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Tag: arising

  • Sgt Iboko: Matters arising

    SIR: Professional work place hazards go often underappreciated, especially when you operate in a space where the difference between life and death is a split second.  If after watching the video of the bank robbery which occurred at Wetheral Road, Owerri, Imo State and seen how things have panned out following the unfortunate occurrence, and you still blame the Nigeria police for taking to their heels when they hear the sound of gunshots, without even sighting the robbers, then you need to have a re-think.

    The Nigerian Police ranks as the most vilified public institution after the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA). But that anger has been redirected towards the police after the privatization of power ministry. The men whose responsibility is to protect the lives and property of Nigerians and to combat crime have earned a reputation for being corrupt, exploitive and ineffective. Mounting road blocks and collecting money from passersby have become their cherished hobby. The renewal of pronouncements by different Inspectors General has done little or nothing to dissuade the men in black from this heinous act.

    The emolument of an average cop is pittance. Their living spaces called police barracks are glorified slums, inhabitable for people who are supposed to put their lives on the line to serve and protect. The complainant is oftentimes harassed to cater and provide the logistics for handling a case – criminal or civil. There is no dignity in the force as the officers are no better than errand boys and tools in the hands of the highest bidder to pervert the course of justice at times or harass innocent members of the public. The famous police raids and the attendant “crime” of wandering is a very strong pointer to how low the force has sunk. The question is what is the life of a cop worth?

    The CCTV footage and the commendable crowd funding initiative of The Punch showcase the fact that we still have a few gallant ones. Sergeant Iboko would have joined the long list of Nigeria’s unsung heroes, who have laid down their lives for the safety of others; and his wife, Mrs Iboko would remain in perpetual debt with the children angry at the callousness of the state.

    But for the lead by the newspaper and social activists, neither the bank nor the police would have done any remarkable thing for the family of the slain cop. Credit must however be given to Zenith Bank for the decision to grant scholarship to the children of the deceased, while also giving monthly allowances to the affected families.

    But are these models sustainable?  Sergeant Iboko is neither the first and won’t be the last policeman to be fallen by the bullets of bandits. Would the media and other humanitarians always raise funds for them? It is worrisome that such an occupation with the high level of hazard does not have any form of insurance. Yes, Nigeria police does not have life insurance for its members.

    The police is a classic example of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop, the junior officers are sent on those arduous and life threatening tasks while the high ranking echelon, “who have paid their dues” take the glory with little or no credit to the ‘slaves of death’.

    Little wonder, majority of men and women who are recruited into the force are not driven by the passion for the job nor are they motivated by the creed to protect lives and properties.  Unemployment has pushed many to apply for the role, while there are many others who are there to protect and line their own pockets or cover their past heinous acts.

    We need to create a viable and sustainable plan to cater for these kinds of incidents.  As it is currently, the police do not have a well-defined compensation plan for its officers who are brutalized or killed in the line of duty. We must make this line of our national anthem count – The labours of our heroes (past) shall never be in vain.

     

    • Yinka Adeosun,

    Ondo, Ondo state

  • Matters arising

    Matters arising

    Still on taxation, Obasanjo’s letter and transparency in the National Assembly

    Three developments in the past week  in a sense lent credence to my position on this page last Sunday that what Nigerians need to get out of the woods is not  taxation. Asking Nigerians to pay more taxes now cannot be called creativity, especially since we had already travelled in the past the way of some of the taxes. As a matter of fact, we are still paying some of the taxes which some people want increased. Our problem is beyond that, and that much is evident in the mindboggling revelations on the $2.1bilion Dasukigate. As I said last week, this is only a tip of the iceberg because we are still going to witness even more damning revelations when the searchlight is beamed on the oil sector with its odious stench.

    The first development was the presentation of two bills by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly seeking to facilitate the war against money laundering.  The bills are: “The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016” and “The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, 2016.” The letter to which the bills were attached was read by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, to legislators during the assembly’s plenary session on January 27.

    The first bill seeks to repeal the existing Money Laundering Act to allow for stronger punishments against money launderers while the second will make provisions that will enable Nigeria seek international assistance in recovering looted funds.

    The other development was former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to the National Assembly on the obvious opaqueness of their spending, the N4.7billion cars they want to purchase, ostensibly for committee work, and sundry matters bothering on insensitivity and corruption.

    The third development was the announcement by the Federal Government that it does not intend to increase taxes. Coming barely five days after I had vehemently opposed further tax burden on Nigerians, these developments were such sweet music to my ears. Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, said after a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) that “Government will not impose additional taxes on individual and corporate bodies to avoid additional burden on Nigerians”. This shows the government already knows that the people are going through hell and would not want to compound their woes. This is compassion at work and it is the kind of soothing balm that Nigerians need in these trying moments, not harsh words like they ‘MUST’ pay. The government does not have to be a tax master to meet its budgetary obligations.

    Anyway, whilst Senate President Saraki’s reply to Obasanjo was somewhat courteous and understandable, Senator Dino Melaye launched into how Obasanjo bribed the then National Assembly over his third term ambition. I am not an Obasanjo fan and those familiar with my column know that much. But the fact is that as much as possible, we should always try to separate the message from the messenger. Obasanjo’s message in this instance is clear: the senators should reconsider their decision to buy 120 exotic cars at N4.7billion for committee work in view of the economic situation in the country. Senator Melaye simply failed to address that issue. Some other senators say Obasanjo wrote the letter to cause disaffection between them and the president.

