robbery and violent crimes. If the intent of the authorities was to deny criminals medical attention, therefore prompting medical personnel to avoid subsequent query from the police authorities, they are completely off the mark in global medical best practices.

    The truth is that even armed robbers, wounded during criminal operations, have right to good medical treatment, prior to their eventual arraignment, trial and conviction, if found guilty.

    Sadly, this country lost precious lives to this rather shoddy, if not outright callous, approach to medical emergencies, in these particular cases.  Who knows?  Perhaps the late Dimgba Igwe, top media figure and former deputy editor-in-chief of The Sun newspaper, and a victim of a hit-and-run driver, would have been alive today, had he received prompt and prompter first aid treatment.

    But alas!  He lost his life to the slapdash response the new law just outlawed.

    That makes the Act a right step in the right direction. But we hope it will fulfil the expectations of ensuring a truly universal health coverage that would assure and guarantee Nigerians’ fundamental human rights to life and good healthcare.

    Under this law, it is good to note that children below the age of five, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities would receive free health care.

    The Federal Government is also statutorily expected to provide sufficient complimentary funding, in tandem with states and Local Government Councils across the country, so as to guarantee basic minimum healthcare for all.

    If what is currently lacking in terms of proper health focus and needless bureaucratic bottlenecks are guided against, there is no doubt that this Act has created a legal framework for a new healthcare policy regime; and could only be supported by appropriate policy guidance and mechanisms that are different from the inhuman official attitude of the past.

    The new health law has to do with sanctity of human life; and we are hopeful that henceforth, there will be undeniable compelling national acceptance of accident and emergency cases by health institutions whether public or private.

    This should, however, be complemented with adequate publicity and awareness campaigns, to make the public know, understand and buy into the programme.  If well implemented, the fruits of a sound health sector reform may well be on the way.

  • Obsolete Audit Act

    Obsolete Audit Act

    •National Assembly should pass the new bill to boost the anti-corruption war

    That Nigeria is merely paying lip service to anti-corruption is evident in the fact that it still relies on its Audit Ordinance Act of 1956. Without doubt, the Act, 58 years down the line, has outlived its usefulness. It is sad that effort to repeal the law through the proposed Audit Act, 2014 is still stalled at the National Assembly.

    Indeed, the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGOF), Mr. Samuel Ukura, is so worried that he had to make a passionate appeal for the quick passage of the bill into law. Ukura, who spoke through Mrs. Florence Dibiaezue, Head of the AGOF’s Press and Public Relations Unit, observed that the existing audit law in Nigeria was defective and so cannot effectively support the fight against corruption. He therefore called on Nigerians to support the passage of the new audit bill.

    As he noted, the bill, when passed unto law, “will strengthen the powers of the auditor-general’s office, detach it from the Presidency and establish the Audit Service Commission … The passage of the Audit Bill 2014 will boost the fight against corruption”. He noted rightly that the growth and sustenance of the country’s economy are tied to the effectiveness and autonomy of the nation’s audit office, and that the current Audit Act is not only defective but also unsuitable at this time.

    If anything, we ought to have amended the Audit Act to suit the expenditure pattern of government, especially with the discovery of oil and “the global advancement in the use of technology”. We also align with Ukura’s position that when passed into law, the bill would place Nigeria in the comity of nations that are genuinely fighting corruption; enhance the country’s image by ensuring accountability and transparency in the conduct of government business; align the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation with international best practices and empower the National Assembly to appoint independent auditors to audit the financial statement of the OAGF as well as give the AGF the power to audit public monies in private organisations and bodies.

    Of particular importance is the fact that the audit law, when passed, would enhance the already bad image of the country by ensuring accountability and transparency in the conduct of government business, as well as bring the office of the Auditor-General for the Federation with international best practices as already highlighted by the AGF.

    It goes without saying that the audit system, as we have it today, is not immune to corrupt and sharp practices. There are cases of auditors colluding with companies, corporations, banks and other public or private establishments in writing their audit reports where cases of misappropriation of funds by management and officials are overlooked and passed as “bad debts”. This is where the innovation of the bill empowering the AGF to also audit public monies in private organisations or bodies is praiseworthy. A country like ours battling corruption sure needs an effective audit system.

