The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fallacies

  • Re: Sagay vs NASS: Facts and fallacies

    Is every passing day awakens us to the reality of an election year ahead, and doing so with its familiar trappings of staccato style political intrigues, lickspittle, including but not limited to rumours of political alignment and re-aligments, it would certainly come as a rude shock to a necromancer for the National Assembly, particularly, the senate and its leadership, not to come under all forms of politically ingrained verbal blitzkrieg. And, why not?

    The leadership of the 8th National Assembly, (NASS), emerged against all predictions better left to history. But, since its emergence, the NASS has remained the punching bag of those who stood against its emergence. Regrettably, too, the executive has refused to see wisdom in an harmonious and mutually respectful relationship with the second arm of government. Over time, the NASS has been the prime target of attacks and knowing that a weak legislature provides a freeway for easy manipulation of the citizenry, its leadership is expected to have enormous courage and strength of heart to withstand pressure from within and without. The reason survival of democracies is hugely hinged on a vibrant assembly committed to keeping in check other arms of government.

    It is noteworthy that more than any previous Assemblies, the 8th NASS has remained united, focused and pragmatic in the pursuit of its constitutional duties. Against all odds, it survived the teething leadership challenges and diverse political affiliations through personal sacrifices and purposeful leadership. But it would seem that respite was far from being near.

    Yet, while politics is heavily profiled in attacks, finger pointing and intrigues, it cuts a curious pie to find one apparently weighed down by a seemingly deepening acute subjectivity arriving from survivalist instinct attempting to dissect, pontificate and bookmark values, behaviour and ideals far beyond his remit. Moreso, doing it without due regard to the sanctity of truth.

    That was what it felt like after  reading Professor Itse Sagay, (SAN), the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption’s (PACAC) interview published in the Nation newspaper, recently. In Professor Sagay’s cocktail of untruths typifying someone couched in genteel ignorance or personal hatred, he described the current senate under Dr  Bukola Saraki, as the worst since 1999. Apparently, in curious defiance to evidences available on easy click online, Professor Sagay, true to character, fancied mischief, pettiness and rabble-rousing, as opposed to a little research into the activities of the current senate, and, without due regards to his age and professorial attainment, concluded that the current NASS has not performed!

    Pitiable, as it is, if anyone attributed his gaffe to mere mental hiatus that would come round with time, his umbrage at the senate leadership’s insistence that the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Idris, should appear before it to answer questions relating to growing insecurity in Nigeria punched holes on expectations that a professor knows better. One wonders what his submission would be if an undergraduate submitted such unsubstantiated verdict without detailed and empirical comparative analysis of the 8th NASS and others before it.

    Granted that Professor Sagay reserves the right to hold any  opinion he so wishes about the senate, but would such right be extend to attempts aimed at  circumventing the truth? Like it or not, while much more is still expected from the 8th Senate, it is without doubt that its leadership has acquitted itself quite well by passing into laws no fewer than 200 bills in record 33 months and more still to come with about 15 months left to go. Interestingly, this record, when compared to the 6th and 7th senate, which passed 72 and 128 bills, in 48 months, respectively, or, the 5th senate with a total of 129 bills in the same month, underscores fact that Nigeria’s senate has never had it so good in lawmaking, as it has had under the Saraki’s Senate presidency. This is why it is curious where Professor Sagay got his facts.

    Perhaps, for the mention, the Saraki Senate presidency passed among others, the following bills since inception: the National Railway Corporation Act 1955 N129 LFN 2004 (Repeal & Re-enactment Bill 2015; Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act CAP B2 LFN 2011 (Repeal and Re-enactment) 2015; National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (est,etc) Bill 2015; Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (est., etc) Bill 2015; Courts and Tribunal Fines and Financial Penalties Bill, 2017 HB 642; Radiographers (Registration, etc.) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2017 HB 676; Medical Residency Training Bill, 2017 (HB.982); National Road Funds (Est, etc.) Bill, 2018; National Climate Change Bill (HB1020); National Agricultural Seeds Council Bill, 2018 (HB. 472);  Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport of Nigeria Bill, 2018 (HB. 973); National Security Agencies Protection of Officers Identity Bill, 2018 (HB. 830); Institute of Environmental Practitioners of Nigeria (HB. 1022); National Biotechnology Development Agency (Est., etc.) Bill, (HB. 33); Nigeria Aeronautical Search and Rescue Bill, 2018 (HB. 139); Federal Audit Service Commission Bill (HB. 107); Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (est., etc.) Bill, 2018 (HB 364 & 656); Digital rights and freedom bill, 2018(HB490); Energy Commission Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018(HB72 & 446).

