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Jonathan meets Mark, Tambuwal over N5,000 banknote

President Goodluck Jonathan has met with Senate President David Mark and House Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal on the decision of the National Assembly to reject the introduction of the N5,000 note by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

It was learnt that at the Tuesday night meeting at the Villa, the President expressed worry on plans by the National Assembly, especially the House, to begin Status Enquiry on Capital Projects in the 2012 budget.

But Mark and Tambuwal assured him that the physical tour of projects was not meant to attack the Executive or initiate impeachment proceedings against him.

The President met Mark and Tambuwal after the two chambers of the National Assembly opposed the introduction of the N5,000 note by the CBN.

A source, who pleaded not to be named because he is not allowed to talk to the media, said the Senate President and Speaker insisted that the timing of the N5,000 note was not good.

They also conveyed the feelings of Nigerians that they do not want the denomination, asking President Jonathan not to run against the wish of the majority of Nigerians.

The source said: “The President and the National Assembly leaders had mutual discussion on the arguments for and against the N5,000 note.

“At the end of the day, the President told the leaders: ‘If that is the popular decision of Nigerians, we will advise the CBN to have a rethink of the policy. We will not enforce it because we cannot run against the wish of our people.’

“The President was not too categorical but his body language at the meeting indicated that he might consult with the CBN and the Economic Management Team to drop the introduction of the new note.”

It was gathered that the President was concerned also about the decision of the National Assembly to embark on Status Enquiry on Capital Projects in 2012 budget.

According to another source, the President felt physical verification of capital projects by members of the National Assembly might still be a carry-over of the row between the Executive and the Legislature over budget implementation.

But the Speaker explained that the inspection is designed to assist the Jonathan administration to know the true position of implementation of capital projects.

“We are not out to undermine your administration or move against you,” the Speaker was quoted as assuring the President.

The House also agreed to go ahead with its planned Status Enquiry on Capital Projects in 2012 budget from next week.

This decision was reached at an Executive Session yesterday.

A source said: “As part of our discovery that budget implementation is low, we will begin inspection of project sites as from next week.

“This inspection will be solely financed by the House; we won’t take a penny from the Executive. We want to know whether these MDAs are working on not.

“After the tour, we will be able to determine the true position on the implementation of the 2012 Budget and give Nigerians the accurate percentage of execution.

“We want to ascertain the list of contracts awarded, status of projects and the extent of cash backing.

“This Status Enquiry will also assist us in considering the 2013 Budget due for presentation by the end of this month. The era of abandonment of projects is gone. We will not appropriate funds for abandoned projects.”

September 20, 2012
Fed Govt to scrap agencies next year

•Fuel subsidy scheme to be restructured

Some federal agencies will go next year, it was learnt yesterday. The Federal Government has also initiated steps to streamline the management of the subsidy scheme in the next fiscal year.

This is contained in the 2013-2015 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy paper submitted to the Senate by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The government’s fiscal policy was read by Senate President David Mark, on the floor of the Senate yesterday.

It said pursuant to sections 13, 12 and 11 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, the preparation towards submission of the 2013 Budget to the National Assembly has begun with activities leading to the preparation of the 2013-2015 MTEF and Fiscal Strategy paper.

On the scraping of agencies, it said reduction in the size of government would be achieved through stricter rationalisation of available resources, including sustaining the reduction of overhead votes.

The MTEF said in furtherance of the reform agenda, the Federal Government would also “rationalise the large number of agencies based on the recommendations of the Oronsaye Committee.”

The MTEF said the figure for overhead decreased from N536 billion in 2010 to N266 billion in 2012.

It said overhead expenditure is expected to reduce in 2013 to N230 billion or 4.67 per cent of total expenditure.

The paper said: “In addition, other measures that are being implemented including deferring the procurement of administrative capital: the establishment of a Treasury Single Account (TSA) to manage cash balances better, reduce corruption as well as inefficiency in allocation of resources.

