The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Jonathan’s OAU storm   

    •A presidential boo is not pretty, no matter what.  That is why the government must be sensitive to citizens’ feelings          

    No matter a president’s dip in popularity, university students booing the president of a country, and symbol of that country’s democratic order, is not a pretty sight.  The one at the receiving end looks diminished.  The booing students look uncouth.

    That unfortunately was the situation at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, State of Osun, on December 1.  The president had gone to the Awolowo Hall, on the OAU campus, for a partisan endorsement at a “Yoruba Unity Summit”, with a battery of traditional rulers, some leaders of thoughts, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) partisans in tow.

    But the booing did not arise from the students’ rejection of the move per se.  It rather emanated from the suffocating security arrangement, which grounded the campus community, simply because the president was in town.

    It turned out that the examinations were on; and students heading for examination halls found themselves stranded — no thanks to intra-campus shuttles that had been disabled, to reinforce the security cordon around the president.  That was the initial ire.

    By the time the dust settled, the students had vented their anger in anti-Jonathan boos and rude protest songs.  Efforts by Ayodele Fayose, the Governor of Ekiti State, to show some familiarity with the irate students proved a tragic presumption, as he was roundly shouted down and insulted.  Though presidential handlers, in a comical attempt at damage control, had circulated pictures of some student leaders posing with the president, suggesting the president suffered no embarrassment, it is clear only the spin doctors believed their own spin.

    The genesis of the crisis was the all-too-glaring unconscionable security arrangement, whenever the president or his spouse is in any place.  Lagos, Ibadan, Ife, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna — the result is the same: a hideous gridlock.  Must a president’s or his spouse’s visit lead to that unbearable level of citizen discomfort, frustration and disorientation?

    Yet, the president is supposed to be No. 1 elected official in a democracy.  The OAU protest should show the president’s security handlers how archaic their methods have become; and how very embarrassing and disappointing it can be to their boss.  The president himself must ponder why his supposed security must cause citizens so much pain.

    But the awkward security arrangement also helped to expose other things, most of them unpalatable to the presidential camp.  To sell an unpopular president, the university campus is the least auspicious of places.  That explains why the initial ire quickly morphed into a hostile demonstration against Jonathan’s education policies.  If the organisers had thought more clearly, they should have picked an alternative venue.  The university authorities, knowing the combustible mix of their angry student population, should have advised the organisers against it.

    Then, the myth was exploded, of a cloistered crowd, no matter how well appointed or influential, purporting to endorse a candidate, terribly flawed in the streets.  While the crowd of Ekiti and Osun Oba, politicians sympathetic to the Jonathan cause — hardly a crime by any stretch — and other partisans were doing their “endorsement”, and telling Jonathan what he wanted to hear, students out in the streets were bawling out the exact opposite!  Which of the two contrasting voices belonged to the people?

    It is even more shocking that some otherwise revered Yoruba elders were part of that gathering.  It is shocking not because they showed their partisan preference — in a democracy, that is their right under the law.  But rather because they purportedly pledged what is apparently out of their power, for a candidate, considered as terribly flawed by not a few in their region; and under whose charge the country appears to be falling into pieces.

    The Jonathan Ife storm taught a telling lesson: no government brings on a people pain and expects anything but a hostile feedback, no matter how its self-serving officials try to deodorise the rot.   If President Jonathan can take that away, he would have saved his government from future embarrassments.

  • The ABC of Ibadan violence

    SIR: For the residents of Oke-Ado in the heart of Ibadan, Oyo State, as well as those living in the Born Photo-Popoyemeja-Idi Arere axis of the ancient city, Friday, November 21 and Sunday, November 23, are days they would never forget in a hurry. On those two days, hell was let loose and the peace which had been reigning in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, since the advent of the Abiola Ajimobi administration, was shattered.

    At Oke-Ado, what was supposed to be a peaceful rally by the All Progressives Congress (APC) party to be addressed by the governor as part of his tour of Ibadan South-West Local Government Area of the state was hijacked by hoodlums.  Governor Ajimobi, who had gone round 32 local government areas in the state, was billed to visit the last council area on Friday, November 21 to round off the tour. As it had been done in other local governments, APC leaders, party faithful, various organizations and ordinary members of the public had converged on Liberty Road Junction and amidst singing and dancing, were waiting for the governor who had earlier on that day visited Ido Local Government Area.

