The Nation Newspaper

Category: Politics

  • Marwa under pressure

    Marwa under pressure

    Former Military Administrator of Lagos State, Ambassador Buba Marwa, is under intense pressure to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ripples can reveal. The former Nigeria High Commissioner to South Africa was a PDP stalwart until he decamped to the CPC, on which platform he contested for the Adamawa governorship in 2011 and lost to the PDP candidate, Muritala Nyako.

    In the last six months, some powerful interests in government have called on Marwa to return to the PDP, but sources disclosed that some of his closest political associates are still saying that on no account would he return to the party now or in the nearest future.

  • My ordeal at the hands of Abacha —Aborisade

    My ordeal at the hands of Abacha —Aborisade

    Dr. Bunmi Aborisade, a journalist and academic, came into limelight during the June 12 struggle, when, as the editor and co-publisher of June 12 magazine, he was arrested severally and detained. He later fled Nigeria to Ghana in 1997 but was arrested by the Rawlings government, ready to be deported back to Nigeria before the American Embassy in Ghana intervened and relocated him to the USA in 1999. Bunmi, who has lived in exile in the United States since then and only returned to Nigeria last month to take up appointment as a Senior Lecturer at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, relives his experience in this interview with Sam Egburonu. Excerpts

     

    our incarceration in Nigeria and Ghana during the 1990s is part of the story of June I2 struggle. But Nigerians may not have known all that happened. Can you tell them more?

    The story of my arrest here in Nigeria during the June 12 struggle and while in exile in Ghana is a long one which I have reserved for my book coming out soon. Although my ordeals during the June 12 struggle in Nigeria and while in exile in Ghana have been widely reported in the local and international media, there are still some untold stories in the book.

    As you may have known, it all started with the June 12 Magazine (which I published with some friends) which gave a hard time to the Abacha Junta. I was arrested and detained at three different locations-Ikeja Millitary Cantonment, Directorate of Military Intelligence and the office of State Security Service (SSS). After my release, the military boys descended on the newspapers that carried the story of my ordeal while in prison. So, with the assistance of friends, I left Nigeria for Ghana on October 15, 1996.

    While in Ghana, I worked for the Independent newspaper owned by the President of West African Journalists Association, Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, who ensured that Nigerian journalists seeking refuge in Ghana had a voice in their local media and internationally. Then, we formed the Nigerian Journalists in Exile to continue the struggle back home and I was made the President. Many Nigerian journalists then saw Ghana as a safe route to travel overseas and sneak back into Nigeria.

    It was a little difficult to continue the struggle while in Ghana, but we were encouraged by our comrades in the struggle in Nigeria and London who were in touch with us to boost our morals. For example, Senator Femi Ojudu and Wale Adeoye were always around to update us about the struggle back home since the use of the Internet was not that popular. Dr. Kayode Fayemi (Now Governor of Ekiti State) who was then wanted by the Abacha regime and Makin Soyinka whose father was on Abacha’s hit list, visited us from London a number of times. However, my story changed when I was arrested by the Rawlings regime on May 27, 1998 and was given ultimatum to leave the country. So, with the intervention of the American Embassy in Ghana and the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), I was relocated to the United States.

    You were arrested in Nigeria, you fled to Ghana and you were arrested again before you left for the United States. While in the US, your mother, who was in politics in Ekiti State, was bathed with acid and she died. How were you able to cope with the pains?

    If I tell you I know how I was able to cope, I must be lying. But I believe the Lord is my strength. Remember everything did not happen at the same time, it happened over a period of about 10 years. So, I took every situation as it came. The most painful of them all was the incidence of my mother which happened on December 10, 2002 during the regime of Governor Niyi Adebayo in Ekiti State. Because of my mother’s support for Governor Adebayo when she was the woman leader of AD in Ekiti State, some wicked politicians attacked her with acid and she died some months after. That was an incidence I will never forget. I first read it on the internet and I later confirmed it from the Guardian correspondence in North America, Pastor Laolu Akande. She died on March 2, 2003 and I was devastated when Governor Adebayo broke the news to me over the phone. I had to leave the USA for Nigeria for the burial. Since then, we (family and friends) have set up a foundation in her memory and we have been giving scholarships to indigent students of Ado Ekiti and we also hold an annual memorial lecture just to show that we still love her. We are preparing for the 9th anniversary this year and we have not missed any despite the fact that we have not collected any money from any one to fund the programme.

    Given your passion in the newsroom in those days, one is somehow curious that on your return from exile, you chose to lecture at Afe Babalola University instead of practicing core journalism or politics?

    Since I will be teaching media and communication, I am not totally out of journalism. The only thing I will be missing is the hustling and bustling of news reporting and the fun of the newsroom. But I hope to be as active as possible in journalism if not as a reporter, but as a trainer. As a political journalist, I still hope to be relevant politically without running for any political office.

    More importantly, I want to be part of the history in my home town-Ado Ekiti with the fastest growing private university in the country and a standard university that is ready to match any university in the world. So, I see Afe Babalola University as a place to build a carrier in academics rather than working for the government.

    What do you think the government can do to bring Nigerian professionals back from the Diaspora?

    If our government creates the enabling environment for people to operate, our professionals scattered all over the world will surely return. Remember this is their country, they have no other country, and they are even more passionate about the country than those living in the country. In all my years abroad, I did not see any Nigerian who wants to live and die abroad. It is the prayer of every Nigerian in the Diaspora to return home one day.

    As I said, it is very simple to get our professionals to return to the country if the government can create an enabling environment for them to return. Some private universities like Afe Babalola University, Elizade Universities and others have been able to bring back many academics from Europe and America, which shows the same thing can be done in other sectors of our economy.

    President Obasanjo started very well by asking Nigerians to return when he became president, but Nigerians in the Diasporas lost interest when he started abusing them all over the place. The governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Feyemi also tried by rallying round the Ekitis in the Diasporas about a year ago when he visited them in London, America and Canada. He was able to convince them with his plans for the state and many of them were willing to return, but there was no follow-up since then.

    I also read in the news that Professor Wole Soyinka encouraged some professionals to return to Nigeria. There was a case of a Medical Doctor whom he persuaded to establish a medical practice in the country and the doctor was frustrated by the system and he returned to the US some years later.

    At the political level, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu equally helped some of our comrades who went into exile during the June 12 struggle to return to the country when he was governor; he still helps some Nigerians in the Diaspora to relocate to the country.

    Others that can help bring back Nigerians in the Diaspora are state governors. They are in touch with the indigenes of their states outside. They meet with them anytime they travel outside the country. All they need to do is to work with them and provide the necessary logistics to enable them return to the country. I know most of our professionals outside the country will listen to their state governors rather than listening to the president.

    With Boko Haram, kidnapping, poor condition of living, corruption, general insecurity of life and property, do you think Nigerians abroad will want to return?

    These problems are equally present in developed countries. So, they are not peculiar to Nigeria alone. It is the response of our government to the problems that makes the difference. We have kidnapping in America, worst groups than Boko Haram, poverty of unimaginable proportion, corruption, etc. But the government is at alert 24/7 to deal with people who engage in such acts. If you engage in any of these acts, the government will hunt you to your grave. But the same cannot be said of our government. Here in Nigeria, if you are kidnapped, you are on your own. If you steal public money, you are allowed to go scot free.

    Look at the role of the government in the fuel subsidy scandal in the country. If it were to be America, those implicated will be investigated, arrested and charged to court immediately and the media will update the public on every step being taken to ensure justice is done. But the reverse is the case in our own situation. Our government will be dilly-dallying on the case and the culprits will go scot free at the end. That is our problem.

    After 15 years in exile, you are returning when there seems to be no serious human rights activism going on; no NADECO or such like. So, can it be said that for you, the struggle is over?

    My primary concern for now is the students that I will be teaching. As you know, teaching is not a lazy man’s job; you have to read as if you are a student, conduct research and attend seminars. So, there is no time for extracurricular activity at all. But that is not to say that one will not speak out against injustices in the society or keep quiet while people in government loot the country’s treasury with impunity.

    It may be very difficult to be as active as one would have loved to in the absence of any serious organisation, but that is not enough for any serious minded person to give up the struggle. Otherwise, it is going to be a free day for the looters of our economy and oppressors of our people.

  • ‘Why unemployment deserves urgent attention’

    ‘Why unemployment deserves urgent attention’

    Senator Atiku Abubakar Bagudu who represents Kebbi Central Senatorial District in Kebbi State chairs Senate Committee on Interior. In this interview with MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE, he speaks on burning national issues including agitation for  state police and the effort of Federal Government to tackle insecurity.