“Government has also introduced the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) to make the process of budget preparation and execution more efficient and transparent.”

It said that the focus of government will continue to be on completing ongoing projects, particularly those with high rate of return.

On fuel subsidy, it said that in the light of the huge amount paid on petroleum subsidy last year, the Federal Government has initiated steps to streamline the management of the subsidy scheme.

The restructuring, it said, will include strengthening the audit and verification process to improve its governance, transparency and accountability.

It said these are expected to yield full results next year, while the Subsidy Re-investment Empowerment Programme (SURE-P.) instrument will continue to be used as an intervention window to mitigate the impact of the partial subsidy removal.

The document said as “government continues consultations regarding future policy on subsidy, some amount is being provided for petroleum product subsidy in the 2013 budget.”

It said in recent times, the recurrent expenditure profile has tended to crowd out capital expenditure.

The increase, it said, can be attributed largely to the rising personnel cost resulting from the increases awarded to civil servants, medical personnel and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) staff since the 2009, as well as the implementation of the Minimum Wage Act 2011.

It described the personnel cost increase as a sensitive issue saying only a holistic approach can generate a viable and sustainable solution.

It said that the diversification of the economy is a critical objective of government “as our over-reliance on oil revenue has hampered the growth of the non-oil segment of the economy.”

On debt profile, it said that as at June 2012, the total external debt stock stood at $6.0 billion.

The Federal Government share of the debt, it said, was $3.8 billion (63.3%), while the 36 states and FCT accounted for the balance of $2.2 billion (36.7%)

Similarly, it said that domestic debt for the same period stood at N6.15 trillion, bringing the total debt to N7.11 trillion which is 17.8 per cent of GDP.

September 20, 2012
Disgruntled presidency?

• Wilful denial cannot vitiate the correctness of the Lagos fuel subsidy removal protests of January

President Goodluck Jonathan is beginning to exhibit a serious dissociation of sensibility syndrome. That ought to bother lovers of democracy; and alarm those who want to deepen democratic culture.

That is the only logical way to interpret the president’s revisit of the January anti-fuel subsidy removal strikes, which for a week grounded the country, before the administration was forced to partially backtrack by somewhat reducing the pump price of petrol.

At the 52nd independence anniversary lecture on September 18 at which John Kuffour, Ghana’s former president was guest lecturer, Dr. Jonathan came out with a presidential old wives’ tale that the Lagos protests were sponsored by some imaginary presidential opponents, using the explosive attempt at complete subsidy removal to unhorse him.

His proof? The demonstrators were served bottled water unavailable to people in his own presidential village of Otuoke; and expensive food that ordinary Lagosians could not afford. Also, Jonathan’s alleged anti-presidential forces hired the cream of musicians and comedians (which by the way, his own presidential campaign organisation had hired to sell his Goodluck Nigeria message) to throw virtual missiles at his office and authority. The sweeping, presidential verdict? “Even to eat free alone attracts people. I believe that that protest in Lagos was manipulated by a class in Lagos and was not from the ordinary people.”

The president is entitled to his own belief, no matter how misguided. That is the legal right of a citizen in a democratic republic. But unlike the ordinary citizen, the Number 1 citizen must be wary of his utterances, which often assume the garb of presidential authority. With the chain of verbal faux-pas to which the president has treated Nigerians, it just might be too much to ask that his utterances must always be rigorous and logical. But at least, they must not be the stuff of which child-like rumours are made.

To start with, the strikes took place nationwide, leading to some heart-warming sights in Kano and Kaduna, where protesting Christians formed rings round praying Muslims, when it was prayer time. Even in Abuja, the president’s base, Labour mobilised the people and it was a grand carnival, as the people peacefully let off their anger at the hare-brained and unconscionable subsidy removal policy – and in January of all months.

Now, if demonstrations took place nationwide, why did the Lagos demonstration alone merit presidential growling, some eight months, and fuel probes, later – probes fast proving that the so-called bloated subsidy payment, which led to the attempted complete removal, could well be illicit payments to fund the electioneering expenses of the federal ruling party?

