The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Bangladesh Takes Aim at Grameen Bank

    Bangladesh Takes Aim at Grameen Bank

    The government of Bangladesh is considering nationalizing and breaking up the widely admired Grameen Bank, which pioneered the business of lending small amounts of money to poor women who want to start and grow businesses. Lawmakers should reject these destructive ideas and stop meddling in the affairs of this important financial institution, which serves 8.4 million rural women.

    In the last two years, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has waged a destructive campaign against Grameen and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Her actions appear to be retaliation for Mr. Yunus’s announcement in 2007 that he would seek public office, even though he never went through with his plans.

    In 2011, her aides forced Mr. Yunus out of his job as managing director of the bank by arguing that he was older than a mandatory retirement age of 60, even though bank regulators had previously allowed him to stay in the job after he crossed that threshold. Since then, the government has started an investigation into the bank and is now planning to take over Grameen — a majority of whose shares are owned by its borrowers — and break it up into 19 regional lenders.

    Although the microcredit model created by Mr. Yunus in the 1970s has lost some of its luster in recent years because of controversial practices by some lenders other than Grameen, the approach remains a vital tool for reducing poverty. It has helped millions of poor women start and sustain small businesses around the world and especially in Bangladesh, according to the World Bank.

    Turning Grameen into an arm of the state would jeopardize the bank’s core mission by subjecting it to destabilizing political interference. And breaking it up would make its operations less efficient while eliminating it as an influential national organization that might challenge government policies.

    A government-appointed commission studying Grameen Bank is expected to produce a report next week that recommends three different proposals, one of which would nationalize and break up the bank, according to local news reports. Some political analysts say that Prime Minister Hasina might not act on those recommendations until after the country votes for a new government at the end of the year to avoid giving the bank’s many borrowers and employees a reason to campaign and vote against her.

    Regardless of when the prime minister makes her decision, she has provided no compelling reason to dismantle one of the most promising credit movements to have benefited millions of women in her country.

    – New York Times

  • Now that Ramadan is over …

    Now that Ramadan is over …

    Muslims should not return to any bad habit that they jettisoned during the fasting

    After a month-long ascetic life and spiritual renaissance as directed by Allah, the Ramadan celebration of Eid-el-Fitri holds today. The word Eid is an Arabic which means festival while fitr means charity. It is one of the two festivals of high Islamic importance. Today, as usual, is an occasion of bliss and thanksgiving that holds on the first day of the 10th month of Islamic lunar calendar, with expectations of illimitable happiness for devotees. We expect all good Muslims throughout the world to seize the occasion, to once again, reiterate their renewed commitment to Allah’s commandments: And their preparedness to live with adherents of other religions in peace.

    Muslims and their well wishers should not indulge in depraved or obnoxious conducts. The celebration should be modest.  We expect them to take advantage of the day to demonstrate sensitivity to the feelings of those around them. That is why the lessons of the holy month must reflect in the way all Muslims relate with friends, non-Muslims inclusive.

    Muslims, whose fast is based on imaan (sincerity), should truly expect reward-Ihtisaab, from Allah. They are assured that their past sins will be forgiven. Allah surely multiplies the rewards of fasting beyond human comprehension. But can it be assumed that all Muslims that fasted have that element of sincerity? Not when some, hiding under the guise of Islam, senselessly bomb and kill others. We have other questions for those types of Muslims: Did they perform their fast with true belief and full surrender to Allah? Are they positively inclined towards fellow human beings? Can they confidently say that Ramadan has cleansed them of their prior weaknesses and cruelties?

    The pious habit of Qur’an recitation should not stop after Ramadan. We enjoin all faithful to be resolute in their positive resolve and to also pray to Allah to give them the grace not to be good Muslims only during Ramadan period. The Holy Spirit-filled environment of unity and spiritual rebirth of the month should be sustained beyond 30 days, not only among Muslims but also among adherents of other religions in the country.