    The Boko-Haram menace is on the rise instead of abating and it does appear that the Federal Government isn’t doing much to tackle it…

    To say that the Federal Government has not been doing enough isn’t correct. May be the best of the government isn’t enough because Nigerians just want this thing to go away and sometime when problems start, it is usually long and difficult for them to disappear. More money has been spent; a lot of intense activities are being undertaken by our security services and that to me is quite commendable because a lot of them have lost their lives in this period. Again, we are seen more activism by religious leaders and civil society groups to complement what the government is doing. There is need for more community vigilance. People should cooperate and support one another. Certainly, the conduct of our religious leaders has been quite commendable in terms of how they condemn any attack. The Federal Government too has continued to engage stakeholders. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the minister have all been up and doing, engaging traditional rulers, among others and we are seeing more results from such consultations. The new security adviser, Dasuki, immediately he got to office, visited Borno and Yobe which really cooled down the tempo. He has been to many places including Jos in trying to see that the tension is brought down. But more than that, I think the issue of unemployment is a major contributing factor in arresting this violence. If there are jobs and the perpetrators are brought to book, people will enjoy some relief.

    What is your take on the controversial issue of state police because the western governors appear more in support of it while its northern counterparts are opposed to it?

    There is nothing like the west governors because there are many people in the west who have expressed opinions for and against state police. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come out to express his opinion among others. In the North also, there are some people who are for it and some are against it. I remember the former National Security Adviser, Umaru Shinkafi wrote an article in support of the creation of state police whereas, Gambo, a former Inspector General of Police, takes a different view. So, there is no unanimity; the issue is not region-based. When the senate held its retreat at Asaba, there were some people who believe that state police is good but the current reality of the Nigerian federation is that if you have a state police, there is assurance that it would not lead to fragmentation of the country. There are some people who believe the police are not good and that if the Nigerian police have failed, then we should fix it. If they have failed because they do not have enough personnel and equipment, then those are what we should address. There are some people who were of the view that some states lack the resources to fund and manage a state police. Yet, some pose the question that with state police, what happens the federal? Are they going to disband it or run in parallel with states? If it s so, will the current fund allocation to the police continue? And if it is the case, how is the state government going to expand or support their state police? Some of us have expressed the view that the reasons being given for creation of state police are good, but certainly not now. I believe we are not ripe enough given the security challenges we face and the reality of the Nigerian federation.

    There is the issue of congestion in the Nigerian prisons and dilapidated physical structures which account for why it is so easy for jail breaks like the recent one in Oko. What is the senate doing in this regard?

    The committee and indeed the entire Senate have been concerned about the state of the Nigerian prisons and we have started the process. We are in the third reading of the bill to reform the Nigerian prisons and those elements of the reform include making sure that whoever unfortunately goes to a prison in Nigeria should come out a better person – rehabilitated and trained so that he can be a better member of the Nigerian society. The second element is that we have considered a number of motions in tandem with the prisons reform bill about what to do with awaiting-trial problems. It is the main problem of the Nigerian prisons because out of the 50,000 which is the total population of the Nigerian prisons, about 36000 are awaiting trial. When I was at Oko prison, I learnt of the case of a young man of 17 who had been detained since 1997 on the orders of a military administrator. The last time he was in court was 2004. There is no excuse for this kind of things. It is either you try him, convict him or let him serve a sentence. Somebody should have the courage of saying he should not be there, nobody should be in the prisons forever without being convicted. So, the awaiting trial issue is of paramount importance to us and we have examined the various problems ranging from difficulties on the long time it takes for police officers to complete their investigation and sometimes they are transferred in the midst of the investigation, thus unable to complete it, and it takes a long time for the director of public prosecution in the state to provide the file. Another element is about the infrastructure-related constraints that the Nigerian prisons face. Sometimes they don’t have vehicles. You can see somebody who misses a court session because that same morning that he was expected to honour the date, the vehicles of the prisons authority broke down, or they may even have many people going to different courts at the same time and the vehicles are not even enough to convey them all. The security of the Nigerian prisons is another issue which relates to their age. The Senate is looking into it with a view to enhancing funding of the prisons.

    Your governor is said to be a quiet person, which, perhaps, is why he isn’t much in the media, or is it that he resents the media?

    Certainly, the Kebbi State Governor Alhaji Saidu Nadamu Dankingari does not resent the Media because the government has Ministry of Information and Special Adviser on Media. We have friends in the Media and we try as much as possible to put in the Media what projects and programmes being done in the state. But sometimes, government is a balancing act; it involves spending of government money because you have to place advert, you pay honorarium for logistics which is an element that costs money too and sometimes, because of pressing priorities, you are not putting as much money as you should to media projects but most of the laudable projects of the governor and his deputy have been using the press for a while. The first major task that was undertaken by the Dakingari-led government was the education sector reform. The current INEC chairman, Professor Attairu Jega who is also an illustrious son of Kebbi was made to chair an education committee which reviewed he education sector in the state and came up with policies very early in the administration of the government in 2007 and everything he has recommended is being implemented. A similar committee was set up and headed by another illustrious son of Kebbi, Professor Hamid, to review the health sector and that saw the creation of additional over 100 primary health care centres. Workers were employed, equipment provided and all over the state, we have free maternal health care for all antenatal women and certainly the rural roads programme, in my mind, is one of the best in the country. It was designed to ease evacuation and transportation of food items from the rural areas to the urban centres. There is really no place in Kebbi now that one cannot access in four hours. Before this administration came to power, there were places if I went, I had to sleep overnight.

    What other thing has his administration done?

    Also, the project has made food widely available. Farmers are empowered because they are getting better prices for their products because they can easily move them to the markets both in Kebbi and other parts of the country. On the social aspects, one of the things that were done by the governor was the programme to rehabilitate all mentally challenged people and he did it in the most modest way. He did not air it through the media because of the thinking that it could expose such beneficiaries to victimization. Over 5000 people were cured and reintegrated back to their families and there have been follow-up programmes where medication was delivered to them so that they could fully resume their normal social activities. Despite that, there is an empowerment programme that is done for them in conjunction with area development administrators to keep the busy. Currently, under the SUREP programme, among others, there is a proposed bill which will ease administration of the SURE funding with representation from all strata of society and all the local government areas, religious and traditional leaders and the political class. All these programmes have helped to steer the ship of Kebbi, one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria . However, it has not been without challenges because in general, we know that resources available to the state are inadequate and therefore, among others, we want to see increased revenue allocation to the state government so that the laudable programmes being done can improve. And I will implore as many people that can come to Kebbi to come so that we can showcase what we meant by this rural infrastructure-based development.

    Virtually everybody wrote off the PDP during the last year general election; how was the party able to turn the table over to still be ruling party?

    I think two elements were responsible for this. One, maybe those analyses that were undertaken before the election were done by those people that could have been more informed. Sometimes, we judge based on the reviews that we read and not based on factual evidence because I remember that time, some of us, when we read those analyses by some of our friends in the media, even with some people we quite respect, we just laughed and asked for they got the background information from. Why didn’t they just come over and find things out for themselves because we knew that the evidence on ground was such that we could not expect anything better than an outright win. We have 225 wards spread over 25 local government areas and there is none of such ward where something of development had not taken place under the Dakingari-led government; either primary health care centre, secondary school, road network, water, electricity, combination of one, or two or all of them. Certainly, the spirit of the people was very high, that they were saying that these are the kind of things we want from government; we don’t want somebody concentrating all his attention on the urban centres or making himself visible in the media. So, we were confident that the people acknowledged that fact and they rewarded the governor because all his campaign promises were actualised and because the government was a performance-oriented one, we believed the electorate would reward him accordingly. And they did that convincingly.

    Many would hardly believe that an unassuming person like you would be in politics; Nigerian politics at that …

    What is peculiar with the Nigerian politics? I don’t think Nigerian politics is any way different from politics anywhere else, in the sense that it is all driven by concerns to participate and do things differently. And since resumption of politics in this republic in 1999, many people of good will have joined the political fray with a view to contributing to the country’s development. And it is quite interesting to note that the quality of the number of participants has been improving, which of course, has improved the quality of governance and that is because of the number of people that have decided to join in order to pull together the various experiences they have gathered from everywhere. I was a university lecturer. I worked in the banking sector and I was a private businessman. So, coming into politics gave me a perspective that somebody who is totally a government person would not. And I think it is the combination of these experiences has enabled me to see the Nigerian project much better.

