The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Russia’s plan for Syria needs testing

    Russia’s plan for Syria needs testing

    A tough UN resolution on chemical weapons is now needed

    Russia’s declaration that it wants the Assad regime to place its chemical weapons under international control is the latest unexpected twist in the Syrian diplomatic saga. Up until the moment on Monday when Russia unveiled its plan, all eyes had been fixed on the US Congress, where Barack Obama was seeking approval for a punitive missile strike against the Syrian regime. Suddenly, the drama is moving from Congress to the UN in New York. There, the US will seek a Security Council resolution that transforms Russia’s initiative into an action plan to destroy the Assads’ chemical and biological weapons stockpile.

    Mr Obama grasped Russia’s proposal with alacrity on Monday. For the past week, the president has been struggling to get his plan for military strikes approved by Congress. Presidential humiliation loomed. Thanks to Russia’s move, the debate on Capitol Hill can now be suspended while a diplomatic solution is explored. Mr Obama thereby averts what would probably have been political impalement by Congress.

    Beyond cynical delaying tactics, the motives for Vladimir Putin’s initiative are hard to grasp. The Russian leader is not inclined to do Mr Obama favours. He may have reckoned that Mr Obama would either win his battle in Congress or attack Syria even if he lost. If so, Mr Putin can argue that this is a diplomatic coup, one that averts the missile strike Moscow fiercely opposed.

    That said, Russia may be giving some ground. It is putting heat on Bashar al-Assad, an unusual, if not unique, development in this crisis. The text of Russia’s initiative implies that Syria has chemical weapons (something the Assads deny). It asks Syria to meet the demands of the international community and relinquish those weapons (something the Assads do not want to do).

    Russia’s intentions must now be further tested. The US will rightly demand that a UN resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons is passed quickly. It will want the UN to create a credible international body that secures those weapons. It will demand firm deadlines by which they must be destroyed.

    Meanwhile, to concentrate Russian and Syrian minds on the need for concessions, the US president should keep his plan for a missile strike on the table. After all, this threat has squeezed what could be a constructive diplomatic initiative from Moscow – even if US articulation of its military plan has been bumbling at best.

    As the UN convenes, there is ample cause to be sceptical of success. Securing Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile is a huge task. It is located in dozens of sites that will be hard to reach in a civil war. The Assads are masters of lies, who have obstructed all UN missions so far.

    But the hope must be that the US and Russia overcome their divisions and agree a Security Council resolution on Syria. That would be unprecedented in this conflict. The prospect of a credible US-Russian deal would certainly make Mr Assad start to sweat.

    – Financial Times

  • Seizing the bishop

    Seizing the bishop

    ONCE upon a time, the September 6 kidnap, by unknown gun men, of Archbishop Ignatius Kattey, Dean of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria and Archbishop of Niger Delta North Diocese, and his wife, Beatrice, would have passed for plain sacrilege, from which even the most depraved would cringe. But there it was; and even now, the cleric is still in captivity. It just shows how decayed our society has become. That must be condemned by all right-thinking citizens. His wife was left off the hook, revealing that the cleric was their target.

    Still, moral free fall or no, nothing can excuse the creeping anarchy on Rivers State, with its concomitant high level of insecurity. It is even more unacceptable that the utmost professional charged with ensuring the security of the Rivers citizen, Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu, would appear too distracted to concentrate on his work; and his bosses at Abuja would appear comfy with playing politics with the lives of the ordinary citizens in the state.

    A few days ago, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State had rued the descending anarchy, claiming it was due to the slackness of the Mbu-led police in the state. True, the embattled Amaechi could not be said to be unpartisan in his comments, for he is involved with President Goodluck Jonathan, in the tussle for the political soul of the state. So, using the archbishop’s kidnapping to point at Mr. Mbu’s tragic distraction could well be playing to the gallery to score a quick one on his federal traducers and their local viceroys.

    Still, the governor would appear to have genuine cause to complain because whereas kidnapping and allied violent crimes were rampant when he took office in 2007, those vices had significantly been rolled back under his charge – until the current political crisis rocking the state.

