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  • I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody – Buhari

    I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody – Buhari

    Inaugural speech by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari following his swearing-in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29th May, 2015

     

    I am immensely grateful to God Who Has preserved us to witness this day and this occasion. Today marks a triumph for Nigeria and an occasion to celebrate her freedom and cherish her democracy. Nigerians have shown their commitment to democracy and are determined to entrench its culture. Our journey has not been easy but thanks to the determination of our people and strong support from friends abroad we have today a truly democratically elected government in place.

    I would like to thank President Goodluck Jonathan for his display of statesmanship in setting a precedent for us that has now made our people proud to be Nigerians wherever they are. With the support and cooperation he has given to the transition process, he has made it possible for us to show the world that despite the perceived tension in the land we can be a united people capable of doing what is right for our nation.

    Together we co-operated to surprise the world that had come to expect only the worst from Nigeria. I hope this act of graciously accepting defeat by the outgoing President will become the standard of political conduct in the country.

    I would like to thank the millions of our supporters who believed in us even when the cause seemed hopeless. I salute their resolve in waiting long hours in rain and hot sunshine to register and cast their votes and stay all night if necessary to protect and ensure their votes count and were counted.

    I thank those who tirelessly carried the campaign on the social media. At the same time, I thank our other countrymen and women who did not vote for us but contributed to make our democratic culture truly competitive, strong and definitive.

    I thank all of you.

    Having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians.

    I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.

    A few people have privately voiced fears that on coming back to office I shall go after them. These fears are groundless. There will be no paying off old scores. The past is prologue.

    Our neighbours in the Sub-region and our African brethenen should rest assured that Nigeria under our administration will be ready to play any leadership role that Africa expects of it. Here I would like to thank the governments and people of Cameroon, Chad and Niger for committing their armed forces to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria.

    I also wish to assure the wider international community of our readiness to cooperate and help to combat threats of cross-border terrorism, sea piracy, refugees and boat people, financial crime, cyber crime, climate change, the spread of communicable diseases and other challenges of the 21st century.

    At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.

    In recent times Nigerian leaders appear to have misread our mission. Our founding fathers, Mr Herbert Macauley, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Malam Aminu Kano, Chief J.S. Tarka, Mr Eyo Ita, Chief Denis Osadeby, Chief Ladoke Akintola and their colleagues worked to establish certain standards of governance. They might have differed in their methods or tactics or details, but they were united in establishing a viable and progressive country. Some of their successors behaved like spoilt children breaking everything and bringing disorder to the house.

    Furthermore, we as Nigerians must remind ourselves that we are heirs to great civilizations: Shehu Othman Dan fodio’s caliphate, the Kanem Borno Empire, the Oyo Empire, the Benin Empire and King Jaja’s formidable domain. The blood of those great ancestors flow in our veins. What is now required is to build on these legacies, to modernize and uplift Nigeria.

    Daunting as the task may be it is by no means insurmountable. There is now a national consensus that our chosen route to national development is democracy. To achieve our objectives we must consciously work the democratic system. The Federal Executive under my watch will not seek to encroach on the duties and functions of the Legislative and Judicial arms of government. The law enforcing authorities will be charged to operate within the Constitution. We shall rebuild and reform the public service to become more effective and more serviceable. We shall charge them to apply themselves with integrity to stabilize the system.

    For their part the legislative arm must keep to their brief of making laws, carrying out over-sight functions and doing so expeditiously. The judicial system needs reform to cleanse itself from its immediate past. The country now expects the judiciary to act with dispatch on all cases especially on corruption, serious financial crimes or abuse of office. It is only when the three arms act constitutionally that government will be enabled to serve the country optimally and avoid the confusion all too often bedeviling governance today.

    Elsewhere relations between Abuja and the States have to be clarified if we are to serve the country better. Constitutionally there are limits to powers of each of the three tiers of government but that should not mean the Federal Government should fold its arms and close its eyes to what is going on in the states and local governments. Not least the operations of the Local Government Joint Account. While the Federal Government can not interfere in the details of its operations it will ensure that the gross corruption at the local level is checked. As far as the constitution allows me I will try to ensure that there is responsible and accountable governance at all levels of government in the country. For I will not have kept my own trust with the Nigerian people if I allow others abuse theirs under my watch.

    However, no matter how well organized the governments of the federation are they can not succeed without the support, understanding and cooperation of labour unions, organized private sector, the press and civil society organizations. I appeal to employers and workers alike to unite in raising productivity so that everybody will have the opportunity to share in increased prosperity. The Nigerian press is the most vibrant in Africa. My appeal to the media today – and this includes the social media – is to exercise its considerable powers with responsibility and patriotism.

    My appeal for unity is predicated on the seriousness of the legacy we are getting into. With depleted foreign reserves, falling oil prices, leakages and debts the Nigerian economy is in deep trouble and will require careful management to bring it round and to tackle the immediate challenges confronting us, namely; Boko Haram, the Niger Delta situation, the power shortages and unemployment especially among young people. For the longer term we have to improve the standards of our education. We have to look at the whole field of medicare. We have to upgrade our dilapidated physical infrastructure.

    The most immediate is Boko Haram’s insurgency. Progress has been made in recent weeks by our security forces but victory can not be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja. The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we can not claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.

    This government will do all it can to rescue them alive. Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires. An eccentric and unorthodox preacher with a tiny following was given posthumous fame and following by his extra judicial murder at the hands of the police. Since then through official bungling, negligence, complacency or collusion Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian sovereign territory.

    Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of. At the end of the hostilities when the group is subdued the Government intends to commission a sociological study to determine its origins, remote and immediate causes of the movement, its sponsors, the international connetions to ensure that measures are taken to prevent a reccurrence of this evil. For now the Armed Forces will be fully charged with prosecuting the fight against Boko Haram. We shall overhaul the rules of engagement to avoid human rights violations in operations. We shall improve operational and legal mechanisms so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human right violations by the Armed Forces.

    Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedeviling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land. We are going to erect and maintain an efficient, disciplined people – friendly and well – compensated security forces within an over – all security architecture.

    The amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is due to end in December, but the Government intends to invest heavily in the projects, and programmes currently in place. I call on the leadership and people in these areas to cooperate with the State and Federal Government in the rehabilitation programmes which will be streamlined and made more effective. As ever, I am ready to listen to grievances of my fellow Nigerians. I extend my hand of fellowship to them so that we can bring peace and build prosperity for our people.

    No single cause can be identified to explain Nigerian’s poor economic performance over the years than the power situation. It is a national shame that an economy of 180 million generates only 4,000MW, and distributes even less. Continuous tinkering with the structures of power supply and distribution and close on $20b expanded since 1999 have only brought darkness, frustration, misery, and resignation among Nigerians. We will not allow this to go on. Careful studies are under way during this transition to identify the quickest, safest and most cost-effective way to bring light and relief to Nigerians.

    Unemployment, notably youth un-employment features strongly in our Party’s Manifesto. We intend to attack the problem frontally through revival of agriculture, solid minerals mining as well as credits to small and medium size businesses to kick – start these enterprises. We shall quickly examine the best way to revive major industries and accelerate the revival and development of our railways, roads and general infrastructure.

    Your Excellencies, My fellow Nigerians I can not recall when Nigeria enjoyed so much goodwill abroad as now. The messages I received from East and West, from powerful and small countries are indicative of international expectations on us. At home the newly elected government is basking in a reservoir of goodwill and high expectations. Nigeria therefore has a window of opportunity to fulfill our long – standing potential of pulling ourselves together and realizing our mission as a great nation.

    Our situation somehow reminds one of a passage in Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar

    There is a tide in the affairs of men which,

                taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

                Omitted, all the voyage of their life,

                Is bound in shallows and miseries.

     

    We have an opportunity. Let us take it.

     

    Thank you

     

     

    Muhammadu Buhari

    President Federal Republic of NIGERIA and

    Commander in-chief-of the Armed forces

  • Ambode’s inaugural address

    Ambode’s inaugural address

    BEING THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. AKINWUNMI AMBODE, GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE ON FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015 AT TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, LAGOS

     

    PROTOCOL:

     

    Today, I have just performed the sacred duty of oath-taking as the Governor of Lagos State.  It has pleased GOD through the good people of Lagos State, that my destiny as a little boy, born from a humble background, on the 14th day of JUNE to become the 14th Governor of our great State, Lagos is being realised.

    2        I am eternally grateful to all of you.  To all Lagosians,

    the young and elderly, widows, physically-challenged; girls and boys, and especially, the children; who followed our musical campaign with vigour; God bless you all.

    3        Permit me to acknowledge and appreciate specially all the voters that voted for me; equally appreciate those that did not and also the people that did not exercise their franchise to vote at all.  We are all winners.  One of the instructive lessons from this last political campaign and election is for all politicians never to take our people for granted again.  I would, more than ever before; take you, the good people of Lagos, along with me, in this journey of renewed hope and prosperity at all times.

    4        My appreciation goes to all our elder statesmen and women including all our senior citizens.  To all our religious leaders, I say thank you.  All our Muslim leaders, Christians leaders and other faiths; your prayers for Lagos State did not go unanswered.

    5        I must not fail to acknowledge all our civil society organisations.  The students, civil servants, labour unions, artisans, professionals, corporate Lagos, the business community, thank you very much.  To all Lagosians in diaspora, foreign residents and all other stakeholders; thank you for keeping faith in the potential greatness of our State.

    6        From the bottom of my heart, I greet all our traditional rulers, our Royal Fathers, Kings, Chiefs and their wives.  I thank you all, most especially, the Chairman; the State Council of Obas and Chiefs, His Royal Majesty, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, Oba of Lagos.  We promise to continue to nurture our traditional institutions as part of our heritage.

    7        To our Party Leaders and all members of our great party, The All Progressives Congress (APC); today belongs to you all.  Our elected Officers, the three Distinguished Senators, Honourable Members of the House of Representatives and Members of the House of Assembly; congratulations and thank you.

    8        And my Deputy; Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule, thank you.

    9        To my family, words are not enough; My mother, who is here today, thank you for being a very caring mother to me.  All my uncles, brothers and sisters; I appreciate you.  To my lovely wife, Bolanle, thank you so much for your sacrifices and perseverance. God bless you always.  My children, friends and loved ones and supporters; I really appreciate the enormity of sacrifices, pain, prayers and efforts.  I remain eternally grateful.

    10      Lastly, I speak to the two people that have shaped the history of this State in the last sixteen (16) years.

    11      You are focused, dogged and hard-working, you are a visioner par excellence.  You are a bridge-builder.  To our leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; you have laid an enduring foundation for what we are all building on today. When the history of the political economy of Nigeria is being written, surely it would be kind to you.  Thank you so much.

    To our Distinguished Senator, (Mrs.) Oluremi Tinubu; your support and commitment to our State and to me personally during the election is well appreciated.

    12      To the out-going Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), you have fought the good fight.  You came, you saw, you conquered.  I have been at close quarters as a student, you as my teacher and mentor.  On behalf of my family and other good people of Lagos; we say thank you.  We appreciate you and your family.

    13      EVERYBODY COUNTS

    As we collectively face the challenge to make Lagos a better place to live in, we must recognize our strength in diversity.  A common national identity where everybody counts.  I shall run an open government of inclusion that will not leave anyone behind.  No matter your age, sex, tribe or any other Status, as long as you reside in Lagos, we will make Lagos work for you.

     

    14      THE NIGERIAN DREAM

    Lagosians are hardworking people.  Lagos is striving because of its undying entrepreneurial spirit.  However we must realise that there are no short-cuts to success.  To our youths, we must nurture good family values to succeed in any endeavour.  I want our younger ones and children to draw some lessons from my story.  Anyone of you can rise up to be the best you want to be.  Your background and circumstances cannot be an obstacle to your dreams.  In our country, particularly in Lagos, you can always succeed.  This is the Nigerian dream where hard-work, courage, perseverance, persistence, merit and rewards pay.  We must therefore embrace new thinking and be determined to succeed at all times. I am ready to encourage and nurture that dream in our children, youths and every hard-working Lagosian.  We would reward merit, hard-work and loyalty to the State.  The future is for those who dare to dream and find courage to pursue their dreams.