    Every human being is expected to be his brother’s keeper and should cultivate and indulge in things that would make the community and the entire world one peaceful place for all to live in. In the spirit of Ramadan, we call on governments, institutions and the people to have an attitudinal change that would not negate the commandments of Allah. The unscrupulous conducts and actions usually preceding the holy month of Ramadan, especially by the Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalists, have taken the country nowhere. What should be done now is to continue to practice and sustain the pious preaching learnt during Ramadan for the sake of humanity.

    The insecurity inflicted on the nation by the Boko Haram and others through suicide bombings is barbaric. It negates the preaching of Islam as a religion of peace. The criminality of Boko Haram insurgents is a dent on the image of Islam and that of reasonable/law-abiding Muslims in the country who are averse to their obstreperous acts.

    Moving Nigeria forward entails not disturbing the peace of the nation but being good ambassadors of Islam in deeds and speeches wherever we live in the country or anywhere in the world. That is the greatest respect that all Muslims can pay to Allah and Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), His messenger, as we celebrate the end of fast today.

  • Tin god

    Tin god

    •Akpabio’s treatment of people indicating interest in certain public offices gives cause for concern  

    Celebrated British playwright, George Bernard Shaw had the likes of Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State in mind when he wrote ages ago that the only lesson man learns from history is that he never learns from history. Or, how else does one interpret the recent gangster-like method of removing the former Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Umana Okon Umana, from office.

    According to newspaper reports, plain clothed security men barricaded the former SSG’s office, moved from one office to the other, locked the doors and checked the hand bags of staff of the office before ordering them to leave.

    Umana’s crime, as defined by Akpabio, was the former’s‘effrontery’ in declaring his ambition to govern the state in 2015. After what he described as due consultations with stakeholders across the state, the former SSG declared: “I have decided to make public my intention to run for the office of governor of the state …” Akpabio, the all-knowing governor who sees himself as the best thing that has happened to the hapless state, would have nothing of that. How could anyone harbour such an ambition without his blessing? He sees it as part of his remit to decide who will take over from him at the end of his tenure in 2015.

    Akpabio not only knows what is good for the state, only he is imbued with the wisdom to determine the ambition of his people. In the infallible wisdom of the governor, Umana would do well as Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. So he offered him what many would consider a juicy job. The oracle had spoken! To the surprise of Akpabio, the former SSG turned down the NDDC job. Hence, this resort to executive lawlessness!

    Keen watchers of the politics of the state will recall that Akpabio’s predecessor, Obong Victor Attah, did not send security agents after Akpabio when he indicated interest in succeeding Attah in 2007. Although Attah preferred his son-in-law to Akpabio for the gubernatorial seat, he never went as far as humiliating Akpabio or throwing decency to the winds as Akpabio has done in this instance.

    If the governor feels the former SSG’s public declaration to contest for the governorship of the state could distract him from his official duties, the next line of action is not a wanton display of raw power. There are accepted civilised ways of reliving a high public officer of his job.

    Governor Akpabio must be worried about what is increasingly becoming his trademark and should therefore be concerned about the verdict of history. When his former deputy, Nsima Ekere openly voiced a similar interest in governing the state come 2015, Akpabio forced him to resign his position as deputy governor of the state.

    Not too long ago, Governor Akpabio embarked on an elaborate charade to recall Senator Alloysius Etuk from the Ikot-Ekpene senatorial district. The senator’s ‘crime’ was that he openly declared his interest to seek re-election in 2015. Akpabio would have none of that. That is the same seat he is eyeing after his eight-year gubernatorial sojourn. And as he (Akpabio) unashamedly disclosed to a shocked audience, the senator didn’t win the party’s primaries, he it was, who substituted the name of Senator Etuk for the real winner. In other words, the governor rigged his party’s primaries in favour of another candidate!

    The clowning in Akwa Ibom State has again brought to the fore the quality of people that have been thrown up since the commencement of civilian rule in 1999. As the nation moves towards the crucial 2015 elections, the political parties should be reminded of the need for internal democracy. Persons to be presented for public office must be fit and proper persons: in learning and character.