    Suddenly, gunshots started booming from a part of the rally venue; hoodlums went on the prowl and the music came to an abrupt end as everybody started running for dear lives. By the time the dust settled, a police inspector, who was among the policemen deployed to maintain law and order at the rally venue, had been shot dead while another one and scores of other people sustained varying degrees of injuries and were quickly rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment.

    As if that was not enough, the city also witnessed violence again at the Born Photo-Popoyemeja-Idi Arere community early on Sunday, November 23, leaving many people injured and property worth millions of Naira destroyed. The area boys, according to reports, arrived the area in the wee hours of that day, shooting sporadically and forcing their way into people’s houses, robbing them of their valuables. They were said to have destroyed any property on sight, including cars and tricycles parked on the street.

    Since the incidents occurred, there have been accusations and counter-accusations, with APC pointing fingers at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Accord Party (AP) as the masterminds of the crises while the two parties have been fighting tooth and nail to distance themselves from the ugly development. APC has even gone a step further by calling on the state police command to carry out thorough investigations to unravel those behind the mayhem.

    Whoever could have been the masterminds, the fact still remains that thuggery, violence and brigandage, which used to characterize the Ibadan metropolis before the restoration of peace by the Ajimobi administration, are gradually creeping back into the ancient city. The fact is that the agents of violence, who had been in limbo since 2011, have cashed in on the race for the 2015 general elections to renew their violence.

    If for anything, one thing that the present administration in Oyo State is identified with is peace and tranquility which Governor Ajimobi has on several occasions described as the bedrock of the unprecedented development that the state has witnessed in recent time. As a result of the peaceful atmosphere, several local and foreign investors have berthed in the state to partner the government in bring development. The resultant effect is the springing up of firms in all the nooks and crannies of the state, while government itself has also not wavered in the execution of people-oriented projects across the state.

    It therefore, behoves on the people of Oyo State to rise up collectively and say no to violence in whatever form. They should, without any hesitation, tell the agents of darkness and enemies of progress who are sworn to do everything they could to truncate the current peace, to steer clear of the state. Never again should the people of Oyo State allow the power mongers to hijack the state and return it to the path of retrogression. The police should also not shirk their responsibilities of going on the trail of the brigands and their godfathers. It is only by doing these that the state can continue to witness more development in an atmosphere devoid of violence and brigandage.

    • Sola Animasahun

    Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Costly negligence

    Costly negligence

    •Bickering between Police and DSS, over prosecuting the Nyanya bomb blast suspect, signposts government’s latitude in the fight against terrorism

    Costly schizophrenia — that appears what the Goodluck Jonathan government suffers, in its attitude to terrorism.

    In one breath, it goes as far as securing the extradition of a terror suspect.  But to nail the case in court, its security agencies obstruct themselves.  Against Islamist terrorism that has killed and maimed thousands of innocent Nigerians, no government can afford to project such culpable split mentality and laxity.

    Yet, that appears the matter in the case of Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, the suspected mastermind of the April 14 Nyanya bombing in Abuja, in which no less than 70 Nigerians perished; and scores of others, maimed.

    On November 24, noticing the Police-DSS dingdong, which had produced no witness against the accused person, even after many court appearances, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of a Federal High Court in Abuja, terminated the case “for want of diligent prosecution”.  He therefore acquitted the accused person.

    From media reports, the Police had arraigned Ogwuche on a two-count charge of terrorism, asking the DSS to release to it the suspect.  But the DSS had reportedly demurred, insisting that since it had the suspect and investigated the case, the Police should withdraw its case, thus allowing DSS to file “a proper” charge.  All plea by Justice Ademola, to the two security arms to amicably resolve their differences, for the case to proceed, fell on deaf ears — until the termination of November 24, which the judge probably used as some shock therapy.

    Indeed, things got to a head when the accused started suing for his fundamental human rights — and why not? — when the rigmarole was stalling a trial; yet the accused (presumed innocent in the eyes of the law, until proven otherwise in court) was in detention.  The hearing for the enforcement of Ogwuche’s human rights  is fixed for later this month.

