The Nation Newspaper

Tag: burden

  • Aisha and the burden for service

    A society whose very essence has never known anything fundamentally ennobling and uplifting since the civil war, but rather wallops in the most despicable form of abuse and degeneration of its being in every material, moral and even spiritual spheres can be forgiven for its inability to recognize someone’s emergence on its landscape because it has been comatose for far too long. It’s now a little over a year that President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife Aishahave been on the nation’s consciousness that not a few still wonder how they’re able to live such unblemished lives in a society where your upward mobility on the socio-economic and political fronts has direct correlation to how morally bankrupt, criminally-minded and fantastically corrupt you are.

    Just as Buhari continues the socio-economic re-engineering of the polity in accordance with his electoral mandate, thereby changing the way the Nigerian people think about governance, there’s also a tectonic shift in the way Nigerians now lookat the wife of their president. In deference to her husband after the president said that the Office of the First Lady was not known to the country’s constitution, Mrs. Aisha Buhari is comfortable with simply being called “the wife of the president.” From this officially humble beginning,shestarted her own quiet ‘revolution.’Mrs. Buhari’s interventions in the lives of everyday Nigerians, though tremendously significant, are not what would normally generatesensational headlines. But as her husband continues to do the heavy lifting in his old age in remaking a new and saner Nigeria, a paradigm shift is taking shape in how Nigerians look at the First Lady.

    It will probably take Nigerians a little more time to realise and understand the essence, grace, dignity and ‘soft power’ that Mrs. Buhari brought into the Presidential Villa in order to compliment her husband’s office. The virtues inherent in her are not what Nigerians are used to. For decades, they’re familiar with their president’s wife being more powerful than her husband that cabinet members would rather see the First Lady first on their way to the office of the chief of state. They are used to seeing their First Lady leading the country’s First Citizen into the presidential aircraft on their way to a foreign land. On getting there, she would also be the first to emerge from the aircraft that the welcoming officials would be momentarily confused as to who the real president was.

    For a little over a year that Mrs. Buhari has become a public figure virtually for being the wife of the president, she had positively impacted the lives of those Nigerians who may have already given up hope on the improvement of their conditions, if not their very existence. Her several humanitarian interventions had been timely and specifically-targeted to the critical needs of the vulnerablepeople in society who had encountered heart-wrenching and life-threatening challenges through no fault of their own. These are people such as the wives of soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgency, pregnant women, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and orphanage children among others. In cases where the benefits of these interventions must extend to hundreds of thousands of people,Mrs. Buhariwould partner with other professional bodies. The “Future Assured Medical Outreach”programme under her”Future Assured Initiative” will probably go down as the most important undertakings of her many humanitarian intervention programmes. The Future Assured Medical Outreach is a country-wide medical intervention that caters for women and their dependents. First launched in Nasarawa State, this life-saving and life-enhancing medical outreach has taken its benefits toseveral states of the federation includingAdamawa, Cross River, Enugu, Oyo, Katsina, Ogun, and Kebbi where hundreds of thousands of women and children were beneficiaries.

    In January, Mrs. Buhari was at the 44 Army Reference Hospital in Kaduna to see soldiers on admission who sustained various degrees of injuries in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency and receiving treatment. There, she used the occasion to appeal to the Nigerian Army authorities to ensure prompt payment of entitlements to families of deceased soldiers who lost their lives in the war front in order to alleviate the suffering of the loved ones they left behind. Several gifts were given to wounded soldiers, pregnant and nursing women in the Accident /Emergency and Obstetrics/Gynaecology wards. In December 2015, Mrs. Buhari was at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at the Dalori Camp in Maiduguri where more than 21,000 victims of the insurgency lives. She donated rice, semovita, cooking oil, seasonings, plastics, milk, and juice among other things. Earlier in September 2015, she was in Calabar in Cross River State where she donated nutritional supplement – the Frisomum Gold brand – to more than 250,000 expectant and nursing mothers who were randomly drawn to avoid any appearance of political undertone of favouritism. The Frisomum supplement is an alternative to breast milk.

    It will take several years for Musa Murtala to be able to spell the name of the wife of the president, let alone have an acute understanding of her impact in his life. Musa is a 20-month old toddler who was badly mutilated by his two stepmothers who broke his legs, hands as well as caused injuries to his private part and tongues. On hearing about the barbaric acts meted out to this baby, Mrs. Buhari had him brought to Abuja where she had him taken to Crest Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory for treatment. Injuries that could have caused a permanent and irreversible damage to his health and wellbeing, if not death for little Musa were treated. He has since been discharged from the hospital. These are some of the synopsis of the many interventions of the wife of the president since her husband came to power.

    But there’s a mad and raging bull that Nigerians have agreed that the politywould be better for it if he’s confined to a china shop. He roams the country’s landscape desecrating everything in his path, including the exalted office in which a combination of devilish shenanigans, alleged murder and a self-inspired mayhem thrust on him. It’s one thing to place advertorials in just about all the national dailies during electioneering campaigns telling voters that her husband would die in office if elected because Mrs. Buhari is well aware that politics can make some people lose their sanity. But it’s another thing altogether to engage in some pre-meditated character assassination with a patently false and baseless accusation in his mistaken belief that Mrs. Buhari’s humility is devoid of a voice of her own. So when the governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose crossed the political line in his false accusation that Mrs. Buhari had engaged in a criminal act in faraway United States, not a few thought about how Fayose could have been so far gone in his madness to have been thoroughly disgraced by a harmless woman when she referred to him as “a mad dog that isn’t chained” on her Twitter handle. The wife of the president knows politics when she sees it, and that’s probably the reason she made sure that her presence should not be felt in that vocation but on humanitarian interventions. No woman that takes her hard-earned integrity seriously – and that she must guide jealously – would have kept quiet in the face of Fayose’s blatant lies that smacks of the most virulent criminality. In Hajiya Aisha Buhari came divine calm after so many perfect storms.Mrs. Buhari’s humility and kind-heartedness that continues to manifest in her several humanitarian gestures to the vulnerable people of the Nigerian society is indeed a breath of fresh air to the Nigerian people.

     

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com
  • Herdsmen’s attack and a governor’s burden

    Herdsmen’s attack and a governor’s burden

    THESE, certainly, are not the best of times for Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. The dreaded Fulani herdsmen, who in recent times have become a menace to many communities in different parts of the country, invaded Ukpabi Nimbo, an agrarian community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of the state penultimate Monday, killing no fewer than 48 people. The heavily armed herdsmen who invaded the sleepy community to carry out the dastardly act were said to have numbered more than 100. Besides guns, they were reportedly armed with other lethal weapons like machetes, swords and bows and arrows.

    The nocturnal attack was said to have forced the hapless residents of the community to flee to neighbouring towns and villages whose residents have also been sleeping with one eye open. And while latest reports say the fleeing members of the community have started returning home as the dust raised by the attack appears to have settled, there is every reason to suspect that it may not yet be the end of the story with claims and counter-claims of either parties being the aggressor.

    Penultimate Monday’s attack on the Enugu community was the culmination of a no-love-lost relationship between the community and the herdsmen as the herdsmen were said to have previously fallen out with the villagers over their grazing activities in the community. Before the attack, the villagers were said to have been resisting the herdsmen’s use of their farmlands as grazing fields. There were allegations by the herdsmen that some of their men who operated in the area had been killed by aggrieved farmers, while many of their cows had been missing.

    Indeed, the traditional ruler of Ukpabi-Nimbo, Igwe John Akor, said the community had received warnings of an impending attack before the herdsmen finally struck. “We got a warning but we didn’t know who sent it to us. Thereafter, we passed the information to relevant security authorities. The state government deployed policemen and other security operatives to safeguard our people. Unfortunately, when the Fulani herdsmen struck, we had no idea where the police were,” he said.