Besides, if the Lagos strikes were organised by presidential enemies playing high-stake politics, were the same enemies responsible for the protests at Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Ilorin and other major cities nationwide? If not, why the attention on Lagos? Does this president harbour any personal grudge against Lagos and its fiercely republican and irreverent citizens, beyond the perfectly legitimate and legal action of protesting when the pocket hurts?

Besides, in a fit of presidential deviousness, the president would carpet Lagos and its protesters in Abuja, only to hop into a plane to praise into high heavens, celebrating Dr. Tunji Braithwaite at a book launch – Braithwaite incidentally, one of the high-calibre protesters tear-gassed by Jonathan’s security operatives, with legal icon, Prof. Ben Nwabueze? Is His Excellency then playing high-wire politics with his high presidential office?

President Jonathan perhaps deserves sympathy for still being haunted by the epic rebuff of January, which, in any case, he wilfully brought on himself; and has not been able to live down. But no amount of presidential whining can stop freedom-loving citizens of Lagos from legitimate protest. The choice is simple: the president must get out of the kitchen, if he cannot stand the presidential heat.

No amount of ethnic scape-goating can vitiate the legitimacy and legality of the Lagos protests of January.

September 20, 2012
Of fuel and other crises

POOR Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

I wonder what the President will be telling Nigerians on October 1, the National Day. Will he deliver a message of hope to a people who are weary of tightening their belts and enduring more of the pains they are feeling? Will he reel off a long list of achievements – laced with cold statistics and esoteric figures – which the average Nigerian cannot identify with?

In vain have I searched the neighbourhood stores for a loaf of the cassava bread, which has become regular on the presidential breakfast table since it made its debut a few months ago. Those who have been privileged to have a bite tell me the taste is great, but the question remains: when will ordinary folks get the loaf? The You Win – what a name – programme may be a revolutionary tool for addressing poverty among women, but where are the beneficiaries?

These and more may be on the list of the administration’s achievements, but one item that has regularly featured will, without doubt, be missing this time. Fuel.

From Abuja to Sokoto and Kontagora; Calabar and Lagos to Umuahia, the queues are lengthening. A litre costs about N150 in Ekiti and Ondo states. In some parts of the North, it is about N200. Incredible! The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says the scarcity is artificial, caused by inscrutable people who vandalised a pipeline. An attempt to repair the pipeline that was ripped open in Arepo, Ogun State, was resisted and three engineers were killed, the NNPC said. Now, it is using trucks to move fuel.

But, the popular thinking is that the corporation has not told the truth. Our refineries, old, often sick and vulnerable, cannot supply all that we require. And now, marketers who import fuel to bridge the gap are not paid.

The bold attempt to expose and punish those who have turned the subsidy regime into a bazaar of fraud and robbery – every young man with a glittering briefcase and a sharp Oxford Street suit is an oil and gas executive – has somehow compounded the pains it was supposed to remove. The Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has done a lot to separate the original from the counterfeit, but the Ministry of Finance is yet to pay those who have passed the PPPRA test . The banks are holding such marketers by the throat and there is no cash for them to import more fuel. This is where the problem lies.

Marketers are being owed some N100 billion. The debts, according to the Ministry of Finance, are being verified. Can this go on ad infinitum? Do we really have the cash to pay? If we have exceeded the budget for subsidy because we under projected, why won’t Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala go back to the National Assembly to ask for more money? Ego? The fear of what the World Bank will say, having warned about budget deficit and balancing to bring down recurrent expenditure and shore up capital expenditure?

Whatever the situation may be, we need not go back to those days when men slept at filling stations. No. Those who have been found to have defrauded the system should face the law and those whose bills have been verified should be paid right away. Nigerians do not deserve another fuel crisis, considering its agonies.

