The Nation Newspaper

Tag: leadership

  • Leadership, accountability: Citizens’ role

    Being the address delivered by Femi Falana (SAN) at the 50th anniversary summit by Movement of Genuine Change in Ilorin to mark the creation of Kwara State

    Redirecting of the Wheel of Statecraft

    The level of poverty in Nigeria provides a fertile ground for the recruitment of the economically ‘un-captured’ to perpetuate wanton ethno-religious violence. The National Bureau for Statistics has stated that about 70 percent of all Nigerians are poor. The solution to this is to massively invest the material resources of the country on development and employment creation. This would mean that the economy is restructured and diversified, corruption is seriously engaged, and the commitment to development is true and central. Second, there will always be individuals that would benefit from divisions and national discord or secession of the country. In this regard, the security system of the state must be ready to arrest and punish this group of individuals.

    There is also the need to empower institutions. The problem with Nigeria is not the lack of institutions but the challenge has always been that the existing institutions have under-performed or have been hijacked, domesticated and used for certain group interests. Such institutions include the electoral body, police, media, judiciary, religious and ethnic based-bodies. The more these institutions are divorced from ethno-religious interests, the more they champion the quest for nation building. Fourth, there is the need for rule of law. Ethnic tensions and resentments would reduce when it is collectively accepted that politics and governance would be guided by the rule of law. Some individuals should not be above the law while others are subjected to the law. The Fourth Republic has been rightly described By Mr. Tony Momoh as de-democratisation rather than democracy.

    The government has a duty to educate and mobilise the people against centrifugal forces. The proponents of dividing Nigeria have always found it easy to list the challenges facing Nigeria such as corruption, poverty, exploitation, marginalisation and infrastructure among others. Yet, they have often failed to state how these realities would be engaged in the new states that they advocate. For instance, is there any critical reason to assume that there would not be exploitation and minorities in a Niger Delta state or in a Biafra? If it is true that some of the unscrupulous politicians that had benefited from the divide-and-rule politics in Nigeria, what is the certainty that they would not do the same in the new states? The ordinary Nigerians must be educated in this regard.

    Nigerians should also be mobilised against centripetal forces in a systematic way. The public must be sensitised to the dangers and consequences of balkanising the Nigerian State. What happens to federal institutions in each state? Where do the non-citizens of the new states go? How will they be catered for in their new states upon return? If they are not catered for, will it not generate another round of neo-secessionist plots in the new states? The answers to these questions should help government in its national mobilisation strategy which should state from primary to tertiary level and must permeate the informal sector. Indeed, the government and its agencies are equally guilty of sabotaging nation building through the implementation of dangerous and ill digested neo-liberal policies and programmes.

    A  dangerous suggestion on nation building was made by the late strong man of Libya, Colonel Maumar Ghadaffi had advised that for there to be lasting peace in Nigeria, the country must be balkanised along ethnic and religious lines. His thinking, largely based on the Huntingtonian clash of civilisation thesis that forecloses any possibility of building a collective national sentiment in a context where there is an on-going warfare and/or violence along the country’s fault lines that divides Nigeria’s Muslims and their Christian counterparts. Simply put: Ghadaffi believed that stability could only be achieved in Nigeria if the country is divided along religious line.  Although Gaddafi got it totally wrong, the task of nation building remains a challenge in Nigeria just as it was in the immediate years of independence.

     

    On the plan to sack

    the civilian government

    A few days ago, the Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai alerted the Nigerian people of the nefarious plans of a bunch  of desperate politicians to invite some members of the armed forces to terminate the democratic process. Although various civil society groups have warned against the dangerous plot, the media and officials of the Federal Government should stop playing into the hands of anti-democratic elements by giving the false impression that there is political instability in the country.  The enemies of democracy must not be allowed to exploit President Buhari’s ill health to truncate the democratic dispensation. In view of the ruination of our economy, the bastardisation of our politics and the devaluation of our national morality by previous military dictators, the Nigerian people must be prepared to reject the coming into power of another fake Salvation Army.

    Notwithstanding the glaring shortcomings of the fragile democratic process, the people should be allowed to take advantage of the democratic structures to effect change. Our bitter experience has shown that Nigerians have opted for political change through the ballot box and not through the barrel of the gun. On their own part the political class should put their house in order and stop inciting  potential coup plotters. While the decision of the Army Chief to alert the nation of the devilish plot is appreciated the authorities should proceed to fish out the coup plotters and their civilian collaborators  to try them for treasonable felony.

    In his last letter addressed to both chambers of the National Assembly, President Buhari disclosed that he was proceeding on medical vacation and that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) would coordinate the affairs of the state pursuant to section 145 of the Constitution. When a senator questioned the letter for not expressly stating that power had been transferred to the Vice President as Acting President he was called to order by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki who promptly directed attention to section 145 of the Constitution. Notwithstanding the timely clarification made by the Senate leadership a section of the media alleged that there was a deliberate plan by a cabal to prevent the Acting President Osinbajo from standing proxy for President Buhari.

    However, in line with the letter transmitted to the National Assembly by President the Acting President has continued to exercise the powers of the President. It was therefore embarrassing when the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was reported to have said that the government was not sure who would sign the 2017 Appropriation Bill into law. A presidential aide categorical stated that the budget would be signed by President Buhari. Once again, the attention of the Nigerian people has been diverted from the contents of the budget. The debate is whether the signing of the budget would be carried out by the Acting President or the President whenever he returns to the country. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the President may sign the bill in his hospital bed!

    Having regard to our recent experience when the budget of the Federal Government was forged by a cabal the legal status of the 2017 Appropriation Bill ought to be clarified. I wish to state, without any fear of contradiction, that once the President has transmitted a letter to the National Assembly that he is proceeding on vacation all presidential powers are automatically transferred to the Vice President who shall be the Acting President. Therefore, until the President writes another letter to the National Assembly at the end of the vacation he cannot exercise the powers of his office. In other words, the President is not competent to sign any bill into law while he is on vacation. The Constitution did not envisage that a President who is on vacation and an Acting President who is standing proxy for him will be exercising presidential powers simultaneously. To that extent, pending the resumption of duties by President Buhari, the Acting President, Professor Osinbajo, is competent to sign all bills validly passed by the National Assembly.

    In view of the way and manner President Buhari has invoked section 145 of the Constitution no aide should embarrass him by causing unnecessary distraction over his medical vacation. Whereas the Constitution allows the President to send a letter within 21 days before sending a letter to the National Assembly he has always transmitted a letter before leaving the country. It would be recalled that when President Buhari returned to the country on February 3, 2017, he directed the Acting President to continue to rule the country as he would not resume duties until three days later when he would inform transmit a letter to the National Assembly. If President Buhari did not exercise powers during his vacation even though he was in the country why would he want to do so while he is on medical vacation abroad? Henceforth, the debate over the President’s medical vacation should centre on the urgent need by the Federal Government to equip some of our hospitals to avoid the disgraceful practice of sending the nation’s leaders abroad for medical attention.

    And instead of dissipating energies over the competence of an appropriation bill signed into law by the Acting President, Nigerians should subject the 2017 budget to scrutiny. Analysis of the budget should not be limited to the National Assembly as the executive branch has equally made budgetary provisions for items that cannot be justified under economic recession. In spite of the nation’s economic recession the National Assembly decided to increase its 2017 budget by N149 billion. The National Assembly jerked up its own budget from N115 billion to N125 billion. Out of the budget the sum of N13 billion has been earmarked for entertainment, travels and transportation by the federal legislators. Other details included do not reflect the economic reality of the country.

    However, the National Assembly deserves commendation for publishing the details of its budget. But the resolution passed to increase the budget is illegal and unconstitutional as the exclusive power of the President to prepare and lay the budget was usurped by the National Assembly. In other words, the legislators illegally prepared some aspects of the budget, laid them before themselves and passed them without any reference to the President. In order to fund the scandalous budget, the Federal Government is shopping for a loan of $3.5 billion! I am compelled to call on the Acting President to refrain from signing the bill into law if the strange items are not expunged and removed by the National Assembly.

