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Tag: BUHARI

Implications of change manifesto (4)

Jailing corrupt people after due judicial process is one effective way to fight corruption; borrowing from the tradition of shaming persons who misbehave is another

President-elect Buhari recently promised Nigerians that he is set to kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria. People at home and abroad put credence in his words on account of his moral cleanliness, probity in public life and austerity in private life. Buhari has already started to demonstrate his no-nonsense approach to governance; he recently ordered his aides to desist from the flaunting of power for which people in public office are known: pushing other vehicles off the road to give political office holders a right of way they do not have. From a short field research before the presidential election, I interviewed some regular Nigerians that can be referred to as folks in the technical sense of the word, asking them why they would vote for General Buhari. The answer I got seven out of ten times was “Because we know he would fight corruption, even if he did nothing else.”

While going through my files for the fourth piece on Implications of Change Manifesto, I came across an article that appeared in this paper about four years ago, shortly after President Jonathan assumed power after winning the 2011 presidential election. This was after President Jonathan’s assurance during his visit to Washington to fight corruption as part of his Transformation Agenda. At that time, just like now, transformation was viewed by many as change. I have chosen to take the liberty to re-present the article, at a time that the nation is also full of expectation and hope about the imperative of fighting corruption. Despite the fact that President Jonathan had little space for fighting corruption in his Transformation Agenda, I am taking the liberty to re-present the article in today’s column, as part of the avalanche of suggestions to General Buhari on how to deal with the hydra-headed monster that corruption has become in our country.

Our new president is certainly aware that the culture of corruption in the country he has recently accepted to lead or govern is the primary source of the embarrassment that Nigerians face outside Nigeria daily, the reason for the stigmatisation of the country (and the perpetual call for re-branding the nation by our ministers), and the deepening of poverty in the country. I believe Mr. Jonathan was confronted with some hard facts about Nigeria’s oversize corruption during his visit to Washington. It was during his visit that a CIA revelation about Nigeria stated that Nigeria had lost more money to corruption than any other country on the continent. The report said that $89 billion was illegally removed from Nigeria’s treasury between 1970 and 2008.

If international agencies are able to trace $89 billion to political and bureaucratic corruption in the 28 years under review, it will be safe to assume that four times this amount must have been stolen, with some taken out without being noticed while some is kept for use inside the country by those who are afraid to be caught exporting such stolen funds. It must have been Mr. Jonathan’s recognition of the magnitude of corruption, like the magnitude of darkness that covers the country every night, that he announced in Washington that he would fight corruption during his presidency.

The country’s criminal justice system is unduly slow. There is some value to the slow wheel of justice in the country. It is usually better to err on the side of justice by being slow than to have a speedy adjudication system that puts an innocent person in jail. It must be because of the recognition of the slow criminal justice system that anti-corruption gurus are asking for establishment of special courts to handle cases of corruption. President Jonathan needs to respond to the challenge of fighting corruption in a country where everyone generally suspects the person in front or behind him of being corrupt. Too much of the nation’s funds that could have been used for providing good roads and adequate energy for development are being held by some of the few individuals that have had access to political and bureaucratic power in the country. There is need for creative response to the mother of Nigeria’s problems.

Preventing corruption is, like preventive medicine, likely to cost less than fighting corruption in the traditional way that we have done in the last few years. Most Nigerians would not be surprised if the money collected from those charged with corruption in the last few years does not justify the money invested in fighting this scourge. Using the present criminal justice system to prosecute the hordes of corrupt people in government and corporate governance may not be fast enough to bring many corrupt people to justice in their lifetime. More importantly, the existing mode of prosecuting and adjudicating cases of corruption may not assist the country to recover most of the stolen funds that are hidden in foreign countries or have been used to buy houses in Dubai, London, Washington, Pretoria, and even Accra by individuals that had taken money illegally from the nation’s treasury.

The need to get money back from fraudulent politicians and civil servants to provide electricity, rail transportation, globally competitive education system, and life-saving health care makes it reasonable for the president to take another leap in the dark: offer amnesty to corrupt men and women who had stolen and taken out of the country so much of the nation’s funds meant for development. The EFCC and ICPC need to be re-energised through adequate funding, sincere commitment to the fight against corruption at all levels of government, and genuine cooperation with international graft-fighting institutions. With all these, it should not be hard for a re-invented EFCC to have accurate data on the places in which past fraudulent leaders have hidden and are still hiding the money they had stolen from Nigeria. It is with a list of such fraudsters in hand that the president should openly call on all past leaders that had stolen money to register for Corruption Amnesty. A deadline for registration should be set.