    Aside, even with the charge of alleged partisanship laid on Mr. Mbu, coupled with the reckless statement credited to the police commissioner which tended to suggest he was competing with the governor for political authority in the state, the police authorities did not think it fit to redeploy Mr. Mbu to another state. Might he have been left behind as a prized asset in the Rivers State political struggle, even if the security situation degenerated beyond measure?

    This is a hard question. But it is hardly illegitimate, given the way things are shaping out in that state. Still, the onus is on Mr. Mbu to squarely face his work. When hoodlums start kidnapping moral exemplars; or it becomes imperative for an archbishop to drive round with armed escorts just because some hoodlums are on the prowl, then somebody has failed in his duty of state.

    The way the state police are celebrating the abandonment of Mrs. Kattey, while the kidnappers took away her husband, claiming to be “on top of the situation”, borders on arrant stupidity. You cannot be on top of a situation when you are always securing the stable doors when the stallion has escaped. Combing bushes after kidnappers have bolted with their quarry is not particularly intelligent. So, the Rivers State police must get real.

    Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector-General of Police, owes himself a professional duty to ensure his men in the states are professional and clearly so. Mr. Mbu may yet protest his innocence on charges of partisanship – and he may well be right. But the worsening security situation in Rivers gives a contrary view. He must be made to sit up.

    The citizens of the state have inalienable right under the 1999 Constitution to full security. That must be ensured, starting with the full restoration of Archbishop Kattey’s freedom; and preventing any future kidnap.

  • Questions for ITF

    Questions for ITF

    •How come the Federal Government can’t pay interns N11 billion in a wasteful government? 

    A key necessity for the industrial and economic development of any country is the creation of a critical corps of professionals with mid-level technical skills to solve practical problems and provide high quality services in diverse sectors of the economy. It was obviously in recognition of this fact that the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) was established in 1971 to provide, among others, Direct Training, Vocational and Apprentice Training, Research and Consultancy Service, as well as administer the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES).

    The ITF itself recognises the SIWES as one of its central functions when it claims that through the scheme “the Fund also builds capacity for graduates and youth self-employment, in the context of small scale industrialistion in the economy”. Under its SIWES scheme, the ITF is required to pay allowances to different categories of students to acquire relevant industrial training experience in their various fields before being absorbed into the job market or pursuing further education.

    Given the centrality of the SIWES to its statutory functions and the country’s development goals, it is shocking that the ITF is owing students who embarked on their Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme over the last few years the amazing amount of N11 billion. Director-General of the ITF, Professor LongmasWapmu, made this embarrassing disclosure in Lagos. This is clearly another case of the objectives of a well-conceived and brilliant idea being undermined by our characteristic national penchant for lack of seriousness and disdain for meticulous planning.

    For instance, the DG cited paucity of fund as a major reason for this unfortunate and inexcusable situation. Explaining that it was only in the last two years that government began giving the ITF sufficient funds, Professor Wapmu said, “Previously, on the average, we required about N2.3 billion for each year for the SIWES programme. But we pay on the basis of first come first served, so we decided to pay some students who had graduated some years back”.

    The excuse of paucity of funds is only indicative of a profligate country that refuses to get its priorities right. Here is a country that can afford to pay billions of Naira as allowances, salaries and other perks to largely unproductive public officers at all levels of government. Here is a country where humongous amounts are stolen from the public till as evidenced in the fuel subsidy scam or the pensions fund fraud, for instance. Yet, we cannot find the fund for a scheme central to our quest for industrialisation.

    No less incredible is Professor Wapmu’s claim that “We have not achieved much progress in terms of clearing the backlog of accumulated SIWES allowance because the number of students continues to increase due to the increase in the number of institutions”. Given its mandate, the ITF has the responsibility to track and keep abreast of growth, both in the number of institutions and students. Without adequate and accurate statistics, how can the ITF plan effectively and efficiently to achieve its objectives? Is it a problem of sheer incompetence we have here or possible mismanagement of resources? The relevant authorities must surely seek to find out.