     

    Conclusion

    To cushion the effect of the economic recession, the Federal Government should restore the Peoples’ Bank to give loans to indigent citizens who cannot access loans in commercial banks. The Islamic Bank and others which are not going to charge interests should be established. In addition, the Federal Government should spend  the fund  recovered from corrupt public officers and their privies  on job creation and fixing of hospitals and schools as well as the funding of other social services.

    It has to be pointed out that the economy of the country cannot be transformed in favour of Nigeria on the basis of the dangerous prescriptions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nigerians should therefore be prepared to challenge the recycled neo-liberal managers of the economy who continue to insist on the dominance of market forces which have been discredited by the crisis of global capitalism. The Nigerian people should be organised, empowered and mobilised through their unions, associations and collectives to rebuild the country.

     

  • Utomi and the leadership project in Nigeria

    Utomi and the leadership project in Nigeria

    Many would have thought and indeed have asked me repeatedly why I had not celebrated Pat Utomi since I started this series in 2012 given my great admiration for him in a measure that has grown into deep friendship since we met again at a workshop we both addressed about a decade ago. Sometimes in 2016 however, I was compelled, as part of my critical celebration of those I chose to call intellectual heroes and heroines in the Nigeria project, to do a piece on Professor Pat Utomi. In that piece, I referred to him as an avatar and a patriot. I began the article thus: The name of Pat Utomi stands for so many things—teacher, administrator, public intellectual, policy analyst, and entrepreneur. He is unqualifiedly a patriot and my sense of a great mind with an incredible blend of depth and breath. He is an activist that loves Nigeria enough to engage her failings and her possibilities. He is equally a committed elite who does not shy away from rigorous analysis about Nigeria’s political economy. In fact, there is no aspect of Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political landscape that Professor Utomi does not traverse solidly with sufficient evidence and demonstrated knowledge. His boundless energies and intellectual expansiveness places him in the same critical space as Arthur Nwankwo, Ibrahim Tahir, Odia Ofeimun, J. K. Randle, Rasheed Gbadamosi, Chinwezu, Dele Cole, Doyin Abiola, Sonala Olumhense, Olatunji Dare, Jibrin Ibrahim, Ferdinard Agu, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, Issa Aremu, Olusegun Oshinowo, Patrick Okigbo, and if I may, the younger vibrant Abimbola Adelakun, and others, to name just a few who are not just cerebral and scholars in their own right, but could be relied on to articulate definite directions for Nigeria. And the extent of his patriotism is reflected in his desire, however symbolic, to be at the helms of Nigeria’s affairs to direct proceeding.

    But, it seems to me clearer now that the significant essence of Patrick Okedinachi Utomi cannot be contained within one piece. His status as a quintessential public intellectual, amongst many others in Nigeria, is crucial to the understanding of what is needed, again amongst many, to evolve a stable and sustained development paradigm for Nigeria. Nigeria needs her public intellectuals. In that same unassailable logic, Nigeria needs intellectuals in the mould of Pat Utomi who are patriotic enough to continue to write and advocate in the ardent optimism that Nigeria will eventually come out of the woods of postcolonial development and democratic listlessness. In this article, I want to focus on Professor Utomi’s legacy of reflection on the Nigeria leadership and institutional crisis.

    I am not sure that a consummate scholar like Utomi would be fazed by the intellectual dilemma between institution and leadership. This distinction constitutes one of the standard but complex discourses in the social sciences. The essence of the distinction is to see which is primary in the understanding of national development between the leadership factor and the institutional factor. For the advocate of leadership, this seems significant because it takes a leader to facilitate the dynamics of institutional stability and coherence. On the other hand, the theorists of the primacy of institutions contend that there is no leadership that can even ever hope to function with some measure of success if the enabling institution is not available in the first place. How then do we undermine the dichotomy between leadership and institutions seeing that both are required to make a state function optimally in terms of democracy and development? Is it even sufficient to just conclude that both are necessary in nation building, and then move on? Or, is the distinction inherently false?

    It seems to me that Professor Utomi has managed to grasp the two horns of the dilemma between leadership and institutions by not only dedicating his intellectual and policy analyses to the two but by equally working tirelessly to ensure that both constitute the focus of his advocacy for the progressive evolution of Nigeria as a democratic state. In other words, as far as Professor Utomi is concerned, Nigeria’s sociopolitical and economic future cannot afford the sterile discourse on the distinction between leadership and institution. Their relevance in the Nigerian context must be determined by their simultaneous evolution.

    Pat Utomi’s relevance in Nigeria’s public sphere is built around his solid reputation as an intellectual who has mastered the capacity to match postulations with advocacy, and policy analyses with sociopolitical and economic realities of the Nigerian state. We do not have in him an armchair theorist who spews ideas and paradigms that are too far-fetched to enable us make sense of our collective situation and predicament. On the contrary, Professor Utomi’s solid credentials are carved out of a seamless multi-sectoral linkage made up of the private sector, academia, management, and the public sector. The experience accumulated through all these spheres of endeavour tells of an individual who is aware of where he is going. The significant thing for us here is that the very act of going somewhere for Utomi, and unlike the average political elite in Nigeria, is intricately entwined with the Nigerian national project. When he founded the African Democratic Congress party to contest the presidential election in 2011, it becomes clear that Pat Utomi has a greater vision than just the betterment of the self. Of course he failed to win the election, but that is entirely beside the point.

    The point consists in the boldness it requires to inject oneself constantly in the public sphere as a simultaneous act of rebellion and patriotism. Failure at the polls has not in any way dented Professor Utomi’s nationalist ardor. And that is where my interest as a reformer lies. I see a critical similarity between my failed desire to achieve my professional ambition of institutional transformation of the civil service through reform as an expert-insider and Utomi’s incessant denial by our Lilliput’s political elites of critical policy space to translate vision to legacy. Both attempts were attempts to serve in the face of the obvious failure of leadership itself. And such bids arise out of the conviction that something critical can and should be done to rescue the dysfunctional situation in the civil service and in the nation respectively. Reform is a serious business. And only the courageous knowledge worker with expert’s blend of what it takes to balance what it requires as ‘doing the right thing’ and ‘doing it right’ in a manner of speaking, can dare its complexities. Since the logical destination of a reformer is to achieve an office which would constitute what I have called a reform space that permits significant reform imperatives and authority, it stands to reason that a public intellectual like Utomi would eventually desire the office of the president of Nigeria.

    What should concern us is the vision and ideals that defines Utomi’s understanding of leadership. The answer is simple; he is fascinated, at a fundamental level, with the relationship between human dignity, democratic ideals and managerial enterprise, and how these three could facilitate an institutional capacity that can grow development. This explains his long tenure at the Lagos Business School, and eventually the founding of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) whose objective, as the website declares, is “the elevation of the dignity of the human person, beginning from Nigeria. The sense of a great duty and a big burden to improve the quality of life of young people, in our society, by building good values in them, led to the setting up of a Centre for Values in leadership.”

    What I see in the idea of the CVL is a very clever combination of vision and a methodology. The vision to be a centre for leadership development is straightforward and fundamental enough. But there is something more behind it, if my deduction is correct. I read the CVL as a reform space that enables Pat Utomi to ground the culture of value leadership in a crop of youths with the underlying intention of building a leadership culture that is strong enough to undermine what Richard Joseph famously called the prebendal political behavior of the present crop of Nigerian political elite. Since independence in 1960, there has been a gradual but steady dissociation of the ruling elite from the social contract that binds the government to the governed in democratic relations of duties and responsibilities. But with the debilitating intervention of greed and political corruption, the Nigerian state has become a conglomerate of prebends rather than a dynamics of democratic welfare that empowers the citizens. And since a gloomy statistics of youth unemployment constitutes one of the consequences of the short-circuited social contract, what better way to reignite the youthful energies and reinvent the idea of leadership than through a catch-them-young framework of programmes and innovation that reward leadership skills and competences?

