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Tag: imperatives

  • Ibadan chieftaincy and imperatives of change

    Change, as the only constant in life, has become a universal aphorism. Nonetheless, humans are evolutionarily predisposed to resist change because of the inherent uncertainties. Organizations and people that don’t embrace change are bound to lose ground and stagnate. In the words of a late British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, ‘He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.’

    The hoopla that greeted the move by the Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, to carry out a wholesale review of the existing Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration and other related chieftaincies in Ibadanland because of its touted uniqueness, is nothing short of clinging to primordial sentiments. Nothing captures the hasty criticism from familiar quarters better than the words of John F. Kennedy, who once said that ‘Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.’

    The governor had on Friday, May 19, constituted a seven-member judicial commission of inquiry headed by a retired High Court judge, Justice Akintunde Boade, to review the 1957 Declaration of Olubadan on Ibadanland, which, he said, was no longer in tune with the current realities and modern trend in Yorubaland.

    The commission was saddled with the responsibility of reviewing the existing requirements and qualification for ascendancy to the throne of Olubadan, as well as to review the selection process from the two qualifying lines of Otun and Balogun.

    It was also mandated to look into the possibilities of having more beaded crown Obas in Ibadanland, taking into consideration the present size and population of the city.

    Ajimobi had made it clear that the review was long overdue. The governor said the primary purpose of the review was to facilitate the development, modernisation and effectiveness of the traditional chieftaincy system in the ancient city in particular and across the state in general.

    To disabuse the minds of cynics, he stressed that similar exercises were in the offing across the state, in order to create an enabling environment for active contributions of the traditional institution to the socio-economic development of the state.

    The move by the governor had attracted criticisms. A former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, was the first to raise dust. He was soon to be joined by others.

    Ladoja, the Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland and chieftain of the Accord Party, anchored his vituperation on the same old belief that the tradition of selecting the Olubadan had become long-established and rancour-free and should not be tinkered with.

    To Ladoja, who contested the governorship elections with Ajimobi in 2011 and 2015 and lost, the governor had left ‘other important issues’ unattended to, only to be focusing on the Ibadan chieftaincy.

    Section 26(1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) Cap. 28, Vol. 1, Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria empowers the governor to approve or review Chieftaincy Declaration of any chieftaincy in the state. To this extent, Ajimobi has not gone outside his mandate as far as the proposed review is concerned. With its vast population and cosmopolitan status, I dare to say that Ajimobi’s Ibadan, nay Oyo State, will not cling to antiquated customs no matter whose ox may be gored.

    The germane questions are: Shouldn’t a declaration made exactly 60 years ago be modified, especially if the need arises? Was the declaration not made by a particular government in 1957? Does the fact that no government had attempted to carry out the review mean that it should be left perpetually unattended to? Shouldn’t there be room for dynamism? Is the law so sacred to the extent that no reasonable mortal must dare touch it? Was the Ibadan of 1957 when the declaration was made still the same as we have today? Shouldn’t the status quo, therefore, be challenged to accommodate the changing face of the ancient city?

    It is sheer bunkum to whip up salary arrears sentiment to attempt to blackmail the governor into a state of helplessness over the governance of the state. It beggars belief that supposedly informed people will join the chorus of those suggesting that the governor should abdicate other responsibilities on the account of the four-month salaries arrears. With the ongoing spirited efforts by the governor, the state’s workforce will soon begin to sing a new song to the shame of the traducers of the Ajimobi-led administration.

    It may interest such people to know that Ajimobi is not a lone voice in his call for a review of the Olubadan chieftaincy. Those that have openly expressed similar views were a former governor of Oyo State, Dr. Omololu Olunloyo; renowned historian, Prof. Bolanle Awe; and a former Editor of Daily Times, Chief Areoye Oyebola. They bared their minds at a symposium organised by the state government as part of the activities for the funeral of the late Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade I, held at the University of Ibadan on February 9, 2016.

    These eminent personalities and illustrious indigenes of Ibadan were unanimous in their opinion that the Ibadan chieftaincy declaration needed urgent review ‘to encourage younger, educated and influential men’ to ascend the exalted Olubadan stool.

    In a position paper on the theme of the event, “Issues in Ibadan Traditional Chieftaincy System,” Oyebola noted that the Olubadan chieftaincy system was fraught with complexities. This, he said, had made it impossible for any Olubadan to reign for long. He said it was not in the best interest of modern Ibadan city for a prospective Olubadan to wait for more than 35 years after becoming a Mogaji before becoming an Olubadan; since they must cross 22 or 23 promotional hurdles.

    Contributing to the discourse, Olunloyo said that the Olubadan chieftaincy tradition, Chiefs Law and Subsidiary Laws were replete with contradictions and obstacles that needed urgent review in order to make ascendancy to the Olubadan throne problem-free. Dismissing the age-old mantra about the Olubadan chieftaincy promotion, he said that the process was not without rancour as widely believed. The erudite scholar cited examples of the contention by the Seriki family and Iyalode chieftaincy lines to be accorded due recognition as examples of unresolved issues in the chieftaincy.

    Olunloyo said: “There are six obstacles in the way of an Olubadan. Some of these obstacles are in the Chiefs Laws and some are in the Subsidiary Law. The system is semi-promotional. There was this Akinyo crisis when the late Oba Akinyele wanted to become Olubadan. In fact, what the law even says is that the Olubadan-in-council can choose from the four most senior chiefs in any line to become the next Kabiyesi, not necessarily the most senior. Something must be done to reduce the lines and the rung of the ladder. We also need to remove all obstacles in the Chiefs Law.”

    Corroborating this stance, Awe said that in spite of its touted uniqueness, the Olubadan traditional chieftaincy needed to be rejigged to encourage younger men to become Olubadan. What more can one say?

    It is on record that the late Oba Odugade waited for 42 years after becoming Mogaji before he was installed as the Olubadan at the age of 93. The reigning Olubadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji, mounted the throne at the age of 87 after staying on the queue for 40 years, just to cite the most recent examples.

    The need for more beaded crown-wearing obas aside the Olubadan, is also hinged on the need for the paramount ruler to be assisted in the traditional administration of the city. This will further strengthen the position of the Olubadan as the paramount ruler and imperial majesty in Ibadanland as applicable in Ogun, Osun and Ekiti states.

    Rather than crucifying Ajimobi for taking this bold step, he should be commended and encouraged to extend the exercise to other towns and cities in the state whose chieftaincy laws need similar review. And for genuine and constructive critics, they will have the opportunity of making their submissions in written form before the judicial commission of inquiry when it begins public hearing. For now, let the naysayers sheathe their swords.

     

    • Sadeeq is Senior Special Assistant on Media (Print) to the Governor of Oyo State.
  • Immediate and medium term imperatives for Buhari

    Immediate and medium term imperatives for Buhari

    Text of Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of the nation

    1. Background:

    In April 2015, I sent a short memorandum to you, Sir – then as president-elect.

    We never discussed the memo in detail and I am not even sure you got to read it bearing in mind the levels of human traffic visiting you in those heady days. I crave the indulgence of Mr. President to please read the memo (attached herewith as Annex II) and see how like every aspect of life, the memo was sometimes presciently accurate and at the same time off-target! It is on the basis of that message, and my commitment to write anytime I feel compelled that matters of urgent national importance confront you, that I address this with greatest respect and humility.

