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Tag: Good riddance

  • Good riddance

    Good riddance

    •Rejection of rotational presidency by the Reps is the way to go

    Good enough that the House of Representatives has shot down the bill seeking to introduce rotational presidency in Nigeria. Perhaps the motive for introducing the bill was altruistic; a bid to ensure that all parts of Nigeria have a sense of belonging, it was surely misdirected.

    In a country where the various people have, at one time or the other complained of being sidelined in national leadership, the representatives thought it wise to reserve seats at the table for each region or zone of the country.

    However, after a fierce debate, last week, the majority rejected the move as unproductive. So many similar moves had been made in the past.

    In the process, section 14 (3) on the federal character principle was inserted into the 1999 Constitution. To strengthen the principle, section 247 that allocates at least one seat in the Federal Executive Council per state was equally enshrined in the grundnorm. Yet, over the 26 years of the Fourth Republic, the federation is not any better integrated than it was ever before.

    The task of promoting unity in diversity that every administration has paid lip service to deserves more detailed and fundamental attention than the superficial treatment it is receiving. Even the states are not more integrated than the federation. In Benue, for example, the Tiv and Idoma are not more united than they were when the Igala were part of the equation. The Idoma claim they are being marginalised by their Tiv neighbours.

    In Taraba, you have the Jukun, Fulani, Tiv  and others always slugging it out, while in Plateau, disputes between indigenes and settlers that have consumed many lives in decades remain the order of the day.

    Even at the local government level, there are shouts of marginalisation among towns and wards. If constituent units are always at loggerheads over sense of belonging, how would rotating among zones be accepted as solution to the crisis at the centre?

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    We are convinced that the way forward is not in changing the law. If Nigeria is to settle for the Swiss model of federation by which each zone is represented in the presidency or the model proposed by the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme at the 1996 constitutional conference, it must be allowed to evolve naturally. Decreeing it into existence could be counterproductive. Since section 247 was incorporated in the constitution, to what extent has it helped in promoting development of the states? What have the ministers supposedly representing the states done to promote sense of belonging in the country?

    When, in the Second Republic, Dr. Ekwueme was the vice president, was the fear of marginalisation allayed? What should be encouraged for now is for the political parties to strictly follow the principle of rotation of federal offices among the zones. When this has been accepted in theory and principle, it could be introduced at the federal level. What Nigeria needs now is competence in governance. The choice should be left to the electorate who will gradually realise that only merit could promote development in the country.

    It is unacceptable that more than six decades after independence, Nigeria appears even more divided than when it was under British suzerainty. The world will not wait for us settling our squabbles, others will continue to move on while keeping our country at the level of producers of basic, raw commodities. Indeed, it is time to wake up.

  • Defections from APC good riddance, says Oshiomhole

    All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman Adams Oshiomhole said that the defection of some Senators and House of Representatives members from the party was better for it.

    He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to him, the defectors do not believe in the ideals of the APC.

    Besides, said the chairman, he would like to build a solid party, which is not just a vehicle for acquiring political office or personal gain.

    Oshiomhole pointed out that the defectors have no electoral value, stressing that Buhari scored more votes than them in their own constituencies.

    Oshiomhole said: “Well, my attitude is, like I have told you before, as the National Chairman, I am committed to listening to very legitimate grievances and engaging all those who are aggrieved that we can see through their grievances. But I insist that I will not miss  sleep one minute over mercenary activities.

    “I had said and I want to repeat, this business of governance must be driven by men and women of honour. If the only motivation is personal interest, what is in it for me, what I have gained, how many people I have done xyz for, if that is the basis, the earlier those in this business of personal gains, the earlier they return to where they belong the better.

    “This party that I am privileged to chair is not worried at all; we are not disturbed. I am not going to miss my sleep and we will go into the campaign. Check the electoral results, you will find that a lot claimed to have decamped on a good day the vote they got that made them members of the Senate, our president got much more votes in their constituency. So, we are not fooled at all.