    Professor Utomi ought to know because he is a rare intellectual who has consistently remained outside of the dynamics of anomie and corruption that has entrapped the Nigerian elite. Alongside others, Pat Utomi walks a lonely, enervating but patriotic path that seems to require more frustrating energies than what is required to steal some billions from the Nigerian treasury. He belongs to the corps of a few critical intellectuals committed to what I have called “empathetic scholarship” who remain committed to the Nigerian project, no matter what. Patrick Utomi has been celebrated a few times. When he writes, we all pause to listen and ponder his consistent reflections on the Nigerian condition, even though we may not always agree with him. He is one of the bright stars in the firmament of the Nigerian public life. But all these would not really matter if we refuse to take cognizance of his specific brand of patriotism and activism which choose to not only critique the Nigerian condition but to also programmatically build access points from which we can begin to address what is wrong with Nigeria. Professor Utomi chose leadership and values as an entry point into what is wrong with us. And this is significant because it is with the youth, whom the CVL targets, that we can commence a generational reinvention of Nigeria as a nation with budding potentials.

     

    • Dr. Olaopa is the Executive Vice Chairman

    Ibadan School of Government and Public

    Policy (ISGPP)

    Ibadan

    tolaopa2003@gmail.com

    tolaopa@isgpp.com.ng

  • NLC leadership tours affiliate unions

    NLC leadership tours affiliate unions

    •Leadership crisis rocks NUBIFIE

    The Ayuba Wabba-led Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has embarked on assessment tour of affiliate unions.

    Wabba said the  visit would boost the affiliates’confidence and assure them that they are not being left alone.

    He said: “Our movement can prosper in unity if we keep the tradition of unity. We are not unmindful of all the challenges that our workers are going through, such issues as unpaid salaries and allowances.”

    He said so far, the NLC leadership has visited the National Union of Hotels Personal Services Workers (NUHPSW), the Agriculture and Allied Employees Union of Nigeria (AAEUN), the National Union of Academic Technologists (NAAT), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NILGE) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

    He said the union took the step when crisis was tearing the leadership of the NLC affiliates apart.

    The National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) has been engulfed in leadership crisis with two factions emerging. While one is based in Lagos, the other is in Abuja.

    The NUBIFIE crisis might not be unconnected with the difference between the NLC and the United Labour Congress (ULC). While the National leadership operating from Lagos and led by  Comrade Danjuma Musa, was trying to pull out NUBIFIE from the NLC to join the ULC, the Abuja faction, led by Comrade Godling Litkang, said Danjuma, his treasurer and General Secretary have been suspended from the union.

    The crisis has led to the arrest and detention of Comrade Danjuma by the Police for a week in Abuja, but later released through the intervention of Wabba.

  • Reps kick as leadership plans anniversary celebration

    Members of the House Representatives yesterday kicked against the planned activities by the leadership to celebrate the second anniversary of the Eighth House.

    Members at a closed door session yesterday laid out their grievances but the leadership insisted that the huge achievements so far recorded called for celebration.

    The members complained that May salaries had not been paid, while only very few members had received office equipment.

    The biggest complaint was the lack of operational vehicle for members, two years after inauguration.

    The plan to provide Peugeot vehicles were scuttled largely by the inability to provide funds to back up the purchase and the unforeseen increase in the unit price of the vehicles following delays in remitting cash to the supplier.

    But the Yakubu Dogara leadership is forging ahead with its plan for an end of session celebration on Friday to “Enable an Appraisal of two years of the Eighth House Legislative Agenda.”

    The invited include: the President, senate president, Chief Justice of the Federation, Chairman Nigerian Governors Forum, All former Speakers, All former Deputy Speakers, All former Majority Leaders, All former Minority Leaders, among others.

    Yesterday, Deputy Whip Pally Iriase told reporters: “We’ve broken all records. With more than 1155 bills introduced, 159 passed, 33 withdrawn; 500 bills in advanced stages of passage.

    “It is our determination that only motions of critical importance to the welfare of Nigerians  will be given space for consideration.

    “We have also made a great stride with our open budget for the first time which enabled Nigerians and analysts to scrutinize put budget.

    “We found out that they were able to empathize with us that we were able to achieve more with so little,” Iriase said.

    He said before going on break, the House would  focus on critical bills including the anti-corruption bills and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) among others.

    He also said the modernisation process of law making had got a big nod with e parliament aided by electronic voting system for ease of business and accountability.

    According to him, the take-off of electronic voting in the House was held up by technicalities that had been surmounted.

    “We commissioned a consultant and the test run of electronic voting will commence tomorrow (today)”.

    The Deputy Whip also said the cost of the celebration was cut drastically with a N35m budget of which more than half is going into publicity and other media activities.

  • Youths stake claim in leadership

    Youths stake claim in leadership

    Youths from Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Plateau, Niger, Nasarawa states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have stressed their desire to participate in the nation’s political process including running for office.

    The youths aged between 18 and 40 were speaking in Abuja on the platform of The Reformation, a new political group they formed.

    The founder of the group, Ahmed Buhari, who convened the meeting, said the purpose and message of the group was about making the Nigerian youth the central segment of the nation’s electoral process.

    As a result, the group is set to actively participate in the next general elections with a view of contesting at every level nationwide including the presidential poll.

    In his opening remarks, Buhari said it was time for the Nigerian youth to surmount all impediments and be in control of their future with a strong political influence.

    Buhari said youths have the advantage of number, adding, “The march has started but the point is how to get there.

    “As youths, we can come together and shun all those obstacles such as social status, ethnicity, nepotism, among several hindrances that won’t allow us get to the attainment of aspirations. We are here for a shared belief and if you look at some of us, we come from humble backgrounds but we are here today and it is not by allowing those mundane obstacles to get in our way”.

    Speaking further, Buhari said, “What we want Nigerians to know is that it is convenient for the old guard to justify themselves by showing the worst of the youths while displaying the best of the old guard. It is our duty to prove that the Nigerian youth is the solution to the plethora of challenges facing us as we are equipped and ready with fresher ideas and we have the global network to make this a reality. The power of network is the advantage of the Nigerian youth and that is the first step towards bringing to the table the solutions to the perennial problems of non-existent and decaying infrastructure, disgraceful health care service delivery, unbelievable power situation, among others.

    “Since the old guard has stolen our time, we won’t be discouraged, and that was the reason for this movement. What we are doing is for the next generation and it is mandatory for us to prepare a better future for those coming”.

    Buhari pointed out that “the power to change the political future of the country is in the hands of the Nigerian youth, “How it is used is the key.”

     

  • Politics, leadership and accountability: The people’s role

    Being the address delivered by Femi Falana (SAN) at the 50th anniversary summit by Movement of Genuine Change in Ilorin to mark the creation Kwara State

    Introduction

    I congratulate the members of the Movement for Genuine Change on the occasion of the 50th year anniversary of the creation of the Kwara state. I am delighted to participate in the historic celebration by the government and people of Kwara state. Although like other states in the country Kwara state was established for the purpose of bringing the government closer to the people. But it is regrettable to note that over the years the government has been taken away from the people as a few powerful individuals have privatized the state and cornered its resources to the detriment of the people.  It is hoped that this movement will align with other progressive organisations to embark on the mobilization of the people to take their political destiny in their own hands.

     

    Political participation in politics

     

    By virtue of section 14 of the Constitution, sovereignty is said to belong to the people from whom the government shall derive its authority and legitimacy. The welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of the government while the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. Section 16 thereof stipulates that the national economy shall be managed in such a manner that the happiness and prosperity of the people will be guaranteed. But popular participation in politics has been hijacked by a few god fathers and money bags. Candidates are imposed on political parties while elections are manipulated by the ruling political parties.