    We specially commend the AGF for his courage in pushing forward   an amendment that would detach the office of the AGF from that of the Presidency. For its importance and advantages, the National Assembly would be doing the nation a good service by quickly passing the bill to enable the country deal with the notorious problems of corruption, lack of accountability and transparency in the audit system.

  • Audacious crime

    Audacious crime

    •Governor Fayose’s act, by presenting the state budget to a rogue legislature, is an audacious assault on the Constitution

    In his novels, the late Chinua Achebe often referred to the extreme conceit, bordering on lunacy, that goads a man, no matter how prosperous or powerful, to challenge his chi (personal god).  Such a man, he concluded, only courted self-destruction.

    From fiction to reality, that appears what is happening in Ekiti State, under Governor Ayo Fayose.

    Even if neither Mr. Fayose nor the Police engineered the “impeachment” of the legislature’s constituted order, under Speaker Adewale Omirin, it is strange the governor would present, before a rogue parliament of seven, out of a total of 26, members (not even up to a quorum of nine), the state’s 2014 Appropriation Bill.  Not surprisingly, Fayose’s tag-team partners, in this high constitutional crime, the Police, zestfully aided this brazen illegality.

    Mr. Fayose’s rather infantile exhortation to the rogue “Speaker”, Dele Olugbemi, was even more instructive.

    “Mr. Speaker,” Fayose thundered, “you are the speaker, I say you are the speaker.  I say it again you are the speaker.  I’m saying it with the authority of the governor that the power of the people is greater than those in power.”

    To start with, in Soyinka-speak, does a tiger proclaim its “tigeritude”?  If indeed, Mr. Odugbemi was Speaker, would it not be obvious?  And if it were, would it need the executive to proclaim the obvious — an executive which, in presidential democracy and its strict separation of power doctrine, is nothing but a meddlesome interloper in parliamentary affairs?

    Of course, the excitable and infantile Mr. Fayose wilfully misguided himself, giving himself, even as governor, a power he does not have under the Constitution, purporting to choose a Speaker for the legislature, when he knows a legal and legitimate speaker is in place.

    But even if one could put that down to political rascality, the occasion of Mr. Fayose’s ill-fated statement was political rascality taken too far: the purported presentation of the 2014 Appropriation Bill to the Ekiti Assembly.

    To banish any doubt, the Appropriation Act is about the most important piece of legislation in a democracy.  This is because it focuses on public fund; which a president, a governor or even a local government chairman may not spend, unless and until it is vetted and approved by Parliament, the legal and legitimate representatives of the people.

    Now, if a governor knows this — as Mr. Fayose is supposed to know — and still goes ahead to present the Appropriation Bill to a parliament that he very well knows is fake, is the governor not digging his own constitutional grave?

    And IGP Suleiman Abba’s Police that gifted Fayose the security to commit this brazen constitutional crime, do they not know they aid and abet a serious crime, for which each and every one of them is answerable?

    And how about this for an irony: the same Police that tried in vain to scupper a legitimate sitting of the House of Representatives in Abuja by attempting to shut out Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, were a merry and zealot part of the Ekiti December 15 show of shame, that attempted to clothe brazen illegality with the mail of state security?  Is somebody somewhere trying to scuttle this democratic dispensation; and will the people of goodwill just stay dumb at gawk at this wanton outlawry?

    But after all the heat and passion of politics, the law is cold and clinical:  by this reprehensible act, Governor Fayose has committed a serious constitutional infraction.  That alone, if the law were to be pressed, is an impeachable crime, to which the governor would have absolutely no defence.

    Meanwhile, it is laudable that the Omirin-led Assembly has met and declared the legislative tomfoolery of December 15 null, void and absolutely of no effect.  If Mr. Fayose wants to challenge his constitutional chi, he is welcome to court his own disgrace — it is about time!

