The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Jonathan Vs Amaechi

    Jonathan Vs Amaechi

    Between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, it is not a case of saint versus sinner. Both presidential and gubernatorial gladiators have done enough tumbles in the mire to earn a critical questioning of their motives, by the latest political cross-slinging in town. It is no pretty sight.

    On the president’s part, the grounding of the Rivers State’s airplane at the Akure Airport in Ondo State, started with tales of some query over the plane’s customs papers, then went on to allegations that the pilot did not file his manifest and flight plan, and climaxed in the final April 27 grounding, on the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA’s claim that the aircraft’s approved clearance certificate had expired since April 2.

    Without prejudice to strands of truths in these official claims, it would appear a progressive shopping for excuses to arrive at a pre-determined outcome. For example, if indeed the plane’s approved clearance certificate had expired since April 2, why did NCAA wait till April 27 before doing its statutory duty?

    And would it have done it at all, if not prompted by an all-mighty higher quarters that had clear motives to put an uppity governor in his place? So, for close to a month, the governor’s plane had been flying illegally, and NCAA was so star-struck by its gubernatorial splendour that it would take the ugly drama at Akure Airport for the body to scramble awake and enforce what it ought to have enforced since, at best, April 5?

    NCAA top officials should be thoroughly ashamed for allowing their agency to be mixed up in petty political bickering. But the Presidency itself is more shame-worthy for abusing a government agency in a bitter partisan dispute. Doyin Okupe, the presidential public affairs spokesperson, must tell to the marines his tale that the presidency had no hand in the grounding of the governor’s plane. From widely reported Jonathan-Amaechi standoff, there is enough motive to justify such supposition, which unfortunately adds no dignity to the presidential office.

    On the part of the Rivers State governor, there has not been an appropriate response to the charge that the aircraft’s papers are out of date. If that is true, and since April 2, why was the governor’s crew still flying the plane? Like other Nigerian Big Men, could they be above the law, in the hateful spirit of general official impunity? Shouldn’t the governor, a symbol of the law and ordered society in a democracy, have done the right thing by law and free NCAA the chore of enforcing the law and the humiliation that comes with that to the office of the Governor? These are sickening tell-tales of lack of basic standards.

    Besides, the governor has loads of answers to provide on the aircraft and its registration. Though these questions have nothing to do with the plane’s approved clearance certificate, they have everything to do with probity, accountability and transparency in governance. Can an aircraft bought with money appropriated by the Rivers State legislature, and purportedly owned by the Rivers State Government, be registered in the name of a foreign trust? Governor Amaechi and his team must provide satisfactory answers to these probing questions.

    But be that as it may, let no one forget that the grounding of the Rivers State plane was only the climax of a running Jonathan-Amaechi battle, which started with Amaechi’s rumoured vice-presidential ambition (hardly a democratic crime), and the presidential desperation to, at all cost, stop the governor from seeking re-election as Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) chairman – all fired by President Jonathan’s all too obvious paranoia over anyone getting in his way for a second term in 2015.

    In this raging battle, the victims are not only the two combatants and their respective offices. The bigger victims are subverted institutions. That poses a potent threat to the deepening of democracy and the rule of law.

    It is clear how the feuding has undermined NCAA and created grave doubt in the mind of any right thinking person as to its capacity and capability to discharge its statutory duties without external pressure. That is no good news, given that aviation safely is not the greatest forte of the local aviation industry. To avert needless future disasters, aviation agencies must be rid of external influences.

    The feuding has also revealed a twin-assault on the office of the President and Governor. By being perceived to project naked power, and attempting to turn the revered office of the President of the Federal Republic into a cheap, all-muscle-no-brain bully in partisan matters, the Jonathan Presidency has denuded that high position of its reverence, splendour and honour. The president and his handlers ought to know that what endear the Presidency are authority, legitimacy and influence, in that progressive order; and never naked power. A presidency that bristles with naked power only diminishes itself and earns itself citizens’ contempt.