The offer of amnesty must include allowing thousands of politicians and civil servants who had looted the treasury between 1960 and 2009 opportunity to buy freedom from prosecution by surrendering 80% of the money they had stolen. Like the Niger Delta amnesty, those who voluntarily surrender the required percentage of their loot should be free from any judicial stigmatisation while those who refuse should be made to face the court of speedy justice in special anti-corruption courts.

Nigeria cannot afford to forget 400 billion dollars in the hands of looters and their descendants. Doing so can only fuel the cycle of corruption and impunity and deepen poverty. Even if corruption amnesty does not lead to total deterrence, it will clear the way for anti-corruption institutions to deal with fewer cases and to buy appropriate technology that can make preventive measures more efficient and effective.

In his own case, President Buhari is not new to fighting corruption. He must have thought out his plan of action for his own war against corruption. Many voters (if not most) have shown that political and bureaucratic corruption is one of the reasons they voted for Buhari during his fourth shot at the presidency. Trying and punishing every corrupt political office holder or public servant is an onerous thing to do for a government that also has Boko Haram and mass unemployment to fight. Jailing corrupt people after due judicial process is one effective way to fight corruption; borrowing from the tradition of shaming persons who misbehave is another. Corruption Amnesty may bring back the culture of shame that has disappeared from public life in our country for decades. Both forms of intervention can deter future offenders. To attempt to jail all corrupt past politicians and civil servants will require enormous expenditure because corruption has been the core of governance for too long in the country. Amnesty is a variant of Plea bargaining that can bring shame to corrupt persons while bringing back much of stolen funds to the country.

May 10, 2015
The baptism Buhari should expect

He has to hit the ground running

As one of my friends used to tell me, laughing with someone is not necessarily a sign of affection. So, no one should be deceived that President Goodluck Jonathan’s conceding defeat in the last presidential election necessarily translates to wishing Muhammadu Buhari well. Much as one agrees that there cannot be a vacuum in governance, some of the recent decisions and appointments made by the outgoing president give cause for concern. One of these is the removal of Mallam Habib Abubakar and his replacement with Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, the eldest son of the late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, as managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Abdullahi was fired on April 29 via a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Dr Reuben Abati. No reasons were given for the removal. He is the second major government official to be removed, after the former Inspector-General of Police, Mr Suleiman Abba, who was similarly fired last month, barely a few weeks to the end of the Jonathan administration on May 29.

We also have the appointment of the former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Obi, who was elected governor on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2006, was reelected governor under the same platform, with the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu pleading passionately with the people of the state to honour him (Ojukwu) by reelecting Obi for a second term in 2010. Ojukwu’s wish was granted, but about three years after Ojukwu’s death, the governor began plotting his way to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He had played prominent roles in the government and was indeed a member of the president’s campaign team. His appointment as the SEC chairman could therefore be said to be the president’s way of showing appreciation to a friend in need.

There were also new appointments at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) where its executive secretary, Olufemi Thomas, was removed as executive secretary/chief executive officer with immediate effect, and replaced with Olufemi Akingbade in acting capacity. The government was also said to be recruiting into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), when all the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, did was to accept responsibility for the deaths of about 14 applicants in the same recruitment exercise last year. Without doubt, most of these steps could rightly be described as booby traps for the incoming Buhari administration, as some observers had noted. Otherwise, why the haste in appointing these people these dying minutes of the government?

Even where the appointments were made in good faith, it is difficult not to see bad blood in some of them. Take the sack of the NPA boss for example. Those who see it in bad faith say Abdullahi was removed because he did not open the NPA treasury to the ruling party for the elections and that if the president had been serious, he would have removed him a long time ago, given the series of complaints made against him, and not wait till after he failed to cooperate with the PDP chieftains in placing the authority’s funds at their disposal It would be difficult not to believe this theory, given that this is the style of the ruling government; you can commit murder in the government’s interest and get away with it!