    15      THE FUTURE IS NOW

    We are all witnesses to the economic downturn and dwindling revenues at the national and state levels.  The present economic situation has affected the financial profile of most states in the country.

    The state is blessed that the foundation of its financial autonomy was designed and implemented by that visioner and our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Thus, the state has been partially shielded from the negative trend flowing from the federal level.

    For us to sustain the progressive and radical transformation on-going in the state, we have to redouble our efforts on all fronts for our commitment to excellence. While we must be creative and innovative; we are not citizens until we become responsible tax payers. I want to assure all of us that I will make your taxes work for you. You will surely get a transparent and incorruptible government that will give you good value for your taxes paid.

    Creativity is the most valuable asset in any public institution.  Progressive governments must reward contributors of good ideas.  Therefore, wherever practicable, we shall practise government by incentives and not government by enforcement.  We shall implement creative ideas and concepts that reduce the cost of running government; ideas that make life simpler and happier for our people.

    I, therefore, invite you all, to join hands with me, to offer new ideas that will pull more resources to cater for the poor and needy amongst us.  This will be a compassionate government.

     

    16      DEVELOPMENT PLAN (2012 – 2025)

    In the spirit of continuity, I am committed to the State Development Plan (2012 – 2025).  The plan is structured under four pillars; (1) Social Development and Security; (2) Infrastructural Development; (3) Economic Development and (4) Sustainable Environment.

    The challenges we face today as a State, are good enough ingredients to bring out the best of all of us.  Together, we shall push forward and not look back, with our hands firmly on the plough. We would work hard to tackle poverty, ignorance and social decadence in our State.

     

    17      PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS

    As we all know, the best practices of yesterday may not be good enough for the products of today.  In this sense, we shall embark on continuous reforms in the public service.  I am determined to demonstrate that the government belongs to the citizens.  You have put us here as servants to serve you and not you serving us. Today we are committed to that creed.

    Moving forward, the Civil Service will be strengthened and made to respond to the needs of all citizens in the same manner, quality services are rendered in the private sector.

    My administration is prepared to take the decisions needed to promote merit and professionalism.  To restructure where required, eliminate poor Human Resource practices and accelerate the pace of reforms in the spirit of good governance.

    I want to assure the business community and corporate Lagos that the ease of doing business in Lagos will be improved upon earnestly.  Lagos is open for greater business; To this end, a new office of Overseas Affairs and Investment (LAGOS GLOBAL) shall be created under the Governor’s Office.

    We want you to fly into Lagos, start your business, find your way; live, work and enjoy in Lagos.

    As part of our reforms, a new Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment shall be established.  This would specifically address the promise I made during the campaign on employment trust fund, labour exchange and entrepreneurship. This goal, we shall pursue vigorously.

    Also, the Office of Civic Engagement shall be created under the Deputy Governor’s Office to strengthen and enhance our promise on government of inclusion.  Everyone must have a voice in my administration.

     

     

    18      CONCLUSION

    I have the political will to engage investors and stakeholders in creating the enabling environment for tourism, entertainment and arts; and iconic infrastructure for the benefit of all.

    Once again, I thank the good people of Lagos for the confidence reposed in our party; both at the national and State levels.  We shall not disappoint you.  God bless you all.

    20      God bless Lagos State

    God bless Nigeria

              Itesiwaju Ipinle Eko

              Oje mi lo gun; Oje wa lo gun

              Eko oni baje – I promise.

              Thank you.

  • The Man Buhari

    The Man Buhari

    Muhammadu Buhari, Major-General and military Head of State between January 1985 and August 1985, will make history again today. More than 31 years after he was ousted from power by former military President Ibrahim Babangida, the Daura, Katsina State born-light skinned soldier is back in the saddle. He is the hero of the new dawn. Much has been given to him as the custodian of a popular mandate. Much will also be expected of him as he navigates the ship of state.

    In 1984, he rode to power through the barrel of gun. On March 28, he bounced back through the ballot box. Then, he was a dictator who brooked no opposition. But now, he describes himself as a repentant democrat. However, his vision for a better society has remained constant. So is his disdain for corruption and other social vices. In 1984, he was 42. Now, he is 73. When he was young, he demonstrated an aversion for primitive accumulation. In the twilight of life, he more or less sees life as vanity.

    When he sacked legitimate authorities to assume the reins three decades ago, he rationalised his forceful seizure of power in a nation-wide broadcast. Buhari blamed the Shagari administration for leadership failure, ineptitude, and graft. The economy was on its knees. Hospitals, he said, had become mere consulting clinics. The nation was in a state of hopelessness. The ship of state was sinking.  The dividends of democracy were scanty. There were cries of despondency, despair and loss of hope. Buhari was burning with patriotic anger.

    Today, the situation is worse. The nation is battling with insecurity, decayed infrastructure, soaring unemployment, power outage and corruption have assumed high proportion. The last month of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration has been worse. The scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit has paralysed social and economic activities. The question on the lips of people is: how will Buhari restore order into a state of pandemonium?

    Buhari’s foray into politics betrayed his training, tendency and exploits as a soldier. In retirement, he was comfortable. But, the national drift terminated that comfort. He had complained that Nigeria had suffered from poor governance under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. When he threw his hat into the ring, he mocked his antecedent as a combative soldier, who had earlier declined to put in motion any transition programme, thereby denying civilians who legitimately yearned for civil rule under his military administration.

    Principled, strong willed, disciplined and focused, he has never looked back since 2003. When he was defeated by Obasanjo, he took his case to the court. In 2007, he also contested against former President Umaru Yar’Adua. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by Prof. Maurice Iwu, Buhari lost the election. But, the General protested. The late Yar’Adua acknowledged that the poll was severely flawed. The PDP dangled some carrots at the leaders of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), who later labeled Buhari as a blind fighter. But, he was undaunted. When he was deserted by the big shots, he turned to the masses for support.

    In 2011, Buhari had left the ANPP and formed the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). That year, he garnered over 11 million votes at the presidential election. But, he was still defeated by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

    Ahead of the recent general elections, the General went back to the drawing board. He came out from his shell to embrace the indisputable fact that only a formidable opposition party can halt the 16 years of misrule by the PDP. Unlike in 2011, when Buhari rejected overtures for the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), he accepted to proposed mergers. The sacrifices made by the legacy parties-ACN, CPC, ANPP and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) culminated into emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC). READ MORE

    However, there were bumps on the way. When the parties agreed to merge, it was evident that they could not retrace their steps into the disbanded platforms, except the PDP. But, the first hurdle was the party registration. Many thought that the various caucuses in the proposed merger would find it difficult to agree on a name. They overcame the hurdle. Later, an amorphous group sprang up, challenging the APC. Its grouse was that the new party had adopted its  acronym. The proposed association later went with the wind. APC survived.

    Next was the Abuja convention for the election of pioneer party officers. The die was cast between two prominent politicians from Edo State-Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Chief Tom Ikimi. When Oyegun was elected, Ikimi left for the PDP. The fortune of the APC did not plummet.

    Also, there was tension at the presidential primaries held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos. Many thought that the contest involving Buhari, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Sam Nda-Isaiah and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would mark the end of the party. The Convention Committee headed by former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi conducted a very transparent shadow poll.  Buhari emerged as the flag bearer and other aspirants resolved to support his bid.

    Then, the choice of a running mate. Without any categorical statement on zoning, the university don, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), former Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, emerged as the running mate without controversy. It was evident that Buhari and the APC were on course. READ MORE

    When it was clear that nothing could stop the party, the PDP and its agents resorted to blackmail. Buhari was labeled a religious bigot, who will take Nigeria to the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC). He was described as the defender of Islam who will be an obstacle to the growth of Christianity. But, the agents of destruction were silenced, following the disclosure that Buhari’s cook and driver of 20 years are Christians.

    Simultaneously, Buhari was also described as an ethnic champion; Northern irredentist, who was insensitive to the legitimate aspirations of other ethnic groups. But, everywhere he campaigned, he came across as a true Nigerian who will be President of all Nigeria.

    Ahead of the poll, PDP campaign strategists also called his certificate to question. The General, who had served as a Military Secretary, insisted that his certificate was with the military. Buhari, who served in the Army for 24 years was denied by the military. Former Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Alani Akinrinade said that the military lied. He said his own certificate was also kept with the Army. It took the patriotic intervention of the Principal of Government College, Katsina, before the matter was laid to rest. He obliged Nigerians with the photocopies of the General’s WASC certificate.

    Later, PDP chieftains said that Buhari was not fit to rule on account of old age. They lied that he had health challenges, making him to travel out of the country to seek medical attention. In addition, there were also hate advertisements which provoked public uproar and condemnation. READ MORE

    When reality dawned on the President Goodluck Jonathan and hi9s co-travelers that their days in power were numbered, they instigated the postponement of the election for six weeks. Despite these challenges, Buhari was waxing stronger on daily basis.

    He towers above many in resilience and political luck, having weathered the storm four times to fulfill his destiny. Even, if he has not come back to rule, his place in history is assured. Indeed, Buhari has seen it all before as a civil war hero, military governor, federal commissioner, military secretary, military General Officer Commanding (GOC)commander and Head of State. But, necessity has compelled him in retirement to embark on a rescue mission. His victory at the historic presidential election underscored the power of courage.

    But, the euphoria of victory must fizzle out in the face of the challenges that will confront the new President. Buhari will inherit many assets and liabilities.  The components of the national burden include a disunited polity, an empty treasury, a huge foreign debt, an army of unemployed youths, dilapidated infrastructure, wobbling health system, and insecurity.

    To many observers, Nigeria, nevertheless, may be on course. The reason is that, for the first time, Nigerians elected a leader who is perceived as an incorruptible leader. His integrity, credibility and disdain for corruption are legendary. The new President is also lucky. He will work hand in hand with a resilient deputy, a man of ideas, a silent worker, planner, organiser and result-oriented technocrat.

    Buhari is not the first former military Head of State to return to power through the ballot box after disengagement from the Army. His former boss, Obasanjo, who handed over power voluntarily to the civilian regime in 1979, was elected President 20 years later. Other former military Heads of State-Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Gen. Ibrahim Babangida-also made futile efforts in the past. Even, the late maximum ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, wanted to perpetuate himself in power. However, Buhari’s second coming is more significant. He is the first politician to defeat an incumbent in a critical election that had aroused domestic passion and the interest of the international community.

    As the custodian of a popular mandate, much is expected of his administration. According to analysts, Nigerians may not be patient with him because they want a quick action.

    Buhari was born on December 17, 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, to his father Adamu and his mother Zulaihat. He is the twenty-third child of his father. He was raised by his mother, after his father died when he was about four years old.  In 1971, Buhari married his first wife, Safinatu (née Yusuf). The marriage was fruitful. The couple had five children; four girls and one boy. In December 1989, Buhari married his second wife, Aisha (née Halilu) Buhari. They also have five children, a boy and four girls

    Buhari joined the Nigerian Army in 1961. He attended the Nigerian Military Training College in February 1964. The school was renamed the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. From 1962 to 1963, he attended officer cadets training at Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, England. In January 1963, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion, Abeokuta. Between November 1963 and January 1964, Buhari attended the Platoon Commanders’ Course at the Nigerian Military College, Kaduna. In 1964, he attended the Mechanical Transport Officer’s Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School, Borden, United Kingdom.

    From 1965 to 1967, Buhari served as Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion. He was appointed a Brigade Major, Second Sector, First Infantry Division, April 1967 to July 1967. He was made Brigade Major of the Third Infantry Brigade, July 1967 to October 1968 and Brigade Major/Commandant, Thirty-first Infantry Brigade, 1970 to 1971.

    Buhari served as the Assistant Adjutant-General, First Infantry Division Headquarters. That was between 1971 and 1972. He also attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India, in 1973. Between 1974 and 1975, he was Acting Director of Transport and Supply, Nigerian Army Corps of Supply and Transport Headquarters. Buhari was also Military Secretary, Army Headquarters, from 1978 to 1979. He was a member of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) from 1978 to 1979.