    But even more alarming, in a federal, democratic setting, is a bullying president that does not particularly care that his powers, no matter how awesome, are limited by law. The spectre of a president grounding the aircraft of a state government, in a federation where the president is to the central government what the governor is to the state government, is absolutely unnerving and condemnable. Both the president and governor are a creation of law; and one cannot assume the complex of a seething headmaster lording it over gubernatorial school boys – except of course, if the Rivers State’s aircraft’s papers are really outdated and proven so. Even then, that would have been the NCAA’s business.

    Other victims of institutional subversion in the matter are the Judiciary (which both sides in the state Peoples Democratic Party executive committee dispute seem to have manipulated to suit their purposes) and the Legislature (there is already lunatic talks of six legislators set to impeach a governor in a 36-member Rivers Assembly), not to talk of the possible destruction of the NGF.

    The NGF might not be a creation of statutes. But it is a pressure group grounded in the best tradition of democracy to look after the interest of its members. When a president attempts to smash such a group, simply because he finds its real-politik foxtrot too nimble, then that attack is not on that body but on the tenet of free association in a democracy. In a supposed federation that really is a glorified unitary state like Nigeria, such a presidential misadventure becomes all the more sinister. That is why the NGF must stand its ground and withstand any presidential assault. Such assaults are illegitimate, so long as the body conducts its business lawfully and with utmost decency.

    Nigeria’s is a tentative democracy that needs all tact to survive its teething years. That is why the Presidency must show more leadership and tact before jumping into a battle just because it thinks it has the power to crush the enemy – real or imagined. That could prove a costly illusion.

     

  • Funsho Williams

    Funsho Williams

    • It is sad that solution to murder riddle is still not in sight, six years after

    Six years after the high-profile murder of Mr. Funsho Williams, a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Lagos State, there are perturbing signs that a solution is not in sight to the riddle. Rather, developments in the trial of the suspects held for the crime have introduced counter-productive complications. Williams, an engineer and a hopeful in the political campaign leading to the 2007 governorship election in Lagos, was stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances on July 27, 2006, at his residence, 34A, Corporation Drive, Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.

    The news of the damage to crucial exhibits in the case provided by the pathologist who conducted a post-mortem on the victim sounds unbelievably absurd. A prosecution witness, Ovie Oyokomino, a deputy commissioner of police in charge of forensics at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, reportedly told Justice Adeniyi Adebajo of a Lagos High Court, Igbosere : “The perishable evidence such as blood samples as well as the vitreous humour of the eye went bad due to interrupted power supply in the course of refrigerating.”

    This is inexcusable, and betrays a lack of seriousness on the part of the investigators. Given the gravity of the crime, it was expected that the force would take adequate measures to prevent the loss of such vital evidence, including the employment of a generator where necessary. It goes without saying that power failure, blamed for the destruction of proof, regrettably mirrors the country’s infrastructural inadequacies. Also, the nature of the evidence, described as “perishable”, ought to have prompted an expeditious approach to the investigation.

    Another major setback in the case is the alleged inconclusive DNA analysis carried out on blood samples from the six male suspects arraigned before Justice Adebajo in March. During a court hearing this week, the prosecuting counsel, Mrs. O.A. Akin-Adesomoju, made a request that is likely to further delay the conclusion of the case. She sought a court order to collect fresh DNA samples from the suspects in order to determine whether they matched blood stains found on a shirt at the crime scene. Intriguingly, she argued that another round of tests was required to confirm the culpability or innocence of the suspects. It is quite disappointing that this homicide matter is still at an early stage, to go by the prosecution’s position.

    There is a puzzling tardiness in the investigation. It is noteworthy that the suspects, three of whom are policemen – Bulama Kolo, Musa Maina, David Cassidy, Tunani Sonani, Mustapha Kayode and Okponwasa Imariable – standing trial on a two-count charge of conspiracy and murder, have been in detention for some years, yet the case against them has not even been established. Interestingly, by way of defence, the prosecution supplied information meant to clarify why fresh blood samples could not be obtained earlier, stating that the High Court judge who granted the request at the time died without signing the order she made. It is not clear how and when this happened, but the reality is that the case has not progressed to the important stage of establishing the criminal involvement of the suspects.

