The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fall

  • Naira’s free fall

    Naira’s free fall

    Eight months after the apex bank embarked on the latest roller-coaster ride of devaluation, Nigerians must wonder as to the fate of the national currency. In the latest wave of the battering, the naira hit a record low last week when it exchanged for N241 to the United States dollar at the parallel market. Officially, it traded at N199.150 to the US dollar.

    In November 2014, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had brought the foreign exchange official window from N155 to N168 to one US dollar. At the time, the move was seen as a deft one to halt the run on the foreign reserves. Six months after, precisely on June 23, the CBN introduced a new rule under which importers of 41 items were barred from accessing foreign exchange from the official window – a move that appears to have exacerbated the problem with the consequence of further widening the gap between the official and the parallel market.

    We agree to a point that there is nothing sacrosanct in the value of the naira – at least to the extent that the interplay of the variables seems stacked against it at the moment. First, we know that oil sales and prices have been going in negative direction with its implication for severe cutback in our foreign exchange earnings. At the same time, the absence of any significant export capacity means that we cannot take advantage of devaluation to boost exports and hence shore up foreign exchange earnings as would ordinarily be the case.

    To compound the problem, importers and perhaps currency traffickers have been relentless in their demand for forex for all manner of goods and purposes. Clearly, the consequence could not have been anything different from what we have seen of the fate of the naira. In an economy which relies almost wholesale on imports – whether of raw materials or finished goods –the omens can only be anything but good.

    Our worry however isn’t so much about the steady decline in the value of the naira per se but what we see as the virtual surrender by the apex bank to the parallel market. Only in November last year, the margin between the official and the parallel market was approximately N10. Today, the difference has grown in multiples. Indeed, since last month when the new forex rule became operational, the naira has fallen by 10.5 per cent from 218 to 241 against the greenback. For an apex bank that is ever too eager to make the point that it has sufficient forex in the official window for anyone who cared, the rise of the parallel market goes beyond merely illustrating the hollowness of its pretensions; the signs are of an institution not only entangled in the web of its own contradictions, but one clearly out of depth.

    We think that the situation demands new thinking. Clearly, we do not expect the apex bank to perform magic; but then, asking a class of importers to source for their forex from inter-bank market or wherever is part of that long tradition of living in denial of reality. In practical terms, the measure is akin to legitimising the parallel market segment. We must say that no country can afford to surrender so cynically to the band of invisible players. And in any case, where are the guarantees that what is sold in the official market will not end up in servicing the parallel market?

    The real challenge, in our view, is for stricter monitoring of financial transactions by relevant institutions of government. With too much money outside of the banking system, a chunk of which are easily proceeds of corruption and other forms of illicit activities, the task of tracking would not be an easy one. In all of these, the bureau de change operators have proven to be the weakest part of the chain. Yet, it is something that the apex bank and the Federal Government must find the will to take on.

    ‘Clearly, we do not expect the apex bank to perform magic; but then, asking a class of importers to source for their forex from inter-bank market or wherever is part of that long tradition of living in denial of reality. In practical terms, the measure is akin to legitimising the parallel market segment. We must say that no country can afford to surrender so cynically to the band of invisible players’

  • Oil price fall imminent as UN endorses Iran nuclear deal

    Oil price fall imminent as UN endorses Iran nuclear deal

    IRAN inched yesterday to its entry into the international oil market. The United Nations (UN) Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that will pave the way for the lifting of international sanctions on the Asian nation’s economy.

    The introduction of Iranian oil into the market will further reduce the global price of crude oil, which would further affect the income of oil-dependent countries like Nigeria.

    Nigeria’s economy has been facing challenges since the price of crude oil tumbled from about $100 to about $50 a barrel, a development that crippled several states from meeting their salary obligations to workers.

    Iran has capacity to introduce about 1.5 million barrels per day into the global oil market in the next six months.

    With a proviso that Iran respects the agreement to the letter, all seven UN resolutions passed in 2006 to sanction Iran will be gradually terminated, it was learnt yesterday.

    “The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously,” Gerard van Bohemen, Ambassador of New Zealand, which holds the current presidency of the Security Council, announced after yesterday’s vote.

    Nigeria and 14 other members of the UN Security Council unanimously approved the nuclear deal signed between the world’s major powers and Iran.