It is unfortunate that the government blames everything on everybody except itself. Just on Tuesday in Abuja, the President, in a remarkable flashback, blamed the Occupy Nigeria fuel subsidy protests of January on a particular class who he accused of manipulating the crisis. I disagree. When petrol price jumped from N65 a litre to between N138 and N200 on New Year’s Day without a corresponding increase in workers’ pay, the masses didn’t need any prompting to resist what they saw as an act of crass wickedness.

As it was then, the subsidy removal argument remains puerile and galling. The government said it spent N1.3tr on fuel subsidy last year. The cash, it said, should have gone into reviving our dead infrastructure, but it went into some people’s pockets. To end the robbery and make fuel smuggling unattractive, fuel price must go up. Some strange logic. The public kicked, saying: why don’t you go after the fraudsters?

The government, as lethargic as ever, seemed reluctant to seize the suspected criminals. As it dithered about it all, the National Assembly moved in. It set up a probe of the subsidy scam. The exercise has spawned more scandals.

As I was saying, Dr Jonathan recalled the fuel price protests. He said: “There was a demonstration in Lagos…somebody was giving pure water that people in my village don’t have access to, well packaged bottled water, expensive food that ordinary people in Lagos cannot eat. They hired the best musicians to come and play and the best comedians to come and entertain in that demonstration.

“Are you telling me that demonstration is coming from the ordinary masses of Nigeria who want to communicate something to their government …?”

What message was the President trying to pass on? That a spontaneous mob action that will result in cataclysmic losses of human and material resources is better than a peaceful rally to appeal to the government’s conscience that it should never be against the people? That even with the senseless price increase that would have resulted in higher prices of goods and services the people had not had enough?

Didn’t the demonstration achieve its aim, with the roll back of the fuel price and the subsequent exposure of the subsidy cartel? Is it true Otueke – host of a huge construction site that is a federal university, among other projects – folks do not have access to sachet water ? Haba! Mr President, spare us the hyperbole.

The government must look inwards for its enemies – remember the President said Boko Haram had infiltrated the government – instead of blaming every headache and catarrh on the opposition. If the opposition keeps quiet, even as the government fumbles and stumbles, where then will be the place of politics? If Dr Jonathan thinks he is going to get some peace from the opposition, that is building a castle in the air; they will keep pummeling his actions and inaction. He is the one who should convince the world that he has a strategic vision to address all that ails this beautiful country of confounding complexities.

The infrastructural deficit remains as staggering as it was at the inception of this administration – safe for some jump in power supply, which some hawks in high places are trying to reverse with their greed and mercantile disposition.

Apparently tired of it all, lawyers in Abia State, launched a unique protest on Tuesday. They designated the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway a “valley of death” and challenged the state and federal governments to wake up to their responsibilities. The lawyers, decked out in rain boots and their customary black-and-white court dress, marched in Aba right on some of the bad roads. Can it be more bizarre?

Health workers in federal institutions are on strike, pushing for better pay and a more conducive working environment. In aviation, thousands of jobs are gone, even as the government sets its priority on building 11 more airports. What for?

The Jonathan presidency may be remembered not for its creative approach to resolving the numerous problems that assail Nigeria, but for its capacity to –perhaps innocently or deliberately or ineffectually – create more trouble. Perhaps.

September 20, 2012
Presidential pessimism

President Goodluck Jonathan often complains about the professionalism of the Nigerian media. But in his extempore speech of Tuesday, given on the occasion of the 52nd Independence Anniversary lecture under the theme, Nigeria: Security, Development and National Transformation, the president was once again at his bilious and vehement worst. It was a copious speech, and it revealed the president’s inner, and shall we say, vivid and embroidered thoughts. It also unfortunately amplified his difficult relationship with the concept of security, the political part of which interested and disturbed him. He is also apparently unnerved by media comprehension of the freedom of speech and what he describes as its injurious impact on stability and good governance. Overall, Nigerians should be grateful for the president’s often frank eruptions, for, as this column once said, they are a window into his uniquely pessimistic mind and reveal how delicately wired it is.