    Apparently submitting to helplessness and cluelessness, the DG hinted that once the backlog of allowances is cleared, the allowances will no more be paid from 2014. He said that the Federal Government has informed the ITF of its inability to fund the SIWES any longer and suggested that parents should be able to bear the burden. This is a shameful abdication of responsibility and a demonstration of gross insensitivity to the pitiable economic plight of most Nigerians today.

  • The road to Damascus

    The road to Damascus

    The Obama administration offered a decidedly mixed reaction Monday to a suggestion that Syria might be willing to turn over its chemical weapons to international authorities to avert a U.S military attack. For part of the day officials sounded dismissive, but as evening fell, the president himself acknowledged that the idea was, potentially, “a significant breakthrough.”

    It’s tough to know whether the offer is a meaningful one or an eleventh-hour stalling tactic by Syrian President Bashar Assad, but there’s no reason not to consider it seriously. The administration should “run it to ground,” as Obama suggested he would, even as it continues to plan what it will do in the event that the proposal falls apart.

    In the meantime, Obama will presumably continue his struggle to build support for a military strike, a plan that has divided the country and that faces an uphill climb in Congress. But this much is certain: The president will be more successful in that appeal if the government makes public the evidence it says it has amassed showing that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb last month that killed hundreds of civilians.

    White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said over the weekend that the attribution of the attack to Assad passed the “common-sense test.” But that won’t be enough for many Americans who remember how the U.S. invaded Iraq a decade ago on the flawed assumption that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Nor will they be satisfied by assurances that more detailed information is being provided on a classified basis to members of Congress.

    In a speech Monday, national security advisor Susan Rice laid out the case against the Assad government: “Only the Syrian regime has the capacity to deliver chemical weapons on a scale to cause the devastation we saw in Damascus. The opposition does not. The rockets were fired from territory controlled by the regime. The rockets landed in territory controlled or contested by the opposition. And the intelligence we’ve gathered reveals senior officials planning the attack and then, afterward, plotting to cover up the evidence by destroying the area with shelling.”

    Plausible as this scenario may be, it consists of a series of assertions. If the administration is to quiet widespread doubts, it will have to declassify the conversations between government officials it says it intercepted (even if it redacted the officials’ names) and also make public satellite images that it contends contain evidence of the launching of rockets from government-controlled areas and preparations by government personnel for a chemical attack.

    Not every opponent of military action against Syria questions the administration’s account of who is responsible for the carnage captured on those unsettling videos. Some freely accept that the Assad government, if not Assad himself, ordered the attack, but worry about the consequences of even the “limited and tailored” operation the administration says it is planning. But there are other Americans who accept the “red line” Obama laid out but aren’t convinced that the Syrian regime crossed it. They’re entitled to the evidence.

    – Los Angeles Times

  • Gathering cloud in Offa

    Gathering cloud in Offa

    •Kwara electoral commission has questions to answer

    The political logjam in Offa local government council of Kwara State, following the August 31 elections has called attention once again to the danger that poll manipulation poses to growth and development. Since the results were announced on September 1, protests have rocked the state, as the aggrieved parties have mobilised their supporters, calling for an upturn of the outcome as announced by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, KWASIEC. Chairman of the commission, Dr. Uthman Ajidagba, announced that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Abdulwaheed Olanipekun polled 35,937 votes to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Saheed Popoola’s 20,161. PDP’s candidates in the 12 wards in the council were equally declared winners.

    While the PDP and its candidates promptly accepted the result as authentic and thanked the electorate for reposing confidence in them, Popoola and his supporters rejected it as fraudulent, false and unacceptable. Since then, there have been fears that Offa, a town prone to violent response to such development, could erupt again. The opposition APC said the figures credited to the two parties were false as the actual votes were far less than those declared by Dr. Ajidagba.

    This could have passed for one of those ridiculous moments when politicians merely trade blames and insults but for the twist added by Kamarudeen Olalekan who claimed to have been declared winner of the councillorship election in the South West ward. Olalekan said his conscience would not allow him accept the unearned victory as the APC candidate won convincingly. This is unusual.

    Even though the PDP has disowned Olalekan who was described as a hired agent of the APC, having allegedly defected to the ACN in 2011, the development has further called to question the role that the KWASIEC played in the conduct of the election. Is the commission an impartial arbiter? Did Dr. Ajidagba and his team perform the role assigned them by the constitution without fear or favour?