  • Meaningless meeting

    Meaningless meeting

    •Given his role in the NGF election, the President has no business meeting with the governors now

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s intention to meet with Nigeria’s 36 governors in an attempt to resolve the lingering crisis in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is a profoundly misplaced attempt to win a battle that has already been lost.

    While there can be no denying that the convocation of peace meetings is a legitimate deployment of presidential authority, it is clear that the NGF imbroglio is the natural outcome of underhand attempts to impose a preferred candidate upon the governors’ body by individuals working with the knowledge of the President, if not at his behest. When a player seeks to become the referee as President Jonathan is attempting to do, it is only natural to doubt the honesty of his intentions and the purity of his motives.

    The basic facts of the NGF issue are well-known. On May 24, 2013, the NGF held elections to choose a chairman to pilot its affairs for the next two years. There were two contestants: the incumbent chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, of Rivers State, and Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State. When the votes were counted, it was announced that 19 governors had voted for Amaechi, while 16 had voted for Jang, only for Jang to later claim that he won the election, and to begin to parade himself as NGF chairman with the backing of those who had voted for him.

    An election was held; there was an outright winner and a clear loser. How can a roundtable meeting with the governors whose votes produced this outcome resolve anything? When gubernatorial elections took place in Edo and Ondo states, President Jonathan magnanimously congratulated the winners in spite of objections from some members of his own political party. It is surprising that he now finds himself unable to do the same thing in an election of much less significance.

    The irony in all this is that there are far more pressing issues that could constitute the agenda of meetings between the president and the governors. There is the pressing need to reconfigure the nation’s failing federalism, especially as it pertains to the rights of the states. There is the growing sense of insecurity that confronts all who reside within the borders of the Nigerian nation. There is the spreading cancer of corruption which has continued to manifest itself in almost all aspects of social, political and economic life.

    The president’s desire to convene a meeting about relatively trivial issues when far more serious ones abound is yet another demonstration of a worrying lack of presidential gravitas that has become a distinguishing feature of his administration. Ever since he assumed the office of president in an acting capacity in 2010, President Jonathan has continually shown an embarrassing inability to grow into the requirements of his position. He has lamented the presence of Boko Haram moles in government; he absolved the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) of involvement in the Independence Day bombings in Abuja minutes after they occurred; he infamously ”didn’t give a damn” about publicising his declaration of assets.

    A president, by definition, seeks to be presidential rather than petty. That implies continuous efforts to ensure that neither the office of president nor the person who occupies it is brought into contempt or ridicule. A self-respecting president is therefore one who is very careful to weigh the import of statements before they are uttered, and one who is extremely conscious about besmirching the dignity of his office by getting involved in trivial or morally-improper matters. Rather than disingenuous attempts to destabilise perceived opponents, President Jonathan should focus on the serious business of governing.

     

  • Let INEC be

    Let INEC be

    •The provision that only active political parties be allowed to exist should be preserved

    THE Justice Gabriel Kolawole decision that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacks the power to deregister political parties that fail to make the minimum mark stipulated in section 78 (7) (ii) of the Electoral Act has legitimately raised the eyebrows of lovers of democracy in Nigeria. All those conversant with the Nigerian political history would acknowledge that mushroom parties, especially since the inception of the current dispensation, have done the country no good.

    Many trooped to the scene to have a bite of the grant that the law empowers and enjoins INEC to give all registered political parties. Others rose to be counted among political parties owing to the recognition it accords them and, when they come up with candidates at elections, such candidates are accorded the same privileges as those genuinely in contention for high offices. This is one reason why there are many founders/chairmen/presidential candidates. Such parties that exist merely in names field presidential candidates and a few others to contest governorship election in the states, but hardly have people to bid for seats in state and federal legislative houses. In the last general elections, some fielded no candidates at all for any of about 1,500 legislative and executive positions in the country. This is obviously contrary to the intendment of the relevant sections of the constitution, the INEC Act and the Electoral Act.