Crucially, the president addressed two interesting things in his speech: the fuel subsidy protests; and his comparison of the media with Boko Haram. He seems to think that given the charming flourish with which the protests were organised in Lagos in January, they had to be sponsored. It is frightening that even the president underestimates the industriousness of his people and belittles their world-famous skill for innovation and improvisation. This column and others like it in this newspaper have repeatedly told the president that Lagos is very enterprising and quite capable of the most prodigious sort of improvisation. When will he believe us?

The president also compared the Nigerian media with Boko Haram in the following dramatic putdown. Hear him: “And I believe it is not just the media. When we talk about the Boko Haram, we have political Boko Haram, religious Boko Haram and criminal Boko Haram. So also in the media, you have the professional media and the political media. That is why I talk about the political media. Because of the interest of 2015, whatever you do is immaterial, the government must be brought down. And that mentality cuts across most African countries and even outside Africa.” Well, now, according to the president, both Boko Haram and the media seemed to be structured for destructive purposes.

The president’s minders may doubtless have some influence on his written speeches; it is however doubtful whether they can restrain him a little in his high-voltage off-the-cuff remarks. That is the challenge the aides must bear, the cross they must carry. The president must be told that every time he speaks extempore, he indulges his penchant for goofing. If he doesn’t want to be as highly criticised as he fears he has been, or abused as he believes, he must learn to be taciturn and hope we won’t also abuse him for being laconic.

September 20, 2012
Penny dreadful national honours

Hardball is today loth to spoon-feed younger readers. He will leave them to find out what penny dreadful means. For older readers, from whose ranks many of the recipients of Nigerian National Honours come from, penny dreadful is certainly not a strange term.

The old are familiar with it, and more, they can feel an eerie sense of its applicability in the 2012 Honours investiture that took place two days ago for 155 people described fulsomely as eminent personalities. Most Nigerians, if President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, would be kind enough to lend us his idiosyncratic hyperbole, think the honours have been bastardised.

Since 1963 when it began, the awards have gone to over four thousand people, very many of them truly undeserving. Responding to questions over the apparent debasement of the awards and the fact that some awardees have in retrospect proved unworthy of the honours, Jonathan declared: “I have directed that the National Honours Committee compile a list of persons conferred with National Honours but that their current credibility is questionable. If they are found wanting, our prestigious honours will be withdrawn.”

We leave it to you to determine whether the honours are really prestigious, or whether it would not have been far better to tighten the criteria beforehand and ensure that awardees are people duly and rigorously tested in achievement and character. It is an indication of the vulgarisation of the awards, for instance, that they have become predictable for certain classes of people.

It is routine to give it to heads of state and presidents, usually after service or, in the case of Jonathan, during service, whether they deserved it or not. It is now also routine to give it to serving vice presidents, some governors, serving top military and police brass, and as it has become obvious, a few outright charlatans. It has in fact become a tool for dispensing favours, and with each passing year, it becomes increasingly devalued.
No awardee illustrates the bastardisation of the honours as much as the late Gen Sani Abacha, GCON, whose larcenous and libidinous propensity turned Nigeria into an object of international ridicule far worse than the sensuous Mr Silvio Berlusconi occasioned for Italy. Many more recipients have proved unworthy of the awards.

The task for Jonathan, if indeed he is capable of discharging it, is not to simply compile a list of those who have debased the awards or to pussyfoot over it. He has a responsibility to rework the National Honours paradigm away from its present predictability and its deployment as a reward system for those still in government, including himself.

It should worry every Nigerian that, like the honours awards so spectacularly devalued, Nigeria now has governors and presidents who site government institutions and giant projects in their hometowns and villages. In the light of the generally selfless leadership of the First Republic and the decade before, it is a scandal the appalling quality of leaders Nigeria has produced since the middle 1970s, leaders who have no sense of history, no sense of fairness, and no sense of the obligation nobility imposes.