  • Anisulowo: Why I back the Amosun Agenda

    Anisulowo: Why I back the Amosun Agenda

    Sure, Senator Veronica Iyabo Anisulowo, one-time Minister of State for Education, who also represented Ogun West (Yewa/Awori) between 2003 and 2007 at the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, joined others in the state in revelry when Senator Ibikunle Amosun became governor after seasons of political trials.

    However, her breath ceased for moments when, shortly after Amosun was sworn into office, he, to her, was taking a ‘frog jump’ in the administration of the hitherto development-hungry Gateway State.

    She revealed it when The Nation asked her for her assessment of the Amosun-led administration so far. It was at her Government Reserved Area (GRA), Ilaro, Ogun State home. “Honestly, he has tried,” she affirmed before releasing the bombshell: “However, when he came in, I disagreed a little bit on certain issues personally, but I didn’t voice it out. I felt he was too much in a hurry. And I asked, ‘why was he in a hurry to deliver?’ Well, I wished victory for him. We that were in the PDP/PPN then, we knew that the state was bankrupt. We knew at that time that the then Gov. Daniel had done so many things beyond the funds he had on hand and that was he Amosun wanted to hit the capital market to borrow funds to finance the projects so that he could meet up with all his commitments. So, I felt his economic team was not working too hard and that it was too much in a hurry.”

    “But with time,” she confessed, “I found out that anybody who wants to deliver must also inculcate speed because there is time lag, minimum of four years, maximum of eight years. So, initially, I disagreed when he said free education, free health, free this. I was afraid and I asked: where is the money? But I quickly realised that when there is the will, there will always be a way. Politically and spiritually, things are not really rosy. But he has the will, the vision.”

    Explaining why her fears disappeared, Anisulowo enthused: “Look at the standard of the schools he is establishing. He recently promoted some teachers in the state. He is trying to bring back the educational standard to where it was 20 years ago. And that is the only way he can impact positively on the common people. I think he is doing well in the areas of health and education, considering the meagre resources of the state. Go and see what he is doing in Abeokuta – that Boulevard road at Ita Eko/Oke Sokori down to Totoro. Each time I pass through, I usually say ‘this man should come to my area (Ilaro) and do the same.’ When he started, I asked why he was demolishing people’s houses. But it is the people that were later calling him to come and demolish their houses because they had seen its beauty.”

    Being a one-time die-hard chieftain of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), ex-governor Gbenga Daniel’s party, The Nation wondered why she dumped the party for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Then, the Senator went down memory lane: “I came back from PPN because of the governorship of a thing. My people talked to me and said, ‘Mama, you have suffered a lot in this pursuit, why don’t you join the governorship train? I then said that since they had tied everything around Ibikunle Amosun, we had to move up and therefore, I came to the PPN. When I came in, it was my brother (retired Gen. Idowu Olurin) that the people were supporting. I didn’t support him for the governorship but I had to support the better one out of two evils. So, PPN was a better evil for me in view of all I had suffered in the hands of the PDP and some leaders.”

    At that time, she stated, “I could not do otherwise than to be with the PPN. But the PPN brought Gboyega Isiaka from Imeko. He came to talk to me about what he would do if he became the governor of Ogun State. We had a covenant which made me feel that it is better for me to camp with Isiaka than with my own brother who had never been involved in the development in our district, except the military. So, I supported PPN. That was what brought me into PPN.”

    When asked about her major attraction to the ACN, she further recalled point-blank: “It was basically because of Ibikunle Amosun. This ACN metamorphosed from Alliance for Democracy (AD). It was initially, AD, later AC. I was party to its change to ACN. We did the negotiation to the end. My spirit then went with the ACN, but not with my flesh. Why I did not go in my flesh because the atmosphere was not clear. What I was seeing and sensing was that ACN was not going to give Amosun the Ogun State governorship ticket and I did not know that there were groups of people gunning for Ibikunle Amosun and he did not tell me.

    “I am a conformist if only you tell me. But if I have a covenant with you, be sure of my 100 percent loyalty. If you tell me what you have in mind, I read Mathematics in University; I will work to answers. When he did not, I said, ‘well, let me leave him alone’. I was afraid of his Baba (Obasanjo). I spent all that I had for that election. When I finished that election, I did not have N10, 000 on me. The leaders scuttled it. He went to court to no avail. Again, I did not want to have a brush with Amosun no matter the party he belonged because I knew what we suffered together. When the ACN won all the National Assembly elections in April 2011, he called me and said, ‘sister, you should have been the one to go back to the Senate, ki le tun nduro se nibe (What are you still doing there?)” But I said no, it was not like that, not just because your party was winning. Even when I joined ACN, I gave conditions.”

    She spoke further: “You could see what is happening in Egba land now because their son is in charge. Amosun hasn’t really promised me anything but I know he has my people in mind. Now that I am here (Ilaro), whenever I pass through the Model School under construction, I don’t talk to the contractor but I know my presence will make it happen. If I move from here to Imeko and come back, if there is anything they feel I should talk to the governor on, I will tell him. He has been fast-tracking since inception. I’m back and he has embraced me.”

    As a woman, she described her experience in politics thus: “I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly side of politics. I was in the North for 18 years and when I came back, I told my good people about my political desire and they embraced me after seeing the activism in me. It is good in that sense. As a young girl, with the activism in me, they felt they needed me. They embraced me and Mrs. Iyabo Apampa who was already on ground. She had started with the PFN, while I was with the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) when I returned to Ilaro. In the North I fraternised with the UPN.”

    The good thing, she said: “They used us to fight themselves and that was the beginning of the problems. I became Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture and later, Minister of State for Education. These are the good sides of it but the climax of the bad side of it was in 2007 when there was a gang-up. Somebody had a pre-planned motive that an Ilaro person must be governor of Ogun State and therefore, that every budding tree in Ilaro must be cut off; so, I became a victim.”

    The ex-Minister expatiated on it: “That person vowed that I would not go back to the Senate if his choice person did not have his way as governor. So, I knew it but I depended on God because in the first instance, my going to the Senate for the first time, that particular person did not want me there because they knew that I would not conform to immorality. But God saw me through. There was little opposition then, but the governor on seat could not do anything against me because he had made me Commissioner, Civil Service Commission and he knew my capabilities and he was looking for a leader, but for a Yewa person, really. But, he did not support them and I scaled through. And because they had a plan of four years ahead, they felt that if this woman should go back to the Senate, there was a tendency again for her to want to contest for the governorship seat and they would not want that. So, they stopped me. I moved to All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). I fought them to a standstill with my resources and I won the Ogun West senatorial seat election but we know all that happened and that’s ugly side. But it has made me stronger. And when they wanted a Yewa person to be governor, I could not say, no person, but I had my choice and that was where we had disagreement.”

    On why she had a warm home-coming after her stint at the Senate between 2003 and 2007, she beat her chest: “I don’t think my district will see another Iyabo Anisulowo as a Senator because they enjoyed me. I ploughed back every kobo I made. There is no ward out of the 59 wards that I did not touch. Through God and I, many of our youths are today in the police, Navy, Army and so on. And till tomorrow, I still assist my people through my foundation, Vision in Aid of Citizens. I live and walk freely among my people. I know my people inside-out. I listen to their problems. I built a N55 million bridge in Ijale Ketu, but I claimed N15 million from the Federal Government because there was a limit for a Minister on such a project in a rural setting.”

  • Concerns linger over Jonathan, Tambuwal’s relationship

    Concerns linger over Jonathan, Tambuwal’s relationship

    Tongues have been wagging about the relationship between the nation’s number one citizen, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal. The insinuation is that between them, there is no love lost.

    The position has been fueled by recent developments, particularly, the absence of the Speaker from the Independence Day celebration ceremony in Aso Villa, Abuja, on Monday.

    Besides, the hard-line posture of the House in respect of the 2012 Budget, and its threat to institute impeachment proceedings against the President on account of alleged poor implementation of the said budget is seen as a direct fallout of the frosty relationship between the two chieftains of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Today, the House has indicated that, despite the communication from the President that he would be willing to present the outlay of his fiscal plan for 2013 today, it would be unwilling to receive the budget.

    Last week, the House rejected the request and hinged its decision on the conflict between the President’s date and the time frame the lower chamber set for oversight of projects executed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The President had written to inform the two chambers of the National Assembly of his plan to present the 2013 budget today. However, House spokesman, Honourable Zakari Mohammed, declared soon after, that the lawmakers would not be available to receive the President.

