The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • N30bn booty?

    N30bn booty?

    •We can only hope the Victims Support Funds won’t end up as election support funds

    NEWS that the Federal Government has floated a new initiative tagged: “Victims Support Funds” to serve as palliative for relatives of victims of sectarian crises, most especially the Boko Haram insurgency, across states of the federation is quite cheering. But the idea should not turn into another politicisation of misery by government. Experience has shown that when such funds were floated in the past, the impacts were felt more in the pockets of public officers than the targeted beneficiaries.

    The decision to implement the initiative, worth N30 billion, was reportedly taken at a recent Council of State meeting and unfurled by President Goodluck Jonathan during his inauguration of the Steering Committee for the Safe Schools Initiative at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The initiative is meant to complement the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) that has Mr. Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and United Nations (UN) Special Envoy on Global Education, as front-runner.

    General Theophilus Danjuma is chairman of the fund while Fola Adeola is to serve as his deputy. The need for the fund was underscored by President Jonathan when he said:  ”Government is also coming up with what we call Victims Support Funds. We know that we need to intervene to cushion the effect of Boko Haram. So many people have been killed; we have widows and orphans: Properties have been destroyed, schools burnt.. We want to mobilise resources within and outside Nigeria just like we did during the flood of 2012.”

    We agree and, once again, restate that victims of these sectarian crises need a form of compensation to help stabilise their lives. And the government has a critical role to play in this regard. On paper, the government’s position fits the bill of a landmark beneficial project but we doubt whether the funds would not be crippled, like others before it, by bureaucratic log jam. For record purposes, it is pertinent to state that there are so many flood victims across the nation that never benefited from the 2012 flood funds, due to no fault of theirs, but that of improper coordination and undue politicisation, by the government.

    Now that this fund is being floated, it is almost certain that the necessary government agencies do not have the correct records/statistics of certified victims or their relations that should be direct beneficiaries of the compensation. Sadly too, relations of victims that are mostly soldiers have reportedly cried out that they could not access the statutory entitlements of their breadwinners that died in the course of combating, especially, the Boko Haram rebellion.

    Now, if statutory benefits of these victims cannot be accounted for, what hope of judicious deployment does a fund considered derisively as ‘national cake’ have? The timing of the Victims Support Funds, considering the current rush for slush funds to prosecute the 2015 elections, is everything but auspicious. Our fear is that in the end, the exercise might be muddled up as the project, because of improper handling, may turn into another tall dream – a conduit for siphoning scarce funds.

    We call on Danjuma and Adeola to do everything possible to acquit themselves well in the discharge of this job that we feel the government merely intends to use their good names to launder its battered public image, in its failed bid to nip terrorism in the bud. We see the project as a continuation of generosity of cynicism by the Jonathan administration and we wait to be proved wrong that the funds may not wholly get to the targeted beneficiaries in the end.

  • Resuscitating research

    Resuscitating research

    •Nigeria begins to link up its tertiary institutions

    THE recent launch of the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) represents a long-awaited solution to one of the most persistent challenges confronting the Nigerian tertiary education system: effective and efficient collaboration between local researchers and their foreign colleagues.

    Funded with US $10 million from the World Bank, NgREN seeks to provide broadband interconnectivity between Nigerian universities. This would enable them to collaborate on research projects much more closely than has hitherto been the case. The network is expected to significantly enhance their ability to be involved in global research collaborations which have increasingly become the norm.

    The importance of a successful NgREN intervention cannot be underestimated. The huge obstacles which stand in the way of effective, relevant and functional research are among the most formidable of the many problems facing the tertiary education sub-sector. Unlike their peers in other parts of the world, researchers in Nigeria find it extremely difficult to ensure that their research can be speedily integrated into the nation’s development projects. In the fields of food-processing and fabrication, for instance, laboratories and workshops in universities across the nation are full of inventions and improvements that are fated to become useless, simply because the world was not able to hear of them.

    NgREN should change that situation for the better. By providing a high-performance national backbone among member universities, it will enable real-time data video and other connections among them, thereby reducing the need to travel and physically meet to exchange ideas. Nigerian researchers will now be able to discuss their work with colleagues, obtain assistance more easily, and publicise their research findings more widely. By significantly reducing the frustrations involved in the research process, NgREN could help in reinvigorating an essential part of the nation’s development.