Again, those who think the sack and appointment at the ports authority were not done in the national interest wonder how Buhari would remove Ado Bayero without reaping enemies from Kano State in return. The NPA, we should not forget, is a money spinner. And just like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), its activities are shrouded in secrecy. Indeed, a chieftain of the PDP, Bode George, who was its chairman was in 2009 convicted for contract splitting and inflation, and sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. Also, the NPA, NNPC, and some states including Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Lagos are regarded as honey pots that the ruling party must not lose, which was why the elections in some of these states, literally dripped with blood. So, it is understandable if President Jonathan appointed one of his own as NPA boss. It is also left for the incoming president to decide what to do about the appointment and others made in the dying minutes of this administration.

But for me, the most deadly booby trap being set for the Buhari government is the fuel subsidy issue and availability of petroleum products in the country. Since most of the corruption we are complaining about are in the oil and gas sector, some of the players in the sector who are uncomfortable with the impending coming of Buhari are likely to want to play some pranks. Most of the time when we have had crises between oil marketers and the Federal Government, leading to fuel scarcity, the fuel queues began to thin the moment government released some fund to the marketers. Not so this time. One week after the government released N156billion of the N254billion it owes the marketers, normalcy is yet to return to the fuel stations. I smell a rat here.

If I am right, what we may witness is a situation where the Buhari government may come on May 29, with long queues at the filling stations heralding its advent. The government may then be forced to take panicky measures before Nigerians start murmuring like the Israelites in the wilderness.

In case we have forgotten, President Jonathan’s problems started with his removal of fuel subsidy barely seven months after assuming office. So, it won’t be a bad idea if the incoming government too starts having challenges with fuel matters on assumption of office. The only difference though is that while that of the president was self-inflicted, with his party having been in power from 1999 when we started this democratic dispensation, Buhari would be coming in as a brand new president from a different political party. The point I am making is that while the PDP had about 13 years (1999-2012 when we had the fuel subsidy riots) to do something about our refineries, it did nothing, making Nigeria the only crude oil producing nation that imports petroleum products.

It is difficult for a party that has been in power for 16 years to suddenly relinquish that power only to wish its successor well. That the PDP is now like fish out of water is evident in the acrimony that has become the lot of the party since its defeat. The persistent calls for the removal of the party chairman and the entire Central Working Committee are enough pointers to the fact that the party is still trying to find its feet in its new role of opposition-in-waiting. If there is any proof about this, then check out the number of its members that have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) since the party’s loss in the elections.

Although one is not sure how many heads would still roll before President Jonathan leaves the stage on May 29, the fact is that Gen Buhari has to watch it, particularly his handling of fuel subsidy and fuel supply in the early days of his administration, to avoid a situation where the APC too would find itself not adequately prepared for its new role of ruling party.

It takes two to tango. So, it would have taken some of the fuel marketers and government officials to perpetrate the fraud in the oil sector. That is why the battle for sanity in the sector is not going to be between the government and its officials alone, but between the government as well as the greedy marketers. And since corruption will always fight back; no one should be deceived that it would be easy to get to the bottom of the subsidy scam. The government has to be systematic about this. More importantly, it has to be on the drawing board now, trying to ensure how there would be uninterrupted supply of petroleum products immediately after its swearing in, before the Fates with its enemies do contrive.

May 10, 2015
PDP must earn right to criticise Buhari

“Many in the ruling party still cannot reconcile themselves with what has just happened: they are handing over the reins to the man they disdained and they just can’t stop the habit of sniping at him. This is the campaign that never ended, and the attacks would continue whether or not they are reasonable or morally justified.”

I overheard a conversation between two men on a street that captures the magnitude of the burden inherited by President-elect Muhammadu Buhari. It went something like this:

Mr. A: “Why e come be say now wey your man (Buhari) don win naim we dey suffer dis kain thing? No light, no petrol, no money… Na so una dey shout change, change … him don win now see wahala!”

Mr. B: Haba! But Jonathan is still in charge, Buhari never take over now!”

Mr. A: “Look … we no go gree o!” And their voices tapered off in the distance.

In stunned silence I digested what I had just heard. The size of the challenge confronting the next administration is gargantuan, but it is compounded by so much ignorance on the part of a longsuffering population who now expect their newly-minted leader to brandish a wand and sweep their troubles away. If only this was wonderland!