    Mr. President, Sir I address this and other past memos with all sense of responsibility for at least three reasons. First, I owe my modest political ascendency so far to you. Without your adoption and trust reposed in me and the recognition you have shown in spite of attacks on my person by some people around you, I will not be where I am today. I remain eternally grateful for this.

    Secondly, Sir, poll after poll in Kaduna State before and after the 2015 elections clearly show that my fate politically and otherwise is uncannily tied to yours. If you do well, I stand to benefit immensely. If you do not do well Sir, whatever I try to do in Kaduna matters little to my present and any future political trajectory.

    Finally, Sir, I am of the strong opinion and belief that you are our only hope now and in the medium term of saving the Nigerian nation from collapse, and enabling the north of Nigeria to regain its lost confidence, begin to be respected as a significant contributor, and not the parasite and problem of the Nigerian federation.

    Mr. President, it is also clear to many of us that have studied your political career, that so long as you remain in the political landscape, no Northerner will emerge successfully on the national scene. All those wasting time, money and other resources to run in 2019 either do not realize this divinely-ordained situation or are merely destined to keep others employed and rich from electoral project doomed for certain failure.

    Immediate and Medium Term Imperatives Page 2

    As I explained to you shortly after your election in April 2015, you have to run again in 2019 if your objectives of national restoration, economic progress and social justice are to be attained in the medium and long term. You must therefore succeed for the good of all of us – individually and collectively, and particularly those of us that have benefitted so clearly from your political ascendance.

    Mr. President, Sir

    As stated in my April 2015 memo, you have inherited serious political, economic and governance problems that you had no hand in creating but now have a duty to solve. These inherited problems were aggravated by the continuing slide in crude oil prices and the renewed insurgency in the Niger

    Delta that reduced oil production by more than 50 per cent! In my honest opinion, we have made this situation worse by failing to be proactive in taking some political, economic and governance decisions in a timely manner.

    In very blunt terms, Mr. President, our APC administration has not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance outside of our successes in fighting BH insurgency and corruption. Overall, the feeling even among our supporters today is that the APC government is not doing well.

    It is in light of all the foregoing that I intend to analyze where we are, and present some suggestions for Mr. President’s consideration and further necessary action in three areas – Politics, National Economy and Governance.

    1. Political Situation:

    Mr. President would recall the tribulations we went through with membership registration, congresses and the first national convention. And with the games played by various groupings within the party, it is correct to assert that you got elected in spite of our party leadership, and not due to its wholehearted support.

    At the moment, with the appointment of B.D. Lawal and Dikko Radda to  executive positions in the Federal Government, we have no more than one or two clear supporters or sympathizers in the NWC out of 20 members. We have no footprint in the party structure today and this situation can remain unchanged until the national convention of 2018!

    Mr. President, Sir

    Your relationship with the national leadership of the party, both the formal (NWC) and informal (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), and former Governors of ANPP, PDP (that joined us) and ACN, is perceived by most observers to be at best frosty. Many of them are aggrieved due to what they consider total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties. This may not be your intention or outlook, but that is how it appears to those that watch from afar.

    This situation is compounded by the fact that some officials around you seem to believe and may have persuaded you that current APC State Governors must have no say and must also be totally excluded from political consultations, key appointments and decision-making at federal level. These politically-naive ‘advisers’ fail to realize that it is the current and former state governors that may, as members of NEC of the APC, serve as an alternative locus of power to check the excesses of the currently lopsided and perhaps ambivalent NWC. Alienating the governors so clearly and deliberately ensures that you have near-zero support of the party structure at both national and state levels. It is not too late to reverse the situation.

    You appear to have neither a political adviser nor a minder of your politics.

    The two officials whose titles may enable them function as such generally alienate those that contributed to our success. The SGF is not only inexperienced in public service but is lacking in humility, insensitive and rude to virtually most of the party leaders, ministers and governors. The Chief of staff is totally clueless about the APC and its internal politics at best as he was neither part of its formation nor a participant in the primaries, campaign and elections. In summary, neither of them has the personality, experience and the reach to manage your politics nationally or even regionally.

    Those of us that look forward to presenting you again to the electorate in 2019 are worried that we need to sort out the party’s membership register, review the primaries system to eliminate the impact of money in candidate selection, and reduce the reliance of the party on a few businessmen, a handful of major financiers and state governments for its operations and expenditures. A surgical operation is needed in party machinery, financing and electoral processes if the future political aspirations we desire for you will not be made more difficult, if not impossible, to actualise.

    Mr. President, Sir

    It is a constitutional reality that to succeed, the Federal Government must work harmoniously with two other arms of government; the National Assembly and the Judiciary. These relationships need improvement as well.

    The relationship with the Senate was marred by the betrayal the party suffered at the hands of many of its members, while the recent ‘padding scandal’ has created tensions with the leadership of the House of Representatives. These challenges are difficult, but not impossible, to fix once the Judiciary concludes the Saraki cases in a timely manner.

    The paralysis within the National Judicial Council in the face of the current worrying state of the Judiciary, compounded by the lack of harmonious relationship with the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the all-important Federal High Court, make the expeditious disposal of the Saraki cases not only unlikely, but puts the administration at risk of a humiliating loss of some key anti-corruption cases. Once again, it is not impossible to reverse the situation.

    Mr. President, Sir

    The public service we inherited is the product of one and a half decades of doing business in the mould of the PDP. The senior public servants are largely corrupt, with a sense of entitlement that they have a first claim on the country’s resources, before any is spent for the benefit of the 99.5 per cent that are ordinary Nigerians (and voters!).

    Persons on director grade today in the federal public service were mere Grade Level 9-10 officers when President Obasanjo took office in 1999, so PDP’s way is the only way they know and are comfortable with. Due to these orientational and ideological differences between the federal public service and what you believe Mr. President, most of them are unable to serve you with integrity, dedication and commitment. We therefore generally have an uneasy relationship with the bureaucracy as well.

    This state of affairs is far more difficult to reverse immediately, but must be attempted if you are to succeed, as no nation develops beyond the capability, competence and capacity of its public service. It is within the realm of both politics and governance that you must navigate to extract the best out of the public service while suppressing its base desires.

    Mr. President, Sir

    This memo started with the state of our politics because it trumps everything else. If we don’t get the political machinery smooth and working, it will be a miracle if we are able to get the economy and governance right. The distraction of genuinely unhappy political actors will affect our ability to face our national problems; we need to pull together in the same direction to resolve them.

    We have been incredibly lucky and successful so far without the support of, and in spite of, the prevailing patron-client political system, Mr. President. We are now in power and in a position to shape our national political culture in your image through active stakeholders and process engagement. We are not engaging at all, and taking things and important matters for granted. The consequences can be negative.

    1. The State of the National Economy:

    Without any doubt, Mr. President, you inherited an economy in dire straits.

    The Yar’Adua-Jonathan administrations not only blew the national savings of about $27bn in the excess crude account (ECA) and ran down over $40bn in foreign reserves they inherited in 2007, but earned and wasted nearly $300bn of oil and gas income between 2007 and 2015. At the time you were sworn into office, ECA was down to some $2bn and net reserves (allowing for swaps, forwards and other set-offs) were less than $20bn with little or nothing to show for it.

    Between 2007 and 2014, we used to earn an average of over $3bn monthly from oil and gas sales and taxes. By May 2016, this had collapsed to about $500 million. Mr. President, it is a simple truism that no nation loses nearly 80 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings without significant reprioritization and painful adjustments. This is a message we have failed to transmit to Nigerians clearly and we must. This, however, is merely the symptom and simplest explanation of our current economic problems.