    It is in this context that we call for restraint in the way INEC is being constrained in the exercise of its powers to monitor political parties and sanitising the landscape. In recent times, politicians have been adept at willfully and flagrantly violating the letters and spirit of the law. While sections 221-229 of the 1999 Constitution might have been very liberal, as interpreted by the Supreme Court decision in the suit filed by the National Conscience Party in 2002, the powers of INEC to regulate the system are evidently preserved.

    Section 228 expressly empowers the National Assembly to confer on the commission “other powers as may appear to be necessary or desirable for the purpose of enabling the commission more effectively to ensure that political parties observe the provisions of this Part of this Chapter”.

    It is therefore strange that Justice Kolawole of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court employed very strong language in deprecating the powers exercised by INEC and the National Assembly in pursuant of the relevant sections of the constitution and the Electoral Act. The judge obviously erred in describing the inclusion of section 78 in the Electoral Act as “a product of legislative despotism” and an “arbitrary rule of the tongue”. One major feature of the presidential system that we practice is Separation of Powers and mutual respect of the arms of government for each other.

    We find it difficult to agree with Justice Kolawole who declared section 78 (7) (ii) of the Electoral Act as “unconstitutional, invalid, null and void” on the ground that the said provision is “inconsistent with the provision of sections 40 and 221-229 of the Constitution.”

    It is the more intriguing that the said verdict is directly contrary to the position adopted by another Justice of the Federal High Court that sat in Lagos on March 6. Justice Okon Abang’s ruling on a motion presented to it by the NCP requiring an injunction restraining INEC from deregistering it said: “The National Assembly has the powers to enact laws, which includes for the regulation of political parties in the country. In my view, there is nothing unconstitutional with the provisions of section 78 (7) (ii) of the Electoral Act.”

    It is good that the INEC chairman has indicated that the Justice Kolawole verdict would be challenged on appeal. This is welcome. However, we hope that the judiciary would ensure that all matters regarding this are finally resolved in good time before the 2015 general elections in order to avoid the sad impact that a similar scenario on INEC’s power to disqualify candidates had on the outcome of the 2007 general elections.

     

     

  • Toxic export

    Toxic export

    •Nigerian judge fired in Gambia for alleged bribe taking 

    Nigerian, Justice Joseph Wowo, who was serving as the acting Chief Justice in the Republic of Gambia, has been sacked for allegedly asking for bribe from one Mr. Andre Klaarbergen, a litigant. According to reports, a video of the dishonourable conduct has been posted on the Youtube; and the sacked judge was reported to have fled from Gambia. Also sacked was the Gambian justice minister, Lamin Jobarteh, who allegedly helped to negotiate down the bribe, after the judge had initially asked for the equivalent of about N12million.

    The Nigerian judge joined the Gambian High Court in 2007 and rose to become President of the Court of Appeal, from where he was appointed acting Chief Justice of Gambia.

    Justice Wowo’s alleged condemnable conduct is in contradistinction from the stellar performances of other Nigerian justices who had served meritoriously in foreign jurisdictions over the years. We have Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, who was seconded from the Oyo State judiciary to serve at the Court of Appeal in Gambia, and later as the Chief Justice of Gambia before returning to serve later in the Nigerian Supreme Court; also, Justice Godwin Okechukwu Ihekire who was seconded from the Imo State judiciary and served in the Court of Appeal, Gambia and later the Supreme Court of Gambia. There was also Justice Akomaye Emmanuel Agim, the predecessor to the disgraced Justice Wowo.

    We had Justice Akinola Aguda who served as the Chief Justice of Botswana, and a host of other credible judges who have proved a veritable export from the Nigerian legal system. So, why Justice Wowo who was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1991, and who chose to start a career in the Gambia, will turn a black sheep, by his alleged conduct, is worrisome. Could it be that the cankerworm of corruption that has eaten deep into the present Nigerian judiciary has also been exported to their contemporaries serving abroad?

    Could it also be as a result of the breakdown in the moral fabrics of the younger generation, or that the parameters for determining success in the present times have negatively changed? Whatever was the motive or the drive for the embarrassing conduct, the consequences of Justice Wowo’s alleged misconduct will further affect the international perception of our country, which image is already viewed as steeped in corruption.