    The antecedents of the commission cannot inspire confidence in anyone. The Justice Ibrahim Yusuf-led appeal tribunal that sat on the petition on the conduct of the 2011 election said of the commission: “The manner the commission handled the election was worrisome. It did a shoddy job. The two local government elections of October 30, 2010 and January 12, 2011 were conducted in violation of the state’s Electoral Law as amended.”

    On August 31, elections were conducted and the candidates list is being disputed. This is a show of shame and demonstration of incompetence on the part of the electoral commission that has kept funereal silence despite the loud protests. This is a replay of the 2011 senatorial election in Anambra State where the PDP went to the polls without the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) knowing the valid candidates of the party. It was left for the courts to sort out.

    Victors in electoral contests are quick to challenge losers to take their cases to the tribunals, knowing that they would have been sworn in and would thus enjoy the advantage of incumbency during the pendency of the matter. The issues to be resolved in the Offa rerun dispute are not just legal, but political, moral and sociological. Questions being asked the electoral commission are: Whose name was on the candidates list for the Shawo South West Ward released before the election? Whose name was on the official results list announced and published by the commission? Were the results authenticated by agents of both parties in the 12 wards?

    And, for the PDP, how did it sweep the polls in a council known to be the stronghold of the opposition at a time that the ruling party is in disarray?

    Unfortunately, having declared the results with the beneficiaries sworn in, the electoral commission is likely to hide behind legal technicalities in claiming that only a validly constituted tribunal could look into grievances. The commission and parties should note that confidence in the electoral process is the only antidote to breakdown of law and order. If the electorate is made to believe that justice is unavailable, voters may resort to self help; which is dangerous.

  • Stowaway Daniel

    Stowaway Daniel

    •His case brings to the fore the importance of parental care in children’s upbringing

    It was not that we have not heard cases of stowaways above 18 years in Nigeria and elsewhere, but when a 13 year-old is involved, it is sure to generate news and excitement, and even surprise. That is why the story of Daniel Oikhena, who was arrested after emerging from the wheel compartment of an Arik Air Flight operating from Benin airport to Lagos on August 24, continues to generate debate.

    Although, Daniel, a Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1 pupil in Benin, Edo State, has been enjoying celebrity status of sort since his arrest, what he did was bad and he should be paying for it now but for his being a minor.

    It was for this same reason that his plight attracted the sympathy of a non-governmental organisation, DE Rauf’s Volunteer Group, that has offered him a scholarship to university level, to enable him realise his dream of travelling by air in a legitimate way. This was after the director-general of the group, Amitolu Shittu, confirmed that a team of lawyers led by Yinka Muyiwa and Nafiu Adeniyi had been at the Shangisha, Lagos office of the State Security Service (SSS), to apply for administrative bail for Daniel, where they were told that he was not detained but was merely delayed for security reasons.

    What is needed in the circumstance is counselling and not necessarily punishment since the boy is only a misguided minor. That probably explains why, apart from the scholarship offered by DE Rauf’s Volunteer Group, the Edo State Government that has taken custody of Daniel plans to send him to a “correctional facility” before allowing him to return to school.

    Opinions are bound to be divided on a matter like this. While many people believe that Daniel should not be punished owing to his tender age, others believe that the offence should not have been committed in the first place if the child was properly brought up. There is merit in both positions. Just as there is the fear that some other misguided kids who, seeing the way Daniel is treated as a celebrity, might want to capitalise on the incident to attempt to do likewise.

    This is why we support the “correctional facility” promised by the Edo State government for Daniel. Apart from this, however, our governments should provide recreational facilities for children to relax so that it is not all work and no play, which will make life boring for them.

    We must also stress the importance of parental care in the matter. Daniel is a typical example of a child from a broken home. Because they do not live together, Daniel’s father and mother showed up separately when their son was brought to the Government House in Benin. Daniel’s father, Osaigbowo (44), complained that he had a problem with his wife of 20 years. In fact, he showed up at government house when his son and wife were taken inside and was not allowed to join them. It was suspected that the father turned up only on hearing about the scholarship being offered to his son.