    But the legitimate Speaker and the lawful majority in the Ekiti legislature must, post-haste pursue all constitutional remedies to stop Fayose’s in-your-face gubernatorial outlawry.  It is the least to do to preserve the sanctity of this democracy and the sanity of the people.

  • Dame, the mandator

    Dame, the mandator

    • It is impolitic, to put it mildly, for the wife of the president to openly endorse a candidate

    The Presidency represents a pristine national institution; therefore its occupants, at any point in time, must put forth utmost good behavior; being standard bearers of national ethos and ethics. The Presidency must be an exemplar of the stellar qualities of nationhood; it must aggregate all that is noble, all that is just and all that is equitable.

    Indeed, nothing damages a nation’s moral fibre and concomitantly, its social and economic wellbeing more than the first family behaving in a reckless and licentious manner.

    Such was the situation recently when the First Lady and wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan openly declared that her preferred candidate in Rivers State in the up-coming election, is already the next governor. Mrs. Jonathan had visited her hometown, Okrika in Rivers State recently for a social event. She was reported to have addressed the Okrika Council of Chiefs, informing them matter-of-factly, whom their next governor would be.

    She was quoted to have said to them: “Before you today, is the next governor of Rivers State. He is the former Minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike.”  This is not the first time she would publicly endorse Wike’s candidacy. The president’s wife’s overt and covert intrusion into the political process across the country has been widely reported most notably, in Kwara, Oyo, Bayelsa and Imo states.

    We defer to her right to belong to any political party of her choice and we also recognize that by virtue of her position, she commands some influence and can actually pull a few strings and make things happen if so minded. But there lies the catch: the need for utmost decorum and good sense. As they say, power without control and responsibility is bound to be perilous.

    It is meddlesomeness bordering on impunity for the wife of the president to openly endorse a candidate in any political contest. She is expected to be discerning enough to understand she represents a mother to all and that a popular election ought to represent the will of the people and never an individual’s. To insist and seek to foist her choice on the people is uncouth, indecorous and undemocratic.

    Further, throwing her weight around across the country and seeking to influence the outcome of primaries and even general elections in no small measure jeopardizes the process and does harm to party politics and by extension, the polity. Her utter disregard for party rules and disrespect for officials could trigger a chain reaction that may reverberate down the line. If the wife of the president gets away with overtly deciding who wins an election, the wives of governors and wives of other party bigwigs could also act likewise thus setting vile precedents and distorting the entire democratic process.

    Also remarkable is the fact that Mrs. Jonathan’s crude and forward behavior in desperately trying to subvert the election process must redound most negatively on her husband, the president and cast him in such grim light as one who is not in control of his household and who is too weak to rein in his spouse. What manner of woman would make a public show of the fact that her husband is weak and incapable of getting results without her help? Well, maybe Lady Macbeth in the famous Shakespearian play, Macbeth, but their end in the epic, is calamitous.

    The nation has seen Mrs. Jonathan snatch the microphone from an elected governor; we have seen her corral a state governor into appointing her a permanent secretary. We have seen her throw her weight around so mindlessly in manners unbecoming of a First Lady and first mother of the land. What would posterity remember her for, how would history record her. We simply ask that she retraces her steps.    he Presidency represents a pristine national institution; therefore its occupants, at any point in time, must put forth utmost good behavior; being standard bearers of national ethos and ethics. The Presidency must be an exemplar of the stellar qualities of nationhood; it must aggregate all that is noble, all that is just and all that is equitable.

    Indeed, nothing damages a nation’s moral fibre and concomitantly, its social and economic wellbeing more than the first family behaving in a reckless and licentious manner.

    Such was the situation recently when the First Lady and wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan openly declared that her preferred candidate in Rivers State in the up-coming election, is already the next governor. Mrs. Jonathan had visited her hometown, Okrika in Rivers State recently for a social event. She was reported to have addressed the Okrika Council of Chiefs, informing them matter-of-factly, whom their next governor would be.