    As a colonel between 1979 to 1980. Buhari attended the US Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States, and obtained  a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies. He was the General Officer Commanding, 4th Infantry Division (August 1980 – January 1981), General Officer Commanding, 2nd Mechanized Infantry Division ( January 1981 – October 1981) and General Officer Commanding, 3rd Armed Division (October 1981 – December 1983)

    In August 1975, after the late General Murtala Mohammed took over power from Gen. Yakubu Gowon,  Buhari  was appointed as the military governor of the Northeastern State. In March 1976, the Head of State, Gen. Obasanjo appointed him as the Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources. When the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was created in 1976, Buhari was also appointed as its Chairman. In 1983, when Chadian forces invaded Borno State, Buhari mobilised soldiers to chase the invaders out of the country. Shagari was infuriated. But, on second thought, he acknowledged that the General acted in the national interest.

    On December 31, 1983, Buhari became the Head of State after toppling Shagari. His Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters was the late Major-General Tunde Idiagbon. Both shared the same vision. It was a perfect combination. Until August 1985, when he was toppled by the Chief of Army Staff, Babangida, Buhari ran an efficient administration. He was frugal. He also loathed corruption. He steadily paid the huge foreign debts. He launched the ‘War Against Indiscipline,’ whipping decadent Nigerians into line. He was a no-nonsense military ruler.

    On the economic front, he blocked the loopholes. Buhari wanted to build a thriving economy along the conditions of austerity measures. He encouraged import substitution industrialisation, urging manufacturers to look inwards through the use of local materials. He reduced the penchant for importation. When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) asked the government to devalue the naira by 60 percent, the military leader objected. Instead, he embarked on fiscal discipline, creative financial engineering and prudent management of resources.  His Finance Minister, Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, was always rendering accounts every month to Nigerians. It was the height of financial accountability. But, in other areas, there was no accountability. Buhari brooked no opposition.

    Many have criticised Buhari for poor human rights record as a military Head of State. During the presidential  campaigns, he took responsibility for his past actions, saying that the past cannot be changed. But, he assured that, now that he has become a ‘converted democrat’, he is ready to abode by the rule of law.

    The image of the new democrat contrast sharply with the stern-looking soldier of early eighties in Dodan Barracks, Lagos. In those days, Buhari’s word was the law.In fact, observers have described him as the lord of manor. Asked by reporters when he will set up a transition programme, he frowned his face, saying: “May be, in 10 years’ time.” Under his Decree 2 and 4, citizens considered to be security risk, particularly vocal politicians and rights activists, were detained without charges. Popular demonstrations were banned. Two journalists-Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson-were even jailed. But, Thompson was among his campaign aides during the electioneering.

    The hand of Buhari was heavy on perceived looters of the treasury. Past civilian leaders, including governors and ministers were tried and convicted for corruption by military tribunals. Many of them, including Adisa Akinloye, Emmanuel Osamor, and Umaru Dikko, fled the country. Traditional rulers were also whipped into line. For travelling to Israel without official clearance, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, and Emir of Kano, the late Alhaji Ado Bayero, were restricted in their palaces for six months. Drug pushers had no place to hide. They were tried and executed under retroactive laws. Illegal foreigners were also sent packing.

    There were other excesses. In a controversial manner, the government wanted to bring the fleeing Transport Minister, the late Dr. Dikko, back home to answer corruption charges. Gradually, Nigerians who hailed Buhari’s ascension after ousting Shagari started to grumble. Buhari’s WAI programmes restored order, discipline and public decency. But, the administration was largely perceived to be highly dictatorial.

    In August 1985, there was a palace coup. Buhari was overthrown by Babangida. The former Head of State was detained. In retirement, he maintained a dignified silence, until he was made the Chairman of the Committee on the proposed Katsina State University. Later, he served as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) under Abacha, who displaced the interim contraption headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan. His tenure was marked by success, despite the bad image of the government. The infrastructure battle was vigorously fought. Buhari ensured prudent management, transparency and accountability.

    Throughout the campaigns, Buhari elevated issues over personality. He never played the ethnic card. He regarded the entire country as his primary constituency. Buhari shunned hate campaigns, refused to visit churches and mosques, unlike the President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Vice President Nnamadi Sambo. Buhari exuded confidence, charisma, carriage, courage and maturity, even when he was provoked. On the podium, he cut the image of a father figure as he canvassed alternative ideas for good governance.

    Three decades ago, he rode to power on military populism. The conditions that pave the way for his ascension in 1983 are similar to the current prevailing circumstances. In the eighties, Nigerians groan under an inept administration, making the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) to warned Shagari that ship of state was about to hit the rock. Reminiscent of the Second Republic, Buhari has also warned in this Fourth Republic that the country was on the brink. It is an understatement. ‘The economy has been mismanaged. The currency has almost become a worthless paper. A culture of theft and graft has been enthroned. Almost a year after, the abducted Chibok girls are yet to be rescued. Roads are death traps. Hospitals have become mere consulting clinics. The nation lay prostrate.

    As a young man, Buhari wanted to change the course of history. He wanted to also make name as a leader who sanitised society and established a decent rule. He was a man in a hurry to sanitise society. But, his colleagues conspired against him and aborted his dream.

    Can he now achieve what he failed to achieve 31 years ago? READ MORE

    In 1984, there was  no parliament to moderate his actions. He was both the legislature and the executive. He ruled by decrees. But, he will now be tamed by the National Assembly and the judiciary. Unlike before, the media and other civil society groups will be active in playing the role watchdogs in democracy. The ruling party, on which back he rode to power, will make legitimate demands from him. In 1984/85, there was no room for dialogue. It is a different ball game in 2015.

    Will Buhari adjust fully to the demands of democratic culture? Will he make use of the second chance by imprinting his name in the letters of gold? Will he resolve the national question? Will Buhari live up to expectation? Time will tell.

  • Tinubu, the kingmaker

    Tinubu, the kingmaker

    AS Muhammadu Buhari receives the baton from President Goodluck Jonathan today, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will receive the adulation of a kingmaker.

    Indeed, Tinubu will go down in history as the merger initiator, executor and consolidator.

    Many commentators have described the former governor of Lagos State as a courageous and fearless political General, strategic thinker, risk taker, a crusader for change, and a great apostle of power, which, in his view, is never served a la carte. Always exuding charisma, the swearing in ceremony will be the crowing of Tinubu’s efforts as an indomitable opposition leader and the most colourful politician in the post-Awolowo era.

    Thirty two years ago, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, predicted that progressive forces would  float a formidable opposition platform that would win federal power. Tinubu fulfilled the prediction. He argued that, if the leaders of like-minded parties could make sacrifice and float a mega party to confront the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nigerians would celebrate power shift. He rejected the option of alliance or inexplicable coalition, saying that only the option of merger was viable.

    Tinubu came up with the theory of the cow and the slaughter’s slab. It will be difficult for the cow to be dragged to the slab. But, once the cow gets there, it is a journey of no return. In Tinubu’s view, only a merger can lead to the natural death of the legacy parties. Once the scattered progressive platforms are collapsed into the APC, their leaders will not look back. They will either survive or sink with the mega party. On March 28, they survived as Buhari defeated Dr. Jonathan at the presidential election.

    The road was laced with thrones. But, the leaders weathered the storm. Tinubu provided the inspiration. He sustained the tempo of political motivation till the end. He is acknowledged as a top party financier.

    Tinubu’s role in the polity is consistent with his antecedent. Since he crossed the bridge from the boardroom to politics, he has not looked back. “He is the contemporary Awo of our time, who is destined to complete Awo’s unfinished business,” said a party elder from Lagos, Olorunfunmi Bashorun.  “History will not forget his contributions,” he added.

    House of Representatives member-elect Olajide Jimoh, who described Tinubu as the Tutor-General of the Nigerian politics, said the party leader is endowed with mega capabilities. “He started the journey of liberation in 2007 from the Southwest. Today, the progressives are in power at the centre,” he added.

    When the political earthquake swept across the Southwest in 2003, only Tinubu survived. PDP sharp shooters and hawks, penetrated the Alliance for Democracy (AD), at the instance of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Ahead of 2007 polls, AD was in ruins. But, Tinubu, a man of foresight, saw it coming. He spearheaded the formation of the Action Congress (AC), which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Under the guidance of the quintessential soldier of democracy, the party reclaimed Ekiti and Osun States from the PDP in 2010. A year later, PDP was also sacked from power in Ogun and Oyo States. But, last year, PDP regained the control of Ekiti.

    Tinubu grew up in a political family. His mother, the late Alhaja Abibat Mogaji, the Iyaloja-General of Nigeria, was a popular politician and women mobiliser in the days of the Action Group (AG), the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and Social Democratic Party (SDP). But, little did he guess that he would also become a political colossus.

    Tinubu  attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos and Children’s Home School in Ibadan. Tinubu went to the United States in 1975, where he studied at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago, Illinois and later at Chicago State University. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. Tinubu worked for American companies-Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, Haskins, & Sells, and GTE Services Corporation. After returning to Nigeria in 1983, he worked with Mobil Oil Nigeria.

    When the auditor became a politician by accident, he took the polity by storm. It was in the aborted Third Republic. As a senator on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), he became a thorn in the flesh of the military.

    The Lagos West Social Democratic Party (SDP) senatorial form was obtained for Tinubu by his cousin, Alhaji Kola Oseni, a grassroots politician. At the screening, the green horn dazed the screening committee headed by Chief Lanre Rasak when he scored the highest mark. He answered highly technical questions with immensurable wit from the panel. Old politicians on the panel, who had written off the new breed, had a re-think.

    Lagos West District is the largest senatorial district in the country. During the historic contest, Tinubu defeated the National Republican Convention (NRC) candidate, Mrs. Kemi Nelson, with a wide margin. In 1999, Mrs. Nelson served as a commissioner in Tinubu’s Administration. Tinubu also scored the highest number of senatorial votes in the country. He was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. He was widely acknowledged as a high flyer, prolific analyst and tactician. With the fall of the Third Republic, his career in the Upper Chamber was aborted.

    Tinubu was the arrowhead of senators seeking an end to the military rule. The brave politician had objected to the annulment of the free and fair June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the SDP candidate, the late Basorun Moshood Abiola.  He was a pillar of support for the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). His dedication, courage and financial backing for the noble cause sustained the crusade.

    During the June 12 crisis, Tinubu was marked liquidation. He escaped abroad. From there, he fired salvos at the military. He inspired many pro-democracy groups, whose activities led to the restoration of civil rule in 1999.

    Tinubu made history as the governor of the Centre of Excellence for eight years. He was a model governor. He jerked up the internally generated revenue from the N600 million monthly to billions of naira. Tinubu fought the infrastructural battle. He constructed roads, built hospitals and schools, created opportunities for employment and re-energised the transport sector. He initiated the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. The judiciary reforms he introduced were legendary.

    The former governor also created additional 37 local councils, based on popular demand. When the allocations to the councils were seized by the Federal Government, he invented a creative financial engineering that made the councils to survive.

    When Tinubu’s tenure was about to expire in 2007, he groomed a competent successor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), who also won re-election in 2011.

    In politics and private life, Tinubu is reputed for philanthropy. He is a cheerful giver, benefactor, godfather and defender of the oppressed. Tinubu is a national property and detribalised apostle of national unity. He is an apostle of true federalism and Sovereign National Conference. Yet, he objected to the National Conference set up by the Jonathan Administration last year, describing it as a decoy and a Greek gift. The conference ended up as a jamboree.

    Tinubu is an advocate of electoral reform. He hailed the work of the Justice Muhammadu Uwais Panel on Electoral Reforms. But, in his view, electoral reform is an unfinished business.

    Tinubu’s political career has been turbulent. Three years ago, he was dragged before  the Code of Conduct tribunal for allegedly operating illegal foreign accounts. He triumphed over his detractors. Also, agents of the Federal Government  monitor his activities as an opposition leader. Whenever he was abroad, stories would be cooked about him.