    In his words: “We are going on oversight and will not be back until October 9.” He stressed that the House would not accept the 2013 Budget until it was satisfied with the implementation of this year’s budget. The House had projected that it would begin oversight of projects by the MDAs from on October 1, to ascertain claims by them of what they have done so far. Zakari dismissed the insinuation that the House’s decision not to receive President Jonathan was in furtherance of the rift between the House and the Executive, saying “There is no rift between us. It is purely on the ground of what I told you.” Instructively, the House accepted the medium-term budget sent by the Presidency after a meeting with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, two weeks ago. Media Adviser to the Speaker, Alhaji Imam Imam, told The Nation yesterday that there is no truth in the insinuation that the relationship between the President and the Speaker is frosty. He attributed the failure of the Speaker to be present at the Villa for the Independence Day ceremony to flight logistic.

    “There is no iota of truth in that insinuation or speculation. How can people make a mountain out of a mole hill? The Speaker was in Abeokuta on Sunday to commiserate with the family of the late Lateef Adegbite, after which he attended several meetings in Lagos. But he made it clear that we must depart Lagos by the first flight, probably by 6 a.m. But then, because of logistics problems in the arrangement, he was delayed. He quickly got in touch with the Deputy Speaker to represent the House as an institution. Those who are peddling this rumour, don’t they know what protocol is about? How would the Speaker just walk into an arena when the President, Vice-President and the President of the Senate were already seated?”, Imam asked.

    He pointed at the appointment of the Speaker to head the Presidential Committee to dialogue with Saudi authorities over the detention and deportation of Nigerian female pilgrims last week as a testimony that both leaders are matured enough to realise that Nigerian interest must not be made to suffer at any point in time.

    He asked rhetorically, would the President appoint the person he is not in love with into such a committee?

    Tambuwal was named chairman of the Presidential Committee saddled with the responsibility of dialoguing with the Saudi authorities to resolve the issues that led to the detention of over 1000 Nigerian female pilgrims. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Senator Anyim Pius Anyim announced the Committee. However, Imam said the insistence of the House to ensure compliance with the implementation of the budget is a matter of principle. And that any rational thinking Nigerian should not fault the House. “I don’t speak for the House, but you must allow me say that the issue of budget implementation has been a major bane for all administrations in this country and if the House says we can’t continue like that, I think we should listen to them than say it is a way to run down the executive or a fall out of the relationship between two people. It is the welfare of Nigerians that is at stake, I hope we all know that. As far as I know, there is no personal grudge between these two eminent Nigerians. And I want to crave the indulgence of Nigerians not to give mischief makers room to flourish in our body politics”, he explained.

    Political observers, however, hold that there may be more to the scenario playing out than meet the eye. A PDP chieftain from one of the Southwest states who craved anonymity, alleged that notwithstanding the explanation anybody may give to the goings on, it is clear that all may not be well and that something is “seriously amiss”.

    “Let’s face it, if the President of the country has written to inform the National Assembly of his intention to present the 2013 budget to the National Assembly, it is the height of disrespect to declare that we are not going to welcome him. Yes, the President has an option not to go and just send an aide, but if I were the President, I would go and let the people judge if their decision to shun the President is good judgment or a bad one. Let them mend their fences and give the people good governance and dividends of democracy”, he stated.

    In like manner, another chieftain of the party from one of the Southsouth states fingered the politics of 2015 as “the factor stoking the fire”.

    He told The Nation, while asking not to be named, that “permutation about what will happen in 2015 is driving the body language of these politicians. We are not deceived. We all know what is happening and you also know the way the Speaker emerged, he was certainly not the choice of the party leadership but once the opposition parties, in a bid to assert their relevance, decided to play a major role in the election of the Speaker, the PDP leadership lost it.

    “I think they still regard that development as a slight, if not really anti-party on the part of the Speaker. But even at that, subsequent efforts to douse the tension have not met with any success. If the House raises an issue over the implementation of the budget, and the party and presidency reaches out to the House leadership, I think the House should sheathe its sword. Look at last month, there was an alarm that a grand plan to impeach the Speaker had been uncovered. And naturally, heads will turn in the direction of the presidency. All this further heat up the polity and I think the party has a role to play in calling seemingly big members of the party to order for peace to reign. The party should be supreme and whatever it decides should be final”, the party chieftain said.

    Recently, it was alleged that the leadership of the PDP, purportedly acting in concert with the Presidency, wanted to impeach the Speaker over the handling of the bribery allegation against former chairman of the ad-hoc subsidy probe committee, Honourable Farouk Lawan.

    It was alleged that the way the House handled the matter was not pleasing to the powers that be and that the development presented a veritable platform to deal with the Tambuwal ‘headache’ once and for all. Tambuwal, branded in some quarters as Opposition Speaker, is said to be a thorn in the flesh of the Executive. In May, he openly disagreed with President Jonathan at the 2012 Democracy Day National Symposium on the concept of Separation of Powers and budget preparation.

    There is also the allegation that the Speaker’s popularity rating may be a source of worry in some quarters. This, according to political analysts, may not be unconnected with his resolve to always be on the side of the people. On several occasions, Tambuwal’s leadership has been brave enough to confront the executive.

    Recently, the President and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were forced to suspend their plans to introduce the N5000 note and coin some denominations which was popularly opposed by the people. But it was not only the House that made that possible. The Senate was even more critical in its criticism of the project.

    Tambuwal, who represents Kebbe/Tambuwal Federal Constituency of Sokoto State, emerged as the Speaker against all odds. In June last year, the leadership of the ruling party was humiliated as members of the 7th House of Representatives defied its directive on zoning and elected Tambuwal as Speaker and Emeka Ihedioha (PDP, Imo) as Deputy Speaker. The duo were elected in the presence of the then Acting National Chairman, Alhaji Haliru Mohammed Bello, former BOT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, Anyim and some state governors.

    They include former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Timipriye Sylva, former Kogi State Governor, Ibrahim Idris, Zamfara State Governor, Abdul Azeez Yari, Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda.

    Their presence in the gallery did not deter the lawmakers from going ahead with their ‘plot’ as they successfully jettisoned the party’s decision and picked candidates of their choice.

    Tambuwal beat his only challenger, Hon. Mulikat Adeola-Akande from Oyo State who happened to be the PDP anointed candidate by 252 to 90 votes in an election that lasted for almost four hours, while Ihedioha was elected unopposed.

    On that day, Tambuwal and Ihedioha who belonged to the same camp, disguised their dressing by wearing what they were never known or associated with in terms of dressing code. It was learnt then that it was to avoid being arrested in connection with an alleged N10 billion loan scam for which former Speaker, Dimeji Bankole was being held then by the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC).

    While Tambuwal who is known for his flowing Babariga was dressed in a pair of suit and a bowler cap to fit, Ihedioha noted for his Ibo traditional attire with his green cap chose to dress in a white agbada and mallam-like cap.

    After the result was announced by the Clerk of the House, the new Speaker was immediately sworn in. His landslide victory forestalled further election for the position of Deputy Speaker as Hon. Dogara Yakubu and Ishaku Bawa who were also gunning for the position of Deputy Speaker withdrew, thereby clearing the coast for the emergence of Ihedioha without a contest.

    In his acceptance speech, Tambuwal said the House was the House of the people and they had spoken through the election of the two of them.

    But many Nigerians who have been curious may want to know exactly where to put the relationship between the President and the Speaker.

  • ‘House is serious about 2012 budget implementation’

    ‘House is serious about 2012 budget implementation’

    Has the position of the House of Representatives changed its position on the 2012 budget? Is the House capable of carrying out the impeachment?

    There are some issues that made us resolve that Mr. President must meet a certain level of implementation of the 2012 budget. He brought a proposal which the House sat and examined and later invited various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) to come and defend the same. After our meeting with the MDAs, the clean copy of the resolution was passed across to the president, so, if it was presented to the president and he signed it to law, then the law must be implemented. We alleged then that it was not performing well but the presidency debunked it and later agreed with us that the budget performance, as at July, was 30%, n they later claimed it has risen to 70% implementation.

    Now, the Speaker has directed all the committees to invite all the MDA to come and tell us how far they have gone on the level of the implementation of their budget. If we discover that the level of the implementation of the budget is still not up to our expectation, I tell you we go ahead with the impeachment procedure. The House is serious about the implementation of the 2012 budget.

    The Southwest is clamouring for regional integration. What is your view on this?

    Regional integration is an essential part of what I’ll call true federalism. This is when you have a weak centre and this will avail each region the opportunity to develop and grow at its own pace and enjoy the benefit of autonomy. But it is unfortunate that we are not really practicing fiscal federalism. If we allow states to take absolute control of the local government administration and create state police which are the components of true federalism, it will help to evaluate the performance of the each region. Furthermore, no region will speak in one voice that the federal government will not recognise. So, am in total support of regional integration and autonomy that is the only solution to our problems.