Buhari’s assignment is complicated by the bitterness factor. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was unprepared for the loss of the presidency. Party spokesman aptly described his organization as ‘traumatized’.

Many in the ruling party still cannot reconcile themselves with what has just happened: they are handing over the reins to the man they disdained and they just can’t stop the habit of sniping at him. This is the campaign that never ended, and the attacks would continue whether or not they are reasonable or morally justified.

That the PDP is in disarray after its calamitous electoral performance is to be expected. The scope of the debacle is such that the party which has been in power for an unbroken 16-year stretch would be would be psychologically damaged for a long time.

Up North it has been virtually wiped out by Hurricane Buhari. In the South West it is standing on two shaky legs in Ondo and Ekiti. These outposts are bound to come under sustained pressure from the new governing party after May 29.

In the South South and South East zones it faces an uncertain future. Electoral litigation and potential defections are bound to erode its holdings in these areas.

In Abuja, national chairman Ahmadu Muazu and members of his National Working Committee (NWC) are exchanging brickbats with aides and associates of President Goodluck Jonathan over the defeat while crossing swords with governors who want them sacked.

But no matter how bad things look for PDP at the moment, the worst is yet to come. In the next few months as the new government begins a forensic examination of the Jonathan years we should expect more embarrassing scandals to be unveiled as whistleblowers – long restrained by the fear of the outgoing government – begin to sing.

The savage in-fighting that has already kicked off is not going to disappear just because a committee has been appointed to examine why the party did poorly at the polls. Peace will only come when one of the factions contending for the soul of the party prevails.

Although there’s no unanimity as to the best way forward most members agree that PDP has to reinvent itself. But that isn’t going to happen until the party understands where it went wrong. The reactions of some of its leaders – from President Jonathan who’s already dreaming of PDP’s speedy return to power in 2019 to Muazu who’s been bragging about transforming into a vicious attack dog who will give the All Progressives Congress (APC) government nightmares – shows they still don’t get it.

Their comments and those of their camp followers on the internet show that their understanding of their new opposition role ends with lobbing criticism and invective at every move of the incoming lot and their leader, Buhari. It was that sort of wooly-headed thinking that inspired the hate campaign strategy that backfired spectacularly of March 28 and April 11.

The tactic or strategy a party in opposition adopts is usually shaped by the circumstance. There is the ‘reaction model’ involving relentless sniping and nitpicking. This means harassing your quarry over every little failing. It could be quite effective where the government in power is already unpopular, but it is very risky where certain lines are crossed.

The other option is the ‘proactive model’ in which the opposition tries to take the initiative by proffering new and more attractive policies than those set forth by the government of the day for dealing with challenges. This is mostly adopted where the incumbent regime retains a measure of popularity and credibility. In this case frontal attack doesn’t work because there’s not much to attack.

APC adopted the relentless attack model, now the PDP lazily wants to follow that same tack without understanding why it worked. You don’t attack for attack sake. The power of a critic’s utterances comes from his credibility. When Buhari talks about fighting corruption there’s a ring of believability to his words because of his history. The same comments coming from some of our former heads of state immediately conjures images of very black pots calling the kettle names.

Jonathan was roundly criticized because there was so much to criticize in his government. The flak hit home because it was supported by concrete evidence. If the opposition were hitting him over the head for corruption, they could point at several running scandals at every point in time. It was so bad that by the final year of his tenure the president had lost so much credibility locally and internationally.

In trying to savage Buhari even before he’s sworn into office, the PDP is making a big mistake. The man still enjoys tremendous goodwill and this will not dissipate overnight; it will take him stumbling from disaster to disaster for that to happen.

If anything PDP and its leaders should stay out of the way. As the magnitude of the mess it created becomes evident they should be hiding their heads in shame and allow the new team clean up their mess. And truly Nigeria in 2015 is one massive mess.

Every day the sheer scale of Boko Haram atrocities becomes evident. On the positive side the military has recorded successes in recent times. But it has struck me that all the efforts of the armies of Nigeria and three neighbouring countries have not been able to wipe out the sect.

After each day’s fighting the military reports new heavy death tolls of the part of the militants. How did they manage to get this big? How did they manage to build such a mighty force of men under arms? What were the administrations in charge in the last decade doing while this monster grew? All of this occurred under PDP’s watch.