    She was quoted to have said to them: “Before you today, is the next governor of Rivers State. He is the former Minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike.”  This is not the first time she would publicly endorse Wike’s candidacy. The president’s wife’s overt and covert intrusion into the political process across the country has been widely reported most notably, in Kwara, Oyo, Bayelsa and Imo states.

    We defer to her right to belong to any political party of her choice and we also recognize that by virtue of her position, she commands some influence and can actually pull a few strings and make things happen if so minded. But there lies the catch: the need for utmost decorum and good sense. As they say, power without control and responsibility is bound to be perilous.

    It is meddlesomeness bordering on impunity for the wife of the president to openly endorse a candidate in any political contest. She is expected to be discerning enough to understand she represents a mother to all and that a popular election ought to represent the will of the people and never an individual’s. To insist and seek to foist her choice on the people is uncouth, indecorous and undemocratic.

    Further, throwing her weight around across the country and seeking to influence the outcome of primaries and even general elections in no small measure jeopardizes the process and does harm to party politics and by extension, the polity. Her utter disregard for party rules and disrespect for officials could trigger a chain reaction that may reverberate down the line. If the wife of the president gets away with overtly deciding who wins an election, the wives of governors and wives of other party bigwigs could also act likewise thus setting vile precedents and distorting the entire democratic process.

    Also remarkable is the fact that Mrs. Jonathan’s crude and forward behavior in desperately trying to subvert the election process must redound most negatively on her husband, the president and cast him in such grim light as one who is not in control of his household and who is too weak to rein in his spouse. What manner of woman would make a public show of the fact that her husband is weak and incapable of getting results without her help? Well, maybe Lady Macbeth in the famous Shakespearian play, Macbeth, but their end in the epic, is calamitous.

    The nation has seen Mrs. Jonathan snatch the microphone from an elected governor; we have seen her corral a state governor into appointing her a permanent secretary. We have seen her throw her weight around so mindlessly in manners unbecoming of a First Lady and first mother of the land. What would posterity remember her for, how would history record her. We simply ask that she retraces her steps.    he Presidency represents a pristine national institution; therefore its occupants, at any point in time, must put forth utmost good behavior; being standard bearers of national ethos and ethics. The Presidency must be an exemplar of the stellar qualities of nationhood; it must aggregate all that is noble, all that is just and all that is equitable.

    Indeed, nothing damages a nation’s moral fibre and concomitantly, its social and economic wellbeing more than the first family behaving in a reckless and licentious manner.

    Such was the situation recently when the First Lady and wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan openly declared that her preferred candidate in Rivers State in the up-coming election, is already the next governor. Mrs. Jonathan had visited her hometown, Okrika in Rivers State recently for a social event. She was reported to have addressed the Okrika Council of Chiefs, informing them matter-of-factly, whom their next governor would be.

    She was quoted to have said to them: “Before you today, is the next governor of Rivers State. He is the former Minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike.”  This is not the first time she would publicly endorse Wike’s candidacy. The president’s wife’s overt and covert intrusion into the political process across the country has been widely reported most notably, in Kwara, Oyo, Bayelsa and Imo states.

    We defer to her right to belong to any political party of her choice and we also recognize that by virtue of her position, she commands some influence and can actually pull a few strings and make things happen if so minded. But there lies the catch: the need for utmost decorum and good sense. As they say, power without control and responsibility is bound to be perilous.

    It is meddlesomeness bordering on impunity for the wife of the president to openly endorse a candidate in any political contest. She is expected to be discerning enough to understand she represents a mother to all and that a popular election ought to represent the will of the people and never an individual’s. To insist and seek to foist her choice on the people is uncouth, indecorous and undemocratic.

    Further, throwing her weight around across the country and seeking to influence the outcome of primaries and even general elections in no small measure jeopardizes the process and does harm to party politics and by extension, the polity. Her utter disregard for party rules and disrespect for officials could trigger a chain reaction that may reverberate down the line. If the wife of the president gets away with overtly deciding who wins an election, the wives of governors and wives of other party bigwigs could also act likewise thus setting vile precedents and distorting the entire democratic process.

