The Nation Newspaper

Tag: change

  • Nigerians need real change

    SIR: The PDP government has failed Nigeria in the past decade and half. Nigerians do not need tinkering on the margins. We need real change in orientation from decadence to real growth with equity, employment and inclusion.

    Interconnections must be established among economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. Nigeria needs to invest in agriculture and agro-processing enterprises. Rampant corruption, sectarianism, cronyism and gross mismanagement of public funds must face a frontal attack, not arresting one individual for public consumption but all who have stolen the nation’s wealth must face the full wrath of the law. Dismissing or suspending a few police officers does not mean restoration of human rights and fundamental freedoms, there must be total reform in the Nigerian Police. We voted for change and change we must see after May 29.

    PDP government has failed. Controlling inflation, important as it is, is not enough. Measuring progress in economic growth and per capita income terms is necessary but not sufficient condition for improving living standards of all. Launching a new vision without providing a roadmap about its implementation, monitoring and evaluation isn’t helpful. For that reason 2020 vision died on the very day it was launched in part because the then president hadn’t seen the final version, it was a rushed plan. The drafters of the vision never provided the methodology and indeed it was planned to fail.

    Overemphasis on export in agricultural produce including foodstuffs has damaged the environment through de-vegetation and chemical pollution, overfishing and deforestation and reduction of food supplies in the domestic market contributing to severe under-nutrition. Poorly fed women produce underweight children with permanent physical and mental disabilities, children develop smaller brain size than normal and constrain their ability to learn and underfed adults don’t have the energy to perform optimally.

    Exchange rate adjustment in favor of exports has made the price of imports very expensive for consumers and investors. Keeping inflation so low has reduced money in circulation and drove interest rates so high that few investors are able to borrow and invest. Consequently economic growth has declined considerably following exhaustion of excess capacity. Nigeria’s economy needs to grow at an average rate of 10 percent to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2020.

    Nigeria is well endowed in human, natural and financial resources. The problem is poor leadership. What General Muhammadu Buhari needs is a government of all stakeholders to sort out the mess that has accumulated since 1999. Those who have helped cripple the economy of the nation must not be allowed to serve again, no matter the party they belong. Nigerians can’t afford another failed four years under Buhari.

    Gen. Buhari must avoid the mistake of rushing to choose his cabinet ministers without knowing who they are. We should not have criminals in government again. Nigerians are hopeful that our children unborn will see why we voted out the PDP government and be grateful for the future opportunity that will be provided to them by the Buhari regime.

     

    • Comrade Ahmed Omeiza Lukman,

    Kiev Ukraine.

  • Zuma first foreign leader at Eagle square

    Zuma first foreign leader at Eagle square

    President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, was the first foreign leader to arrive Eagle Square, venue of the presidential inauguration in Abuja.

    Other presidents present at the venue of the inauguration include Malian President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and Guinean President, Alpha Condé, among others.

  • Change grapples with conservatism

    Change grapples with conservatism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Anti-aging tips for Buhari in Change era (8)

    TOMORROW IS D-DAY, when President Ebele Azikwe Jonathan should pass power to president– elect Gen Mohammadu Buhari (rtd). The hearts of many people, including Gen, Buhari’s must be pounding harder and faster as this column speculated last Thursday. At under 110/70, mine isn’t. As a matter of fact, I will not witness Gen. Buhari’s inauguration on radio and television, and I will miss the Trafalgar square–type assembly which my acquaintance, Alhaji Jide Tairu director at Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, has arranged for that day at our housing estate to commemorate the inauguration. I will be in Lagos alright, but out of circulation, cut off from radio and television and merry-making of all sorts. For tomorrow is May 29 one of the important dates in my calendar since 1977 which presages a three–day observance of PENTECOST.

    Christians know of Pentecost as the season of the ascension of the crucified but risen Christ. It is celebrated worldwide in Christiandom 40 days after Easter Monday, which reminds them of the teaching of early Christian fathers that the Lord Jesus physically arose from the dead on that day. There are many Christians who do not share this belief down the line. While they believe the Lord survived physical death, they see this more in terms of his soul or ethereal body and have explanations for the whereabouts of his physical earthly remains. Even Apostle Paul would note the body of the Lord he encountered was not the mortal earthly cloak of his essence.

    Well, this is not the issue now. Since 1977, I have been priviledged to partake of the recognition and observance of Pentecost over three days beginning from tomorrow. I crave your indulgence to mention, briefly this event because the date coincides, somewhat, with the date chosen, for whatever reason(s), to inaugurate a new Nigerian Federal Government, and because Gen. Buhari’s election, unique at this time of Nigeria’s history, positions his inauguration as president for tomorrow.

    Many Christians remember that Temple in paradise where 24 Elders unceasingly sing Holy, Holy, Holy, God Almighty. From eternity to Eternity.

    his temple is at the boundary of the Divine World or the World of Angels with paradise, the world of human spirits.    we humans are spirits from the spiritual world or World of spirit, which lies below the world of Angels in the divine world. At the summit of the spiritual world there is a semblance, though in spiritual content, of the temple of the elders in the Divine world. It is this Temple which bore a part of the light of God when God issued the creation fiat or order…” LET THERE BE LIGHT” PRIOR TO THIS ORDER EXISTENCE BEGAN WITH Him the creator and ended with the Elders. Below the realms of the Elders, a dark, cold void existed. The order brought a part of the light of God from out of Him to the boundary of the world of the Elders and of the void. That part of the light of God immediately brought light, heat and warmth to the void to give it life, and we are informed that “the spirit of God hovered over the land.” This was the creation of paradise, after which was to evolve subsequent creation which developed, through the Big bang  scenarios described by science, after the prototype or archetype of the original creation. It is the beings in this original creation that were made after the “Image of God”, not the imperfect human beings on earth who are still struggling consciously or unconsciously, to achieve immortality. In the Temple at the summit of paradise, the world of perfected and evolved human spirits like you and me striving to become images of the images of God, there is a king. He is that part of the light of God, that is, He is a part of God, who brought creation into being and anchored God’s law within it. In this Temple, His Essence or being is cloaked in the finest spirit material, hence this Name of Holy spirit. For God and God alone is Holy. The Lord Jesus referred to Him when He said… “And when he, the spirit of Truth is come…” It is of Him that the Lord Jesus also referred when He said any sin against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. For, as the Creative will of God the father, the Holy Spirit brought Creation into being under the Laws of God, anchored these laws in creation, has the responsibility for the smooth–running of creation, including the redress of any imbalance or injustice throw what we call the Law of Karma or of sowing and Reaping and, Finally, responsibility for the final Judgement. The Lord Jesus advises us that … when He the Spirit of Truth comes, He will reprieve the world of sin and proclaim the judgment” The book of Revelation in the Bible announces Him as … “ that which was, which is and which is to come…” (For the Judgement, the next verse announces greetings also from the risen and departed Lord Jesus and describe him as the “faithful witness”). This, two personalities are spoken of… that which is to come”, and “the faithful witness”. It’s goes on to describe Jesus as “the first begotten of the Death” which I understand to mean to mean the first son of God to live on earth with a spirituality dead humanity. Thus the Holy spirit as the will and power of God who is to come is the second son of God.