    “The thing going on is that you have a lot of so called big masquerades with very little and no electoral value. I have tried my best which I think I needed to do to give people comfort, those who claimed to be aggrieved. But those who have other hidden agenda that are not negotiable, I am not going to be able to appease anyone who expects x-level of return and the system is not delivering it, in terms of personal return. I can’t solve that.

    “But those who felt that in terms of within the management of the party they have issues, those ones are on the table it can be dealt with. But those who have issues under the table they are beyond me.”

    The party chief went on:

    “But let me assure you, I am so happy  that over time that water will find its level. Because, if you remember what I said the day I formally declared my interest to contest, I had said, to be a progressive party means we must be clear that it cannot be a party for everyone. We have to be sure that you subscribe to the values and ideals of a progressive party.  If indeed you belong to the extreme right, and you mistakenly find yourself in a progressive party, obviously that is not where you belong.

    “As soon as you realise that you can’t adjust to the requirement of progressive, which is people driven, people based, people oriented and you choose to return to the right wing where you know what the name of the game was, share the money, it is your choice.

    “But, I need to remind you, I am not a poor student of struggle. I am not a professor of struggle; I am a product of struggle, I know what I am talking about. Very soon Nigerians will go to the polls and we will see who will deliver what in his constituency.”

    On the implication of the defection, he said: “No no no. The business of the Senate or the National Assembly is not to legislate for the good governance of APC; it is to legislate for the good governance of Nigeria.

    “If people have chosen that it is more politically convenient to suspend the process of legislation ahead of time because it is not convenient for their political interests and choose to insubordinate the Nigerian national interest for that purpose, it is their choice. If there are implications, it is for the a Nigerian nation, not for APC.

    Speaking on the siege to the residences of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, Oshiomhole said it was a security matter that he could not comment on.

    He said: “When you are dealing with law and order issues, I am not going to stand here and make comment on the basis of your own speculations. I need to have the details.

    “I am not into security apparatus, I do not understand how they operate but you also don’t want to accuse me of obstruction of justice, which a democracy require.

    “So I am going to limit myself to my brief, namely issues that affect membership and the running of the APC. Just to reassure you, I am happy. I have made this point long ago that with time, Nigerians will really have to be able to say, this is what this party stands for, this is what the other party stands for.”

     

    “This is a thing that in the morning you will have breakfast with me, in the afternoon you are having lunch with python and in the evening you are having sugarcane with some other forces, I think in the interest of our nation we need to simplify these issues before the electorate. Because, the confusion is that you have coalition of people whose ideas are not compatible.”

    Oshiomhole added: “To be very honest with you, it is better you formalise where you belong and be properly identified by your father’s name than purporting to bear my name and you are working for my opponent.

    “Every observer, particularly the elite core of the Nigerian media that is represented in the State House, you know that if there has been opposition to this APC government, that opposition has come within he ranks of members of the APC, some in the National Assembly.

    “I mean, how can we be in majority, for example, and we use that majority to elect opposition to take the number two slot in our own party. How could we have been in the majority and the President makes nominations and those nominations are lying on the floor of the Senate and the Senate will not confirm those nominations.  Even if that Senate was formally led by opposition, the issue will be much more clearer but there have become much more complicated when those refusing to confirm the nominees purport to be members of our party. The earlier everybody properly identified where he belongs, in my view, this is it.”

    “It is not in anybody’s interest, certainly not in the National interest that we continue to patch this democracy in a way that birds that are incompatible find itself. The point I have been trying to make is that we need to build a political that goes beyond the platform for election. So if you find that you can’t win because there is body in your constituency in the same party then you jump to other party so that you can win. And once the election is over we wait for the next four years.

    “It will not be worth my while to preside over a national party that is simply an electoral platform.” he said

    On the President’s reaction to the new development, Oshiomhole said: “Ah! You know the President’s spokespersons, talk to them.”

  • Gambia‘s good riddance

    SIR: The nauseatingly relieving image of electorally-deposed erstwhile Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh boarding a private jet on his way to exile in Equatorial Guinea was watched in a mixture of glee and gall   by many. It was finally good riddance to really bad rubbish which disposal had been delinquent for the better part of the last twenty-two years.