    The deal was reached between the five permanent members of the council (plus Germany, P5+1) and Iran. The deal has mandated ýIran to stop any plans to produce a nuclear weapon and to reduce its centrifuges by two thirds.

    It also, among several others, created an extensive mechanism to monitor the Islamic country’s compliance with the agreement.

    In return, the UN-imposed sanctions on Iran will be gradually lifted.

    However, should Iran, which had repeatedly denied planning to make a nuclear bomb, violate any part of the agreement, the UN Security Council can reinstate all the sanctions.

    Among the implications of the approved deal would be Iran’s ability to sell its crude oil in the open international market.

  • Fed Govt revenues fall by 38% to N560.84b

    Fed Govt revenues fall by 38% to N560.84b

    Federal Government revenue dropped by 38.1 per cent to N560.84 billion in February, a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) economic report for the month released yesterday said.

    The figure, the apex bank said, also showed a decline of 21.1 per cent below the receipts in the corresponding period of last year.

    It said at N359.73 billion, oil receipts (gross), which constituted 64.1 per cent of the total revenue, were lower than the receipts in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2014, by 39.8 and 26 per cent.

    The fall in oil receipts relative to the level in the preceding month, it said, was attributed to the decline in revenue from crude oil and gas exports, occasioned by the drop in the price of crude oil in the international market.

    “Non-oil receipts (gross), at N201.12 billion or 35.9 per cent of the total, was 35.0 and 10.4 per cent lower than the receipts in the preceding month and the corresponding month of 2014, respectively.  The development reflected, largely, the fall in receipts from National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) and independent revenue of the Federal Government. Federal Government estimated retained revenue in February 2015 was N224.89 billion, while total estimated expenditure was N363.68 billion. Thus, the fiscal operations of the Federal Government resulted in an estimated deficit of N138.79 billion,” it said.

    It said the dominant agricultural activities in February, this year included: harvesting of tree crops, irrigation-fed vegetable and cereal production as well as clearing of land for the 2015 cropping season.

    Crude oil production, including condensates and natural gas liquids last February, was estimated at 1.90 million barrels per day (mbd) or 53.2 million barrels for the month.

  • The fall of PDP

    SIR: All this while, my writings and stance had been anti-Buhari until few days to the general election when a Facebook friend sent a post that read: ‘Slavery is when you buy fuel in order to power your generator in your house, and you still come out to shout, continuity.’

    That post reminded me of the altercation that ensued between a petrol attendant and me when I went to buy fuel recently. The president had announced reduction in the petrol pump price from N97 to N87 naira but almost all filling stations were selling the product at N100.

    The first lesson is, never undermine the youths. I have not seen any general election that the youths all over the country participated as this one. The youths never minded coming from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to shout for and work for change in the government at the centre. Why did the youths participate with all their lives in this year’s presidential election? In 2011, President Jonathan came out with youth-friendly slogans such as: ‘Nigerians need fresh air’ and  ‘ I once had no shoes’ etc. Coming from a poor family background is something that is common among Nigerian youths, hence they voted in one of their own. They believed that the president, having come from a similar family background, would ensure that their problems were solved.

    However, the president on assumption of office surrounded himself with advisers who are anti-Nigerian youths. They brought up the issue of SURE-P, dishing out millions of naira to an individual in the midst of many that are hungry and unemployed, amongst them several graduates. How can such process be going on when NYSC members are receiving less than N20, 000 per month, corroborating international community’s report that majority of Nigerians live below USD1 per day?

    What of the recent immigration service interview that ended tragically? What the government should have done was to compensate the bereaved families and at the same time give automatic employment to all that attended the ill-fated interview .The applicants could be employed across all the federal civil service in order to assuage the citizenry. However, the advisers of Mr President never deemed it necessary because they believed that whether the people liked it or not, they were going to ‘fix’ the presidential election.

    The same youths that voted for Mr. president in 2011 were the same people that voted him out in 2015, what a paradox? Yes, there were mild irregularities in the elections, but I am cocksure that in any free and fair

    election, the current APC will beat PDP. The advisers and foot soldiers of Mr president that were prodding him could not even deliver their own polling units. What a shame!

    Finally, in this series, Nigerians, especially our leaders, should learn not to bite the hand that fed them. Anywhere in the world, there are kingmakers. Even in developed democracies like USA and UK .God used Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to singlehandedly bring up our current president right from the level of a deputy governor to where he is today, passing through different political positions. Baba, as Chief Obasanjo is fondly called resigned his post as the PDP BOT chairman because of skirmishes between him and the leader of the party. Other party leaders left thereafter.