    As part of His responsibility for the maintenance of Creation, which He brought into existence, there is an outpouring of power from the Holy Spirit into Creation once, in what we observe on earth every year at a definite time those human Spirits whose inner or Spirit eyes are sufficiently sensitive to see the paleness or dullness of the earth when it is running out of this power, like an anemic person in need of blood transfusion, the peak of the receipt of this power has been determined to be between May 29 and May 31. This outpouring is like the surge of blood from the heart to all parts of the body to maintain them. The heart beats about 72 times a minute, but the outpouring takes place once a year. The scenario should flood us with humility; it should teach us that, as there is only one God, there is only One Law and one power. This law operates throughout creation in the same way: creation is maintained or the human body is maintained.

    Revelation 1:4-6 describe the Holy Spirit as “that which was, which is and which is to come” and the Lord Jesus as “the faithful witness.” Being from the same origin as the Holy Spirit, Jesus would know of the timing of the outpouring of power from the Holy Spirit, He would delay His ascent homewards to the father and instruct His Disciples to gather in the upper chamber to witness this event. Hitherto, He alone would have it, it was possible that was what happened at the Transfiguration been observing it. Please recall that He once said He had many things He would have loved to teach them, but they were not yet mature for the information. Their grief over, His crucification which purged their souls of anything else most probably opened them up that “special“ Pentecost to receive power as It descended from high and perform the wonders ascribed to them at that Pentecost.

    hristians would need to purge themselves of some errors connected with Pentecost. One: Pentecost or the outpouring of power was not a one–off event limited to the disciples alone. Two: They do not have the holy spirit in them but probably have in them power from the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is personal like Jesus and is not merely the rush of wind.

    Three, it is given to not only Christians to partake of Pentecost. God did not create religions. Man fashioned religions from out of the Messages He sent to different parts of the earth, on the basis of what spiritual knowledge they needed to have in order that they may ascend the next rung of the ladder of life on their homeward journey to paradise. Had these messages been left as pure as they were brought and joined in ascending order, they would have form a single ladder to the pedestal of Truth, to God. The power of Pentecost is impersonal. It works for every soul opened to it in the degree of the absorbent capacity of that soul.

    It transforms from slumber of “winter” to spring what we call Nature, the hills and the mountains, the meadows, fields and the forests, the oceans and the seas. These things are not Nature but the effects or work of Nature. Nature comprise all the Nature beings who stand unswerving in the Will of God to fulfill His Command for the Creation of a home in different parts of developed or Subsequent Creation for the maturing of the human spirit who could not mature in the Original Paradise because that was too close to the proximity of the Power of God.

    Four we used the Power of Pentecost according to our nature, to ennoble ourselves or our environment, or to burden ourselves with more guilt spiritually and, thereby, entangle ourselves and our societies for spiritual perdition. If society is stagnant, such as ours, whenever Creation is on the move, it is evidence that we are entangled. My prayer is that, as President, irrespective of his religion, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) would be sufficiently connected to the strengthening, guiding and helpful rays of the Power of Pentecost pouring forth from On high at his time, to fulfill the transformation of Nigeria to the honour and glory of the Almighty Creator AMEN. Thus, off I go, out of circulation at the time of the inauguration of the Buhari Administration tomorrow. Alhaji Jide Tairu and my other friends should now understand my absence at the inauguration of the Trafalgar Square–type Assembly. So should Mr George Ubeng, an avid reader of this column who, unsuccessfully, has been inviting me to a palatial pleasure garden turned to a health farm run by his wife. He believes I have no time for pleasure, that I am all work, work, work and more work. How wrong he can be. He shoudn’t soon be surprised about my plans to bring Jide Tairu‘’Trafalgar Square’’ to the ‘’gardens’’ in nearby Iju – Ishaga neighborhood of Lagos, and bring the ‘’gardens’’ to the Square.

     

    DEEP VEIN THROMBOSIS

    Let’s hurry back to familiar grounds. As president, Gen Buhari (rtd) cannot escape frequent air and road travel in and out of Nigeria. This week, he returned from a visit to Mr Tony Blair, British prime minister.

    The western world is interested in Nigeria’s future. Under President Jonathan, foreign and home debts have climbed to a new Olympian height at about US60 billion dollars. There is nothing wrong with a debt if the money is judiciously spent on projects which regenerate repayments and post profits on top of it. Nigeria’s debts behave abnormally because they hardly bring anything back in return.

    Traveling long hours by road, rail or air (I have no sea travel experience), the tendency is for some people to cross their tired legs, placing one foot on top of the other or, unknowingly, resting the fold of the knee against the seat. Resting the knee fold against the seat may compress a deep vein which runs under, disturb free flow of blood or even cause the blood to clot. Clots of blood detaching from this thrombos may lodge someday. Sometime, the carotid (heart) arteries, deprive the heart of sufficient blood supply for its work or even cause a heart attack. If the lodgement is in the brain, a stroke may occur. Clots in the blood vessels may cause swellings in the foot which may give rise to interonitent claudication,  a condition in leg when the sufferer experiences pain on walking even short distances.