    The Police have, however, reacted with a bombast rippling with sophistry, denying it ever arraigned Ogwuche on any charge.

    “For the record, at no time did the Nigeria Police arraign the suspect in court for terrorism related offences,” Police spokesperson, Emmanuel Ojukwu, and acting commissioner of Police (CP) declared in a release. “Moreover, the purported prosecution/arraignment by the Police could not have happened as the Police could not prosecute a suspect it never arrested, never investigated nor had in its custody.”

    So, Justice Ademola made up the story, the observation in his own court, that there was a dingdong?  He also, out of judicial whim, terminated the case, for no logical reason?

    The Police, however, admitted that it was only involved in getting Ogwuche extradited from the Sudan, which it crowed it was able to do through its Interpol sources.

    Perhaps the DSS too would come out with its own back-slapping rhetoric, its face creasing into some contemptuous benevolence, that it does the Nigerian people — innocent victims of terrorism both security arms are paid to avert — a favour by deigning to drag a terror suspect to court; and reserves the right to secure conviction?

    Shame on both the Police and DSS for this culpable negligence.  Even more so on the Police, for its insensitive bombast.

    Regrettably though, it is too glaring a manifestation of the wilful, if not outright fatal, distraction of the state under President Goodluck Jonathan. That a case of this significance is managed so shabbily is a pointer to the manner the terrorism war is being executed by federal government.

    The Police never sniff any intelligence, except when it is partisan.  They flee from Boko Haram terror, only to swoop on Parliament, alleging some comical “hoodlums” where there are none.  The DSS too appears largely quiet until it lands the partisan duty of invading a rival political party’s facility, in what is reminiscent of the US Watergate scandal, that consigned President Richard Nixon tohistoric odium.  Even IGP Suleiman Abba, in the Speaker Aminu Tambuwal case, would misapply his office and defend his stance before a committee of Parliament in combative ignorance.

    The Police and DSS must get serious on the Ogwuche affair.  Citizen Ogwuche, though accused of terror, is entitled to fair, speedy but rigorous trial.  That is his right under the law.  Nigerians that perished in terror attacks have a right to justice — when suspect terrorists are convicted and punished.

    That is the only way they can be convinced that the government takes its job seriously.

  • Big scandal

    Big scandal

    •Whatever excuses it gives, NDIC has not done enough to return funds to depositors
    of failed banks, even after 25 years

    The scandalous revelation that about N25 billion depositors’ fund, recovered from 48 failed banks in the past 25 years, are yet to be claimed by customers, is quite confounding. Such obfuscating adventure can only happen in this country.   No better managed clime can fathom such exploitative dereliction of statutory duty.

    Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, Managing Director, National Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), at a recent sensitisation programme for stakeholders in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, declared through Bello Shittu, a deputy director of the corporation: “We are worried about depositors whose monies are trapped in banks and they have refused to file their claims. As an organization, we have been asking those concerned to access us but many have refused. In the last 25 years, we have had cause to liquidate 48 banks; and we have paid over N102 billion to depositors, both insured and uninsured. Yet, we still have N25 billion waiting for depositors to collect.’’

    Of the N25 billion yet to be claimed, insured amount reportedly is in excess of N5 billion while uninsured amount is in excess of N20 billion.

    The foregoing situation is akin to damning cases in the capital market, where of billions of Naira worth of  dividends remain unclaimed.  In our view, the authorities have not shown sufficient concern about how the investing public can access these dividends.

    We are aware that Nigerians are not that buoyant that they would abandon whatever token they had in these failed banks. Since Nigerians are not Father Christmas, we believe that the problem at hand is failure on the part of NDIC to rise up to its statutory duties, particularly on measures to promote early refund of trapped funds.

    We are disturbed that the corporation, 26 years after it was established by the NDIC Decree 22 of 1988 (now NDIC Act No. 16, 2006), has not made appreciable impact on aggrieved bank customers; and even the banking public — most of whom are not even aware of its role.

    The corporation, to the few with scant knowledge of its role, is deemed to have failed to provide effective supervisory role necessary to detect early distress signs in banks; and to bring such under timely control.  We know of reported NDIC statistics showing its lagging approach to issues.