    Rewards for politics and community service have come for Tinubu in torrents. He has received many honorary chieftaincy titles. They include the Asiwaju of Lagos, conferred on him by the late Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, the Jagaban of Borgu Kingdom and the Aare of Ile-Oluji.

  • Aisha Buhari… Simply Mr President’s wife

    Aisha Buhari… Simply Mr President’s wife

    The temperaments of those that have played the role of First Ladies since the return to civil rule in 1999 till date have been markedly different. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI looks at the style of the First Ladies from Obasanjo to Buhari.

    Since the time of Maryam Babangida, the late wife of the former military President Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria has always had First Ladies who complemented their husbands. Though the position –– First Lady –– is not officially recognised and their activities are not publicly-funded, all those who occupied that position before now succeeded in carving a niche for themselves, by initiating either a  charity organisation or pet project to uplift vulnerable groups in the society.

    Stella Obasanjo

    Stella Obasanjo (November 14, 1945 to October 23, 2005) was the First Lady from 1999 until her death in 2005. Prior to her emergence in 1999, all the governors wives and the wife of number two citizens had no other pet projects  apart from the one instituted by the wife of   the Head of State. The   story   changed   when   Mrs. Obasanjo became the First Lady in 1999.  She told the governors’ wives and the wife of the vice president in clear terms that the problems of the society were so enormous and it would be unfair for her to impose a particular project on all the states as was done under the military era.

    She, therefore,  urged them to identify any problem that was peculiar to  each  state  and  set  out  ways  of assisting  the needy  in  those  regards,  thereby decentralising the pet project. She identified with the plight of the handicapped and their mothers through her Child Care Trust (CCT).

    A private, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, CCT, was established a few months after her husband assumed office as President  to bring succour to physically challenged children. Mrs. Obasanjo’s guiding philosophy,  many believe, was that children are special gifts from God and they need to be appreciated and loved, no matter their physical or mental circumstances.

    The late Stella Obasanjo came into the limelight during the campaign to release her husband, who was then charged with treason and jailed by the late Gen Sani Abacha’s junta. She took the campaign for his release to the United Nations (UN) in New York. She was later at the forefront of Obasanjo’s bid to win the presidential election. She travelled with him all over Nigeria, mobilising support among womens’ organisations and the grassroots.

    Born in Warri, Delta State,  the late Mrs. Obasanjo was the eldest of the seven children of the first indigenous chairman of Unilever Nigeria, Dr Christopher Abebe. She read English at the Obafemi Awolowo University from 1967 to 1969. Later, she enrolled at the Pitman Institute in London, where she trained as a secretary.

    She married Obasanjo in 1976, shortly before he became the military head of state. Stella was not the First Lady during Obasanjo’s first coming. Obasanjo had other wives. But, by the time Obasanjo returned as the civilian President in 1999, Stella was the one in the public eye, following the role she played when her husband was in detention. During that period, she was very influential.

    Her death in October 2005 shocked Nigerians. Mrs. Obasanjo, who passed away 22 days to her 60th birthday, had gone to Spain for a cosmetic surgery operation commonly known as “tummy tuck”, but never returned to Nigeria.

    Turai Yar’Adua

    If any First Lady wielded enormous influence in governance in recent times, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, the wife of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was. Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, is another.

    Turai Yar’Adua served as the First Lady from 2007 until the death of her husband on May 5, 2010. Turai was the power behind Yar’Adua — in the home, when he was governor and when he became president. Mrs. Yar’Adua’s has a quiet mien and from her appearance alone, one would be hard pressed to imagine her capable of the political manipulations and intrigues that were credited to her in the heydays of the Yar’Adua era. The power structure within the Presidency allowed her to call the shots from behind the scene. She wielded considerable power, way above what one would expect of a mere consort to a governor.

    In the Villa, Turai was perceived to be fully in-charge of many of the decisions behind the scene. She was her husband’s closest adviser and during the period he was incapacitated and unable to perform his official duties, she is said to be fully in charge. The late Yar’Adua travelled overseas for medical treatment without handing over to Goodluck Jonathan who was Yar’Adua’s deputy. The late President’s close associates maintained that he could perform his official duties on sick bed, from anywhere in the world. She was said to be the head of the cabal that ran the affairs of the country before the National Assembly was compelled to invoke the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ and made Jonathan the Acting President.

    An incident of many years ago perhaps best dramatises the power that Turai has always wielded in the president’s life and work. A story was told of how, prior to the 1991 governorship elections, a group of Umaru Yar’Adua loyalists visited the influential late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. Their objective was to persuade the retired general to help ensure that his younger brother became the Katsina State Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate. It would have been a simple task for the elder Yar’Adua who was the de facto leader of the party.

    But the older Yar’Adua would not support his brother. In fact, he was reported to have given tacit support to his brother’s opponent, Saidu Barda, candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC). When SDP stalwarts went to the retired general to appeal to him to change his mind he reportedly asked them whom they wanted to put in Katsina Government House, Umaru or Turai, his wife?

    Easily recognisable by her shawl and make-up, she got married to  the late president in 1975. She attended Government Secondary School, Kankia, in present day Katsina State, and Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology. For a while she worked as a teacher before retiring and becoming a full time housewife.

    Turai Yar’Adua’s pet project revolves around cancer eradication, but apparently, she was more interested in running the affairs of state. The difference between Hajia Turai and Dame Patience is that Hajia Turai was seen, but not heard. This is unlike Dame Patience, also known as Mama Peace, who behaved like an elected political office holder.

    Patience Jonathan

    As First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan obviously wielded enormous influence in and out of political circles. With her project, “Women for Change Initiative”, she was seeking to make Life better for women in the country and totally restore the dignity of womanhood. She lent her voice to the implementation of the 35 per cent affirmative action for women in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, thus advocating more women in governance.

    She had struggled relentlessly to awaken and empower the Nigerian woman through numerous summits, enlightenment and sensitisation campaigns. It is also to her credit that women were recognised as important stakeholders in the recently conducted general elections and were effectively mobilised for the polls.

    Dame Patience is believed to be a pillar of sorts for her. She was actively involved in the electoral campaigns, crisscrossing all parts of the country and wooing the electorate to her husband’s side. She has remained very visible as First Lady.

    She launched her Women for Change Initiative, shortly after her husband became President in May 2011. The initiative was aimed at promoting women’s participation in the political sphere, amongst other things. It was one of the promises the Jonathan administration can proud other say it accomplished. There were about 13 women in Jonathan’s Federal Executive council representing about 32 per cent of the 42 member Cabinet, with many others  heading sensitive institutions.

    But, her meddlesomeness and overbearing influence were equally part of the reasons her husband lost the March 28 presidential elections. She interfered in the affairs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in many states and created problems for her husband and the ruling party. For instance, she was said to be responsible for the problem between Jonathan and the outgoing Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and the crisis within the Bayelsa State chapter of the PDP. She also inflamed passions with the kind of words she used against the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer Muhammadu Buhari during the campaigns. The hate campaign she and Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti championed did not help matters for Jonathan.

    Mrs. Jonathan’s secret hospitalisation in Germany, following a severe bout of food poisoning, drew a lot of criticisms for the Jonathan administration. She was also involved in the controversy the over 200 girls abducted from Chibok by Boko Haram. She drew the ire of civil society when one of the leaders of the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement was arrested after meeting the First Lady at the presidential villa. Mrs Jonathan was said to have accused the activists of fabricating the abduction story to give the government a bad name.

    Many Nigerians derived comic reliefs from jokes built around her alleged grammatical blunders. People made jokes from everything she said or did. Indeed, Dame Patience is regularly mimicked by comedians for her boisterous public appearances, as well as political and financial scandals.  Despite all these, Mrs. Jonathan is never afraid to say her mind.

    She was born in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on October 25, 1957. In 1989,  she obtained the National Certificate of Education (NCE) in Mathematics and Biology from Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt. She then proceeded to the University of Port Harcourt, where she studied Biology and Psychology.

    Mrs. Jonathan started her career as a teacher at the Stella Maris College, Port Harcourt and Sports Institute Isake. She then moved to the banking sector in 1997, where she established the first community bank in Port Harcourt called the Akpo Community Bank. She served as Marketing Manager of Imiete Community Bank. She returned to the classroom briefly again as a teacher. Eventually she was transferred to the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, where she served until May 29, 1999 when her husband became the deputy governor of the state.

    On July 12, 2012, she was appointed as permanent secretary in Bayelsa State by Governor Seriake Dickson, who was helped to his governorship position by her husband. The appointment generated national outrage and ridicule, considering the fact that she had been on leave from the civil service for over 13 years, since her husband became deputy governor in 1999.

    Aisha Buhari

    Hajiya Aisha Buhari was largely an unknown name to many Nigerians until the 2015 presidential election campaigns. Unlike previous times where she did not openly support her husband’s aspirations to become president, she traversed the length and breadth of  country this time around to garner support for Buhari’s presidential aspirations under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which eventually paid off. In the process, Mrs. Buhari stepped out of the shadows into national limelight.

    She has quickly learnt the art of politicking, as she was the arrowhead of the campaign of the APC women’s wing. From donating relieve materials to internally displaced persons (IDPs), to mobilising the women folk to support her husband and even speaking about her plans as First Lady, Mrs Buhari has indeed stepped into her new role.

    Though the wife of incoming President is just assuming the role of the First Lady, she has promised Nigerians a different style, from what was witnessed under her predecessor. Already, she has given indications about what to expect from her. For instance, she said during the electioneering campaigns that she would prefer to be called the wife of the President, rather than the First Lady.

    Mrs. Buhari believes that since the position of ‘First Lady’ is not recognised by the constitution, there would be no point in her going about parading herself as the First Lady. She is of the view that not being addressed as the First Lady, however, would not stop her from performing her duties and role as the wife of the president of Nigeria. “The wife of the president has some traditional roles, like receiving guests, visiting orphanages, helping the less-privileged people,” she noted, adding that she would also lead the fight for the right of women and malnourished children and other socio-economic ills such as infant mortality rate, kidnapping and girl-child trafficking.

    Mrs. Buhari was born into the family of Nigeria’s first Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu in Adamawa State. She clocked 44 years at the peak of political campaigns in February, having been born February 17, 1971. She got married to Buhari on December 2, 1989.

    A graduate of Public Administration from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, she subsequently trained in beauty therapy and she is an alumnus of the Carlton Institute of London and the Academy Esthetique Beauty, Institute of France, Dubai. Mrs. Buhari is currently a graduate student of International Affairs and Strategic Planning. A devout Moslem, she and her husband are blessed with five children.

  • Osinbajo: Well-prepared for the task ahead

    Osinbajo: Well-prepared for the task ahead

    The new Vice President, Professor Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo was born into the family of Adeyemi Osinbajo on March 8, 1957 at Creek Hospital, Lagos.

    He began his education at the prestigious Corona Primary School, Lagos and between 1969 to 1975, he attended the famous Igbobi College, Yaba  Lagos, mainland.

    From 1975 to 1978, he read Law at the University of Lagos, where he was awarded a LLB Law degree. From 1979–1980, he attended the Nigerian Law School. In 1981, he was awarded a Master of Laws at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom.

    Working Career

    Osinbajo has had a distinguished career, which has spanned over 30 years.

    After undergoing the compulsory National Youth Service as a legal officer at the defunct Bendel Development and Planning Authority (BDPA), in 1981, he was employed as a law lecturer at the University of Lagos.

    From 1983 to 86, he was a senior law lecturer at the same institution. Thereafter from 1988 to 1992, he was appointed as an Adviser (legal advice and litigation) to the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Bola Ajibola.

    From 1997 to 1999, he was made Professor of Law and Head of Department of Public Law also at UNILAG. And at the inception of democratic rule in 1999, he was head hunted by the former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to serve as Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.

    After his tour of duty in the Lagos State government in 2007, Osinbajo returned to the Faculty of Law of UNILAG as a Professor of Law and in the same year, he was made the Senior Partner in the law firm of Simmons Cooper Partners (Barristers and Solicitors).