    Surprisingly, in the face of available records to cross-check where in doubt, Professor Sagay feigned ignorance, but mindlessly continued to dabble into, among others, the 2018 Budget passage delay and sundry senate activities, issues far beyond his purview, and, coming clear as one seemingly suffering from erosion of ideas and condemned to confusing today’s internet age with his analogue era.

    This is why Professor Sagay deserves our sympathy and needs be reminded that the world has since moved on just as no propaganda can overturn or smear truth that the 8th Senate under Dr Bukola Saraki deserves accolades for upping the ante of service and putting the nation first.

    Worse still, caught on tape giving directives to the Chairman, Code of Conduct Tribunal on how to do his job and handle the Saraki case before it, in a saner clime, the learned professor should be cooling off in a solitary place. But as with history, one day soon, those who do things out of personal grudges, hate or selfishness, will surely have a date with the long arm of the law, no matter how long it takes.

     

    • Oba is Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State governor.
  • Peace Corps: Cocktail of fallacies

    Peace Corps: Cocktail of fallacies

    It was with considerable effort that I managed to restrain myself from shedding tears when I saw the visuals of the parade of the National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), Amb. (Dr) Dickson A. O. Akoh, and 47 other officers of the Corps before newsmen on Wednesday, March 1, 2017, in Abuja.
    It would be recalled that Akoh and his officers were abducted on Tuesday, February 28 , 2017, around 11:30pm at the new Corporate Headquarters of the Corps situated opposite Jabi Lake, Abuja, after a highly successful unveiling of the new office, an event that was beamed live to the whole world by the NTA and AIT.
    In trying to justify what millions of Nigerians youths regard as a calculated attempt to silence their leader, tissues of lies were dished out, all aimed at hoodwinking the unwary members of the public. According to an adage, lies told repeatedly, if they are not corrected, over time assume the status of truth in the minds of unsuspecting members of the public.
    It is for this reason that I feel constrained to respond to some of the lies told about the PCN with a view to setting the records straight.  It is indeed laughable to say that the arrest of Akoh and his men was an attempt to halt and rid the country of illegal and unlawful security outfits constituting a threat to national security. Nothing can be further from the truth! PCN has never claimed to be or acted as a security outfit. The pertinent question to ask the accusers of PCN is: How does a legal entity duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) constitute a security threat? If the nation’s security agencies can invest half of the overzealousness it used in pouncing on the officials of the PCN, then kidnapping, armed robbery and other ancillary crimes threatening the foundation of Nigeria would become history in Nigeria today.
    To further add salt to injury, those who decided to play Pontius Pilate over PCN went to the ridiculous extent of saying that the Corps flag and beret have resemblance to that of Gambia and officers on UN mission respectively. In what way is resemblance in colour a crime?
    In a case reminiscent of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it, the traducers of the PCN said that intelligence reports had it that the Corps was acquiring weapons and conducting covert military training in different parts of Nigeria. The question to ask (and answer) is: Was any weapon found when security operatives conducted a search on the headquarters of the Corps? The answer, of course, is a resounding NO!
    The truth is that anytime the Corps is embarking on training of its personnel, it usually invites DSS, Police and Civil Defence etc to its training Camps to ensure that the process complies with laid-down rules. To also say that subversive groups and terrorists have infiltrated the Corps is another cheap lie that is not worth dignifying with any response.
    Similarly, the allegation of extortion of money from applicants levelled against the Corps remains just that – a mere allegation. This is an allegation that the Police and ICPC have investigated in the past and given the Corps a clean bill of health.
    At this juncture, it is also necessary to tell the whole world that in a report on its investigation of the activities of the PCN dated April 25, 2008, which was signed on behalf of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Criminal Investigation Bureau, by Shehu Babalola, the then Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, the Nigeria Police Force exonerated the PCN from any form of shady deal. Part of the report reads: ‘’since its eleven years of existence (1998—2004) it has operated in twenty-six states and the FCT, the Corps as an entity has not been involved in any shady deals or any anti-social or subversive activities that constitutes any security threat.’’ What more can we say? It is on this clean record that the Corps under Dickson Akoh’s leadership has been operating till date.
    It is indeed confounding that anyone could suddenly wake up to brand an organisation that has been in operation for the past 18 years plus as an illegal entity. Happily enough, a high preponderance of Nigerians are not on the same page with the accusers of the Corps on this issue.
    It is pertinent to state here that probably enamoured of the success story of the PCN, both the United Nations and African Union granted it a Special Consultative Status under their Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is heart-rending that instead of appreciating the enormous sacrifices Akoh has made in empowering Nigerian youths, a cardinal responsibility that successive governments have shirked, this illustrious Nigerian is being harassed, hounded and humiliated. In civilised parts of the world, the likes of Akoh are eulogised for their patriotism in giving the monster of youth unemployment a good fight.
    What majority of Nigerians find irksome is that this is happening at a time a Bill to give the Corps statutory backing has been passed by the National Assembly and awaiting presidential assent.
    It is either that the accusers of the Corps are being economical with the truth or standing honesty on its head to assert that the Corps members have no right to wear uniforms. On this issue, Dr. Akoh has this say: ‘’There is a national youth development policy that spells out roles on how youth organisations can operate and we have 47 uniform youth organisations. We have been operating within our scope…’’
    Though, the overzealousness of the nation’s security agencies  has been over-flogged in the past, it is pertinent to state here that the latest invasion of the PCN office by a large contingent of security personnel armed to the teeth is taking over-zealousness to another dangerous dimension. It is this kind of pseudo-official opposition to well-intentioned private initiatives that has rendered Nigeria prostrate and devoid of private developmental projects.
    Instead of dissipating energy on anachronistic ventures like hounding officials of the PCN and trying to drive the organisation aground, the nation’s security agencies should rather invest that energy in fighting all manner of criminal elements and groups that are currently holding the nation by the jugular. I rest my case!