    The new initiative is also very likely to play an important role in improving the world ranking of Nigerian universities as it will make them more visible in cyberspace and elsewhere. By bringing Nigerian researchers into close contact with their counterparts from other countries, NgREN would also help to raise local standards of education and research to globally-recognised levels.

    If the new facility is to function at optimum levels, all parties must ensure that all necessary elements are in place. Participating universities will have to ensure that the relevant infrastructure such as power, computer laboratories and trained staff are available. Just as importantly, government funding of these and other tertiary institutions has to be adequate to meet their needs. This is particularly important in the light of the debilitating strike by polytechnic teachers which crippled all activity in the sector for the better part of one calendar year.

    Nigeria would also be better-positioned to benefit from initiatives like NgREN if greater effort is made to integrate collaborative research into all aspects of educational activity. Increased funding should be made available specifically for joint research efforts involving different institutions. Funding should be provided for tertiary institutions to acquire the information technology vital to networking. More training should be provided for staff and students in such institutions to enable them utilise such technology fully.

    Now that the initiative seems to have gotten off to an auspicious start, it is hoped that more tertiary institutions are brought into it, and deliberate efforts are made to ensure that the products of the resultant collaborations are fully utilised to the nation’s advantage.

  • Putin is facing his moment of truth

    Putin is facing his moment of truth

     – Tragedy of MH17 shows he is losing control in Ukraine

    An recent years Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has been an unconstructive actor on the world stage, notorious for his protection of the murderous Assad regime in Syria and for the annexation of Crimea. But how he acts following the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine will probably do more than anything else to seal his international reputation.

    It may be that this terrible tragedy, in which 298 innocent people died, will convince the Kremlin leader to shut down the bloody insurgency in eastern Ukraine that he has fuelled by covertly supplying arms to the pro-Russian rebels fighting the Kiev government. Alternatively, he may try to prevent the truth over Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 emerging and stick to his policy of dismembering Ukraine to stop it shifting to the west. If he chooses the latter course, Russia will become an international pariah and a dark new era in east-west relations will begin.

    Following the destruction of MH17, there has been much dispute as to who was responsible. The circumstantial evidence indicates that the aircraft was shot down by pro-Russian separatists. There is a question mark over how the rebels came to be in possession of such a potent surface-to-air missile system. They may have stolen it from the Ukrainian military or – far more gravely – obtained it directly from Russia. But it seems inconceivable that the Boeing 777 was fired on by Ukraine’s armed forces, given the absence of any military aircraft on the rebel side.

    A full and independent investigation into the aircraft’s destruction is needed. The separatists, who control the territory where the aircraft crashed, must give investigators unrestricted access to the site and to the black box recorders. This may require Mr Putin to put unequivocal public pressure on the pro-Russian militants to comply. Should he fail, the Kremlin leader risks losing what remains of his international credibility.

    Mr Putin’s responsibilities go far beyond this. Although the Kremlin has accepted the emergence of Petro Poroshenko as Ukraine’s elected president, it has continued to feed the conflict by supplying the rebels with ever more tanks and heavy weaponry. Moscow must end this flow of materiel, force the separatists to stop fighting and dissolve the Donetsk People’s Republic.

    If Mr Putin does not rise to the challenge, the west needs to be firm in its response. Before the MH17 disaster the US was correct to impose fresh sanctions. Should there be no change in Kremlin behaviour, President Barack Obama would be justified in pressing for tougher economic penalties, the only way to concentrate the Kremlin’s mind.

    European leaders should also rethink their collective stance. The bloc has been disappointingly divided between those, like the central Europeans, who take a tough approach to Russia and those, like Italy and parts of the German government, that are reluctant because of the threat to economic ties. As a result the EU has passed far less stringent sanctions than the US. If the death of 298 people – among them at least 198 Europeans – on a flight out of Amsterdam does not make EU leaders think again, nothing will.

    However, it is Mr Putin who ultimately holds the key to resolving this crisis. He needs to act while he still has the power to dictate events. At home, the Russian president has encouraged a pro-separatist frenzy across state media that risks becoming unstoppable. In eastern Ukraine he has unleashed heavily armed forces whose indiscriminate conduct he is now struggling to contain.