    Also remarkable is the fact that Mrs. Jonathan’s crude and forward behavior in desperately trying to subvert the election process must redound most negatively on her husband, the president and cast him in such grim light as one who is not in control of his household and who is too weak to rein in his spouse. What manner of woman would make a public show of the fact that her husband is weak and incapable of getting results without her help? Well, maybe Lady Macbeth in the famous Shakespearian play, Macbeth, but their end in the epic, is calamitous.

    The nation has seen Mrs. Jonathan snatch the microphone from an elected governor; we have seen her corral a state governor into appointing her a permanent secretary. We have seen her throw her weight around so mindlessly in manners unbecoming of a First Lady and first mother of the land. What would posterity remember her for, how would history record her. We simply ask that she retraces her steps.

  • Taxation matters

    •Nigeria must learn to use tax more equitably and efficiently

    As the full dimension of Nigeria’s cash crunch in the wake of the steep decline in the price of crude oil becomes clearer, it has become vital for the nation to take a harder look at the efficiency of its taxation system.

    The paradox of the overdependence on oil revenues is that it has made successive national governments less answerable to the populace; and much more likely to misappropriate funds, all the while discouraging the development of the real sector.

    There can be little doubt about the seriousness of Nigeria’s current financial position. Between January and May this year, gross revenue collection recorded a deficit of N700.879 billion. In November, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, claimed that actual revenues for 2014 could fall short by as much as US $12 billion, due to the theft of crude and other disruptions to production in the Niger Delta.

    In a letter to Senate President David Mark last week, President Goodluck Jonathan stated that the Federal Government had cut its projected revenue estimates from N4.724 trillion to N4.661 trillion. States and local governments have not been receiving their full allocations; in the three months between August and October, the deficit was N336 billion.

    The intensity and depth of these shortages stem from the country’s continuing heavy dependence on crude oil; and its resultant refusal to seriously consider alternative forms of revenue generation.

    The recent release of the Paying Taxes 2015 report, authored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a global accounting and audit firm,  proffers a graphic illustration of Nigeria’s failure to properly exploit taxation as a viable source of revenue.

    The country ranks a lowly 179 out of 189 countries in the ease with which corporate organizations are able to pay statutory taxes. Companies based in Nigeria were reported to have a tax rate of 33 per cent, required 47 payments and spent 909 hours annually to comply with tax obligations. This is an unfavourable contrast to the global average of 40.9 per cent, 26 tax payments and 264 hours.

    Not only does Nigeria make it harder for companies to meet their tax obligations, it is also a notoriously under-taxed nation: some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals consistently escape appropriate taxes due to a combination of pervasive corruption and regulatory failures.

    As a result, some sections of the populace are compelled to bear far more than their fair share of taxation, especially civil servants whose taxes are deducted at source; as well as many businesses and manufacturing organizations, which often endure multiple taxation.

    The experience of other nations has shown that taxes are paid with almost-universal reluctance; and the only way such unwillingness can be overcome is to ensure that taxes are comprehensive, fair, and properly utilized. Lagos State offers a useful model of what can be achieved in this regard.

    As the nation’s smallest, most densely-populated state, and lacking oil-derivation revenues, the Fashola administration had little option than to look to its tax base, a financial strategy that had begun under his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. A new tax code was promulgated, an enhanced tax database was set up, and methods of payment were made simpler and more efficient.

    The result is that the state’s internally generated revenue rose from N600 million per month in 1999 to N23 billion per month last year. The fiscal implications of a similar change at the national level are obvious.

    One particular strategy which could dramatically improve tax revenues is a reformulation of value-added tax (VAT) in such a way as to keep a larger portion in the states where it is generated. This would make it more equitable, in addition to encouraging individual states to increase their share by expanding economic activity.

    If Nigeria can become more dependent on taxes than crude oil, it will be well on the way to achieving the financial stability that it so badly needs.

  • Waivers for palm oil?

    Waivers for palm oil?