Under the same party the nation has become bitterly polarized along ethnic and religious lines like never before in her history. The hatred between groups is frighteningly approaching the intensity of the pre-civil war period.

That’s not all. The economy has been run aground. There is no electricity. Fuel queues have become a permanent feature of our landscape. We squander billions of naira on dubious subsidy payments every year. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that neither the Ministry of Finance nor the oil marketers can agree on what the numbers are.

Unemployment has assumed the status of a plague. Under pressure from falling oil prices the naira now exchanges at an all-time low of well over N200 to the US dollar. The foreign reserves and Excess Crude Account are depleted. With one or two exceptions most states cannot pay monthly salaries and even the federal government had to borrow to meet its own wage obligations. This is the country that PDP would be handing to the next administration.

The clean-up exercise that Buhari has been saddled is going to take a while to get to done. We’re not going to wake up on May 30 to discover that Nigeria has become Paradise.

I believe that the president-elect has started going about his business in a very sound way. Some have tried to make his attempts at lowering expectations out to be an attempt to renege on campaign promises. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

Anybody who has bothered to read between the lines of his words in the past few weeks would notice he’s been clearly setting the style and tone of his government. In his comments on the first anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls he said the approach of his administration to resolving the issue would be founded on honesty. That required him to declare bluntly that there were no guarantees the girls would ever be found.

One of Jonathan’s greatest undoing is that for much of his tenure he lived in denial and never leveled with the public about how bad things were. He preferred to tell the each audience what he felt they wanted to hear instead of the bitter truth.

He glossed over the insurgency even when bombs were going off in Abuja – preferring the narrative that it was the work of APC and sundry enemies who were bent on unseating him. He and his wife didn’t initially accept that the Chibok abductions happened. Indeed some of his aides up till today insist that the incident was a politically-motivated stunt to embarrass the government.

After he accepted that the incident did happen, he kept reassuring the country of their imminent return. At a point one of his defence chiefs even boasted of knowing where they were being held. More than a year after they are still not home. By promising what he could not deliver Jonathan did incalculable harm to his credibility. The result is he led his party to the electoral carnage we’ve just witnessed.

Seamlessly the party responsible for our sorry state becomes the new opposition. It expects to get going in that role by deploying criticism. But the erstwhile ruling party lost the moral right to criticise by its criminal mismanagement of Nigeria. Indeed, it would be amusing watching PDP leaders moan about the state of the nation in the next one or two years.

PDP must now earn the right to criticize those who govern the country. Introspection and planning were never its strong suit. But that more than anything is what is required in opposition. In 1999, the party’s first Minister for Power, Bola Ige, excitedly promised to deliver 24-hour electricity within six months. He didn’t wait to understand what the problem was. Sixteen years after his successors haven’t done better.

The party needs to prove through concrete actions that it has repented of its old, discredited ways and can now be entrusted with power.

It will not have the federal platform to showcase anything in the coming years. It would have to prove its competence using its few remaining outposts in the South-South, South-East and Gombe. APC did this successfully – that was why during the campaigns it could point to the achievements of its governors in Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Ogun, Oyo and elsewhere as examples of good governance it intended to replicate at federal level.

Until it has something positive to show PDP and its discredited leaders must really stay out of the way of the cleaners.

May 10, 2015
Buhari on the threshold of history

Talking about the all-important subject called History, Cicero once said “To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to remain a child forever”.

A lot has been chronicled about the actions and mal-actions of the outgoing party (PDP) in the last eight years, but a new dawn came on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 when it was consigned to the position of opposition party.

Was it General Muhammad Buhari (GMB) himself or his party, APC that told Nigerians, after its victory that the party will be a governing and not a ruling party! A matter of semantics you might say. But the fact remains that a ruling party may constitute itself into a ‘sit-tight government’ or modestly vow to rule for ’50 or later 60 years’-thereby playing god. A governing party instead holds its entry and exit from power to the electorate (the masses) that voted it into such power.

The Lesson: Some folks get elected because they are known; others are defeated for the same reason.

My late father used to drum it into our ears that no man is totally useless-in that you can pick some of those flaws that made him ‘useless’ and ‘refrain’ from them.

On a huge signpost on entering Hiroshima is an inscription: The Mistake Will Not Be Repeated” (referring to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The APC should therefore learn from the mistakes and failures of PDP.