    The tragedy of MH17 is a terrible sign of how the conflict in Ukraine is slipping catastrophically out of control. Mr Putin has precious little time to change course.

    – Financial Times

     

  • Boko Haram on highways

    Boko Haram on highways

    It is the defiant face of terror

    When in May 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan clamped a state of emergency on three North-east states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, he did so with assurances to Nigerians that the reign of the terrorist group – the Boko Haram –  was about to end.

    A year and two months on, Nigerians are wiser – not only has death toll from the activities of Boko Haram continued to mount, a number of the attacks has been most spectacular. In July 2013 – two months after the declaration of emergency, the Boko Haram terrorists attacked Government Secondary School, Mumoda, Yobe State, during which over 40 students were murdered. If that was supposed to be a wake-up call, the one on the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State, two months after, in September 2013 – which also claimed another 40 lives – all students – would leave the nation numb. No wonder, the train moved to Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, where another 29 students were gruesomely murdered in their dormitories exactly five months after.

    As tragic as each of the attacks was, none appears to have gripped global imagination as the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitories in Chibok community, Borno State, on April 15. It was one terrorist misadventure that would spark global outrage, followed by the birth of the #BringBackOurGirls movement.

    Today, more than 90 days after, many of the girls are still in captivity, while a few escaped.

    As it appears, the murderous group remains unrelenting. About two weeks ago, it took its reign of terror one step further when, according to reports, it seized one of the main routes into Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, forcing a detour on hapless motorists, many of whom reportedly took over 12 hours for journeys that ordinarily would take two hours. Indeed, for motorists along the 187-kilometre Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu stretch, theirs have become a daily nightmare in the hands of the terrorists who have since taken over several spots, including abandoned villages, to strike at will – leaving deaths and destruction in their trail.

    By some accounts, some motorists who ventured to undertake the journey through the route were reportedly brought back in body bags. There are reports of nearly a dozen communities along the vast stretch said to have been deserted as a result of the activities of the terrorist group. Mohammed Jidda, chairman of the Civilian JTF in Molai, a village some 15 kilometres from Maiduguri was quoted as telling newshounds that about 60 settlements along the entire stretch have been deserted with the residents fleeing to Maiduguri for safety. The Northeast zone of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has since put the figure of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri and its environ at 130,000.

    Much as we wish that we could agree with the government on its claim to be ‘on top of the situation’, the reality on ground, obviously paints a contrary picture – one that is hard to ignore. With two successive attacks on Nyanya, within the precincts of Abuja, the seat of the Federal Government in a spate of one month, it is clear that nowhere is spared the siege of the Boko Haram.

    For sure, it is not simply about deploying some 20,000 troops to the North-east which the government is all too eager to advertise; or the claim about shipment of more sophisticated hardware into the region in what is supposed to herald a new phase in the push against the Boko Haram; or even the hype about international support to combat the reign of terror.

    For the hapless citizens forced to flee their homes in search of safety, the fathers/mothers forced to watch the abduction of their girl-child or the conscription of their boy-child into the insurgency, such claims obviously mean nothing. Of greater relevance is whether the equipment and the troop numbers is effectual when it comes to prompt and adequate response to situation of dire emergencies. The answer to this would seem partly answered by the relative ease with which the terrorists move around with their hardware unchallenged, to wreak maximum havoc.

    We must say that given the huge capital allocation to the defence sector in the last three years, Nigerians have good grounds to expect robust response to the challenges posed by the Boko Haram. There are simply too many reports of distress calls unheeded by the military; countless incidents in which the insurgents would spend hours ravaging communities with no signs of security presence to aid the victims.

    The current situation in which the terrorists are not only allowed free reign over vast territories, but would go as far as to hoist their flags on the nation’s soil is certainly deplorable. It is about time the security agencies changed the tide if only to assure the citizens that they are truly on top of the situation.

  • Malala and Jonathan

    Malala and Jonathan

    •It took the presence of Malala for the president to want to meet with the Chibok families

    Malala Yousafzai is a teenager, and it took her presence to wake a presidency of grownups from its isolation to a simple truth. She is the girl that survived a shooting for insisting on the education of the girl child in her home in Pakistan, and she has become a towering emblem of hope and courage for the high ideals of women liberation without the tincture of vainglorious vanity or cant.