    Other past roles

    The Vice President once served as a Staff Member with the United Nations Operations in Somalia, Justice Division, UNOSOM II. In 2006, he served as a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s Committee of Experts on Conduct and Discipline of UN, Peacekeeping Personnel around the globe.

    Background role in APC

    After the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, Prof. Osinbajo was tasked, along with other notable Nigerians, to design and produce a manifesto for the new political party.

    This culminated in the presentation of the ‘Roadmap to a New Nigeria’, a document published by APC as its manifesto if elected to power.

    On 17 December 2014, the then Presidential Candidate of the party, Muhammadu Buhari, announced him as his running mate and vice-presidential candidate for the 2015 general elections.

    Educational Awards

    A very brilliant student in his primary and secondary schools, the vice president received several awards, including the State Merit Award in 1971; the School Prize for English Oratory in 1972; Adeoba Prize for English Oratory from 1972 to 1975; Elias Prize for Best Performance in History in the West African School Certificate Examination in 1973; School Prize for Literature (HSC) in 1975 and African Statesman Intercollegiate Best Speaker’s Prize in 1974.

    Membership of Professional Bodies

    He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), International Bar Association (IBA), Nigerian Body of Benchers Council of Legal Education in Nigeria and also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

    Chapters contributed to Books

    A distinguished scholar who is well respected within and outside the country, the Vice President has written many intellectual works and is also a contributor to other scholarly works written by his professional colleagues.

    Some of his major contributions which have become reference points include his authorship of The Common Law, The Evidence Act and The Interpretation of Section 5(a) in Essays in Honour of Judge Elias published in 1986.

    His other write-ups include Reforms in The Nigerian Law of Evidence Chapter in Law and Development; Rules of Evidence in Criminal Trials in the Nigerian Special Military Tribunals in Essays on Nigerian Law authored by late Prof. Jelili Omotola, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos; Some Public Law Considerations in Environmental Protection, which he contributed in the book titled ‘Environmental Laws in Nigeria’ also written by late Omotola.

    Others are Domestic and International Protection for Women: ‘Landmarks on the Journey so far’ in Women and Children under Nigerian Law; Some Problems of Proof of Bank Frauds and Other Financial Malpractices in Bank Frauds and Other Financial Malpractices in Nigeria; FMJL Review Series, Modalities For The Implementation of The Transition Provisions in The New Constitution in Law Development and Administration; Proof of Customary Law in non-Customary Courts – Towards a Restatement of Nigerian Customary Laws; External Debt Management: Case Study of Nigeria – International Finance and External Debt Management, UNDP/UNCTC; Judicial and Quasi-judicial Processing of Economic and organised Crimes: Experiences, Problems etc. Essays in Honour of Judge Bola Ajibola; Human Rights, Economic Development and the Corruption Factor in Human Rights and the Rule of Law and Development in Africa, to mention but a few.

    Articles published in law journals

    Prof. Osinbajo wrote countless articles in the many prestigious law journals, some of which include Unraveling Evidence of Spouses in Nigeria, Legal Practitioners Review; Can States Legislate on Rules of Evidence? Nigerian Current Law Review; Problems of Proof in Declaration of Title to Land, Journal of Private and Property Law Vol. 6 & 7; Interpretation of Section 131(a) of the Evidence Act; Journal of Private and Property Law Vol. 6 & 7; Review of Some Decrees of the Structural Adjustment Era.

    Other are Current Issues in Transnational Lending and Debt Restructuring Agreements Part 1 and 2; Autonomy, Academic Freedom and the Laws Establishing Universities in Nigeria; Admissibility of Computer Generated Evidence; Allegations of Crime in Civil Proceedings, U.I. Law Review 1987; Roles, Duties and Liabilities of Collateral Participants and Professional Advisers in Unit Trust Schemes; Reform of the Criminal Law of Evidence in Nigeria; Profit and Loss Sharing Banks; Juvenile Justice Administration in Nigeria, amongst several others.

    Books published/edited

    The Vice President also authored and co-authored many books including ‘Cross Examination: A Trial Lawyer’s Most Potent Weapon’ with Mr. Fola-Arthur Worrey, the Executive Secretary, Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF).

    Other books to his credit are the Nigerian Media Law; Cases and Materials on Nigerian Law of Evidence; Integration of the African Continent Through Law; Towards A Better Administration of Justice System in Nigeria; Women and Children Under Nigerian Law; The Unification and Reform of the Nigerian Criminal Law and Procedure Codes; Law Development and Administration; Narcotics: Law and Policy in Nigeria and Perspectives on Human Rights in Nigeria; Annotated Rules of the Superior Courts of Nigeria co-authored with Mr. Ade Ipaye, the current Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State.

     

  • Insecurity, corruption, unemployment, others as evils Buhari must overcome

    Insecurity, corruption, unemployment, others as evils Buhari must overcome

    As Muhammadu Buhari takes office as President today, unemployment, insecurity, epileptic power supply, corruption, among others, are challenges he must tackle with dispatch, writes Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN 

    Over the years, leadership has been identified as the bane of national development. Policies are unstable and short- term. Although it has often been said that a problem identified and diagnosed is half-solved, the Nigerian leadership challenge has defied this reasoning. The fundamental challenge has been narrowed down to ill-prepared leadership, wrong recruitment process and lack of vision.

    Funds appropriated for welfare and security of the people as well as provision of infrastructure are diverted to private accounts. Jobs done are shoddy as the contractors understand the language of the leaders. The education sector remains comatose; hospitals designated centres of excellence have become glorified  consulting clinics; power supply continues to haunt big and small businesses; the roads are in poor state and infrastructure for economic progress remains a source of national embarrassment, performing below regional standards. No sector stands out.

    To say that Nigeria is at the cross roads  is an understatement, especially against the backdrop of the  collective experience in almost all spheres of its national life. The task before Muhammadu Buhari, who takes over from Dr Goodluck Jonathan today, is enormous. Top among the tasks that must be done are turning the tides against insecurity, defeating corruption and banishing unemployment, among others.

    Insecurity

    The current state of insecurity is a manifestation of deep-rooted and structurally entrenched crisis of development that creates the environment for the emergence of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. These, in turn, lead to frustration, alienation, and ultimately, social discontent that spark violence and insecurity. Without the enabling environment, these conditions could not have metamorphosed into serious national security problems threatening to tear the country apart. The Boko Haram insurgency has not only claimed thousands of lives, it has also seen daring terrorists hang their flag in parts of the country, especially in the northeast.

    Buhari made security a driving issue in his presidential campaign. He promised to put an end to Boko Haram insurgency if elected. He said the primary responsibility of a responsible government is to protect the lives and properties of every Nigerian wherever they choose to live. There are also problems of kidnappings  and robbery attacks which have assumed dangerous dimension.

    Relevant to this appalling picture is the issue of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). A report of the Internal Displaced Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council indicate that of 33 million internal refugees across the world, about 3.3 million Nigerians are internally displaced because of the Boko Haram insurgency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. The number of dislodged victims of the six year old violent campaign by the terrorists in the affected areas is not only thought- provoking but also a cause for concern because it suggests that the scale of the problem may not have been fully captured and may indeed be beyond the range of the available figures.

    The challenges faced by displaced persons call for serious commitment. The Buhari presidency should help the internally displaced by perfecting relief structures.

    A security expert said the president should acknowledge the failure of the security agencies hence there should be a complete overhaul of the security agencies to pre-empt security breaches –– particularly, the failure of the intelligence services to contain the recurring security breaches.

    According to him, “Mr President, on assumption of office, has to act decisively to execute his office, and this can be achieved by implementing the anti-terrorism law and punish culprits of such heinous crimes capable of causing instability in the nation. The trends leading to this situation are reversible, if seriously proactive and sustained measures could be adopted by the government and the international community. The implication of this is that policy makers have the duty to arrest the drift through social justice and development. To address security problem in Nigeria is in effect, to address its crisis of development”.

    Unemployment

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the menace of chronic youth unemployment in Nigeria as a time bomb. The interpretation is that when the problem assumes an uncontrollable dimension, it will explode, with deleterious effects on the society. It stands to reason that there is a correlation between the youth unemployment in the land and the reserve army of idle and ignorant hands that a sect like Boko Haram is able to recruit for its heinous crimes. Similarly, the ever increasing wave of armed robberies, kidnappings, mindless assassinations and other crimes perpetrated mostly by youths across the country can be linked to the spectre of mass unemployment.

    The magnitude of the unemployment in the country will be better appreciated by making reference to the statement of the former Chairman of the Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P) Dr Christopher Kolade when he noted that 40 million Nigerians, that is 23.9 per cent of the population are unemployed as a result of the inability of the system to absorb the approximately 300,000 graduates churned out of tertiary institutions annually. This figure may not necessarily include the chronically underemployed such as casual workers, or those who are employed seasonally.

    The problem of unemployment is mounting daily. The manufacturing sector which used to be the major employer of labour is in a coma. Many manufacturing companies have closed shop in Nigeria and relocated to neighbouring West African countries or South Africa that provide enabling environment for business to thrive. The banks are downsizing at a ridiculous rate while access to loan has become an official publicity stunt. More devastating is the fact that the government has failed to provide stable power supply and security that are central to industrialisation and by extension employment generation and general development of the country.

    Recently, an industrialist entered into agreement with a Romanian firm to come and set up an agro-allied industry which will in its first year employ 1,000 workers. The investors came to Nigeria to formalise the agreement and process other requirements for the take-off of the project. The hotel where they lodged was on generator 24 hours daily which raised their suspicion over the state of power supply in the country. The second day of their visit, they were robbed on their way back to the hotel. The following morning they left for the airport and left the country without parting words to their Nigerian business partner. That was the end of the business transaction. The fact is, no genuine foreign investor would come and invest in a country where security of lives and property is lacking and where power supply is not stable.

    Agriculture stands out as a major solution to Nigerian unemployment if properly developed. The reason why many Nigerians run away from agriculture is because of the use of hoes and other primitive equipment which they consider stressful to them. With introduction of machines into agriculture, Nigerians will embrace it. Improved system of farming and poultry will propel many to pick farming as means of employment. The Buhari administration should organise seminars where citizens will be taught on new improved system of making living from agriculture.

    Government should support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to boost employment in the country. Private establishments contribute largely to the growth of manufacturing companies in the country. According to Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, SMEs manufacture more than 90 per cent of the products used in Nigeria. Government should provide more funds to SMEs so that they can expand their operations and create more jobs for Nigerians.

    Economy

    To say that the economy is dire strait is to state the obvious. The impression is that Nigeria is broke. Both federal and state governments are cash strapped that they cannot pay workers’ salaries. In fact, the Jonathan Federal Government had to take loan to pay April salaries. This suggests that the nation is broke. It is a manifestation of economic mismanagement.

    To revive the economy, a renowned economist Mr Henry Boyo said there is urgent need for a fundamental restructuring of the country’s monetary framework so that the economy can be rapidly transformed to induce vast expansion in industrial activity with single digit lending rates, increase employment opportunities, lower single digit of inflation and a market determined exchange rate mechanism. He noted that the government’s efforts to achieve these parameters, reduce poverty and enhance the social welfare of the people in the last 30 years have evidently failed woefully.

    “Indeed our economy appears trapped in a paradox of deepening poverty with increasing export revenue. It is inexplicable, for example that Nigeria became listed amongst the poorest nation in the world. A careful analysis of the process of infusion of our export earnings into the economy will show that this anomaly was made inevitable by the Central Bank’s practice of capturing export dollar revenue and substituting naira at its unilaterally determined rate of exchange before payment of consolidated naira allocations to the three tiers of government”.

    Another economist, Dr Joseph Edebiri, blamed  Jonathan for failing to put in place a robust fiscal policy that could align with the monetary policy. He said this would have brought down inflation rate from the present 15 per cent, reduce lending rate to single digit to stimulate the productive sector, open up the mining sector to international investors, promote private local petroleum refining and railways with extra-ordinary incentives, halt the massive borrowing that and has taken the external debt to $60 billion.