    To ensure internal democracy in the political parties the Electoral Act, 2010 as amended has provided for the election of candidates through direct and transparent party primaries which shall be monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission. But the provisions of the Constitution, Electoral Act and Guidelines as well as the rules of political parties are breached with impunity by party leaders because politics has been left in the hands of  a few professional politicians. It is high time the situation was changed in the overall interest of the society. The task of changing the course of history has to be taken up by the labour movement and other progressive organisations in the country. But the required mobilisation must include the struggle for popular control and management of the national economy.

     

    The political economy of

    underdevelopment

     

    In April 2014, the Federal Government celebrated the rebasing of the Nigerian economy as the largest in Africa. As the rebasing was largely artificial the economic status of Nigeria has since been reduced due to the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market and the devaluation of the national currency. Although the Federal government was forced to admit that Nigeria was in economic recession last year the masses have always been in recession since the Structural Adjustment Programme was imposed on the nation about three decades ago.

    While the government has predicted that the economic recession would end this year the United Nations has confirmed that 20 million people in 4 countries namely Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are at the risk of starving to death. Nigeria is also far behind many poor nations in several areas of the human development index. In the midst of excruciating poverty confronting the people the government has no concrete empowerment programme that will lead to self reliance for the masses of our people. The paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty requires and understanding of the root cause of our crisis of underdevelopment.

    The Nigerian economy is controlled by market forces in line with the dictates of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It is an economic programme which has destroyed the middle class and reduced the quality of the life of the masses. Since the Nigerian people are opposed to the devaluation of the national currency the dangerous policy has been carried out through the dubious dollarization of the economy. The dollar which exchanged for 60 kobo before the introduction of SAP in 1986 was recently sold for over N500. In spite of the forex scarcity the government has continued to promote capital flight through the importation of goods which can be produced locally.

    With the fall in the price of crude oil the government has engaged in wasting the nation’s reserves on the consumption of foreign goods by the parasitic and corrupt ruling class. As the poor are asked to tighten their belts the system has continued to bail out the rich. The over reliance on the private sector for the development of the country has ruined the economy. Indeed, the private sector is pampered by the system with loans and intervention funds, duty waivers and tax incentives running to hundreds of billions of Naira.

     

     

     

     

    When the huge loans taken from the commercial banks threatened to collapse the economy the federal government set up the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to buy them. The AMCON has found it difficult to recover loans of about N5.4 trillion owed by 50 companies in the private sector.

    Meanwhile, the Peoples’ Bank set up by the federal government in 1989 to provide loans without collaterals to indigent citizens was scrapped in 1992. The judgment of the Federal High Court that the Bank be restored has been ignored by the Federal Government 1. The APC-led government has promised to give N5,000 monthly stipend to 25 million poorest citizens. It has also embarked on a feeding programme for primary school pupils. No doubt, the school feeding programme will increase school enrolment and improve the nutrition of school kids.  If it is properly implemented these tokenistic measures will go a long way to alleviate poverty among the masses.

    It is however my submission that widows, youths and other vulnerable segments of the society cannot be self sufficient during economic recession because of the crisis of capitalism. The crisis is manifested in unemployment, poverty, infrastructural decay and insecurity of life and property. The control of the economy has been left in the invisible hands of market forces. With respect, the control of the economy by market forces is illegal as it violates section 16 of the Constitution which has imposed a duty on the government to plan the economy and take control of the commanding height of the economy.

    As a matter of fact the management of the economy by market forces is fraudulent. How can the State preach the gospel of free market and then turn round to consolidate banks? Does free market allow the State to set up AMCON to take over private companies and manage them due to the failure to pay loans? Does free market authorize the Central Bank to sell dollars to Banks and Bureau De Change operators on a weekly basis? Is it part of free market policy to sell public assets to private investors and then provide them with intervention funds to run them? Or does free market support the granting of duty waivers to the private sector? The grand mismanagement of the economy under the pretext of promoting free market should stop.

    On his arrival from his medical vacation in the United Kingdom during the first week of March this year, President Buhari confirmed that he received the best medical treatment and therefore urged Nigerians to invest in education. The federal government has to lead the way by voting substantial fund to infrastructural development as well as improved funding of health and education with emphasis on science and technology. However, the education of our children should incorporate the teaching of core values of industry, national morality and integrity in line with the provisions of section 19 of the Constitution. In view of the overbearing influence of religion on the masses the leaders of all faith based institutions should stop the practice of celebrating criminality in any manner whatsoever.

     

    Recovery of looted wealth

     

    The ongoing recovery of the nation’s looted wealth should be supported by the masses on the condition that the proceeds of the crime committed against the people by the ruling class will be channeled toward job creation and infrastructural development. However, I am not unaware that sections 20 and 21 of the EFCC Act provide that funds realized from the sale of properties of persons convicted abroad shall be paid to the coffers of the federal government and section 30 of thereof which provides that other recovered loot be paid into the federation account.

    In the first place, the recovered funds have not been traced to the Federation Account. Secondly, section 162 of the Constitution provides that the Federation shall maintain a special account called “the Federation Account” to which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation. It is our submission that recovered loot does not form part of the revenue collected by the Government. To that extent, it cannot be paid to the Federation Account. The recovered loot should therefore be transparently managed and spent on socioeconomic projects by the federal government.

    The Federal Government should stop releasing funds to state governments which are unable to account for the bailout fund and London/Paris club loan refund made available to them to fund the payment of salaries of workers and other development projects. The anti graft agencies have a duty to investigate and bring to book the criminal elements who are alleged to have cornered and diverted the public fund. I call on the labour unions to ensure that the fund is fully accounted for as it was meant to alleviate the suffering of the working people.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Hypocrisy over Islamic banks

     

    The move to licence Islamic banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria has generated negative reactions from a number of Christian leaders. It ought to be pointed out that the establishment of banks by religious bodies is not illegal in so far as they are not run with public funds. In fact, Christian leaders have a duty to support the establishment of free interest banks and other financial institutions. After all, it is clearly stated in Exodus 22:25 that “If you lend money to any of my people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.”

    In tackling poverty among Christians it is also decreed that “if one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him: but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury nor lend him your food for profit 2”.

    In a country where religious institutions are allowed to invest in commercial ventures there is no justifiable reason for mounting opposition to the establishment of Islamic banks which are not going to charge interests. Therefore, apart from stopping the opposition to the establishment of Islamic banks, Christian leaders should set up welfare schemes to encourage the establishment of banks that will make loans available to the poor without charging them interests. This will go a long to alleviate poverty among the poor in the congregation.

     

    Ethno-religious Violence

     

    In December 2015, 347 Shiites were massacred when armed troops opened fire on them in Zaria for allegedly causing a traffic jam which interrupted the movement of the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff.  Instead of calling the murderers to order the Kaduna state government aided and abetted them in the secret burial of the bodies of the slain Shiites in a mass grave in Mango village, near Kaduna.  As if those atrocities were not enough, the Kaduna state government proceeded to demolish the houses of the Shiites leader, Sheik Ibraheem Elzakzaky. Apart from witnessing the gruesome murder of three of their children , Elzakzaky and his wife who were subjected to horrendous brutalisation from the troops have been detained without trial since December 14, 2015. The directive of President Buhari that the criminal elements who perpetrated the orgy of violence be fished out and prosecuted is likely to be sacrificed on the alter of “peace”.