    However, we cannot, after more than a year in office, continue to rely only on this ‘blame them’ explanation. We were elected precisely because Nigerians knew that the previous administration was mismanaging resources and engaged in unprecedented waste and corruption. We must therefore identify the roots of our enduring economic under-performance as a nation, and present a medium-term national plan and strategy to turn things around. We must persuade Nigerians that they have to withstand the individual pains of today for the collective gains of tomorrow.

    With a clear economic strategy that shows our citizens some light at the end of the tunnel, it is not only easier for them to sacrifice and bear some pain, but enough to highlight the wasted opportunities, wrong choices and suboptimal decisions made by previous administrations. We have no such clear roadmap at the moment.

    Mr. President, Sir

    In this era of global interconnectedness, nations compete viciously in the economic arena – for a larger share of international trade, investments, maritime and aviation services, and a whole raft of knowledge-based services and industries. This competition is neither moral nor fair, even if the advanced nations pretend to present it as such to those that are gullible.

    No one cares about, or will ‘help’ us unless we get our act together and organise our political economy and national affairs to be regionally, continentally and globally competitive. It is not rocket science. In the last 50 years, many countries in Asia (Japan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.), and Botswana, Mauritius and Seychelles in Africa have done it. We can do it within a generation, and we must begin this journey of redesigning our political, economic and governance structures, systems and staffing for superior performance and global competitiveness as soon as possible, under your leadership!

    Mr. President, Sir

    In every crisis there lies an opportunity for fundamental change. The current crisis of reduced oil production, unit prices and earnings, which has led to the deterioration of the exchange rate, escalation of levels of debt and interest rates, and reduced levels of industrial production and employment constitutes an opportunity for our nation to change decades of bad habits and wrong direction in our political economy and governance. This crisis should not be wasted.

    Devoid of all the economic jargon and the many, even conflicting, opinions of the experts, the Nigerian economy suffers from the following fundamental and structural defects that must be addressed for us to move forward:

    1. Oil Revenue Addiction: The nation’s economy, politics and governance are centered around, and focused on distribution of easy oil and gas revenues amongst all tiers of government. The Nigerian economy has therefore been consistently reliant on oil and gas revenues – averaging 90% of foreign exchange earnings and 80% of government revenues, and accordingly characterized by low levels of:
    2. national savings averaging about 15% of GDP evidenced by the low levels of ECA
    3. taxes (5% of GDP versus global average of 20%), and
    4. investment (FGN’s recurrent budget is 107% of its revenues and the capital budget is only nominally 30% of total budget, and is entirely borrowed).
    1. Rentier Economy, Perverse Incentives: Easy oil money creates an unproductive society with weird incentives. Today, our best and brightest people are attracted not to productive endeavors and sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, but ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes particularly in the telecoms, financial services, wholesale and retail trade, and the extractive industries, that appear to offer quick returns without creating jobs, adding very little value or doing little or nothing. A whole generation of Nigerians now believe that not only does corruption pay very well, but that honesty and hard work do not pay at all! This has to change and only you Mr. President has the antecedents to lead this.

    iii.           Persistent Infrastructure Deficits: No society can develop without physical and governance infrastructure. Our consistent reliance on government control, funding and management of the infrastructure sectors has led to persistent inefficiencies, corruption and escalating deficits:

    • Electricity, which is the heartbeat of any modern economy is in very short supply in our country. Currently, we produce less electricity than the city of Dubai. The electricity supply industry whose reforms began in the year 2000, earlier than the reforms of telecoms, is now in serious crisis and nearly at the point of total collapse.
    • Water supply, which is largely under the purview of subnational governments, is also in crisis, exacerbated by the failed participation and intervention of the Federal Government bureaucrats interested only in awarding contracts, collecting kickbacks and not caring if the projects are completed or even feasible in the first place.
    • Transportation – interstate (Federal) roads are generally in a state of disrepair. The national rail system is still the colonial narrow gauge constructed by the British for the extraction of needed raw materials rather than for the encouragement of intranational trade and connectivity. The dual track, standard gauge national railway system initiated by the Obasanjo administration in 2006 has been partly abandoned in favour of piecemeal implementation of sections rather than the integrated programme.

    There is significant potential in the development of inland waterways but there has been no serious effort at seeing the dredging of Rivers Niger and Benue to completion. The aviation sector is largely private and mostly insolvent. Virtually all the major airlines are beholden to AMCON, and their services are poor, unreliable and expensive.

    • ICT infrastructure is slightly ahead of other sectors due to the deregulation and privatization efforts of 2001. We have nationwide GSM system but without full 3G and 4G networks. Furthermore, there is as yet no national fibre optic backbone with redundant satellite back-ups in case of natural disaster.
    • E-Governance infrastructure with a foundation in a national biometric identification system is almost non-existent. While the NIMC is struggling to register 10 million Nigerian adults out of some 100 million, we have wasted billions in parallel biometric ID systems (FRSC, INEC, PenCom, Nigeria Immigration Service, NCC, CBN’s BVN, etc. to mention a few) without a central, validated and rogue-free AFIS engine. The national potential to deploy these data and linking them with GIS, Land administration and tax compliance has therefore not been realised.

    Mr. President, Sir

    It is not difficult to reverse these negative trends and change the narrative to one of a nation with a growing, efficient and well-managed national infrastructure. All the plans and strategies are there. What is needed is political will, technocratic capacity and focus, which you, Mr. President must ensure are present here and now.

    1. Absence of a Clear National Strategy of Export Orientation and/or Import Substitution: Countries like Nigeria with large internal markets tend to first pursue generic import substitution strategies before graduating to some form of export-oriented industrial strategy. Small countries like Singapore are forced by their demographic circumstances to aggressively export to survive.

    It is a matter of regret that with the exception of cement (2003-2007), Sugar (2008 to date) and Automobiles (2012 to date), no clear effort along any of the two strategies has been invested in recent times by governments. Indeed, only the cement strategy initiated by the Obasanjo administration appears to have totally succeeded. Today, our country spends between 45% and 60% of our foreign exchange earnings to import what it should be producing (food and fuel) and exports what we should be processing and refining to add value (Oil, Gas, Cocoa, Oil Palm, etc.). Indeed, Nigeria disgracefully imports for our large domestic market items as varied as Asphalt, Fuels, Rice, Wheat, Milk, Fertilizers, Poultry, Tomato, Fruits, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Motor Vehicles, Motorcycles, Boats, Textiles, Consumer Electronics, Mobile Phones, Laptops and Tablets, etc. This is patently misguided.

    We must plan to produce as many of these as possible for our consumption and export to ECOWAS and the world.

    Mr. President, Sir

    We must therefore take advantage of our large internal market, natural endowments and comparative advantages in agriculture, minerals and human resources to be self-sufficient in food and fuels within your first term of office. It is neither impossible nor unduly difficult to achieve both goals.

    1. Unproductive and Expensive Public Sector: We spend too high a proportion of our national resources on public sector wage bills and overheads. Federal public service salaries increased from about N600bn in 2007 to over N1,800bn in 2015. The total budget of the National Assembly has increased from N59bn in 2007 to N150bn under Yar’Adua and slightly down to N130bn by 2015. Similar situations exist in most of the states and local governments, leaving too little for capital investment in human development, infrastructure and social services.

