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Tag: frustrations

  • Ishaku: My frustrations as governor

    Ishaku: My frustrations as governor

    Darius Dickson Ishaku, an architect and Governor of Taraba State, was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He has the ambition of turning the fortunes of the state around despite the lean resources available in what he termed a rescue agenda. In this interview with Tony Akowe, he speaks on his efforts to deliver dividends of democracy to the people of the state and lots more.

    PEACE and stability is a prerequisite for any development. Taraba State used to be one of the states with lots of crisis. How did you solve this problem to ensure the peace that in the state?

    It is right that I inherited a state with crisis in different facets. There was war virtually everywhere. There was inter-tribal war, religious war, those based on sentiments and political crisis. I had to initiate policies that will bring about peace. What I did was to reach out to all the different people. I reached out to the traditional leaders, visited stakeholders, community leaders, talked to political leaders and became aggressive in preaching peace. I even gave some examples of what peace will bring for us and what lack of it has denied us. I reached out to the religious leaders and thank God that they all keyed in and reached out aggressively and helped me gravely in preaching the message of peace to the people. We made sure that anywhere we found breakdown of law and order, we take a decisive action against those involved. By the grace of God, we started eliminating them gradually and today, I can tell you that we have a relative calm in the state and peace has returned and development is beginning to spring up. I must tell you that I inherited a very poor civil service in the state. We are completely reorganizing it and retraining them because they’re the engine room of governance. But what I inherited was terribly poor. One thing I discovered is that a lot of people believe that they are engaged in government to collect salaries and not to work.

    During your campaign, you promised the people that you were coming to rescue the state with what you called the rescue agenda. How far have you gone in implementing that agenda?

    The rescue agenda is on course and we thank God for the opportunity to serve our people. We came up with what I called the green book which stipulates the rescue agenda we have. The agenda is to attack all areas of the state. However, because of the lack of resources, we had to prioritise so that we can concentrate on certain areas of health, agriculture and education. We hope to work on these areas for two years before shifting to other areas depending on the resources available. However, that does not mean that we cannot intercede in other areas needing quick attention such as infrastructure, roads, water. We will attack these areas depending on the seriousness of the need. But we have started in the area of health because our health system has seriously decayed. I did not meet any functional hospital except the Specialist Hospital in Jalingo. That Specialist Hospital didn’t even have equipment to diagnose and treat people. Fortunately, we made it functional. But in other parts of the state, there are no functional hospitals. So, once somebody is sick even for a simple ailment, they have to rush him to Jalingo and I think that is a very bad situation. I decided to take one hospital per zone. They are all located in the three senatorial districts and we are hoping that by December, work will start on them. We’ve refurbished the old tea factory, removed the obsolete machines and replaced them with brand new ones and right now, it is working very well.

    Like many other states, in what area do you think that Taraba State has comparative advantage that you intend to use to your advantage?

    Taraba is blessed. In agriculture, I can boast of feeding the whole country with rice. We have a very huge rice project in Gashok. As I am talking to you right now, we would have been eating that rice, but for the problem we had with the investor and his American partner. The foreign partner moved out and has refused to come back despite my intervention and the Nigerian investor is looking for another partner to join hands and continue the project. That is a very huge rice farm lying in the Benue valley. We are working very hard and I am sure that before the end of this year, we should be able to resolve all the obstacles in that area. Taraba can also comfortably supply the whole country with sugar. We are working assiduously on that and has given a company about 10,000 hectare of land, but we are yet to agree on the modalities because the perception of the company is different from our thinking. They want 100 percent mechanized farming with no benefit for our people, but I disagree completely with that. That has stalled the whole project for about nine months now. But we are getting to the end of the disagreement and they have calmed down and we think that should take off before the end of December. But the problem with sugar is that it takes three years to plant and get matured before you have enough to feed the plant. But we are going on with that. Corn is another area where we have advantages if you go to areas like Baisa, you will plant corn for about four times a year and they don’t even need fertilizers there. That is the one we are exploiting now to bring in investors. All these are giant farms with multinationals that are coming. I am hoping that by next year, we should be able to produce things like corn and rice and selling them. Sugar may be a little bit delayed. The other front which we will aggressively pursue by next year is coffee. We have the monopoly of tea and coffee because they are some of the plant that can only be grown on the highland. I want to pursue coffee aggressively and I hope to be in Kenya by the end of November because I understand that they have a very good model. In October, I was in India and went to virtually all the tea farms in there to see what they are doing correctly that we are not doing.

    Money from oil has fallen drastically and states are finding it difficult to function. You have very ambitious plans which require huge resources. Where will you get the money from?

    In fact, people have asked me this same question over and over again. Where do you get the resources to do even what you have done in one year? I do very simple planning and allotment of resources. We have very lean resources and what that means is that we must manage it well. When I became governor, I discovered that we have a lot of leakages, particularly in salaries. One person could be collecting about 40 people’s salaries. We have been able to reduce these leakages substantially. I wish I could eliminate it completely. That has helped me free money that I am now investing in infrastructure and other areas. The other thing is I do not believe that government has any business in business because all the companies set up by the state government in the past have all gone under; including the tea factory I am talking to you about. It is my intention to privatize most of it since it is working well now so that the private sector can take over the place while we use the funds we have for other things. What we are doing right now is attracting investors from the private sector as many as possible. Maybe the state government will hold about 20 percent shares.

    Tourism is a money spinner across the globe and Taraba state is believed to have one of the greatest tourist potentials in the country. What is the government doing to harness this?