    Situations like this can easily lead to a child’s indulgence in criminal activities because the child is not properly cared for. Daniel, like many misguided adults and kids, might have heard of the United States as a place for him to make it as a runaway child.

    Under the circumstances, we cannot reasonably put all the blame on him. It is a problem arising from the problems of the larger society, especially our governments that do nothing to improve the welfare of Nigerian families or make concerted efforts to see to the education of every child to a level where he or she would understand the need for self realisation.

     

  • Girl-child tears

    Girl-child tears

    •Thousands of women decide to weep as weapons against underage marriage

    The raging debate on the vexed issue of child marriage is not about to end. From all indications, it appears the womenfolk have sworn to keep the issue on the front burner of public discourse.

    Three thousand Christian women from various church denominations across the South-South and South-East regions have vowed to converge on the Prayer City ground in Calabar, Cross River State, with the sole purpose of crying for 48 hours to protest against child marriage.

    The co-founder of the Prayer to All Nations Ministry (a.k.a Prayer City Calabar), Rev. Ephraim Effiong said : “We are totally against child marriage and to register our protest, about 3,000 women would cry to God for 48 hours to end the evil practice everywhere in the nation.”

    How did the nation drag itself into this quagmire? It all started as a legitimate attempt by the Senate to amend sections of the constitution in July. Ironically, the debate was not about the legal age a person can marry. The debate was on the renunciation of citizenship. The relevant section, Section 1 states that “Any citizen of Nigeria of full age who wishes to renounce his Nigerian citizenship shall make a declaration in the prescribed manner for the renunciation.”

    As a follow-up, Section 4 adds that “for the purpose of subsection (1) of this section, ((a) “full age” means the age of eighteen years and above; (b) any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.”

    That is the controversial section that is generating heat in the polity. When the Senate, therefore, sought to delete this clause, that is section 29 (4) (b) of the constitution, all hell was let loose.

    Not unexpectedly, the Senator from Zamfara State, Ahmed Yerima, a former Governor of the state, who first shot into national prominence for his introduction of Sharia, the Islamic legal system, was up in arms. The senator, who ruffled not a few feathers when he took as wife a 14 year-old Egyptian girl, frustrated the attempt by his colleagues to delete the “offending” section.

    To compound matters, a combustible combination of religion and tribe was thrown into the debate.

    However, rather than looking at the issue of child marriage from the religious and cultural lenses, it would be helpful for the nation to look at the issue from the perspective of what is good for the child. Although taking children as brides has been justified on account of religion and culture, we dare say the practice is harmful to the socio-economic development of the girl-child.

    The United Nations Child Summit Declaration of 1990 prescribed 18 as the appropriate age of marriage and over 150 governments, including heads of state from 72 countries subscribed to the declaration.

    And back home, the Child Rights Act, 2003, prescribes 18 as the age of marriage and in fact, prescribes a penalty of half a million Naira as fine, or a jail term of five years or both, for a breach of this provision.

    What would make a parent give out a child in marriage, if not ignorance and grinding poverty? With child marriage, poverty is deepened and illiteracy is guaranteed. Besides, it should be visible, even to the blind and audible to the deaf that child marriage has grave health implications.

    Research has shown that Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF) is often caused by childbirth in underage girls, whose female organs are not fully developed. Complications arise and the result is the leakage of urine and faeces through the vagina.

    A way out of the controversy, in our view, is a constitutional guarantee of a free and compulsory primary and secondary education for all children of school age. That way, our children will be protected from the lecherous eyes of pedophiles.

  • War in Syria

    War in Syria

    •Unilateral action by the United States may complicate rather than resolve the conflict in the Middle East country

    United States President Barack Obama was unequivocal about the American determination to punish the Bashar al-Assad administration in Syria for crossing the boundary, by using chemical weapons to check the advances being made by opposition forces in the country. The Syrian President was said to have employed the weapon of mass destruction on August 24.