    Our judiciary today is dysfunctional and generally perceived to be corrupt, with courts of coordinate jurisdiction issuing contradictory rulings and judgments, while the appellate courts appear unable to exercise supervisory and disciplinary control over the lower courts.

    Despite the successful introduction of a contributory pension scheme (CPS) nationally in 2004, the burden of the pay-as-you-go system remains a source of massive corruption and impunity. The CPS now has accumulated over N5,000bn and is considered a global model of a viable pension system. However, the funds are idle and are not being deployed as a source of reliable, long term financing for infrastructure, social development and housing sectors.

    1. Endemic Poverty and Widening Inequality: In the days when we were growing up, public schools were attended by the children of both the high and low. Public health facilities were equally patronized by both the rich and the poor. The quality of these social services and the attendant message of egalitarianism and social justice they conveyed,enabled people of humble backgrounds like you and me, Mr. President, to rise to the higher positions in life depending on luck, ability and hard work.

    Today, the exact opposite is the situation. The danger of this current state of affairs is that we are inadvertently creating successive generations of poorer, barely educated, unskilled, hopeless and angry children of the poor, side by side with increasingly richer, privately educated, skilled and optimistic children of the privileged. It is a demographic and social time bomb waiting to explode as the poor and hopeless youths are easy recruits of insurgents, violent politicians and criminals. Only you, Mr. President will appreciate this danger and do something about it with the urgency it deserves.

    vii.  Failure to Sharpen Competitive Advantage in Service Industries like ICT, Entertainment and Sports: Time and time again in the last 50 years, Nigerians have excelled globally in athletics, boxing, basketball, soccer and weightlifting. Yet we have never developed a national strategy to encourage and deepen our God-given endowments in sports. Indeed, appointment as minister of sports is seen as less prestigious than others.

    The same attitude applies to service sectors like Art and Sculpture, ICT, Nollywood, Kannywood, music and other creative sub-sectors. Nigerian movies are now selling our nation positively and negatively all across Africa and the Black Diaspora. This is an important component of soft power which we have failed to think through, articulate to exploit to create jobs, wealth and prestige for our country. It is not too late to close this gap.

    viii. Fiscal and Monetary Policy Mismatch: Against the background of the aforementioned issues, we seem to consistently suffer from disconnects and mismatch between the Central Bank of Nigeria (that is in charge of exchange rates, interest rates and inflation management) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (that looks after revenue flows, custom duties, tax policy and debt management).

    The consequence of this is the nation suffering from high interest rates set by CBN in order to manage the exchange rate. Interest rates are also kept high to make it easier for FGN through the DMO to sell bonds and keep yields high. These have devastating impact on the real sector and job creation since no business can expand production (and employment) with the kind of interest and exchange rates offered by the banks.

    The banks also find it more attractive to mobilize public sector deposits, purchase risk-free FGN bonds and lend little or nothing to private sector. Mr. President, business activities are shrinking because the private sector is suffering from multiple whammies of deteriorating and unstable exchange rate, high interest rates and dwindling purchasing power of customers.

    Mr. President, Sir. It is neither too late nor impossible to achieve higher levels of policy coordination and consistency. It has been done in the past with the right chemistry between key economic policy centers. It must be done now.

    1. Governance Issues and Challenges:

    Government performance depends on political legitimacy and administrative capacity. It results from sound political vision, courage and the will of the President and other appointed and elected officials, supported by the administrative capacity of the public service. The functions of the public service include analysis of problems and providing advice, coordination of dispersed actors to achieve joint action, the execution and management of policies, and the regulation of the private sector to adhere to the national vision. You have the vision, courage and will, Mr. President. The jury is still out whether your most senior appointed officials share these qualities, and this must change for the better, Sir.

    Mr. President, Sir.

    Our public service today is too expensive, aging, outdated and inadequately skilled to discharge its mandate of providing administrative support to the political leadership. The nearly 600 MDAs at the federal level (and smaller number of counterparts at subnational levels) consume nearly 90% of our national revenues. This is why the FGN borrows over 100% of its capital budget! This is neither fair nor just.

    The 800-page Transition Committee Report (summarized to 80 slides by Bain & Co.) went some way in recommending the merger of Ministries but implementation has been uneven and selective. Prior to this, the Obasanjo administration had done seminal work in merging ministries, (available on request) while the Oronsaye Committee has done some significant work in reducing duplication between parastatals and agencies. There exists therefore enough raw material to begin the needed restructuring of MDAs for optimal performance at the federal level. (Copies of both the Bain Summary and the Executive Summary of the Oronsaye Report are provided with this submission).

    The Machinery of Government, the way and manner the President interacts with the State House, the Ministers and the Bureaucracy, including: the interaction between the Chief of Staff, SGF, Ministers, Special Advisers, Assistants and other aides needs further articulation and communication. It is clear, Mr. President, that the current system is delivering sub-optimal outcomes. A clear evidence of this is the lopsided nature of the appointments made so far, and the absence of any objective selection criteria other than pure chance and closeness to a handful of people around the President.

    Another crisis is likely to be created if the current system (or lack of it) of appointment persists with the composition of boards of parastatals. I have had cause to register my concerns, which also mirrors the grievance of 23 APC Governors, about the way and manner this is being done (see Annex III attached). I am afraid that those that are tasked to do this, that are unwilling to be inclusive in the process, are those that neither knew who did what nor how you got elected, but now determine those who get appointed from the respective states.

    With the greatest respect and humility, Mr. President, neither the Chief of Staff, nor the SGF, his Committee and National Vice Chairman North-West, of the APC know more than the government of Kaduna State, who contributed to our success at state level. For these officials to sit and decide the question of who gets appointed from Kaduna without our input is not only unfair, but likely to result in serious errors of judgment. Mr. President should reconsider and make the process more inclusive by giving the State Governors the opportunity to review what the political masters are doing.

    1. Suggestions for Immediate and Medium Term Action:

    Arising from the points made in earlier sections, I would like to summarize and restate the problems and recommendations for your immediate and medium term consideration. It is my humble opinion that our government appears to suffer from very serious perception problems on at least five fronts:

    1. a) Mr. President, there is perception that our government has been captured by a shadowy public service/PDP cabal such that we have won elections but the country is still run largely by these elements that are hostile to you and to us all.
    2. b) There is a strong perception that your inner circle or kitchen cabinet is incapable, unproductive and sectional. The quality and the undue concentration of key appointments to the North-East and exclusion of South-East are mentioned as evidence of this.
    3. c) There is a perception that your ministers, some of whom are competent and willing to make real contributions, have no clear mandate, instructions and access to you. Ministers are constitutional creations

    Mr. President and it is an aberration that they are expected to report to the Chief of Staff on policy matters.

    1. d) Mr. President, there is an emerging view in the media that you are neither leading the party nor the administration and those neither elected nor accountable appear to be in charge, and therefore the country is adrift.
    2. e) We are facing an unprecedented national economic crisis, but our administration has failed to roll out a coherent response and action plan, or even appeal to our patriotism with a rallying cry to unite and sacrifice in face of the adversity.

    Mr. President Sir, it is the view of many informed citizens that while you are actively fighting corruption, the institutional weaknesses that enabled it to thrive under Jonathan, and the persons that participated in it, and oiled the system are still very much in charge, and many are around you. They also point to the recent appointment of key PDP apparatchiks of a few months back into important advisory and executive positions in the Presidency (National Assembly Adviser, NDDC Board and Cabinet Ministers) while enduring APC loyalists are ignored to make this point.