    Early this year, you moved a motion in the House to upgrade and rehabilitate Ibadan airport for the benefit of the people of Oyo State and it was said to be included in 2012 budget, why is this project not carried out?

    This is one of our complaints to the executive. The House resolved affirmatively on a motion and any individual should know that the resolution should be carried out without further delay. National Assembly resolved that the Ibadan airport should be upgraded and renovated to befitting standard and up till now the renovation and upgrading has not been done. Though, the money has been earmarked for the project and it has been included among the seven airports that are to be renovated across the country but the fund has not been released. My concern now is that the project is taking too long because it was included in this year’s budget and the year is going to an end. However, I hope work will soon start on the airport.

    As 2015 is fast approaching, do you think the defection of Senator Rasheed Ladoja to PDP will affect the electoral chances of your party in Oyo State?

    Senator Ladoja contested the last election under the platform of Accord; Chief Adebayo Akala also did on the platform of PDP. But to God be the glory Senator Abiola Ajimobi emerged as the winner. I can say this authoritatively that all of them contested with all seriousness. Either Senator Ladoja defected to PDP or all PDP members defected to Accord, with the way the present governor is carrying out his assignment in the state, ACN need not campaign in 2015 before they vote for us. All these people had ruled this state one way or the other in the past, and we all know their scorecard. By the time the present administration concluded its good work, our people will see the difference between somebody who want to serve his people and the past administrations in the state.

    Recently the Oyo State Government sacked over 3000 workers in the civil service. Don’t you think the people will see ACN as the enemy of the masses?

    Our people in Oyo State are more intelligent than that. Am sure they will rather see the present administration in the state as the right government. When the noise was too much, the state government set up a committee to investigate if some of the people who were sacked have genuine case, to our surprise some of these people could not come because they knew they were actually at fault. Falsification of age, falsification of result, some are collecting salary without working. So that is why the present administration decided they should leave the office for those who are young with genuine result and capable of doing the job. By the time they finish the exercise and more people are employed with all seriousness and authentic results, those who were complaining will later commend the effort of Governor Ajimobi for sanitising the civil service in the state. So, I think instead of them condemning the courage of the governor on his effort to put things in order in the state they should commend him.

    Do you think the performance and the strength of the ACN can stand the 2015 general election at the federal level?

    ACN is a very strong party both at the federal level and in at various regions. We are going to take the mantle of the leadership of this country come 2015. Though we may need to collaborate with some other opposition parties like CPC, ANPP, APGA among others which our leaders are discussing at the national level now. We want to come together and chase away this monster called PDP because every one of us can now see that the party cannot do it. PDP has been in the power for close to 14 years now and nothing good has come out of it. Educational system is not working, health system is zero, security system zero, water zero; so, we can now ask a question that what are these people doing to improve the standard of living of the masses? The answer is, nothing. The coalition of opposition parties this time around is going to work out and in 2015, we are going to chase them out of Aso Rock.

  • Nigeria at 52: Pathways to sustainable democracy and rebirth

    Nigeria at 52: Pathways to sustainable democracy and rebirth

    It sounds strange biologically and indeed laughable, if not unfortunate, to speak of rebirth of a country at 52 still gappling with the intricacies of how to even leave together; but democracy and the rule of law is not a finished product that is graffated into society rather its an evolutionary process that grows with the growth of a society, a dynamic task in constant progress (or sometimes even regress). Adopting democracy ,therefore, has not been an easy task, especially for Africans given their cultures and societies often steeped in hierarchical traditions, patrilineal dogmas and deeply religious traditions. Besides, the challenge of dialectics of two publics ( see Eke primordial and civic realms) on account of colonization. wherein an African or a Nigerian belongs to both realm he is not governed by the same morality or value template due to greater attachment to the primordial realm, the civic public or governmental realm is where you are expected take from(or steal) to saturate the primordial realm unlike the Europeans that has loyalty only to the civic public. The orientation of successive leaders that took over from the generation of those who fought for and secured independence and left governace frameworks that were abandoned with atttendant crises that have made national unity, progress and development difficult if not impossible. The difficulty of the task is universal, for in truth when we consider that; “the process of democracy building took between 27 and 256 years in Britain, between 78 and 168 years in France, between 30 and 80 years in Germany, between 30 and 70 years in the USA, and about 50 years in Japan (Karl-Heinz Nassmacher, 2003), then we must not only dwell on our difficulties, but collectively identify and confer through election authority on those Nigerians that are ready to make the required sacrifices that would turn around our development trajectory because the only thing that has seperated Nigeria from the rest of the developed world is leadership.At 52 we should only take measured satisfaction on our collective current efforts and how to sustain them, that we are alive to inspire hope, courage, find solace and ponder upon the pathways for future progress.

    At such times like this,we must remind ourselves of our own history as a people that given that we have been brought together by the event of 1914 that was not an act of God but the action of a human being, Lord Lugard, we should be together as a country for mutually assured prosperity and not Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). While this may be easy to say, the task of development which brings about prosperity has not been fully defined globally, some have defined development strictly on the terms of economic growth, using indicators like the productivity, employment rate and similar ratios and averages, while others have criticized this narrow perception of development, insisting that such averages do not tell the full picture preferring social indices which show not only the summation of economic growth but also the relationship of the people in a country with themselves, the degree of satisfaction and happiness derived from living in the total environment, as well as the safety and security of the people who live and thrive within the country

    At the milestone of five decades and two years, we are afforded another opportunity to define for ourselves, what the value of development means to us as a country, is it prosperity for our individual selves and our close friends? Is it prosperity for our specific tribes, religious groups and gender, age group or club members at the expense of others? This understanding is a crucial building block for our wellbeing because, we may strive, fight and even go to war for the sake of prosperity but never attain it because even when we are prosperous we may never know except we have set a benchmark to remind ourselves that indeed we had a goal and we can recognize when we get there.

    To define the goals of development for our country, therefore, we need to define what we mean by development, agree upon basic rules and pathways to get there, accept that as human beings which do not always find similar satisfaction in the same things at all times and on the same occasion regarding each and every sphere of endevours, we are bound to have differences in appreciation and satisfaction on the pathways to get to our common goal of development, such agreements cannot come within one day, one year or even ten years, and as we have learnt in our national case, may even be difficult to achieve even after 52 years given the enclave and backward mentality of a few but powerful elites on account of power relations.

    More important, to reach the goal of a common understanding for our development, we have to cast our consensual agreements in plastic, so that we may be able to remind those who which to drag us all from that part of development that we have a common compact. I use the term casting in plastic rather than casting in stone, because in practice, laws even national compacts in the form of constitutions are made for the requirements of some time frames, and practices over time may prove some laws impracticable or we may find that the benefits of using such laws are not worth the cost to society, and therefore accept that they need to be changed, modified or scrapped, these are not unusual but important baby-steps in the journey to democratic consolidation.

    We are at the threshold of such a moment in our country, for having practiced democracy in bits and pieces for sometime before 1983 and briefly in 1992- 1993, we have learnt useful lessons ( and here I hope I speak for all of us) about what works and what is unhealthy for our national development, we are all agreed that the process of transition of power, how it empowers or dis-empowers voters who decide what type of leadership they want is at the heart of our development goals, because when the right people decide development policy and take the views and sensitivities of Nigerians into consideration, we are likely to find peaceful progress, but how we implement that agreement is still ongoing.

    Agreeing on common things is not often an easy exercise between people even people with similar backgrounds, let alone a country with very much diversity like Nigeria, this is why rather than agreement, people use words like consensus, rapprochement and understanding. And for this reason matters which affects us in common need not be a win-lose affair, to exemplify this type of mind-set, we have recently witnessed budget issues between the executive and legislative arms of government. while it is understandable that budgets are issues of allocation of funds to interests and priorities, at the core of the process is the matter of common development, hence trade-offs and understanding should inform such national issues that are fundamental to development. For a budget is actually a financial plan, a forecast of intentions and how funds should be allocated to them to attain progress, even though it is initiated by the executive, modified and approved by the legislature, and the Act interpreted by the judiciary in cases of legal uncertainty when necessary, the impacts and benefits of a budget are not confined to any of these three arms of governance, these impacts and benefits are intended for the whole country, so if there are losers and gainers, the Nigerian people and the Nigerian nation, their gains and loss should inform the decisions of the people in any of these arms of governance, which is why having a common understanding of the issue of what development means to all of us is crucial.