    Besides, clots may, give rise to phlebitis (inflammation of the walls of the veins). If you observe the hands and arms of many people, or even the legs, you may find the veins and other blood vessels so inflamed that they appear to want to leap out.

    o dissolve clots, orthodox medicine relies on such pharmaceuticals as aspirin and waffarin. These could be dangerous for some people as they may cause lacerations in the stomach and intestine, thereby provoking stomach and intestinal bleeding. In alternative medicine, safer and effective remedies include serrapeptase, cayenne pepper, fish oil and Vitamin E to mention a few. Of Vitamin E, Judy Limberg Mcfarland, one of our tour guides in this series, says:  “Vitamin E also decreases the need for oxygen in the tissues and organs of the body. Mega Vitamin levels of Vitamin C and trace levels of Selenum also share this function. Additionally, Vitamin E improves the transportation of oxygen by the red blood cells… dissolves clots and prevents their formation in arteries and veins. It is useful in treating and preventing phlebitis ( inflammation of the walls of the vein). As a preventive measure against strokes, Vitamin E helps prevent arterial and venous thrombosis or clots in the circulatory system of the brain.”

    Judy Mcfarland says Vitamin E also “restores capillary permeability, it helps dilate the capillaries and this helps  circulation of blood throughout the body”.

    Judy Mcfarland adds: “A number of years ago, at a National Nutritional food Association convention, mother and I had the priviledge of hearing Dr. Nufrid Shute discuss his work with 38,000 candiac patients. During his lecture, he showed fantastic colour slides that I will never forget. Among them were pictures of patients with ulcerated amputated stubs, diabetic gangerine, terrible ulceration and severe burns, all of which refused to heal. But after natural Vitamin E, usually 600 ius daily, had been given to the patients, and Vitamin E ointment had been used, all the patients were restored. Ulcerated and naked wounds healed more rapidly with Vitamin E therapy, and the scar tissue did not contact and was not tender. Vitamin E was even shown to prevent disfiguring scars and to help heal old scar. Remember this, if you need a scar to heal after an operation.

     

    YOUR HEART AND VITAMIN E  is the classic book: by Dr. Evein Shute.

    Of cayenne, she says: “Cayenne is more than a hot spice. Like many herbs, cayenne pepper ( capsicum frudescuns) also known as capsicum, is used for medicinal as well as for culinary purposes. In recent years, more than 650 studies of capsaicin (the “hot “ property in cayenne pepper, have been published, including more than 100 clinical studies in human beings). Capsicum is excellent for equalising blood circulation, which helps to prevent strokes and heart attacks. It increases the heart action, effectively increasing circulation without increasing blood pressure.’’

    On the information about Vitamin E shared by Judy McFarland, I would like to add that, in choosing a Vitamin E brand, the pack should be well inspected to ensure the product is the natural form of Vitamin E. The natural form is d-alpha tocopherol.  The inorganic form, sometimes made from petroleum sources, is dl tocopherol. The difference is between d and dl. There are mixed tocopherols, which contains all six or so variants of Vitamin E, and other  brands, with only one or a few variants. If you choose to try fish oil for clots, be mindful that there are varying grades of it and that the safer and more effective ones do not come cheap. Fish oil from fish in the Atlantic is less preferred, for example, to krill oil from krill fishin the Antarctic , which is unpolluted by heavy metals, while some producers take extra pains to purify their fish oil brand, some others do not and sell cheap. The secret of what goes on in the industry is shared in the classic book of Dr. Udo Erasmus, Fats that heal and fats that kill.

  • Agent of change

    TOMORROW, the much-awaited change in national leadership will take place in Abuja, with the swearing in of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari. If they have their way, many would have preferred that the ceremony took place long ago. The reason for that is obvious: they have gone through hell in the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which held power for 16 years.

    The clamour for change began long before PDP lost the last elections. Many had long been tired of PDP and were just waiting for the right time to kick it out. When Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged, they saw it as the vehicle of change and promptly came on board. What is more, the party chose change as its slogan. And with the support of the electorate, a change of government was effected at the polls during the last elections.

    To champion this change is Buhari and from tomorrow, he has the arduous task of making the changes that will turn things around for good in the country. It is not going to be easy, but it can be done. Buhari knew what was at stake before signing on for this job. What he may not have known is the magnitude of the rot the nation is in. By the time he settles down, he will come to terms with the trouble with our country.

    Change is the only constant thing in life and it is instructive that APC chose it as its slogan. It is a word that suits every situation because no matter what we are and do today, change is inevitable and it will come when it will come. That it championed the change  to remove PDP from power should be a constant reminder to APC that its job is only half done. The other half is to fulfil its promise to the people. The party should realise that it is not immune to being changed too by the people if it does not meet their expectations.

    How can Nigerians truly experience change as preached by APC? It is by ensuring that they do not suffer under Buhari’s administration as they did under the  PDP government. As president, Buhari has a lot of work to do because he will take the glory or the blame for how the government turns out. If the government serves the people well, he will be cheered, if otherwise, he will be jeered. The Presidency is not a bed of roses. True, it is the highest office in the land, but it is not all about glamour. It is about working to your bare bones to make life meaningful for the citizenry.

    The APC cannot be a champion of change and not be ready to work to change the country for good. Buhari is pivotal to the much envisaged change under the APC government. In fact, he is the agent of that change.   The other arms of government and those working with him are just there to complement his efforts. The APC should learn from what happened to PDP if it does not want to go the way of the self-styled ”largest party in Africa”. It is not about size, but about service to the people. PDP had all the resources at its disposal to make the country great, but it chose to do otherwise. See, how it ended up.

    APC can stay in power longer than PDP if it serves the people well. This is what Buhari should champion as president and leader of his party. To do otherwise may lead to the people dumping his party. As long as he remains the agent of change, he and his party will have nothing to fear. The party has started on the right note, rallying its elected members to support him in the bid to restore our country’s glory. At a meeting with House of Representatives’ members-elect on Tuesday, APC Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun noted that his party was called to service at one of the most challenging periods in the history. How true. This much was said in this space last week.

    He said: ”The coming days will be rough and tough choices will have to be made. This is not intended to scare but rather to frame the magnitude of the challenge that confronts us. This is because to reposition our country for growth and development hard choices concerning the way we managed our business in the past and our attitude to public assets have to be undertaken. For many of our fellow citizens, by May 30, a day after the swearing in of our president-elect, all fuel queues will vanish, corruption will disappear and all arrears of salaries paid and all our roads paved, while electricity will become stable”.

    This is the challenge Buhari is going to face from day one. Our people are full of expectations that under Buhari, they will enjoy better life. I pray that he will meet their expectations.