    We are not only rich in tourism, but also in mineral resources because we have one of the country’s biggest deposits of mineral resources in the country. We even have far more mineral resources than tourism and agriculture. We have a lot of potentials in tourism especially in the Mambilla Plateau where the weather is temperate. It has a lot of beautiful sceneries that are still in their natural state. We have the largest park in the country, the Gamshaka Gumti Park with lots of wild animals that are as good, if not better than that of Kenya. But the problem is that our tourism is not developed. We are working towards that, but the problem we had when I came in was that the place was always being invaded by armed robbers. So, you can imagine tourists going into areas where armed robbers are daily terrorizing people. We had to move in the military and I am happy to note that it has gone down. Tourism takes a lot of time and resources to develop and a lot of things have to come together. One is a functional airport. You cannot have an airport anywhere in the Mambilla. The only place you might is in Maisamari because we are over 2000 meters above sea level. As I speak with you now, the road to Gembu is virtually cut off at Likitaba and it is a federal road. The federal government is telling us not to intervene. So, the people who want to build dam can’t even go on the existing road.

    We are aware that Mambilla Hydropower project is one huge project being located in the state by the federal government which is expected to open up the state. What are your expectations from this project?

    Mambilla Hydropower project is going to be the biggest power project in Africa and not just in Nigeria because it is going to have 3,050 megawatts which is more than the power we are generating now. So, we are going to almost double the power that Nigeria is producing now. It is going to take between five to seven years to complete. I am happy that Mr. President has taken the bold step of awarding this contract and I am working assiduously to clear the encumbrances which are the act of getting to the site. As I speak to you now, the federal government has done nothing in terms of remuneration and compensation for the people and getting the site cleared of encumbrances. Right now, I can’t take you to the site of the project because the access is not there. There is no road to where the dam will be built. People are still living in the valley of the dam as we speak. There is a Bible College right where the dam is going to be built. Will you just come and start the dam and clear the people? The people must be sensitized and made aware of what is coming. I am going to resettle 150,000 people in five different local governments. The area of this dam is bigger than the area of Lagos State. When people talk about the dam, they talk as if you will just drive there and start work. It is not done like that; processes of compensation takes a long time, the same thing with sensitization.

    Due to this talk about the Mambilla project and opening up the state, the first thing I did when I came on board was to open the Taraba airport. Before you cannot access Jalingo by flight, but right now, you have Overland on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and we are hoping that by December, it will be a daily flight. All the engineers and contractors that will come to the state should have easy access. It is one hour flight from Abuja to Jalingo and it takes you six hours from Jalingo to go up the mountain. The airport is supposed to be a cargo airport and so, we are looking at expanding it so that from there, we can export agricultural produce. If I package beef, it needs to be in the market immediately. The same applies to fruits and other agricultural produce. So, the first step to opening up the state was to reopen the airport which is working now.

    Your party, the PDP is in crisis and this seems to have defied any solution so far. What is your take on this?

    The crisis in the PDP is sponsored from outside. But we are working hard to make sure we end the crisis. Nigerians have approached us that we have to solve this problem in the PDP because you need a vibrant opposition in any democracy; a democracy that does not have a strong opposition is running for tyranny and dictatorship. Whether you believe it or not, we have Presidents in Africa that have stayed in office for 40, 50 years because they don’t have vibrant opposition. You must, as a necessity have a vibrant opposition. We copied the American constitution, but left out the vital parts. As a governor, the police is not under me. That doesn’t make sense. In the US, they have the federal, state and local police. If we want to copy, we should have copied everything. If I had my own police, I would have gotten that peace in the state far earlier than now.

    That brings us to the issue of restructuring

    A lot of people are talking about restructuring. We will get there, but first, you have to have vibrant parties. The restructuring should start from the parties. I was in the University of Minnesota when Obama was campaigning, in lauding the present Vice President and Clinton. After their presentation, the Professor asked me what I thought and I told him that they are all equally matched to be President. But out of the four people I brought out, Obama beat all the rules and became President and Biden became Vice President. After eight years, Mrs. Clinton is coming up and she could have easily become president. I am trying to show you that there was a shifting from the party up to the level of Presidential candidate when they had their best. That is what we should be learning in Nigeria. By the time you have a governorship candidate, you should ensure that he is the best candidate so that the people going for the final selection process should be the best to rule that state and the country and any of them should be the best to rule. So, it is not only the country that should be restructured. The parties also should be restructured because if they have the system already in place, it will help the country to come out with better people. Nigeria is blessed with intelligent people, but getting there is like passing through the eye of the needle. So, the good people don’t want to bother themselves because they know they won’t get there. I want to assure you that the problem in the PDP will soon be a thing of the past. I will also assure you that the PDP as it is now will not be the PDP that used to be because the PDP has learnt her lessons. The PDP has suffered and the PDP that will evolve will be a better PDP and a party prone to serve the country.

    What is your relationship with the opposition in the state?

    We have opposition in the state. But if you ask me, I will say they are bad opposition. They are not opposition that criticise based on facts or based on showing government better ways of doing things. They are opposition for the mere fact that they want to smear the names of people and insult people for the sake of it. Most of the time, I don’t bother to listen to them. For example, the APC chairman once came out criticising government because of somebody who was removed from office, saying the man was removed for voting APC. How would the Head of Service know who voted for which party? This was a corrupt school principal who was found guilty by a panel that recommended his dismissal, but the Head of Service pleaded that he be demoted instead and he was demoted and sent to a smaller school. They just went on air without verifying anything. These are the kind of opposition we have in the state. I will say that we have a lot to learn about politics in this country.  I am governor because I am desirous of making a change in my state and I believe that in the last one year, I have made the change and I am working harder to make more changes so that in years to come, people will say there was Darius Ishaku who came, saw and conquered. Governorship is not given by allocation, but how you convince the people to vote for you.

    The activities of herdsmen have been a major problem across the country including your state. How are you dealing with this situation?