    Surprisingly, the advisers of the president were still assuring him to go on and within a little space of time, the strong PDP structures in the country collapsed. As PDP was going down, APC was going up and the whole scenario culminated in the first defeat of the ruling party since we returned to our current democracy in 1999. The rest is history.

     

    • Dr Paul John

    Port Harcourt , Rivers state

    mazipauljohn@gmail.com

  • The fall and fall of the Naira

    In 1973 when the Yakubu Gowon post-civil war government introduced the Naira, it was at par with the West African currency board pound  sterling that we were then using along with The Gambia and Sierra Leone. Ghana as an independent country under  Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had withdrawn from the West African common currency in 1957. This was one of the regrettable but understandable decisions of Nkrumah to assert his country’s independence and new status but which from privilege of hindsight set West African economic integration years back. The pound sterling we were using until 1973 when we changed to the Naira was at par with the British pound. The result was that there was no reason in the world for Nigerians to have foreign accounts as a hedge against the fluctuating local currency. But how things have changed . The increase in national revenue following stupendous growth of the oil industry after the civil war  in 1970 guaranteed the strength of the Naira. Even though there was corruption in the Yakubu Gowon admnistration, it did not reach the current prevailing  epidemic, endemic and industrial level of today.

    For years after the introduction of the Naira, it remained stable  to the extent that the mad drive to have foreign money by Nigerians was not there. I remember when I was Director of the National Universities Commission’s  office respectively in Ottawa, Canada and later in Washington DC in the United States from 1978 to 1982, I refused to take my salaries in dollars because there was no advantage or benefit from availing myself of that opportunity. I was merely living on my foreign service allowance. The point I am making is that the Naira remained strong and respectable and convertible. I remember that while recruiting Americans and Canadians for our then new universities in Jos, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Benin, Sokoto, Bayero Kano, Ilorin, Yola and Bauchi, we used to just multiply the Naira salaries paid to Nigerian professors by two to get the American equivalent. In other words, one Naira converted to two American dollars. A professor in Nigerian universities then earned N16,000 per annum which was respectable US$32,000.

    The national currency of a country is a symbol of a country’s power and pride. When as in post-First World War Germany, the Reichmarks became worthless as a result of Germany’s humiliating Versailles diktat, it led directly to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his determined campaign of righting the wrong of Versailles. We are in this country reaching a point where the national currency is becoming an embarrassment and a symbol of our current weakness in the face of internal and external challenges to our sovereignty.

    I remember the  late 1980s when after ruining the country, the Shagari regime was overthrown because of its  spendthrift nature and uncontrolled corruption,  the Naira began its downward spiral. When Babangida took over government from the duo of the no-nonsense Idiagbon and Buhari, the International  Monetary Fund moved in with its one-remedy-fits-all policy of structural adjustment programme which the Buhari regime had refused. It was during the Babangida regime that the exposed nature of Nigeria’s economy became apparent. Babangida  was forced first to float the Naira which was then changing at four Naira to a dollar when he took over government. I remember the personal financial loss I suffered when in 1991, I left Nigeria to assume duty as ambassador in Germany, my savings suffered a depreciation of almost 100 percent. The Naira by 1991 was changing at 10 to a dollar and by the time the Structural Adjustment programme imposed on the country had run its full course, the economy of the country had been destroyed and with it the middle class had been wiped out. Those who had money before were then reduced to penury and there began the fashion of owning foreign accounts against the future. If the situation were stable this would have been totally unnecessary because in most cases these accounts earn little or no interest at all. From this period  onwards, the Naira continued to reflect the inherent weakness not just of the Nigerian economy, but of the Nigerian state itself.

    The use of the American dollar as a reserve currency in the world is a symbol of American hegemony in the world, a hegemony  that has made the last century the American century. The Chinese Yuan may in course of time and all things being equal rise to the same prominence in the world’s economic medium of exchange. There was a time in the 1970s when the naira was acceptable all over West Africa and also in the bazaars of Sheperd Bush in London! Gone are those days when Nigeria, victorious from a civil war and loaded with wealth was not only helping Africa’s fighting forces of colonialism in Southern Africa, but was also dispensing monetary largesse in the West Indies. We can only remember those halcyon years with nostalgia.