    Taking Lagos higher

    LAGOS remains the most enchanting and enthralling state in our country. It is home to every Nigerian. There is no ethnic group that is not found in Lagos. Though some of us are not from the state, we have come to see it as home. This is why the state is so fascinating; everybody mixes without thinking about tribe, tongue and religion. What binds us together is our humanity. It is only in a state like Lagos that other ethnic groups can contest and win elections as it happened in the last elections. It shows how accommodating the state is. No matter where you come from, you have a stake and a say in it. In the past 16 years, the state has been lucky in having astute leaders. Between 1999 and 2007, Asiwaju Bola the pathfinder  Tinubu was at the helm. He laid the foundation which outgoing Governor Babatunde the actualiser Fashola built on.

    Tomorrow, Fashola will bow out as Governor-elect Akinwunmi the consolidator Ambode is sworn in. I do not envy Ambode because he will be stepping into big, but not oversized  shoes. Tinubu and Fashola have done a good job and left their marks. He has a huge task at hand to ensure that Lagos continues to excel. From what I have seen of him so far, he has what it takes to do the job. His picture in this paper last Friday at his desk working shows that he knows that he has to roll up his sleeves to ensure that Lagos remains the number one state in the federation. Ambode cannot afford to fail. He contributed quietly from the background to the progress of the state before he resigned as accountant-general few years ago, not knowing that one day the mantle of leadership will fall on him. So, he is not new to state matters. But, he should bear in mind that many, especially those who believe that they are more politically qualified than him, will be envious of him. Naturally, they will not see any good in him or in what he does. This should be expected.

    But he should not bother. All he needs do is watch his back;  face his job and let his work speak for him. He cannot afford to waste precious time on political fights; he should not allow any form of distractions because the job at hand requires full concentration. Something tells me that what we  saw nothing  under Tinubu and Fashola compared to what Ambode will do in the years ahead. With his rich resume, the consolidator can surpass the achievements of Tinubu and Fashola. May it yet be consolidation on creation day for Lagos.

  • Osundare to Buhari: ensure real change

    Osundare to Buhari: ensure real change

    In an emotional laden voice, renowned poet Prof Niyi Osundare bared his mind yesterday on the state of the nation and its economy.

    With swipes at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government and nuggets of advice for the incoming administration, Osundare said real transformation must occur in all sectors of the economy.

    He made the call at the Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival, held at Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan (UI), Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

    “Change is what politicians promised us, especially the incoming administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but I have learnt not to trust politicians.

    “APC has to be extremely careful in the way it handles everything. Most of our politicians are rogues.

    “In the last one week, no fuel, no electricity and people are just going their activities as if all is well.

    “We embrace the change APC is bringing but all I am calling for is real change in all sectors.

    “We want good roads that will take us to our destinations and not early graves. Good education for our children, food for everybody, roofs over our heads, good medical care instead of sending people to India, Egypt or South Korea.

    “The change we need must be a departure from impunity and those who rule us must be held accountable.

    “There must be reward for good deeds and punishment for bad ones.

    “We are ruled by people who steal our money and we still praise them. In this country today, it pays to do evil than good and that is why things have gone bad.

    “Nigerians must ensure that we get our politicians to respect us. They buy us over with stomach infrastructure. We vote in the wrong people and we suffer for it.

    “A politician gives the electorate N500 to secure their votes, and without looking at his ideology they vote for him.

    “In a day or two, the money is gone. They have voted out their future and that of their children, and I know it is due to poverty.

    “Government must reduce poverty and even eradicate it because we have the resources.

    “We are one of the richest countries in the world and seventh highest producer of crude oil.

    “Go to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates you will see what they have done with their oil money.

    “We live on the ocean but we are washing our hands with saliva.“

    He lamented that Nigerians have not learnt to hold their leaders accountable, adding that those who rule do so with impunity.

    “Every Nigerian must know how much each politician or public office holder earns.

    “We must know how they  spend the security votes. The politicians are few and we are many.

    “We spend over 60 per cent of our earnings on the maintenance of parasitic and prodigal political officers and the rest of us are suffering.”

    Osundare warned that if the incoming administration performs below expectations, it will be voted out.

    Commending on the Festival, Osundare said: ”Friendly conspirators organised this festival and I am highly overwhelmed by this kind gesture.

    “I feel humbled and highly inspired. I believe they are not just doing it for me as a person but they are doing it for our society and our country.”

    Present at the event were former UI Vice-Chancellor Prof Ayo Banjo; Prof Ayo Bamgbose; Prof Femi Osofisan; Vice-Chancellor of the Kwara State University, Prof Abdul-rasheed Na-Allah; UI DVC (Administration); Prof Emilolorun Ayelari, UI DVC (Academics), Prof Gbemi Oke, among others.

     

  • Nigerians need real change

    SIR: The PDP government has failed Nigeria in the past decade and half. Nigerians do not need tinkering on the margins. We need real change in orientation from decadence to real growth with equity, employment and inclusion.

    Interconnections must be established among economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. Nigeria needs to invest in agriculture and agro-processing enterprises. Rampant corruption, sectarianism, cronyism and gross mismanagement of public funds must face a frontal attack, not arresting one individual for public consumption but all who have stolen the nation’s wealth must face the full wrath of the law. Dismissing or suspending a few police officers does not mean restoration of human rights and fundamental freedoms, there must be total reform in the Nigerian Police. We voted for change and change we must see after May 29.

    PDP government has failed. Controlling inflation, important as it is, is not enough. Measuring progress in economic growth and per capita income terms is necessary but not sufficient condition for improving living standards of all. Launching a new vision without providing a roadmap about its implementation, monitoring and evaluation isn’t helpful. For that reason 2020 vision died on the very day it was launched in part because the then president hadn’t seen the final version, it was a rushed plan. The drafters of the vision never provided the methodology and indeed it was planned to fail.

    Overemphasis on export in agricultural produce including foodstuffs has damaged the environment through de-vegetation and chemical pollution, overfishing and deforestation and reduction of food supplies in the domestic market contributing to severe under-nutrition. Poorly fed women produce underweight children with permanent physical and mental disabilities, children develop smaller brain size than normal and constrain their ability to learn and underfed adults don’t have the energy to perform optimally.