    I solved my problem in a simple manner. The indigenous cattle herders are not the problem. The problem is the invading herdsmen. The indigenous cattle herders have lived with our people in a peaceful manner. Our people ask them to come to their farm during the dry season to eat the left over, excrete there to provide the natural manure for the soil and go away during the rainy season while the farmer takes over his farm. But the invading herdsmen are the ones coming with AK47 killing all the people in the farm and take over their farm. But I have sensitized our people, appealed to them and we have tried to address the problem of cattle that strayed into people’s farms without getting into war. I have told them that they don’t have to kill somebody if your farm produce is being eaten up. In some cases, we compensate people so that we do not go to war with one another and where we need to discipline people for deliberately going into a farm and destroy it, we do so. When people see that justice is being done, they become calm. They go to war when they see that justice is not being done and their right is not being protected. We have had horrible examples where invading herdsmen cleared over 100 people in Dore village. We managed it by evacuating the people, give them relief materials and arrest those we could arrest and punish them. We also appeased them not to revenge. Justice has to be on the front burner because once there is no justice, you are inviting chaos. When the poor man feels that his right has been denied him, what do you want him to do, especially when you take away his farm land?

  • The global economy – voters expectations and frustrations

    As  reported  widely  this week  no  less  a person  than the nation’s Vice  President Professor Yemi Osinbajo  promised  that  the  Nigerian  economy  would  soon  be out of recession. This  was  in a week  that  the  rumour  was  rife that petrol  price  would  rise  further from  the 145  naira  it  now stands  after  being  raised  most  unexpectedly and astronomically from  86 naira. An  increase  that  Nigerians are  still  reeling from  its cruel  multiplier effect which  has led  to   massive  subsistence  living,   that  can  be  described  as  living  from  hand  to  mouth  for    those  who  can  see  any food at all. No  wonder  in  some communities thieves break into  houses  to  steal  pot  of soups and food while they leave clothes and  other  traditional  targets of  thievery  intact.  A  sure   sign  of  the prevailing  and pervasive impact  of  a very  unproductive  economy  which  fuels hunger, poverty  and now, most    unfortunately,   food  and kitchen  looting.

    However,   it   is difficult  to wage a war  against food and kitchen  looting with  the same   fury  and  vigour  with  which  government is pursuing  the war  against  corruption. Yet,  both  are  potent  signs  of  corruption in a sick  economy.  The  difference  perhaps is  that   treasury  looting cripples  the economy  generally,  while kitchen  looting   creates  hunger in  households  which  anyway  make  contributions  to  the GDP   But    such  contribution  may  not  add  up  to  the  overall    natural output   as  it   results   in  less  food or  no  food at all  for  the   affected  victims  of  kitchen  looting.

    It  did  not  therefore  come as surprise  that  there  was a  hostile   reaction  to  the proposed petrol  price  increase  from  some quarters   that  governors  and  government  officials in the presidency  should cut  their  kitchen  expenses  and approved  budget  in lieu   of  the    dangerous  proposal   to  increase petrol  price.  Luckily,  the  government  has denied  any  such  plan  to  increase  the  price  of  petrol further.  Which  really  is a step  in  the right  direction  to  salvage the good name  and image  of  a government  that  got  elected on a promise  of  change  and  a better  life for  Nigerians whose  expectations were  shattered  in one fell  swoop  by the fuel  increase  that  came in  by  the back  door  and wiped  out  the  goodwill that  Nigerians  gave the government  by  electing the APC’s  candidate  as  president  in the 2015  presidential  election.  So  while  the  Nigerian  electorate respects  the  Vice  President’s promise  that  the recession  will  soon  be  over  and also  respect  their  president’s  fight  to stop  or   lessen  corruption  and treasury   looting, they  also  expect  government  to  do  something so  that  the new  phenomenon  of  kitchen  looting does  not  become a way  of  life  like  treasury looting which  has  brought  our  economy  to its knees . The  only  way  to  do  this urgently,  is to  bring  more  food  to the table  for  the average  Nigerian  family by  putting  in place  poverty  alleviating   measures,   social  infrastructure    and    institutions that  help  families  get  out  of  poverty  and live   a life   of    dignified  existence  without  the   grim  prospect  and humiliation  of   descending into petty  kitchen   thieves   in  a nation   with  riches  and plenty,  cornered   by  a fraudulent  few for  their  private  consumption  at  the expense  of  the  larger  majority.

    On  the  global  level  the  management  of  the  economy  has  been  a great  source  of  concern because global    economic  resources  are  limited  and  are  therefore being  rationed  by  governments  to  make ends  meet  and  improve  the welfare of  the  masses that  have  elected  them in the  world’s  democracies  since  democracy  is  the  ascendant  political  ideology  of  our  time.   Indeed, the  militant  violence threatening  world  peace  today  especially  in  the Middle  East  where people  are fleeing  wars  and starvation,  stem  from  the planting of democracy in  Afghanistan  and Iraq  and  the removal  of  the despotic  regimes that  the  West  and  the US removed  to  put democracy  in  place.  The  whole  world  has  now  come  to  see  that  democracy  alone does  not  guarantee  political  stability,  national  or  regional  peace.  As an  hungry    man  in  any  place  and  time,  is  an  angry  man,  prone  to bad temper,   rough   behavior  and   ultimately  violence.

    It  is,  therefore,  the  prevalence  of  this  sort  of  dangerous social  and  political  disposition  on  a global  scale  that  is  the  concern  of  our  analysis today. The    Nigerian  Vice  President’s  promise  on  recession  being  contained,  and   the war  against  corruption, are  indeed  two  sides  of  the same coin to  create economic  development,    human  progress   and  enhance  economic  management  for  the overall  public  good.  It    follows  logically therefore  that  good  economic  policies lessen  tensions when  electoral  promises  are met and  voters expectations  realized. The  opposite  or  inverse  of  that creates  and breeds  voters and peoples  frustrations  leading  to  anger  at  the  polls  and the emergence  or  election of strange  parties  or leaders made  for  the times  and  the prevailing public   mood. It  is  a situation  that  creates  strange  bedfellows in  terms of  political  alliances  and  marriages  such  that  it  seems the electorate  or  voting  public  is prepared  to  throw the  bath  tub  away  with  the  baby.  This  is    a rather    delicate  and   dangerous  proposition  or  development  that threatens  the political  status  quo  and even  rejects it  outright  at  the polls   in  order  to  show  that new  values  and  feeling  have  emerged  to  warrant  a change  of  leadership or  government  and  reflect  the  new  and  emerging  status  quo and  political  reality.