    Current discussions have been focused on how and what we accept as a compact on the pathways to such development through a constitutional review. At the stage of 52 years, we must therefore be able to diverge from the failed pathways of the past 51 years, including the use of methods which we have repeated often and which bore very little fruit by way of development, hence in the next 50 years, our focus should start with three priorities on the pathway to consolidating our democratic quest, one is to agree and return Nigeria to development framework of federalism with all its essential features as given to us by our forefathers , Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Zik and others whose periods of leadership remained the golden era of development in our history, a consensual definition and goal for development, we should find common grounds to reach an agreement on the basics of a constitutional arrangement to strengthen federalism without destroying the strengths of unity in diversity and finally is the need to settle ones and for all time the electoral mechanisms for peaceful transition of power starting with an accepted methodologies and severe sanction for violation of party primaries election of candidates internal democracy laws within the parties given that political parties are the building bricks of internalized democratic culture in a society. In settling the process of transition we must keep in mind that there are 812 executive positions and over 1000 legislative positions including state and local council legislative positions which are contested politically in Nigeria, therefore, no one position or office is worth destroying the whole superstructure in other to have and assert it for just a particular time-frame. May God bless and save Nigeria as we should work more and pray less because God almighty has given us what is required to be one of the greatest countries in the world but leadership is what seperates us and remained our challenge not absence of prayers.

     

    Igini is the REC, Cross River State.

     

  • Why Mimiko should go on October 20, by Iji

    Why Mimiko should go on October 20, by Iji

    Comrade Sola Iji, a lawyer, stepped down for the Ondo State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), at the party’s congress in Akure. He spoke with Deputy Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU on the imperative of power shift in the state.

     

    What are those things that Governor Olusegun Mimiko has not done that the ACN candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu, will do, if elected governor?

    I must confess to you that there are development programmes which the resources of the state would have been able to accomplish in the last three and half years, which the incumbent governor has neglected, failed, or refused oto do. There are many roads within and around our metropolitan towns that are crying for serious and urgent government attention, which has not been attended to. These roads are becoming more deplorable. There are issues of health care which has been brandished around. If you visit our hospitals, you can hardly find qualified medical personnel around under a government managed and administered by medical practitioner. What you hear is “abiye”. What is it? Is Abiye the only medical centre that would be used throughout by the people of Ondo State throughout the 18 local governments and 203 wards?

    But, he is said to have a robust programme to revive the education sector…

    Less attention has been placed to the sector. If you get to our schools, some of the schools left behind by the last administration have become dilapidated. Move round. Instead of building a mega school that does not meet the aspirations and yearnings of the people, we should fix the ones that are dilapidated. But they are left to get worse. It is what everyone can see. Unemployment in the Southwest is getting worse and we are not supposed to be in that category because this state is endowed. We have enough resources to create opportunities for our children and school leavers to be gainfully employed. We have industries that are moribund and left to waste and rust. When you get to Oluwa Glass, you will be very sorry. It is deplorable. The government is not even taking a second look at it. None of the industries has been revived. How do we generate unemployment, if the industries are left to die without any attention? So, this government has wasted opportunities and resources. Except you get somebody with passion to serve, who is caring enough, whose essence of coming on board to govern is not accumulation of resources, and who is coming to use the resources of the state to develop the state, the state will continue to suffer. That is why we are optimistic that the ACN government under the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Akeredolu, will be a total departure from what we are experiencing now.

    Are you saying that no road has been tarred in the state in the last four years?

    Unless you look through what is going on in Akure, from Fiwasaye, through Oba Adesida, to Oyemekun, when you get to Ilesa Road, that is all. Is that the entire Ondo State? Is that all the roads we have in Ondo State? Drive through the cities outside Akure. Go to Ondo. Yo will see how deplorable the roads are. Take a trip from here to Ado. From Owo junction, before you get to Iju/Ita-Ogbolu, you will see the total neglect. It is replicated all over the state.

    Four years ago, there was enthusiasm and hope and members of your party even supported the governor. What is now responsible for the parting of ways?

    There was a convergence of interests in terms of chasing out the then PDP administration at all costs. If he was declared the winner of the election, all well and good. The tribunal declared that he won an election. There was a great expectation that something great was around the corner. People thought that he had commitment to progressive cause and democratic norms. From day one when he assumed office, he started manifesting strange tendencies. Of course, it is better to be inconsistent than to persist in error. If it was an error that you supported his ascension to the seat of power and you discover that it was an error, you had better beat a retreat. That explains what has happened so far.

    How strong are the ACN structures at the grassroots?

    ACN is basically a grassroots political party. Our members are spread throughout the 203 wards, 3,009 units in the state. We are working. The structure of the party is very organic. It is one that is very resilient. It has endured a lot of setbacks. People have persevered and endured all the trauma of previous years and that is where we derive our strength as a political party today. Those who have joined the party have brought more enthusiasm, interest, energy. Our party here is very organic and we are prepared for the election.

    Some people left your party, following the emergence of Akeredolu as the candidate. Don’t you think that their departure could affect the chance of the party at the poll?

    No, it will not affect the chance of the party. Ordinarily, you assume that as people are leaving, there would be a major shift. But, you must appreciate that those who left were those who came to look for the party ticket. They were not part of the structure and the system. So, they have not made any serious impact on the structure of the party. The organic nature of the party remains. If you look at those who left, you couldn’t find a single person among those who had endured the period that party had been out of government. Up to now, none of our faithful members has left. So, those who came shopping for ticket left because they were disappointed that they did not get the ticket. It is unfortunate that people had to behave that way. But, I can bet that some of them will be regretting that they left because of what is happening now.

    What can be done to ensure that violence does not mar the election?

    What we are doing in ACN is to prepare well for the election. We are ensuring that what needs to be done is done. Then, we leave the rest for posterity to judge. We are not planning for violence because we believe in fairness. Those who are destined to fail or programmed to fail can be anxious about the election and create a scenario where they will foment or sponsor violence. But the government of the day needs to ensure that enough security arrangement in place to prevent violence and ensure that the process of the election is free and fair. If you don’t deprive me of my franchise, why do I need to be violent? I won’t be violent. What will lead to violence are manipulations and sharp practices. I want my vote to count. I will get agitated, if there is anything that will want to compromise my interest.

     

  • Shema: Onshore/offshore debate is diversionary

    Shema: Onshore/offshore debate is diversionary

    Alhaji Ibrahim Shema is the Governor of Katsina State. He was at various times the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and later the Deputy National Chairman (North) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview, Governor Shema, who is in his second tenure, speaks on a wide range of national issues. Correspondent MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE reports.

     

    The onshore/offshore dichotomy is one touchy issue in the polity. What is your view on it?

    Fortunately, I was part of the legal team as the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice that represented Katsina State at the court on the onshore/offshore dichotomy issue. Now, my question is this: is it just about onshore/offshore dichotomy or about the development of Nigeria and Nigerians? In Nigeria, we love to speak big grammar on issues that may not have any bearing with poverty and the enormous challenges that are facing us such as unemployment, insecurity and other challenges in other sectors. I think we should start by asking ourselves what are we doing with the little we are receiving? What difference will it make now even if we start giving more money to any state in the country? To my mind, this thing (about increase in derivation money from the federation account) should be tied to specific programmes. Even if we want an increase, what do you plan to do with the young men and women out there? How would you want to fight poverty? How would you encourage creation of industry, create jobs for the unemployed, improve quality of power and water supply and other infrastructure that had decayed since independent? Are we talking of onshore/offshore tied to certain programmes to change the lives of Nigerians or are we just talking because we love it as a political instrument to hurt each other and over heat the political system? Yes, I’m a lawyer and I believe in rule of law, but I want to urge all of us, whether we are for or against dichotomy to think deep and think hard. We must not do anything to undermine the interest of Nigerians, that is my take.

    What is your view on the call for state police given that it has generated a lot of controversy?

    Yes, there has been a lot of argument about whether we should create state police or continue with federal police that we have been running in the country. Recently, some of us in the Nigerian Governors Forum were in Germany and that include Rotimi Amaechi of River State, Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Jonah Jang of Plateau State, Kashim Shettima of Borno State, and myself. And this question came up on how they operate their own state police. Of course, they do operate state police, but states that are rich help the ones that are not. There is no tailor made arrangement in the world about issues relating to security or policing. What is important to me is the fact that police as an institution has been in existence for a long time in Nigeria and a lot of committees have been set up by various governments on its reform. These committees were set up to study what need be done to enhance police services in Nigeria. Now, whether a state police will serve the purpose of peace, law and order and good governance of the country or the same federal police we are used to should be critically looked into. Of course, there is this fear in some quarters that some of us politicians in Government Houses that if we have state police we could use it to harass and intimidate our opponents. So, to me what is the status of security in Nigeria and what must we do as a nation has to be agreed on as a consensus.