The last eight years presented an opportunity for Nigerians to tap into the ‘brains’ of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) holder and an Architect, but what can we show for it?

Perhaps, as a friend said some weeks ago at Watershed Event Centre Ibadan, ‘The eight years of the outgoing government was years of disservice for the masses of the country’. At the same centre, a friend interjected that the fault may not be in the ‘stars’ of our President, or the Vice President, but by the ‘undoings’ might have stemmed from the activities of their overzealous foot-soldiers, bootlickers, sycophants and the ever-ready attack-dogs that are at the ‘corridors of power’ to protect their ‘honey-pots’. After all, he concluded ‘Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State once had over 99 Special Assistants/Advisers and Personal Assistants in his cabinet’.

For our democracy to be deepened, the incoming government needs a formidable opposition party for ‘a balance of power’. The incessant ‘jumpology’ by members of the outgoing party to the incoming one is not a wise approach.

Senator David Mark has vowed to remain and salvage what remains of the party. To fast-track this onerous mission, spokespersons of PDP may be ‘dispatched’ for a training session and be tutored in the Art and Science of ‘Ideological Opposition’ under the tutelage of Alhaji Lai Mohammed and other political scientist, political communications gurus and erudite legal minds in the land. The training, is better done here in Nigeria and not under any Special Federal Government Scholarship Scheme ?.

To further grow our democracy ‘meritocracy’ should be cultivated at all levels of government. There is a management acronym T.E.A.M (Together Everybody Achieve More). There are lots of rots in the land today but they are not beyond redemption. It is often said with much truth that teamwork is a team discipline and as we have seen a disciplined man in person of GMB (based on his past performance as military Head of State between December 1983 and August 1985, it is expected that disciplined eggheads will be assembled to salvage our country from the ‘hawking cabals’ who are always part of any government in power (AGIP men and women).

A sitting governor in one of the south western states said recently at a social function that he is not like those who have power and don’t know how to use it. The same governor also sacked one of his permanent secretaries simply because a former governor and his predecessor attended his (Permanent Secretary) Father’s burial. As Pittacus once wrote: The measure of a man is what he does with power.

On the team leader and his lieutenants therefore, the ever living words of Andrew Carnegie that no man will ever make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or get all the credit for it could guide us in all our undertakings as leaders. No doubt, success has many friends, but every leader should remember that Hausa adage: ‘there are no bad kings but bad courtiers.’

There are plethora of national issues that are calling for attention and I have no doubt that Buhari was not oblivious of these challenges but we all need to muster the spirit of sacrifice and support to help the government succeed.

Corruption is today ingrained into our socio-economic and political ‘fabrics’ that GMB himself said “if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill our country.” Corruption has even undermined the operations of our revered armed forces whose morale needs restoration to tackle headlong the current kidnapping and terrorism in the land. Over the years, we have been playing politics with all these vices whereas soldiers shouldn’t be used to intimidate people under any circumstance. The military should never be dragged into partisan politics again; rather they should face their statutory roles. Kudos to our military men that recently rescued over 300 women and 275 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Sambisa forest. We are also gladdened by Major-General Chris Olukolade (the Defence Spokesman) who assured us last month that the Chibok girls would also be rescued safe, sound and alive.

In the last one and half decades, the masses of this country had the wrong end of the stick to the extent that anti-people policies such as the sale of government properties to private individuals and organizations were carried out. The Old Federal Secretariat in Lagos is today an eyesore to whoever cares to see it. Even the Daily Times outfit in Lagos was sold in a controversial circumstance many years back, even before the present party came to power. There are also rumours of the government’s plan to sell the refineries, auction National Theatre, Trade Fair and other national and enviable monuments and structures in the land.

According to the 2014 World Bank Survey, Nigeria ranked 3rd among top five poorest countries with 61 percent of its citizens living below the poverty rate of $1.25 per day.

The current tempo in the agricultural sector, the brainchild of Dr. Akinwunmi Adeshina (Minister of Agriculture) should be sustained. But let the truth be told: Food production is still far from meeting the demand of Nigerians. The self sufficiency in food production he promised Nigeria in 2017 should guide the incoming administration.

–Obiyomi, writes from Lagos via muyobi97@gmail.com.