    But there may not be yet an end in sight for clashes between the herdsmen and residents of the area with the youths and some leaders of the community threatening a reprisal attack. On their visit to the community after the attack, both Hon. Patrick Asadu and Hon. Dennis Agbo representing Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South and Igbo-Eze North/Udenu federal constituencies respectively, said their attack on Ukpabi-Nimbo would not be taken lightly.

    “They have been doing this and going scot-free but this attack on Nimbo will be the last. The people doing this are not just cattle rearers; they are terrorists and Boko Haram elements. We are not going to take it,” Asadu declared.

    Asadu’s threat of vengeance was a re-echo of an earlier threat by youths in the area to avenge the death of the 48 inhabitants of Ukpabi-Nimbo whose lives were abbreviated by the rampaging herdsmen.

    To worsen matters, Igbo youths under the aegis of the Ohaneze Youth Council (OYC), issued a statement in which it gave Fulani herdsmen up till Monday next week to vacate Igboland or be forced out. A communique signed and released in Enugu by the National Vice President of the group, Mazi Obinna Achuonye, and the chairmen of OYC in seven Igbo-speaking states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Imo and Rivers, described herdsmen as off-shoots of Boko Haram and must no longer be allowed any breeding ground in Igboland.

    The statement added: “Any herdsman who fails to quit the South East by Monday will have himself to blame. Never again will Igbo youths fold their arms and watch our people massacred by blood-sucking terrorists under the guise of herdsmen.

    “Urgent times need drastic measures. We warn all violent Fulani herdsmen to vacate our farmland, our backyards, our territories and boundaries on or before Monday next week.

    “If after Monday, the herdsmen are still around, we will direct Igbo vigilante groups set up by OYC in all the 95 Local Government Areas in the South East to force them out.”

    As the chief security officer of Anambra State, Governor Ugwuanyi is saddled with the triple task of rebuilding the devastated Ukpabi-Nimbo community, pacifying angry youths to shelve their threat of vengeance and also ensuring that the herdsmen do not make good their threat of further attacks.

  • Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and the burden of genius (2)

    •(Intrigues as petroleum minister grapples with challenges of office)

    Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu is a supporting actor in President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘change’ fiction or drama of ‘change’ if you like. At a glance, he seems an ideal ambassador of ‘change’ but has he the political and ideological bent to actualise Mr. President’s anti-corruption crusade in the oil sector? Has he the nerve to turn his office into something more than an economic labyrinth and political jailhouse? If he fails, his name and reputation will suffer for it.

    There is no gainsaying the Nigerian corridor of power is booby trapped to thwart genius. A rabble of genii has fallen in recent past to her decadent pleasures and cruelties. By their deeds, they become a profanation of sterling stewardship in public office. After Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Reuben Abati to mention a few, one gets the feeling that entrusting a genius with a Nigerian public office is an exercise in futility. It’s akin to tying the Mediterranean with palm fronds for storage against drought.

    Time was, when the argument was entirely against the ‘system’ thus making a case for the genius. But a new school of thought emerges and it advances the perspective that the genius should no longer be let off the hook by the simple technicality of his perceived powerlessness against a corrupt system and hostile work environment. That is simply one way to look at it and it is a grossly skewed portrait of the status quo presented in defense of the genius.

    Managing a public office is no walk in the park, particularly in Nigeria. Yet the Nigerian genius with an Ivy League education and impressive track record eagerly accepts to serve the country, with promises of hope and positive change. It is always fascinating to see such individuals however, morph into grotesque apparitions of the patriots they were meant to become. Annoyingly, they do so with unpardonable cheek and a swivel-it-finger-in-your-face stance.

    Kachikwu should be different. He should be that interpreter of ‘change’ who keeps his wits about him. He shouldn’t fall to the lure of the decadent and all powerful ‘system.’ Can he?

    His predecessors suffered irreparable loss of self. Kachikwu shouldn’t. Avarice, extreme confidence and god-complex are familiar hyper-states that destroyed preceding genii. These familiar evils stifled their minds and enslaved them to vulgar luxury and other unimaginable obscenities. Lots of promising folk have extinguished in name and status on this charred, crimson path. It takes a man of unusual integrity and strong personality to tower above such decadence.

    In the unfolding drama of ‘change,’ greed is the depravity that Kachikwu should shun. The ‘young oil Turks’ and the aging cabal dominating the oil sector have overtime, evolved an enduring culture of acquisitiveness, self-centeredness and mediocrity as the benchmark of stewardship and moral fibre in the sector. With the connivance of the immediate past administration, they created and sustained a daemonic lyre of gluttony and lust as the language of transaction and service in the oil industry.

    Consequently, the need for competence and accountability was serially altered into an imperial hankering for unearned dividends and mechanised pilfering. Public service in the oil sector thus split in two, taking on the forms of a vulgar gladiatorship by perverse civil servants and leisure-class banditry by aberrant oil magnates.

    At the twilight of the last administration, Nigeria came face to face with the garish licentiousness and dishonesty of the characters that ran the oil industry aground. President Buhari swore to retrieve the country’s looted funds from these bandit breed. To this end, the nation is treated to a tragicomedy of the feverish hunt and prosecution of culprits at home and abroad. While it is too early to give the president kudos for operationalising his anti-corruption crusade beyond platitudinous jingle, one cannot but appreciate the haunted glares of the culprits as they scurry for safe havens abroad, their trails littered with their plundered and pasty spoils.

    Kachikwu had better take in the imagery of nemesis and remorse. Let it guide him as he serves as the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Lest we forget Kachikwu’s assurance to Nigerians that although the challenge of cleaning NNPC will be a bumpy ride, it will be exciting. He promised that it will eventually yield positive results. Positive results for whom? It’s about time the NNPC boss understood that Nigerians are more aware and interested in their affairs. Nigerians are paying his salary and they deserve more than his subtle retractions and fragile excuses.

    Until the lingering fuel scarcity became the plague of the country, fuel was being sold at N86.50 per litre. That pleasing reality eventually morphed into a grisly and enduring nightmare. Nigerians expect him to evolve a regime that would make fuel more affordable to the citizenry and eliminate insititutionalised corruption in the NNPC. Nigerians expect him to furnish the country periodically, with details of the workings and actual proceeds of the oil industry. It is not only the president that he is accountable to in such respect. There are a lot of other products refined from the nation’s crude oil; in the spirit of accountability and his touted love of transparency, let Kachikwu furnish Nigerians with transparent account of the workings of the oil corporation periodically. Nothing should be done in secret anymore.

    It’s about time Nigeria stopped watching helplessly as her public officers, NNPC top executives inclusive, meet with oil magnates in hotel lounges and suites abroad – I hope Kachikwu really understands this. Any such meeting done in secret with a select few often reek of suspicious or malicious intent against the progress of the nation’s oil sector and the country in general.

    It could be rewarding fellating Kachikwu’s ego but that would be disastrous to his persona and career as a public servant. Nigeria needs Kachikwu to evolve and uphold professionalism and a moral culture impervious to degeneration and machinations of the oil industry’s bogeymen.

    If Kachikwu succeeds at his current brief, the ricochet of his exploits would serve a greater purpose than justifying President Buhari’s second term agenda, if actually the president nurtures any such ambition. Besides ameliorating the pains of the citizenry, his sterling success and patriotism at his job, will stand him in good stead for more significant leadership role in future. Kachikwu needs to evolve an enduring moral code unyielding to any baggage from his past – if any such baggage actually exists – and amenable to higher responsibilities in future.