    For instance, out of the total insured deposits of N17.873 billion of 48 deposit money banks (DMBs), in liquidation since 1994, a paltry cumulative sum of N6.682 billion had been paid to 528,204 insured depositors as at December 31, 2012.  Similarly, a cumulative sum of N2.50 billion had been paid to depositors of the 103 microfinance banks (MFBs) which were closed in 2010.

    We equally know that the corporation uses abandoned bank accounts, among others, as alibi for delay in refund of trapped bank money.

    NDIC appears to wring its hands in abject surrender to customers reportedly deaf to its calls, even if the matter is about their hard-earned money.  But we want the corporation to tell us what has happened to addresses and even phone numbers, including next-of-kin contacts, through which these customers could be reached?

    What efforts has the corporation made to get to them; and how cumbersome is the process of filing for refund by those who are aware?

    Could it be that the corporation cannot afford the budget demands of sending mails or even calling up these people to come for their money? What has happened to the accruable interest on this money all this while?

    We demand that the corporation should be more altruistic in the discharge of its duties.

    Henceforth, the NDIC must endeavour to meet up with its strategic mandate of protecting depositors; be seen to be effectively contributing to the safety of people’s funds and stabilizing the nation’s financial system.

  • Golden counsel

    Golden counsel

    •The Federal Government will do well to seriously address LCCI’s reservations about its just announced austerity measures

    The call by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), for further review of the items in the austerity measures outlined by the Federal Government, deserves attention. The Chamber had come out with a detailed critique of the outlined plan, describing it as skewed against the poor.

    As captains of industry who know where the shoe would pinch, we support the patriotic call and draw the attention of the civil society, and the general public, to the proposed review. In general terms, the Chamber demanded that the government should be more transparent in managing the economy.

    It also drew attention to the fact that 60 per cent of the national wealth is cornered by a mere 10 per cent of the population; and requested progressive taxation that would make the rich support the poor. This fact cannot be lost on keen watchers of social inequality in the country. While the rich continue to flaunt their wealth, the poor are hit by abject poverty and squalor; with the various governments doing very little to curb the effects.

    For the avoidance of doubts, the measure released by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and spelt out in the Medium Term Framework, include reduction in the Oil Benchmark from $78 to $73, reduction in international travels and training, and upward review in revenue targets set for agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS). The government has also served notice that tax on luxury items would be reviewed upwards.

    While LCCI did not pick holes with the measure, it said the luxury items should be defined. The Chamber pointed out that the very large allocation to Consolidated Revenue charges deserves further breakdown, as no detail was given.  It also called attention to the huge allocations to the presidential amnesty programme, capital supplementation and service-wide votes.

    The Chamber noted that the votes for refreshment meals, foodstuffs and catering luxury items; and sitting allowances and welfare packages, do not reflect a nation being squeezed by economic crisis, thus necessitating belt tightening.

    Most importantly, we support the Chamber’s observation that management of the economy has been opaque. All measures proposed by the Nuhu Ribadu Committee, set up by the same Federal Government to institute wide reforms in the petroleum market, have so far been brushed aside. So have the recommendations of the Idika Kalu Committee on establishment of new refineries.

    The Nigerian economy has remained largely vulnerable and dependent on the vagaries of the international oil market because governments over the years have refused to review the structure of the economy and diversify sources of national wealth. This has been identified by successive governments as dangerous.  Yet, they have done nothing to wean the country from the deleterious effects.

    Corruption in the public space has caused our inability to respond effectively to shocks as we are experiencing now. Rather than call on the citizens to further tighten an already tight belt, government should seriously curb the luxurious taste of public officials and bring culprits to book. The inability of government to diligently prosecute accused officials of state, and get them appropriately punished, has failed to rein in current holders of public offices.

    If the loopholes are plugged, those aspiring to occupy high profile positions would realize that the day of reckoning would come some day. But, now, governors alleged to have stolen public funds and answering to charges in court easily use the same looted funds to make their ways to the Senate. Others are given offices in the Federal Executive Council. Former ministers are shielded from the long arms of the law and the cycle remains unbroken.