    Having lost his right eye Elzakzaky has applied to seek medical treatment abroad. But the request has been rejected by the State Security Service. In a grand display of impunity the order of the Federal High Court that the couple be released from detention and be provided with accommodation by the government which has rendered them homeless has been treated with disdain. Governor El-Rufai should be advised to direct the Attorney-General of Kaduna State to set the engine in motion for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the well known criminal elements who massacred 347 Shiites and the 204 people in Southern Kaduna. In any country which operates under the rule of law the perpetrators of violence are not treated like sacred cows.

    With respect to the incessant killing of farmers by armed herdsmen in the various parts of the country the federal government should collaborate with state governments to embark on the establishment of ranches and abattoirs in all the states of the federation. Our political class ought to learn from Botswana which is an arid land as the Kalahari desert has extended to the western part. Yet that country which is the largest producer and exporter of meat and meat products in Africa has successfully eliminated clashes between cattle rearers and farmers by establishing ranches and abattoirs.

     

    Redirecting of the Wheel of Statecraft

     

    The level of poverty in Nigeria provides a fertile ground for the recruitment of the economically ‘un-captured’ to perpetuate wanton ethno-religious violence. The National Bureau for Statistics has stated that about 70 percent of all Nigerians are poor. The solution to this is to massively invest the material resources of the country on development and employment creation. This would mean that the economy is restructured and diversified, corruption is seriously engaged, and the commitment to development is true and central. Second, there will always be individuals that would benefit from divisions and national discord or secession of the country. In this regard the security system of the State must be ready to arrest and punish this group of individuals.

    There is also the need to empower institutions. The problem with Nigeria is not the lack of institutions but the challenge has always been that the existing institutions have under-performed or have been hijacked, domesticated and used for certain group interests. Such institutions include the electoral body, police, media, judiciary, religious and ethnic based-bodies. The more these institutions are divorced from ethno-religious interests the more they champion the quest for nation building. Fourth, there is the need for rule of law. Ethnic tensions and resentments would reduce when it is collectively accepted that politics and governance would be guided by the rule of law. Some individuals should not be above the law while others are subjected to the law. The Fourth Republic has been rightly described By Mr. Tony Momoh as de-democratisation rather than democracy.

    The government has a duty to educate and mobilise the people against centrifugal forces. The proponents of dividing Nigeria have always found it easy to list the challenges facing Nigeria such as corruption, poverty, exploitation, marginalisation and infrastructure among others. Yet they have often failed to state how these realities would be engaged in the new states that they advocate. For instance, is there any critical reason to assume that there would not be exploitation and minorities in a Niger Delta state or in a Biafra? If it is true that some of the unscrupulous politicians that had benefited from the divide-and-rule politics in Nigeria, what is the certainty that they would not do the same in the new states? The ordinary Nigerians must be educated in this regard.

    Nigerians should also be mobilised against centripetal forces in a systematic way. The public must be sensitized to the dangers and consequences of balkanising the Nigerian State. What happens to federal institutions in each state? Where do the non-citizens of the new states go? How will they be catered for in their new states upon return? If they are not catered for, will it not generate another round of neo-secessionist plots in the new states? The answers to these questions should help government in its national mobilisation strategy which should state from primary to tertiary level and must permeate the informal sector. Indeed, the government and its agencies are equally guilty of sabotaging nation building through the implementation of dangerous and ill digested neo-liberal policies and programmes.

    A dangerous suggestion on nation building was made by the late strong man of Libya, Colonel Maumar Ghadaffi had advised that for there to be lasting peace in Nigeria, the country must be balkanised along ethnic and religious lines. His thinking, largely based on the Huntingtonian clash of civilisation thesis 3 that forecloses any possibility of building a collective national sentiment in a context where there is an on-going warfare and/or violence along the country’s fault lines that divides Nigeria’s Muslims and their Christian counterparts. Simply put: Ghadaffi believed that stability could only be achieved in Nigeria if the country is divided along religious line.  Although Gaddafi got it totally wrong, the task of nation building remains a challenge in Nigeria just as it was in the immediate years of independence.

     

    On the plan to sack the civilian government

     

    A few days ago, the Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai alerted the Nigerian people of the nefarious plans of a bunch desperate politicians to invite some members of the armed forces to terminate the democratic process. Although various civil society groups have warned against the dangerous plot, the media and officials of the federal government should stop playing into the hands of anti-democratic elements by giving the false impression that there is political instability in the country.  The enemies of democracy must not be allowed to exploit President Buhari’s ill health to truncate the democratic dispensation. In view of the ruination of our economy, the bastardization of our politics and the devaluation of our national morality by previous military dictators the Nigerian people must be prepared to reject the coming into power of another fake Salvation Army.

    Notwithstanding the glaring shortcomings of the fragile democratic process the people should be allowed to take advantage of the democratic structures to effect change. Our bitter experience has shown that Nigerians have opted for political change through the ballot box and not through the barrel of the gun. On their own part the political class should put their house in order and stop inciting  potential coup plotters. While the decision of the Army Chief to alert the nation of the devilish plot is appreciated the authorities should proceed to fish out the coup plotters and their civilian collaborators with a view to trying them for treasonable felony.

    In his last letter addressed to both chambers of the National Assembly, President Buhari disclosed that he was proceeding on medical vacation and that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN would coordinate the affairs of the State pursuant to section 145 of the Constitution. When a senator questioned the letter for not expressly stating that power had been transferred to the Vice President as Acting President he was called to order by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki who promptly directed attention to section 145 of the Constitution. Notwithstanding the timely clarification made by the senate leadership a section of the media alleged that there was a deliberate plan by a cabal to prevent the Acting President Osinbajo from standing proxy for President Buhari.

     

    However, in line with the letter transmitted to the National Assembly by President the Acting President has continued to exercise the powers of the President. It was therefore embarrassing when the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was reported to have said that the government was not sure who would sign the 2017 Appropriation Bill into law. A presidential aide categorical stated that the budget would be signed by President Buhari. Once again, the attention of the Nigerian people has been diverted from the contents of the budget. The debate is whether the signing of the budget would be carried out by the Acting President or the President whenever he returns to the country. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the President may sign the bill in his hospital bed!

     

    Having regard to our recent experience when the budget of the federal government was forged by a cabal the legal status of the 2017 Appropriation Bill ought to be clarified. I wish to state, without any fear of contradiction, that once the President has transmitted a letter to the National Assembly that he is proceeding on vacation all presidential powers are automatically transferred to the Vice President who shall be the Acting President. Therefore, until the President writes another letter to the National Assembly at the end of the vacation he cannot exercise the powers of his office. In other words, the President is not competent to sign any bill into law while he is on vacation. The Constitution did not envisage that a President who is on vacation and an Acting President who is standing proxy for him will be exercising presidential powers simultaneously. To that extent, pending the resumption of duties by President Buhari the Acting President, Professor Osinbajo is competent to sign all bills validly passed by the National Assembly.

     

    In view of the way and manner President Buhari has invoked section 145 of the Constitution no aide should embarrass him by causing unnecessary distraction over his medical vacation. Whereas the Constitution allows the President to send a letter within 21 days before sending a letter to the National Assembly he has always transmitted a letter before leaving the country. It would be recalled that when President Buhari returned to the country on February 3, 2017 he directed the Acting President to continue to rule the country as he would not resume duties until 3 days later when he would inform transmit a letter to the National Assembly. If President Buhari did not exercise powers during his vacation even though he was in the country why would he want to do so while he is on medical vacation abroad? Henceforth, the debate over the President’s medical vacation should centre on the urgent need by the federal government to equip some of our hospitals to avoid the disgraceful practice of sending the nation’s leaders abroad for medical attention.

     

    And instead of dissipating energies over the competence of an appropriation bill signed into law by the Acting President the Nigerian people should subject the 2017 budget to scrutiny. Analysis of the budget should not be limited to the national assembly as the executive branch has equally made budgetary provisions for items that cannot be justified under economic recession. In spite of the nation’s economic recession the national assembly decided to increase its 2017 budget by N149 billion. The national assembly jerked up its own budget from N115 billion to N125 billion. Out of the budget the sum of N13 billion has been earmarked for entertainment, travels and transportation by the federal legislators. Other details include do not reflect the economic reality of the country.