    Pray, how does that also address the issue? Chief Obasanjo we all know. But, whether you like or hate him is not important. What is important is to realise that a bad child sometimes has his good days. Today, he is wrong; tomorrow he is right. You can even say, like Azu Ishiekwene once said, that whatever he did right was a mistake. May be his letter this time around was one of such mistakes; but he was right all the same. What Senator Melaye and the rest should tell us is whether Obasanjo made sense or not by telling the law makers to save the country the N4.7billion for cars, and make their spending transparent instead of wasting time telling us things we already know. Nigerians must be wary of this divide-and-rule tactic by our political elite. When they wanted to sweep former President Goodluck Jonathan out of power, many of them made Obasanjo’s home a Mecca of sort. It was convenient for them to forget then that he once bribed National Assembly members. They suddenly opened the book of remembrance now that Obasanjo attacked their collective insatiable desire for materialism. Nigerians must read between the lines. Senators cannot be clinging to the luxuries they presently enjoy only to turn to hapless Nigerians to pick the bill even on their empty stomachs.

    Nigerians should find it curious that it is their representatives, I mean the senators in this instance, that are clamouring for increases in taxation at this point in time while the executive arm is saying there won’t be anything like that. Isn’t this a curious role reversal?  Should it not have been the other way round? It is heartwarming though that President Muhammadu Buhari realised that the buck stops at his desk and has said there won’t be any increases in taxation. I commend him for that. I also commend the creative ways he has chosen to go about the dwindling government revenue without necessarily overburdening Nigerians to sustain the luxurious lifestyle of some public servants.

    What the government has done is to follow the maxim that a child looks to the front when he falls; but when an adult falls, he looks backwards to see what made him to fall. Jumping to raise taxation so soon cannot be the product of any rigorous analysis of the Nigerian economic crisis. As a nation, we must know what led us to where we are to be able to better appreciate the way out; I mean we must reminisce. That is what an adult does. To begin to ask for increased taxation and introduction of new taxes is out of the question because it is not just the fall in crude prices that is responsible for the country’s economic downturn. Rather, it is corruption; monumental corruption, the type that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard. So, it is that corruption that we must take out before asking people to bake again. To keep baking under the prevailing circumstance is akin to fetching water into a basket. Anybody who made his money genuinely must be wary of such sense of reasoning.

    If we must do anything about taxation, it is to widen the net. Let the people enjoying luxurious lifestyle also pay luxurious tax. Let churches and mosques with investments pay. We can also consider tolling the major expressways in the country to sustain the maintenance of those roads. But to want to raise Value Added Tax (VAT) because Nigeria is the country paying the lowest VAT (even if I do not know the proof for this or what it is supposed to mean) seems to me a mere regurgitation of jaded economic theories or, at best, genuine intentions in climes where there are already structures to prevent such revenue from being plundered, or deny the plunderers the right to perpetual injunctions, so that they can speedily have their day in court when they lust after public funds.

    As far as I am concerned, increased taxation can only be an option when all else had failed; I mean it should be the last resort if indeed, national development is the true reason for the hike. The Buhari administration has done what looks to me to be imaginative or creative in addressing the gaps in the budget proposals. For instance, it talked about possible cuts in the country’s cash call elements by innovative financing which is about N1trillion; the possibility of getting private sector financing for some projects; looking into the activities of some government ministries, departments and agencies that are generating money in dollars and remitting in Naira; etc. So, one sees a government that is unwilling to tear Nigerians’ pockets in the name of making up for shortfall in government revenue. It is the senators that MUST (to borrow their emphasis) show that they care by acting on President Buhari’s letter and facilitate the war against money laundering. As a matter of fact, the bills must be debated and passed expeditiously if the senators are desirous of fighting corruption. Another point is; there is so much money hanging out there that would be useful if it is recovered. The Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), for example, has just expressed frustration with the N5.4trillion debt owed it by a handful of Nigerians. If only the Senate can address all of these, we may end up discovering that we do not need to raise taxes.

    We may not have to arrest Dasuki and others involved in Dasukigate another time, but we would have succeeded in sending the message across that such plundering of the national patrimony would no longer be treated with kid gloves, thus minimising the propensity of public officials to want to feed fat on public funds.

  • Content Act: Matters arising

    Content Act: Matters arising

    The passing into law of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Develop-ment Act (“the Act”) in 2010 was a welcome development greeted with high hopes from different quarters. Major stakeholders, including local companies and the teeming human resources, look forward to benefitting from the opportunities which the Act creates.

    In simple terms, Nigerian content envisages building the capacity of Nigerians to gainfully participate in the oil and gas industry. The Act provides for many benefits, such as giving  indigenous independent operators ‘first consideration’ in the award of oil blocks, licences ; ten percent price advantage in favour of indigenous companies in bid evaluations, amongst others.

    The Nigerian Content Develop-ment Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is charged with  implementing the provisions of the Act. The implementation effort of the Board has so far been commendable. However, more work is required.

    The erstwhile Minister of Petroleum Resources and former Chairman of the Governing Council of the NCDMB, set short term targets for 2015. The targets include retention of $10 billion out of the $20 billion average annual industry spend, creation of over 30,000 direct employment and training opportunities; development of one or two dockyards and utilisation of dockyards, among others. It, however, remains to be seen whether these targets have been achieved.

    With the recent change in the leadership of the NCDMB, the expectations of the stakeholders are high and reflect a readiness of Nigerians to take over the reins of the industry in earnest. One major expectation is that the “problematic” issue of 50 per cent ownership of equipment by “Nigerian subsidiary” be further clarified. The Board issued a clarification on the provision of the Act in August, 2011.

    However, this issue remains unsettled and local companies have been left disadvantaged. On the face of the Act, the provision applies to  the subsidiaries of International (IOCs) or Multinational companies (MNCs), however, companies that are not subsidiaries of IOCs are expected to comply with the provision.