    This is another opportunity to review the structure and foundation of the economy and public fund management. Unless this is done, it would be impossible for the government to mobilize the citizenry to make sacrifices for national development. President Jonathan and his cabinet should make the due sacrifice first if the people are to willingly support his measure. A good starting point is accommodating the suggestions of the LCCI.

     

     

  • Law trumps impunity

    Law trumps impunity

    The immediate compliance by relevant organs of government, to the judgment of the Supreme Court, with respect to the unlawful impeachment of Alhaji Sanni Danladi, is commendable.

    This is in contrast to some recent executive lawlessness and abuse of the constitution by the Federal Government and the Government of Ekiti State.

    So, we commend the swift execution of the judgment, in obedience to the rule of law. To tarry or demure, as the Federal Government sometimes does, especially when the decision of a court is unfavourable, is to invite the reign of anarchy.

    The judgment of the Supreme Court is also a lesson to both the executive and legislative arms of government: impunity does not pay. We recall that when Governor Suntai’s hirelings initiated the discountenanced impeachment in 2012, the reinstated deputy governor, and now acting governor, had approached the High Court for redress, on the complaint that the panel, as constituted, would not be impartial.

    But in complete disregard to the pendency of the suit, the panel went ahead to unlawfully sit, and sack the deputy governor. Now the Supreme Court has adjudged the panel as “a kangaroo panel”, to the shame of its members, if they have any.

    In striking down the impeachment, the Supreme Court appropriately held that the panel violated the appellant’s right to fair hearing; which is a fundamental constitutional right. Unfortunately, Governor Suntai who backed that lawless enterprise then, shortly after the impeachment, had an accident, and ever since then, has been incapacitated to resume the functions of his office.

    The state assembly which set up the kangaroo panel should also be ashamed of their conduct, in the entire saga. Even more regrettable, Garba Umar, who was selected to replace Alhaji Sani Danladi as deputy governor after the impeachment, immediately got embroiled in several self-serving fights; while forces backing the ailing Suntai did everything in their power to frustrate the acting governor.

    Another fall out of the judgment is the conduct of the High Court of the state, which the Supreme Court condemned. According to Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, there appears to be a conspiracy between the High Court and the kangaroo panel, all in their effort to frustrate the now reinstated deputy governor.

    In arriving at its decision, the Supreme Court had to shoot down the concurrent judgments of the state High Court and the Court of Appeal, which happens only in exceptional circumstances. Considering the tone of the lead judgment, the Supreme Court was clearly piqued by the decisions of the two lower courts.

    Again, the import of the acting Governor Danladi’s long walk to justice is that Garba Umar was gifted with two years of unconstitutional privileges and material benefits. Yet, as now held by the apex court, his tenure was a constitutional aberration, unfortunately at the expense of the tax payers, the sanctity of our democratic institutions, and the sanity of the people of Taraba State.

    Our hope is that other undemocratic actors across the country, whether at the federal or state level, would learn some lessons from this development, and starve off actions that seek to imperil our democracy.

    One glaring case of such disgustful violation of the constitution is what is going on in Ekiti state. There, Governor Ayo Fayose and the seven members of the Peoples Democratic Party, in the state assembly, are carrying on, as if they are law unto themselves, in complete denigration of the constitution, upon which our democracy stands. That is absolutely unacceptable, as the rule of law is the pivot of democracy.

    Since impunity appeared to have trumped the law in Taraba, it had been sheer uncertainty: Suntai was incapacitated; and Garba Umar had a running battle with Suntai loyalists — a war of attrition that left the Taraba citizen virtually breathless.

    However, we hope the judgment of the Supreme Court will now restore sanity; even as all political players must realize that, other things being equal, impunity is sheer futility in a democracy.

  • No quick fix

    No quick fix

    •CBN’s devaluation of the Naira failed to take a holisitic view of the economy

    At the end of its regular Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of last week Tuesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) took some drastic measures to mitigate the impact of the falling oil prices on the nation’s economy, and specifically, to halt the run on the nation’s reserves. First, it resolved to move the exchange rate band from N150-160 to the dollar to an unprecedented N160-176; second, it adjusted the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) – the industry benchmark interest rate – by 100 basis points from 12 to 13 percent; finally, it hiked banks’ cash reserve ratio (CRR) for private sector bank deposits from 15 percent to 20 percent.

    CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele justified the measures on the grounds of low accruals into the nation’s foreign reserves as a result of falling oil prices; the continuing depletion of the reserves arising from the surge in demand for foreign exchange – developments which he noted, have constrained “the ability of the bank to continually defend the naira and sustain the stability of the naira exchange rate”.

    We agree that in the face of the continuing uncertainty in oil prices, the measures have become somewhat pragmatic. Were there to be still lingering doubts about the negative impacts of the falling oil prices on the economy as a whole, the latest dip in the reserve by 5.1 percent from the previous month, and the five-month low of $37.17 billion ought to have provided more than mere warning signs on the shape of things to come hence the drastic measures needed to halt the trend.

    Unfortunately, if we worried at what we considered as continuing misdiagnosis of the problem by the fiscal authorities in our previous editorial, we are even now just as alarmed at the measures conceived by the monetary authorities to address the challenge. We refer to the pathetic failure to isolate the other part of the problem for effective remedial action in the face of the admission by the apex bank authorities that the current demand profile does not have any bearing on the genuine foreign exchange needs of the country. We expected the CBN to do more than bemoan the situation; it should have  moved to  identify those fuelling the surge without the resort to the devaluation tool as a rod of affliction to punish the innocent and the guilty.

    At the risk of being misunderstood, we concede that the option of devaluation comes highly recommended at time of heightened demand pressure for foreign exchange and falling commodity prices. If it amounts to much, it comes with the additional benefit of delivering more naira into the federation account without the need to pump an extra barrel of oil. With the 36 states of the federation already chaffing under the impact of diminishing oil revenues, the option comes with the promise of bringing relief to their finances and those of the local governments in particular. The problem, however,  is that the apex bank appears   to have deployed the tool in a manner that suggests a lack of sensitivity to the needs of the economy.

    Besides, our peculiarly weak manufacturing/export base makes the practical benefits of devaluation particularly doubtful. In an environment where basic items of manufacture are imported and where the only ‘exports’ are unprocessed raw materials,  including crude oil whose output is set by quota, what it does is suffer citizens to double jeopardy of being asked to pay more in the absence of an alternative. More inexplicable however is that the apex bank would hike the MPC and the CRR rates – both of which effectively translates to hiking what is already prohibitively high cost of borrowing, and with it the possibility of further constricting the domestic economy.

    Rather than superficial measures, what the current challenges call for are tailor-made measures to give muscle to the local business. Boosting local capacities to diversify the economic base would seem a far more useful step to take than a thousand measures that leads nowhere.

  • NERC: Tariff hiking commission?

    •Consumers are in for dark times ahead as another tariff hike takes effect this month

    Electricity consumers in Nigeria must have concluded that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is set up for the sole purpose of increasing electricity tariff and inflicting pain on the consumer. And on the face of it, NERC does not seem to do anything else nor is it remembered for carrying out any regulatory functions since its inception about seven years ago.

    NERC’s announcement last week of another tariff hike this month must have left the long-suffering Nigerian electricity consumer in deep angst. This is probably the third this year in a power environment that is rancid with graft, mindless opportunism, inadequate supply and shoddy service. The consumer is paying too much as it is and cannot see any justification for paying more.

    But NERC cites a $1 increase in the price of gas to power plants as the major driver of this review. Other factors warranting this current tariff review include inflation, foreign exchange rate and power generation capacity. Speaking during the meeting with industry stakeholders on the bi-annual minor review of the Multi-Year Tariff Order – 2 (MYTO), NERC vice chairman, Mr. Mohammed Bello rued the incongruence of a necessary upward review of tariff though power situation had yet to improve.

    Bello noted: “From what I have seen in the initial report, not much has changed. The tariff review is a sensitive issue to the consumer who considers paying higher and not seeing improvement in electricity supply. But there is a general consensus that this is the way to go. By paying what is due this is how the power will begin to improve.”

    Obviously the consumer is not part of this consensus and the new hike is bound to make him inconsolable, as he seems to have borne the brunt of what may be described as endless shenanigans in Nigeria’s power sector.