    Agreed, moral codes could be somewhat obstructive, relative and counter-productive, particularly when pitched against a vicious circle of leeches and reprobates but ultimately, moral codes are of inestimable benefits to civilisation. Without them, we are vulnerable to the degenerate barbarism of gluttony, amorality and wanton tyranny of the self-seeking and covetous. It was a lack of moral code and personal ethics that ruined the names and reputation of immediate past genii in Nigeria’s power circuits.

    Picture a future with an unsullied Kachikwu, Okonjo-Iweala, Babatunde Fashola, Reuben Abati and their likes in sensitive public offices and as drivers of the Nigerian State. Imagine a future whereby such men and women are peacefully ushered off the corridors of power after meritorious service in the interest of the collective – that would be a future to die for no doubt.

    Kachikwu should understand that public service and valour need to be humanely planned, not cashed in upon or taken advantage of with a haughty smirk and condescending smile. There are all sorts of questions and consequences to ponder before the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, adopts his next economically or politically expedient measure.

    Let’s hope Kachikwu understands that at the end, he would be judged by how adroitly he scorns or tones to minimum, the arrogance implicit in leadership and the corruption characteristic of power. Right now, Kachikwu is too ordinary. Nigeria needs him to be extraordinary.

  • Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and the burden of genius (1)

    •Intrigues as Petroleum Minister grapples with challenges of office

    In few months, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu will be seen as a national boon or disaster. He will be hailed as a round peg in a round hole or tirelessly maligned as the fig that lets down the leaf; the affliction that has to be concealed or expunged. Until then, Kachikwu will stew in metamorphosis. The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) dissolves into multiple identities characterised by the oil industry’s familiar bogeys, even as you read.

    His transformation is akin to Daniel Orowole Fagunwa’s mythical forest ghommid’s. Other beings pass through him  as if he were a wraith. He is like Fagunwa’s ghommid, who transforms into a tree, an antelope, a raging inferno, a bird, water and a menacing snake. While Fagunwa’s mythical creature assumes more or less the characteristics typical of its new category of being, Kachikwu struggles to preserve his individuality, mostly the capacity to think and act humanely, against the power and intimidation of Nigeria’s oil cabal.

    Yes, Kachikwu, despite his brilliance and touted vigour, may hardly be a match for Nigeria’s predatory band of oil Turks and cliques in the energy sector. But his office demands that he assumes a front, thus his frantic posturing and pretension to purpose and valour. It would be delightful however, to see Kachikwu succeed where his predecessors failed woefully but he needs generous doses of forthrightness to do that. He needs to be a man or the best form of public servant that his employer, President Muhammadu Buhari, wants him to epitomise. Can he?

    Despite his initial braggadocio or what is known in street parlance as Initial Gra Gra (IGG), Kachikwu seems woefully handicapped to effect the needed turnaround in the nation’s oil sector. Perhaps he isn’t, he simply glamourises the knack for making ill-advised commentary and pledges before assessing his capacity to withstand backlash and deliver on his words.

    Take for instance, his circus acts in the nation’s oil sector – his recent “I am not a magician” riposte to Nigerians groaning under the weight of the lingering fuel scarcity predates a recent report by The Cable, an online medium, that credited Kachikwu with the information that the nation’s refineries are working at 30 percent capacity as against the minimum 60 percent required to generate profit.

    He was quoted thus: “Personally, I will have chosen to sell the refineries, but President Buhari has instructed that they should be fixed. After they are fixed, if they still operate below 60 per cent, then we will know what to do…The 90-day ultimatum for the refineries to be fixed will end in December and Port Harcourt Refinery looks like the only one that will meet the deadline, but we will wait and see what happens at the end of the 90 days.”

    It is over 90 days and if you take the pains to skim over the folds of officialese and doleful cliffhanger nuggets contained in his disclosure, you just might find that Kachikwu may have tacitly prepared our minds for one of his several failures or his only failure perhaps. Earlier, he said that in view of the nation’s low refining capacity, there was need to establish more refineries in the country. “I am pushing to build new refineries next to our existing plants in order to boost the nation’s refining capacity for the common good,” Kachikwu stated, explaining that the new refineries will be developed by private investors and that NNPC will simply provide them spaces close to the existing refineries to enable them share key facilities such as pipelines and storage facilities.

    If you consider this in light of his alleged preference for selling off the refineries, you could be forgiven for getting lost in the NNPC head honcho’s maze of double speak and embarrassing retractions. Following his recent cancellation of the oil swap deals instituted by the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and his Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, the NNPC boss did a cartwheel to tactfully rescind his decision.

    Apologists of Kachikwu claimed he was only doing the president’s bidding but critics of the NNPC boss earnestly aver that President Buhari couldn’t have taken the decision without the knowledge and approval of the NNPC boss. Whatever the case, Kachikwu is either a talisman that the presidency reckons with or a human sound bite employed to unquestioningly rubber-stamp Mr. President’s caprices. Is he?

    It would be recalled that major oil tycoons became jittery and desperate to save their businesses in the wake of the NNPC’s cancellation of Offshore Processing Agreements (OPAs) and Crude Oil Swap (COS) deals entered with them. This was because their businesses plummeted in the absence of the several shady deals entrenched by the immediate past corrupt regime. Likewise, the federal government placed a ban on 113 oil vessels for perceived infractions. The presidency has since lifted the ban on the 113 tankers and the NNPC has tacitly reinstituted the controversial OPAs and COS, it would seem.

    Earlier, the Ahmed Joda-led Presidential Transition Committee had recommended to President Buhari to carry out a comprehensive audit of all OPAs and COS deals entered by the NNPC. The committee said the audit would help government identify and claim any reimbursements for excess crude oil lifted under the controversial OPA and swap arrangements to establish the quantity of products delivered based on a fair and transparent audit process. Kachikwu subsequently hinted that all Production Sharing Contracts, (PSCs), Joint Venture Contract Agreements (JVCAs) and all other contracts between the NNPC and its various partners would be reviewed to reflect actualities in the global oil and gas industry. He stated that as part of the measures to optimise the marketing of Nigeria’s crude oil and secure new market potential, the number of off-takers for the proposed 2015/2016 term contracts, which would emerge after a planned rigorous competitive bid had been pruned from 43 to 16. The corporation however, extended invitation to few oil companies affected by the cancellation of the deal.

    Despite Kachikwu’s show of running the process in the spirit of transparency, fears abound that the he is impotent against the intimidating clout and pressure from certain quarters that he favoured the same corrupt oil firms responsible for the misfortunes bedeviling the nation’s oil sector.

    Given his sterling achievements in academia and the private business sector, Kachikwu seemed every inch capable for the onerous task of sanitising the grossly corrupt and ailing oil sector, at his appointment as Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and NNPC boss. A doctor of Law, Kachikwu graduated with distinction from the University of Nigeria (UNN) Nsukka and he was the best graduating student from the Law School, winning seven of the available nine prizes in 1999. He holds the LLM Harvard Distinction and was best graduate in 1980 with specialisation in Energy, Petroleum Law and Investment. Kachikwu has more than 30 years experience in policy- making positions in the petroleum industry serving in various capacities thus he seems well equipped for the job but for a snag, he is a Nigerian genius.

    Nigerian genii seldom fluorish in public office. Ultimately, they serve as puppets or impractical characters enabling the greed and mediocrity of their principals or associates in corridors of power. Kachikwu, like such genii, has betrayed little character or justifiable individuality so far.

    However, in the wake of his controversial “I am not a magician” statement and his subsequent apology, Nigerians, despite their impatience, need to exercise greater patience with him. His high office couldn’t have obliterated his fabled genius, as it did, the smarts of his predecessors after all.

    Yet if a public officer truly reflects the character of his principal or employer, the presidency becomes the teat from which Kachikwu sucks his new identity. The impact so far, has been enlightening. Nonetheless, Kachikwu is either a failure or success in process.