    This has become a burden to local companies as it is difficult to get for instance, an owner of a drillship worth several millions of dollars, financed by and mortgaged to a consortium of international financiers, to transfer 50 per cent ownership to a Nigerian company for compliance purposes. Was it really the intention of the legislature to prevent Nigerian companies, which are not subsidiaries of IOCs, from winning or executing contracts in Nigeria except they own 50 per cent of the equipment to be utilised for the contract execution?

    The Act made provision for biennial review of the Schedule to the Act by the Minister of Petroleum Resources or the Board with the approval of the Minister, with a view to ensuring a measurable and continuous growth in content in all projects and activities in the industry. It is more than five years since the coming into being of the Act, a review of the Schedule is yet to be seen.

    It is noteworthy that some provisions of the Act require review. For instance, the Act mandates operators to submit succession plans for positions not held by Nigerians and the plan shall provide for Nigerians to understudy each incumbent expatriate for four years after which the position will become Nigerianised. However, such Nigerianised position shall attract the salaries, wages and benefits provided for in the operator’s conditions of service for Nigerian employees.

    This provision (Section 31(2)) seeks to perpetuate the unfair and inequitable dichotomy in the Nigerian oil and gas industry which exists between expatriates and  personnel on the conditions of service.

    Expatriate personnel of the same qualification and experience have better salaries and benefits than their Nigerian counterparts. This is unjustifiable and should not be perpetuated in our own laws. That provision hardly reflects the spirit of content and should therefore be reviewed.

    The Minister was empowered to consult with the relevant arms of government on appropriate fiscal framework and tax incentives for foreign and indigenous companies that establish facilities for carrying out production and manufacturing or for providing goods and services otherwise imported into Nigeria.

    Tax incentives, which would encourage the establishment of such facilities in Nigeria, are yet to be seen. It is without doubt that such tax incentives will attract investment, which will in turn have a positive impact in the economy.

    The Act established the Nigerian Content Development Fund into which one percent of all contracts awarded in the upstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, is paid. The Board is charged with managing the Fund and the Fund is to be employed for projects, programmes and activities directed at increasing content in the oil and gas industry. It is expected that the Board will come up with transparent policy guidelines for local contractors and companies to access the Fund.

    The amorphous nature in which appraisals, compliance monitoring and implementation of the provisions of the Act are carried out may be counterproductive. A good example is the provision in Section 53 of the Act that mandates that all fabrication and welding activities must be carried out in Nigeria.

    In reality, this cannot be attained instantly. It is clear that operators and contractors will require waivers to carry out some of such activities outside the country. There needs to be clear laid down criteria, guidelines and precedents to deal with such situations.

    The Board is charged with the responsibility for organising public education fora to further the attainment of the goal of developing  content. In furtherance of this obligation, an effective help desk platform should be established to enable stakeholders get answers and clarification in real time, as information is a major key to compliance and effectiveness.

    Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry remains a pacesetter in the Nigerian economy and its success will galvanise its replication in other sectors. It is hoped that the new leadership will rise to the occasion and take Nigerian content to the future envisaged by stakeholders.

     

     

     

     

  • Nigeria arising

    IR: Perhaps the sun is shining on Nigeria.  The beauty of the land is beginning to blossom.  The presence of President Muhammad Buhari on the political landscape is turning new leaves.  Nigerians are feeling hopeful once again.  Those in mourning for many years of decadence in society are trembling to look at the horizon of transparence.  The sunshine is bringing succour.

    Subdued atmosphere in the polity is a refreshing modesty.  There is no longer obscene show of excesses of power by politicians.  The dinosaurs of the not-so-long-ago era pouncing with impunity appear to have been blown away by the breeze of sanity.

    Good things are happening and folks are waking up to a life of civilisation.  An event that might be considered trivial to many economically displaced citizens but of cultural vitality took place in Anambra State recently.  Gov. Willie Obiano is supporting the arts to thrive.  Awka Literary Society showcased a magical poetry extravaganza titled: Return to Idoto.  The two-day charged event was a posthumous celebration of the 85th birthday of the late poet Christopher Okigbo.  Poetry lovers and those who never had the opportunity of such experience watched the spirit of Christopher Okigbo come alive literally through the performances of six great poets from across the country.

    The big attraction at this phenomenal occasion was creativity, the ability of the human spirit to rise above the mundane.  This is what moves a society to greatness and not arrogant posturing by politicians.  The nation lost from gross engagement in the theatre of political recklessness.  The evident consequence is lack of growth.  Leaders without vision have become heroes.  One wishes that the bandits will run and never return.

    Benefits of transparent governance are beginning to show up on Nigerian shores.  Politicians in the past deluded themselves with false representation of the economy.  Foreign investors were not fooled; they have the shrewdest analysts to sift through the garbage of the abused system.  Nonetheless, Nigeria’s endowment is very attractive to business and investors will capitalize.  There is ready-made human and natural resources to grow a powerful economy.

    The missing ingredient has been leadership.  The shift in the mindset of the nation’s leadership is comfortingly projecting towards a positive ground.  The president is bound on a quest to reverse the damage of the past.

    One hopes that after he finishes doing environmental sanitation on corrupt politicians, he will focus on the task of nation building.  Encouragingly, the land is green and will flourish if unadulterated manure is used to cultivate the government.

     

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State

  • Arising from Sanusi’s suspension

    The controversy that trailed the tenure of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was further heightened last week with his suspension from that office. Announcing the suspension, the federal government had alleged sundry misdeeds including financial recklessness and disregard to due process.