    There was glee and indeed tremendous relief because for the first time in over two decades, the long-suffering people of Gambia were able to finally shake off a monkey that had distastefully and disquietingly made its home on their aching backs, piling their woes.

    But   watching him gleefully mount a private jet and   depart for Equatorial Guinea in exile amidst a clutch of other agreements, it becomes glaringly clear that the whole jamboree was a ploy by Jammeh  to force the hands of the Gambian people and the international community to sign off some of his atrocities and give him a seemingly soft landing. Now, he has flown away to Equatorial   Guinea as a guest of a man whose own governance has always been stalked by shadows of autocracy.

    While the hapless people of Gambia would have to stanch their justifiable thirst for justice until the boot slips to the other leg, the   helpless people of Equatorial Guinea must   squirm with discomfort that their own country which has increasingly seen economic and civil spaces closed by an authoritarian regime is   playing host to someone whose atrocities preclude him from returning to his home country for now.

    This whole jamboree for   which the only   good thing seems the breath of fresh air that has berthed in the Gambia without bloodshed is a sad commentary on democracy, democratic institutions and the rule of law in countries whose bloody   history should naturally engender a strong predisposition to the rule of law, but   alas, the opposite is the case.

    Recently, a gaggle of ruthless dictators masquerading under various   democratic contraptions has emerged to add to the ruthless cackle that is aging in spite of the so much bloodshed. Countries that were hitherto walking slowly but steadily towards democracy have found themselves returned to the brink by misguided autocrats masquerading as patriots and  saviors, mouthing democratic deliverance and delivery while adopting views and endorsing actions more suited to the dark days of the dark ages. A reflection on the sad fates of countries like Zimbabwe, Eritrea, DR Congo, Burundi and even Equatorial Guinea tell the difficult story of a people who slumbered at history‘s most crucial hour. This history, however, would someday summon to account those who seemingly   slipped sleeping pills into a people‘s collective brew at a crucial hour.

    Jammeh   might have escaped justice for now and just maybe; he was even surprised by the ceremony under which he went into exile and the few crocodile tears leaked by his sycophantic   supporters. But he must read the weighty books of history and be properly informed and guided   lest he becomes too comfortable in his exilic cocoon and thus presume that the scars of his atrocities against the Gambian people will disappear and his many abuses forgotten and forgiven. Someday and just someday, the very long arms of the law and justice will reach for his public jugular and squeeze it until nothing is left.

     

    • Kenechukwu Obiezu,

    Abuja.

  • Suswam: Good riddance

    SIR: One of the governors who will be handing over on May 29, Benue State’s Gabriel Suswam. His eight years as governor is one the people of the state will never forget in a hurry. Corruption, dishonesty, disregard for the people are common features of his administration.

    The governor prides himself as Mr. Infrastructure, yet, there is hardly any infrastructural development under his watch. With the coming of the rainy season, most of the roads in Benue are impassable due to flooding; farm produce are wasted because there are no roads to transport harvest to the market. This is a state where 95% of citizens are farmers; little wonder there is massive poverty in the state.

    The educational sector suffered immensely under Suswam’s administration. At some point, all arms in the educational sector were on strike for one reason or the other. Primary school teachers went on strike for close to nine months. The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union COEASU) embarked on strike for about eight months. They called it off after they got tired of staying at home without any response from the state government. Right now, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Benue State University Chapter has been on strike for more than two months, and there is no hope of when the strike would be called off.

    Workers in the state have not been paid salaries for more than eight months. The state is at a stand-still, and the governor feels good about it. When the issues of salary payment is brought to the fore, the governor and his retinue of political aides who are feeding fat on the resources of the state will cry out that there is no money. What has been happening to the monthly allocations?