    •It contradicts the spirit of fairness and local productivity

    Talk of a country of unending paradoxes, the disclosure by Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele  that the country currently loses N24 billion to duty waivers on crude palm oil (CPO) imports must come as confounding both in the context of current efforts to plug the loopholes and hence boost national revenue, and of the renewed quest for backward integration. The revelation which came to light during  Mr. Emefiele‘s visit to the multi-billion naira PZ Wilmar Oil Palm plantation in Akamkpa, Cross River State was that  importers of crude palm oil into the country actually enjoy special status under Nigeria’s free trade zone policy.

    In the bizzare arrangement, companies operating in the FTZ are said to automatically enjoy additional 75 percent duty waiver on the 35 percent duty normally paid by importers on their imported CPO. For the companies, most of which have oil palm refineries but no requisite investments in local plantations, that translates to paying a paltry 8.75 percent duty on their imported CPO. On the other hand, their counterparts operate outside the FTZ and many of  them not only have refineries but have invested in local plantations. They are expected to pay the entire applicable duty of 35 percent.

    To be sure, the provisions in the enabling instruments for operations of the Free Trade Zones which permit a broad range of incentives under which the waiver in question falls may well have been in order some years back. These days however, it is increasingly hard to justify a waiver regime so utterly skewed against domestic economic actors, one which directly threatens the nation’s quest for self-sufficiency. Of particular note is the on-going multi-billion naira investment by PZ Wilmar said to be the biggest palm plantation in the world with more than 4000 Nigerians already in its employment.

    Do we have anything against the business enclaves described as FTZs? The answer of course is no. In the context of the nation’s drive for Foreign Direct Investment, the zones surely have their place in providing employment and as catalysts for industrial development.

    The same however cannot be said of a situation in which policies designed to engender the growth of the zones end up stifling local entrepreneurial initiatives. We find that deplorable more so given the potential losses to the nation which are unquantifiable in the long run.

    And what is  the specific case against the lopsided waiver?  The position of the local producers represented by the Plantation Owners Forum of Nigeria (POFON), Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN) and the National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN) sums it up: if at all any company that has a refinery for CPO deserves consideration for a waiver, this must be done only in the context of identified shortfall in local supply and then this should apply to those who have made tangible investments in oil palm plantations.

    The latter is of particular importance because, whatever made the waiver regime expedient appears to have been obviated by the current levels of investments in palm plantation and by extension CPO.  With more than 4000 hectares already cultivated by PZ Wilmar in Cross River State alone, there is evidence of a bold move to steer the nation’s palm oil story in a more purposeful direction. In other words, this is hardly time to fritter the gains already recorded for whatever reasons. Instead, we expect to see deliberate efforts to sustain the current momentum as  the nation strives to clinch the top spot.

    Above all, we are unable to encourage tacit dependence on the discriminatory regime of waivers, which is not only fraught with corruption but prone to abuse. What we expect of players in the FTZ  is to exploit the inherent benefits of backward integration to boost their margins and to help the nation in furtherance of the quest. There is hardly a better way to demonstrate faith and reciprocity for the multiple incentives already enjoyed in the Nigerian economy.

  • Mutiny: Appeal to President Jonathan

    Mutiny: Appeal to President Jonathan

    SIR: I am deeply concerned with the case of the 54 Nigerian soldiers convicted of mutiny and sentenced to death by a court martial. The men, part of the Special Forces division ordered in August to retake three lost towns in Borno State were found to have refused to fight the terrorists.

    The facts on ground, however does not justify blatantly killing them.  On July 9, after the extremists reportedly killed 26 military personnel and seriously injured 82, the soldiers reportedly demanded to be properly armed. The point is – we are not sure if that happened. And whilst the front-line troops have consistently complained that they lack weapons and other ammunitions needed to face Boko Haram, the insurgents are known to have tanks, rocket-propelled-grenade-launchers and other heavy weaponry. It is obvious that venturing into such combat would have been a suicidal mission for these young men.

    In a similar case in September, 12 soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny after firing at their commanding officer in Maiduguri. Since the lower-ranked soldiers have continued to bemoan the non-provision of weapons, it would suffice to say that there must be an atom of

    truth from what they are saying.