    Katsina State is 25 years old. What are the milestones since you came to power in 2007?

    I feel happy as a governor; my people are appreciating the good work of my government that means our efforts at improving the lives of our people are being appreciated. In coming to office, I was faced with three important challenges. First is education. This has been giving me a lot of worries and the reason is simple, because of the poverty or the income of our parents which I found out is hindering most parents from taking their children to school. So I decided to save about N100 million to fund our education system. We started free education since 2007, which was absolutely free both for primary and secondary education, where WAEC and NECO fees are being paid yearly for the final year students and also free feeding programme for the pupils. We gave out scholarship to about 270 students who are been trained in Arabic education, learning and writing. I also provided buses for students with as low as N10 naira per drop. We also increased the number of classrooms and teachers just as we improved on the salary structure of our teachers both in secondary and primary schools alongside other welfare packages even before the introduction of the national minimum wage. We also work on the issue of the girl-child education by constructing additional 165 schools and also encourage Local Government Councils to create a department for the girl-child education. We also completed the state owned university which we met on ground in 2007, that is the Umar Musa Yar’adua University; furnished it, equipped it and moved all our staff and students down there.

    Also in the educational sector, we have rehabilitated, furnished and supplied modern equipment to all other of our tertiary institutions just as we followed all the normal procedures in the introduction of courses in the curriculum of our educational system. We are also one of the few lucky states to get a new federal university and we made sure that our own university was the first to take off in Nigeria both in terms of students, learning facilities, male and female hostels and classrooms etc. The University is now having about 98% of its facilities contributed by our government.

    Cotton used to be a major revenue earner in this part of the country. What are you doing to bring back those good old days?

    Cotton has a special programme under the federal government and we are looking at ways of working with the federal government on how to improve cotton production and also export. So all hands are on deck to see that this happens. Even as we speak, I received request from my brother and friend, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola in that regard. Argentina, Bangkok are in talk with us, but you know the problem with agriculture is that, the gestation period is long before you can make a formidable, viable economic production.

    Another area is that of developing the minerals that are available in the state. There are about 18 different type of mineral deposits both metallic and non-metallic. There is investment profile of the various mineral deposits which I set up as department, but now a ministry of resources development and the first thing we did was to identify the largest mineral deposit and Kaolin happen to be in abundance ,incidentally, Kaolin is a major ingredient in the production of chalk and paint. So rather than going out to buy them, we can as well produce them since we have the ingredients at our disposal here. We thought we could give it a trial by getting our youths trained in its production and we gave it a trial with about 25 persons from each local government who were trained on how to produce paint and chalk and the production actually started in 2008, and the paint you are seeing on the wall of Government House building was manufactured by these boys. I deliberately did not repaint it since then as I wanted to know its quality. You can see for yourself the paint.

    What would form the focus of your government in what remains of your tenure?

    The second priority area of focus is Agriculture because about 85% of our people are engaged in farming and rearing of livestock and this in turn contributes not just to the economy of Katsina State, but also the economy of Nigeria. So you can see if we have food security we can check hunger because when a man does not feed well hunger sets in and a hungry man is an angry man. So we try all our best to improve on our agriculture by setting up a special committee that gathered information and data from the research and agric institute under Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, with which we then now set up a special task force under my office to look at ways of encouraging development of agriculture. We provided subsidized fertilizer bags at the rate of N1500 per bag which cost us around N900million per annum. We also imported improved rice seedlings and also conducted training and workshop for farmers and we provided them N25million interest free –loans. Besides, we are in partnership with the Songhai Farm in Benin Republic on what we call the Songhai/Katsina Initiative which is to train our youths in different areas of agriculture. And we were able to secure and supply 340 tractors, 10 each to all the local government areas at a subsidized rate of 40% discount. We encourage farmer’s cooperative groups with the aim of empowering them. We also focused on irrigation and one of the dams in Katsina State, by the time we came into office was barely existing; we turned it around, we channelled it, fixed the generators and other equipment and worked on the roads. By the time we were done, in the first year of harvest, the farmers contributed tones of food and cash crops. So you can see Katsina is a state with a fertile land that can produce food and cash crop all year round, that is why I said if we handled the issue of irrigation properly, Nigeria will be self sufficient in term of food production. We encouraged our farmers to irrigate for cultivation purposes. We are also in talks with some people from Spain trying to see if we can go into flour production and we are also working on Benniseed production which is a good product in international market. We are really encouraging agro-allied industry, we are the first state in Nigeria to embark on a project of a mini-fertilizer processing plant. We started it with the Nigerian Institute of Agricultural Science students with the collaboration of the Federal Government to produce green fertilizer made from Dogonyaro tree and also pesticide. We mandated four other local government areas to set up four local fertilizer blending plants and we train 25 young boys and girls in each local government to produce organic fertilizer and the first year of operation, we bought fertilizer worth N300 million from each plant having about 10 thousand production capacity that can do blending of urea and turn it into N.P.K 15:15.

    What is your administration’s programme for youths?

    Our programme for youth employment and empowerment is designed to move our youths from engaging in restiveness, drug abuse and political thuggery and help them to grow and stand on their feet. I personally oversaw the establishment of youth training centers here in our state where they are being trained in carpentry, furniture and wood work, metal work, tie and dye, sound proof generator, repair of G.S.M handset, computer training, baking of cake and catering services, hairdressing, web design and publication, fashion design etc.

    Everything is possible where there is determination. We have where we teach young farmers on modern techniques of farming, I set up a special department for bee keeping, fish farming, poultry farming etc to train young people in these areas, we equally created young entrepreneurs and we give them interest free-loans to the tune of aboutN250million for GSM repair, block making machine, welding, car washing, hairdressing. In the same manner, we also trained people from Borno State and other parts of Nigeria and also Niger Republic, even the NYSC have also approached us to train some of their staff members. So, in like manner youth empowerment is very critical, that is why we recently directed all the local government councils to get 200 young boys and girls who have finished schooling and are at home to go and teach as casual workers in schools and those of them who did community health should be hired to assist in clinics and maternity centers.

    Government’s performance is often measured by infrastructure development and capital projects. What have you been able to do in this regard?

    We are particular about other critical infrastructure and amenities in the state. We’ve developed over 30 new road projects and we have dualized roads across all the local government areas. We built about 2000 houses with about 35 housing unit in each local government and about 752 in the state capital, and this housing, the way we did it is that each person that works in the government establishment here will get an automatic discount of about 40% . For example a 3 bedroom flat will cost you N3million plus but you don’t have to pay all, all you pay is just 10% and you will get a key to your house and the remaining balance you will pay in 15 years without interest, this is just about N310,000.

    Our government has also been paying our counter-part funding of the MDG program which is a 50/50 payment and SUBEB with an award about two or three times now as the best performing state in terms of teaching and the provision of learning facilities. So also we have giving out loans to buy motorcycles. Then the health sector is not left behind, we have completed the existing ones and built new ones, free medi-care for women and children. We have a policy of free anti-natal and post-natal care, free medi-care for children between age 0-5years and also for special condition like accident victim etc.

    And, on health?

    With over 250-bed orthopaedic hospital under construction and this is the first of it kind and also we are in talks with some foreign countries to see how we can partner in this regard in a public/private partnership. The Katsina airport run-way has been expanded and this is the sixth year we are running hajj operation since we completed the run-way expansion now named Umar Musa Yar’adua International Airport, Katsina. Likewise we are making all efforts at improving the quality of services under the ministry of commerce, we energize our commerce and encourage business activities in area of international tour for our traders who travel to China, Dubai, India and other parts of the world.

    If you take the aspect of rural development and infrastructure, we’ve covered 130 villages for electrification and there is no part of the state now that has no one or two or three or even al with infrastructure development. Of course, power supply remains our major challenge because of that, there is already a wind mill plan with Japanese and federal government, our own role there as a state government is to provide for the land and we expect to generate from the project about 10,000 megawatts of electricity.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Unending worries over grassroots governance

    Unending worries over grassroots governance

    Nigeria marked her 52nd independence anniversary yesterday. But does the local government administration have anything to show for it? This, Assistant Editor DADA ALADELOKUN, examines in this report.