    Since chemical weapons were first used during World War 1, it has always provoked outrage for being a war against humanity. Alongside biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, the whole world believes the armaments could one day horrendously snuff life out of a large section of the world.

    The United Nations estimates show that, by this year, about 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the orgy of violence and war that has devastated much of Syria and turned many to refugees. Concerns over the humanitarian consequences of the war have led to widespread condemnation of President Assad, who has refused to quit the stage and enjoys the protection of veto-wielding Russia and China.

    However, since August 24, American officials, including President Obama, the Secretary of State and Defence Secretary have declared that Assad’s action could not be overlooked, as a check on other dictators who may decide to ignore international conventions and protocols to unleash terror either on their own people or in attacks against other countries. Despite the refusal of Britain to approve military attack on Syria, President Obama said America would consider unilateral action, even if it is limited in scope. So far, only France has indicated that it would be willing to stand by Obama in his proposed action.

    The security situation in the Middle East is so precarious that any international action there must be well considered and a consensus achieved to prevent untold and unexpected fallouts that could affect the delicate balance in the region. The world is yet to recover from the devastation that followed the strikes against Iraq in 1991. The British Parliament’s refusal to approve joint action with their traditional allies is largely as a result of the outrage in the country over the carnage that attended the Iraq war, and lingering doubts over whether the Saddam regime actually possessed weapons of mass destruction.

    While it is appalling that al-Assad, like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadhafi before him, could sit pretty and hold on to power as the people over whom they preside are dying in thousands and many more are being visited with untold hardship, we call on the United States to be cautious and allow diplomacy as the primary weapon to respond to the new turn of events.

    It is unfortunate that, despite the fury against the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, very little has been achieved in terms of disarmament. The ultimate solution is the elimination of such weapons. It is illogical that some countries are allowed to keep the weapons while the world powers pretend that they will never be used in war.

    The United Nations must bear a large chunk of the blame. It has been very slow in acting in the face of the Syrian affront, thus provoking an American attack. The world body owes humanity a duty to ensure that blood-thirsty dictators are stopped in their tracks immediately they cross the boundary of decency. Otherwise, many more would follow suit.

    The Syrian people must be saved from the pain and agony visited on them, but we urge multilateral action, not unilateralism in a world that has become very delicate.

     

  • Behold, the tattered umbrella

    Behold, the tattered umbrella

    IT is all reminiscent of the popular saying: those the gods will destroy, they first make mad! But in this case, the madness is not from the gods. Rather, it is self-inflicted by the unconscionable power greed of the partisan players in the federal ruling party.

    Hence, the crumbling of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is disaster foretold. But even with greater tragedy writ large, it is the same circus of impotent threats and brainless grandstanding emerging from its troubled chambers. The ruling party has obviously outlived its usefulness. It should be helped into its grave, with minimum damage to the democratic republic.

    Before the August 31 PDP special national convention bust-up, which alleged electoral manipulation led to the storm-out by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar with seven governors in tow, the federal ruling party had ruled the country on three ruinous principles: to Nigerians, power without purpose; to PDP members, domination without conscience; and to the grundnorm, rule of law is a luxury a democratic republic could happily do without.

    In other words, the PDP has no respect for democratic niceties, neither in the all-important matters of state; nor in its own internal affairs. So, while it resorted to intimidation and other strong arm tactics to bypass general due process, it has made the Presidency near-imperial, a poisoned chalice former President Olusegun Obasanjo bequeathed the party, in running, or more aptly, mis-running, its internal affairs, while pretending to follow the law. The president as party leader is a euphemism for lawlessness – an illegal charter purporting to enslave even its own laws in an illicit presidential pouch.

    The PDP tragedy is landing a Goodluck Jonathan who lusts after Obasanjo-era lawlessness; but lacks the personal force to impose consequent presidential banditry. Like Obasanjo, Jonathan secured a presidential poodle in Bamanga Tukur (roundly rejected by his own Adamawa PDP members) as party national chairman. Through Tukur, Jonathan could then exclude as many as are opposed to his bid for second term nomination.