September 19, 2012
Atiku seeks law to prune President’s powers

•Tinubu: INEC must be truly independent

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar stirred a fresh debate on the powers of the President yesterday.

The National Assembly should prune the President’s powers as part of the review of the constitution, he said, because with such excessive powers, the President can easily undermine any institution of the state.

Former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be made truly independent to guarantee free and fair polls.

He advocated a unicameral legislature at the federal level, saying the Senate should be scrapped.

It was all at the Annual Conference and Award Ceremony of the Leadership Newspaper Group in Abuja.

Former Defence Minister Gen. Theophilus Danjuma was presented with the award of “Leadership man of the Year”.

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi was decorated as “Governor of the Year”, among other honours at the occasion.

Atiku said the President is constitutionally the most powerful president in the world. He recalled that he (Atiku) was a victim of the power when his former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, exercised it. He insisted that “it must be changed”.

The theme of the conference was: “Is the opposition a serious alternative in Nigeria?”

Atiku recalled that former Vice President Alex Ekwueme canvassed the creation of geo-political zones. He should have supported Ekwueme had he known that the Nigerian federal structure would be as it is today, with concentration of excessive power at the centre, Atiku said.

The Nigerian judiciary, said Atiku, “is bloated and pro-establishment. He would like to see a judiciary that is the hope of the common man.

The ex-Vice President also advised the National Assembly to pass laws for the adoption of a two-party political system since the ruling party abhors strong opposition.

He added that states that are ready for state police should be allowed to establish them.

Atiku also lamented that there was unnecessary debates and pandemonium over states having their anthems and flags, which is commonplace in the United States.

He urged Nigeria to desist from relying on sharing oil revenue, but to encourage revenue generation.

The former Vice President urged the country to sustain the achievements of the forefathers that didn’t have oil revenue by adopting “a system of distribution rather than sharing.”

On sharing of oil revenue, Atiku said: “I don’t know of any country that developed from sharing.”

He said he followed a debate whether the Niger Delta can survive, like Singapore, without oil, but he is of the opinion that all that is necessary is human capital and good governance for the oil-rich region to be as wealthy as Singapore.

He insisted that he was not a product of oil boom as the scholarship did not come from oil revenue.

National Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Asiwaju Tinubu said to cut cost of governance, Nigeria should adopt a uni-camera legislature by scrapping the Senate.

Tinubu said unless INEC is truly independent, it will always do the bidding of Mr. president, who appoints the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs).

He said: “We gave INEC power and authority to act on our behalf, to be independent from government; why won’t we allow the buck to stop on the desk of the INEC chair? Why will INEC not be able to appoint those in the branches? why will they be appointed by the President who said they will rule for 60 years? How will we have a reliable system? We have struggled for power as opposition and we are ready to wrest power from them.”

But Gen. Danjuma vehemently disagreed with those who complained of a concentration of power at the centre. He said the challenges in the country are not posed solely by the Federal Government but mostly by governors, “who pocket the State Assembly and dissolve local government councils.”

According to Gen. Danjuma, governors of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have retained the right of nominating ministerial candidates.

Pointing to Atiku, Gen. Danjuma said: “You cannot become the President of this country, unless the governors want you. So, the governors are too powerful and until we find solution to it, we are in trouble.”

While condemning opposition parties for not posing a formidable challenge to the ruling party, Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima. He was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Ambassador Ahmed Baba Jida.

Former Minister of Power Paul Onongo warned the country of the impending danger of a break-up which he predicted would come in two years, unless the necessary steps are taken to rescue the country.

“I can even see two years before the war signals. Talk to the bigmen who are enjoying life that they should start sleeping with one eye open.”

Guest Speaker Prof. Pat Utomi argued that there are no political parties in Nigeria but “vehicles for getting own shares”.

He said: “I try not to argue that there is no opposition parties in Nigeria, but all we have is for sharing of the national cake.”

House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal said with good leadership, there is hope for the country.