    •Ochela, a commentator on national issues, wrote in from Abuja.

  • Facts and fallacies of fuel subsidy

    Facts and fallacies of fuel subsidy

    Umana Okon Umana, an economist, is the former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State. In this piece, he highlights the fallacies associated with the fuel subsidy and what can be done to guarantee regular fuel supply for domestic consumption.

    Many boisterous and healthy debates have broken out on social media platforms and, indeed, other fora on the recently adjusted price of petrol. But quite unexpectedly, some of the arguments are grounded in myths. Here are a few and my attempt to burst them.

    The first myth is that subsidy does not exist.

    There is a subsidy when the pump price of petrol is below the effective cost. The effective cost is the landing cost plus the distribution cost plus margin. Subsidy is the difference between effective cost and the pump price of fuel. Landing cost for a litre of refined petroleum depends on the price per barrel of crude oil. When government fixes the pump price of fuel below the effective cost, distortions are created.

    In elementary Economics, when a price is fixed below the equilibrium price, there will be a shortage and a black market will be created. The government in Nigeria was paying for the difference between the effective cost and the pump price. Government was therefore subsidizing the cost of fuel. Nigeria spent over $35 billion between 2010 and 2014 to subsidise petroleum products.

    The second myth is that subsidy favours mostly the poor.

    This is not true. By paying fuel subsidies, we were subsidizing the consumption of imported petroleum products. We were therefore supporting production abroad and creating jobs abroad at the expense of Nigerians. Besides, outside Lagos and Abuja and other major cities where the controlled price of N86 was enforced, fuel was sold at between N150 and N180 in the rural communities.The government guaranteed price of N86 was therefore a myth as the poor people outside Lagos and Abuja had always paid N150 or more for a litre of fuel.

    The reality is that it is the rich and not the poor who benefit the most from Nigeria’s fuel subsidy. Findings by the IMF show that globally, the bottom 20% of households take only 7% of fuel subsidy while the richest 20% take 43%. Nigeria’s fuel subsidy at some point accounted for 30% of total expenditure of the Federal Government and 118% of the capital budget. It also accounted for over 90% of annual oil revenues.