    Since Justice Wowo was not seconded to Gambia from the Nigerian judiciary like most of his eminent predecessors, it may be tricky for the National Judicial Council to rein in his judicial career, assuming he can still make something out of it, after his sack in Gambia. It may however be necessary for the Nigerian judiciary to watch out, to ensure that he does not move over to Nigeria to continue with his trade. Justice Wowo, as stated by the reports, had previously been sacked as President of the Court of Appeal, and earlier this year, was arrested and charged before a Magistrate’s Court in Gambia, for giving false information that led to the arrest of a lawyer, but was later discharged, and restored to his position.

    To counter the damage done to Nigeria’s image, it may also be necessary for us to engage in diplomacy to reassure that country of about 1.7million people, who have over the years relied on Nigeria and other neighbouring countries for manpower, especially in the judiciary. Such move may be necessary to avoid a backlash for our other distinguished compatriots who are still serving that country meritoriously; and even for those whose service may be in demand in the future.

  • The hard way

    The hard way

    •What a way to learn! Naval officer bags life sentence over motor dealer’s death

    Lieutenant Baba Adamu of the Nigerian Navy must be ruing the day he physically assaulted Mr. Pedro Ikhajagbe, a civilian car dealer who died in Lagos as a result of the clash in May 2012. Even though he might have felt entitled to his anger at the deceased, the fallout would now haunt him. His conviction by a naval court-martial and sentencing to life imprisonment is a worthy demonstration of the futility of his decision to take the law into his own hands.

    It is always necessary to emphasise the imperative of restraint and respect for order in the context of social relations; otherwise, the law of the jungle would take over, undesirably to the detriment of society.

    However, the story behind the unfortunate death of Ikhajagbe is also instructive in some other respects. The late car dealer was said to have received $10,000 from the naval officer as payment for a car which he was supposed to deliver, but the vehicle he presented was different from the buyer’s specification. This led to a rejection and agreement to provide another. At this stage, it was a case of “so far, so good.”

    Then, according to reports, things went awry as Ikhajagbe failed to keep his word to supply another car, until, one year after the agreement, Adamu, who was serving in Jos, Plateau State, came to Lagos in search of the car dealer who lived around Satellite Town in the city. It is interesting that, initially, Adamu allegedly lodged a report at the Naval Police Unit at the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Wey, but rather than wait for the naval police to act, he went looking for Ikhajagbe.

    It is sad that their encounter ended in tragedy. It may never be known what actually happened when he found the elusive man, but reports said there was a scuffle and the officer subsequently rushed the bleeding car dealer to the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital in Navy Town, Ojo, Lagos.

    It is ironic that Adamu displayed such humaneness in the face of Ikhajagbe’s injury, implying that he didn’t really mean any harm but was simply overwhelmed by his sense of the man’s perceived unfairness. Perhaps Ikhajagbe would have survived if the hospital had not required a police report before treating him. Adamu was said to have been at Satellite Police Station, Agboju, Lagos, where he went to get a report, when bad news reached him that the patient had died.

    Not surprisingly, the sour development changed his situation for worse, and the police deserve some recognition for promptly arresting him. Also creditable is the business-like involvement of the naval authorities who took over the matter and prompted Adamu’s transfer to a detention facility at the NNS Beecroft. Following a probe by a Board of Inquiry (BOI) constituted by the Navy, and his subsequent trial at a court-martial, Adamu will now have to learn vital lessons he probably didn’t sufficiently imbibe before now, specifically, that there are formal public structures established to mediate in disputes between members of society, and that it is not in the communal interest for anyone to resort to self-help.

    Adamu’s sentencing is reassuring, particularly on account of his status as a naval officer, because there is a general perception in the country that members of the armed forces tend to show contempt for the law in their dealings with civilians, especially when they feel wronged or aggrieved. There have been cases where military men callously attacked and even killed civilian victims on account of some differences. It cannot be overemphasised that the military uniform should never be seen as a licence to intimidate others.