    He said: “Jonathan failed to prosecute oil subsidy thieves and their official collaborators, to clean up the corrupt Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to reduce his large army of unproductive advisers and assistants and also to reshuffle and reduce his incompetent cabinet. He dismissed the claims of Jonathan economic advisers especially, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that the economy was  growing at seven per cent. The statistics being bandied by government officials contrasted with the reality on ground. The economy she claimed was growing has not impacted on the standard of living. The inflation in the country is one of the highest in the world. The manufacturing sector is almost dead as industrialists close shop daily because of high cost of production, he said.

    “We don’t know how much we are earning from oil export. The government seemed to have legitimised oil thievery. It also appears that Jonathan has accepted that oil theft is a part of the Nigerian reality because his government has done nothing to bring the culprits to book,” he added.

    Corruption

    To observers, the anti-corruption war of the Jonathan administration was not just dead; its remains have been interred. It failed to tackle corruption. The high profile corruption cases, including Malabo oil deal, Halliburton contract scam, the $20 billion fraud in the NNPC, the N1 trillion debt owed the NITEL for the use of its facilities by GSM operators at the inception, the purchase of over- priced bullet –proof by former Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah. The dust raised by the Pension Fund scam, Otedola-Farouk saga and other related cases are still fresh in the minds of the people.

    Jonathan’s posture against the monster called ‘corruption’, which appears to be the root cause of many of the country’s woes, was not impressive. The government did too little in arresting or punishing corrupt officials and individuals. One of the perceived weaknesses that cast the Jonathan administration in bad light is the less than forceful presidential presence and ineffective deployment and application of presidential power in calling people around him to order. His actions suggested that he accommodated mediocre elements within his inner circle and that he lacked the will to show them the door.

    The Jonathan administration carried on as though it was unaware that corruption is an impediment that stunts the growth of nations. No nation has ever developed or made any meaningful progress without tackling corruption head-long. Indeed, Jonathan had a poor public image due to his failure to wage a spirited war against corruption, leakages in the oil industry, including pipeline vandalism.

    Buhari is not new in fighting corruption. In 1983, when he came to power as military Head of State, he succeeded in halting Nigeria from drifting and restored her glory within a short period. The corrupt politicians that looted the treasury were brought to book and vomited what they illegally swallowed. Nigerians are keeping faith with his promise to stamp out corruption that has given the country a bad name in the comity of nations.

    For him to succeed in his anti-corruption war, the Buhari administration must consider strengthening the criminal justice system in the country and appoint people of integrity to head the anti-graft agencies. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and its tribunal should be independent of the Presidency in terms of appointments and financing. The focus of the Buhari Presidency should be on prevention, detection and prosecution of corrupt persons which are fundamental to ending corruption.

    Power Supply

    The quantum of power consumed in a country by the citizens is considered a good indicator of the country’s socio-economic performance. Epileptic power supply is the greatest paradox of life in Nigeria, a country blessed with various sources of energy, including crude oil, natural gas, hydro power, coal and solar energy. The blackout is unprecedented. Business enterprises rely on generator 24 hours daily to power their machines. Those that cannot afford extra budget for diesel have closed shop and lay off their workers.

    Energy crisis in Nigeria has become a norm for several decades and is the bane of her economic development. There is an extreme electricity deficiency in Nigeria. The causes of this deficiency are related to financial, socio-political, and structural issues which lead the power sector in Nigeria to be recording high energy losses from power generation and billing which lead to insufficient cash generation as a result of these inefficiencies. Only about 40 per cent of households in Nigeria are connected to the national grid. There is highly-energy loss due to the physical deterioration of the transmission and distribution facilities, an inadequate metering system and an increase in the incidence of power theft through illegal connections.

    The crux of the matter includes inadequate generation, inefficient transmission and distribution of power. Nigeria’s installed power generation capacity of 6,000 mega watts is grossly inadequate to cater for the needs of over 140 million people. The country generates less than 3,000 mw.

    Government officials have always blamed the problem of power outages to inadequate gas supply to thermal power plants and low level of water in the dams. A lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Frank Okafor said “the fact is a number of power stations are old. Look at Kainji dam built in 1968, if you just change a rotor and say it will give you 2’000 mw it’s a lie. An old machine remains old no matter the amount of rehabilitation or renovation. The old machines can never meet our target.

    “If a developing country like Brazil can generate 100,000 mw, why not Nigeria priding itself as giant of Africa? Already South Africa is in Congo to build plant which they intend to transmit through High Voltage Distributive Transmission. Nigeria lacks the capacity for implementing long-term development plans.

    “No nation survives without long-term development plans. We are almost at 2020, there is nothing on ground to say there is plan pointing at 2020. They keep telling us that the power generation will hit over 20,000 mw by 2020. As regards Brazil, they have a very high potential for hydro power and they took their time to train their people. They built power plants and export power to neighbouring countries”.

    On the way out, Okafor said, it is high time Nigeria considers renewable energy as panacea to incessant power outages. “These renewable energy sources like solar, wind, coal, biomass and small hydro are good even though not cost effective but they should be encouraged. Nevertheless, we still need big generating plants to run our steel plants and manufacturing industries.

    Fuel Scarcity

    Experience over the years has shown that Nigeria has not been able to find solution to frequent scarcity of petroleum products. The ultimate solution is to build new refineries. It doesn’t make sense for a country that produces crude oil to be importing refined product. Refining crude oil locally will not only make enough products for local consumption available, but will provide employment for the teeming unemployed youths. Refine locally to meet local needs will solve the problem of oil subsidy that runs into billions of naira every year.

    A petro-chemical engineer, Funso Adebowale, suggests that Nigeria should build new refineries with local technology instead of spending huge sums of money importing experts to come and maintain the existing refineries that has never met local demand.

    Adebowale reasoned that the funds used in paying the experts to come and service our old refineries would have been better channelled into research in our universities or assist to develop what is referred to as  illegal refineries that abound in the Niger Delta.

    “Evidence abound that crude oil has been locally refined in the Niger Delta by the people we derogatorily referred to as oil thieves. What that means is that local refineries exist in Nigeria. We should improve on them.

    “Nigeria has the capacity to refine crude oil but the problem has been lack of political will and vision on the part of our political leaders. The in-coming administration should hearken to the voice of reasoning by encouraging the universities to embark on research to produce home grown refineries within a time frame”.

    Unifying the country

    The task before Buhari is enormous. His first task will be to heal the wounds of a charged electoral campaign. He is inheriting a country divided along ethnic and religious lines more than any time in the nation’s history. This fact was not lost on him when he declared in his first speech after he was declared winner of the election that: “This was a hard- fought contest. Emotions are high. We must not allow them to get the better of us. This is not the time for confrontation”.

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar aptly captured what most Nigerians expect from their new leader in his letter of congratulation. Atiku said: “When you assume our highest office, you must become the president of not just the APC, but all of Nigeria, including the people who did not vote for you. We look up to you to heal the fractures of our country and truly unite this country like never before.”

     

  • Change grapples with conservatism

    Change grapples with conservatism

    Like its politicians and leaders, Nigeria often presents to its many publics, domestic and foreign, the quintessential dilemma and irony of devising and nurturing change in a stifling atmosphere of conservatism. No nation was ever so much in need of change as Nigeria was; yet no nation was ever so comfortable in its conservatism. This paradox is often attributed to the country’s ethnic and religious pastiche, a hotchpotch of delicate and limiting factors that have stymied progress, erected barricades of mistrust among the people, distorted and corrupted otherwise great policies, and, with every new government, consistently returned the country to a constant state of rebooting and rejigging. Twice after independence Nigeria had attempted revolutionary changes, and even though both attempts captured and continually fascinated and fired popular imagination, twice the efforts failed.

    The first attempt, idealistically midwifed by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, not only collapsed disastrously, it also produced a twisted national template that led both to a civil war and deep and intractable military and political complications. The second attempt, suffused with clearly romanticised notions of continental and global politics, ended tragically for its creator, and entrenched conservatism. Indeed, it seemed that neither military culture nor, as future developments would indicate, political culture sanctioned the change the country yearned for but never knew how to procure.

    It is in this agitated and paralysing atmosphere of the quintessential dilemma of conservatism incubating change that the Muhammadu Buhari presidency will be inaugurated today. If it will take Nigeria more than the political and constitutional restructuring that some are campaigning for to remake, renew and energise it, what hope do the country’s leaders, nay President Buhari himself, stand to prise change out of ossified conservatism? Obviously it will take time to achieve more than a regional consensus for the substantial restructuring capable of birthing a new system to be done. Nor is it clear that restructuring is the nirvana that many hope it will be, for the systemic failure to grapple with new and perplexing challenges, as some homogenous African societies have shown, may not be so much a problem of structure as of other deeper, intrinsic failings, some of them cultural, and others social and political.

    President Buhari campaigned and won on the mantra of change, whether that change is properly understood or not, or whether indeed both the candidate and his All Progressives Congress (APC) conceived of that change in transcendental terms during and after the polls. The mere fact of former president Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat is itself change in the subliminal but not substantial sense. If President Buhari’s governing and policy paradigms represent a clear and unambiguous departure from that of Dr Jonathan, then perhaps change may be in the offing, a change that supersedes both the cultural, ideational and perspectival differences between the two leaders. The onus, as a matter of fact, is now on President Buhari to illustrate that the change he emblematises has little or nothing to do with the style and policy differences between him and his predecessor.

    Yet, both President Buhari and his party will have to dig deeper and run farther and wider if they are to recommend themselves as a viable alternative to Dr Jonathan and the exhausted Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Given the scale of the problems they are inheriting, the new leaders will be tempted to embrace pragmatism in place of the ideological and multidisciplinary rubrics required to undergird and catalyse their economic and political objectives for the next four years. The clearer and even better choice will be for President Buhari to hit the ground running with definitive and impactful measures to help redesign the country’s new template. To what extent he can do that, while at the same time mitigating the urgent short-term problems confronting the electorate, remains to be seen. Even perhaps more unsettling for him is the fact that he must seek for ingenious and farsighted ways to balance the chemistry between the heat of the desperately needed solutions to the country’s multifaceted problems with the sometimes slower understanding, impatience and low forbearance of the electorate. Few leaders ever managed to achieve this great equilibrium. President Buhari has warned there are no quick fixes or miracles, but he will be called upon to confect different sorts of miracles to find new and tolerable titre values in his national policy and ideological titrations.

    President Buhari must, however, intelligently deconstruct the unprecedented political development his party had just mediated in the last elections in order to achieve the right and healthy perspectives for himself, the country and his government. First is his past three unsuccessful attempts at winning the presidency. Not only did his past three defeats coax a better man out of him, they also reshaped his worldview and his national outlook. More crucially, they triggered his avuncular nature, tempered his fiery rage, recast his gender and familial politics, and led him into unaccustomed quietude and reticence in the face of damaging propaganda and abuse. He has doubtless become a politician, but perhaps his best politics, rather than the scheming campaigns and subterfuges Nigerians are conversant with, will be his new sense of accommodation and almost celestial forbearance.

    Second, his past failures have also led him to rationalise new political dynamics for the country in ways he never showed capability for before now. There was no proof he was ever a bigot, either religiously or ethnically. But now, to everyone’s relief, he has a better sense of the indispensability of inclusive politics. This may blunt his political antenna and to some extent weaken the sheer enormity of the Machiavellian chicanery required to steal advantage over the political opposition, but he could very well be on the way to rehabilitating the image of unreasoning inflexibility interred with his first unsuccessful, if not disastrous, first coming as military head of state. Third, and most importantly, his past failures led him into being a part of the formation of a bigger, better, more ideological and decidedly more political and knowledgeable political party. For even as he is now, a cult figure and disciplined politician, it is hard to see him succeeding without the kind of party that has produced him and moderated and probably enlightened his worldview.