    She arrived Nigeria to enlist her credentials in support of the campaign to free the Chibok girls, who were whisked away in a brutal night from the serene air of school to a pious captivity. In the process she met with some of the girls who managed to escape their ordeal. In spite of their fortuitous peace, the presidency has shunned any opportunity to host them and their parents in the country’s hallowed house.

    This has earned him a slew of criticisms, growing especially from his attitude since the girls were abducted. The presidency, in words spoken and unspoken, had tried to cast doubts in the minds of Nigerians that the girls were actually missing. A political motive was imputed and some members of the administration that undermined the veracity of the story were never checked for insensitivity. This attitude was emphasized by the abrupt about-face by the presidency on a promised trip to Chibok to visit the melancholy community as a show of symbolic support and succour for the people.

    This led to the emergence of the #Bringbackthegirls movement. The Jonathan administration tarred the group with a partisan brush, and simplified an essentially emotional matter into the brickbat of political gamesmanship.

    It was in that context that Malala visited Nigeria, and her coming also signposts the frustration of the international community over the impotence and naivety of the Jonathan administration to decide on any concrete steps to free these girls. But her coming suddenly woke up the Jonathan administration to the prudence of meeting with the families of the girls as well as the free ones. Was the move of the presidency a photo opportunity, or a cynical attempt to win a redeeming attention from the outside world that has grown impotent and weary of its distance from the agonies of the families involved?

    That was the thinking of those women and girls who decided to pooh-pooh the president’s move as opportunistic and cynically self-serving. But how come the president who had the girls with us all these days did not know it had to meet with them until a teenager from another land spoke about their plight. Yet, the president with some of his aides enjoyed the limelight of a photo-op with the famous heroine of human and girls’ rights. “Out of the mouths of babes and infants, thou has ordained strength…” said the Bible.

    We find it quite objectionable that rather than admit its moral wrong, the presidency passed the buck and blamed the Bringbackthegirls movement for the action of the Chibok citizens. Hear the words of Doyin Okupe, the president’s spokesman: “It is obvious that the Bringbackthegirls (campaigners) are interested in showmanship, not genuinely concerned about the plight of the children and their parents.”

    That does not address the essential fact that the president and his associates have, from the beginning, perceived any expression of distaste over the fate of the girls as an act of ambushing the government. It is a bunker mentality and an expression of failure of imagination and surrender to witch-hunting.  The presidency has also implied on a number of occasions that the Bringbackthegirls movement is the brainchild of the opposition and therefore has created for itself a cosy morality of believing that the narrative of the abducted girls has moved from a genuine search to a victimizing of the federal government. That only happens in a government run without a high and noble principle.

  • Professor Obey

    Professor Obey

    •His appointment should be encouraged as endorsement of experience in our universities

    At 72, the entertainment celebrity and Juju music maestro, Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi, who is perhaps more popularly known by his stage signature, Chief Commander,  is certain to experience new vistas following his appointment as Professor Emeritus at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State. Obey is expected to work as a visiting artiste in the university’s Department of English and Performing Arts. At his age, and given his stature as a seasoned and successful musician, it is reasonable to believe that he would have something of value to offer students.

    Remarkably, Obey’s appointment represents a unique and significant enrichment of the department as well as the educational institution, with its promise of fresh perspectives. However, it is hoped that his elevated academic title is not just an expression of the culture of exaggeration so familiar in the country. This means that the import of his designation should be reflected not only in role expectation and the nature of the space available for him to function, but also in the quantifiable contribution to the advancement of knowledge.

    Essentially, perhaps the beauty of Obey’s position is that it is evidently informed more by his recognition for practical skill than for any claim to a theoretical foundation. While he is obviously not coming to the job from an academic background, there is no doubt about his hands-on expertise, which has brought him fame and money. It is commendable that the university authorities have, in this respect, been influenced by the practice in more developed countries, particularly in the western world, where in exceptional cases the value of experience is considered more useful than theoretical knowledge.