    As the Commander-in-Chief, I (with other passionate Nigerians) appeal to you to intervene and help save the lives of these young men. It will be grave injustice to kill soldiers who made a legitimate demand for equipment to fight the insurgents. The 54 Nigerian families shouldn’t be deprived of their joys anytime soon. Alongside other 43 soldiers on trial and those previously sentenced to death, let justice on the part of the military be tempered with mercy. We shouldn’t lose more Nigerians on the altar of Boko Haram. Nigeria must not shed their blood.

     

    • Prince Ifoh,

    Lagos

  • Divine Jonathan?

    Divine Jonathan?

    Okupe’s comparison of President Jonathan to Jesus Christ is sycophancy bordering on apostasy.  It can only further diminish his embattled principal

    Again and again, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, has proved that he is as much a misfit as the position he occupies is aberrant.

    We wish to state upfront that the position Okupe occupies in the Presidency is not only an ill-conceived new-day contraption, it is excess to requirement; while the nature and temperament of the office and its occupant may well be doing more harm to the institution of the Presidency than good.

    Last Monday’s faux pas by Okupe, in comparing his principal to Jesus Christ, is just one more in the series of his ill-digested and lazy responses to public discourse since he assumed office. Speaking during a programme, Sunrise Daily, on Channels Television, Okupe said that President Jonathan is like Jesus Christ because “He is bearing the burden of everybody.”

    Beyond the above, Okupe’s response to questions and handling of issues of sensitive national import, raised all through the programme, are pointers to his utter lack of rigour and, indeed, seriousness. He showed no deep understanding of the key issues raised; and does not seem to appreciate the magnitude of the problems assailing the nation at this critical turning point of Nigeria’s history. His answers were vacuous; just as he appeared lackadaisical all through the programme.

    For example, on the woeful power situation in the country, particularly in the last quarter of this year, Okupe in one breath said power equipment were expensive which made generation and distribution companies to borrow billions of dollars; and in another, he submitted that government’s efforts to improve power was being sabotaged by politicians who sponsored vandals to attack gas pipelines just to make government appear incompetent.

    On the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria, Okupe flippantly argued that Boko Haram was a “multinational international insurgency arrangement in Nigeria.” The group, according to him, has links with ISIS, Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.

    And on the case of the abducted Chibok Girls that Okupe had boasted a few months ago would soon be released, all he could tell his listeners this time was that “the issue of the Chibok Girls was an emotional tragedy that we must bear with fortitude,” suggesting that such atrocities as abduction, rape and murder were common in war.

    If we forgave these infantile outpourings as part of his dubious call of duty; if we take Okupe’s mumbo-jumbo as part of the fair game and propaganda in a time of political ‘warfare’, to what do we blame his banal and off-hand reference to Christ?

    First, this shows clearly that Okupe is not a Christian and if he were, we now know the kind of Christian he is. No true Christian would contemplate such utter irreverence, if not blasphemy, as to compare any living mortal or deity at that, with Christ.

    It is also a clear pointer to the irresponsibility he brings to his so-called job. Had he paused a moment to reflect, he would have reckoned that such a statement would be highly insensitive to the Christian community and to true Christians anywhere. Crasser still, how could any serious Nigerian begin to compare President Goodluck Jonathan to Jesus Christ? This is obtuse propaganda taken too far.

    His postulation that Jonathan is a humble persona who bears the burden of Nigerians is a farce. President Jonathan voluntarily presented himself for the number one job in the land and, as he is doing currently, he went to great lengths seeking to be elected a president. Nigerians did not vote him because he is the most humble man in the country or so that he could bear the most burden – no.  He was voted to lead. So, he has a duty to provide quality leadership, even at the pain of paying the supreme price.

    However, if in the estimation of Okupe, Jonathan is leading well, that fact is not quite apparent to most other Nigerians. And reasons abound: corruption has become more viral in his time; power supply situation is worse today than about six years ago when he assumed office; Nigeria, an oil-producing nation, still engages in that most wasteful act of petroleum products importation at huge costs to the treasury. So many other examples of mis-governance can be adduced.