    The emergence of President Buhari has in many ways become a watershed, not just because it represents the first time a president would lose reelection in Nigeria, but more relevantly because of the dynamics of that loss and the texture of his personal and party’s victories. Many politicians and analysts still hold on to the implausible theory of northern hegemony in Nigerian politics. The APC victory in the national and state polls shattered that myth so effectively that it is hard to understand why some still persist in their old views of Nigerian elections. From the outcome of the polls, it is clear no section of the country can lord it over another. If President Buhari had lost the Southwest like he did in 2011 and stalemated the North-Central, Dr Jonathan would have won. The last polls showed that there will always be enough issues to influence political and electoral behaviour of the six geopolitical zones in ways that may sometimes be unpredictable and even shocking.

    That process was in formation in 1993, but it was not allowed to crystallise properly. Now, it is firming up vigorously. Despite the marked differences of the electoral votes of the various zones, a winner must win convincingly in at least three zones and make a huge showing in a fourth. Notwithstanding the plurality of the votes won by President Buhari, Dr Jonathan could indeed have won had he taken the Southwest, as he did in 2011, and made appreciable showing in the North-Central, as he half expected. This is why the APC and President Buhari must not be tempted to imagine that the prognosis for the PDP is as gloomy and unpalatable as it seems on the surface. The internal jostling for influence and power within the APC may be a natural concomitant of victory for a young party, but President Buhari and other party leaders must find ways of anchoring the outcomes and solutions to party struggles and contests on lasting and altruistic philosophical ideas and goals, if they are not to be swept aside before they have the chance to reform the system according to their pledge.

    Few expect President Buhari to enact infallible and far-reaching policies that will produce revolutionary and progressive changes in the country in the next one or two years. But everyone expects that by personal example, as he appears quite capable of doing, he will set an unflinching and progressive tone for governance in the next few months that no one will be tempted to counteract. He is expected to show that indeed no matter how bad the national deterioration and decline in values, someone can sit, in a manner of speaking, magisterially and incorruptibly as a lawgiver to set and define a progressive and moral tone for the country. Malfeasant security, judicial and political officers will flex their muscles and test his resolve in his first few weeks in office. If he stands firm, and leaves no one in doubt on whose desk the buck stops; if he learns to fire and hire ethically and not leave that measure, like his predecessor did, to his last weeks in office, the discipline he had tried inconsistently and garishly in 1985 to enthrone will be inculcated effortlessly in the most suave and cultured manner.

    This 16-page insertion represents a small effort to make sense of the swirling emotions of the moment, and the whirligig of politics that took Nigeria breathlessly from novel political experimentations, such as INEC’s card reader machines, Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), and amalgamation of three or four political parties to form a so-called mega opposition, to contrived election postponement and the earthquake of loss and victory in one exulting, incandescent moment. Together with statistics published for the reader’s keepsake, it is hoped that this insertion will enable analysts to reflect more on the ramifications of the giddy flight their country has just taken in the past two months or so.

  • APC’s bumpy journey to power

    APC’s bumpy journey to power

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) made history when it emerged Nigeria’s ruling party even before its third anniversary. Associate Editor Sam Egburonu reports on the party’s bumpy journey to power

    All Progressives Congress (APC) was one of the latest entrants into the 2015 power race in Nigeria. But at the end of the contest, it took the gold, a development that has continued to confound its opponents and observers.

    Registered as a political party on February 6, 2013, it was barely two years old when it won the Presidential and National Assembly elections, defeating older and more established political parties, including the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been on the saddle for 16 years.

    So far, it seems all political indices combined to ensure its victory and success. For example, the party’s presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, won the keenly contested election with almost 2.6 million votes. The huge votes he garnered were obvious indications that Nigerians were tired of PDP-led government and were desperate for change. The result, which confirmed general acceptability, was cemented when Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who contested on the ticket of PDP, willingly conceded defeat on March 31.

    This development has been described as rare because it was the first time in Nigeria’s political history that a sitting president accepted defeat willingly. It was also the first time an opposition political party unseated a governing party in a general election with every indication that power would be transferred to it peacefully.

    For the party (APC), its victory is further consolidated by the fact that it not only won the presidential election, but also got majority of seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives. It also won 19 governorship elections, leaving only seven to PDP.

    Though this success has been described by supporters and admirers as astounding and fascinating, there is no doubt that the party journeyed to power through a rather bumpy route.

    At the beginning

    APC was a child whose birth was informed by a troubled polity as politically dissatisfied Nigerians agreed that the defeat of the political octopus called the PDP in 2015 elections will require a gang up of the opposition. This assignment, which the progressive elements in the country considered the only viable takeoff for the desired rebirth of Nigerian socio-economic and political future, was the basis upon which leaders of some political parties conceived the idea of a merger that will result in the formation of a mega party. That marked the beginning of APC.

    The vision became concretised when Nigeria’s three biggest opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), merged to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The merger talks came to fruition on Wednesday, February 6, 2013 when Chief Tom Ikimi, as the chairman of ACN Merger Committee, told journalists in Abuja that the parties had resolved to uphold the principles of internal democracy.

    Reading a prepared text, Ikimi said: “At no time in our life has radical change become more urgent. And to meet the challenge of that change, we the following progressive political parties, namely, ACN, ANPP, APGA and CPC, have resolved to merge forthwith and become the All Progressive Congress and offer to our beleaguered people a recipe for peace and prosperity.

    “We resolve to form a political party committed to the principles of internal democracy, focused on serious issues of concern to our people, determined to bring corruption and insecurity to an end, determined to grow our economy and create jobs in their millions through education, housing, agriculture, industrial growth etc, and stop the increasing mood of despair and hopelessness among our people.”

    Intrigues and controversies

    Even before it was  registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there were feelings that the powers that be were not comfortable with the emergence of APC in the political scene. As a result, the party’s route to survival and power was littered with bumps which created intrigues and controversies. In fact, these intrigues and controversies preceded the birth of the party.

    The first bump was the controversy over the acronym, APC. On March 14, 2013, while APC promoters were awaiting the approval of INEC to register the party, two other associations – African Peoples Congress and All Patriotic Citizens – also applied for INEC registration, adopting APC as an acronym. When these rival APCs unveiled their logo and emblem that day, the confusion surrounding the emergence of APC deepened.

    The heat that trailed the development was so much that many were ready to swear the emergence of the two other parties with the same acronym was PDP’s ploy to thwart the successful coalition of the opposition parties, ahead of the 2015 general elections.

    Also, after its registration, the young party lost some of its pioneer members as a result of what an insider cautiously described as “intrigues caused from within and outside the party.” For example, it could be recalled that most of the representatives of the merging parties who signed the merger resolution left the party soon after the emergence of the party. The resolution to merge as a party was signed by Chief Tom Ikimi, who represented the ACN; former governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, the Chairman of ANPP’s Merger Committee; Garba Shehu, the Chairman of CPC’s Merger Committee and Senator Annie Okonkwo, who represented APGA’s faction. It is on record that   over a year before the party’s historic victory in the 2015 elections, Okonkwo, Ikimi and Shekarau left APC and joined the PDP. Some other prominent pioneer members also left the party, as a result of political intrigues or conflicting ambition.

    Defections

    Although APC lost some of its pioneer members who defected to PDP and other parties within the first two years of its existence, it seems one of the major developments that boosted the party’s rapid development within this period is defection from PDP.

    Perhaps, the first major defection that helped to establish the party as a major player against PDP was the defection of five serving PDP governors at a time. They were Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State.

    Their exit from PDP came also with the defection of 49 legislators who joined the ranks of the original 137 legislators in the APC. This development gave APC majority in the House of Representatives long before the elections. To crown the defections game in the House was defection of the  Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal. At that point, even a naïve political analyst could tell that the party had literally hijacked power from PDP at the Green Chamber. This reality was finally affirmed as the party seated 179 members on January 15, 2015, when the House resumed after a long recess.

    It is on record also that on January 29, 2014, 11 senators from the PDP also defected to the APC. They included Senators Bukola Saraki, Abdullahi Adamu, Mohammed Ndume and Danjuma Goje. Since these defections, PDP has been shrinking while APC had continued to gain weight and clout.

    Criticisms and controversies

    Notwithstanding the wide acceptance of APC by the masses across the country right from the day it was formed, the reaction of its leading opponents, especially the PDP, was first to dismiss it (APC) with a wave of the hand and later to prophesy its imminent collapse.

    For example, Dr. Dorncklaimz Enamhe, identified as an PDP chieftain from Cross Rivers State, was quoted as describing the merger as “a marriage that will head for divorce soon without any issue”.

    Enamhe was not alone in his expression of fear over the survival of the party as rumour mongers soon spread allegation that Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ambitions would lead to early death of the party. This allegation became so pronounced at  the formation of the party that the secretary of the CPC Merger Committee, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla Obono-Obla, had to make a formal statement on it.

    As he put it: “I can assure you that the two leaders, Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and all the leaders of the opposition parties agreed that the parties should merge to rescue Nigeria from the pit and no Jupiter will change it.

    “Bola Tinubu is a democrat to the core; he was in NADECO; he was a senator; he was governor; he is a democrat; so he cannot impose his will on anybody; likewise Buhari. He has contested presidential elections, he went to the Supreme Court three times; he has been the most vocal voice for change in Nigeria; so they are not going to impose their wish on anybody”.

    Other top PDP leaders also underrated APC and so dismissed it as a merger that cannot be a threat to PDP. One of such leaders was the then National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    Speaking with reporters shortly after APC’s registration, Tukur said rather derisively of the party’s emergence, ‘’It is beautiful. The more the merrier. Let me tell you, there is no polling in the whole Nigeria where you do not have one member of the PDP. The PDP is the only party in the country that fields candidates in every polling booth.”

    Factors that boosts APC’s chances

    Aside internal crisis in the PDP, which led to the implosion and the fact that the out-going ruling party tragically underrated APC at the onset, other factors that helped APC on its journey to power were its high level of preparedness to take over power, excellent campaign strategies it employed and the electoral reforms that made rigging more difficult.

    Perhaps the first sign of the high level of technical campaign strategies the party was poised to employ was the report as far back as February 2014 that it engaged the services of an international political consulting firm, AKPD Message and Media, “to boast its electoral chances in the upcoming elections’’.

    The AKPD is co-founded by David Axelrod, President Barack Obama’s campaign strategist and a former White House Advisor.

    Commenting on the firm then, APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was quoted as saying: “As a party destined to bring change and succour to all Nigerians, APC is proud and excited to work with one of the foremost exponents of change in the world.”

    The Chicago-based firm was best known for its leading role in Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, adding: “We shall leverage on the firm’s skill, experience and expertise throughout the upcoming campaign cycle’’.

    Throughout the campaign cycle, the strategies employed by the party, especially its publicity, were indeed too matured and proactive for PDP to cope with.

    Dr Okechukwu Ogbonnaya, a political scientist, told The Nation, that the outcome of the Election was not only borne out of the urge to vote out a government but also a direct consequence of good campaign strategies and publicity of APC.

    “You can see that even when PDP resorted to hate campaigns and direct attacks on APC candidate, Buhari, the APC team, remained proactive, well-informed and issue-oriented. This confirmed to Nigerians that the party can be trusted to take the country to the next level. The result is victory for the young party.”

    Some observers have also said that more than all these factors, the electoral reforms, like introduction of Permanent Voters Card, Card Readers and Prof. Attahiru Jega’s rare courage, which made rigging more difficult, helped to make APC’s victory possible.

     

  • Jonathan’s handover note presentation speech

    Jonathan’s handover note presentation speech

    REMARKS BY

    HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR,

    ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION OF HAND OVER NOTES

    TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT,

    MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR

    THURSDAY, 28TH MAY, 2015

     

    PROTOCOLS

    1. I welcome you all to this occasion of the formal presentation of the Hand-over notes of my Administration to the in-coming Administration of the President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.

     

    2.   This event and tomorrow’s inauguration of a new administration are truly historic as it is the first time in the history of our nation that we are witnessing the democratic and orderly transfer of power at the Federal level from one political party to another.

     

    3.   The Hand-over notes which we now present, contain the governance philosophy, strategies, policies, programmes and activities of my Administration for the period – 2011-2015. Also to be found in the notes are the objectives, targets and implementation strategies, achievements and challenges of our key policies, schemes, initiatives as well as the status of commitments and liabilities of the various MDAs.