    The precipitous fall of the naira is always during the time of crisis at home when those who feel they may lose out in the struggle for power resort to carrying their loot abroad and therefore were ready to change their unearned income to foreign currency at any available rate. This phenomenon is not unique to Nigeria; it is simply a manifestation of under development. This is why black or parallel markets of currency exchange are only found in underdeveloped economies.

    We have now more or less reached a point of no return in the destruction of the national currency when it crossed the 200 to a dollar mark. It is not just because the price of oil has fallen, serious as this is, it is because of total mismanagement of the economy by the so-called expert from the World Bank whose contribution in a time of plenty was publishing what states and local government earned as if this was neuro science! This so-called World Bank expert continued telling her employers in Abuja what sacrifice she was making without telling them the benefits that were accruing to her. Now, the chicken has come home to roost and it is dead silence from the guru of World Bank who has now ensured that we  are again prostrate for another Bretton Woods institutions treatment. This World Bank Trojan horse has delivered.

    If we survive the current economic and political problems, we will again be dictated to by outsiders masquerading as dogooders on the way  out of the woods and we may by then be so economically weak that we we would have no choice than to bite the bullet. It is then that social Armageddon may be visited on this country and saints and sinners may be swept away in the blind fury of people’s uncontrolled anger. We may yet avoid this if we defend the naira through disciplined management of our foreign trade. We are importing too many things we do not need. Why are we importing all these wines one sees in every corner of our our country? Why are we the second largest consumer of champagne in the world outside France? Why do we allow our plutocrats to indulge themselves in buying planes and we are boasting that it is a sign of how big our economy is? This shows complete disconnect between us and our rulers. We can half our import bill, encourage local production of rice and substitute wheat with other cereals and generally assist  efforts of imports substitution and local industrialization. The result of this will be reduction of our need for foreign exchange and even at current earnings, we would have surplus and be able to defend the naira at a respectable exchange rate. If and when we transit to a much more disciplined regime with no tolerance for rampant corruption,  we should have a currency that reflects our aspiration as a medium power in the world  and  one that is dominant in our continent.

  • Fall of the mighty

    Their exit from the cabinet was announced with fanfare. At the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on October 15, President Goodluck Jonathan took it upon himself to tell the world that the ministers would be leaving to contest election. It was the last meeting the ministers would attend since they had only five days left then to resign to pursue their ambition.

    These men have since pursued their ambition and known their fate. They are former Information Minister Labaran Maku; his counterparts in Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu and Labour, Emeka Wogu. Others are Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro and his counterparts in Education, Nyesom Wike, Trade and Investment Samuel Ortom and Niger Delta Darius Ishaku.

    These president’s men thought their party’s governorship ticket was theirs for the asking. They miscalculated. Forces on ground in their respective states had another plan. These were the ones playing local politics. They were determined not to yield ground to anybody, be he a former minister or not. Many of them asked : ”When they were ministers what did they do for us?”

    Rather than see the handwriting on the wall, the former ministers plunged headlong into the race, believing that with their wealth and connection, they will win. No doubt, they may have  got the President’s  blessing to run, but they needed more than his blessing to win. More than anything else, they required the support of party members, many of whom they  abandoned while in  office, to get the ticket.  Moreover,  they had no political structures to fall back on.

    Those who had structures had to contend with the intrigues of some leaders who do not like their faces. It was a battle royale between these ministers and the leaders, who were determined to stamp their authority on their parties. There were snide remarks such as ”they cannot come from Abuja and take over our parties from us”; ”They have enjoyed themselves in Abuja, now they want to come and continue their enjoyment with the party we slaved hard to keep going”; ‘Where were they when we were building our parties?”; ”Now, they want to come and reap where they did not sow”.

    The animosity against the ministers was strong . As soon as they declared their intentions for run for governor, they ran into trouble with chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in their states. Why? Is it that these ministers never touched base with their people while in office? Politics is all about people and seasoned politicians know too well that they can not survive without people. It is just like fish out of water; it will asphyxiate to death.

    Politicians also suffocate to death when they abandon the people. Ask Maku, Wogu, Chukwu and Onikoro. These are the faces of the President who lost in the race for the governorship tickets of Nasarawa, Abia, Ebonyi and Lagos states. What their loss shows is that the political race is about being close to the grassroots and having the ability to carry those who matter along. No politician can be bigger than those that will determine his fate at the poll. And mind you, the true worth of a politician is known at the poll and not the amount of money he has.