    But many saw the action quite differently. Given the unresolved allegation on the missing $20 billion oil money which Sanusi had raised, it was not difficult for people to construct a positive correlation between that and his current fate.

    The action was therefore seen in some circles as part of the plans by the government to get even with a recalcitrant public servant who had consistently portrayed his employer in a very bad light by dishing out conflicting figures on alleged missing oil funds. This impression was further given fillip by the immediate appointment of an acting CBN governor and a designate substantive governor who will take over when the current tenure of Sanusi expires in a few months time.

    All these tended to convey the impression that Sanusi may as well, have been on his way out of that seat.

    He has been prodded to challenge the action in the courts and he never wasted time in availing himself of that option. Some have even said that there is no difference between this suspension and outright sack especially since a substantive governor designate has been appointed. These are some of the issues for the courts to determine.

    But President Jonathan has insisted that Sanusi could still return to his work if the panels investigating alleged financial recklessness and other infractions give him a clean bill of health. Insisting that he had the powers to suspend the CBN governor, Jonathan said Sanusi still remains the CBN governor and will only cease to be so if found guilty of the infractions.

    He was responding to insinuations that he suspended Sanusi because of his allegations on missing oil money and to incapacitate him from giving further evidence on the matter. But Jonathan said it had nothing to do with that since the two queries issued him by the Financial Reporting Council dated April and May last year.

    In all, Jonathan seems to be saying that Sanusi has serious issues to thrash with the CBN Board and the Financial Reporting Council. These issues were clearly itemized by his spokesman Rueben Abati in a statement soon after the announcement of the suspension. They among others included what Abati called Sanusi’s “consistent refusal and negligence to comply with public procurement Act in the procurement practices of the CBN, unlawful expenditure by the CBN in intervention projects across the country, deploying huge sums of money as the CBN did under the watch of Mallam Sanusi without appropriation and outside the CBN’s statutory mandate”

    And given that some of these issues were already within public domain before Sanusi’s whistle blowing on the alleged missing money, it will be difficult for anyone to sweep them under the carpet. It is true that Sanusi donated millions of Naira to some victims of the Boko Haram scourge in Kano. It is also not false that he had been embarking on some projects which even members of the public had to raise some issues with. The answer given then was that they were part of the social responsibility of the apex bank. But now, we are being made to understand that they are actually outside the mandate of the CBN. If that is so, the minimum expectation just as in the case of the alleged missing oil fund is for due process to run its full course. Sanusi should therefore face the Board of the CBN and the Financial Reporting Council by responding to the queries or any other inquisition that may enable them sort out the matter. After all, he has presented himself as an apostle of due process and good corporate governance. For him to continue to command respect in this regard, he must be seen to be coming with clean hands. It is a universal legal maxim that he who goes for equity must come with clean hands. Sanusi must therefore demonstrate to his teeming supporters that he is not one of those who thrives more on precepts rather than examples. That is the challenge now. But that does not in any way jeopardize the allegation on the missing oil money which must be decisively addressed either through the suggested forensic auditing or any other approach that will lead to the final resolution of the matter.

    Therefore, if the federal government has now woken from its slumber to require Sanusi to account for acts of omission or commission while in office, it is within its statutory duties. No body in his right senses will quarrel with that. What has not really gone down well is not the suspension but the appointment of a substantive governor designate that seems to have given an air of finality to the matter.

    Be that as it may, questions are bound to be raised as why it has taken the government so long to take action on Sanusi’s alleged misdeeds? Why did the government keep quiet when these infractions were being committed? Why is it now Sanusi has boasted that he can only be removed by the senate that all of a sudden, these reports are being dusted up? All these posers can be raised. They are also suggestive of ulterior motive in the dusting up of the queries in the heat of the altercation between him and other key officials of government. Yet, this does not in any way whittle down the fact that those queries were indeed issued. They do not in any manner lessen the gravity of the alleged offences. Neither will they substitute for the imperative of accountability and due process in the conduct of government business.

    Not a few Nigerians are dissatisfied with the way Sanusi conducted himself as the head of the nation’s apex bank. Not a few are unhappy with his confrontational posturing and subsequent daring of the president to the effect that only the senate has the powers to remove him. This writer marvels at his guts and courage. It will take only a CBN governor from that part of the county to do some of the things he did while in office. Did we hear one governor reminding us that we should be careful in dealing with Sanusi because he has blue blood in his veins, whatever that serves in the present circumstance? Sanusi wants to be seen as a forthright person. He postures as an apostle of good governance and due process. He is now being asked to show practical evidence of these. So even if the inquisition is ascribed to witch hunting, blackmail or an attempt to settle scores, they can only be sustained if Sanusi is not guilty of the infractions.

    Perhaps, the experience of the late musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti after the destruction of his entertainment center and residence by the military may come handy here. He had been asked to respond to the boast by Sunny Okosun that he will dethrone Fela as the Afro beat king. Fela had this to say in reply, “that Okosun, him don fight government before? Let him fight government and see how the thing be” Fela fought the government and knows how it tastes. He wanted Okosun to savor that taste first and if there is still anything left in him to challenge him, then the competition can commence. Sanusi can now tell his own story of the outcome of hurling pebbles from his glass house.

  • Super Eagles victory: Matters arising

    Super Eagles victory: Matters arising

    Against all expectations, the Super Eagles won the African Cup of Nations, (AFCON) at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday night. Except, perhaps the coaching crew, nobody gave the team any chance of scaling through the group stage not to talk of wining the coveted trophy. Indeed, Nigerians had become so disenchanted with past failures of the team that nobody, except the real die-hard Super Eagles supporters thought the team could go far at the tournament.