    Exchange rate adjustment in favor of exports has made the price of imports very expensive for consumers and investors. Keeping inflation so low has reduced money in circulation and drove interest rates so high that few investors are able to borrow and invest. Consequently economic growth has declined considerably following exhaustion of excess capacity. Nigeria’s economy needs to grow at an average rate of 10 percent to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2020.

    Nigeria is well endowed in human, natural and financial resources. The problem is poor leadership. What General Muhammadu Buhari needs is a government of all stakeholders to sort out the mess that has accumulated since 1999. Those who have helped cripple the economy of the nation must not be allowed to serve again, no matter the party they belong. Nigerians can’t afford another failed four years under Buhari.

    Gen. Buhari must avoid the mistake of rushing to choose his cabinet ministers without knowing who they are. We should not have criminals in government again. Nigerians are hopeful that our children unborn will see why we voted out the PDP government and be grateful for the future opportunity that will be provided to them by the Buhari regime.

     

    • Comrade Ahmed Omeiza Lukman,

    Kiev Ukraine.

  • Anti-aging tips for Buhari in Change era (7)

    Every day, the average heart, your best friend, beats 100,000 times and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood for nourishing your body. In 70 years, that adds up to more than 360 million (faithful) heart beats.” Patricia Bragg in ‘The miracles of fasting’.

     

    QUOTATION

    “To understand high blood pressure, you need to know a few interesting facts about the heart. The human heart beats an average 70 times per minute, 100,000 times a day and 2.5 billion times in a lifetime. With each heart beat, about 2.5 ounces of blood are pumped through the heart … that is 1,980 gallons every day..’, Judy Limberg Mcfarland in Aging without growing old.

    MAY 29 is only seven days away. That is the D-DAY on which outgoing president Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan will hand power over to president elect Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd). Many hearts are pounding. Many people must feel their hearts agitating against their throats. The big thieves in public offices must be wishing the hands of the clock can still be turned backwards  and events would come up that will save them the pains or trauma of Buhari succeeding Jonathan. Buhari said a few weeks ago, after defeating Jonathan in the presidential election, that a major change will occur in Nigeria in June. No one as yet knows what change will come from this seemingly incorruptible man who has promised to sweep the dirty, foul-smelling  Aegean stables clean of dirt, grit and odour. In a country where many public officers are big-time thieves, as Senator–elect Ben Bruce said recently, an echo of the incumbent Emir of kano, Sanusi, when he was Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Buhari’s testimonials make us believe he can tidy up the financial and economic mess into which the Jonathan Administration over six years has plunged Nigeria. Here are  the records:

    •Buhari has only two houses and about N1million in his bank accounts

    •Buhari has been Governor of Borno State

    •Buhari has been Nigeria’s oil minister two times,one as chairman of the presidential task force on petroleum.

    • Buhari has been head of State (President)

    •Buhari  has held many Seniour military commands, one of which is enough to make a multi-billionaire of a big- thief incumbent

    I cannot vouch for Nigerian figures. The word going round is that former Nigerian Presidents are on N24 million pension  a year and that retired Nigerian generals earn a pension upkeep of about N2.4 million a year. The rhyme of these figures almost makes me wish to doubt their veracity. Nevertheless, as we know, there is no smoke without a fire behind it. The story is that some retired generals who were former heads of state draw both pensions, but buhari accepted to draw only his general’s pension.

    If we can trust these credentials to be true, we can expect major commotions in the polity and in the economy. That’s why I believe, from open talk and whispers throughout the country, some great events of our time are shaping up for manifestation. If you would recall one of the columns in the Jonathan, Buhari, the rich and the poor series, I almost gave the election to Jonathan after he postponed the polls for weeks and, in that period, literally hurled Nigeria’s treasury at the voters. I recalled then a spiritual code for understanding the time in which we stand, in this case…

    As we march towards the end of time, belief in the power of money would reach its zenith or climax and many people will replace the Truth, that is God, with money.

    n retrospect, we can now see that many voters, even in Lagos, fell for the President’s money. But, at that,  Jonathan Buhari column suggested, a Jonathan victory would guarantee no safety for the thieving Nigerian Establishment because, unknown to many people, we stand in the precints of a great purification of the earth from all Opposition to light and goodness. A great event occurred in Nigeria about 40 years ago to plug our country in the mainstream of the spiritual cleansing process. It was, therefore, a question of time before the leader would arrive whose aura  would link up with the ethereal forces at play and anchor them in the Government and other social  institutions. A Jonathan victory would not have hatched this march. The heat and the fire would merely have diverted their course to spring up elsewhere. Who can stop the flow of water? Even when you surround it with concrete, it would merely percolate into the soil to find a new level for its flow.

    Our hearts are pounding now because we do not know what Buhari would do? Would he cut his own pay to, say, N5 million a month and ask senators to downgrade theirs to, say, N3 million. How would he tackle the mess in the oil and gas sector? Will he declare a State of Economy Emergency? How would he reform the Army and the Police? What about the Customs and Excise department and the immigration service? Will he wish to know how federal roads in a South-south state cost about N3 billion naira per kilometre in laterite terrain and less than half of that on the same terrain in a nearby state? Will he reverse all the appointments and other decisions of lame-duck President Jonathan intended to plant human land mines around him?

    What of the US 500 million Oil and gas project at the Lekki EPZ in Lagos lame-duck President Jonathan has unilaterally ordered be taken to Bayelsa, his home state? Even if Buhari would like to stick to agreement with international power brokers not to probe Jonathan, for which reason he has promised to treat the outgoing President with “respect and understanding,” what would happen if private citizens file allegations against the Jonathan administration and, in the process of tackling them, the president’s name and involvement keep popping up? Our hearts are pounding, I keep saying. I have refused to be connected to municipal electricity supply for about 12 years running because the bill is outraging. With my children now on their own, I live alone. I run no electrical appliance, not even television or fridge, I leave home about 10 a.m and return about 11 p.m, have, my bath and go to  sleep. Why should I pay N 40,000 a month for electricity I do not consume simply because, from its size, the electricity–man believes the house should gulp that much every month. You can be sure that if I am a thief and can steal money to pay the bill this month, the bill will go up next month, electricity would not be regular, the process will go on and the owners of electricity will be smiling to the bank, raking in money from millions of people they do not deserve to earn and poisoning the economy as the cost of electricity is plastered on goods and services. Jonathan promised to deliver us all from this mafia, but failed. Will Buhari be man enough to look them straight in the eye and tackle them? Will he take electricity back from the mafia? He owns them nothing, the contributed billions of Naira into Jonathan’s election campaign fund, not his, which was funded by poor people and some rich friends.