    Indeed  this  was what  gave  rise   to  Brexit   and   led   to  David   Cameron   losing   his  position  as  the UK  Prime  Minister  to  be replaced  by  Theresa  May  who   must  implement   the Brexit  Mandate  even  though  she   voted  for  Britain  to  remain  in  the  EU.  Such  change  in  voters  attitude  and  perceptions   this week    in    Germany  led  to  the  Christian  Democrats,    the  party  of  the  German  Chancellor   Angela  Merkel   losing a local  election in her  own  constituency  and  backyard,  to  a small  party in Germany  that  hates migrants  and is against Angela  Merkel’s  well  known    disposition   and  policy  of  accommodating  migrants  fleeing war  and  violence  in  the  Middle  East.

    Even  before  this  German  development in  Merkel’s  area, the   UK   government  of  Tony  Blair tried  to accommodate  a  new  trend in  political  development   during  his tenure by  proclaiming  Britain  a multicultural  society to  accommodate  the rising population of  Hindus  and  Muslims  from India, Pakistan  and  the Middle  East.  This  crystallised in the election of a Muslim  Mayor  for  the ancient  City  of  London and Britain’s  capital  recently  and  well  after Tony  Blair’s  tenure.  However,   Multiculturalism  and  the recent  wave of  immigrants   from    the Middle   East  seem  to  have  angered  the British  electorate  and  may  well    have  been  responsible   for  the  success  of  the  Brexit  campaign.  Indeed  as  the  Brexit  voters  results  showed on post  election  analysis,   voters   in   London voted  massively  for  remain  while  the rest  of  the  UK   except  Scotland  voted  for  Brexit.  Definitely  Multiculturalism  is  facing  a hard  time in  the  UK,  no  thanks  to  the  present  migrant’s  crisis.

    It  is in  Denmark  and  Norway,  however,  that multiculturalism  seems  to  taking  the  harder   knock.  According  to reports, Danes  and Norwegians  expect  migrants to  integrate into  their society, learn  their  language  and acquire  basic  peculiar habits  like  riding  bicycles and are  aghast  to  see   new  migrants in peculiar  Islamic  dresses  and attires.  This  has  led  to  voters  hostility  leading   to  the victory  of  anti-migrant  parties    at  recent  elections. Most  Danes  and Norwegians   have  been  reluctant  or  afraid  to  speak  out  so  that they are  not  accused  of  being  racist. Recently,  some  people  have come out  to condemn migrants  who  have refused  to  integrate  into  their  new  societies  in   Europe  and  the  argument  is that it is   wrong  not  to speak out  and  if  it is  racist  they  do  not  mind  being  so  branded. More  importantly   a Danish  politician  gave  a  new   explanation  or  definition   that  reflects  the  changing mind set  and  mood  that is affecting  elections, political  participation  and  the quest  for  power  in  the area. He  admitted  that Norway  is  developing  into  a multiethnic  society  but  it  is  never  going   to  be multicultural.  Which  is a major  way of saying  that  migrants  who  cannot  adapt  to  European  way  of  life  should  go  away.

    Which  in  another  way  was what  the  same Angela  Merkel  was  saying   albeit  in  a different way  on Turkey’s  ascension   as a member  of the EU.   Merkel  said  then  that  Europe  is Christian  and  Turkey  is Muslim  and  you  cannot  have a Muslim nation  in  the heart  of  Europe  like  Turkey.  That  was  said when  Merkel  had  just  become  Chancellor of  Germany.  Today  she  is at  the heart  of   Turkey    feel  wanted  and   Germany  has  made  a lot  of  funds  available  to  Turkey  which  is the first  port  of  call  for those fleeing  war  from  Syria  on their  way  to  Europe.  How  that will make  her  lead    her party   to  electoral  success  in  the next  elections  in  Germany  in  two  years  time  is a matter  for speculation and that  is quite  dicey.

    Lastly,   the emergence  of  Donald  Trump  in  the  US  is  based  on  similar attitudinal  change  against  the  society  or  government  of  the day.  But  that  is work  in  progress  in  terms  of  discussion  and  analysis, till  the  US presidential  election is  consummated this  year. Once  again  long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Our frustrations at MAPOLY

    Sir; where is no more time to be wasted again in the conundrum caused the 2013/14 Mass Communication ND graduates by the authorities of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta (MAPOLY).

    Just like is was reported weeks back that a top official of the school has directed that the 2015/16 HND admission (which these ND graduates are eligible for) to be deferred till next year, the school has shown its true colours with the omission of the names of the Mass Communication graduates (now applicants) in the HND admission list recently released by the school.

    On Tuesday, November 24, the admission list was released and later withdrawn by the school with unofficial reports blaming errors in the list for the withdrawal.

    But as of Thursday, November 26, new admissions were given to the HND applicants for several courses excluding Mass Communication applicants who sat for the same examination on Thursday, October 8 (and for some Friday, October 9).

    We saw hell on the HND screening day (ask any Mapoly HND applicants) who wrote the exam where countless number of students collapsed while waiting for hours in the rain and the sun to write this exam.

    We were subjected to physiological and psychological torture before this exam (security agents took time to harass us) and now more than that with the ‘deferred’ admission of the selected students.

    Some have blamed the deferred admissions on the unavailability of our results but we will also wish to bring to the notice of the general public that it took over a year for our school to produce our final year results when we had finished studies on October 29, 2014.

    The results were eventually posted on Friday, November 13, but not without errors ‘as usual’. More than 50 percent of the said results are still pending.

    Unfortunately for us, the school management has not deemed it fit to address us on either our delayed ND final year results or the ‘deferred’ HND admission.