    The governor spent billions of naira on the greater Makurdi water works project. Sadly, until this day, there is no running tap in Benue State. The people live and depend on well water. Those who can afford it, buy water from water vendors. This is the harsh condition the people of Benue State are exposed to. All the industries in the state have wound up since he came on board. The Taraku Oil Mills, Otobi Burn Bricks, Tomatoes Industry at Tarka and the Plastic Industry at the Industrial lay out Markurdi, are all in comatose. The impact these companies would have had on the economy of Benue State, and in the lives of the people are tremendous.

    Under the Gabriel Suswam administration, the debt profile of Benue State has blossomed to an unprecedented level. In 2011, the governor secured a N13 billion bond; in 2014, he obtained another bond of N11 billion. With few months to the expiration of his tenure, the governor sought to obtain a bond of N6 billion, which was thankfully turned down by the House of Assembly.

    With barely three weeks to the handover date, the governor is busying employing workers. What he hopes to achieve with this, remains to be seen. One expects the outgoing government to keep itself busy with preparing handover notes, and not issuing out employment letters to people; people he denied jobs for the past eight years.

    As things stand today, the people of Benue State regret voting for Gabriel Suswam as their governor. In fact, the few days left to handing over is too far to most of them. The exit of Suswam from the political scene is good riddance as far as the people of Benue State are concerned.

     

    • Frank Ijege

    frankijege@yahoo.com

  • Re: “Good riddance”

    SIR: Dear Tunji,You happen to be one of my favourite columnists, which include a sizeable number of those with the Nation newspapers. The above title, which appeared in last Sunday’s Nation, not only made my day, I consider the ideas espoused, therein, scholarly and factual, as they emboldened my long held notion-that leadership in today’s highly sentimental Nigeria, requires a lot of courage if success  is the goal. There is so much to be done with the mindsets of the people constituting a cog in the wheel of progress, even when they pose as party supporters.

    I have my doubt if courage, not a desperate effort to impress OBJ did the trick, finally, on the issue of Oduagate.

    Politicians, with their satanic (not only greedy) desires have constituted themselves as cogs in the wheel of administrative (governance) progress, even when faking as party supporters/party loyalists/friends of government/governor. They make selfish, yet, unsalutary and anti-people demands of government, making governance uneasy and holding governors hostage. This is a dilemma, which makes leadership, in government, a no-go area for the spineless/a person who would rather be a good-boy than step on toes. This President isn’t the no-nonsense type of person, for obviously-understandable reasons.

    You would recall, Tunji, the tumultuous welcome given the APC governments in the south western region. It was, understandably, out of a collective desire for a change from the non-performance of previous years-not anything, whatsoever, to do with political party. The governments started well in what looked like we are “On the march again”, years after our journey to stardom, started by Obafemi Awolowo was brutally truncated, by the military. What do we, now have to show: abandoned projects with haphazard implementations suggestive of remote-controls/sinister motives, here and there. For example, a beautiful road project, over which people had being jubilating, getting stopped abruptly, for no visible reasons, after it has crossed a “big” politician’s community etc, in manners that are most suspicious.

    Permit me to quote for you, one of your passages, most striking to me “he (Mr President), would not have to lose sleep over whether his party’s lawmakers and governors are defecting; all he would lay bare for Nigerians is his score card which should be speaking for him now”. I always believe that this is one strong premise upon which democracy thrives. It reminds me of the River state fellow on Channel TV, (during the recent Rivers/Mbu scenario “talk your own make we talk our own, let the people choose”-here is a grass root person, defining, most- accurately, democracy. What do we have today, here and there: non-performing governors seeking re-election by harassing us with deceitful jingles using their states’ funds.

    I knew and predicted, long before election, that it would be hard, if not impossible for any one born of human to stop the second term bids of Fasola (Lagos) and Adams (Edo). The same would, under normal conditions, happen with Kwankwaso’s Kano, Akpabio and would have happened in Ngige’s Anambra, but for the orchestrated “kidnap” by Raphael Ige. To me, it takes a really bad governor to lose a bid for second term, under normal conditions in Nigeria.