May 10, 2015
Cleric charges Buhari to avoid corrupt politicians

The general overseer of Christ Anointed Church Peculiar International Ministry, Prophet James Hephzibah, has charged the president- elect to remain close to God and avoid corrupt politicians out to destroy God’s plan for his life.

He said God was tired of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – led administration and the emergence of Buhari was the handiwork of God.

Hephzibah spoke with our correspondent at a special miracle night organised by the church at the National Stadium, Surulere Lagos recently.

He noted that God is angry with our politicians across the parties for their wicked acts in murdering innocent souls and impoverishment of the masses.

According to him: “General Buhari should learn from the defeat of President Jonathan and He should always remember God and his principles, which can never change and toe the path of honesty, and integrity.”

Hephibah refuted claims that he endorsed a particular governorship candidate in Lagos State.

He said: “l did not and will not endorse any candidate even in the face of pressure.

“I have members in my church who are from the different party lines and thus would not want to be partisans as a prophet.

“But I will not fail to continue to preach, pray and speak God’s mind to Nigerians at every given point in time.”

May 10, 2015
Mark tasks Buhari on genuine reconciliation

Senate President, David Mark, on Friday advised the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to make the genuine reconciliation of all Nigerians his top priority.

Mark spoke at a thanksgiving Mass ahead of the end of the 7th Senate at St. Mulumba Catholic Chaplaincy, Apo in Abuja, according to a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh.

He said the action has become imperative in order to assuage the feelings of some aggrieved persons.

The Senate President said, “What the nation need now is genuine reconciliation of all sections of the country and not otherwise.”

He said despite different political affiliations on which public officers were elected, “what must be paramount are service, welfare and security of Nigerians irrespective of ethnic, religious or political differences.”

He further stressed the need to address the insecurity situation especially in the Northeast geopolitical zone.

He counseled public office seekers against desperation for power saying, “there is no need to be desperate for power, since power comes from God. Once we acknowledge this, we will not be at each other’s throat.”

Mark gave credit to Almighty God for sustaining him throughout the eight years as President of the Senate.

He said: “My 16 years in the Senate and eight years as the President of the Senate is the Lord’s doing, not by my own wisdom, power, intelligence or fame and influence.”

May 8, 2015
Jonathan, Buhari meet again at Aso Rock

President Goodluck Jonathan and President-elect Muhammadu Buhari met again on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The meeting, said to be private, was held without the media presence inside the Villa.

It started around 9pm and lasted just 30 minutes. No statement was issued on the discussion and its outcome.

Buhari twice last month, made similar visits to the seat of power.

May 8, 2015
Buhari: Nigeria’s problem is corruption not ethnic, religious

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday that Nigerian leaders should practice what they preach. He said his government will rather kill corruption than allow it to kill Nigeria. He spoke when he received a delegation of All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders from Akwa Ibom State.

It was led by the governorship candidate Obong Umana Okon Umana, who alleged massive inflation of results of elections in the state.

Gen. Buhari said Nigeria’s major problem is neither ethnic nor religious but corruption which has remained endemic and entrenched.

He recalled that in 2007, it was his fellow Muslims and fellow Fulani, who Justices of the Supreme Court, upheld the election of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, while those that said the election was flawed were not Fulani.

He expressed confidence in the judicial system, saying: “I’m glad that you have gone to court too because you believe in the system as the right place to fight for your right and the right of the people you represent. I have gone to court three times and reached at the Supreme Court.

“Not because I believe the system has changed, but this time around, in your own case, you were still denied even with the use of PVCs and the card readers.

“That means they will never stop lying because the essence of the system itself is to protect the interests of the parties and the candidates whether it is the local government elections, house of assembly, governorship, house of representatives, senate etc.

“There is the need to go to the constituency, educate them, beg for their support and understanding, let them know the real essence according to law and to choose who they want to choose. Otherwise, we are wasting our time. I stand for that and that is why I chose to go to court, ending up at the Supreme Court.

“I didn’t go to court because I could afford it financially or physically, but people who believe in stabilising the system helped me along the line.

“Now the records are very clear, anybody who wants to study the political development of Nigeria cannot do that without getting the Supreme Court’s judgment of those years, 2003, 2007 and 2011.