    It is worrisome to note that the delay and the error-laden results have cost some of our other colleagues gainful employments and admission into other institutions of learning (especially those seeking direct entry into other universities.) How can we do that when the result isn’t ready?

    It is no gainsaying the fact that these ordeals of encountered from the delay of our ND results happened under the watchful eyes of the immediate past Head of Department of Mass Communication, Sina Aina, but yet the institution is yet to take any punitive actions against him.

    Just as we are calling on Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and Commissioner for Education, Modupe Mujota, we also call on the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education, Dr. Masa’udu Kazaure; State Chairman, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Comrade Yinka Folarin to look into this ‘perfected’ injustice on us as regards the infringements of our rights to quality education.

    If I may borrow from the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “Our lives begin to end, when we keep silent to the things that matter to us most”. Governor Amosun, this is not the ‘Ogun Standard’ we bargained for!

     

    • Albert Adebule,

    Ibara, Abeokuta.

  • The sum of all our hopes and frustrations

    Nigerians had hoped to kick corruption doorwards if not outdoors since the general consensus seems to be that politicians have turned the national treasury into a sort of Aladdin’s cave to which they alone have the password, key and right of entry and have denied every other Nigerian the same right to enter

    I do not know what the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission is thinking by allocating these huge sums of money for the national assembly allowances; nor do I know what the assembly is thinking by accepting it. From news reports, I read that our senators are to enjoy N24m and the federal representatives are to enjoy about N20m as allowances and emoluments every month or is it every quarter now, I hardly know which. Whichever one it is, it is bad.

    These crazy sums are especially gruesome considering the financial situation of the country right now when we are borrowing to eat. I think the actual truth is that the collective national thinking outrightly condemned those sums as totally unreasonable a long time ago. The last national assembly nevertheless went ahead to enjoy them against our better sentiments. And now, because we the people did not insist then, the ugly problem has reared its head again. What is worse, from news commentaries, it is said that our assembly men and women insist on collecting their emoluments before they even sit. I think the common parlance for this is upfront. Haba! Which one of us gets his/her salary before working in this country?

    I honestly do not know what all these huge sums are about, and what work they really compensate for. Are they supposed to reward work done on behalf of the country, such as physically carrying it on their shoulders like the legendary Atlas is said to be doing carrying the world year in, year out? I think teachers are already doing that; masons such as bricklayers are doing that too, and they do not get anything near .0000000005 per cent of that sum. I also think that roadside labourers, construction engineers, geologists, housewives, etc., who break sweat working for hours under the hot sun, you know, ordinary people like you and me, are already doing that and they are not paid anything near that sum.

    Indeed, after working for hours on end under the hot sun, some are not even paid at all. I know graduates in professional fields who have toiled under the sun for years carrying this nation till they are almost hunched in the back. For their pay, they have been told ‘come back tomorrow.’ For many of them, tomorrow has not come. There are yet others who are middling in circumstances you and I cannot even begin to imagine, hovels at best, and paid near to nothing.

    Yes, there are many states and local governments which have not been able to pay their civil service workers, teachers, etc., because of supposed shortages, even as we speak. There are people whose earnings are not even as structured as those of civil servants and who look on the latter with envy. You know because they mutter things like, ‘at least someone is owing you; one day, he’ll pay you. What about me; who is going to pay me?’ You’ve guessed it; those are called the unemployed. Unfortunately, some of our honourable assembly members were once in that category.

    Let me tell you the sum of our hopes. By electing Buhari as president, the honourable members of this country had kind of hoped to use these four years to at least be able to kick corruption doorwards, if not downright outdoors. The general consensus seems to be that politicians have turned the national treasury into a sort of Aladdin’s cave to which they alone have the password, key and right of entry and have denied every other Nigerian the same right to enter. Seriously, awarding lawmakers a wardrobe allowance of N1.7/1.4m for senators and federal representatives respectively does not show much hope for our hope. Indeed, you can say that those gruesome sums sum up our hopelessness.

    That is why I want to ask myself a series of questions. Whatever happened to patriotism, vision, nation building, love of one’s country, sacrifice or selflessness? Yep, the fact that I am asking myself these questions does not necessarily mean I have the answers. You find your own answers. For one thing, I believe that patriotism seems to have travelled and left the country denuded; it has left it bereft of men of ideas, vision and goodwill. Only men of wood are left to take charge of the affairs of the country.

    Sorry to say this, but there are too many politicians who have nothing to offer the country by way of tangible ideas except to collect these huge sums for their personal enjoyment. Many only go to mark their presence in the chambers; many are said not to show up for much of the year. Many there are too, whose main preoccupation seems to be organising themselves into caucuses to determine outcomes of motions, bills and who goes into juicy committees to bring ‘something home’. Their days are spent holding endless meetings determining ‘outcomes’. For instance I read in the news that oil barons and the like, the very people killing the country, jumped on board the senate president elections. Yep, their oily hands were in it; and that comes with all kinds of implications. Yet, these politicians are paid the princely sums we have been talking about. I tell you, those sums represent the sum of all our frustrations.

    So, what happens to all our hopes of effectively getting rid of corruption soonest? I believe it is alive. All you have to do is do a travelogue into social media and you will get a feel of the people’s thinking. People are not fazed by what is happening. Without ever having sat together at a meeting, it is as if they have come to an agreement that they are only giving Buhari’s government a chance to clean up this mess, and others such as the purchase of unneeded jets by governors, before going on to the next course of action. What that is?  I don’t know, maybe to spontaneously combust; I am not people. It appears though that the people are determined not to be frustrated for too long.

    As we said on this column a few weeks ago, our greater disappointment is in the NLC who has a big enough reason to call us, the workers, out in the matter of these gargantuan assembly emoluments. The failure to stem unreasonable executive and legislative spending years ago has resulted in the failure we are witnessing today – inability to pay workers.

    The other body, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), which is said to be responsible for fixing these wages in the first place, clearly has some explaining to do. It needs to explain to the nation its generative formulae that enabled it reach this unheard of conclusion. Otherwise, we would be forced to ask again, what were they thinking?