    As a rich evidence of Obey’s indisputable suitability, it is noteworthy that his musical career dates back to his tutelage years in the 1950s, before he formed a band called The International Brothers in 1964, which played a fusion of Highlife and Juju. By the time the band became Inter-Reformers in the 1970s, Obey had mastered his own brand of Juju music, known as Miliki, a Yoruba word that suggested superlative enjoyment; and he rose to prominence with a long string of Juju album hits on the West African Decca musical label. He achieved the status of a living legend, especially with his creative experimentation with drums, guitars and talking drums, and his reputation for melodious dance-floor compositions liberally spiced with Yoruba wise sayings and Christian philosophy.

    It is a testimony to the height he attained in the music circle that even after he retired from playing Juju music in the 1990s and became an evangelist promoting gospel music, his numerous fans continued to pressurise him to rethink his retirement. Interestingly, in recent times, the celebrated artiste has performed at special shows organised to project his musical achievement in the realm of Juju music, especially the widely promoted Evergreen Series, sponsored by the mobile network Glo.

    It is worth mentioning that Obey was quoted as saying, in response to news of the job, “I regard this as a great honour that I will hold dear to my heart as a development. I humbly accept the offer and assure the university authorities that as one of the legendary custodians of music in Africa and beyond, I promise to bring to bear my age-long experience in this industry for the maximum benefits of the students in particular and the university in general.”

    All things being equal, Obey’s involvement should also help in providing a useful African content in an academic environment that is predictably western in orientation. Although there have been instances of non-academic achievers in the arts who were invited to teach in academic institutions in the country, it must be admitted that such cases have been regrettably few and far between. The country’s education system will, no doubt, benefit from having more of such individuals bless the younger generation with the gems of their experience.

  • Palestinians need a state of their own

    Palestinians need a state of their own

    • Israel cannot remain oasis of peace in a region on fire

    The tragic scenario rarely varies much. Makeshift Palestinian rockets fly out of Gaza and Israel’s guided missiles and artillery shells rain in. The Israeli government vows to eradicate Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the teeming Gaza Strip. Hamas and its allies beat their breasts and vow eternal resistance. Hundreds of Palestinians, mainly civilians, die, until an international outcry calls a halt to the killing. Mediators manage to tweak the rules of engagement, and both sides reload for the next time. It is a desolate picture.

    Reaction to this conflict, the third in the past five years, has been muted. Syria’s savage civil war, the springboard for the lightning seizure by jihadis of swaths of Iraq, eclipses what for many looks like a new episode in a wearisomely familiar feud. That is short-sighted.

    The current conflict follows the kidnap and killing last month of three Jewish seminary students from a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the subsequent revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s premier, instantly blamed Hamas for the kidnapping, although it looks to have been perpetrated by the Qawasmeh clan in Hebron, which has a record as spoilers of previous ceasefires.

    What they spoiled in this instance was the unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah, its nationalist rivals in the Palestinian Authority that governs part of the West Bank. That deal afforded Mr Netanyahu the excuse to break off US-brokered talks on a two-states solution that had in any case collapsed, mainly as a result of the intransigence of his rightwing coalition, which has accelerated the colonisation of the land on which the Palestinians hope to build their state.

    Yet neither side sought to renew hostilities. Hamas, in particular, is hemmed in and incapable of offering anything but more despair and destruction. The Islamist movement fell out with Iran by refusing to side with Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian conflict, and lost its Muslim Brotherhood ally in neighbouring Egypt after Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s military coup last summer. Mr Sisi, Egypt’s new president, regards Hamas – the Palestinian chapter of the Brotherhood – as an enemy fuelling the growing jihadi menace in the Sinai peninsula.

    That is one reason Hamas dismissed Egypt’s ceasefire formula, which has no provision for Cairo to reopen the Rafah crossing to Egypt in southern Gaza, much less lift Israel’s blockade of Gaza’s northern border and seaport. Hamas continued firing after Tuesday’s ceasefire was supposed to take hold, presumably intending to show its supporters its infrastructure has hardly been dented and that it can break the siege. That is a delusion. What is more likely is that Israel, in tacit alliance with Egypt, will try to break Hamas, at a cost of many more lives.

    Yet beyond Hamas lies the spectre of the unbridled jihadism seen in Syria and Iraq – which already has bridgeheads in Palestinian refugee camps across the region as well as in Gaza. In this particular conflict, international actors need to mobilise countries such as Turkey and Qatar that have leverage with Hamas, and may persuade them of the ruinous futility of their rocket attacks. Ultimately, that should mean engagement with a Fatah-Hamas coalition government, conditional on an end to violence and a meaningful negotiating framework. That is unlikely.