    Buhari’s heart

    Gen. Buhari’s heart, too, must be pounding. He would move the levers alright. And that will ignite a chain of events. But there is no man who moves a lever or who starts a process who can ever determine its dimensions or end. For these events soon don their own garbs modulated by other influences, and go their own way, far, far away from the originators imagination. Buhari must wonder if he can find the right people to do the job he wishes to accomplish. Was this why he suggested we should expect no miracles? Will there be moles in the house? What if Senators rebel and Governors hijack the government? If he cannot dislodge the mafias within three months will they not regroup and with new found confidence confront him? Does he recognise that when the lair of a poisonous snake is lifted, it will surely lift its head and attack the intruder unless it is killed outright. Buharis victory at the polls has exposed and lifted the lair of the poisonous snake which is now waiting for the opportune time to take its revenge.

    Pounding heart

    The heart does not pound on its own. It pounds when we are afraid. Fear may be conscious or unconscious. Whatever it is, fear keeps us on our toes to make us survive the event(s) we are afraid of. What keeps us on our toes to fight the fear causing event or to flee from it are stress hormones which are poured into the blood stream by adrenal glands, the anti-stress glands located on top of each Kidney. When we are afraid of anything or situation.

    These hormones are double-edged swords. They enhance our survival in dreadful situations. But they may also harm our organs and our health if they persistently flood the blood stream over a prolonged period of time, as happens to many people who live under stressful conditions as the next four years may bring upon some people Buhari will be de-establishing and upon himself who must be in stressful battle gear. Do not forget that we hardly forget the past. Buhari would surely remember that, as Head of State, a military coup which brought Ibrahim Babangida to power was staged against him when it was thought that he was going too far with social reforms!

    This column is incompetent to address major problems the heart may suffer from in this situation. That is the realm for cardiologists or heart doctors. But it can venture nevertheless on a limited scale into some of the common heart troubles in Nigeria from which senior citizens suffer, including:

    •Hypertension or elevated blood pressure

    •Congestive heart failure

    •Heart attack

    •Enlarged heart

    •Angina pectoris

    •Low blood pressure or hypotension and palpitation

    The list can be endless. So are the remedies to these conditions as stated, only a few of them will be addressed, and briefly.

    Hypertension

    To understand hypertension, we must understand that the blood or the river of life flows around the body to give each of the 100 trillion or so cells which compose it nutrients and oxygen, and to remove their waste products or poisons for evacuation from the body. The heart as a pumping machine pumps blood through many blood vessels of varying sizes and receives used or deoxygenated blood which it pumps back to the lungs for oxygenation. Oxygenated blood is pumped out again. Blood vessels are meant to be unblocked and supple, so they can dilate easily when blood flows through them. If they are blocked and hardened like stone they offer resistance to blood flow. Normal resistance of blood vessels to blood flow which does not permit through them is essential hypertension. This tension drives the blood along homewards to its target. If there is too little magnesium in the blood, an excess of calcium, its antagonist, may cause the extra or excess calcium to deposit in soft muscles of blood vessels. This causes hardening or tightening called arterosclerosis. It increases resistance to blood flow, and hypertension. Thus, a deficiency of magnesium can be a cause of hypertension. This deficiency is prevalent today because many people do not eat greens, especially deep, leafy vegetables, or take green food supplements such as liquid or capsulated chlorophyll, wheatgrass, spirulina, barley grass, spinach and kale powder drink or a mix grill of about 40 green plants in varying formulas. Many physicians believe the best blood pressure is 120/80. The top reading is called Systolic, the bottom one Diastolic. The diastolic reading is considered more relevant. For many years I ran a 110/70 blood pressure which nowadays sometimes drops to 100/sixty-something. In such situations fending towards low blood pressure or hypertension, I wish I had around me the herbal supplement BROOM TOPS, which is good for low blood pressure or CARROT JUICE, which elevates blood pressure whole carrot doesn’t. But I find a useful friend in L- Arginine or a product called STAMINEX which is on and off the Nigerian shelf.

    lockages of all sorts occur in the blood vessels. One of them is caused by HOMOCYSTEINE, a greasy by product of the break-down of a protein. This can be easily dissolved and thorough fare created for the  blood by any good blood  thinner. Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and folic acid in a good formula performs this trick. So does cayenne. I have found useful, also, Serrapeptese, which dissolves growth. This as well, Brome lain, which tackles pain, as well as Attokenese. Sometimes, the blockage is due to fatty cholesterol plaque or the failure of the anticlotting factor, which allows blood platelets to spike and dump. The aforementioned blood thinners “defrost” the platelet clumps. So does the fatty plaque. Additionally, fish oil and Lecithin help against cholesterol build-up known also as atheromas (atherosclerosis) Please note the difference between arterosclerosis and artherosclerosis.

    Heart attack

    In a heart attack, the vessel is taking blood to the heart (the carotic arteries) are blocked. A warning may have been coming from swellings in the legs which are due to blockages of blood circulation, or from chest pains called argina pectoris. chips of a blocking matter may escape from the foot to blood circulation to the heart. When the heart does not get enough blood for its sustenance and to pump, it packs up like a pumping machine without fuel or water to pump.

    Enlarged heart

    An enlarged heart is often due to secondary hypertension. Primary hypertension results more from dietary deficiencies such as potassium, magnesium, and Vitamin E deficiency. In secondary hypertension, many vital organs such as the liver and the kidneys are so congested, blood cannot easily flow through them. In this case, they resist blood flow, and the heart has to enlarge in order to pack more power to pump harder in order to overcome resistance to blood flow. But this over stretches its muscles and may damage or kill them. This condition often responds to Vitamin B1 and garlic therapy, according to Rex Adams in Miracle medicine foods. Hawthorn berries and Co-Enzyme Q10 or CoQ10 do it also.

    Angina pectoris

    The carotid artery is hardly harder than a soft drinks straw. When it is blocked, chest pains may arise in the left side of the chest and may, be followed by shooting pains in the left arm from the scapula (shoulder blade) to the fingers.