     

  • Fed Govt urges China to reduce debt burden

    Fed Govt urges China to reduce debt burden

    The Federal Government has appealed to the Chinese government to blend its grants with loans to reduce debt burden on the country.

    Speaking at the China-Nigeria Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of National Planning and Budget, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma said current Chinese efforts in assisting Nigeria are commendable. He said the government would like to ask for more support to help turn the economy around.

    He said the intervention of the state-owned Chinese firms, such as the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) can adopt a funding option that blends grants with loans to reduce debt burden repayment.

    A major constraint to business development in Nigeria, Udoma lamented, is infrastructure which is contained in the new China-Africa plan announced by President Xi JinPing during the Johannesburg summit.

    Udoma said: “More can still be done by our partners in terms of grant support to infrastructure; we also believe that the Chinese private sector can improve on the areas of technology, agriculture and solid minerals.”

    The government tried to woo the Chinese investors present at the forum, by stating: “Nigeria is open for investors and we have attractive incentives, our tax policies are investor-friendly; the current administration is committed to addressing the inhibiting factors including corruption that cripple business environment; our target therefore is to make Nigeria the preferred destination for investment in Africa.”

    He said Chinese businessmen can benefit from opportunities from these incentives noting that Chinese direct investment in Nigeria stood at $2.5 billion last year. In specific terms, the China EXIM Bank has been very supportive of Nigeria’s development, the bank advanced a concessionary loan of $1.1 billion to support infrastructure development in the country and more than 200 Chinese companies are currently in Nigeria in various areas of the economy.

    In his address, the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy, Zhao Linxiang, said during President Muhammadu Buhari’s stay in China next month, “the two leaders will further discuss on how to fully implement the fruits of the summit including the 10 major cooperation plans and relevant financing arrangements and how to carry them out into projects which are conducive to Nigerian economic development.”

    Speaking for the Chinese private sector, Vice President, Huawei West Africa, Mr. Cao Aijun, said: “In Nigeria, Huawei will continue to employ an open approach, remain trustworthy and dedicated, build partnerships, and constantly reflect on our work while sharing success with our customers.

    “Huawei will continue to comply with local laws and regulations, ensure workforce and employment compliance, pay taxes, proceed with our localisation efforts, and develop the industry ecosystem with our local partners. To fulfill its corporate social responsibilities, Huawei will actively implement our talent development programme in collaboration with the Federal Government to boost employment.”

  • ‘Buhari has a huge burden to deliver’

    ‘Buhari has a huge burden to deliver’

    Former Abia State Governor Orji Kalu spoke with reporters in Lagos on the Buhari administration, the anti-graft battle, terrorism, the Biafran agitation and other national issues. Correspondent KELVIN OSA-OKUBOR was there.

    What is your take on plans by some governors to either sack or cut down on salaries of civil servants?

    It is a truism that all is not well with the state of Nigeria’s financial economy. The current situation, if the truth must be told is that we are in dire straits. This time calls for deep reflection and serious financial reengineering by managers of the public sector.

    This requires creative, strategic and visionary leadership by leaders at all levels because the reality is that the resources accruing from crude oil sales are dwindling by the day on account of falling oil prices in the international market .

    Above all, leadership is about the ability to take the right decisions at the right time by putting the people first. Interestingly, governors should cut down on frivolous expenses to meet their financial obligation, especially workers salaries and payment to pensioners.

    If it means converting a portion of the security vote to fix serious responsibilities, it is worth it.

    This is because many governors allegedly siphon the so-called security vote. We must learn to live within our means as a way to sustain a decent life. Governors should leverage on other revenue sources to complement the federal allocation. The era of depending on a mono product economy is long over.

    Are you not disturbed that, in the face of dire economic realities, President Muhammadu Buhari needs to hammer out serious economic interventions or measures to revive the economy?

    I cannot agree with you  any less on this matter. In fact, any casual observer of the Nigerian economic situation knows that things are not okay. As some observers have out  put it, the economic house is falling. Unless urgent steps are taken, we may be heading for trouble economically. Put in a parable, we could situate the economic reality by seeing President Muhammadu Buhari as the manager of the economy as a distributor who has distributed goods to his customers, he came back to the market, all his customers closed the door, he didn’t see anybody to collect money from.

    He called somebody and said break the door any door  he broke, nothing was seen so he went back to all the shops, there was nothing again inside the shops, he didn’t see the goods he supplied them and he didn’t find  any money that the shop owners were supposed to pay. That is the dilemma of the president if I can say. He didn’t tell me but this is what I feel.

    I feel strongly that it will take the president the next two to three years to sort out this problem. Nigerians are always in a hurry and I am surprised, change don’t come easy. The situation is only comparable to somebody who supplied goods and could not get money back.

    How do you think the president is feeling in this dismal scenario you have painted?

    The president should be having hypertension now, but I am sure he is confused himself because the goods he supplied there are still there, even if he does not have his money. So, that is the position the president is right now. You know I am not a member of APC. So, I don’t speak for them. What  I speak is the truth and people should not be expecting president Buhari to do miracles. I am not a member of his party, but he is a very close friend of mine and you should not be expecting President Buhari to do miracles. I don’t expect him to do miracle. There is no miracle in this business, he has to take his time.

    The situation is made worse because oil prices have gone down and everybody is looking if there will be any slight change in the third quarter of 2016. Nigerians just elected their president for change and they want to see the change immediately. It is not possible. The president has to take his time, he has to take account of what he has seen and what he has not seen, from what I am hearing, they have not even started to ask questions about where is our money has gone to. So, many people said that many officials still need to answer some questions. My reading is that President Buhari as our  leader is very unlucky. He came into the saddle of leadership for a change during a very difficult time.

    What is your take on efforts by the Buhari administration to recover looted funds by the past regime through the anti – corruption measures?

    I think President Buhari is on track in his efforts to revive looted funds by the past administration. The anti-corruption measure is not a drawback as some critics may want to see it. Given the malfeasance that took place in the last regime, the President is handling the situation very well. It is not a drawback  at all. Buhari should know who he should call because there was massive looting, I am sure most people didn’t want to listen to some people like us, who were shouting about what happened in the last administration.

    We said  that there was corruption and the corruption that we saw in the last administration was very high. I told airport correspondents in one of my interview sessions when I landed at the Lagos Airport that there was corruption in the last regime. Though, I am a friend of the former president, but I spoke the truth. I told you people that I came from Emirates, Dubai and I have never seen the kind of corruption I am seeing. Then, in Nigeria, people are carrying the dollar by hand.

    Journalists confronted me that why can’t I advise the former president and I remember telling them that, beyond friendship, the country comes first .

    Our country comes first, So, I am still standing here. If Buhari is doing a bad thing tomorrow, I will caution him. I have written letters to President Obasanjo. I have written to Jonathan, although the one of Jonathan is not in the public and I have written letter to Yar’ Adua when he was president. I am sure Nigerians should be patient with President Buhari.

    He might not do much in terms of infrastructure, but he will clean up the cobweb. There is a lot of cobweb in the system, we have lost process totally, the process I used to see when I was governor of Abia State, I no longer see the process, people should follow processes in doing soothing so you know business men like are in a hurry to make money, I am losing money, paying 10,000 workers is not easy so it is a problem, we need to be patient.

    How do you think the government could fix the system?

    This calls for serious reengineering in policies to rework the economy. We need to move away from dependence on crude oil receipts. I have been shouting for eight years that  there is need to diversify the economy. At a point in time, I met my governor. I said that we must go back to manufacturing, farming production. There is a large market in West Africa and nobody is talking about that market, nobody is talking that we can produce, nobody is talking that we can go to farm, look at Nigeria is still importing maize, palm oil, can you imagine in this world.