    It is certainly laudable that efforts are ongoing to solve the Williams’ murder, particularly against the background of several unresolved high-profile murders across the country. But the suspects deserve to be treated fairly, for they are theoretically innocent until their guilt is established beyond doubt in a court of law. The longer it takes to justify their detention, the longer they will suffer, perhaps baselessly.

    There is no doubt that the prosecution’s argument for fresh blood tests, if it succeeds, will lead to yet another wait for results while the accused remain caged. However, since it is obvious that this evidence will be helpful in proving their guilt or innocence, a new round of tests would be in their best interest, if they are not blameworthy. In the final analysis, it is desirable to expedite the investigative process and ensure that justice is done.

  • Champagne country

    Champagne country

    •·Nigeria must benefit from the indulgences of its wealthy citizens

    For a nation whose basic development indicators leave much to be desired, Nigeria apparently has no difficulty in drinking its way into global prominence. The recent declaration that the country is the world’s second-largest consumer of the costly sparkling French white wine known as champagne is an interesting reflection of the country’s social structure, its consumption patterns and the way it is administered.

    According to Euromonitor, an international research firm, Nigeria consumed U.S. $59 million (N9.4 billion) worth of champagne in 2011, making it second only to France, where the wine originated. The country’s consumption of 593,000 bottles of champagne in 2010 was the highest in Africa for that year. Between 2006 and 2011, the growth in consumption of the beverage rose by 22 per cent.

    The consumption of champagne has apparently been driven by increasing ostentation in the lifestyles of the Nigerian elite, especially the newly-rich comprising musical celebrities, political office-holders, entrepreneurs and businessmen who seem determined to let the world know that they have arrived. Champagne-drinking is an expensive indulgence: a bottle can cost anywhere between N77,000 and N275,000.

    Nigeria’s ranking as a top-ranked champagne-drinker is the latest manifestation of a culture of conspicuous consumption which it first demonstrated during the oil boom of the mid-seventies. The stupendous increase in the wealth of its social elite has seen a flood of luxury brands descend upon the country. Home to the continent’s largest collection of millionaires, biggest buyers of private jets in the world, Nigeria has once again forced itself on global consciousness as a nation that has money and is prepared to spend it.

    Although this exclusive club of tipplers is obviously free to enjoy itself to its hearts’ content, it is worrying that the Federal Government is not taking proper advantage of its citizens’ lavish tastes. A thinking administration would have made certain that some of that wealth came to it by ensuring that the importation and consumption of this kind of luxury is adequately taxed. There is absolutely no reason why a developing country should not fully exploit the indulgences of its wealthier citizens. In addition, instead of simply confining itself to being a consumer of what others produce, Nigeria’s entrepreneurs should seek to get a piece of the champagne action. If the country cannot grow the grapes, it could serve as a hub for distribution in Africa, at the very least.

    At a more fundamental level, however, Nigeria’s industrial-scale drinking habits should give it cause for pause. If expensive champagne is being consumed in such large quantities, what is to be said of far cheaper and more popular staples like beer and gin? The consumption of alcoholic beverages needs to be carefully monitored by the authorities, given the obvious implications for society as a whole. Greater efforts must be made to ensure that social drinking takes place within the appropriate context, and steps taken to ensure that it does not facilitate drunk driving, drug use, prostitution and other vices.

    A champagne-popping country in which nearly 70 per cent of the population live on less than one dollar a day is a nation of enormous social discrepancies. Nigeria cannot hope to tackle widespread poverty and unemployment or overcome the epidemic of kidnapping, armed robbery and terrorism without dealing with the ever-widening gap between its rich and poor citizens. A country that is wealthy enough to drink champagne like a developed nation should be able to afford to provide social welfare and infrastructure like one.