    That would explain the total shutting out of the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and almost all the PDP constitution-recognised Rivers delegates to the August 31 special Abuja convention, on the basis of alleged “suspension”. The protesting governors, Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) complained of similar delegate gerrymandering, just to work to the answer of delivering Goodluck Jonathan the 2015 presidential nomination, even if at the end of it all, PDP is all but dead!

    Indeed, the August 31 bust-out was due comeuppance for a party that has serially raped its own laws, held its own members in utmost contempt and criminalised lawful dissent as rebellion. It serves it right: a party that cannot run its own affairs has no business running the country. Also, a party that would not follow due process and is also stone-deaf to voices of reason is clear and present danger to this democracy.

    Still, every effort must be made that the PDP catastrophe does not mutate to the death knell of the current democracy. To start with, other parties, particularly the new All Progressives Congress (APC) must learn from the PDP split and make law and decency their essence and operational foundation.

    Then the PDP itself, as lawless as it has been, should learn from its own mistakes and, for once, embrace due process to tackle whatever challenges it is now facing. Instead of Alhaji Tukur threatening thunder and brimstone, suggestive of illegal unleashing of security agencies on real or perceived opponents, the aggrieved should resort to legal arbitration as any civil and civilised group should.

    Political intolerance led to the crash of the First and Second Republics. Patriotic Nigerians must ensure it does not lead to the crash of this one, simply because PDP cannot manage its internal contradictions.

  • Not enough

    Not enough

    ONE item that would be hard to miss in the 2012 annual report of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, is the rather extravagant picture of flow of credit from the banking sector to the economy. Aside presenting a definitive rebuttal of the charge which appears to have stuck over the years, that the banking sector has been largely unresponsive to the credit needs of the real sector, it generally painted a picture of a banking sector finally coming to its own after years of restructuring.

    The statistics is probably meant to say that things are beginning to look up. For instance, whereas in 2011, the total loans volume was N7.27tn, in 2012, it jumped to N8.15tn – a leap by 12.10 per cent.

    There are of course other indications aside the absolute numbers. Loan performance appears to have improved appreciably during the period. Whereas the volume of Non Performing Loans (NPL) was N360.07bn in 2011, it fell to N286.09bn – a net decline of 20.55 per cent.

    Overall, the picture is however a mixed bag. First, the breakdown of the sectoral allocation is revealing of disproportionate allocation to sectors with very minimal local value addition. As one would expect, the lion’s share of credit went to the oil and gas sector with N1.912tn; followed by manufacturing (N1.185tn); general (N977.20bn); commerce (N813.40bn); information and communication (N722.87bn). The public sector (governments) got N640.06bn, real estate N376.58bn; while agriculture, forestry and fishing got distant allocation of N293.09bn. These sectors account for 84.93 per cent of total credits to the economy as against 83.53 per cent in 2011.

    The other revelation is no less instructive. Only seven of the 20 banks in the country managed to pool a whopping 80.73 per cent of the total loans in 2012. In the preceding year, the seven banks accounted for 68.22 per cent of the total loan stock. The banks are First Bank, Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, EcobankPlc and Skye Bank Plc. The other banks make up the difference of 19.27 per cent.

    We certainly welcome the growing numbers if only because the economy needs all the credit to keep afloat and to expand.

    However, the problems are deeper and indeed more complex than the absolute growth in loan volumes suggest. To start with, it is known that the greatest issue in the financial services industry today is the cost of credit. The fact remains that those sectors considered as being in direst need of cash are often those in the least position to get it. If we may be more specific, it explains why the oil and gas sector – with their sometimes incredibly fast turn-around cycles – are the preferred destination of most of the credit, whereas a sector like agriculture, or infrastructure financing, or the small scale business for that matter, with longer gestation periods but with greater, proven potentials to stimulate the economy and generate employment in the short, medium terms, are least likely to draw much credit.

    The refrain bears repeating that the economy would never get the required lift without the Federal Government tackling the problem. The problem of out-of-control interest rates, ensuring that priority sectors like manufacturing and the housing/construction sector are able to access cheap affordable credit, and ensuring that banks shun their preference for short-term to long-term credit are clearly those for the Bankers Committee and the Federal Government to solve, collectively. What has been missing is the will to tackle the problem headlong.