    So what really happened at the AFCON in South Africa? How did a team of average Nigerian players, most of whom were playing in their first AFCON, surpass all the odds to rule the continent again exactly 19 years after we last won the trophy at Tunisia in 1994? How did the Super Eagles shove aside the usual administrative lapses of the nation’s soccer ruling body to put smile on the faces of Nigerians again?

    Well, one would like to start by giving credit to the coach of the team, Stephen Keshi. A veteran of many soccer battles on the African continent, he started his football career at the local scene playing for and captaining the defunct New Nigerian Bank of Benin (NNB) Football club. Together with talented soccer players such as Bright Omokaro, Austin Popo, Humphery Edobor among others, Keshi made the defunct NNB football club one of the most feared teams on the continent. He was to later lead the national team as captain for 10 years (1984-1994), a feat yet to be surpassed, in an era that has come to be referred to as the golden era of Nigerian football. Keshi later moved on to the pulsating world of football coaching qualifying the low rated Togo for the 2006 World Cup final in Germany as well as leading Mali to the 2010 edition of AFCON in Angola.

    From the foregoing, it is quite clear that Keshi came on board the Eagles job with a fair credential. However, the success he had led the team to attain in such a short time has little to do with his credentials. Rather, one would like to view his success with the team in relation to his determination to build a new team with a completely new mentality for the country. One of the banes of the national teams has been the over- reliance of previous national team coaches on the so-called established players who ply their football trade outside the shores of the country. Though, most of these players are good in their own right, but it has become quite clear that in view of the relative success they have recorded in their career, most of them have lost the zeal to play for the country again. This is usually seen in their lackadaisical attitude to national call. In some instances, these players often choose the kind of matches they want to play for the country while in most cases they don’t usually give their best. Without doubt, it was this nonchalant attitude towards the national team that partially led to the inability of Coach Samson Siasia to qualify the team for 2012 edition of AFCON in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

    Although most soccer pundits have tried to lay the blame of the players’ lack of passion for the national team on soccer administrators, one thing that is, however, clear is that our so called superstars are no longer committed to the national team. Hence, it is to the credit of Keshi that he chose the hard path of starting from the beginning rather than the usual lazy approach of coaches gallivanting across Europe to ‘meet’ with foreign based players.

    Right from the outset, Keshi did not hide his intention to call the bluff of some of these players whose ego has become a big threat to the aspiration of the national team. For instance, a player like Osaze Odewinge, in spite of his talent, has demonstrated over time, that his presence in the national team is more of a distraction. When he is not blaming his coach, he is either quarrelling with team mates or journalists. He has become the nation’s football modern day enfant terrible. Thus, it was eventually a blessing in disguise that Keshi decided not to take him and his likes to the tournament in South Africa.

    The relative peace that existed in the Super Eagles camp during the competition is, perhaps, because most of the players Keshi took to the event were green horns whose major interest was to do well for themselves as well as their country. Sunday Mba, Warri Wolves midfielder that scored, perhaps, the two most important goals for the team in the competition played with passion and grit thorough out. Together with the likes of Victor Moses, Emmanuel Emenike, Godfrey Oboabana, Kenneth Omeruo, Brown Ideye (all playing in their first AFCON competition) as well as Ahmed Musa provided the team with a new dimension that has been missing for long in the Eagles play for a long time. Though the team did not get its act together in the first three group matches, but immediately it got into the right gear, there was no stopping the team.

    What this victory does for the national team is that, henceforth, no player would dare snub the team again. Now that is clear that no player is bigger than the team, competition for shirts would become more intense and this would eventually augur well for the team. Again, the team’s success at South Africa would restore the wining mentality which it was noted for in the early 90’s. Equally, with this victory, the home based players, who had long been regarded as not too good for the national team would be encouraged to put in their best in the local league since they are now aware that national team selectors are interested in them. This, in itself, is a victory for the much vilified local league.

    Now that the Eagles have landed again, all hands must be on deck to ensure that the momentum is sustained. Relevant authorities should make sure that the team and its coaching crew are provided with everything that would make it remain the pride of all Nigerians. As the federal government prepares to roll out the drums for the team, it should equally remember the Super Eagles class of 1994 and fulfil whatever promises the government of the day made concerning the team. It is in doing this that we can encourage our sportsmen across the world to remain dedicated and committed to the course of the nation.

    Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

     

  • Jombo-Ofo: Matters arising

    Jombo-Ofo: Matters arising

    Every stunning scenario played out in Abuja last week at the inauguration of the newly appointed Justices of the Court of Appeal. Following the release of a list of 12 Justices for the ceremony, prospective beneficiaries had come to the venue full of expectations. But the unexpected happened. One of those listed, Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo was not that lucky.

    The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloma Mukhtar refused to swear her in ostensibly on account of petitions alleging that the state she represents (Abia) is not her state of origin. Justice Jombo-Ofo had served Abia state for many years following her marriage to Mr. Jombo-Ofo, an indigene of the state. But she originally hailed from Anambra state.

    Apparently sensing danger, Abia state governor, Theodore Orji was at hand to make a special case for Justice Jombo-Ofo. But all his entreaties came to naught. He was also said to have written to the CJN affirming that Abia state actually nominated Justice Jombo-Ofo and that she is from the state.

    Perhaps, unknown to him, the CJN was relying on a subsisting, nay obnoxious policy in the judiciary that prevents married women from reaching the peak of their career in their husbands’ state irrespective of their qualifications and suitability for the post. Curiously, it was the same office that cleared her for the swearing in. For that, the hopes of this eminently qualified and promising Justice were dashed and she had to go home with her admirers and well wishers utterly disappointed.