    It is good to have money, but that money will not vote for you. It is how a politician uses his money to win people to his side that separates the men from the boys. No matter how influential a politician may be, his ability to deploy his resources to good use will determine how far he goes. As our former honourable ministers have come to realise, not even the federal might can save a politician, who is distant from his people from losing an election. The ministers are stewing in their own juice.

    They cannot eat their cake and have it. They cannot spend months ministering to themselves alone and now think they can ride on the backs of the people into office as governors to continue their self seeking agenda. Politicians, who always think of themselves first, will always meet with the kind of defeat suffered by these former ministers whether in the primaries or real elections. So, tell it in Lafia, sing it in Abakaliki, mime it in Umuahia  and publish it in the streets of Lagos so that the people will rejoice over these ministers’ loss.

    Oh, how the mighty fall; and their wealth and connection come to nought.

    Apostle of evil

    I watched bemused on Channels Television, last weekend,  as Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adesiyan defended Inspector-General of Police Suleiman Abba, who treated the office and person of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal with scorn the other day before the House of Representatives  Committee on Police Affairs. Adesiyan said Abba was right by refusing to recognise Tambuwal as Speaker because the matter is in court. So, when a matter is in court one can no longer hold his office? It is a shame that this is the kind of person we have as a minister; a man, who does not know that a court case does not automatically strip you of your office until judgment is delivered. But, what do you expect  of a man, who once referred to himself as a killer of persons (ta nlo je ode aperin niwaju ode apa enia). Besides,  Adesiyan also attacked the All Progressives Congress (APC), bashing the party for always ”complaining” when it loses election, but hailing the process when it wins. ”When they won in Edo, they gave INEC credence (sic); when they won in Osun, they gave INEC credence (sic)…” Did I hear you say what does that mean? That is a Minister of the Federal Republic (MFR) for you.

    In his character

    IN defiance of a court order, former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday launched his three-volume book, My Watch, in Lagos. He also cast aspersions on Justice Valentine Ashi, who stopped the launch. As it were, Obasanjo has sat on appeal in a case in which he is a party. Can he do that? The answer is no. He should not have gone ahead with the launch after being stopped by the court, no matter how he feels about the order.  But, I am not surprised. What do you expect of an ‘institution’ like Obasanjo? It is left to the court to do the needful over this obvious contempt.

  • Foreign reserves fall to $39.56b

    Foreign reserves fall to $39.56b

    The nation’s foreign reserves fell to $39.56 billion by September 26, down 0.15 per cent from the previous month, data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have shown.

    The reserves stood at $39.62 billion in August and were $45.66 billion in September last year. Currency traders attributed the fall to draw downs by the CBN to support the naira.

    Data from the CBN, showed that the reserves stood at $39.65 billion on August 25 and  $38.4 billion on July 17. The rate of accretions to the reserves has been marginal but consistent since the CBN reviewed the Bureau De Change (BDC) policy guidelines.

    The reserves were at $37.23 billion on June 25; $37.26 billion on June 26; $37.31 billion on June 27. The reserves also rose to $37.54 billion on July 1 and continued the upbeat till the current position.

    Further analysis showed that before the upbeat, the reserves had maintained a steady decline after closing last year at $42.85 billion.

    The year-end figure represented a decrease of $0.98 billion or 2.23 per cent, as against the $43.83 billion recorded at end- December 2012. The reserves dropped to $38.79 billion as at March 12. Analysts said the reserves declined as imports of fuel and foods soared.

    But the CBN said the decrease was driven largely by the increased funding of the foreign exchange market in the face of intense pressure on the naira and the need to maintain stability, adding that the pressure on the external reserves was deemed to be consistent with the seasonal annual payment of dividends to foreign investors

    The CBN had on June 24, rolled out new guidelines for BDCs operation. The regulator raised the capital base for operators from N10 million to N35 million, plus additional caution deposit of N35 million to be kept with the CBN at zero interest rate.

  • Abia must fall — Audu

    El Kanemi Warriors star Abraham Audu believes his side has all it takes to progress to the next round at the expense of Abia Warriors when both sides meet today in the Federation Cup round of 32  clash at the FIFA Goal Project Abuja.

    Audu and the rest of the squad arrived in Abuja yesterday in preparation for the epic tie.

    Audu told SportingLife that he is ready to score against Abia Warriors again.