  • Employment racketeers

    Employment racketeers

    •Nigeria is gradually becoming one huge theatre of the absurd 

    The ridiculous seems to be overtaking the sublime. Otherwise, how can the outlandish revelations before the Senate’s Joint Committee on Federal Character and Labour’s public hearing on recruitment scandals in federal agencies that a dead man signed employment letters be justified?

    Rose Odey and Idachaba Tijani reportedly claimed to have paid N250, 000 each to procure employment letters. The letters were subsequently discovered to have been signed by one Ahmed S. Dantanko, an alleged dead official of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC). Dantanko signed the letters in 2012. It was when they got to their ministries of posting that they realised that the letters were not original. The Head of Service of the Federation, the usual person to carry out such postings said he had no knowledge of the letters.

    But Joan Ayo, chairman of FCSC, countered that Dantanko left the services of the commission in 2008 as a pool officer and not a director as purportedly claimed in the appointment letters. She also said that the letters tendered by the aggrieved duo, showing their alleged employment postings into federal ministries were mere “photocopies.” Also, Juliet Egobunor and Simon Odujebe, named by the duo as members of the job-for-sale criminal syndicate are reportedly on the run. The FCSC chair declared that Juliet had absconded from her duty post in the Ministry of Lands and Housing while Odujebe had jumped bail.

    What the above scenario boils down to is an unwitting exposure of the high level of unemployment in the country and the oozing rot that is ravaging the public service. It is sad that job seekers now have to pay before they could be employed into the civil service. This notorious syndrome was recently brought to light when Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, a serving senator, whose member of constituent fell prey to the dubious ploy of the employment racketeers, blew the whistle. The law maker claimed to have given his unsuspecting constituent member the N250,000 that was deviously taken. Tens of other members of the public that have no affinity with those in the corridors of power but desperate for employment would have been fleeced by the employment syndicates. Yet, their complaints normally fell on deaf ears in a society where the law is, regrettably, becoming an instrument for protecting only the strong or powerful.

    What is required is for The government to boost employment generation. We deprecate a situation where virtually every job-seeking Nigerian looks in the direction of government for succour. We ask: Could the situation have been different? At the current rate, it is doubtful if any meaningful result can be got in this regard. It is sad that the average performance of federal budget implementation is below 50 per cent, which is not in any way development-friendly.

    Sadly too, power supply is epileptic while most notable industries, including the textile and tyre industries, for instance, have packed up. If these inadequacies are not quickly redressed, the economy cannot expand while the hope of job seekers becomes dimmer.

    This matter should be handled by the senate with all the seriousness it deserves. Now that some of the culprits in the money-for-employment syndicate have been exposed, the senate must do the necessary referral to the appropriate security agencies and give conscientious follow-ups so that the nation can get to the bottom of this criminality. All those found culpable must be made to face the full wrath of the law. Above all, the federal civil service is long overdue for an overhaul. It stinks.

     

  • Proactive security

    Proactive security

    For many organisations in the country, eternal vigilance has now become the beginning of wisdom. LAGBUS Assets Management Ltd., operator of LAGBUS intra-city buses in Lagos State is one organisation that has joined the increasing number of companies that are strengthening security in their operations. Its managing director, Mr Babatunde Disu, has ordered his staff to ensure that passengers and luggage are screened to enhance security. He advised commuters to cooperate with the routine checks, even as he urged the LAGBUS staff to be polite while dealing with them.

    About a month ago, the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) began the implementation of new security measures to forestall terrorist attacks on any of its stations. Many other transport firms have done the same thing in order to see their passengers arrive safely at their respective destinations.

    This is a good development in a country where many of those in the transport business do not seem to realise the importance of security. They pick and drop passengers arbitrarily; they pay scant attention to the luggage brought in by their passengers and are generally lackadaisical in their approach to issues of safety and security.