    Israeli policy has left the Palestinian Authority toothless and discredited, its land eaten away by the continuing occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. But Israel’s reputation in the world is also eroding, and it is an illusion to think it can remain an oasis of peace and prosperity in a region on fire, so long as the Palestinians have no prospect of a viable state of their own.

    – Financial Times

     

  • Sowing the wind …

    Sowing the wind …

    •The Jonathan administration signposts a recourse to desperate action in the build-up to the 2015 general elections with the impeachment of Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako

    On Tuesday, Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako was impeached by the House of Assembly with more than two-thirds of the members voting to uphold the guilty verdict passed on him by the seven-member Panel set up by the Acting Chief Judge of the state to investigate the 20-point charges of gross misconduct levelled against him. Brazenly, too, Nyako’s deputy, Bala Ngilari , was supposedly made to resign, thus paving the way for the emergence of House Speaker Ahmadu Fintiri as Acting Governor for three months.

    Rather than resolve the political logjam that has gripped the state in the past few months, the impeachment has deepened the crisis confronting and threatening the survival of democracy in the country. The impeached governor has indicated he would be challenging the process adopted by the legislature in court for failure to satisfy provisions of section 188 of the constitution. Governor Nyako pointed out that the Notice of Impeachment was not served on him as prescribed by the constitution, thus rendering invalid the constitution of the panel of inquiry, its report and the adoption of same by the assembly.

    We are worried that President Goodluck Jonathan and his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have been identified as sponsors of the assembly men’s move in order to incapacitate the All Progressives Congress (APC) to which Nyako had defected from the ruling party. A court process seeking to invalidate the defection of the PDP governors had earlier been dismissed by the court. To underscore the deep involvement of the president in the process, the matter came up during the last sitting of the Council of State where elder statesmen sought withdrawal of the charges. Neither the president nor his party, nor indeed the nebulous stakeholders in the state heeded the call.

    It is unfortunate that the Federal Government has resorted to the same old tactics adopted by previous ruling parties to the detriment of the health of the Republic. In the First Republic, the ruling Northern People’s Congress (NPC) saw the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was Leader of the Opposition in the Federal Parliament as the irritant and devised various means of silencing him. The NPC went into an alliance with the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), a break-away faction of the Awolowo-led Action Group (AG) in order to keep the most popular politician in the Western Region out of circulation.

    Awolowo was arrested, put on trial before the Coker Commission of Inquiry on corruption charges and charged to court for treasonable felony. The plot was to destabilise him and his party ahead of the regional elections. It worked. Or so it seemed in the interim. Awolowo was jailed and Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola installed premier of the region. It was the beginning of the end of that Republic as it led to a chain of actions beyond the control of the federal and Akintola’s regional governments. Following the military take-over of government, Awolowo was released by the Gowon regime and installed Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council. Akintola and the NPC leader, Sir Ahmadu Bello, were killed in the coup of January 1966.

    In the Second Republic, the Shagari government first left the major political parties – the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), but went after the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). In Kaduna where the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had secured more than two-thirds of the seats, the party chose to oppress the government of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, insisting that the list of commissioners would only be approved if members of the NPN were nominated. Eventually, he was impeached in 2001 on grounds of running the ministries with special assistants. Also, to depict lack of respect for the Rule of Law, the Majority Leader of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party-controlled Borno State, Alhaji Abdulrahman Shugaba was brazenly deported by agents of the Federal Government in the bid to weaken the state government and the party.

    Under the Obasanjo administration, five state governors were illegally removed from office. In Bayelsa State, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was deployed to abduct slate lawmakers until they agreed to remove Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha in 2005. In Plateau State, only eight members of the House sat as Governor Joshua Dariye was impeached. So, in place of the two-thirds majority prescribed by the constitution, one-third was made to perform the task. And, in Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose was hounded out of office by the EFCC, ostensibly acting on the directive of the Federal Government. In the process, there emerged three governors at a time, two Speakers of the House of Assembly and even two Chief Judges. It was enough to pave the way for the Obasanjo government to achieve its aim in appointing a retired General, Adetunji Olurin, as administrator of the state.