    Now, let’s hear from Judy Limberg Mcfarland and Jean Carper and, perhaps also, from Patricia Bragg. Judy Mcfarland, in Aging without growing old, one of the books this series recommends for your library, says:

    “In most nations, every other death is caused by cardio vascular disease, both in men and women… Co-Enzyme Q10, also called CoQ10, Ubiquinol 10 or Vitamin Q, is now being called a ‘miracle nutrient’ by many. It is an essential component of metabolic process involved in energy (ATP) production. Dr Karl Folkers, who was professor and director of the Institute for Biomedical Research at the University of Texas in Austin, has been recognised for years as the world’s leading researcher on CoQ10. I had the honor of hearing Dr. Folkers’ lecture at the America Academy of Antiaging Conference in 1996. He was over 90 years old and charming. During his lecture, Dr. Folkers said, ‘I don’t use the word cure lightly, but CoQ10 is the cure for heart disease’ he has concluded biochemical, biomedical and clinical research on CoQ10 for some 35 years and has succeeded in establishing its structure and in isolating CoQ10 in human heart. The highest concentration of the enzyme is in the heart’s muscle. His research shows a definite link in CoQ10 deficiency and human heart disease.

  • ‘How change can come to Nigeria’

    Bishop Abraham Olaleye is general overseer of The Pentecostal Congregation, Ilupeju Lagos. The widely-travelled evangelist spoke with Sunday Oguntola on a revelation he shared shortly before the last presidential elections and how change can become a reality. Excerpts: 

    Few days to the presidential elections, you sent an email to associates on a revelation of what you called the ‘coming change’. What influenced such a position then?

    Well, the Bible speaks about the men of Issachar and how they have the understanding of times and seasons. That is very crucial in this end time. Jesus spoke a lot about times and seasons. Daniel also recognised that God changes times and seasons. He brings a king in and disposes others.

    To the glory of God and with every sense of humility, we could see that Nigeria was working towards a change in the spiritual climate. I must say that the change was in the spiritual climate and usually when God brings a change in that climate, there would be physical manifestation and political dimension.

    God is the God of the prophets, priests and kings. The Kingdom of this world truly belongs to God though leaders across the world like to behave as if they are the ones in charge. God is interested in the nations. He is in charge, whether we acknowledge it or not.

    So, we could see it, from a prophetic perspective, that God was bringing a change. And when you receive such messages, you have to put your ethnic, religious and other sentiments across. You just open up to what He has to say and embrace it. Why? Because He does nothing that he has not revealed to His servants.

    Were there times you doubted hearing God well, especially when the pendulum appeared not to be swinging in that direction considering it would lead to the defeat of the outgoing administration?

    Yes, I must confess I had such times. I wondered if it was going to be so. And it is very instructive that each time I felt like that, I checked my spirit and realised God was still saying the same thing. You know those fears and concerns were natural. God assured me that there were always resistances to whatever He wanted to do in the times past.

    So, I had such doubts but God said it would be so. I had very several times when I heard some news and wondered if God would make it happen. I kept hearing God asking me not to listen to those things but trust Him to bring His words to pass.

    Your proclamation then attracted several oppositions. I remember you were planning a meeting that was instructed to be called off from Abuja. How did those oppositions make you feel?

    When God gives you revelations as a prophet, then you have to dump your fears and hold on to what He has said. Like I said, there is no change that comes without resistance.

    But this resistance was from men of God, who one ordinarily expected to have known better…

    …Yes, but you know that it is not every man of God that always knows what God is about to do. That, to me, is where the prophetic dimension comes to play. You see God does not do anything until He has revealed it to the prophets, not the priests. Now, I am talking about the priests in the Aaronic order. But the prophet, if he is true, must hear and see what God is about to do.

    He sees what the ordinary man does not see. He hears what the ordinary man does not hear. He stands as a prophet to warn the people. Unfortunately, the priest in the Aaronic order doesn’t hear him. It takes a priest in the Mechidezek order to hear what God is about to do. I am taking about a New Testament priest with the prophetic grace operating in his life. Such person will be able to overlook the priestly benefits and declare what God is saying, even when such will not lead to any personal profit.

    That way, you are no longer in pursuit of human interest but the agenda of God. When we pursue His agenda, it will be a blessing to the generality of the people. But because of the limitations of the priestly office, they are always not in a position to know what God is about to do.

    There were also counter prophecies and revelations. When were your reactions to them?

    What will I say than to say let’s wait and see. I mean a true prophet of God does not struggle for anything. Even when God has spoken to you, you simply wait for time to tell. God says if someone claims to be my prophets, the words he speaks must come to pass.

    You remember the story of Jeremiah, who prophesised that the people of God would go into captivity for 70 years. But there was a prominent named Ananias who came that and said the captivity will be for just two years and that all the articles stolen away will be bought back. Jeremiah only said amen. That is the test of a true prophet. He wasn’t fighting or making a case for his prophecies.

    He didn’t discredit the prominent prophet but simply went his way. But you know what? He died that same year. Why? That was because he taught the people of God rebellion. He said what God did not say. When God wants to correct His people and one prophet is downplaying it, he has turned against God.

    Sometimes, we think we are too truthful and people might be offended. But it is in being truthful, as bitter as it is, that healing comes for God’s people. So, I wasn’t bothered. I just kept and expected God to bring His mind to pass.

    Many people also labeled you as partisan. Did that bother you?

    Let me say that we were not partisan. Every man of God must not take sides. We were just looking for credible, god-fearing people that can salvage the nation. We were looking for truthful, honest people, Christian or Muslim, that God can use for us.

    We were not APC, PDP or APGA. The person could have been in any party. I really wished that we would not consider parties in this country and focus strictly on the persons they present.

    Was that one influenced the breakfast meeting with the VP-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, then?

    That was it exactly. We felt he is a righteous man with integrity without any blemish or spot. We found his records to be clean. We saw him as a beacon of hope and that God could use him for the nation.

    But your critics wondered you didn’t invite any PDP candidate for the same meeting

    You see we were not even bothered what party he was. We just saw a credible man and felt God was moving the nation for him to clean the slate for us. As a matter of fact, it was a platform for him to explain his plans for the nation. It was not about assessing him because we knew him already but about hearing him out.

    So, when people were critical of our outing, we considered it normal. Whatever you do, people are bound to criticise you. We were persuaded we had made a good decision and didn’t feel bad at all.