    As both LAGBUS and the NRC noted, their actions were informed by the dastardly attacks on the Kano Central Motor Park by terrorists on March 18. No fewer than 60 persons, including passengers of a 59-seater luxury bus with about 20 others were killed and several others injured when the suicide bombers blew up a bus as it was about departing the park for Lagos. What this tells us is that the terrorists have no regard for any place. Of course people who bomb mosques and churches have no scruples blowing up passengers in buses, especially in areas where they know they could record huge casualties.

    We commend organisations that have taken these proactive measures to forestall eventualities because it is better late than never. In the light of our experiences, this is the way to go. We all have to be security conscious as well as be proactive in checkmating the terrorists. Although provision of security is a basic responsibility of government, it cannot do it alone. That is why it is seen as collective responsibility in which we all have one role or the other to play; government cannot be as ubiquitous as we might want it to be.

    It is important to stress that those organisations that have not keyed into going the extra mile to secure their businesses and their stakeholders should do so immediately. We must warn though that this sort of eternal vigilance should not be only for now but for all times.

    Most important, however, it is incumbent on the government to create an atmosphere where people will see themselves as part of it rather than as ‘they versus us’. When the people trust the government, they will on their own accord offer information whenever they notice suspicious movements or activities around their areas. This is important because the basic software in security matters is the citizenry.

    However, no matter how much people try, government has the ultimate responsibility for security. Therefore, it is unhelpful and counter-productive to see the organisational or individual self-help measures as a substitute for this governmental responsibility. But it is soul-lifting that more individuals and organisations are beginning to realise the fact that the era of carelessness on security matters is over.

     

  • Big Brother wants to watch you

    Big Brother wants to watch you

    •FG will invade the citizens’ privacy with new Internet Surveillance platform

    SECURITY, which is the noble art of saving the world from itself, is no doubt, the greatest worry of mankind today, if we refrain from labelling it a scourge. In the name of ‘security’, humongous amounts of funds are disbursed annually across nations; monies often spent under the table, unaccounted for and unaccountable, again for reasons of security.

    In the name of ‘security’, citizens’ rights and freedoms are curtailed and even trampled. Such is the paradox of security in the modern day’s world: huge funds that would help elevate society and mitigate undesirable human conditions are shovel down the nebulous tunnel of security. The mass of law-abiding citizens are often the ones caught in the crossfire of ‘security operations’.

    This is the situation in Nigeria today and it is a terrifically bad example to cite. She is beset by insecurity of the armed and violent kind; one that her minders neither comprehend nor capable to manage. Thus the security (or insecurity) situation in Nigeria is so peculiar that it cuts a picture of a blind-folded giant fighting crazy in all directions. Just a few days ago in the border town of Baga, Borno State, Nigeria reaped the long-foretold result of fighting ‘insecurity’ with guns and mortars – indiscriminate killings that made victims of both the villains and the innocent alike in an unrestrained killing field.

    While the Federal Government and indeed the world is still baffled by the Baga baggage, yet another move has been made to undermine a mass of the populace in a seemingly benign but far more devastating manner. Nigeria’s government is said to have awarded a $40 million contract to an Israeli firm to build an internet surveillance platform in Nigeria. The very contract, its scope, terms and implications for the man on the street is shrouded in secrecy and obviously – for security reasons. Security, especially in an undeveloped environment like Nigeria’s seems to have the capacity to kill and heal equally.

    Concerned Nigerians and rights groups have expressed worry that this technology which is capable of spying on the internet communications of the generality of the citizenry could be deployed to intercept and read private emails and also has the potential to breach unwanted connections. While in the face of terrorist activities and insurgencies in parts of the country, this platform may have important uses for curbing internet-based communications, the dangers of abuse are present and far-reaching.

    Even the Federal Government is not allowed to so easily and flippantly acquire powers to trample upon and abridge the rights of the citizenry to privacy and individual freedom at its whims. This new internet platform has capacities so portent that it could easily be deployed to cripple businesses, to muzzle the media and to frame up individuals at the mere touch of buttons. Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees right to private and family life while 39, 1 and 2 provides for the right to freedom of expression and the press. We think that any directive, policy or instrument of government that are likely to thwart these fundamental rights must be put under scrutiny and tests. The National Assembly must have a role to play here.