    The fate of Justice Jombo-Ofo has once again highlighted the inadequacies of some of the policies in the nation’s statute books. And in spite of the reasons that originally informed their formulation, some of them have consistently proved counterproductive in elevating our collective aspirations as a people. Instead of merit they have tended to promote mediocrity by placing very qualified candidates into serious disadvantage on account of their state of origin. We are thus faced with irreconcilable contradictions in barring married justices from ascending the peak of their career solely on account of having hailed from a different state before their marriage. Not only is such a policy discriminatory and stale, it is difficult to fathom the purpose it is meant to serve or how it can elevate the job of the judiciary. By preventing married women from reaching the topmost echelons of their professions, the policy no doubt, sacrifices merit for political expediency. Such a policy will be inherently deficient in promoting the cause of an efficient and virile judicial system. What sense is there in discouraging and disqualifying merit on the spurious ground that the woman did not originally hail from that state even when she had been married there for so many years? It is akin to denying married women employment in their husbands’ states because they happened to come from other states. It remains to be seen the type of values we seek to promote by insisting on that obviously very retrogressive policy. Regrettably, such an anachronistic and unprogressive policy has been allowed to stay in our statute books even as it has outlived its usefulness.

    One also finds it an uncanny twist of fate that governor Theodore Orji was the person who fought this discriminatory policy without success. His state not long ago, sacked workers in its employ for the simple reason that they are non indigenes. Despite all appeals, he did not budge. He can now appreciate the feelings of those workers he sacked for the very spurious reason that they hailed from other states.

    Jombo-Ofo is just one out of the several justices that have suffered incalculably on account of this useless policy. It may have been designed to ensure that top judicial offices meant for states go to their indigenes. That could as well be. But there is everything wrong in the thinking that a woman married in a particular state cannot be regarded as an indigene of that state even as her children are accorded the full rights and privileges of that state. This does not make any sense. It is even more confounding to require such women to get their nominations from their original states. It cannot work that way. What the policy has succeeded in achieving is to place a permanent hurdle on the career prospects of women married in states other than the one they originally hailed from.

    Such a policy is out of tune with the realities of the time and ought to be expunged from our statute books without further delay. It is a matter of regret that female judicial officers have had to live with this retrogressive policy for years without drawing public attention to it. They should therefore share in the blame for keeping quiet in the face of a discriminatory and strangulating policy. Above all, the policy has once again drawn attention to such contentious and unresolved issues of our federal structure as residency factor and indigeneship.

    It is at this point that the recent intervention of a retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Olufunlola Adekeye cues in very appropriately.

    In a speech to mark her retirement from the Supreme Court, she had implored the CJN, the Chief Judges of states, the Judicial Service Commission and the National Judicial Council to review the policy barring married women from reaching the peak of their career in their husbands’ states. She noted that complaints of this nature are increasingly rampant in the judiciary and that since married women transfer their services to their husbands’ state, it is logical and in compliance with the tenets of marriage that the two become one. This goes without saying.

    The retired Justice further contended that it is “unconstitutional as well as discriminatory to deprive her of her promotion in her acquired state as a citizen of Nigeria by virtue section 42 of 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”

    Justice Adekeye has said it all. She has not only exposed the contradictions in the policy but gone a step further to show how that policy is inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution. However, it still remains puzzling why key functionaries as well as the regulating authorities in the judicial system allowed it to hold sway in spite of its negative effects on the moral and career progression of married women. Perhaps, if the women had spoken out before now, the embarrassment suffered by Jombo-Ofo and others before her would have been averted.

    Good a thing, the attention of the National Assembly has been drawn to this embarrassing regulation. Obviously piqued by that show of shame, the senate had in a motion voted against the policy and directed the CJN to swear in Jumbo-Ofo without further delay. That is the right thing to do.

    Now that the national assembly is in the process of constitutional amendment, it must work to identify all laws and policies that promote discrimination based on sex, marriage, religion or state of origin and expunge them from the ground norms of this country. We need policies that can tap from the best brains in the country irrespective of mundane considerations. We need laws that can pool the creative resources and energies of our various peoples for collective national progress. It is time to discard worn-out and rusty laws and policies from our statute books for those that conform to global best practices.

  • Nigeria at 52: Matters arising

    Nigeria at 52: Matters arising

    At 52, Nigerian patriots cannot but speak truth to Nigerian power?

    Why is Nigeria a failure and a failing state? Why has Nigeria remained a national and global embarrassment as its huge national endowments (human and natural) cannot be reconciled with the status of its socio-economic and political achievements?

    Why is it that the sixth or eight largest exporter of crude petroleum, with huge petro-dollars, remains part of the 10 poorest nations, with some of the worst statistics in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Human Living Index (HLI)? Why is the existing reality of the Nigerian State still revealing that the more petroleum dollars it earns, the worse the economic misery, deprivation and poverty of the people remain?

    Why is it that most Nigerian Public Officers and Officials (both military and civilian) have not exhibited honour and integrity in public offices, to the extent that their greatest numbers are usually devotees at the altar of inordinate power, rapacious greed and selfish interest? The list of politically exposed persons – Governors and Ministers and members of National Assembly, whose criminal prosecution have been stalled through undue influence on the Judiciary, remains a national disgrace.

    Why is the Nigerian state ever a lie to itself in that while it proclaims to be running a Federalism, it is in truth and practice crippled as a unitary and centralized state? And why is it that Nigeria exports what it does not have and imports what it has (e.g. free and fair election, and petroleum respectively)?

    Why is government office so lucrative to the extent that the political jobbers and political contractors are willing to do anything and everything (including murder and assassination) and contrives falsehood so as to be awarded electoral victory? Their awarded elections have always empowered them to have unhindered access to state and national fund and resources, which they loot, misapply, misuse, and corruptly appropriate for their personal and group purposes.