    Definitely, I don’t think Nigerians are taking this matter lightly this time. Apart from those talking about a peaceful revolution, some have organised themselves into protest groups. The first of such groups has called on the assembly on a courtesy visit to lay down its grievance, you know, just like the mafia does. Typically, the mafia people first tell you, smilingly, how unhappy they are with a problem which only you can eliminate. The next step will eliminate the smile.

    Before we call in the mafia-style sleight of hand, I think it is time for us to seriously begin to talk about part-time politicians. Someone muted the idea a while back and it has caught on with me. How about you? That may just pull us out of the sum of these sticky jams.

  • Our pains, our frustrations —Nigerian graduates in odd jobs

    Our pains, our frustrations —Nigerian graduates in odd jobs

    PEOPLE disregard us when we put on this uniform, as if we are nothing. I am very ashamed of doing this job and I don’t tell people I do it. In fact, most people don’t know this is what I do.”

    This was how Ibrahim Danjiba, a B.Sc degree holder in Mathematics from the Kogi State University, began the story of how his failure to get a job befitting his status made him to resort to doing an odd job just to make ends meet.

    Before he graduated from the university, he had looked forward to working in a telecommunications company. After graduating, therefore, he applied to various telecommunications companies for jobs, confident that he would pass the interviews. After each interview, he savoured the joy of getting his dream job but his employment letter would never come. After years of combing the streets fruitlessly for a job, luck finally smiled on him. He got a job in the industry of his dream but not in a position he desired. Instead of being employed as a core staff of the organisation, he was employed as a security man. He has since manned the gates as a security man along with others who did not go beyond primary school.

    In spite of his qualification, some of his colleagues who never attended a higher institution are his boss. Narrating his experience Danjiba said: “I have always loved to work in the telecommunications industry, but they say I can’t get it if I don’t know anybody. I applied several times and passed their interviews, but at the end of the day, I didn’t get any of the jobs even with my excellent result. So, I decided to humble myself by starting with a security job in the hope that I could get a better position later.

    “I have been looking for jobs in accounting firms, banks, and so on since 2011 when I graduated. The frustration of being idle finally made me to decide to start with this. The job is not lucrative. I am paid N20, 000 monthly, with which I manage to feed myself.”

    He regrets that the society still looks down on security men in spite of the fact that graduates are now taking up the job. “People disregard us when we put on this uniform. It is as if we don’t amount to anything. I am very ashamed of doing this job and I don’t tell people I do it. Most people don’t know that this is what I do. I am so sad with the state of employment in Nigeria. I couldn’t imagine myself being jobless after all my brilliance in school. Students should learn crafts and not rely on certificates only, because they may not fetch them anything in return.

    “I am still searching for a job and would appreciate if I get one. I can’t advise people who have money to study here. They should rather go abroad and study. I am planning to see if I can travel abroad and do my M. Sc in Pure Mathematics because I want to become a lecturer, which I may not achieve if I don’t have a master’s degree.”

    Tosin Olalekan Ogunseye holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate in Business Administration from Ogun State Polytechnic now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic. After all the parents’ investments and several years of burning the midnight oil, Ogunseye is hustling as a commercial tricycle operator.

    He also gave an account of his venture into the unskilled job: “I would say that my condition is a setback because I had once worked in a company before it collapsed. I then searched for a job for good three years before I decided to settle down as a commercial tricycle rider. The business is not lucrative at all. The proceeds are just meant to feed yourself and cater for your family needs. I make N3,000 daily and work seven days a week, from morning till night. My wife is a hair stylist, so she supports me.”

    He told The Nation that he had not given up on job hunt, saying: “I am still searching for job in any accounting firm and still wish to further my education if the opportunity comes. It is good to go to school and be literate despite the problem of unemployment. But Nigerian undergraduates should not rely on their certificates to fetch them money, because they may likely find themselves in a field different from their area of specialisation.”

    Godwin Elekpo, a native of Akwa Ibom State, has B.Sc in Accounting, but he works as a security officer in a bank in Yaba, Lagos State. He said he had to take the job in order to sustain himself and his family. He said: “There are no jobs, so this is what I have got to sustain myself. It is a shameful job and I keep hiding it from people because they all think that I’m doing well. I have been searching for job even before graduation. I searched for a job as a receptionist, marketer and so on, but I could not get any.

    “I started this with the hope of becoming a core employee later. I took the decision because I may not easily get a job if I continue to search for Accounting jobs. It is not lucrative. I am paid N46, 000 monthly with which I manage to cater for my family. There is no prestige in the job; people just treat and talk to you anyhow because of the uniform.”

    Owing to his predicament, he said his respect for tertiary education had waned. Obviously, I have a bad feeling for going to tertiary institution in Nigeria because after graduating, you can’t find a job if you don’t have connection, people or money. But I don’t discourage students from going to school. Even now, I am still planning to do my ICAN examination soon. However, students should learn to be self-employed by learning crafts and so on in order to be able to face whatever may come tomorrow.”

    Aniete John Ubara, another B.Sc degree holder in Accounting, has a similar unsavoury tale. He had to settle for commercial motorcycle business popularly called okada in order to stave off hardship.

    He blamed the rising problem of unemployment on poor management of the nation’s resources by successive governments. “Bad management of public resources by successive governments is the major cause of unemployment in the country. It is not favourable to the masses. This has led to a situation where many God-fearing graduates like us lay our hands on any legitimate job that comes our way because we don’t want to go into armed robbery or other criminal activities. That is why I am doing this today.”

    Apart from his academic qualification, Aniete says he is also a professional cook. “I attended a catering school, but when I applied for jobs as a cook, they kept saying they would pay me N15, 000. It made no sense to me because the pay was nothing to write home about. That was why I settled for okada business. I also searched for job for about seven years without any luck. I am not able to fully sustain my family with this, except for my wife who supports with the income she gets from the petty trading she does.