    What is your take on the approach to fighting corruption by the current administration?

    I am convinced that the president is sending the right signal on how to fix the country by coming all out to fight corruption . Though his approach may need some modifications . I think Buhari should adopt the process methodology, not the personality or hate model .

    So, I think the President should not do what Wole Soyinka proposed when he warned former EFCC chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu about his approach of going for alleged suspects and their family members. Remember, Soyinka advised Nuhu Ribadu  then, if he cannot catch a governor, he could  catch his mother. This was what Wole Soyinka said in a public fora. I am confident that the approach should be radically different. Buhari should not do adopt that approach of, if you cannot  this governor, catch his, mother, a mother that didn’t do anything. This was the practice in the past and people kept quiet. So, I think Buhari should be just in his judgment. They should be thorough. Nobody is locking anybody up, I was kept by EFCC for two weeks. Are we  following  the right processes round?

    The methodology adopted by EFCC now has changed. Now, suspects are questioned and told to go home. Any day they want to charge them to court they will charge them to court, which is a civilise way of doing it.

    But, it is not everybody that they will tell that because there are some who have to be detained to be able to get more  information and  money looted from them. I am not saying that Buhari is totally  not getting it right as to what they are doing, but the right process must be adopted .

    Are you comfortable with the strategies adopted by government in fighting insurgency in the North?

    I think president Buhari is on track because he has adopted the right strategy by engaging sub-regional efforts to tackle challenge of insurgency. As part of the trans national strategy, he adopted on assumption of office , he visited heads of state of neighboring countries, including Chad, Togo, Benin Republic Niger and Cameroon to secure the commitment of leaders of those countries on how to cooperate to stamp out insurgency. The former president Jonathan  did not engage this strategy. But, Buhari has secured the friendship of these nations to enable him get their support to fight insurgency. This is the way to go in tackling this problem.

    This strategy explains the successes so far recorded. Recall a few days ago that Cameroon said they have caught some insurgents. The strategy is paying off .

    What is your reactions to the lingering agitation for self determination by the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra ( MASSOB)?

    First, I think the signals we are getting from the agitation are quite intriguing in many respects. But, the government should not disregard the agitation The strategy of going violent by the agitators is not to be supported because violence in any form has never been the way to resolve issues of agitation for self determination. As a patriotic Nigerian, I believe in the unity and the indivisibility of this country. As an Igbere man from Abia State, I love this country and will continue to push for its togetherness. To be honest with you, those boys are right in their quest to agitate for self-determination. They have a right to demonstrate for what they consider may be their right as recognised by the United Nations Charter for Human Rights. But, what I do not agree with is the violence associated with the demonstrations, and the alleged  killing of  soldiers  by the agitators .

    No commander-in-chief of any country should tolerate such act by any group, no matter the issue involved. It is an affront on the state. If I were the commander-in-chief, I will never tolerate such brazen act of lawlessness and violence. Any group that kills one of my soldiers, I will invoke the law to handle such people. Nobody, no matter how disenchanted over their agitation should think of killing any soldier or police in the name of agitating for their own republic.

    You cannot kill any soldier or police and get away with it. This is wrong, not because you are calling for your own republic. The United Nations charter gave them the big right to ask for self determination, it depends on the people to conduct a plebiscite, it is not a right of determination to go and destroy peoples’ properties, to go and destroy Nigeria Armed Forces, whether is Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy or Nigerian Police. The quest for self-determination should not be used as an avenue to commit serious criminality.

    Agreed it is a right. But, how do you go about it?

    From the point of view of an international business man , the agitators could express how they feel about self determination. But, the question is: are those rights really worth it? If I were  the President of Nigeria, I will like to annex Benin Republic and other countries to become what I will call the United States of Nigeria including some West Africa countries. So, why should any government allow any part of the country at this material time to clamour for being  allowed to separate itself . So, why do you want to remove some parts now. Those boys also have a right to  opt for what they want.

    This remains largely conditional, if only the  people in the affected areas are left to conduct a plebiscite, to say whether or not it is something the United Nations has properly defined  as a precondition for such agitation. This is what you should do the people should do if they are no longer comfortable with their inclusion in the current political arrangement that constitute the the Federal Republic of  Nigeria.

    President Buhari should be very familiar with this development, because the agitation by MASSOB  has been there from time immemorial. It is not something new. If I were the  president I will  consult and engage some high profile traditional rulers and some political leaders to go and ask the boys what do you really want, what is really their  problem, what can we do to  stop them  from asking for this. What is the reason for this agitation? If we take our minds back, that was how the insurgency by Boko Haram started. When the insurgents first started the killings, it occurred in a Catholic Church. And as an adherent of that denomination, I vehemently condemned it. I told you airport correspondents that when Boko Haram finished killing the Catholics, they would go and kill everybody. This was how kidnapping started when I was governor, they were kidnapping white people and I spoke out, people in Federal Government abused me.

    I said when they finish kidnapping white people and there is no more white man to kidnap, they will kidnap us and that is what is happening in the country today.

    So, I  will advise the Federal Government that as a federation, it must by properly managed to resolve agitations by some people, who are seeking to opt out as a republic .

    Government cannot stop people from such agitation, what is critical is how the issue concerning such agitation is handled .

    It is the management of the people that matters.

    President Buhari as a matter of fact should set out to engage  traditional rulers and leaders of thoughts with security and intelligence agencies on how to resolve this potential trouble .

    Resolving the agitation for self determination needs an all inclusive strategy ,not use of force , or carrying guns .

    Government needs to engage the agitators and make them realize that it is ready to resolve whatever issues they have raised .

    I must advise security agencies that using force to quell the agitation for self determination at this time is not the best strategy .

    It is a wrong strategy hearing people saying that we will quench it by force, we cannot quench anything by force because it is their right to ask for self determination.

    Recall what happened in Eastern Europe , they used engagement strategy not force .

    My advise is that  it is only a president that does not know what he wants  that will want a section of his country to go.  I think negotiation is part of democracy.

    What do you think about the parlous state of roads in the South East that the MASSOB agitators have alluded to as evidence of neglect of the region by successive administrations ?

    Reasonably, this is a serious matter. Honestly, the state of the roads in this region is not good at all. Consider for instance,the  Enugu-Port Harcourt, Aba- Umuahia  Express Road that has not been constructed .

    If I were the president I will fix this road in the next two years to quell this recurring agitation .

    What about the Oka – Onitsha Expressway , it is not yet constructed , what about the Umuahia – Ohafia – Arochukwu Road leading to Cross River , government should fix these roads within a short time as part of measures to resolve the agitations .

    What about Arondizuogu – Okigwe Expressway , the road has not been fixed .

    The government should also consider fixing Enugu – Makurdi Road , it is not good that people are dying on these roads everyday .

    It is for these roads that I quarreled with the Obasanjo administration since 2001.

    I consistently drew attention to the fact that roads in the South East, in particular federal roads were very bad and government has taken this for granted .

    Look back at what I said over ten years ago about the state of our roads , they are still recurring today and government is still playing politics with it.

    To sustain the unity of this country, which is foremost , government should look at these issues and resolve them . That is the truth  and it must be said .

    Could you clear the air on insinuations that you are planning to defect to the All Progressive Congress ( APC)  as a friend and supporter of Buhari to galvanize support for him if he wants to run for a second term in 2019?

    There is no doubt that I am a friend of Buhari .

    Well I will tell you the truth, my mother is in APC, you know Buhari is a family friend ,  he is a chieftaincy holder in Igbere in our village, he  was awarded a

    Doctorate  degree when I was governor in Abia State.

    This happened at a time the former president gave me a call that nobody should be given doctorate that day, we went ahead to honour Buhari With the doctorate degree .