    One year after the Federal Government divested substantially and privatized its interest in the power sector, situations have regressed in all the value chains of generation, transmission and distribution. While both the generation and distribution arms have been divested to private investors, transmission remains with the government under a lease management arrangement. Though this fundamental restructuring of the system was meant to engender market competitiveness and efficiency, the reverse has been the case.

    Power generation target was set at 6000 mega watts (mw) at the beginning of the year. By August it was scaled down to 5000mw and now, as the year ends in a few days, even that will not be met. Only 3,750mw is being generated currently and NERC will base its retail tariff for the next six months effective December 1, 2014 on this quantum of generation. But the peak demand for power in the country now is estimated at 12,800mw.

    Ironically, Transmission Company of Nigeria, (TCN) the firm solely responsible for this leg of the chain still does not have capacity to transmit even this meager 3,750mw. It is said that about 80mw of currently generated power still gets ‘stranded’ for lack of transmission capacity.

    Distribution is another sordid tale of lack of commitment by the new owners to make fresh investment; refusal to upgrade to pre-paid meters and endless agitation for tariff increase.

    The result is that so far, the privatization of Nigeria’s power sector has been a debacle with the consumer caught in a most insouciant matrix of the Federal Government and its cronies.

    It is most unconscionable that government seems to be playing games with what is probably the most important infrastructure for growth and development. Since the era of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, it seems that the more funds sunk into the quest for electricity, the more it seems to require. Recently, N213 billion cheap fund was approved for these privatized firms by the government. Why would government throw taxpayers’ money to investors who have not shown any cause that they need such aid?

    We aver that government should retrace its steps and approach its power reform programme with a modicum of transparency and accountability.   Lest, we are in for a long night — and there is a limit to the extortion the people can bear.

  • Why Jonathan must return to Otuoke in 2015

    SIR: I do not think Nigeria has ever had it this bad. Bomb blasts that used to sound so foreign to us as something that only happens in Iraq, Afghanistan has now become almost a daily occurrence so much so that our newspapers do not consider them worthy to be their screaming headlines anymore. Corrupt persons have become bolder in their debauchery that it seems there is a silent competition to see who or what organisation can loot and plunder the most. Security agencies saddled with the responsibility of protecting Nigerians appear to have become an armed political wing of the ruling party. Nigeria has become akin to a ship sailing directionless with a drunken Captain, rudderless and in a fiery storm.

    That some ordinary Nigerians still support this administration beats me hollow apart from career politicians, those that can be seen as government contractors, those that have benefited and continue to get their daily bread from this administration, big businessmen that policies of the government favour their businesses. On the other hand, we have those who support this administration just because the President is their own, from the Niger Delta area that has long suffered government neglect, never mind that that the lives of the people haven’t improved in any significant way. Poverty is still rife, except perhaps ex-militants that have now become multi-billionaires due to government patronage. Environmental degradation hasn’t ceased either and so to them, it is a good thing that their son is President and he must complete his term.

    This is just one of the mind-set of our people who to me are a big part of the problems bedevilling this country. All sorts of the ridiculous excuses are bandied about on why the President is not performing; that those against him are making him look bad. Then they point to his achievement in revitalizing the railways, rebasing the economy and that we are Africa’s largest economy and refer to the figures the likes of Okonjo-Iweala dishes out almost on a weekly basis about how millions of jobs have been created and millions more to be created due to some phantom government policies. These lies are so bold and in your face that one begins to wonder if these government officials actually live in this same Nigeria or a different one, because the reality on ground is a stark contrast to the picture they have become really good artist at.

    To be fair to President Jonathan, the problems of this country precedes his Presidency. The question is what has he done to stem the tides of maladministration? May be he done his best, maybe his best is not just good enough. He does not possess the capabilities to govern a complex country like Nigeria. He has shown over and over again that he has not the clout, political sagacity and maturity to deal with diverse interests, and issues a president of a country like Nigeria needs to do well.

    His style of leadership has further widened the divide of Nigerians along ethno-religious lines more than any other leader in the history of this nation. Missing funds, missing ships laden with oil are some of the absurdities that have now become commonplace. The insurgency in the north is getting worse with a part of the country already annexed by terrorists.