    “I still wish to further my education so that I can venture into lecturing. Young graduates should look up to God. After their NYSC, they should learn crafts so as to sustain themselves if they are not employed like me.”

    While other respondents are ruing their plights, Nwaokoro seems to have accepted his fate and turned it to advantage. He has worked as a security man for more than 15 years and has no plan to seek employment elsewhere. He said: “I have been working as a security man for the past 15 years. Now, I represent my unit in our union, the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU). I have no regrets so far. I have served as a contract staff here in YABATECH for five years and as security operative for 10 years.

    “I chose to do this because at the time I was looking for job, that was all that was available. I took in good faith and have today gone far in it. I was about looking for job before I saw it and took it up instead of roaming the streets. I was earning N8,000, when I started. It was later increased to N12, 000, but now, I earn far above that because I have been promoted twice since then.”

    He spoke about the challenges he faces on the job, saying: “People put you down as if you have not gone to school. People who have criminal intentions also see us as enemies. Some of my colleagues who caught people with guns have had their lives threatened by the people when they saw them outside. They monitor and threaten us when they see us outside.

    “It is good to go to tertiary institution in Nigeria. I encourage students to continue to study hard. Those who are jobless should not hesitate to apply for security jobs or other unskilled jobs if such are available. It is better to take up such jobs than remaining idle.”

  • Tukur’s frustrations

    Tukur’s frustrations

    Obviously, the PDP national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur is rattled in many fronts. He is rattled by the crisis in his state’s wing of the party. He is at war with PDP governors. And at the national level, he is faced with a daunting crisis of confidence. All of these challenges may not be his own doing per se.

    Much stem from the ambition of President Jonathan to control the structures of the party albeit unconventionally. Many interests have been hurt in the process and Tukur is expected to clear the Augean stable. The thinking within the party before now is that you can bulldoze your way to dominance and latter reconcile.

    Because of the influence of the party, this strategy had before now, worked successfully since members did not seem to have an alternative. That was the style of Obasanjo that shunted out the founding fathers of the party. Those who felt their ego was bruised and could no longer stomach the insult, were shown the way out and business continued as usual. That has been PDP for you. They do this because they are sure to win elections even if it is by hook and crook. So it matters little if people leave the party in droves. After all, it prides itself as the biggest party in Africa with a vaulting ambition to rule for the next 100 years. So what difference does it make frustrating foundation members when those angling for a place in the party are not in short supply?

    As usual with this make-shift fence-mending agenda, after Jonathan had captured the party’s structures with impunity, Tukur had to embark on zonal tours during which he was expected to reconcile aggrieved members. But the outcome this time around, has been largely disastrous. Not only were the tours boycotted by key personages in those zones, there was practically nothing to show for it. It was obvious that the old strategy could no longer hold water.

    Those being pacified had become tired of the brazen disregard of the constitution of the party, especially its principles on internal democracy. They were no longer enthused by acts of lawlessness by their leaders only for the same people to turn around to plead for questionable forgiveness. They seemed to be saying that the quick resort to Machiavellian principles of the end justifying the means has to stop. Such were the sentiments Tukur met on the ground that his reconciliation tours turned out a total fiasco.

    The failure was such that the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees BOT Tony Anenih had to embark on his own version of reconciliation tours. His success is also yet to be seen.

    Apparently for want of any credible reason to offer aggrieved members, Tukur took resort to the absurd. He told stakeholders in the north-west zone that PDP is “all about patronage” In his own words, “we are going to dole out patronage to all our members who remain in the party”. This patronage he further explained, will also be extended to members who contested and lost election. He said there is enough to go round every one and that there is no need for any member to leave the party.

    These statements are to say the least, a great disappointment. They cast the PDP as a party with the ‘food is ready for sharing mentality; one whose quest for power is driven by the sole desire to share our collective resources among its members. And in a clime that is characterized by brazen corruption and mismanagement of public funds, Tukur has led us into why this malfeasance has festered. We can now understand why nothing is working in this country despite the 14 years the PDP has been in power. It is now becoming clearer why the EFCC has been unable to successfully prosecute the ex- governors they arraigned for sundry financial misdeeds while in office.

    It is also becoming clearer why the fuel subsidy probe and the fraudulent abuse of the scheme by sundry highly placed persons cannot go far. That is the folly of Tukur’s revelations and it should not be treated lightly.

    It may not be completely out of place for party members to benefit from the government of the day. This could come in form of appointments and contracts provided such contracts were competitively bided and conformed to best practices. But it is reckless to emphatically state as the PDP chairman did that the party is all about patronage to its members.

    Where do we then locate the place of the electorate within such a scheme? This poser is further reinforced when it is realized that the people constitute the ultimate sovereign on whose behalf power is held in trust. When therefore a government in power exists mainly to service the interests of its members, such a government has become a similitude of the salt that has lost its taste. That is the kind of emotions Tukur’s statements evoke about his party. Can any thing good come out of such a warped view of politics and governance? It is doubtful.

    Perhaps, the only ground the PDP chieftain can be forgiven for such a vacuous statement is that he spoke out of frustrations and want of any credible thing to tell aggrieved members.

    This line of argument is further given credence when we call to mind that he had in the same venue, told his audience that the party would face a “heavy war” ahead of the 2015 elections as a new group has come up to pull the rug off their feet. This was an obvious reference to the merger of four political parties ahead of the 2015 elections.

    It may also be for the same reason that he is finding it very difficult to push through the old idea that members could be bruised and disgraced only to turn round to pacify them. Then, the PDP was having a field day. With a multiplicity of weak parties, it was sure to win elections at least at the centre. It could therefore afford to disregard rules, impose candidates and still have its way through the advantage of the power of incumbency. His reference to “heavy war” is also very instructive. It is only hoped that this war will be prosecuted with conventional weapons.