     

  • Sorry, no dividend!

    Sorry, no dividend!

    THREE immediate conclusions can be drawn from the report by the Nigeria Stock Exchange, NSE, that 57 quoted firms have not paid dividends to their shareholders in half a decade. The first is that efforts to reposition the capital market since the 2008 crisis– at least as far as returning the balance sheets of the affected companies into profitability is concerned – are yet to yield the desired fruits. The other possible indication is failure of regulation – a major issue which explains why the market came to ruin in the first place. The third of course is that the fundamentals of the economy – as against the rosy picture of growth painted by the Federal Government in the last decade – have not substantially changed.

    One clearest indication of this is that 57 companies out of the 197 listed in the NSE document, representing some 28.9 percent of the lot are spread across different sectors of the economy. For instance, out of the seven quoted companies in the beverages-brewers/distillers sub-sector, four have not paid dividends for up to 15 years. In the banking sub-sector, the two banks affected – Wema Bank and Union Bank – have both not paid dividends in the last five years.

    In the pharmaceutical sub-sector, Evans Medical, Nigerian-German Chemicals and Pharma-Deko were said to have last paid any dividends in 2005, 2006 and 2008, respectively. The same applies to the construction/real estate sector where four out of the six listed companies have not paid dividends in the last five years. Even the petroleum products distribution sub-sector is not left out; two companies Eterna and Afroil, have not paid dividends for 14 and 21 years, respectively.

    For whatever its worth, the report should come as no surprise. To start with, nothing of the rather gloomy scorecard can be said to represent anything that Nigerians are not well familiar with. Indeed, it would seem to approximate the reality that has since defined how businesses operate in the country. This reality finds expression in de-industrialisation under which hitherto world-class manufacturing firms operating locally continue to leave in droves for Ghana, our ECOWAS neighbour. The problem flows as it were, from the strictures posed by the inhospitable environment that has endangered the real sector.

    The problem is therefore not hard to dissect. Most of the named companies have not been paying dividends simply because they are not doing well. And the chief explanation for this is also not far-fetched: the environments under which they operate have remained extremely difficult and highly uncompetitive. These problems are what reflect in the unreasonably high interest rates, the nightmarish power situation, the dearth of transportation infrastructure, coupled with short-sighted policies of government. They explain why our businesses are uncompetitive. How much can turn-around managers or even the capital market regulators do to affect the impossible situation? We would have been surprised if these realities did not reflect in the performances of the individual companies, or even the capital market where they are players.

    But the challenges are not difficult to appreciate, let alone confront. Let the government concentrate on fixing the power sector, the roads and other transportation infrastructure; we consider that one direct way to bring down the cost of doing business. As for the monetary authorities, we haven’t seen enough of thinking outside of the box to ease access and lower the cost of borrowing. All of these represent the true fundamentals for keeping the companies going, just as no amount of regulation can compel an insolvent entity to pay dividends.

  • Failed FHA

    Failed FHA

    AT a period that other serious countries are giving utmost priority to the housing needs of their citizens, it is sad that Nigeria is currently bemoaning her housing plight. This is the inference from the lamentations of Ms. Amal Pepple, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, during the inauguration of the Steering Committee on the Restructuring and Commercialisation of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). The minister reportedly confessed that the FHA has failed to fulfill its essence because it has barely managed to build a trifling 37 housing units in 40 years of its establishment. The authority was created in 1973 with a mission of providing for the housing needs of Nigerians.

    Ms. Pepple gleefully reeled out problems considered to be impeding FHA’s performance which include ‘historical operating losses, huge legacy debts, poor internally generated revenue base, poor corporate governance, high cost of housing units and the lack of internal cohesion.’

    If she thinks the public will clap for her for reeling out the problems, then she missed the point. This is because virtually all the problems are avoidable but for the inept handling of the authority’s affairs. It is unimaginable that successive administrations in the country have spent billions of naira on provision of houses over the years only for this appalling housing details to be coming out now.