    Truth is that the people know who serve them- politics apart. Chief Awolowo and the LOOBO governors were no angels but their names became indelible in the political history books, all on account of exemplary performance. All of these were possible because an individual/group of men, of impeccable character, were willing to call the shot, in what I call benevolent dictatorship or authoritarianism. We would need to have this if we are to move forward-I know you might quarrel with me, here.

    The Options before APC or any party willing to make a difference and avert a fast-approaching state of chaos is to acknowledge this un-usual fact. Chief Awolowo ordered (NOT advised/appealed to/pleaded with) Ambrose Ali, then governor of Edo, to first pay back the state money he (Ambrose) used to bury his father,(about 500,000 naira ONLY!) into the state treasury, before coming to see him (Chief Awolowo), for further directives-it was like a case of a senior prefect overseeing the lesser prefects. It is the only way to move forward taming the excesses of individuals with anti-people desires/intentions and guarantees, more than any of these gangsterist methods, the electoral fortunes of the political party and the enduring reputation of governors and governance.

    In summary, there must be an impeccable central command structure, respectable and possibly “feared”. That centre must be benevolent, noting also that, unlike in a parliamentary model, what we have, gives enormous powers that can be abused by the unscrupulous.

     

    •Ade Ayeni

    Ade Ayeni

    wuleemu@yahoo.co.uk.

  • Good riddance?

    Good riddance?

    At an elaborate ceremony in Abuja on September 30, President Goodluck Jonathan formally handed over the share certificates and licenses to 14 new core owners of the successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). For majority of Nigerians, the rite of transfer, which effectively signals the dissolution of PHCN, is good riddance, particularly as it is expected to bring to an end the nightmares associated with the firm.

    The truth however is that the transition is actually coming several years late. Indeed, the PHCN, which had come to acquire the sobriquet – Problem Has Changed Name – ought to have been gone, had the Federal Government kept to the letters of the Power Sector Reform Act 2005. The PHCN, a holding vehicle established to manage the assets of the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) pending privatisation should have lasted for months – not years! Now, it has been eight long years since the law came into being, a period during which the outfit not only exhibited the worst vices of its unsung predecessor, but would add its variant of malignancies.

    Nigerians will readily recall that the fortunes of the power sector actually took a further dip during the PHCN interregnum despite the Federal Government’s unprecedented injection of $16 billion into the sector during the period. One of the by-products of that unfortunate era is the situation in which Nigerians would completely lose faith in the ability of the firm to make a difference. As the power situation worsened, so grew the expectation that the government would fast-track the process of privatisation of the unbundled entities to save them from the trauma.

    None of the above would however render last week’s handover event any less historic. Indeed, the ceremony qualifies as a milestone, being the final home stretch of the privatisation programme – the point at which the reform package could truly be said to be irreversible. In a way, it was the moment Nigerians have been waiting for.

    Naturally, the development comes with expectations. In this, we must state that our understanding is that the journey towards an efficient power sector, driven by the dictates of the market with the rules of competition in play has in fact, only just begun. One thing is to be rid of the dysfunctional PHCN; the other is to ensure that the new players actually perform as expected.

    Given the quantum of investment already sunk into the sector, Nigerians have every reason to expect a steadily stabilised power sector in the near term just as it is only natural that there would be technical issues that would have to be managed in the interim as the new owners take over. Some of the initial challenges may warrant the immediate revamping and modernisation of archaic systems of the erstwhile PHCN, as well as the introduction of new equipment to stabilise the system. Nonetheless, the expectation of Nigerians is that the transition would be as seamless as possible.

    Nigerians understand that the journey towards the market-driven power sector as envisioned under the privatisation programme is a long haul. They understand that the destination is robust electricity that is market responsive and primed to deliver value at both ends of the value chain. To the extent that the objective depends on the quantum of investment undertaken by the new operators in the coming years, a lot will also depend on how far the regulator, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, is able to match the pace in terms of proactive regulation to drive the sector.

    In the end, what counts isn’t necessarily the multiplicity of disparate actors but the ability of the operators to deliver uninterrupted power efficiently to homes and businesses.