At the ceremony were Fayemi, Alhaji Maitama Sule, former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, ACN chairman Chief Bisi Akande, Gen. Jeremiah Useni, Minister of State for Power Darius Ishaku, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Senator Lawal Shaibu, Hon. Farouk Lawan, Ndudi Elumelu and others.

September 19, 2012
Political conflict is Nigeria’s greatest challenge, says Jonathan

52nd Independence Anniversary lecture holds in Abuja

The greatest challenge facing the country is political conflict, which distracts a government from pursuing its promises to the people, President Goodluck Jonathan declared yesterday.

He pleaded with Nigerians to allow the government to concentrate in order to deliver.

It was at the nation’s 52nd Independence Anniversary Lecture in Abuja.

According to him, it would be impossible for development to take place without peace and security, stressing that it is the ordinary citizen that suffer during crisis.

Jonathan also spoke on the January Occupy Nigeria fuel subsidy protest, saying it was manipulated by a particular class of Nigerians.

He said: “There are challenges but I believe the greatest aspect of this thing is political conflict. As a typical politician, we believe that the day you win general election is the day you start another election and that is our greatest problem. The day you miss one election is the day you start preparing for another one.”

“I would plead with us as Nigerians that whenever we make government come to power, whether at the local government, at the state and at the federal level, at least for the sake of the country allow the government to work.”

Stressing that the government is committed to transformation, Jonathan noted that his administration has made it possible for Nigerians to vote freely and for their votes to count.

His words: “For this election for example, we advocated for one man-one vote and we are sincere with our commitment and I said it, nobody should rig election for me, no local government chairman or anybody should rig election for me, not to talk about contesting presidential election across the country. Nigerians believe that we are sincere and because we are sincere, it took life of its own. I don’t need to go and preach again, we have monitored election in Edo and other parts and the president said, one man, one vote, one woman, one vote, one youth, one vote and nobody wants to compromise with the ballot paper.”

On the protests against fuel subsidy removal, Jonathan said: “Look at the areas these demonstrations are coming from and you will begin to ask questions, is this coming from the ordinary citizens, are they the ones that are actually demonstrating or are people pushing them to demonstrate.”

“Take the classical case of Lagos, Lagos is the heart of Nigeria because it is where all Nigerians are, it constitutes about 23 per cent of the economy and all tribes are there. There was a demonstration in Lagos where I believe Dr. Ibrahim participated and in that demonstration, somebody was giving pure water that people in my village don’t have access to, well packaged bottled water, expensive food that ordinary people in Lagos cannot eat, they hired the best musicians to come and play and the best comedian to come and entertain, is that demonstration?”

“Are you telling me that the demonstration is coming from the ordinary masses of Nigeria who wants to communicate something to their government and in my own life, if I see that somebody is manipulating something, I don’t listen to you but when I see people genuinely talking about issues, I listen. I believe what happened in Lagos was manipulated by a class of Nigeria not the ordinary citizens,” he said.

Comparing the media in Nigeria with the Boko Haram insurgents, the president said that just like Boko Haram could be categorised as “political” and “religious”, the media could be categorised to “professional” and “political.”

“We have Political Boko Haram and Religoius Boko Haram. Even in the media, we have the professional media practitioners, we have the political media.

The Guest Speaker and former Ghanaian President, John Kuffur, who spoke on the theme: ‘Nigeria, Security, Development and National Transformation.’ maintained that Nigeria was a victim of history.

He said: “I don’t think the nation has fully recovered from the effects of the civil war and the crises of the 1960’s. You are maturing, you are not fully matured.

According to him, the rest of Africa is looking up to Nigeria to overcome its challenges, fulfil its full leadership potentials and lead the continent.

September 19, 2012
Is Mrs. Jonathan ill?

• We wonder why public officials never learn from experience.