    These troubling perceptions whether accurate or not must be addressed frontally by you Mr. President, and no other person. It is in light of all these points, arguments and perceptions, and with all sense of responsibility that I make the following suggestions for Mr. President’s consideration, early decision and action:

    • The President must communicate actively and directly with the Nigerian public about his vision – the government’s plans, strategy and roadmap to take the country out of the current, dire economic situation. We need a five-year national development strategy and plan urgently.
    • The President should speak to the nation – something akin to a State of the Union address on December 1 or January 1, preferably in a joint session of the National Assembly during which he will explain away some of the perceptions and lay out the national plans, strategies and roadmap above.
    • Appoint as many of the current NWC members as possible to ambassadorial, executive and similar positions to give way for the restructuring of the party leadership ahead of the mid-term convention.
    • Institute quarterly informal APC leadership council meetings in the State House to host, dine and consult with formal and informal party leaders to discuss and agree the restructuring of the party machinery after some of the actions above are done.
    • Institute quarterly dinner with APC Governors and engaging them on party issues, executive and non-executive appointments and the like.
    • Consider appointing a very experienced and nationally-connected person as your political adviser and bring in Chief Audu Ogbeh as an honorary political counsellor in addition to his executive functions.
    • Constitute an informal task team of State Governors, National Assembly members and Party leaders to review the constitution of the party, assess financing needs, update the primaries system and task all State Governors to finalise the membership register in their respective states in accordance with pre-agreed guidelines, IT platform and biometric standards.
    • Engage constructively with the NJC to impose quick sanctions on clearly erring judges, and appeals to the Judiciary to facilitate the expeditious resolution of landmark corruption cases.
    • Initiate the process of replacement of the leadership and commissioners of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Police Service Commission and other central management agencies of the federal public service, and relaunch a federal public service reform program under the leadership of the minister of finance.
    • Appoint a high profile economic adviser to the President, and constitute a two-level economic team – political level chaired by the VP and technical level consisting of key economic agency heads to do the more detailed technical analysis and present options for decision and action.
    • Initiate sale of expired OMLs to India and China to raise at least $20bn to add to our foreign reserves, stabilise our national currency, and create a fund for future generations to be managed by the Sovereign Investment Authority. Our children must not inherit what the previous administration bequeathed to us, and you can pull it off, Mr. President.
    • Consider the privatization of other non-productive or potentially valuable assets like NIPP, Ajaokuta Steel and Itakpe Iron Ore, the balance of shares in Gencos and Discos, refineries and depots to raise revenues and achieve efficiencies.
    • Accelerate TIN registration to double the number of tax payers to at least 10 million in 2017 and reduce the levels of personal and corporate income tax, while effecting an increase of the rate for value added tax.
    • Commit to a three-year reflationary budget with at least 40% of budget meant for capital projects, supplemented by robust PPP legislation to attract private investments in toll roads, intra-city rail systems, electricity generation and distribution, inland waterways, airports and concessioning of the narrow and standard gauge railway systems.
    • Our entire investment environment and incentive structure needs a holistic review to enable us compete with our neighbors and peers. The investment policy review should prioritize encouraging local and foreign investors and fund managers to bring their capital and expertise to Nigeria.
    • Develop an import substitution and export strategy taking one industrial sector, commodity or product at a time, similar to what was done successfully with cement. The key issue is to identify firms with potential and develop them into national, continental and global champions.
    • Leverage on the fall-out of the padding scandal to scale down the budget of the National Assembly, put every MDA on IPPIS and begin the process of right-sizing the federal public service with the goal of drastically reducing the cost of governance.
    • Constitute an implementation committee for the Oronsaye Report with the mandate to update and bring up modifications as necessary for the approval of the President.
    • Institute a matching grants system that will encourage state governments to invest more aggressively in public education and healthcare to attack and slow the emergence of an inter-generational underclass and systemic inequality.
    • Develop a national plan, strategy and roadmap for the ICT, entertainment, financial services and sports sectors, and appoint high profile ministers to drive the advocacy and implementation.

     

    Immediate and Medium Term Imperatives Page 16:

    • Undertake a surgical operation on the leadership of the budgetary, fiscal and monetary management agencies to resolve conflicts between MDAs, replace tainted and incapable persons, and enable better coordination and policy consistency.
    • Effect personnel changes in the Presidency, the ministries (cabinet and permanent secretaries) and constitute a small team to review all future appointments for competence, capacity, integrity, diversity and inclusiveness.

    I am conscious of the likelihood that my memo may be misunderstood, misinterpreted and even perverted. I am willing to accept the usual accusations of arrogance and ambition, but Mr. President knows that none of these hold water. I ran for state Governor because you directed me to do so. From 2010 when we joined your team, I have no other interest other than your place in history as our President. I believe in your integrity, commitment and sense of duty to make our nation better. I am distressed that our government is seen not to be succeeding mostly due to the failures, lack of focus and selfishness of some you have entrusted to carry on and implement your vision. I am troubled that our own mis-steps have made the PDP and its apparatchiks so audacious and confident. It is time to act decisively, Mr. President. I hope this memo will contribute in some way in regaining our governance momentum.

    Mr. President, Sir. You have both a crisis and opportunity in your hands to turn around our country in the right direction. We pray that Allah gives you the strength and good fortune to succeed. This is an honest, frank and objective view of an admirer, a mentee, and a loyalist. I hope it helps, and I apologise if it displeases you. My duty to you is to tell you the truth as I see it. I have no interest other than the progress of our party, our president, our government and our country.

    Respectfully and most humbly submitted, Sir

    Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, OFR

    Governor of Kaduna State

    September 22, 2016

     

  • The imperatives of economic conference

    The present economic depression presents ample opportunities for Nigeria to look inwards and try to do things differently to obtain different result, like the United States’ Marshall Plan.

    To achieve this all stakeholders in different sectors must be involved-  the old, retired, professionals, and those in government service, the private sector, labour, women, youths, students, the disabled and so on.

    For the country to succeed there must be intermediate, short term and long term plans which must be adhered to in budget implementation (i.e. budget discipline)

    New ideas of doing things must be generated, distilled and debated  while the leadership must be right with discipline, integrity, transparency and accountability without godfatherism.

    There should be a deliberate policy of not exporting raw materials, such should be semi-processed or processed to add value while bodies that will ensure international standards are given necessary resources/gadgets that will make them work effectively.

    It is regrettable that without adequate, current statistical data, planning with all facts will make forward planning and projection impossible or unreliable. Hence those saddled with generating and gathering data should be empowered to do so.

    Nigeria needs to learn lessons from other countries on how they moved from import dependence to export-oriented. India is an example especially in grain production. Japan is an example on how with little or no minerals (unlike Nigeria) after the Hiroshima /Nagasaki bombings in 1945, it has today become a leader in ship building, electronics, fast train, computer etc.  For us to move forward all technological innovations from tertiary institutions should be taken from the archives, adapted and used. The wastages must stop.

    New work ethics must be in place and enforced, good and time tested value system that can help development must be in place thus helping to reduce if not eliminate corruption, spiritual leaders and clerics should help in this direction.

    Truth must be on the front burner and sanctions imposed on those who fall short.

    A conducive environment must be created for investors to be willing to do business in Nigeria. Hence processes to get approval for a business must be streamedlined and reduced with less stress and time, we must create a business–friendly environment.