“If you could recall in 2007, the Supreme Court was split into two. A six-man panel of justices was divided. Six justices led by Justice Oguntade, a Christian, a Yoruba man, Justice Aloma Mukthar and another Justice from Delta State said the election of 2007 was null and void because it was not conducted according to the law.

“But former Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher, a Fulani from Jigawa and another Justice from Taraba, also a Fulani said the election was not flawless but all the same, the PDP won and then the Chief Justice, a Muslim and a Nupe Man cancelled the votes with them so it was four against three. The point I want to make here is that the problem of Nigeria is not ethnic or religious. It is corruption.

“This is what we are fighting and that is why corruption is number three in my campaign. The first one is security, the north east, the Delta area where people are kidnapped and ransom are being demanded which people cannot afford.

“The second one is unemployment, sixty per cent of Nigerians are youths, most of them, whether they went to school or not are unemployed and that is dangerous. So we have to get the issue of the economy right to make sure the jobs are made available and we should try to kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria.

“Let us practice what we preach as well, because corruption is fast becoming a culture and to try to control people is not an easy task but it must be done.”

Umana said the hope of the people of the state for a free and fair election was frustrated by the state government, leading to loss of lives.

Umana said: “The desire of our people for change was a natural outpouring of their disappointment with and neglect by the PDP-controlled Federal Government for 16 years, during which there was no federal presence in the state. Even the much-talked about East-West Road could not be completed in those long years.

“During the campaigns, the people also complained of gross under-representation in federal appointments, even in the oil industry, where the state leads in crude oil and gas production.

“While mentioning some of the developmental challenges facing our state, we would like to request that the Ibaka Deep Seaport should be treated as a priority project and completed by your administration to help ease the problem of unemployment facing youths in the state and the country at large.

“The people had hoped that there would be free and fair elections in Akwa Ibom State for them to vote and bring in APC government at both the state and federal levels, so that the lot of the people of the state would change for the better.

“However, it is a matter for regret and a point of great frustration that our votes for you in Akwa Ibom State were not allowed to count during the presidential election because of massive vote fraud and wanton violence.

“We would like to report that the gubernatorial and house of assembly elections held in the state on 11 April 2015 witnessed even worse degrees of electoral fraud and violence, leading to many deaths and injuries.

“All the violence and electoral malpractices were perpetrated by a private army set up and funded by the state governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio.”

May 8, 2015
Ex-militant under threat over Buhari

The National President, National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, (NCNDE-A), Israel Akpodoro, has said his life is under threat over his support for Presidential-elect Mohammadu Buhari.

Akpodoro said he ran into an ambush by the suspected gunmen last Wednesday.

The ex-militant was on his way from Port-Harcourt shortly after Mbiama junction where the Coalition held a pro-Buhari meeting.

His aide, Bernard Ochuko, who spoke to our correspondent, the Urhobo-born ex-militant leader was rescued by some truck drivers who ran to the scene.

He stated further that his boss has gone into hidden while receiving treatment from native doctors.

Akpodoro’s travail, according to Bernard, began shortly after a meeting of the ex-militant leaders in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa capital where Governor Seriake Dickson was the chairman.

At the meeting, he stated that, Akpodoro expressed a divergent view as against the directive by senior officials of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration that all ex-militants must gear up for war should General (rtd) Muhammadu Buhari win.

He further stated that the Coalition leader vehemently opposed the general consensus as he was bullied out of the meeting with threats from other notable ex-militants at the meeting.

Akpodoro, he said, has escaped assassins’ bullets on more than three occasions. “He receives anonymous calls at odd hours telling him that his life was in danger.”

As a result of the incessant threats, Akpodoro’s aide said his boss had to relocate his children out of their home into hidden and in hidden he said they were to date.

“This recent attack is one in a series of such attacks that my boss, Israel Akpodoro, has been subjected to since the Yenagoa meeting and subsequent adoption of General Muhammadu Buhari, by the National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators.”

May 8, 2015
Jonathan, Buhari meet in Aso Rock

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday evening again met with the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting was held behind closed-doors inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Buhari had on the first week and toward the end of last month made similar visits to the seat of power.

The meeting on Wednesday evening was said to be a private one and there was no media presence during the visit.

The meeting, which started around 9pm was said to have lasted about 30 minutes before Buhari departed Aso Rock.

May 7, 2015