    Payment of oil subsidies was not only not sustainable, it crowded out spending on core infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and power with grave consequences for the standard of living of Nigerians. Besides, the artificially low and government guaranteed and subsidized price of fuel was a disincentive to private investment in the oil sector.

    It is not surprising that although the Federal Government approved over 20 refinery licenses to private investors many years ago, not one refinery has been built. I must however commend Aliko Dangote for his entrepreneurial acumen in this regard. His new refinery being built in Lagos and scheduled to becompleted late 2018 will enhance local refining capacity.Rather than subsidizing the consumption of imported petroleum products we should support the private sector to build new refineries.

    Fuel subsidy also took a disproportionate share of dwindling foreign exchange allocated based on official rate. There was therefore an imperative need to free the resources deployed for the payment of fuel subsidies. Thankfully, government has made meaningful appropriations in the 2016 capital budget to upgrade infrastructure in the areas of roads, railways, agriculture, education, and provide support for small businesses.

    The third myth is that at N86 per litre, Nigerians were already paying too much for fuel.

    The facts do not support this position. The Table below shows that at N145 per litre, the petrol price in Nigeria is about the lowest in West Africa. It is now clear why, at the old price of N86, the opportunities existed for arbitrage and corruption as fuel for which Nigeria already paid subsidy was smuggled to Niger, Cameroon, Ghana, etc, where there is no subsidy regime. Ghana, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal and Mauritania have petrol pump prices of N185, N218.9, N228.85, N234.82 and N256.71, respectively.

    Removing fuel subsidy will fuel inflation is the fourth and the commonest of the myths.

    While it is true that the upward adjustment in the price of fuel will affect some components of the Consumer Price Index, the overall impact on prices will be cushioned by activities in other sectors of the economy, upgrade in public transportation and improved fiscal discipline. Over time, the efficiency of the market will drive down prices.

    The fifth myth is also a fallacy. It states that if other oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are paying fuel subsidies, why can’t Nigeria pay?

    Saudi Arabia pays out of a huge surplus after meeting the expenditure needs of the country. Nigeria’s revenue is not enough to cover basic expenditure requirements. We cannot continue to run a country that spends more on subsidies than on the total capital budget. Other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Ghana and Angola already took the bold step to remove subsidies on fuel prices. We should commend President Muhammadu Buhari for taking a decisive action to deregulate the downstream petroleum sector in the face of dwindling oil revenues and the pressure on the Naira.

  • Facts and fallacies of ‘change’ 

    SIR: Nigeria, just like in some parts of the Occident, has been the greatest opportunity and the worst influence; a place of creation and decay, of freedom and subjection, of riches and poverty, of splendor and misery, of communion and lonesomeness—an optimal milieu for talent, character, vice and corruption.

    Many desirable things are advocated without regard to the most fundamental fact of economics, that resources are inherently limited and have alternative uses.

    In the 2015 presidential election campaign, the All Progressive Congress promised Nigerians ‘Change’; change from bad economy to good, from bad healthcare system to the best, from insecurity to safety, from unemployment to employment and so on. Who could be against good healthcare system, safety, or employment opportunity? But each of these things is open-ended, while resources are not only limited but have alternative uses which are also valuable. No matter how much is done to promote health, more could be done. No matter how safe things have been made, they could be made safer. And no matter how much jobs are available, more could be created.

    Facts and fallacies of ‘change’ of this administration subjects many widely held beliefs to the test of hard facts and it is glaring that many beliefs held about the ability of the present government to fulfill its electioneering campaign promises cannot survive that test, including some, like the creation of 3,000 jobs annually and payment of N5,000 stipend to unemployeed graduates that have already collapsed like a house of cards and others where the truth turns out to be the direct opposite of what has been so often asserted such as equating dollar with naira, increase in foreign reserve and others.