    My suggestion is that each person must determine to change his/her lifestyle/attitude that does not engender progress. Money collected from looters of the economy should be put in a dedicated account and used for critical areas e.g. infrastructural development etc.

    Finally, it must be realized that the economy needs proper restructuring that reflects true federalism, unviable states need to be merged while local government reforms should start from retraining staff and only people with knowledge and integrity – not mediocres and political parasites.

    God bless Nigeria

    • By Dn. Adelani Akinola

    Ojokoro, Lagos.

  • Imperatives for real development

    The political slogan of the All Progressives Congress (APC), especially during the Presidential election campaign was CHANGE. Interestingly, Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) slogan was TRANSFORMATION. Both slogans mean nothing to many.

    The government must find solution to unemployment through agriculture which played a significant role in Nigeria’s economic development at independence. It has now been relegated to the background especially since the so called oil boom. Gone are the days of cocoa in the west, groundnut pyramids of the north, oil palm in the east and forestry in the Middle West. We need to revamp agriculture to boost the economy by using part of our foreign exchange to do research for sustainable agriculture. A politically independent country that cannot feed its citizens is still in bondage.

    The country’s educational sector is comatose and unless urgent, drastic steps are taken to review the entire educational system (from primary, secondary to tertiary levels) we cannot move anywhere.

    A country  that specializes in marketing of products without investing massively in manufacturing quality products will become a dumping ground for products from other countries. My heart bleeds and I know that other people feel sad and cry inside when I see Kia and Tata vehicles flooding Nigeria. When some decades back Nigeria, India and South Korea were on the similar levels of industrialization. Today, Nigeria can hardly produce vehicles of similar quality as South Korea and India. How did these two countries perform this feat? It was through forward looking, patriotic leadership and followership with vision and tenacity. Nigeria’s oil palm seedlings were taken to an Asian country which today floods Nigeria’s vast market with vegetable oil processed from the seedling taken to that country!

    Nigeria’s land/soil in all parts can produce rice- in large quantity for domestic consumption and export if properly processed (with stones removed and deodorized). The Ofada rice; Bida and Abakaliki rice can be brought back with its attendant positive effect on youth unemployment. Where there is a will there is a way. Nigeria can regain its lost glory in agro industrial revolution where there were textile mills that produced cloths in Kaduna, Lagos, Ado- Ekiti etc. Cotton Production must be brought back and our textile industry resurrected, instead of relying on clothes produced in other countries.

    As a deliberate government policy, every science/technological innovation must be supported (with funds and enabling environment) and its products patronized by government (federal, state, and local governments and even the private sector of the economy).

    Policies of government at all levels should be consistent with successive administration because government is a continuum. Therefore efforts must be made by succeeding administrations to continue policies/projects that are favourable to the populace and such should be mutually reinforcing. For example, in order to reduce deserts encroachment through deforestation, there should be kerosene or cooking gas plus stores at very low prices so that the populace will cook without recourse to felling trees. Also there should be public enlightenment on the adverse effects of indiscriminate tree felling.

    This implies the active involvement/ participation of the people (the beneficiaries) in the conception, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects meant for the common good of majority. Every local government must find ways to increase its generated revenue. In essence any LGA that cannot increase its IGR cannot be said to be viable economically for such depend 100% allocation from federal government.

    All subjects and disciplines have their place in development of a nation. No subject should be looked down because little parts, strands/parts of a thing (cloth) make a whole, just as every part of the body is important and work together for functionality.

    Leadership and management skills are related but not the same. Leadership is sacrifice of time, intellect, skills, resources etc for the betterment of a people.

    Nigerians in May decided to effect a change in governance because of the widespread dissatisfaction with the way things were. President Muhammadu Buhari won the election as a result of the general perception that he is incorruptible and disciplined.

    In the words of John Milton “The childhood shows the man as morning shows the day”. He has introduced steps to curb corruption and impunity in stewardship.

    Let Nigeria reverse the trend of medical tourism to India, Egypt, South Africa, U.K and USA by building credible centres of excellence that will serve the nation creditably while attracting medical tourist to our major cities.

     

    • By Deacon Adelani A. Akinola

    The New Covenant Baptist Church,

    Ojokoro, Lagos.

  • Imperatives of reforming the Land Use Act

    As state governors desperately look for ways to boost their internally generated revenue base, here’s a radical idea for them: Use whatever influence you have at the federal level to push for the removal of the Land Use Act from the constitution, then proactively support those working on getting that piece of legislation reformed, and allow their recommendations to be effectively implemented in your respective states.  With the current system, it is estimated that less than five per cent of housing units have formal title registration. Reforming the land management system will open up the possibility of bringing the remaining 95 per cent of existing housing into the formal title registration loop.

    There is a shortage of affordable housing in Nigeria. Some estimates say we need 14 to 17 million more units than what we currently have. Others say the figure is closer to 40 million. Either way, reforming the land management system will release the choke-hold on private sector urban housing developers who have the ingenuity and the energy to tackle the multimillion housing deficit, which the states’ housing corporations, the states’ ministries of housing and their federal counterparts, are trying valiantly to satiate. Think of what the states would gain directly in increased transaction volume through stamp duties, fees, PAYE, and indirectly through reduced unemployment, increased civic satisfaction and so on. This can be achieved if the bureaucracy is trimmed down, the response times are faster, the process is transparent and the per unit processing cost is reduced.

    Prior to the Land Use Decree of 1978, a dichotomous system prevailed in country. In Northern Nigeria, the land was vested to the governor who then apportioned or utilised it as he deemed fit. One could say it was a form of controlled socialism, in comparison to the free market system adopted in the South. In Southern Nigeria, other than areas selected for public purposes, land was owned by individuals or clans and passed along from one generation to the next. Permission however had to be sought from the governor before land rights could be assigned to aliens. In the absence of a formal titling and registration mechanism, the system in the South threw up endemic problems of multiple sales of the same parcel of land to various buyers. The South also experienced land speculation, problems with acquiring land for public purposes, exorbitant pricing, and the social malaise resulting from the accumulation of land by those who had unjustly dispossessed others of their property. The Land Use Decree was created ostensibly to solve these problems and to install one codified land administration system across the country.

    As can be imagined, the decree was not popular in the South. People accustomed to owning land were effectively turned to tenants via the wholesale transfer of land ownership rights to the governor, and compensation was only paid for developed land or agricultural land. The decree also empowered governors to issue Certificates of Occupancy which would allow the possessor to use a specific piece of land for a pre-defined period of time. And more importantly, the consent of the governor had to be given before any transfer or transaction could be done with the land, (including mortgages or assignments). This specific provision is one of the protagonists causing the current bottleneck in the mass housing industry. The potential quantum of paperwork that this must necessarily involve for a country with over 170 million citizens is mind-boggling. To expect all that paperwork to pass efficiently through the office of 36 people is unrealistic. It is a stumbling block to the proliferation of home ownership and it’s time to make a concerted effort to take the breaks off. In his essay, The Land Use Act: 11 Years After, Dr A. Nnamani, who was the Attorney-General of the Federation in 1978 said, “It seems to me that it is not healthy for the economy that the Governor’s Office should be flooded with these applications for consent.” We should not sacrifice efficiency on the altar of control.ý

    The Land Use Decree was inserted into the 1979 and 1999 constitutions, to make it difficult for it to be revised or repealed. In 2009, President Umaru Yar’Adua established the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform and gave it the task of finding a better way for the country to handle the administration and recording of land ownership, the issuance of titles and the process for registration, as well as other land-related matters.  Professor Akin Mabogunje, the 2009-2011 Chairman of the Committee, described the Land Use Act as “a clog in the wheel of development”.  The Mabogunje Report states that “Although the decree has made it easy for governments to acquire land for public purposes, drastically minimised the burden of land compensation and considerably reduced court litigations over land, it has, since its inception…created a new genre of serious problems for land management in the country.” The report goes on to list at least nine of these problems and in 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan directed the committee to look into the practicalities of reforming the Land Use Act.