    Coming particularly now in this season of acrimonious politics and mutual distrust between the ruling party and members of the opposition, we urge the Federal Government to tread softly and refrain from any action that would even remotely suggest that it seeks to apply authoritarian tactics in statecraft. The problem of insecurity is real and we support government’s moves to tackle it squarely but never, never at the expense of the rights, freedom and liberty of the citizenry.

     

  • Ibadan inferno

    Ibadan inferno

    •Fuel tankers cause yet another avoidable fire disaster

     

    The inferno triggered by a fuel tanker which overturned in the Omitowoju area of Ibadan, Oyo State, on April 23 is a tragic reminder of what can happen when infrastructural inadequacies combine with institutional carelessness and unquestioned impunity to cause chaos.

    Reports have it that the tanker fell onto its side when it was trying to negotiate a sequence of narrow streets on its way to its destination. The fuel it was carrying flooded the street and subsequently ignited, incinerating about 20 houses and shops. Although some residents suffered extensive burns and other injuries, no one was killed. However, the property damaged was heavy, with many individuals claiming to have lost everything they worked for.

    Perhaps the most tragic aspect of the whole lamentable episode is the fact that it was avoidable. The fuel tanker need not have been on the road in the first place. Even if it was permitted to be on the road, it could have been restricted from being in a crowded part of Ibadan with narrow streets. The damage caused by the fire could have been reduced by the presence of the right equipment and personnel. In essence, the damage, the losses and the anguish could have been prevented from occurring.

    Nigeria’s roads are littered with articulated trucks carrying highly-inflammable petroleum products because the viable alternatives to them have been allowed to fall into disuse. In spite of the fact that fuel can be effectively conveyed by rail and by pipeline, the country has witnessed an over-reliance on tankers.

    Quite apart from the obvious dangers inherent in transporting inflammable items in this manner, the use of tankers has had many negative effects on road use generally. Their drivers are a law unto themselves; their constant refusal to obey traffic rules has resulted in many deaths and injuries. To make matters worse, any attempt to call them to order often results in strikes which cause widespread inconvenience across the nation.

    The impunity with which tanker drivers operate is made worse by the apparent inability of regulatory agencies to rein in their excesses. Many tankers are so rickety and ill-maintained that it is a wonder that they are on the road at all, to say nothing of carrying fuel. Bodies like the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and their state counterparts cannot absolve themselves of some responsibility for this situation, since they mount the patrols and the checkpoints designed to curb this anomaly. It is also surprising that they do not work more closely with relevant groups like the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to ensure that those who drive tankers are properly trained, comprehensively monitored and adequately certified.

    Also, given the ubiquity of fuel tankers across the nation, it is a surprise that town-planning authorities have not worked out measures to ensure that they do not appear in locations that are not conducive to their operations or to the safety of the general public. Seeking to avoid traffic jams, tanker drivers habitually turn into any side-street, regardless of how narrow it may be. This practice can be deterred by the promulgation and implementation of strict traffic-access laws aimed at determining where tankers may pass. Such issues should be taken into consideration when filling stations are built.

    The Omitowoju disaster is also a sober reminder of Nigeria’s poor disaster-response capacity. When fire outbreaks and other emergencies occur, the speed and quality of the response to them can be the difference between a minor incident and a major disaster. Again, it is crucial for the country’s towns and cities to establish laws which make it easier for such emergencies to be handled. This includes making provision for adequate fire-fighting equipment, increasing public awareness, and ensuring that all buildings incorporate standard safety measures into their construction.

     

  • Welcome, MNP

    Welcome, MNP

    •A good idea, but it can only be meaningful if the problems in the networks are solved

    With the launching on April 22 of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication subscribers in the country now have the opportunity of changing from one network to another without losing their number. This has been on the drawing board for some time; as a matter of fact, its launch has had to be postponed in the past to ensure that things go well once it takes off.