    The emergence of a credible opposition is a very bold statement. And aggrieved PDP members are not oblivious of this heart-warming reality. That is perhaps, why Tukur had to take resort to promising them heaven and earth in a bid to sway them. But the promise is neither here nor there since out of office, the PDP will have nothing to dispense. Aggrieved members may be saying: to hell with your patronage; it is time to pay the party in its own coins.

    After all, you can deceive some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time. I think, the PDP has got this message.

  • Of state pardon and Ribadu’s frustrations

    Fact: Nuhu Ribadu is a frustrated man. He is hardly a happy man, at least outside his small cycle of family and friends. The once fiery anti-corruption czar got frustrated and disappointed on many counts. He was unceremoniously axed from the helms of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2008, a few months after the ascension of late President Umaru Yar’Adua. His then rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) was brought to question and eventually trimmed to a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) – two steps down the ladder. And, in clear manifestation of his oft-stated fears over his job, the man narrowly escaped the assassin’s bullets on two occasions before he managed to escape the borders of the country. He became disenfranchised, exiled and, ultimately, ostracised. But it didn’t come to him as a surprise because he had for long realized that fighting the high and mighty is not without a price on one’s side. “Corruption fights back and it fights dirty!” he often says. No other Nigerian, nay African, is more competent to report on how embedded official corruption and fraud are in the fabric of the society, and how corruption also haunts anyone that attempts to cleanse it.

    Like in a well scripted fantasy novel, President Goodluck Jonathan last week convoked the National Council of States (NCS) meeting to grant state pardon to convicted corrupt former Bayelsa State governor, Diepreye Alamieyesiegha and former managing director of the defunct Bank of the North, Shettima Mohammed Bulama. Nothing is as lethal to Nigeria’s skulking fight against the menace of corruption apart from the move to scrap off the EFCC itself that was hatched by some politicians around 2008.

    Listening to Ribadu commenting on the controversial pardon over the BBC Hausa at the weekend, one hears a voice of a frustrated man. There was discernible anger from the way he responded to the questions about the whole show of shame that is the state pardon jamboree. The tone of the voice alone was enough to tell a story: a story of series of disappointments of man who, like a messiah trying hard to cure his society of odious stench of evils got spikes sprinkled along his path by the same people who should clear thorns and pebbles off the road to a better future.

    The former anti-graft czar has valid reasons to be angry. As he stated, he and his team at the EFCC underwent great difficulties in meticulously investigating these two individuals and, eventually, bringing them to book. It was, for Ribadu, something of joy and celebration when Bulama, and, later, Alamieyesiegha was convicted. Joy not for celebrating another’s ‘misfortune’ but for the fact that the once powerful treasury looters who, over the years, collectively siphoned over $380 billion since independence and stashed them abroad, could now be brought to books to account for their fraudulent past.

    Ribadu’s effort to bring those two figures, and subsequent other corrupt public servants to justice, was something that should be rewarded with the highest honour the country could give an individual. Through the ideas and selfless works of one individual, the global image of Nigeria was greatly embellished, leading to the deletion of Nigeria’s name from FATF’s “List of Non-cooperative Countries and Territories” as well as appreciable debt relief from the Paris Club. To his eternal credit, Ribadu worked with a great deal of self-restraint. Thus, he avoided several financial inducements that came his way, like plague. A story was told of how a notorious internet scammer who duped some Brazilians to the tune of $150 million, fervently begged Ribadu to halve the money and let him go with one portion while he (Ribadu) take the other half. The then EFCC chairman refused and he went ahead to prosecute the man and returned the forfeited money to the people duped. This was neither the first, nor the last in the series of barely known incidences of Ribadu choosing the less treaded path to sincerity and honesty, as against personal interest. Well before his days in the EFCC, Ribadu had once rejected bribe to the tune of N20 million while prosecuting a case of fraud involving some Central Bank of Nigeria and Ministry of Finance officials in the mid-1990s. Indeed, the case of the $15 million Ibori bribe saga, which Ribadu declined, has become a reference point worldwide, for sheer magnitude of the bribe money and highest sense of responsibility exhibited by the target of the bribe.

    However, to the chagrin of anti-corruption campaigners and the global community, the first ‘reward’ Ribadu got from his years of untainted work at the EFCC was a tactical though brazen butt out. Yet, those who engineered his removal from the EFCC were not done yet. They kept masterminding heinous plots to distort the course of his entire life, the height of which was a ploy to send him off the face of the earth.

    But still resolute on seeing that Nigeria is cured of its number one malady – corruption, Ribadu accepted to chair the Petroleum Revenue Task Force, last year. He worked against the odds, including starvation of funds, to bring about a report that unearthed unimaginable level of corruption perpetrated in active connivance with those who should have checked such rip off of the country. However, instead of government taking the committee’s revelations seriously, we saw how an obviously government-backed tragic-comedy was staged to rubbish the report from the day of its presentation. Yet, President Goodluck Jonathan still promised to act on the report. However, six months since the report was turned in, mum is the word from the side of the government.

    The same government that showed this lackadaisical gait in dealing with this clear case of disservice for the nation is now reversing the good works Ribadu did many tears back.

    Typical of the saying that prophets are not valued at home, Ribadu’s honours and accolades often come from the outside. A few months after he escaped the twin assassination attempts, Ribadu secured Senior Fellowship position at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, UK and another offer came from the prestigious Centre for Global Development where he served as a Visiting Fellow. The height of it all was the World Bank’s Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service, the first from Nigeria to fetch such a reputable award.

    Indeed, the Alamieyesiegha pardon-gate has once again brought to the fore the insincerity of the Jonathan administration to fighting the scourge of corruption and fraud in this country. Already, the torrent of criticism from within and outside the country, including – significantly – from the US government, has shown how unpopular this decision is. It amounted to dragging the image of the country to the pre-EFCC days of money laundering, advance fee fraud and impunity. The sooner President Jonathan decides to eat the humble pie, the better for the country.

    •Maikano writes from Kado Estate, Abuja