    Fallacies are not simply crazy ideas. They are usually both plausible and logical—but with something missing. Their plausibility gains them political support. Only after that political support is strong enough to cause fallacious ideas to become government policies and programmes are the missing or ignored factors likely to lead to “unintended consequences,”

    There are many reasons why fallacies have staying in power, even in the face of hard evidence against them. Elected officials, for example, cannot readily admit that some policy or programme that they advocated, perhaps with great fanfare during their campaigns have turned out badly, without risking their whole careers. Similarly for leaders of various causes and movements. Others who think of themselves as supporters of things that will help the less fortunate are finding it so painful to confront evidence that they have in fact made the less fortunate worse off than before. A bag of sachet water which sold for N70 in January this year is currently selling at N150; same with basic food items such as garri, beans, rice, Maggi and so on whose prices have taken a dangerous nosedive at a high level. In other words, evidence is too dangerous politically, financially and psychologically for some people to allow it to become a threat to their interests or to their own policies but the evidences of the current hardship faced by Nigerians are ubiquitous and dangerously harmful to destroy by any image launder of the government.

    Before the 2015 presidential election, Nigerians’ hope was to usher in a government that will revamp our ailing industries and reactivation of comatose refineries thereby reducing the cost of petroleum products on consumers and create jobs for the unemployed qualified graduates. This expectation remains a lost ball in the high weeds and regrettably lugubrious. Scarcity of the products goes on unabated, with a litre of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) also known as petrol at between N150-170 today. While the change administration is making remarkable impact in its fight against insurgency and corruption, it has done little to improve the standard of living of the electorate. The common man can barely afford two meals a day, businesses have crippled due to fall in power generation and distribution and high cost of raw materials.

     

    • Onogwu Isah Muhameed,

    Lokoja, Kogi State. 

  • Buhari: Facts and fallacies

    SIR: Of all the lies being peddled by the PDP to blotch the personality of General Muhammadu Buhari, labelling him a religious bigot is most particularly damning and fraudulent. At the slightest opportunity, the PDP and its cronies resort to the religious card as part of the ploy to present him in bad light. What the PDP promoter of the lies are yet to tell Nigerians is how a man who ruled the nation as a military dictator and didn’t Islamize the country would do same as a civilian president, with all the democratic checks and balances in place.

    The truth of the matter is that Gen Buhari is a practicing Muslim and there is actually nothing wrong with this. The Nigerian constitution permits every Nigerian to practice the religion that he/she believes in and in the way he chooses to. President Jonathan has been hopping from one church to the other across the country. He was once in Jerusalem with some Christian leaders and a few Christian members of his cabinet and party. He is actually free to do this as guaranteed by the constitution of the country. But then, why is General Buhari being unnecessarily vilified for his faith?

    Till date, no one could actually lay claim to any instance when the General has acted in ways that hinder others from practicing their religion. As it is often said, opinions are free but facts are sacred. When General Buhari took over as the military Head of State in 1984, out of the 19 military governors, he appointed, 11 of them were Christians. The record is there for whoever cares to corroborate.

    The fear of the PDP as expressed by President Jonathan that Buhari would send some Nigerians to jail for corruption as soon as he becomes the president is no surprise. His government courts corruption, and deserve nobody’s sympathy. Corrupt public officers and their accomplices belong nowhere but jail houses. However, the truth is that under democracy, and the rule of law, due-process will be guiding principle. If the General, like any rational leader, is going to fight corruption, he would have to do that within the confines of the law. Nigeria is not a banana republic. The constitution remains the guiding document of faith in the country. It is true Dr. Jonathan has been treating this sacred document with impunity, and believes this would be the same under Buhari.

    What the country needs presently is a leader with the anti-corruption stance of General Buhari. Our major problem has been the mismanagement of our resources by a crop of visionless and selfish leaders. At the last count, the Jonathan administration could not account for over $100bn! Corruption remains the bane of the country and any leader who can tackle corruption headlong could actually move the nation to the Promised Land. What we have now is a government that has turned corruption and deception into instruments of governance. The end results are the several woes that have befallen the country. When sane and patriotic economic analysts in the country were cautioning our leaders about an impending economic woe, the all-knowing economic managers in Abuja simply shrugged it off as the ranting of ants. However, Nigerians now know better as a regime of austerity measures have been forced down our throats.

    For the PDP, corruption is a way of life. Fuel subsidy rip-off linking sons of ex-PDP  chairmen, the Halliburton scam, the pension scam, the national identity card scam, the electricity scam, the NPA corruption scandal, to mention just a few are some of the complex corruption cases through which the PDP has thrown the country into a mess.

    What stands Buhari apart is the very element that is lacking in the current crop of leadership we have in this nation today – INTEGRITY!

     

    • Lateef Raji

    Lagos