    For the GSM subscribers, this is good news; the fear of losing their number if they changed network had been the beginning of wisdom for them in the past years. Even when they felt so dissatisfied with telephone service providers, they had been forced to remain stuck to them simply because they did not want to lose their numbers. That is expected to be history with MNP now operational.

    We congratulate the NCC for making the MNP a reality. Although telecoms still has some basic challenges, like calls dropping, subscribers being billed for short messages that are not delivered, connectivity challenges, and what have you, we cannot deny the fact that Nigeria has come a long way in teledensity. From about 450,000 lines in the days of the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), the country now boasts of over 110 million telephone lines.

    At the advent of the GSM in 2001, the country was seen as one vast virgin land for investors who might be interested in providing GSM services in the country; this has been proved right with the current number of subscribers hooked to one network or the other.

    In spite of the challenges, it must be acknowledged that there have been improvements in the telecoms sector; some forced by competition and others by happenstances. For example, when GSM services began in the country, lines went for as high as N30,000 each, today, they are literally free. Also then, subscribers paid as much as N50 per minute for calls; this has drastically reduced. There was also the challenge of per second billing which Nigerians craved for at a time but never came because the operators said then that it was impossible. However, this too became history when a few years after, another service provider came and made that its cutting edge.

    Without doubt, we have come a long way in telecoms, the MNP only being the latest in the course of the journey. It is part of the ways of ensuring that subscribers get value for their money. For now, we cannot boast of that in view of the hiccups in the system, some of which we have mentioned. But it would be unfair to close our eyes to some of the challenges facing the operators. Apart from the problem of electricity that has forced them to install at least two high capacity generators wherever they have their masts, which means a lot of money being spent on fuel to power them and the huge cost of maintenance, the challenge has become compounded with the attacks on masts in some parts of the country. Even in areas where there is relative calm, the service providers operate at the mercy of ‘area boys’ and other miscreants who attack their facilities if the companies refuse to offer money to ‘protect’ such facilities.

    All said, there is still much room for improvement. MNP is good, but it should not be seen as any magic wand or cure-all panacea for the challenges in the sector. Many people change their network because the systems are congested. This problem would remain unless the systems are expanded; it is immaterial if subscribers can port or not. What we have to work on now is ensuring that we do not start to experience another round of technical hitches occasioned by MNP.

     

  • Nigeria Corruption Inc.

    Nigeria Corruption Inc.

    • Retired judge worries over corrupt power brokers

    Justice Mustapha Akanbi, retired President of the Court of Appeal has lamented that indicted ex-governors, ministers and party officials have remained the power brokers in the country, wondering how the war against corruption would work under their influence. As a former chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Akanbi is well situated to know the debilitating consequences of public corruption on the country. He made this observation at the meeting of the National Association of Law Teachers (NALT), held recently in Ilorin.

    We share in Justice Akanbi’s concerns that indicted public officials who ordinarily should be quarantined if not incarcerated have returned through surrogates to further destroy the system. This is possible because of the weak state institutions, and also the unfortunate inability of our country to develop a critical mass of civilian population to stop these fellows on their track. Justice Akanbi also called on ‘the President, governors, political leaders, and top civil/public servants, emirs, obas and obis to imbibe the spirit of leading by example and be in the vanguard of struggle to eliminate corruption or reduce it to tolerable level.’ While the call is laudable, it is unfortunate that most of those he is appealing to seem to have lost all sense of patriotism.

    Nonetheless, we commend Justice Akanbi for raising his moral voice against a major national challenge. We must also ask the President and other national leaders to hearken to this voice of reason. We reecho his worries that because the purveyors of corruption are the political godfathers, ‘more often than not, mediocre, incompetent and corrupt hands find their way to positions of power and authority which they use and manipulate to their own advantage and not to the benefit of the society or public good.’ Furthering his unimpeachable thesis, he argued that ‘the end result is that the nation begins to drift and slide dangerously down the slippery road of economic ruination.’ In our view, our country is already farther down this ignominious road, and only a quick reversal of course can save the final consequences.