    In Anambra and Oyo states, Governors Peter Obi and Rashidi Ladoja fell under the same hammer. Realising the danger of sitting in Awka to conduct the impeachment proceeding as required under the law, the pro-Obasanjo legislators relocated to Asaba where they performed the nefarious act. It took the intervention of the superior courts of the land to denounce and reverse the action of the state legislators.

    Similarly, in Oyo State, Ladoja was impeached by a fraction of the assembly men who sat in a hotel and effected the decision with the then president’s support. Ladoja’s deputy. Adebayo Alao-Akala, was sworn in as replacement The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan and ultimately the Supreme Court frowned at the procedure adopted by the lawmakers. The impeachment was upturned by the Supreme Court that held it was wrong to have published the Impeachment Notice in newspapers in place of serving it personally on the accused; but that was after Ladoja was put out of political circulation for almost one year.

    In the Nyako impeachment case, it is reprehensible that the PDP lawmakers could fall into the errors of their predecessors. Despite previous rulings that established that there could be no constitutional cover for breach of procedure, the Adamawa legislators went ahead to abridge Nyako’s constitutional rights. As Nyako has argued, the impeachment notice was not served on him, thereby denying him the right to fair hearing. The legislators were in such a hurry that they failed to thoroughly investigate the 20-count charge. Whereas the constitution grants the panel up to three months to conduct forensic investigation into the charges, it had turned in its report within four days.

    We support Nyako’s decision to challenge the verdict in court and warn President Jonathan to desist from following a ruinous path that had set fire on previous Republics. Moving from Adamawa to Nasarawa and probably Edo and Rivers states controlled by the opposition may set the country on fire. The president is powerful under the 1999 Constitution, but is not all-powerful. The plan to charge Nyako with treason for allegedly levying war against the country shows that Nigerian leaders learnt no lessons from political history. It is recourse to Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa’s move to crush Awolowo politically. If it did not work then, Jonathan’s attempt to open war flanks in four states at a time is doomed to fail.

    There are, however, lessons to be learnt by the opposition figures from the Nyako saga. It is calamitous for a politician to move alone without his associates. Nyako failed to carry members of the assembly and critical politicians who would have rallied round him along in his decision making. The fact that he, at a point, appointed more than 1,000 special assistants and made his wives key aides is enough to win him odium from the people. Yet the house did not exercise the rule of law and the principle of fair hearing before flushing out the chief executive.

    President Jonathan should desist from misusing his powers as it amounts to sowing the wind. He may end up reaping the whirlwind

  • Hamas is playing a dangerous game with Gazan lives

    Hamas is playing a dangerous game with Gazan lives

    SO FAR Hamas’s military campaign against Israel has been a dismal failure. Thanks in part to Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, some 1,200 rockets fired at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities have caused only one Israeli death and a few other casualties. Attempted commando attacks via the sea and a tunnel were stopped short, and a drone that ventured into Israel was quickly shot down. Yet Hamas on Tuesday rejected an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was supported by Western governments and the Arab League and had been accepted by Israel.

    Why would Hamas insist on continuing the fight when it is faring so poorly? The only plausible answer is stomach-turning: The Islamic movement calculates that it can win the concessions it has yet to obtain from Israel and Egypt not by striking Israel but by perpetuating the killing of its own people in Israeli counterattacks. More than 200 people, including a number of children, have already died in Gaza; Hamas probably calculates that more deaths will prompt Western governments to pressure Israel to grant Hamas’s demands.

    So far, the tactic is not working. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Tuesday condemned Hamas for rejecting the cease-fire and “us[ing] the innocent lives of civilians .  .              . as shields.” But Hamas’s commanders, who have burrowed into underground bunkers, appear to be doubling down. They are urging civilians who have left their homes to return, including some 15,000 who evacuated the northern part of Gaza in response to Israeli warnings. The cease-fire proposal was answered with a new barrage of missiles aimed at central Israel.