    According to the Managing Director of Crusader Sterling Pensions Niyi Falade, “the Nigerian housing sector is currently valued at N6.5 trillion with an annual growth estimation of 10 per cent over the next few years.” Trying to benefit from the untapped potential in the real estate and construction industry without reforming the Land Use Act is like trying to drive a Ferrari with the hand brakes on. Yes, the vehicle will move but its progress will be hampered. Reforming (or, as some would say, repealing) the Land Use Act would be a catalyst for the development of affordable housing on a mass scale.

    However, let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. There are some redeeming features of the Act. Let’s hold on to those while revising the ones that need revising. Updating the Land Use Act will certainly assist in taking us from where we are to where we want to be. It is one of several tipping points available to us as a country for moving millions of people out of poverty. Currently, close to 85 per cent of urbanites live in rented accommodation which swallows up as much as 40 per cent of their salary, if not more. The need for reasonably-priced housing is further compounded by urban migration. People, mainly young adults, are moving out from rural areas into the cities. The population in Abuja is estimated as growing by nine per cent every year. In Lagos, the estimate is three per cent each year. Where will they live? Where will they work?

    At a real estate forum in 2015, the CEO of Lead Capital Abimbola Olashore estimated that the production of just 75,000 homes per year would create “at least 300,000 direct jobs and 488,000 indirect jobs.” Assuming the housing deficit is 17 million units, we would need to build 850,000 units per year for the next 20 years, ceteris paribus. Overhaul the Land Use Act. Unleash the real estate sector. Let the multiplier effect go to work on the economy.

    • Ms. Aboderin is a member of the Institute of Directors.
  • Imperatives of a new political order in Nigeria

    Imperatives of a new political order in Nigeria

    There is so much that has transpired in this nation since the return to civil rule to clearly indicate that Nigerians have learnt nothing from their political history and the mixed experiences since we attained flag independence.

    A few conjectures might be in order to gauge what has coloured the thinking, actions, inactions, reactions and responses of our political elite. It is either they have learnt and forgot to apply the lessons that ruptured the first civilian administration or they have learnt and are unable to implement constructively because the forces of nature have bound the country to perpetual turmoil.

    This nation has so much going for it what with an abundance of vast natural resources and a human resource that is the epitome of resourcefulness, creativity and vibrancy, but all these have counted for nothing due to the prevalence of political groupings that are largely populated by politicians that are motivated by the love of self than the love of country, inordinate and primitive acquisition of wealth. The driving force of the average Nigerian politician is to acquire power without providing services. The goal of most of the politicians who parade the corridors of power is to come out richer than their constituencies at the local, state or federal levels.

    Many of them are ethnic jingoist with false claims as national leaders whose singular interest is to stoke the fire of ethnicism to power their ride to national acclaim where it is a veritable tool for further destruction of the patched national fabric that is straining to hold together a people that mouths national cohesion, while the choruses in their hearts are for the quick dissolution and disintegration of the nation.

    It is a warped mentality that has had profound negative impact on the social, political, cultural and economic development of the country since Nigeria was put together about a hundred years ago. It is apt and pertinent to look at the country with a hundred years already spent and to see if we could look down the road and see another hundred years together as a nation.

    Since the civil war and the abysmally failed attempts to heal the wounds that were inflicted on the nation physically and psychologically, there has been no redemptive moment from the men and women who have aspired over the years to lead the nation. Whether cIadded in the fierce camouflage of sterile khaki or dressed with a false air of flamboyance in agbada or suits, most of the leaders are dealers and thugs defending mandates stolen at gunpoint or in electoral frauds.

    At 100 years a nation cannot claim to be learning anymore. The nation seems to have come a full circle and this is a critical junction to review some of what has happened to us and look for ways out of this endless orgy of violence, insecurity, poverty and underdevelopment and all the vices that are by-products of a country steeped in corruption. With 100 years in our kitty, we should be preparing for a most deserved rest from the work of building infrastructure and raising a generation that will be leading us to the next century.

    Unfortunately, the country is caught in the devastating death throes of peculiar problems from across the country. In the northern parts of the country, there are countless deaths from bomb blasts and other Improvised Explosive Devices that have been perfected by the terrorists in the deadly sect, Boko Haram, and all the other offshoots that are springing up faster than it takes a bomb to explode. The activities of these groups have paralysed commercial and economic engagements in almost every part of the North. It is difficult if not impossible to determine when life will take its normal pace again in that region. The army of youths which were ignored when the North stood over the national space as political colossus has risen to haunt them and there are no answers from even the greatest of the sages in the region.

    The South West of Nigeria known for its stock of people that are highly educated along western standards, there is a dangerous slide in the balance of those with access to education. There seems to be little or no attraction any more for education. Who needs education in a country where there are no prospects for job when you graduate? Why do you need to waste all the years to graduate when there are dropouts with state-of-the-art cars, mansions and cash that they got over night without the benefit of good education? The area boy or miscreant menace is taking roots in this region and challenging all the prim and proper order of the vaunted hierarchical system that took years to build.

    Education, which was the hope for raising the next generation of leaders, has floundered on the rock of massive corruption in the school system. There are no scholarship schemes any more to encourage the outstanding scholars, and where they are available, they are given to the children of people who are already stupendously rich or to their cronies. The schools are hardly maintained as the allocations hardly reach the departments where they are really needed.

    With no region spared of the national malaise, the South South is drowning in the muck of environmental degradation caused by the badly co-ordinated exploitation and exploration for crude oil. No government, since oil was discovered in Oloibiri in present day Bayelsa State, has implemented plans that will bring about reforms in the way business is done and to ensure that there is life for the citizens after oil. Beyond human beings, the flora and the fauna have been damaged. The rich eco-system and the bio-diversity that have sustained marine life are in danger of complete extinction. The anger and disillusionment brought about by the system led to the rise in the kidnapping industry and life has never been the same since.

    But kidnapping has found a most fertile ground in the South East with its thriving republican spirit and the ever- increasing desire to keep up with the Jones and the Jonesses. With a peculiar lifestyle built around the Epicurean philosophy and supported by a trend of buying cars that will be left in garages and building mansions in the village with no intention to live in them, but with the ultimate aim to flaunt current and anticipated status. Kidnapping is seen in the same way as trading. You take a human being like any of the commodities traded in Aba, Onitsha or any of the flourishing commercial centres and trade him off not to the highest or willing bidder, but to the most traumatized.

    The hospitals and clinics still remain mere consulting places were the poor are sent to get their death sentences, while the affluent in the society fly to their hospitals in Europe to receive medical services that are not available in this country. There are more guns in Nigeria today than during the civil war. The tension is even more palpable and can be felt in every open space in the country. The impact is undeniable. There is a damaging brain drain and the attendant high level capital flight that has made a thorough mess of the huge revenue that has been generated in the past.