    Why is Nigerian politics the most lucrative globally and why do our politicians earn even much more than political office holders in the USA and in most states in the European Union earn? Our ruling elite have expanded the base of government with too many departments and posts, yet Nigerians experience very little productive governance? By the current statistics, Nigeria now spends about 80% of its total earning to run the political bureaucracy. This over-bloated public service as well as high-level corruption leads to underdevelopment. The USA, with the biggest economy in the world, is being run with less than 25 secretaries (ministers). In the First Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo ran the Western Region (now broken into eight states) with 14 Ministers and 14 Parliamentary Secretaries.

    Again, why is it that Nigerian rulers carry on business as usual and yet they expect different results? Also, why is the Nigerian state so contemptuous of its citizens, with our leaders usually rejecting the popular wish and demand of the greatest majority for their selfish agenda? When will the popular wish of the electorates become the guiding signals of public policies? For example, the Nigerian state continues to shun the clamour of the greatest majority of our people in the last quarter of a century for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference to discuss and resolve the National Question and thereby repackage the lopsided national structure, which is the main reason for our retardation, stunted growth and development.

    Why is the Nigerian state refusing to change course when it has long found out that Lord Lugard’s 1914 forceful coupling together of many ethnic nationalities christened Nigeria by his mistress is not sustainable and has deepened mutual suspicion, mutual hatred and mutual animosity, thereby making the forceful union a failed project?

    Why are our political office holders pretentiously behaving as if they can continue to force their unity agenda when the reality is that there are deep cultural, traditional, religious and customary differences between and among the many ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, differences that have led to our very deplorable socio-economic and political conditions?

    Why is it that our leaders’ hypocrisy about our “forced unity” daily manifests in variety of different choices, preferences, and perspectives? For example, is it not a fact that while some ethnic nationalities are willing to spend their fortunes on their children to acquire quality Western education, some others have cynical regard for it? In fact, there are at least a dozen core northern states that have imposed Sharia law, thereby subjecting people of other faiths to be forcefully governed by Islamic legal system. To further highlight our incredible national contradictions, the BOKO HARAM phenomenon has descended upon us. The violent group has declared that it will only lay down arms whenever the Nigerian state decides to adopt Islam nationally. BOKO HARAM followers don’t want to be governed by our Western-style constitution, Western-style government, Western-style civilization and Western-style education. Period.

    On another level, why are members of the Nigerian elite swimming in vain glory, annually spending over N500 billion on their wards’ education overseas and in neighboring Ghana? Why is it that the ruling political elite conspired to under-fund education so that the quality and quantity of education in our country in recent times has been on the slide? It is to our national shame that since the United Nations Education and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) prescribed to member nations that they should spend 26% of their national budgets on education in the 70s, successive Nigerian Governments have never spent up to 10% on the sector. In fact, it got so ridiculously low that education at a point received three percent of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s budget. The result is the current deception being called education as offered by Nigerian government. Many Nigerian graduates are unemployable and a significant number cannot even write a presentable Letter of Application. Our government is devoting a measly amount of resources to education, perhaps their children are not beneficiaries of public education.

    Equally true is that in the last five years, the results from WAEC and NECO have revealed that less than 30% of school leavers (many of them eyeing admission into tertiary institutions) score a pass in the mandatory English and Mathematics. Our tertiary institutions too have not delivered on their core values. I don’t know of any of them that is using its theoretical and applied research to radically change old crude methods of doing anything e.g. agriculture. An individual private engineering firm in Lagos has radically packaged a technology that makes it possible to pound yam within 45 seconds. The old method of pounding yam that takes a great amount of sweat and energy has been revolutionized.

    Furthermore, can our ruling elite explain why Nigeria sits pertly in the Third World class, whilst nations like Malaysia, Singapore and India (our old 1960s classmates in the development agenda) have grown so well that they are today rubbing shoulders with Western nations? One interesting example to illustrate one’s agony is this. The Nigerian Defence Industry (DICON) was set up the same year with the India Defence Industry. The Indian institution has been producing about two-thirds of its army’s domestic weapons requirement, and even selling to interested foreign buyers. Meanwhile, its Nigerian counterpart (until recently when it had Gen. T.Y. Danjuma and Brigadier-Gen. Buba Marwa supervising its operations) succeeded in only producing salt and furniture, with no remarkable production of weapons. How can we explain the disparity DICON and its Indian equivalent?

    At 52, Nigeria and her political office holders must provide honest responses to the numerous WHYs above if we are ready to turn the page in order to reclaim our country. As far as some of us are concerned, the most important reason for our national failure has to do with its structure. The current lopsided national structure has created a dubious ruling elite, a class that has usurped the Nigerian commonwealth, while reducing other citizens to beggars and spectators. The fact of our national history reveals that Nigerian security leadership has been monopolized by a particular section of the country to the disadvantage of others. This reality, perhaps, can be the explanation for the fact that there remain highly lucrative categories of public offices that are preserved for some sections of the country.

    Whichever side of the argument you may be on, it may be much more than cynicism for anyone to deny the fact that our 52-year old forcefully delivered baby became deformed before its sixth birthday. Little wonder that our country is always treading the path of opposites like a crab, with no end to its zigzag journey?

    The impact of corruption on our socio-economic and political life has been very negative. A very significant portion of appropriated money ends up in private pockets. Rampant corruption is evidenced in innumerable abandoned projects, wasteful white elephant projects that the promoters never wanted to completely execute from the beginning.