     

    However, the national assembly deserves commendation for publishing the details of its budget. But the resolution passed to increase the budget is illegal and unconstitutional as the exclusive power of the President to prepare and lay the budget was usurped by the national assembly. In other words, the legislators illegally prepared some aspects of the budget, laid them before themselves and passed them without any reference to the President. In order to fund the scandalous budget the federal government is shopping for a loan of $3.5 billion! I am compelled to call on the Acting President to refrain from signing the bill into law if the strange items are not expunged and removed by the national assembly.

     

    Conclusion

     

    In order to cushion the effect of the economic recession the federal government should restore the Peoples’ Bank to give loans to indigent citizens who cannot access loans in commercial banks. The Islamic Bank and others which are not going to charge interests should be established. In addition, the federal government should spend  the fund  recovered from corrupt public officers and their privies  on job creation and fixing of hospitals and schools as well as the funding of other social services.

     

    It has to be pointed out that the economy of the country cannot be transformed in favour of Nigeria on the basis of the dangerous prescriptions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Nigerians should therefore be prepared to challenge the recycled neo-liberal managers of the economy who continue to insist on the dominance of market forces which have been discredited by the crisis of global capitalism. The Nigerian people should be organized, empowered and mobilized through their unions, associations and collectives to rebuild the country.

     

     

     

    (Footnotes)

     

    1

     

    See Femi Falana v Attorney-General of the Federation (Unreported) Suit No: FHC/L/CS/1121/2001 delivered on June 20,, 2014.

     

    2

     

    Leviticus 25: 35-3

    7

     

    3

     

    Huntington, 1996, 1993a; 1993b

     

  • ‘I believe in participatory leadership’

    ‘I believe in participatory leadership’

    Johnson Chukwu is Chief Executive Officer Cowry Asset Management Limited, an investment banking firm incorporated on February 22, 2005 by a team of highly successful professionals and entrepreneurs who have distinguished themselves in diverse sectors of the economy such as banking, capital markets, engineering, education and business. In this interview with Omolara Akintoye he speaks on his management style, motivation, strength and all. Excerpts:

    What’s your management style?

    Our management style is participatory; it basically implies that everybody has something to contribute. So what we do is that we have different channels for harnessing the competences and knowledge of our staff we ensure that there are not much hierarchical structure (not more than three layers) that will not allow people to display their resourcefulness or their creativity. We believe that everyone has something to contribute, we have a bottom-up approach to management where decisions are contributed from the lowest rung of the ladder  and then final decision are taken at the highest level of the management cadre. We believe in what we call benefit of collective wisdom where the knowledge of one is not discarded. With all these we believe our management style is participatory.

    What’s your management philosophy?

    One of our core philosophies is that we continue to re-invent ourselves ahead of the competition not just to remain the best investment banking system, but a world class investment banking firm. Our approach is simple, we believe that the day you stop innovating is the day you start dying and that the best of competencies today will be moribund by tomorrow so we continue to improve on our skills, and we continue to improve our standards and grow our services such that at every point in time we are on top of our game. We will continue to renew ourselves. We started as a stock broking outfit and today we are a supermarket financial institution having virtually all the services that an investment banking firm renders.

    Do you micromanage?

    No I don’t, because I have a participatory management system I cannot do that. The two are mutually exclusive whoever is involved in participatory approach management staff will not micromanage. Because one, you delegate duties, lot decisions are taken below my level and those who take the decisions have a lot of requirement to take such decisions.

    How do you motivate your staff?

    In terms of motivation what I do is that I reach targets with them and I encourage them to meet up with such targets, and to be the best they could ever be. Beyond the hygiene factors, people at certain level of management or leadership development want some other intangible incentives such as praise appreciation training empowerment giving them authority and responsibilities as well as challenging them to perform with some form of motivation. What we do is that the hygiene factors will make them very hygienic; issues like salary payment, allowances and other benefits will make them hygienic. We may not be the highest paying entity but we ensure that our staff doesn’t have to complain about such hygienic factors, the work environment we ensure that one of our core values is to respect individuals’, people don’t insult subordinates  i.e.  We give value to individuals we respect individuality. For that reason people irrespective of their level are ready to express themselves, people see an environment where they can realise their full potentials. So for that people are ready to throw themselves at it and apply themselves to achieve their set goals.

    Do you apply the stick and carrot approach?

    Yes, absolutely, you can’t run any organisation or any home successfully without applying the stick and carrot approach. The ideal thing is people that relates with you be it your friends your family members, co-workers should know that there are benefits to good behaviors or positive actions and there are sanctions to bad behavior, and those things should be well defined. Such things should be codified people should know what will attract praise or sanctions to them. Once you give value and respect to individuals, they are ready to throw themselves to that job and give their all.  What I don’t subscribe to is when the interpretation of rules is at the whims and caprices of the supervisors, this is not right. People at any point in time should know what to do that will attract praise or otherwise.

    What do you consider your toughest decision as a manager?

    To me it wasn’t really a tough one, that was when the capital market crashed and we owed a bank more than N1.5 billion and we have a total asset of less than N200million. Some of the key stakeholders in the company spoke to me that ‘why not fold up or liquidate the company, or how are you going to spend the rest of your life to pay bank loan of N1.5 billion? But I said no I would rather stay and pay the loan rather than liquidating the company. That for me was one of the toughest decisions of accepting to pay when the easier option would have been to declare bankruptcy and go and work in another company. I decided not to allow the stigma of bankruptcy to be with me at any time of my life, I prefer to rather labour to honour my obligation. And then we did pay the loan within two years.

    What is your best decision overtime?

    My best decision was to leave the banking industry. By the time I left the industry, I was well recognised, well respected and I was getting offers for the position of Executive Director in two major banks. But at that time I had made up my mind to leave. I’m happy I took that decision at that time, I tell you, it was one of the best decisions I took then.

    How do you reprimand erring staff?

    Well, I have an approach to sanction or reprimand. When working with someone, the first thing I do is to teach and educate you on what you should know about the job and what is critical about the job. Then when you err, I will teach you again probably the mistake is out of ignorance. If such mistake continues, I will advise you on the implication of your action. The third is that if it continues, I will warn you of the severe repercussion that will befall you if it continues, before I finally impose the appropriate sanction. So whenever I sanction someone and the person is reasonable he/she will most times in their quiet moment appreciate why I have to sanction them. There are instances when I sanction people and few years later came back to appreciate the fact that I was patient and have given them a long rope to turn over a new leaf but they couldn’t.

    What’s your idea of a good manager?

    A good manger should be able to galvanize the energies of your subordinates to extract the best in terms of skills, intelligence contribution of subordinates and you are able to achieve defined goals.

    As an upwardly mobile executive, how do you ease off stress?

    I have wonderful family, a beautiful wife who is a role model and lovely kids. Once I get home I’m a different man entirely, I play with my kids a lot. The family is a sort of succor for me. But beyond that, I also have other ways of easing off stress, I go to the gym, I run 5-10 klm every day. I’m also very close to nature.

    In retrospect what do you regret most in your career and profession?

    None, probably because of my philosophy to life, I relate with people with an open mind. For me mistakes are bound to happen but when it did, learn your lesson from such mistakes and move on. The difference between Western world and developing countries is that when anything goes wrong, the developed countries take an analytical review of what went wrong and use analytical skills to go through it then build systems to avoid reoccurrence. So I don’t have any regrets at all.

    Tell us some fond memories of starting out as a professional.

    Wow! As a professional young banker then, one of the interesting things then was that we were working almost seven days a week then at Merchant Bank. We created a kind of friendship. As young bankers with great ambition we were determined to make it and I tell you I t really helped. There was a sort of communal atmosphere then.