     

    Proponents of local government admin-istration had, at its very inception, even in the pre-colonial era, envisioned a heartening situation whereby the grassroots people would enjoy robust access to the fruits of governance. Thus, to them, as Nigeria marks her 52nd Independence anniversary today, every family should be alive in revelry, celebrating better life at the grassroots level. But no, the grassroots people are mourning the perpetuity of progressive inertia.

    To the general run of the Nigerian populace today, local councils are largely malnourished and hence, pathetically ineffectual. Reason: What has become of the so-called Third Tier of government has, in a sordid manner, run foul of the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the country which assigns some critical responsibilities to local councils.

    By the content and intents of the constitutional principle, local governance and the involvement of grassroots people in the ordering of their own livelihood should be an integral aspect of the nation’s development, democratically and economically. But with the passage of years, the fortune of the tier of government has continued to make its proponents’ blood run cold.

    The tier’s tribulation did not just start yesterday. The Ibadan District Council, which came into being in 1954, was soon tormented to its marrow by unhealthy political interests. It was same tale for the Ibadan Municipal Government (1957 – 1979) which produced a number of exemplary administrators.

    Not a few worried souls are always quick to implicate military rule as a negative influence. But many others are wont to ask: Why have the councils remained comatose, years after the men with starched khakis “stepped aside?”

    This progressively unending failure has inspired many attempts at re-creating the system. One was the famous 1976 Local Government Reform with one sole aim: Making local councils more accountable. Even by 1986, under the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida-led administration, it still remained a pipe-dream.

    It, therefore, prompted the Political Bureau instituted to pay attention to the importance of local government and the need to buoy it up. Before then, what was known as Dasuki Committee on Local Administration in Nigeria had made far-reaching recommendations on how local councils live to its billing.

    The committee came up with some joker to rescue the tier from the brink precipice: Further decentralisation of local councils, their autonomy, improved revenue allocation from the federal coffers and healthier attitude towards them by both federal and state governments.

    Still convinced that the tier remained the surest source of goodies to the local inhabitants, between May 1989 and September 1991, the Babangida administration created more councils, raising the number within two years from 301 to 589. And by 1999, the number became 774 with the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), all listed in the 1999 Constitution.

    In fact, some state governments, notably Lagos and Enugu, exercising their powers to establish local councils under Section 7 of the Constitution, created local government development centres to further take governance to the doorsteps of the grassroots people. For months, Lagos State, under the then governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saw the rough side of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration as it withheld funds meant for the councils. Tinubu’s ‘offence’: Creating 37 local government development areas out of the original 20 councils. Still, to many a Nigerian, not yet any dice in terms of the dividends of all the efforts!

    The simple constitutional duties of the councils have been practically begging for attention. Even far back in 1999, when the politicians took over power from the soldiers, they pledged to strengthen the local government system by involving the people in running their own affairs and making government responsive to their needs. But the new rulers have proved to out-Herod their unwelcome predecessors – the soldiers.

    Close watchers of happenings at the level would easily conjecture why the local councils have remained on the sickbed against all expectations. Undue federal and state government control and interference are primary among the reasons.

    Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution has tied them to the apron strings of the state government. How? It is through giving the states the power effect their creation, structure, composition, finance and functions. Unfortunately, most states have not failed to abuse the use of such a power.

    In virtually every state, local councils exist only in name as states encroach on their functions without let. In most cases, the states’ helmsmen, spurred on by his “executive powers,” behave like the Lord of Manor.

    Practically in most states, the council bosses lick the feet of their governors. Woe betides any council chairman who flexes muscles to assert himself. As you read this, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha is still at loggerheads with council chairmen in the state over tenure issues.

    Financing the tier of government is another sore point. Bad enough as it seems, the 1999 Constitution further places the local councils under the control of the states. Section 162(6) of the constitution creates what is known as State Joint Local Government Account. By the provision, the state possesses the powers to pay local councils under its jurisdiction on “such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly… or by the House of the state”.

    No reference is stated therein to the Federal Allocation Formula under which the local councils are entitled to 20 per cent of federal income. In reality, the councils never get their ideal share of the revenue allocation. Their resources are “lost in transit” between both the federal and state governments.

    For instance, during the Obasanjo-led administration, money was deducted at source from councils’ revenue for the purported construction of healthcare centres in all 774 local councils by the overlord called Federal Government.

    Most state governments today, taking refuge under the guise of helping the local councils to perform their functions, also withhold or divert money meant for them. In manners that smack of deceit or coercion, some of the helpless council chairmen across the country have ceded some of their statutory functions to their respective state governments.

    The desperation of the state governors to win council elections for their parties, especially at the grassroots level has remained another cause for worry. Elections are rigged even more brazenly. A vivid example was the nationwide council elections in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-controlled states in December 2007. Quite funny; in April 2007, even out-going governors – Oyo State’s Rashidi Ladoja and Plateau’s Joshua Dariye -wanted to conduct local council polls before the expiration of their dying tenure. Their main aim: To install their loyalists at the grassroots.

    Another major part of the problem is the quality and mentality of those administering the grassroots level. As in every other level, have they been prepared for the job? Why were they desperate to get the mantle, even with the last drop of blood in them? What legacy have they been leaving after their tenure? So many questions!

    The general fear across the land today is that corruption has become a monster at the level. In the northern part of the country especially, reports have it that local government chairmen only visit their offices at the end of the month to share allocation among their councillors and wait till when the next fund is released!

    In most of the states, the Houses of Assembly have both the knife and the yam. With their new-found legislative powers, the set ceiling for the amount any council can spend on capital projects; hence, the latter would always have to go to them cap-in-hand for approvals.

    Besides armies of ghost workers, in most of the councils today, the quality of their staff is appalling. Their leadership is made up of the flotsam and the jetsam of the community, motor park touts and suchlike misfits.

    In the face of all these, not a few worried observers have at one point or the other, made strident calls for the scrapping of local councils. But many were quick to point out that such a precipitate move would succeed in making state governors inebriated with excessive powers.

    To the latter, more power to the states would engender and consolidate more opportunities for theft and dangerously widen the gulf between the leaders and the led at the grassroots.

    The unending awkward scenarios have continued to give birth to many posers and proposals. The various stakeholders, the local councils must be made autonomous; the State Local Government Joint Account should become a thing of the past; the federal revenue sharing formula is crying for urgent review in favour of the local councils; state governments should hand off conduct of elections into state councils; structures should be created to ensure greater accountability at the council level; the bar of entry level for council elections must be raised and most importantly, the people must not only become more vigilant, but pluck up the courage to ask questions about how council resources are being (mis)used.

    Now a member of the House of Representatives from Ekiti South West, Ikere and Ise/Orun Federal Constituency, Dr Ifeoluwa Arowosoge served as elected chairman of Ekiti South West between 1991 and 1993. He shared his view with The Nation at the weekend. He bemoaned what he termed the worsening fate of the councils, saying that they “are now mere appendages of their various states to the detriment of the people at the grassroots.”

    Recalling his experience, Arowosoge said: “During our time, under Babangida, we enjoyed considerable autonomy and because of that, coupled with the fact that we were elected, we had the free hand to appoint capable hands to work with us and for that, we made remarkable impacts on the welfare of our people. The councils are now mere appendages of the states.

    “Today, the autonomy we had is no longer there economically, administratively and constitutionally. Drop-outs from secondary schools (not in tertiary institutions) are now councillors, and the councils now lack the wherewithal to embark on projects since the paltry sums they get from the states are barely sufficient to pay staff emoluments at the end of the month and maybe, run the councils. It is sad.”

    “This is why today,” he added, “moves are in top gear to review the local government laws as stipulated in the constitution. Unless the constitution is amended to rescue the councils from the current shackles of bondage, the council will remain lame.”

    Oladele Adekanye who calls the shots at Lagos Mainland Council, too, is aggrieved with the status of the tier. “I’m sad; in fact, I shed tears for the tier of government because, generally, it’s been a tale of failures, except for exceptional situations, especially, here in Lagos.

    “I make bold to say that with the little fund available to us, I have constructed and rehabilitated more than ten roads and touched all other major spheres of people’s lives in my domain. However, we can do better if we have the funds; unfortunately, the money we should be using to develop the grassroots is held at the centre. The federal government should have nothing to do with security and such issues that are ordinarily the responsibilities of the local government. I’m not saying that there are no bad eggs among council chairmen, but the fact remains that the encumbrances placed on the neck of the councils by both the state and federal authorities must give way,” Adekanye said.

    Sadly, however, as developments have shown, it’s been 52 years of Nigeria’s independence and 52 years of conditional freedom for the councils. And so, for the third tier of government in a nation so tormented and beleaguered, stakeholders can always wish for better times.