    Nigerian leaders have deliberately refused to establish comparable medical centres of excellence in Nigeria for the care of the majority. But our privileged few spend fortunes to take care of their medical needs abroad, sometimes ferried our abroad in air ambulances. It’s not a secret that some poor Nigerians today die because they cannot afford 500naira to buy their necessary drugs. The nouveau riche patronize qualitative medical centres in the Middle East, Great Britain, the United States of America and others, while a large pool of their highest class in government enjoy free medical care in Germany courtesy of Julius Berger.

    Again, the fact that our country at 52 lacks basic social services, like power supply, good road networks and functional railway, is a painful reminder of the reality that we have been governed mostly by a succession of opportunists and perverts.

    We remember that on January 1, instant, the Nigerian state announced another hike in petroleum prices. The spurious reason the central government gave was that fuel subsidy was unsustainable and that it was negatively impacting on the national budget and finance.

    Nigerians, in a rare display of public anger and disapproval, organized civil protests to vent their disgust and discontent with President Jonathan’s Greek Gift on New Year Day. The Nigerian Labour movement and civil societies united to make open statement, asking government to revert to the old 65 naira per litre or face civil action. Government, the president, his economic team organized several propaganda public relations and talk shows to attempt to convince Nigerians, but they failed abysmally.

    When the Labour/Civil Society street action commenced, the protest took on a life of its own, it became very popular and significantly successful to the extent that local and global communities became interested in the civil societies’ rare determination to reject an obnoxious public policy.

    For a week, the various strata of the Nigerian public thronged the centres of the public campaign against the price hike. Nigerians steadfastly displayed their opposition until the leadership of the Labour/Civil Societies committed a blunder by suspending the campaign at the weekend to enable protesters “refill and re-strategize.”

    The Nigerian state typically and forcefully drafted a contingent of soldiers and mobile policemen to occupy both the venue of the campaign (Gani Fawehinmi’s Park) in Lagos and the road leading to the venue.

    That President Jonathan misused the state apparatus of coercion to prevent Nigerians from resuming their protests is illustrative of what civilian dictators are capable of doing to enforce their oppressive policies on their citizens. President Jonathan current’s inappropriate statement that the people protesting his anti-people’s price hike were sponsored by his political enemies and exposed him to ridicule and showed that he is significantly disconnected from the people he governs.

    The Nigerian Parliament, particularly the House of Representatives took up the gauntlet by conducting a public hearing on the so called unsustainable subsidy on petroleum. The revelations contained in the report of Honourable Farouk Lawan’s ad hoc committee were very spectacular. And readers will remember that they included among others, that:-

    (i) Many oil marketers falsified their records. Quite a number of them claimed subsidies for PMS they did not import, or in excess of the quantity they claimed to have imported.

    (ii) Many business men and women who had nothing to do with the petroleum business were sponsored and approved by friends and associates of the PDP in power.

    (iii) Nigerians were being raped and forced to pay for a non-existent subsidy.

    (iv) Nigerians were being asked to pay for demurrage due to criminal neglect and gross deficiencies of government services. And more.

    Nigerians expected the Jonathan Presidency to officially apologize to Nigerians for imposing a punitive policy on them on a very spurious claims of subsidy when in fact, the former N65 itself was comparably higher than what citizens of other oil exporting countries are paying for their domestic oil usage. The expected policy government should have adopted was to reverse the unjust 97 naira price hike to the old price of 65 naira. When it does this, then this government will be truly legitimate, and recognized as governing in the public interest.

    To make matters much more worrisome, the Nigerian government is busy implementing the favourable recommendations of Chief Aig-Imokhuede, the ACCESS BANK PLC’s Chief Executive Officer. One wonders why the Jonathan Presidency is regularly and typically tactless and miscalculating in its choice of people saddled with one job or the other. Is it that the presidency is unaware that some oil marketers with huge subsidy claims are ACCESS BANK Customers? How can the CEO of such a bank find faults with its customers indicted by the Farouk Committee?

    I believe that President Jonathan is wrong to imagine that the multi-dimensional cases of inequality before the law, the fact that many nationalities have limitations for their national aspirations while some are even permanently disempowered have long been settled. There is no opportunity yet for democratic discussion and resolutions of the many cases of mutual mistrust and suspicion that can convince many nationalities that they are co-owners and joint inheritors of the national wealth.

    That is why it happened that even though Nigeria earned enormous petrol dollars because of the crises in the Middle East, yet Nigerians’ living condition, since the period of Obasanjo’s presidency, has quickly deteriorated. It’s a fact that Obasanjo grudgingly gave a minimum wage, but that was just a small fraction of the huge petroleum dollars the country earned at that time. You will also remember that Obasanjo failed to build any refinery during his time. And because he based domestic consumption of refined petroleum on importation, he regularly hiked prices depending on the prices at the international price levels.

    The USA remains the largest market globally. If the government of the USA decided to inject 20 billion USD into any of its national social services, be it, on education, health, road, power supply etc, the impact will be visible to Americans and visitors. Why must you sustain this wicked structure that only benefits a tiny cabal and their collaborators? Mr. President, seize the initiative now to dismantle the perverted structure that has held Nigeria down, painfully making it an embarrassment to the Black Race whose destiny has been placed in Nigeria’s care for progress and development.

    What Nigerian leaders must appreciate is the certainty of the unalterable laws of life, part of which is the legal maxim that: You cannot build something on nothing. Nigeria remains in peril because of its artificial creation and forced existence. Perhaps the ruling elite and the preponderance of its middle class, who are mostly fun seekers and pleasure lovers, will turn around for good –given the desperate state of Nigeria’s socio-economic and political outlook today. WE CERTAINLY CAN DO BETTER THAN WE ARE DOING NOW.