    The former president was opposed to this because Buhari was contesting against Obasanjo in 2003.

    For me, all these things are minor, which party you belong to does not make any meaning, what is important is that the president is a friend of the family and if he handles Nigerians well, he is a young man as far as I am concern comparing him to Mugabe.

    If Buhari handles the country very well , he will be running for a second term in 2019, I will support him but, that is not a condition to join  the APC.

    Membership of any political party is immaterial at this time . All that is critical is that I have access to the President anytime .

    There is no time I told Buhari I want to see him that he has declined .

    He is not the type of president that to businessmen , who are going around the corridors of power looking for business .

    Any businessman going to Buhari with the hope of getting business has missed it .

    The president has a lot of job in his hands .

    If I were in Buhari’s position, I will run for second term, that is the truth, there is no Nigeria president who didn’t ask for second term but it also behooves on Buhari to treat Nigerian people very well so that he can gain their endorsement for a second tern bid.

    What is your take on the issue of removal of fuel subsidy , what is affecting the oil and gas sector ?

    The president needs to be convinced to remove fuel subsidy , because it does not favour the poor .

    The fuel subsidy thing is only the benefit  of the rich .

    But, Buhari is yet to be convinced .

    In my opinion , removal of fuel subsidy will favour the poor, who constitute the thinking of the president .

    The president thinks more about the poor, that is the truth, we need to continue telling the president that this subsidy is not for the poor, it is for the rich and I don’t blame him because the man who wants the poor people to get something.

    He is a man who thinks more about the poor, he is a man who could have bargain everything for himself, this is a man I know him very well he has no attachment to say this is my business, I am going to  give Orji Kalu business, some business people who are  going to him thinking that he will give them business, they are wasting their time.

    He is thinking about majority of those boys carrying Biafra flag, he is thinking about them, he is thinking about all those people who are carrying guns for Boko Haram and how they can stop .

    I discussed subsidy with him, his answer was, what happen to the poor and it behooves on his economy team  to look him in the face and tell him that honestly Mr. president we must remove subsidy and it depend on Nigerians to also get on him and say that we must remove subsidy .

    You don’t blame a man who is not a business man like me, he never traded in oil he is minister of petroleum yes, am not sure he knows basically that this subsidy is just for rich people who are trading on the oil.

    It behooves on his economy team between now and the next few months or few years to convince him and say no, we will continue losing money if you don’t remove subsidy .

    Could you tell us what happened to your bid to become president of FIFA ?

    The truth is that I never aspired to be one president of FIFA .

    But, some people know that I have the capacity to handle the body .

    Blatter  endorsed me , with many heads of state in Africa.

    Even, Great Pele of Brazil endorsed me , with many powerful countries in Africa who wanted me to run .

    They wanted Nigeria to run for that exotic position   But as a country we took it for granted .

    Pele could not have saying Nigeria should run without narrowing it down to somebody . I will speak on FIFA more elaborately in the future . I will speak on why I did not run for FIFA in the future .

    What plans do have in place to bring back Slok Air ?

    Slok Airline is going to come back, well you know the case

    of Slok Airline is before a Federal High court judge and I cannot really go deep on it.

    We have taken the Federal

    Government to court and we sued them to pay us N35billion, if two people are fighting it is only the court that will

    separate you .

    The Ministry of Aviation planned to ask us to take back our operating  license and shut up.

    And we have said no to such plans. Remember we had 14 aircraft kept on the ground for over one year .

    That is a huge loss .

    The reason we are suing the ministry is to get our money back .

    For over one year , we did not fly , we need our money back .

    We invested over forty billion Naira , and we are only asking for N35 billion .

    We will stand by the decision of the court.

    We will pursue our case to the Suprehe a Court to enforce our rights and the damages done to our business .

    We will exhaust all legal avenues to enforce our rights .

    People just think that the judiciary is weak , that is not true, the judiciary had saved us many times .

    I know that some judges are corrupt , there is no segment of Nigeria that is not corrupt .

    Slok airlines will return to correct some deficiencies in the aviation industry , because you know we are very efficient .

     

  • PDP and the burden of Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency

    DAAR communications chairman, Raymond Dokpesi who is one of the major conveners of the South-South political movement that bolstered and galvanized the emergence of the region that produces the most wealth in Nigeria into national reckoning, recently allegedly voiced the opinion that PDP made a mistake in fielding GoodLuck Ebele Jonathan, GEJ as her presidential candidate in the last election.

    When the acolytes of the out gone president, particularly former presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, and PDP spokesman, Olisah Metuh, literarily ‘jumped into his throat’, Dokpesi decided to be politically correct by ‘clarifying’ that his statement was twisted out of contest by the opposition as it was actually directed at the lower rung of the PDP political spectrum, whom he accused of fielding unpopular candidates, hence the current reversal of the fortune of PDP from the ruling to opposition party.

    Dokpesi’s comment about GEJ’s unpopularity and unsuitability as presidential candidate in 2015, sounded familiar to me because somebody else had held that position and voiced out it boldly about five(5) years ago and it led to a vicious political persecution and loss of personal liberty.

    That person is former governor of delta state, James Onanefe Ibori who is now serving a jail term in a UK prison .

    His opposition to GEJ’s presidential ambition in 2010,on the ground that it was against the grand strategy by the PDP to return power to the north after residing for eight (8) years in the south, with Olusegun Obasanjo, OBJ as the custodian, was rebuffed and even drew the ire and bile of the ‘principalities and powers’ in  Aso Rock villa at that time.

    Ibori has always insisted that his opposition to those aiming to go against the well established PDP power rotation principle that held the party together like a glue is not personal but an altruistic commitment by a party loyalist to the sustenance of the PDP as the ruling party, but his plea, as it were, fell on deaf ears.

    Now,I know that some antagonists would argue that Ibori confessed to the crime of money laundering in the UK ,hence he is in incarceration, but we are all aware of the circumstances under which he did. His entire family-only sister, wife, daughter’s mother and lawyer were encircled and jailed, compelling him to capitulate.

    Also keep in mind that with the way Nigeria is wired, when the authority decides to ‘nail’ a public officer, there is hardly any escape from being found guilty of malfeasance, but if a person is enjoying the goodwill of the govt in power, he or she is accommodated like a blue eye prince and could therefore get away with murder with the authorities looking the other way.

    Take for instance the issue of the celebrated Halliburton, Siemens and other sundry multi million dollars acts of corruption involving former top Nigerian political office holders, that have earned foreigners involved in the crimes with them, prison terms, while the Nigerians are yet to be made to face the consequences. This is simply because the indicted Nigerian leaders are in the politically correct camp and as such arraigning them would rock Nigeria’s political boat. Another case in point is the recent call by SERAP, a civil society organization, on the new Attorney General and minister of justice , Abubakar Malami to prosecute the thirty one (31) state governors whom the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC reported as corrupt and which was accepted and adopted by the National Assembly, NASS in 2006.That 31 of the 36 governor’s were found guilty by EFCC of corruption, suggests that virtually all the governor’s in OBJ’s era have been tarred with same black brush, so singling out Ibori for persecution after the unfortunate passing away of former president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was a deliberate punishment.

    Similarly, another parallel can be drawn in the recent dismissal of fraud charges against former Bayelsa state governor, Timipreye Sylva by justice Adeniyi  Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on the ground that arraigning the ex-governor three times on same charges (2012,2013 and 2015) after the cases had been discharged. This underscores the fact that l had made earlier that, govt can raise charges against a perceived enemy at their whims and caprices.

    It may be recalled that Sylva served only one term in Bayelsa state and was stopped from getting a second term ostensibly for fraud and incompetence but in reality, his political career was truncated for allegedly falling out of favor with the then occupiers of Aso Rock villa which is similar to what happened to James Ibori.