    To have taken the government such a long period before acknowledging this failure is scandalous. What can be further inferred from the failure of the authority is blatant dereliction of duty which has made it difficult for it to deliver on government’s promise to provide houses for all Nigerians by year 2000. Rather than achieve that lofty target, FHA reportedly incurred housing deficits of about 16 million units. What an inefficient body the authority has been over the years!

    We cannot agree more that the FHA as presently constituted has failed because of undue bureaucracy. The government spends huge public funds to sustain it but it has not reciprocated this gesture by meeting the housing needs of Nigerians or even efficiently maintain existing houses across the country. We agree that private partnership in housing provision is long overdue but there is hardly much that the Steering Committee on the Restructuring and Commercialisation of the FHA can do if the government does not display the requisite will-power to succeed in this regard. Without strong official resolve, it might be difficult to achieve the well touted official goal of making “housing delivery more robust and efficient in line with the new housing policy and the Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda”.

    The government needs more of internal re-appraisal to discover where things went wrong in the FHA. After all, the shelves in Aso Rock Presidential Villa must be full with several housing policy documents that could enervate the housing sector if effectively implemented. We hope that the commercialisation of FHA will not be hijacked by highly connected moneybags and powerful elements in government that will end up sustaining the on-going mismanagement of the place and building expensive houses meant only for the wealthy in the society.

    Nigeria is ripe for a functional mortgage policy because experience in other climes has shown that government alone cannot fund housing. But the government should realise that without its guaranteeing a level-playing ground for investors, the exercise will be in futility. It is not too late for the government to seize the new initiative to put things right in the housing sector.

  • Losing leverage in Egypt

    Losing leverage in Egypt

    AFTER THE weekend’s horrific violence in Egypt, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel telephoned their counterparts in Cairo to urge the interim government to step back from the brink. Mr. Hagel called again on Tuesday and spoke to Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who ousted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi from power as Egypt’s elected president. After the call, Mr. Hagel’s spokesman reported they discussed the need for an “inclusive reconciliation process.” On the ground, there’s scant evidence of such a process.

    Just the opposite seems to be the trajectory of the military leaders who seized power a month ago in what the Obama administration still refuses to call a coup. On Saturday, street protests in Cairo and elsewhere ended in the deaths of more than 80 Muslim Brotherhood members and injuries to hundreds more. It was the second mass killing of Islamists since the coup on July 3. On Monday, the authorities arrested two moderate Islamist leaders and took actions that could foreshadow a still-deeper crackdown and declaration of a state of emergency. There was a brief respite Tuesday when the European Union’s senior foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, was taken to see Mr. Morsi at an undisclosed location in the middle of the night. She reported that he is well, but there was no sign that the interim government intends to back off plans to prosecute him on dubious charges of espionage and murder.

    President Obama has been cautious, urging dialogue and delaying the delivery of four F-16s to the Egyptian military as a sign of displeasure. The administration appears reluctant to take more decisive action, such as tightening the flow of other aid, preferring instead to warn the interim government of the consequences of further violence and use the threat as leverage. But there’s little sign that Gen. Sissi is listening to the protests from Washington and elsewhere. The leverage doesn’t seem to be having much impact. The administration soon will face starker choices.

    Much is uncertain about how the Muslim Brotherhood will react to the crackdown. With Mr. Morsi held incommunicado and the movement’s other leaders imprisoned or staging a sit-in in Cairo, it is not clear if the coup and violence that followed will shake the Brotherhood’s commitment to nonviolence. But some members will certainly be tempted to retaliate for having political power wrenched from their hands so abruptly.

    Erasing the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt’s political scene — as Gen. Sissi seems intent on doing — is impossible. To attempt it is to play with fire. It could create a schism that would put Egypt on a road toward civil war with dire consequences. Violent uprisings in Syria and Egypt at the same time would be particularly dangerous for Israel, the United States’ strongest ally in the region. Bringing Egypt back from the edge of disaster ought to be one of Mr. Obama’s most urgent priorities, and that may require rethinking his policy. Forbearance and obfuscation haven’t done the trick.

     

    – Washington Post