     

    4.   As we hand over the affairs of the nation, it is appropriate to recall that at inception, in May 2011, we committed ourselves to consolidating national unity through democratization and good governance. Our assessment then, and our firm belief ever since, is that the unity of Nigeria, the security, well-being, greater freedoms and opportunities for all citizens must remain the primary objectives of government.

     

    1. The Agenda for National Transformation which we did our best to implement consisted of clear and consistent governance strategies, policies, plans, programmes and projects, in all facets of our national life. Emphasis was placed on human and state security, democratization, sound economic management, as well as structural and institutional reforms.

     

     

    1. Our foremost concern was the unity of Nigeria.  In keeping with that concern, we engineered a process that began with a review of issues outstanding from previous Constitutional Conferences by the Belgore Committee. After that, we widened political consultations through a National Dialogue that was orchestrated through the Okurounmu Committee. These culminated in the all-inclusive National Conference which unanimously reaffirmed that Nigeria must remain united and indivisible.

     

    7.    The Conference also made resolutions and recommendations for serious constitutional, political and governance reforms, which we have forwarded to the National Assembly for appropriate legislative action. It is our hope that the incoming Government will accord the Report of the National Conference the very high priority that it deserves, as a genuine expression of the will of our people.

     

    8.   The recognition that the starting point for good governance is the legitimacy of the government itself informed our commitment to promoting free and fair elections.

     

    9.   It also motivated innovations in the management and conduct of elections which we undertook. Hopefully, in the years ahead, those innovations will be properly and fully implemented so that Nigerians will be even more assured of the integrity of the electoral system and the legitimacy of any government that it produces.

     

    10.  To strengthen the social contract between the government and the governed, we institutionalized the rule of law as well as the independence of the legislature and the judiciary.  We also promoted group and individual freedoms. As a result, there is vast expansion in democratic, social and economic space for all citizens.

     

    11.Our nation and citizens faced many new challenges over the past four years but the greatest was the vastly increased menace of Boko Haram with their mindless terror, mass killings, utter ruthlessness, kidnapping of innocent children and other unspeakable acts of brutality.

     

    12.  We should all remember that Boko Haram’s emergence predated our administration going as far back as 2002. The group however became extremely malignant with the killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf in July 2009.

     

     

     

    1. It therefore became an urgent task for us to effectively confront the great threat Boko Haram posed to the security and well-being of our people. To do so, we overhauled and virtually reinvented our security architecture to confront Boko Haram and its insurgency. We re-organized our security apparatus. We re-equipped and fully motivated our forces.

    14.  Victory is now in sight and within our reach. However, the cost in blood of citizens and heroes; and the diversion of national treasure from urgent needs for development have been very high. While more than 500 women and children have been rescued from the clutches of Boko Haram thus far by our security forces, it remains my sincere hope and prayer that our beloved daughters from Chibok will soon be reunited with us.

     

    15.  I wish to thank the Nigerian people for their resilience and patience. I also wish to pay very special and personal tribute to all the men and women of our valiant armed forces and security agencies. Their sacrifice and dedication have brought us thus far.

     

    16.  While striving to overcome our national security challenges, we still gave necessary attention to economic development. Our goal was to achieve long-term economic growth and stability, improve the quality and quantum of infrastructure and enhance human capital development.

     

    17. Our financial system reforms included the Treasury Single Account [TSA] that unified the structure of government accounts for all MDAs and thereby brought order to cash flow management; and Government Integrated Financial Management Information System [GIFMIS] was introduced to plug leakages and waste of resources. The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System [IPPIS] weeded out 60,450 ghost workers in 359 out of 425 MDAs, yielding N185.4 billion in savings to the Federal government.

     

     

    18.  Improved Revenue Mobilization was achieved through improvements in the laws and compliance measures. In 2013 alone, these measures resulted in a 69% rise in Federal tax revenues from N2.8 trillion to N4.8 trillion. Also, Waiver Policy and Trade Facilitation were reformed to create a more rational regime. Our emphasis shifted to granting waivers to specific sectors instead of individual companies and the Sovereign Wealth Fund was established to provide stabilization from external shocks, provide funding for critical infrastructure and savings for future generations.

     

    19.   Our Financial Sector reforms addressed the issues of inefficiencies in the coordination and monitoring of the financial system. Our policies promoted transparency, better risk management, new banking models and payment systems. We established the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria as a resolution mechanism for toxic banking assets. We strengthened banking supervision and enhanced public confidence in Nigerian Banks.

     

    1.  Similarly, we undertook innovative reforms for job creation and repositioned the manufacturing, agriculture and housing sectors. Specifically, it was observed that over the years, job creation did not keep pace with economic growth. Thus unemployment, especially amongst the youth was assuming alarming dimensions.

     

    1. To address this, my administration made job creation a key consideration for all programmes in the Transformation Agenda. Emphasis was also shifted towards empowering youths to become entrepreneurs rather than job seekers, through such initiatives as Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOU-WIN), Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), the SURE-P Technical Vocational Education and Training Programme (TVET) and the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP).
    2. Manufacturing in Nigeria faces many challenges, including poor power supply, high cost of input, high cost of doing business, multiple taxation, poor infrastructure and lack of synergy with the labour market.  To address these problems, we launched several programmes and initiatives including the National Industrial Revolution Plan and a new National Automobile Policy designed to boost domestic car production and expand existing capacity. Since then, five new private vehicle assembly plants have been established.

    23.  Agriculture is critical to national survival and yet the sector was besieged with many problems. By year 2010, Nigeria was the second largest importer of food in the world, spending about N1.3 trillion on the importation of fish, rice and sugar alone.

    24. The reforms we introduced in agriculture dramatically increased local production of staple food and saved us vast amounts of money that we would have spent on the importation of food items.

    25. To address the glaring inadequacy of critical national infrastructure, we focused on the Power Sector, Roads, Railways, Aviation, Ports and Harbours as well as on Water and Sanitation, Information and Communication Technology.

     

    1. My government introduced the Power Sector Roadmap in 2010.  Since then, we have privatized the generation and distribution aspects in a most transparent process. Obstacles to the private sector investments in power supply were removed and we developed cost effective electricity tariff to make the sector more attractive. It remains our hope that the successor companies to PHCN and also the private sector will step forward with the necessary investment to make the power reform work.

     

    1. The major challenge in the road sector in Nigeria is the high cost of building roads and it continues to rise. The other challenge is the fact that because of regular use, roads are one of the fastest depreciating assets in developing countries.

     

    1. To address this, Government has developed the required legal and regulatory framework and created opportunities for Private Public Partnership (PPP) in road construction and maintenance.

     

    1. From Ore/Benin Road, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway to the Kano/Maiduguri dualisation projects, we made concerted efforts to address age-long problems of delays in construction, design defect, neglect and ineffective maintenance. The construction of the historic Second Niger Bridge has also commenced, and on completion, it will open new and far-reaching opportunities for greater trade and interaction among our people.

     

    1. In the Aviation Sector, our government developed a Master Plan to institutionalise safety and security, and to develop infrastructure at the airports and local airlines. We embarked on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of 22 airports nationwide. Construction work on five new international terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu are also on-going.

     

    1. There has been a revolution in rail transportation. We rehabilitated the old narrow gauge network and ensured that it has served our people steadily for three years running with new coaches and improved expanded services nationwide.

     

    1. We are in the construction stages of a new national network for standard gauge speed-train services, with the new rail line segment, from Abuja to Kaduna, successfully completed. In addition, we have initiated the process for the construction of an ultramodern coastal rail line that will run from Lagos to Calabar, with a link to Onitsha.

     

    1. We have also successfully completed the dredging of River Niger, from Warri in Delta State to Baro in Niger State, and completed construction works for the Onitsha River Port. Other River Ports at Baro, Lokoja and Oguta, are at advanced construction stages. Working with the states and development partners, we have facilitated the process towards the development of two new deep sea ports at Lekki in Lagos, and Ibaka in Akwa Ibom. We have also implemented reforms to streamline the clearing regime in existing ports, increasing cargo turnover time and easing business for all users.

     

    1. In the oil and gas sector, our local content policy has continued to empower Nigerian companies, particularly in technical and engineering projects. The Gas Revolution Industrial Park in Delta State is unprecedented in the subsector, and will not only deliver Africa’s biggest industrial park, but all the accompanying benefits to local industry and job creation.

     

    1. We recognized Human Capital as the most important agent for transformational development. Our reforms in this sector focused on Health, Education and Social Development and also on Women and Youth Empowerment and Social Safety Nets.

     

    1. In the Health sector, the comprehensive National Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP) of 2011 laid the foundation for widening access and improving the quality of healthcare with lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy for the populace.  Our effective curtailment of the Ebola epidemic has continued to receive worldwide acclaim as an example in prompt and effective national disease management. On our watch, guinea-worm has been eradicated from Nigeria and we are on the verge of wiping out polio entirely.

    37.          In the Education sector, our objectives are clear and precise. They emphasise expansion of access and the upgrade of quality. I am proud that we have widened access by establishing 18 more Federal Universities and other specialized polytechnics. We strengthened TETFUND and used it to boldly address the problems of inadequate infrastructure in the existing institutions.

    38.         I am particularly proud of our efforts with regards to Early Childhood Education and Out-of-School Children. We provided modern hybrid Almajiri Education Programme in the North, attended to schooling needs of boys in the South-East and ensured the construction of special girls’ schools in 13 States of the Federation to improve girl-child education. We expanded opportunities for open and distance learning and provided scholarships at all levels to help improve access to quality education for bright and promising Nigerians.

     

    1. We have promoted gender-mainstreaming with commensurate priority and opportunities for our womenfolk, beginning with ensuring that not less than 30 per cent of key Federal appointments go to women. Other initiatives that we have taken include: the National Gender Policy, Establishment of Gender Units in Federal MDAs, Women Empowerment Training Programmes, Micro-Credit for Women, Social Safety Net Programmes and the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Scheme.

     

    1. My Administration has emphasized giving a free hand to our Anti-corruption agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). We preferred that they mature into strong institutions instead of being the images, the hammer and the anvil of a strong man. We must encourage them to abide by the rule of law and due process instead of resorting to dramatic or illegal actions orchestrated for cheap applause.

     

    41.           Beyond the very impressive records of enhanced convictions by statutory anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC and ICPC, our other strategy has been to fashion economic policies that deliver higher deterrence and frustrate concealment. In this regard, the Bureau of Public Procurement has played a central role and impacted strongly on the fight against corruption.

     

    1. In Sports, we have improved our national performance in team and individual events. The disappointment of not qualifying to defend our African Football Championship was cushioned by a decent FIFA World Cup appearance, an Under-17 World Cup win in addition to other victories in other international football tournaments and the Paralympics. We have also encouraged excellence in other sports, apart from football, resulting in exceptional performance in international sporting events, especially in athletics.

    43.         Our foreign policy position remains strong. In October 2013, Nigeria was elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the second time on our watch. Our country had only served in that capacity thrice before 2011, since independence in 1960. Our Administration also played a leading role in the resolution of security and political challenges in our sub-region, particularly in Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso.

     

    1. In addition, we increased engagement with Nigerians in the diaspora who contribute so much in remittances to their fatherland. Our Administration successfully encouraged more of them to invest in Nigeria and others to return home and join in the task of nation-building.

     

    1. In summary, Your Excellency, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our administration has done its best to intervene robustly and impact positively on key aspects of our national life.

     

     

    1. There is no doubt that challenges still abound, but they are surmountable and overwhelming national transformation remains realisable, with continuity, commitment and consistency.

     

    1. Nigeria is blessed with citizens that will always remain faithful, firmly committed to national unity, accelerated political, social and economic development.

     

    1. As we hand over the reins of government, I believe that our nation is secure, our democracy is stable, and the future is bright. Let us all work together, and with greater resolve, continue to build a stronger and more prosperous nation.

     

    49.         May God Almighty continue to bless our dear country, Nigeria.

     

    50.         I thank you all.