    “This is a match of our lives. We worked very hard to reach this stage and we want to advance to next stage by beating Abia Warriors today. They are a good side but we are determined side too. I scored against them in league and I want to repeat the same thing against them today,” Audu said.

     

  • Fayemi: The fall and rise of an idealist

    Fayemi: The fall and rise of an idealist

    The Fayemi mystique will linger. Of course, it will: there are overwhelming dimensions that require intellectual enquiries. I have read so many commentaries on what I will call “Iyanu Ekiti” (The Ekiti Miracle) but only few x-rayed these dimensions. As usual, some of the discourses exhibited high grade pedestrianisation while others were scholarly. Most of the elements and essentials of the election that have been analysed so far, quite expectedly, were ornamented with speculations, assumptions, street gists, malice, prejudices,  informal sentiments, elite fallacy and populist triumphalism. Some of the commentators were unspairing in their castigation of Fayemi while others have been very generous.

    But of all the commentaries I have read on the election, the one that really excites me most was that of the governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola. Though not a tight and deep exploration of the sociological perspective, his views/comments on the elections paraphrased the composite tendencies of human actions. Fashola, still in doubt about the credibility of the election, wondered how an incumbent governor, who had been celebrated globally for his achievements and performance, would lose an election in his ward and local government. Though he admitted that the Ekiti scenario throws up some contradictions, what he could not understand was the resolution of an electoral paradox in favour of behavioural illogicality. He pooh-poohed the accusation of “disconnectedness” against Fayemi wondering how this connects with quality electoral choice to be made between an erudite scholar and a fraternal demagogue of okada operators.

    Fashola’s position contrasts with the argument of Richard Sennett in his book, “The Fall of Public Man.” Sennett posits: “Intimacy is a field of vision and an expectation of human relations. It is the localising of human experience….the more this localising rules, the more people seek out to strip away the barriers of customs, manners… the expectation is that when relations are close, they are warm; it is an intense kind of sociability which people seek out in attempting to remove the barriers to contact…”

    “Disconnectedness” therefore was one of the offences allegedly committed by Kayode Fayemi against the Ekiti people. But the question is: can a man that is ‘disconnected’ from the people be working assiduously for the provision of infrastructure that will not only stimulate economic activities for the people of the state but will also ensure quality and meaningful existence for the people.

    I understand when people are classified into elite and grassroots, which is for the purpose of social stratification and scholarly analysis. What I do not understand is the classification of the contents and materials of development. Both in theory and in practice, the concept of development is understood by all and sundry to mean structural, infrastructural, social and welfarist programmes and policies that will benefit the generality of the people. The people of Ekiti are free to romanticise “stomach infrastructure” but are they saying that the components of the real infrastructure like roads, hospitals, schools, housing, tourism, agriculture etc have no direct utilitarian value on their stomachs and other parts of their bodies?

    My reading of the “iyanu Ekiti” is that the defeat did not and still does not, make Fayemi a failure. Instead, Fayemi was a collateral damage in the hate-contest between the people and his appointees. If I say eight out of 10 Ekiti people love Fayemi and hate his appointees, I am not exaggerating, the outcome of the election notwithstanding. I may not have the empirical data to support my assertion but from my interaction with the people before and even after the election, I know this to be true.

    The truth of the matter is that the people hated Fayemi’s appointees with passion and were determined to sacrifice the governor to get these appointees and some elected officers out of office. Assuming, but not conceding, that the election was free and fair, like Fashola said, the outcome of the election stands logic on its head. How come the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not win a single local government when the party controls all the 16 local governments through appointed caretaker committees, 25 out of the 26 members of the State House of Assembly, all the six of the House of Representatives members  and the only three Senatorial seats? Besides, all the appointees, the chief of staff, commissioners, special advisers and special assistants are representatives of the local governments or the three Senatorial Districts. If the Party (APC) failed at all the local governments, does that not speak volume about these people? These are the people that should be doing the grassroots interaction, socialisation and intimacy on behalf of the governor.

    The governor on his part had played his role by ensuring that projects were distributed to the various local governments with systematic precision. It is a shame that all these people failed to enhance the electoral value of the governor at the grassroots because of their aloofness and emotional distancing from the people. Some of the appointees and elected officers were accused of being very stingy and indifferent to people’s problems. It was said that some of them run to Lagos and Ibadan every weekend and use office protocols to prevent their people from having access to their offices during working hours.

    Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and historian best known for his work, “Democracy in America” must have had these people in mind when he wrote “Each person, withdrawn unto himself, behaves as though he is a stranger to the destiny of all the others. His children and his good friends constitute for him the whole of the human species. As for his transactions with his fellow citizens, he may mix among them, but does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone. And if on these terms there remains in his mind a sense of family, there no longer remains a sense of society.”

    The governor, on his part, was accused of humiliating the teachers, local  government workers and the civil servants by introducing many reforms aimed at improving the quality of teaching and service delivery in Ekiti State. All these had been expertly analysed by public commentators but suffice it to say that Fayemi is a leader who ideates development through aggressive policies and reforms. What many people are saying is that some of these policies, particularly the ones on the teachers and civil servants, should have formed part of his agenda for the second term and not first term. This was said to be his undoing.

    It must be stated however, that an idealistic leader like Fayemi never envisaged electoral defeat as a consequence of policies and reforms that would transform Ekiti and position the state for greater development.

    Aside from demystifying theoretical constructs, the Ekiti election has introduced fresh dynamics into our politics. It has also cast a serious aspersion on the dominance of the political space by the elite. What kind of dominance would allow jaundiced masses and malicious teachers and civil servants to determine the political direction of a sophisticated state like Ekiti, using their sacred votes in favor of an individual that lacks the erudition of his rival? What kind of dominance would remain passive when a people were committing political suicide when confronted with the choice of leadership? What kind of dominance would allow the temporary seizure of the political space by vengeful elements who preferred Barnabas to JESUS? The apathy of the elite, the supposed architects of society’s vision, towards electoral competitions is causing gradual erosion of their political power. In addition, the dominance, or is it supremacy, of the elite is being questioned and challenged by a politically vibrant but prejudiced peasants backed by a group of hateful, ungrateful and slightly literate elite, who have arrogated to themselves the authority to control the political space by opting for misfits in power. A voter’s power should be exercised with some degree of sanity and logical discretion and should not, under any normal circumstances be used to encourage the enthronement of tyranny and to celebrate mediocrity.

    The Ekiti people had used their votes to present Fayemi to the public as a local villain but Fayemi has used his character- the act of accepting defeat minutes after the announcement of the official results-to turn himself to an international hero and political celebrity.

    As much as one appreciates the ecstacy and the excitement of INEC for its self-congratulatory posturing for conducting a “very peaceful free and fair election,” methinks it is rather too hasty to contemplate the adoption of the Ekiti election and its attendant process, as a template for future elections in Nigeria. It is the responsibility of everyone of us, especially our scholars, to do critical appraisal and analysis of the Ekiti election in order to understand and resolve its numerous contradictions, paradoxes, ironies and surprises. Until we are convinced that the whole electoral process was not skewed along the line, it will be very hard to accept the use of a template that is still shrouded in mystery.

  • Flying Eagles fall to Mali

    Flying Eagles fall to Mali

    African Youth Championship AYC) holders, Nigeria suffered an upset in the hands of Mali in their opening Group B game in Oran on Sunday.

    FC Nantes teenage striker, Adama Niane scored the only goal of the game to give the Malians a 1-0 win inside the Stade Ahmed Zabana.

    Nigeria started on the front foot with Olarenwaju Kayode free kick stinging the palms of Mali keeper Ali Yiringo inside the first 10 minutes.

    With a quarter of an hour into the game, Mali took the lead.

    The Flying Eagles failed to clear from Tiekoro Keita’s corner kick leaving Niane unmarked in the area to rifle home with his left-foot.

    After the goal, most of Nigeria’s attacking play came through Ansfed forward, Kayode without breaking the resilient Malians.

    On 28 minutes, Kayode got the ball in the net but his goal did not stand as it was ruled offside.

    The Malians ended the opening half under siege but kept their one-goal lead intact.

    In the restart, substitute Edafe Egbedi missed Nigeria’s best chance in the 46th minute from close range after heading horribly off target at the near post where he was totally unmarked.

    Kayode and captain Abduljeleel Ajagun came close to drawing Nigeria level in the space of minutes but missed target on both occasions.

    With three minutes to full time, Enugu Rangers’ forward, Alhaji Gero was played free in the box but he could only blast wide after a good first touch on the ball.

    Mali held on for a famous win in stoppage time as Nigeria now need an outright win against Gabon on Wednesday.