    There seems to be nowhere to turn to get respite. The air travel is dangerous. Flying across the nation has become so nightmarish as many of what are called planes are just so by names. The highways are death ways that are not even good enough for cargo haulage. The railway coaches and wagons are at best scraps compared with the modern system of railway transportation across the world.

    Over the years, successive governments have spent billions on electricity generation with what emerged becoming more darkness and just about 3000 megawatts of electricity from all the hydro and thermal generation points in diverse locations in the country.

    Every individual has become a government.The rich provide personal security guards to ward off armed robbers who are on the prowl seeking who to maim, kill and destroy.

    The nation is certainly adrift. Although we have never had it perfectly organized from the beginning, it has never been this tattered. Hopefully, there is a way out and it will emerge through a new political order built on trust, discipline, honesty and commitment to national growth and development. It will be devoid of the winner-takes-it-all mentality that is the current craze among politicians today. It will take the initiative of a few men and women of goodwill that must come together to change what has been to what should be.

     

    •Otunba Adebanjo, National Coordinator, National League of Democrats.

  • The imperatives for brand positioning

    The imperatives for brand positioning

    Shelf off-take or consumer engagement of any brand is a culmination of so many activities prior. One of such inputs is brand communication or advertising. Depending on set-objectives, an advertising support can drive target market awareness for brand, help proper brand identification from among competing brands, stimulate tactical sales growth, enlighten target market on new developments, announce reward for patronage or loyalty, answer questions or just simply announce a given brand’s presence. Every campaign effort is capable of achieving so much, depending on set objective.

    Suffice that every campaign effort is objective driven. As a professional, it is the responsibility tied to a campaign or advertising that excites me. A campaign must deliver on its objective. So whether a campaign effort is to be evaluated on its effectiveness, efficiency or appropriateness, it all begins by bench-marking its effect against set objective.

    Advertising or campaign development – from planning to execution – is a logical sequence of activities, frontally. Starting from the client who generates the campaign brief, it runs through a careful and professional distillation of the brief, verification of claims, instructional information bothering on hypothesis contained in the brief. Full throttle on the creative process starts only after due and diligent distillation of the client’s brief, onward concept generation, creative review, process completion, clients’ final check on agency’s proposal, before campaign breaks. It is a whole and very long sequence of so many inputs. It is simply termed a process.

    One would reason that the process is so long and carefully broken down and methodological because of the end-result. As a matter of fact, the primary and immediate consequence of a badly managed campaign planning and development process is its boomerang. A badly or unprofessionally managed creative process results in a campaign that directly attacks own-brand – be it a product, idea, service, etc. It is easier to develop a bad or self-destructive creative end product than a successful one. So, it is instructive that the creative process and sequence of activities is driven through by professionals.

    Again, it seems the process is called a creative process for reasons of its importance, method, sequence, logic and scientific analysis…and so much more. The consequence of a badly managed creative process is better imagined. We at MC&A DIGEST and some others, who share similar burden, have dedicated ourselves to stating rules of advertising, reminding fellow practitioners of the MUSTS of practice, in order to help guide against bad creative products. Bed creative products are lethal, toxic to brands and destructive to investors. Brands handled by non-professionals die, resulting in failed investment and all the ripple effects down the line. Unfortunately, over 80% of brands in the market today suffer from bad creative products of unprofessionally managed development process. Interestingly, the big brands across banks and financial institutions, drinks, telephone services, food & beverages, luxury goods, travel and tours, education, entertainment make up the numbers to a large extent. Increasingly, these big brands have been so badly managed; their campaigns are now negatively posing a problem to the profession. New entrants to the profession of brands management now think what they see are the ideal, instead of what they really are: case study on how not to manage a brand.

    It is for the purpose of correcting this wrong impression we need to properly articulate the ideal situation.

    Every brand support effort in form of advertising or marketing communication must “sell” the given brand as a distinct personality and its offer/promise, to the extent of target audience engagement. It could all start from share of TA mind. For the purpose here, we shall have to skip part of the creative process in this analytical piece, to focus on the very critical element of brand differentiation.

    Basically, marketing is about differentiation. Differentiation underlines the individuality of brand in their totality, at the market place. A brand represents itself among competition at the market place, representing its individuality, with all its character traits, attribute and offer. This community of brands exists in the presence of broad and peculiar similarities that becloud their individuality, in varying degrees. Among brands in same market segment, the similarities are more pronounced. Because brands can only sell on the strength of their individuality, the most important challenge, therefore, is carving any given brand’s individuality, communicate same for the purpose of (1) creating awareness for the brand and its offer, among its target market, (2) establishing a contact or meeting point between the brand and its target market, (3) effectively tell a persuasive story (including the brand’s offer and promise) that will, at least, pull the target market towards trying the brand’s offer, believing it will deliver on its promise. These three target objectives are primary and fundamental to every brand. When a marketing campaign or advertising achieves the above, the brand is established and ready for new targets.

    Unfortunately, however, brand communication or campaigns common today, do not show evidence of appreciation of these basic marketing communication objectives. As mentioned above, inadequate professionalism and/or lack of it, results in creative products that, at best attempt to create awareness for their brands. Even at that, they create the awareness with the wrong effect.

    All kinds of reasons are given for such weak creativity, including size of relatively similar brand offering, near-commodity posturing of competing brands. Asis commonly said, brands in particular market segments share so many similarities, it is almost impossible to successfully achieve differentiation. Take leisure and tours, snacks, carbonated drink market, body care market and recently, energy drink market. Majority of brands in the markets mentioned above are more often to suffer from improper differentiation.

    Consequently, a campaign developed for them neither make concrete promise nor leave the target audience with memorable information that is important for top-of-mind presence, engagement or recall after “initial contact”.

    But, the task of effective and functional differentiation is primary for every creative process. It only requires deep thinking, proper and articulate understanding of the contending issues, scientific, knowing what questions to ask and where to seek what information, ability to properly articulate available information, scientific analysis of market and consumer insight and a very aggressive, bold and purposeful visual interpretation and execution. We do not think there is any brand that cannot be distinguished from competition and be made to stand alone for its offer, peculiarities, and promise and market position. For every brand communication or advertising campaign, the process must establish the operative strategic thrust, the broad creative platform and the brand’s positioning statement. All of these are the creative imperatives that set the focus towards a successful creative execution.

    In sequence, the creative imperatives are derived; derived from a proper application of the creative brief forms, examined at a properly constituted creative review session, seen through by a team of experts intellectually equipped enough to logically and scientifically piece the hoard of information presented at such sessions together, to tell a whole story. The job is completed when the story that emerges at the end of the creative process play out good enough to achieve the marketing and communication/advertising objective, as should be contained in the originating document: THE CLIENT’S BRIEF.

    The missing link and the reason we find majority of ads and campaigns that are empty of substance, ineffective and dangerous, is that this logical sequence is considered too difficult a road to travel, for many people who go about parading themselves as advertising practitioners on the one hand, and those on the clients’ side who have also become too lazy to discern who the true professional is, and how to fit in to the creative process. So many so-called brand managers today cannot read a good brief (not to talk of writing one). Most brand managers/marketing managers/corporate affairs on the clients’ side are not trained for the responsibilities of their offices. Consequently, they corrupt the system from the start point.

    Brands and brands owners must begin to rethink their work system and value preferences, because until the present system changes, casualty in form of failing brands will keep rising.