    By opposing GEJ’s intention to run for the office of the president in 2011,Ibori certainly stepped on sensitive toes and the rest as they say is history, as he is now on the last lap of his long incarceration, but what’s intriguing is that it took about half a decade for another party stalwart, Dokpesi who felt same way as Ibori to speak out, and even then he was quickly gagged and in the interest of peace he has modified his comment.

    Amazingly, even after the unfortunate catastrophic consequence that Ibori predicted would befall the PDP, should his caution against fielding Jonathan not be heeded has materialized, (as the PDP has now fallen from grace to grass at the March 28th presidential polls) no other current PDP member of considerable weight has voiced the concern publicly, so the sentiment about the calamity that Jonathan attracted to the PDP has remained in the realm of closet gossip.

    Strangely ,former PDP leaders whose opinion on the unsuitability of Jonathan for the presidency in 2015 in convergence with ibori’s position in 2011,include OBJ who had to tear up his PDP membership card in the full glare of TV cameras in protest and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar who also led five PDP governors out of Eagle square last year in protest before subsequently defecting to APC. So Ibori basically was the first to ‘bell the cat’ and he was slammed by the system.

    It is indeed a pity that, like Egyptian pyramids, evidence of not being visionary enough to steer the former ruling party away from the precipice was looming ,yet PDP bigwigs then and even those still left in the party, are still living in denial by pretending like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand, falsely believing that all her body are also cancelled, but unbeknown to the bird, (and in this case the PDP) its whole body except the head is sticking out like a sore thump.

    Events that threw up Goodluck Jonathan as the vice presidential candidate of the PDP in 2007 and  literarily thrusted him into national limelight, are still fresh in my memory because l was there when it was unraveling, nearly a decade ago as late Umaru Yar’Adua was being elected the presidential candidate of the PDP.

    Under the chilling cold harmattan  weather, at the Eagle Square, Abuja, l had the rare privilege of being the returning officer for late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (2007-2010) who was then, Katsina state governor and presidential candidate of the PDP. Uche Secondus, the present acting PDP chairman would remember that event clearly because he was desirous of being the returning officer to Yar’Adua before l was detailed to perform the duty.

    The responsibility for being the returning officer to the presidential candidate was thrust upon me by , Yar’Adua who conveyed his request through, one of his close confidantes at that time, Abba Rumma who was later to become a super minister of the Yar’Adua era.

    I recall elder statesman, Tony Anenih , then chairman of PDP Board of Trustees pacing up and down in the Eagle Square courtyard following then president, OBJ inspired changes in PDP constitution stipulating that going forward, only ex-presidents would become the party’s Board Of Trustees, BOT chairman.

  • Buhari and the burden of democracy (2)

    Penultimate Tuesday, this columnunder the above title, explored the constitutional imperative for a federal executive council, despite President MuhammaduBuhari’s reluctance, as expressed during a media interview, in France, recently. Last week, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele,warned that Nigeria was headed into a recession, by 2016, unless urgent measures are taken to remedy the national economic crisis, made more challenging, by the implementation of the TreasurySingle Account (TSA), as directed by PMB.Because the unviable directive by Mr President,apparently arose from his fidelity to the provisions of the 1999 constitution, I decided to do a part two, under the same title.

    Section 80(1) of the 1999 constitution, provides, “All revenues or other moneys raised or received by the federation (not being revenues or other moneys payable under this constitution or any act of the national assembly into any other public fund of the federation established for a specific purpose) shall be paid into and form one consolidated revenue fund of the federation”. Again, section 162(1)of the constitution, provides: “The federation shall maintain a special account to be called “the federation account” into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the government of the federation, except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnelof the armed forces of the federation ….”

    In ordering the TSA, which has obviously backfired, the President, was giving effect to the provisions of the 1999constitution, mentioned above. As this column has severally argued in the past, the makers of the 1999 constitution, in their desperation to create a united Nigeria, over centralized the socio-economic and political powerof the country, in the hands of a central government. The result is the incongruity of creating a federal republic of Nigeria, with a substantially unitary constitution. This anomaly also accounts for the wretchedness of the federating units, and the resultant economic quagmire of our country.

    Part of the challenge facing the government of PMB is to untangle the country, from all the unnecessary and over centralized laws, institutions, practises and beliefs, which impede our federal system, in other to release the social, economic, and political potentials of the federating units.To show that the makers of the constitution may not have fully comprehended the import of asking that all accruals, be paid into a single account, without allowing for the deduction of costs and incidentals, at source, by any of the federal agencies, which had collected the income, theywent ahead to compound the absurdity, when the constitution also charged in 162(3) that, “Any amount standing to the credit of the federation account shall be distributed among the federal and state governments and the local government council in each state on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the national assembly”.

    As I have also previously argued on this page, only a spendthrift, would insist that all his income must be shared, without any savings. Yet, because the constitution has so provided, in section 162(3); the state governors have been in court to force the federal government to share the sovereign wealth fund, and the excess crude account, of course on the mantra that those savings are unconstitutional. While the state governments have a point, they however do not search the constitution for answers, as to why they operate as near never-do-wells, and as to why most of them with bowels in their hand, need to prostrate before the federal government, for so called bailouts, each time they face financial crises.

    But the permanent solution also lies in the constitution.This would involve the expansion of the economic activities of the states, while reducing the redundant economic prerogatives of the federal government. On this, many commentators, including this writer, have argued in favour of the reduction of the items in the exclusive legislative list, to the benefit of the concurrent and residual legislative list; so that state governors would engage in economic activities, instead of seeking the friendship of the President and the national assembly, to allow them borrow more money, without worrying as to how the money would be paid for, by the future generation;more sonow with recessionstarring the country in the face.

    Perhaps, it is now a matter of urgent national importance, for the President to raise his economic team, to meet thechallenges ahead. In making his choices, it is hoped that the President would seek out an economist, instead of an accountant, to lead the charge. For even though one is not an expert in this area, one can correctly guess, that what our nation needs is economic expansion, and the reflation of the economy strictly for productive purposes, even as the President pursues accountability in government.So, PMB must find a way to reflatethe economy, starve excessive liquidity squeeze, and deal with the constricting impact of the TSA,by raising a strong economic team.

    In steering the nation away from this potential economic recession, the federal, state and local governments must be wake-up to the scary level of unemployment, which is partly responsibility for the increase in violent crimes across the country. One way out would be to resort to the use of direct labour, in the execution of public works. PMB would hopefully realise that his fight against corruption is disempowering a lot of economic vandals, and there is the need to create alternative economic opportunities,to absorb those willing to work.While some of the provisions of the constitution may act as impediments to the immediate inauguration of virile economic activities, the President must seek ingenious ways, to stimulate and spread economic activities across the country

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Buhari and the burden of democracy

    Buhari and the burden of democracy

    No doubt, President Muhammadu Buhari has had a challenging learning curve, since he was sworn in as president, over a 100 days ago, on May 29;particularly whenever he speaks to the press. As a former military dictator, PMB is indeed finding it difficult, to appreciate some of the incandescent nuances of democracy. But in fairness to the President, while some of his words has given his opponents something to sneer at, he has so far, acted within the confines of his executive powers. His recent statement, on France24 channel, that,”the Ministers are there, I think, to make a lot of noise”; falls within such challenge. Brutally frank, PMB is yet to appreciate that as a politician, certain things are better left unsaid.

    With that statement, Nigerians now have an insight, as to why the President has been taking as much time as he can, before naming his ministers.PMB, obviously considers the Ministers, as possessing strong nuisance value. While many Nigerians, disappointed by the poor performance of previous governments, despite the huge number of Ministers, with impressive credentials, may sympathise with the President; our constitutional democracy, grantsintrinsic responsibilities, to the council of Ministers. So, while PMB and hisvice president, may have worn the presidency, they are under compulsion, to appoint ministers, to complement the President’s executive powers.