    How best do you think professionals can contribute to the development of the country?

    In terms of skills development, good professional will always build skills around themselves. One of the things that we need to give back to the society is quality of people that we groom, establish institutions, create jobs and expand the size of the economy. These are things that will surpass what we are doing. Finally, this country is a virgin forest; opportunities in this country are enormous. People should not fold their hands at all, they should get themselves engaged in profitable things. Yes the environment may be challenging, but they shouldn’t give up. Apply yourself to the fullest and you will not fail.

  • Leadership and Nigerian youths

    Leadership and Nigerian youths

    Let me start with a straightforward incontestable development maxim: The Nigerian youth constitute the singular most important democratic and development capital that the leadership has ignored for far too long. We pay strenuous lip service to the importance of the youth in nation building—we even call them the “leaders of tomorrow”—but in spite of our best effort, the statistics of youth unemployment and the widening gulf between their expectation and their frustration keep growing at an alarming geometric rate that belies our supposed commitment to them. Yet everything has been falling apart for Nigeria in terms of deploying her youthful energies and entrepreneurial creativity productively. The Nigerian youth are not only unemployed, those who manage to escape are leaving the shores of the nation in droves and turning their energies into achievements on behalf of other nations.

    This dire situation tells us a simple fact—that we have not sufficiently taken Nigeria seriously. And this is all the more so because Nigeria is, like Africa, right in the midst of her once-in-a-while demographic youth bulge that could be turned into a considerable productivity opportunity. Taking Nigeria Seriously, to deepen Odia Ofeimun’s book title, simply means taking the youth and youth development seriously. And this translates, in the final analysis, into the first condition for transforming Nigeria into a developmental state. A developmental state is known by its critical engagement with social policy. Social policy refers to policy initiatives, social relations and institutional arrangements which energise human well-being. It constitutes a deliberate attempt, on the part of government, to intervene in the redistribution of resources among its citizens as a means of achieving welfare objectives that empowers the citizens. Articulating a vision of social policy however goes beyond just guaranteeing a minimum level of policy requirements for social well-being. On the contrary, social policy represents a deeper development agenda that translates into good governance.

    This is where the Youth Governance Dialogue initiative, by the Youth Development Centre of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), becomes a significant intervention in the ongoing attempt at reintegrating the youth back into the governance dynamics of the nation. And this, tragically, is against the historical trajectory of our colonial agitation which saw radical youth in the vanguard of nationalist struggle for a fatherland they truly believe in. I can sincerely associate with this gesture. As a former permanent secretary at the Ministry for Youth Development, I was significantly instrumental to the strategic planning process that conceived and delivered a Youth Development National Strategy and Action Plan in 2013. But since then, I have become fully aware of a significant point: Whereas there are in place sufficient strategies and action plans for taking youth development to the next level, one can exercise legitimate doubt as to how far these strategies and frameworks have succeeded in undermining the youth challenge. What is clear is that Nigeria has many agencies and organisations involved in youth-oriented activities, but we still cannot outline in concrete terms the impact of these agencies. For one, these agencies have failed, for instance, to achieve significant buy-in among the youth who see them as essentially self-serving or even highly politicised. This realisation has then inspired the advocacy we embarked upon, especially with the birth of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP).

    The first issue, which makes this initiative of the Youth governance dialogue unique, is understanding what the youth challenge is. Let’s take some statistics first. The African youth demographics are worse in terms of the relationship between youth empowerment and national development. And this is all the more so because more than 65% of Africa’s total population today that are under the age of 35; there is a further 35% that stands in the demographic gap between 15 and 35 years (this makes for about 200 million people between age 15 and 35). These figures are expected to double by 2045. However, close to 75million of the youths are unemployed. Those who are employed are trapped in unproductive jobs that promised no future advancement. The vast army of the unemployed is otherwise engaged in the thriving informal criminal economy which deprived the continent of their productive energies. And regularly, close to 10 million—a figure which continues to rise—youths are offloaded to the labour market every month. And in Nigeria as at 2011, unemployment rate in Nigeria stood at 23.9% while youth unemployment stood at over 50%. Added to this is the grim statistics that there is an alarming 16% growth rate of unemployment. Thus, when we think of the youth, what the sociological observation forces into our minds are the miscreants and garage touts (“area boys”), the loafers, drop outs, the almajiris, the unemployed, and all those who have been socially abused, humiliated and deprived of an sense of meaning in life.

    Thus, in spite of the cacophony of youthful voices screaming their frustration across the social media, it is obvious that the Nigerian policy makers have still not woken up to institutional predicament which has continually failed to give the youth access to democratic processes that will help them make informed choices about their roles in Nigeria’s democratic experiment, and as viable component in the search for a viable development paradigm. Consider the following essential questions that bear out this reflection about the state of the youth in national thinking:

    • How many political parties in Nigeria have a youth wing that contributes to internal party policy?
    • How many civil society groups are committed to youth development beyond the mere lip service to their significance?
    • How many religious organisation, for that matter, look to the spiritual rejuvenation of the youth beyond the mere number that attends the church or the mosque?
    • How many organisations are dedicated to youth empowerment in Nigeria?
    • In what sense have the youth been integrated into national decision making process?
    • Is there any longer active student movements that would challenge national injustices and political brigandage?
    • The OOPL Youth Governance Dialogue is therefore confronted with the fundamental challenge of how Nigeria can move from the pessimism of the gloomy youth unemployment statistics to a future of proactive demographics that will generate policy and governance dynamics which can enable Nigeria to harness the boundless creative energies of the ambitious and adventuresome youth. The fundamental issue is therefore to forcefully interrogate the policy intent of the Nigerian government towards the youth.

    The noble intent of the Youth Governance Dialogue is meant to explore ways by which the Nigerian youth can be successfully factored into the governance framework of the Nigerian state. I suspect that this objective can be further enlarged and deepened if tied to a more inter-generational dialogue which locates the youth and their malaise in a wider historical and socioeconomic and political trajectory. This dynamic trajectory derives from leadership and generational deficiencies over the decades since Nigeria’s independence. In dialoguing with the past, the Nigerian youth can therefore engage and query the tokenism that has characterised their enlistment into the political system in Nigeria as personal or special assistants or even as thugs; interrogate the leadership of the country and their anti-progress and anti-development policies; engage with their own complicity in a system which exploit and subjugate their aspirations; attempt to undermine the orthodox national narratives, and in-the-box thinking, which call them “leaders of tomorrow” but prevent their democratic participation; and generally we all can also help create an additive culture, rather than an extractive one, that exalt the value of what we can add to Nigeria and not what can be taken away through corrupt enrichment.

    If we would not allow a Nigerian Spring to burst on us as a result of our lackadaisical attitude and policy listlessness, it is now time to really move away from all the lip service and rhetoric flourish that characterise our relationship with the Nigerian youth to a more institutionalised structure of democratic participation and political succession which allow the Nigerian youth bring their expertise, creativity and knowledge to the development table. If the youth constitute a significant portion of our development, then we have kept them out of that equation for far too long. It is now time to start redressing that lopsidedness.

     

    • Olaopa, the Executive Vice-Chairman, Ibadan School of Government & Public Policy (ISGPP), delivered this paper at a dialogue with youths, organised by the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL).

  • Leadership, mendacity and government

    NOW that a powerful section of the American media has labeled their own president as a liar it is time to agree with them on this categorization. It does not matter to say that the new president ruined their business when he called them‘ fake news’.

    This is because two wrongs do not make a right and the media should have refrained from getting into the gutter with their president in the mutually destructive war of attrition and mutual image destruction, that the two have drawn their swords over. In the old Roman Arena in the Ancient Roman Empire, the gladiators greeted Caesar by saying ‘ Hail Caesar, we who are about to die, salute you‘.