    Jonathan may in fact be a good man; or at worst a really simple man trying his best to put things right in the best way he can. But almost six years of his presidency has shown that he is just not capable of governing this country. I dare say that he is not fit to spend a day more after May 29, 2015 in the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

     

    • Muizz Kazeem,

    Lagos

  • Ibadan mayhem

    Ibadan mayhem

    Nigeria’s largest city must avoid its First Republic violence that earned it the description of Wild, Wild West.

    WE bemoan reports that Ibadan, capital of former Western Region, now Oyo state, was recently embroiled in avoidable bedlam. This is a bad foretaste of the new election cycle that is upon us. Violence has always served as a bitter, tragic staple of any election period, and the bloody theatre we are witnessing from Nigeria’s biggest city sears the heart and bothers the conscience of those who wish an improved berth for our troubled democracy.

    Oyo State that has witnessed a reasonable level of civic tolerance and quiet in three and a half years has regressed into a  witness and perpetrator of bloodbath and bringandage. In the past few days, the orgy of violence has been unleashed on lives and property in some areas of the state by perceived political thugs.

    According to reports, the unscrupulous elements from Born Photo area sneaked into Popoyemoja around in the wee hour of last Sunday around 1am when residents were deeply asleep and left behind dripping blood and wanton destruction after three hours of grueling operation. They reportedly shot sporadically before forcing their way into houses, robbing inhabitants of their valuables and looting shops before setting others on fire.

    Over 200 shops, several vehicles parked on the street and houses, including the family house of former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, were reportedly destroyed during the mayhem in Ibadan South-West Local Government Area.  At least three persons, among residents of the area, reportedly died in the mayhem. Other areas affected by the callousness of these thugs include Isale Osi, Idi Arere and Born Photo.

    On the Friday preceding that Sunday mishap, we learnt that a police officer was gunned down and another injured around Oke-Ado, about four kilometres to Born Photo, where the last attack began.

    In our view, any link with the two scenes of slaughter might be remote. What is plausible is that some yet-to-be-identified elements are trying to take advantage of that abominable mayhem to make the state ungovernable and this is unacceptable to us.

    We ask; how can a presumed fight between two youth gags known as ‘area boys’ turn into violence of that magnitude? The opposition parties have been fingered for blame, but only thorough investigations will prove this. We only hope that this is not an orchestrated plan to minimise the gains of peace the state recently recorded to rebrand the state as a danger zone as the 2015 general elections approach.

    Olabisi Ilobanefor, Public Relations Officer of the Oyo State Police Command, during his recent media briefing, announced that three persons suspected to be political thugs at Kosodo/Beyerunka area of Ibadan have been arrested. She also said more than 20 arrests have been made over the killing of the police officer by suspected political thugs. Though he did not state whether the arrested thugs were the culprits behind the mayhem in Popoyemoja, we expect the perpetrators to be brought to book.

    In terms of maintaining peace and security as a catalyst for the protection of lives and property in the state, the Ajoimobi government has recorded a measure of success, especially reining in the road transport workers who heady addiction to violence has roiled the state in the past

    We are aware that the government has increased capacity of the Emergency and Swift Response Security Outfit (Operation Burst), through the provision of reportedly over 185 Patrol Security Vehicles; it has also established Emergency Response Centres across the state while a Security Trust Fund was set-up to boost security agencies’ productivity and efficiency within its jurisdiction. Clearly all these did not stop the recent chaos.

    The area boys’ syndrome that has always been there is rearing its ugly head. But the Ajimobi administration is not expected to go back to the drawing board. It is expected to treat the proliferation of these notorious boys as a more serious issue. The government must not allow these street gangsters known as area boys and known for being adept at criminally terrorising the people of the state, to gain upper hand as we move closer to the 2015 elections. The Ajimobi government should develop a drastic approach in the mould of modus operandi with it curbed the barbarities of NURTW.

    We deprecate the upsurge in pre-election violence in any part of the country. The only way to send the right signal is to institute a public inquiry into the Ibadan violence to forestall recurrence and to also bring those involved to face the full wrath of the law. We will not subscribe to the revival of the ‘Wild, Wild West’ scenario that tore Ibadan into sanguinary shreds in the First Republic. Our message to the people is to eschew violence in whatever form. Only those that are alive can enjoy the political booty at the dawn of 2015.