    While pressuring the political class to change from its ruinous ways, we believe the civil society and state institutions have a huge responsibility to whip the recalcitrant leaders into line. Of course these critical groups range from professional bodies, to labour unions, religious bodies, security and anti-corruption agencies, the courts, the press and other influential bodies, that need to push together to save our country, otherwise our fate will continue to spiral in the negative as Justice Akanbi further argued. He had forewarned that, ‘in the process, there is general desecration of societal and normative values, low level performance in both socio-economic and technological development and ultimately a putrefying decadence, the stench of which often puts off or prevents other nations, with a record of transparency and probity, from wanting to interact or do business with a corrupt nation’.

    While urging action on all national leaders, it is important that President Goodluck Jonathan realises that by virtue of his position, he remains the chief culprit of Justice Akanbi’s stinging indictment. This is because he has the moral and political authority to ensure that the fight against corrupt practices achieves the needed result. Where it is failing as many, including the international community have confirmed, then he must accept the responsibility for the failure. Unfortunately the President has by his conduct also shown lack of the needed enthusiasm to fight corruption. Worse still, most of his close friends and associates form a chunk of these indicted but influential ex-political heavy weights.

     

  • Onshore/offshore fixation

    Onshore/offshore fixation

    THE onshore/offshore oil dichotomy debate again came alive at the North-West zonal public hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in Kaduna last week. Again, it was Kano State Governor, Musa Kwankwaso, leading the charge when he attributed the high level of poverty and hopelessness in the North and the spate of Boko Haram insurgency to the dichotomy.

    His words: “I am vindicated on what I said that offshore/onshore will bring more poverty that will lead to insecurity which we found ourselves today. In addition to the 13 per cent derivation, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, amnesty programme with billions of naira, all for the south-south region, this country is building towards one direction … Even the national budget is toward one direction. Offshore/ onshore dichotomy should be abolished”.

    His Kaduna counterpart, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, would also join the chorus when he rejected the PIB, under consideration, claiming that it would further alienate other parts of the country economically.

    Again, it seems the trouble with the governors is their attempt to link the challenges facing the North with the efforts to redress the age-long imbalance in the revenue allocation to the oil producing states through specific intervention agencies. Going by the logic of the governors’ position, that effort has merely translated to an equal or greater injustice to their states as indeed the states in the north – a case of justice to one leading to injustice to another.

    We find the zero-sum argument not only baffling but dangerous if merely on account of its failure to properly situate the problem correctly.

    This newspaper is on record to have variously identified the failure of governance across the board as the cause of the ravaging poverty and despondency in the land, whether the poverty is of the mangrove swamps or in the Sahel region. Linked to the problem is virulent fixation with petro naira and with it the psychology of dependence that it has bred. To these is the utterly skewed federal structure which, in addition to reducing the states to vassals of the centre, also imposes a fiscal absurdity that discourages industry and hampers states’ capacities to harness their resources. Were our Union to be a functional rather than parasitic federation, the whole debate on the dichotomy would have been entirely pointless. In that sense, the debate is nothing but a distraction.

    No one denies that the oil producing states have received greater inflow of resources in recent years. However, much of this has been somewhat palliative and remedial – at best to compensate for the years of neglect and the attendant despoliation of the environment brought on them by the activities of the oil-prospecting companies. Even at that, it is still a long way in the journey to right the many wrongs in our iniquitous federal practice.

    We appreciate the governors’ quest for more funds to fastrack the pace of development in their states. Legitimate as the quest is, we must say that it cannot be at the expense of denying the oil-producing states their fair and just dues, particularly as these were won after protracted struggle.

    A more agreeable way is for the governors to press for a slash from the federal revenue pie of 52 percent – to boost states’ share from the distributable pool. While the latter is merely a variant of the same tradition of dependency, the surest bet to eliminate the covet-thy-neighbour psychology inherent in the current distributive arrangement, is to navigate the nation along the path of true federalism. That way, states would be allowed to exploit the resources beneath their soil and only pay royalties and taxes to the centre.