    So, PMB was not right, when in that interview, while accepting that he will name his ministersbefore the end of September, as earlier promised, however said, “I think the question of Ministers is political”. Indeed, the question of ministers, is constitutional. While Section 5 of the 1999 constitution, which provides that the executive powers of the federation, “shall be vested in the President and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be, exercised by him either directly or through the vice president and ministers of the government of the federation or officers in the public service of the federation”, (emphasis mine) may appear tenuous, there are other unambiguous provisions, in the constitution, that compelsthe president to constitute a cabinet.

    Speaking generally, the President has discretion, in determining thecomposition and nature of his executive council; but he must constitute one, assection 147(1) provides: “There shall be such offices of Ministers of Government as may be established by the President” (emphasis mine). The section further provides in sub-section (3) that “Any appointment of ministers, under subsection (2) of this section by the President, shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this constitution: provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one minister from each state, who shall be an indigene of such state”.

    Another constitutional provision that compels the President to inaugurate the body of ministers, is section 148(2), which provides that, “The President shall hold regular meetings with the vice president and all ministers of government of the federation for the purposes of: (a) determining the general direction of domestic and foreign policies of the government of the federation;(b) co-ordinating the activities of the President, the vice president and the ministers of the government of the federation in the discharge of their executive responsibilities; and (c) advising the president generally in the discharge of his executive functions other than those functions with respect to which he is required by this constitution to seek the advice or act on the recommendation of any other person or body”.

    Again section 150(1) of the constitution provides: “There shall be an Attorney Generalof the federation who shall be the Chief Law officer of the federation and a minister of the government”. Another compelling provision for a federal executive council is section 144(1)(a), albeit an ominous one, for an incapacitated president, which provides: “The president or vice president shall cease to hold office, if – by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all members of the executive council of the federation it is declared that the president or vice president is incapable of discharging the functions of this office”; subject however to a medical examination, as provided in the constitution.

    In the face of these provision, the constitution of the body of ministers or executive council, is a constitutional imperative, and not merely a political decision. PMB is however politically correct, when in that interview, he posited that “People from different constituencies want to see their people directly in government, and see what they can get out of it”. That is the purport of section 14(3) which provides that “The composition of the Government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies”.

    In his first 100 days plus, it is generally believed that PMB’S presidency has been able to restrain the haemorrhaging of our common patrimony. That is an achievement. But as the President learns the intricate and divergent pull of democracy, I commend to him, the words of Justice Louis D. Brandeis of the United States Supreme Court, in Whitney v California, to wit: “In government the deliberative forces shouldprevail over the arbitrary; that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of the political truth, that without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile….”

     

  • Burden of blessing

    When the filthy rich do not enrich the filthy poor, they make themselves filthy and impoverished. It cannot be enough to enrich the imagination of the poor by a display of the possibilities of prosperity without offering the enrichment that can make them prosper.

    The death of Chief Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez in Brussels, Belgium, on September 1, prompted reflections on not only the burden of blessing but also the burden of the blessed. Fernandez enjoyed the awesome distinction of a billionaire brand, and less generous descriptions painted him as a multi-millionaire. Whether he was a billionaire or a multi-millionaire, there was no question that he was one of the richest Africans before the great leveller struck. His daughter, Mrs. Teju Phillips, a former Lagos State commissioner for commerce, said he was 86, contrary to media reports that he died at 79.

    It is food for thought that Fernandez’s life exemplified an interesting definition highlighted by  “The Richest Man in Babylon”, a bestseller by George Samuel Clason: “Money is the medium by which earthly success is measured.” What is the medium by which earthly failure is measured? The poor can provide an answer. There is no doubt about Money’s success-projecting capacity, but it need not be restricted to personal and personalised success. Making a success of earthly life has broader social implications; it is also about making a success of earthly lives.

    In other words, personal earthly success is a blessing that comes with a social burden. Perhaps the most enlightening demonstration of this important implication is the thinking that produced the idea for The Giving Pledge launched in June 2010 by the world’s richest man Bill Gates and wife Melinda in association with superrich Warren Buffet. It is a remarkably ethical “effort to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in the world to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.”  The donation can be made either during the lifetime or after the death of the donor.

    The beauty of the pledge is that it represents no more than a moral commitment and it is volitional.  By April 2011, 69 billionaires had reportedly joined the campaign and pledged to give 50% or more of their wealth to support philanthropic causes. A year later, the campaign had attracted more of the elite rich and a report said “81 billionaires committed to giving at least half of their fortunes to charity”.  According to the latest news, “As of August 2015, 137 billionaire or former billionaire individuals or couples have signed the pledge; a significant majority are, like Buffett and Gates, American citizens.”

    Considering America’s rich status, it is noteworthy and speaks volumes for the enduring relevance of a giving philosophy driven by social responsibility that the original promoters of the pledge were prosperous Americans.

    It is popular to argue for speaking truth to power. What about speaking truth to the power of money? The Giving Pledge is built on the socially influenced and socially influential logic of giving back to society. It suggests that demanding measurable social responsibility from the superrich is not necessarily inspired by a sense of entitlement; but there is a sense in which it is a social entitlement.  It does not need to be imposed because it is properly self-imposing.

    Nigeria’s superrich men and women ought to learn a thing or two from the foreign initiative.  Two striking members of the country’s money club are Aliko Dangote and Folorunsho Alakija. Aliko Dangote is ranked by Forbes as Africa’s richest man and he is 67th on the magazine’s list of The 500 Richest People in the World 2015; in 2014 he was 23rd on the list. Folorunsho Alakija is ranked as the second richest African woman and also the third richest woman of African descent in the world.

    Fernandez dazzled the world with his fabulous wealth which could be imagined from the flashes provided by, for instance, his reported six private jets, “ocean-going yacht” and island home in New York, United States. Described as “a business magnate and diplomat”, Fernandez was born in Lagos into a family with a South American background. His diplomatic decorations include: “Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representative of Central African Republic (CAR) at the United Nations, special adviser to the President of Mozambique on international economic matters, Ambassador-at-Large for the Republics of Togo and Angola, in 1966 consul for the then Republic of Dahomey (now Benin Republic), economic adviser to the Angolan government, aside from long-time adviser to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos (who has ruled Angola since 1975); and deputy minister of finance, Swaziland.”

    For a Nigerian, it was a remarkable path. No less remarkable were his business interests : “Aside from Petro Inett, which did oil exploration in Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, his business interests spanned bauxite exports, gold mines and diamond pits, in these countries, mainly in central and southern Africa.”

    Probably more remarkable was his immense inactivity in response to the needs of the social space, which was to the detriment of social development in his land of origin. It is no excuse that he was based in foreign lands. Regrettably, it may be said that Fernandez demonstrably operated far below his capacity as far as social giving was concerned, which is putting it diplomatically.

    By an instructive coincidence, Fernandez died four days before the world marked the UN-endorsed International Day of Charity on September 5. It is relevant to quote Hungarian Csaba Korosi in a speech he gave at the UN on benevolent giving in the social context: “Charity can alleviate the worst effects of humanitarian crises, supplement public services in health care delivery, education, housing, and child protection. It assists the advancement of culture, science, sports, and natural heritage.”

    To engage in fantasy, what would Nigeria look like if its superrich citizens appreciated the burden of blessing and the implications for social giving and social development? Fernandez may well be poorly remembered in the narrow context of his riches and opulent lifestyle, which is the tragedy of socially purposeless wealth.  His life and death are open lessons for the country’s living legends of luxury. It is a blessing to be blessed and to be a blessing is blessed.