    To therefore compare Jonathan to Christ is not only to insult the intelligence of his listeners, but it was an assault and an affront to the people of Nigeria. For the benefit of Okupe, Jesus Christ, according to the Holy Bible, represents purity, holiness and confounding love. He willingly surrendered his life that man may be redeemed from the shackles of sin and life.

    In better-ordered societies, Okupe would not be deemed fit for the Presidency, not to talk of serving as the face and voice of that most crucial national monument.

    We dare say that Okupe is not adding much value to the Presidency’s public communication department. That job requires sobriety, rigour and a glistening form of candour.

    These are the qualities that would engender goodwill and endear the people to the Presidency.

    Okupe’s statement amounts to a ridicule of Christianity. An apology would be in order.

  • Blowing hot and cold  

    •IGP Abba must know that playing god with Speaker Tambuwal’s security is a serious constitutional crime        

    Reminiscent of life imitating art, Suleiman Abba, inspector general of Police (IGP) reminds us of the Ola Rotimi comic play, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again.

    The way the IGP flexes muscles he does not have by law, and assumes the security of House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, is at his discretion, is reminiscent of a tragi- comedy.  He must snap out of his costly delusion — and fast!

    After the unprecedented Police invasion of the National Assembly, the tear-gassing of members and the aborted attempt to keep the Speaker from the House — a clear illegality the Jonathan Presidency quickly disowned, putting the IGP on the spot — Abba’s Police appeared to have eaten crow; and tried to right, through the back door, the outlawry it had committed in the open.

    It made it be announced, after Alhaji Tambuwal had emerged the Sokoto gubernatorial candidate of his new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), that the Police would now restore his security — not as Speaker, but as APC gubernatorial candidate of Sokoto State.  The Police statement even worked the spin that since in 2011 the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) Borno State gubernatorial candidate was assassinated before the election, the Police would avert such a disaster this time round.

    Of course, the Police plight was self-inflicted.  To justify crass political partisanship, even if the Police, as an agent of the state, should be neutral and fair to every party in a political dispute, IGP Abba tragically misdirected himself by misinterpreting Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution — claiming that since Speaker Tambuwal had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he automatically lost his seat in the House: and by extension, his Speakership.

    That was arrant nonsense — and the IGP and his prompters knew it.  But even if his stance were correct, it still was not his duty — the mere head of the state’s Police — to seize the constitutional duty of the courts, and start issuing illegal orders.

    Still, the IGP did not only do that, to the blemish of his oath of office, he also rudely referred to Alhaji Tambuwal, in front of a parliamentary committee, claiming he did not “recognise” the Speaker.

    However, ferocious public opinion, including a powerful intervention by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, unnerved Mr. Abba.  That probably forced the Police to announce the face-saving gambit to restore Alhaji Tambuwal’s security as a gubernatorial candidate, until the latest twist that  he must apply for it!

    But even this has further put Mr. Abba on the spot.  Alhaji Tambuwal remains Speaker, de jure and de facto — even   after the open criminality of the Police raiding the National Assembly to essay an illegal impeachment; and after the attempted judicial sleight of hand of trying to declare the Speaker’s office vacant, even while the case was on.  Both failed.

    Indeed, when he House resumed on December 16, the Speaker presided, with the Police, outside those posted to the National Assembly, banished to the first gate of the facility.

    So, on what basis might IGP Abba still be withholding the Speaker’s security details, the right of his office by law?  It is a monumental insult in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of common sense, in the eyes of decency.  Indeed, it is crass outlawry — ironically coming from the IGP, the head of the primary state agency to enforce the law.

    IGP Abba must restore Speaker Tambuwal’s security today.  The Jonathan Presidency cannot continue to play games with the security of Nigeria’s No. 4 citizen.  With all the power at our disposal, we say no to executive impunity against the legislature.

    We also say no to the grave desecration of Nigeria’s democratic institutions, of which the legislature is the most prominent symbol.  This lunacy has gone on for too long.