MRS Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s First Lady left the country’s shores in cloudy circumstances since the first week of September and the public has been left guessing about her whereabouts and her mission for travelling. Before her latest rove, she noticeably disappeared from public glare after hosting the laughable African First Ladies Peace Summit in Abuja. Consequently, the media have been agog with conjecture regarding her state of health.
We watch with amusement as tales of her alleged food poisoning, ruptured appendicitis to the comical abdominoplasty, a surgical procedure for tightening the abdominal muscles, popularly referred to as tummy tuck rent the air. Some even speculated that she lost her voice and was unconscious at the time she was moved out of the country, reportedly to Horst Schmidt Klinik, Wiesbaden, Germany.
However, Mr. Ayo Osinlu, her spokesman, dismissed all these, ascribing her boss’ overseas travel to the necessity to take a “moment’s rest.” The Presidency has worsened the matter by keeping undignified silence. What is nevertheless clear is that Mrs. Jonathan, also a controversial Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State Civil Service, has some health challenges, which to us, is human.
What is abhorrent is the high secrecy with which the matter is handled as if making the issue a public one will sound the death knell of the president’s wife. This sadly is a repeat of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua episode when even whilst the president was dying, the cabal in the Presidency, still erroneously believed that Nigerians did not have the right to know the state of health of their president.
We have come to realise that leaders hardly learn any good lessons from the past; otherwise, the current hoarding of information regarding the state of health of Mrs. Jonathan is uncalled-for. This symptom is gradually becoming routine in the African continent where leaders conceal their health challenges from public glare even when such is impeding the optimal discharge of the duties they swore to perform.
Nigeria’s political leaders and their families habitually seek luxurious therapeutic attention abroad at state’s expense. The latest overseas adventure of Mrs. Jonathan is just a continuation of this awful trend; that is sadder because the nation has at its beck and call, enormous resources that could have been deployed to provide better medicare infrastructure through prudent management.
Recently too, David Mark, Senate-President, skipped the ceremonial signing of this year’s budget because he was in Israel to seek medical attention for his aching teeth and eye. Yet, Prof. Onyebuchi Nwosu, Minister of Health, reportedly cancelled overseas medical trips by public officers for treatment that could be handled by medical institutions in Nigeria?
At barely 52 as an independent nation, we are not comfortable that no hospital in Nigeria is considered good enough to handle food poisoning, appendicitis or even tooth problem that these two VIPs suffered from. The crass violations of this ministerial order by top ranking government officials and their families constitute an embarrassment to this administration.
Nigeria reportedly expends annually, a colossal amount of $200million on medical tourism. We consider this to be a shame to a country that boasts of over160 tertiary medical institutions that are deliberately under equipped and maintained by powerful elements in government with despicable medical standard.
We wish Mrs. Jonathan quick recovery despite official non-disclosure of where she is or what she is afflicted with. But the question remains: Where is the First Lady? Nigerians deserve to know.

September 18, 2012
Jonathan challenges Judiciary

The Judiciary has been urged to embark on a comprehensive reform to enhance capacity, efficiency and productivity.

President Goodluck Jonathan spoke at the opening of a Federal High Court, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital yesterday. He said this was one of the challenges the Judiciary has to overcome.

Represented by Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio, the president challenged the Federal Court to meet the demands of prompt justice administration and strenghten the faith of Nigerians in the Judiciary.

Jonathan said: ‘’It is the sacred duty of the Judiciary to help ensure stability within the polity through the promotion of the Rule of Law, strict guardianship of the Constitution, and constant and unfailing application of the principles of justice. The Judiciary cannot afford to compromise the essential principles set out in our Constitution to ensure justice for all Nigerians irrespective of their political disposition, tribe and race.

‘’One issue of constant concern to all our compatriots is that the wheel of justice, still grinds rather slowly in our courts. It is instructive, however, that the Federal High Court, has committed itself to turning the wheel faster and this we applaud and hope you will devote time to in your conference. Rest assured that we are prepared to support all efforts to enhance the dispensation of justice.”

September 18, 2012