    To be sure, the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has more incentive than Hamas to agree to a cease-fire, even though a majority of the Israeli public probably opposes it. Israel has little to gain from a prolonged conflict; a threatened ground invasion of Gaza would cause heavy casualties on both sides and, if it destroyed Hamas, leave Israel with the problem of finding a new government for the territory. Mr. Netanyahu is seeking the renewal of the truce that ended the last Israel-Hamas mini-war, in 2012. That would end attacks on both sides while allowing for a gradual opening of Gaza’s border for civilian trade.

    Hamas’s rejection reflects its weakened position compared with two years ago. Egypt’s military government has shut down most of the cross-border tunnels that Hamas depended on for weapons as well as revenue, making it impossible for the Gaza administration to pay its workforce. The Islamists sought relief by forming a unity government with the secular, West Bank-based Fatah movement, but that did not lead to the payment of salaries or the reopening of the border with Egypt. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers last month, Israel arrested dozens of Hamas’s operatives in the West Bank, making their release another objective of the missile attacks.

    To its credit, Israel has used sophisticated technology, including targeted text messages and dummy warning missiles, to minimize civilian casualties. But innocent people will inevitably be killed in attacks on launchers and missile factories that are purposely placed in densely populated areas. The right response of the international community is not to surrender to Hamas’s despicable tactics but to continue insisting that it unconditionally accept the cease-fire proposed by Egypt.

    – Washington Post

     

  • ‘High risk’ banks

    ‘High risk’ banks

    •We need periodic assessment of our banks in the interest of the economy

    Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) assessment of 14 “high risk” banks in Nigeria is a welcome development. The purpose of the exercise, which is probably overdue, is to bring sanity to the banking sector by applying stringent conditions for credit facilities obtained, especially by big borrowers. This has necessitated the introduction of risk-based supervision as a structural approach, focusing on risk profiles of banks as opposed to the “age-long compliance-based supervision mechanism and regulatory approach whose level of supervision is the same for all banks, irrespective of the size and the type of risk they take.

    Also, it has generally been observed that credit risk (the likelihood that a borrower will default on a debt or fail to meet a contractual obligation, such as the repayment of a debt) constitutes a threat to the survival of any bank. The risk assessment is important because many banks have died because of lack of supervision, especially in some banks with high risk appetite. For instance, a number of high risk loans were routinely given to high-standing politicians whose defaults in payment could have led to high cost of litigation against the defaulters, while delays in delivery of justice often compound the chances of loan recovery.

    Although the probability of loss is inherent in every loan, proper loan appraisal is made difficult when sufficient information is not available for screening and assessing the lenders in order to determine the level of risk involved in granting the loans. For this reason, banks should be periodically assessed to check their state of health and for early detection of likely collapse.

    But it is curious that at least six of the banks listed by the CBN as “high risk” banks made the list of The Banker Magazine’s (of the Financial Times Group) “Top 1,000 World Banks” for the second year running, in its 2014 ranking, based on the Tier-1 capital. In all though, 13 Nigerian banks made the list. But their positions, despite the report of increase in the profit on capital of three of the banks that are not foreign-owned subsidiaries, are nothing to write home about. For instance, the first Nigerian bank on the list is in the 293rd position, followed by the next 415th, then 424th, 532nd, 539th and 622nd, respectively. We do not need anyone to tell us that this is not good enough.

    While we support the CBN’s assessment exercise, this should not be a fire brigade approach but strictly a routine exercise. The banks should be periodically assessed to check their state of health. The situation in the past where we kept celebrating dying banks in ignorance is bad for the economy and should never be repeated.

    Of course we expect that the required mechanism to facilitate access to the information that the banks require to make them take informed decisions on the loans they grant will also be put in place. The banks’ knowledge about the antecedents and characters of borrowers is enough ammunition for the banks to effectively scrutinise the borrowers’ records in order to determine their risk levels. The efficiency of the screening approach may foreclose risky borrowers from securing loans and minimising defaults. The rise in default rates and the size of non-performing loans among Nigerian commercial banks may put into question the efficiency of our “banking system screening criteria” and the “stringency” of the bank screening measures.

    This is why the CBN’s assessment should be thorough. Yes, banking is about risk taking, but the risks must be responsible and sensible rather than the reckless risks that killed some of our banks in the past. When banks collapse, it is unlike when cards collapse because it is the hard-earned incomes of people that get trapped. The results, of course, are unintended economic and social consequences to the nation.