    That is what the US media is saying to their new president over his fake news charge. If you take their new president as Emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burnt, in the same ancient empire, you see clearly how history is repeating itself in the political tragi – comedy that is unfolding in the Star Wars between the fiery US President Donald Trump and the US media whose reputation he literally destroyed when he unilaterally and unrepentantly branded them as ‘fake news‘. So in a way Trump and his media adversaries are on self – inflicted tenterhooks and like gladiators in Ancient Rome, they must fight to death. Which really is not only pathetic but sad for the US, the self – proclaimed ‘global champion of democracy‘ and the’ police man ‘ of the world in terms of show casing the rule of law and respect for transparency, good public behavior and governance.

    To compound the US malady nowadays is the way Americans have made a tin god of Russia’s strong man and president,Vladmir Putin. Given the way the US, its leaders in the legislature, and its media see the hand of Russia behind all their electoral woes and successes , one can safely say that when Russia sneezes, the US catches cold. This is no exaggeration and the sacking of the FBI boss James Comey this week, provides a good starting point to illustrate this cold phenomenon quite vividly.

    The media predictably and the Democratic Party flew into a rage after Trump sacked the FBI boss claiming cacophonously that he, the FBI boss, had been stopped in the middle of an investigation that would have incriminated Trump and his campaign of collusion in hacking the e -mails of the Democratic Party and swinging the election in favor of Trump, who eventually and indeed went on to win the election. But no one doubted the authority of the president as chief executive of the American government of the day to fire any FBI boss including James Comey. Anyway, the so called victim of Trump’s very media- trumpeted high handedness, the FBI boss, in his farewell letter brought some sanity to the whole brouhaha on his sacking by Trump.

    Comey told his colleagues he was leaving behind at FBI that he was not going to lose any sleep over his sack because he would be okay and they should not worry about him . He wrote – ‘ I have long believed that a president can fire an FBI Director for any or no reason at all‘. He went on to say -‘ I have said to you before that in times of turbulence, the American people should see the FBI as a rock of competence ,honesty and independence‘. Really Comey’s farewell letter to his FBI colleagues showed him to be a consummate intelligence professional and leader committed to his job. Yet he too knows that he has a boss who is first in the Attorney General’s office as well as in the President of the United States. Indeed it was on the recommendation of the AG’s office that Trump fired him for not being able to lead the FBI effectively.

    According to President Trump in his sack letter, -‘ It is essential that we find a new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission ‘ How such a clear administrative decision in the American presidency can generate such extravagant furore in the US media beggars description and beats the imagination of those of us who are not Americans or who do not live in that‘ God’s own‘ nation.

    In addition to all the vile language used to describe the mentality and even sanity of the elected US president, one can safely say that in unhinging Trump from the White House for his blasphemy of fake news, the US media against him which has termed its hatred of him as ‘the resistance‘ does not care about the sovereign reputation of the US and that too is unfortunate.

    This is because the US brand of democracy based on human rights and free speech is being dragged in the mud by t the American verbal diarrhea war of dragging the name and office of their elected president in the mud. The spectacle on global TV in a world that has become a global village is worrisome to those of us who see a lot to emulate in the American presidential system with its built in system of checks and balances which seem out of control or is being derailed in this hullaballoo over’ fake news’ and the ‘resistance’ of an authoritarian president. Indeed such a slide to near anarchy can only be used by strong leaders in the world that the US and Western media have always condemned as ammunition to suppress their people and that is a very wrong signal for democracy coming from the US.

    Leaders who could be happy at the current American folly of washing it dirty linen in public will be leaders of China, Russia, Turkey and the Phillipines. Certainly the American denigration of their president must have prompted the authorities in Thailand to ask Facebook to cut out any information critical of its monarchy or face legal action. Article 112 of Thailand’s criminal code says anyone who’ defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the regent will be punished up to 15 years in jail. You may say that is very harsh but that is the law and yet Thailand is a very vibrant democracy as recent demonstrations against military rule have shown and in that nation’s fiercely contested elections in recent times.

    With regard to China and Russia I am certain there is satisfactory feeling of mutual satisfaction and deja vu that the all knowing Americans have finally shot themselves in the leg fatally and in the grim prospect of a potential break down of law and order, in their obsession with human rights and freedom given, the way they mock their government led by a president they take turns at calling a liar. Of course the president in the Philippines who asked police to kill drug traffickers and who got elected on that premise would only laugh at Trump’s ordeal and imagine what a huge meal he would make of any media daring to call him such names like the US president had been labeled in recent times. However our own brand of democracy in Nigeria is emerging with its distinct features not unlike those we are considering today.

    I will use examples of developments in Abuja the State House and the Kano State of Assembly to illustrate. In Abuja, as usual, the president sent a letter to the Senate that he was proceeding on leave and the Vice President will coordinate the affairs of government. A senator objected to the use of the word coordinate and he was ruled out of order. But the senator was right. In the absence of the president the Vice President takes over the task of governance and the essence is to assure political stability and continuity of government.

    That was why the presidential ticket at election in 2015 was a joint ticket, and that was how it has been whenever the president has travelled in recent times for medical check up. Luckily our president has credibility and is believable when he travels on medical grounds and the business of government goes on in his absence. This is unlike America where people see their president signing executive orders and still say he is doing nothing except telling lies. In Nigeria our president was elected in 2015 based on a reputation for toughness on corruption in a military regime that jailed corrupt governors and politicians for jail sentences that reached 80 years.

    Today he is an elected president but his momentum of operation both physical and personal have slowed because he is ill but he is still in charge of his mandate and government and Nigerians empathise with him as our president. We respect his office and leadership and do not mock his frailties as Americans do of their leaders. We dream of what would have been had he been in good health and that is good for our polity and our own brand of democracy. In Kano the Kano State House of Assembly reportedly set up a probe panel on the Kano Emirate finances and condemned the Emir’s comments on the state governor’s actions. In addition there was the news that a Muslim cleric in Kano had been charged for preaching and inciting people against the Emir after a complaint was lodged by the Emir against the cleric who was later granted one million naira bail. In the case of the House of Assembly the Speaker alleged that the Emir told people that himself and the governor went to China for a week on a rail project whereas they spent only four days.

    However the Speaker asked the committee on the inquiry into the Emirate’s finances to speed up its work and submit its report in two weeks. Which means that there is no love lost between the State government and the Emir of Kano, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and an intellectual and well known Nigerian in his own right. Obviously if the Emir had not criticized the state governor or the Speaker who travelled to China with the Governor , there would have been no need for the investigation of the Emirate’s finances. That is a clear case of political victimisation and it is unprogressive. The Emir of Kano should not be silenced on the grounds that he is being articulate on public issues as he has always done so candidly and his high traditional office should allow him to be listened to and heard, not subjected to state harassment and disrespect. That is not the Nigerian culture or our brand of democracy. Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Leadership is about sacrifice, service -Osinbajo

    Leadership is about sacrifice, service -Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has enjoined Nigerians who find themselves in positions of authorities to remember leadership is all about sacrifices and selfless service to humanity and God.
    He urged them to imbibe the spirits of love, unity and forgiveness in the interest of national peace and development.
    Nations built on such values, he said, are bound to prosper beyond expectations.
    Osinbajo spoke at the 50th anniversary of St. Augustine Major Seminary, Katako, Jos yesterday.
    He enjoined Nigerians to avoid repaying evils with evils.
    Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, said: “For a school that has produced 20 Bishops and scores of Priests, Religious and Laity in the service of the Lord at home and abroad, it is indeed worthy of our attention and support.
    “This Seminary remains a real asset to the universal Church because as a spiritual hub for the training of ministers of the gospel, it is a vehicle through which ministers are thoroughly prepared to holistically address the spiritual and physical wellbeing of Nigerians in the Catholic Church, and by extension all those who through marriages, work, social interaction and other means of association, have a relationship with the Catholic.”