    So, are you persuaded that change has come to Nigeria based on your revelation?

    Yes, I can say by faith that God has come to Nigeria. We have seen a semblance of sincerity, honesty and decency in the incoming administration. It is left to us to pray that they will not be distracted. That the good intention they have will come to pass. The only reason it will be difficult for a leader to fight corruption is when he is corrupt himself.

    It is only when we have soiled our royal robes that we will become weak to fight evils. We feel the President-elect and his vice have good intentions. We must pray that they will fulfill the purpose for which God raised them.

    But people argue that there seems to some demons disturbing leaders from performing once they get to Aso Rock…

    I don’t think there is any demon in Aso Rock that is not making people work well. Rather, I believe we have not had people so determined to effect changes in the nation.  I know many of our former leaders have been overwhelmed by the challenges that confronted them. Many of them never expected what came up. But even at that, I believe if a man is sincere and has no skeleton in his cupboard, he should be able to deliver with will power and courage. I believe our new leaders have the capacity to wage wars against forces fighting us.

    Has the outcome of the presidential elections nullify the impact of religion during the campaigns?

    I think so because religion is a dangerous tool of politics. God is the God of all. He can use anybody to fulfill His purpose. God is not sentimental or religious. God is God. He can use a Gentile or unbeliever who has the qualities that He is looking for among people.

    What should Nigerians be doing to make the long-awaited change come?

    Everybody should embrace a new paradigm shift. We should join forces with the leaders to enforce changes in our society. We should avoid corruption like a plague. We should bring fruits good for repentance. We should change from a personal point of view before we demand changes from government.

  • Change and the burden of expectations

    The victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its ‘change’ mantra has brought with it a huge burden of expectations from Nigerians. However, before the presidential elections and its aftermath – especially the euphoria of ousting an incumbent president becloud the important tasks that lies ahead, it is imperative that the full import of this seismic shift be appreciated by all Nigerians. This article is therefore a call to action by all Nigerians towards ensuring that true change is delivered, as the Nigerian public may soon realize that change without substance is utterly useless!

    I believe the notion of change and harnessing the multi-faceted expectations of many Nigerians regarding what it means, is the biggest challenge that the President-elect and his party now needs to focus their attention on, rather than the more egregious issues of patronage as our political class is wont to engage once elections are won.

    A look at the APC manifesto reveals a shopping list of broad policy statements, without enough punch and clarity as to how the expectations of Nigerians will be met and managed in key public policy areas. Education, health, the economy, job creation and youth employment all have broad policy statements that stop short of being mere rhetoric and a little ‘more of the same’ story from previous administrations.

    In my view, managing citizen expectations in the next four years will be tough considering that in its current form, the President-elect and his party’s manifesto have offered no new benchmarks for delivering on the change promised during the campaigns.

    This call for a more strategic approach to meeting citizen expectations stems from the fact that leadership performance in the public sector is an ambiguous, multi-dimensional and complex concept for which there are two main classes of performance measures – output and outcome measures.

    Output measures relate to public agencies’ organizational efficiency (output) – how many kilometres of road are constructed, how many more new schools/hospitals do we have for defined amounts of Naira budget etc., while effectiveness (outcome) measures are in terms of the ease of access, and quality of public goods and services received by citizens – how long does it take to see a doctor, student teacher ratios or other citizen satisfaction effects, to mention a few.

    The critical point these issues raise is that for the new administration to successfully manage the expectation of citizens and be seen to have ‘performed’, it must clearly articulate a service delivery strategy that converts its current ‘shopping list’ into a measurable set of service standards for which citizens are able to hold it accountable for performance. This is no mean feat, and requires a commitment from both the incoming government and the people working together as critical stakeholders to achieve a stable society in a complex governance environment.

    Achieving desired governance outputs and outcomes requires that pertinent questions regarding Nigeria’s fiscal federalism be re-examined and appropriate answers demanded at every level of government. This evaluation is critical in view of the political economy of public service delivery in Nigeria which places different governance outputs in the different domains in our supposed three tiers of government (Federal, State and Local government).

    The implication of this lopsided federalism is a lack of clear delineation in accountability for specific service delivery outputs which has resulted in critical sectors of national life being left in ‘no man’s land’. A case in point is the national road safety and management strategy that leaves Nigerian roads in the unenviable position of being the third most unsafe roads in the world – according to a recent WHO Global status report on road safety. When this statistic is juxtaposed against the multiplicity of functions between the state governments-led Vehicle Inspection Services (VIO) and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), it becomes clear that inefficiencies in public sector agencies account for an unprecedented burden of service failure, from which no nation can extricate itself unless radical changes in public accountability are implemented.

    An unbundling of service delivery bottlenecks within the complex layers of our peculiar federal state will be key to successful change in all the sectors of our national life begging for change. This should inform a restructuring of the civil services in a way that aligns national priorities with specific agency mandates. Parallel and duplicating functions that abound in our current public service agencies and remain avenues for inefficiency of production must be tackled with the same zeal as corruption and insecurity.

    In reality, the changes desired by the Nigerian populace can only be delivered when services delivered within the public sector (both civil and public services) reflect a harmonization of the yearnings and expectations of citizens from government at all levels. How effectively the new governing party achieves this marriage of expectations and bridge the gaps will determine its success as change agents.

    Putting service delivery at the heart of governance reflects an understanding that the perception of government/governance effectiveness, is directly related to the experience of citizens when they access or are unable to access public goods and services. Unfortunately in Nigeria, this connection has in recent times been reduced to ‘stomach infrastructure’ – made available only during electioneering seasons. This is where the real change must happen for governance to be meaningful, in spite of high sounding numbers about economic growth and perceived national prosperity that leaves the poor feeling poorer. Effective and efficient service delivery is the magic glue that closes the expectation gap between government and the governed.

    In order to succeed in its change agenda, the APC and the President-elect in actualizing their defined objective of instituting a set of ‘progressive social welfare programmes’ must seek to build a more robust public accountability framework under which each layer of government can be held accountable for failure of service delivery.

    It is only by setting clear performance standards in policy implementation; standards derived from wide consultations with citizens as critical stakeholders, that the new administration will set a new bar for meeting citizen expectations which currently range from the most simple, to sometimes unrealistic demands.

     

    • Oke is Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Leadership