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Tag: matters

  • Why theory matters

    Why theory matters

    All too often we tend to make an iron cast Manichean delineation between the pragmatic man of action and the supposedly idealist theoretician far removed from the sphere of reality. The action man is the goal getting achiever while the theoretician is assumed to be too fascinated with fanciful ideas to be of much practical use to humanity in real life. Yes, it is possible for the man addicted to the life of the mind to be incapacitated by a debilitating mental glaucoma that breeds a certain kind of inertia that denudes knowledge of practical utilitarian value.

    Yet, it is even truer that the action oriented personality armed with the artillery of theory is less likely to rely on luck or the adoption of arbitrary hit or miss methods of execution and thus be ultimately more impactful in achieving set objectives in a sustainable and replicable manner. Irrespective of whether the individual’s ideological orientation is ‘conservative’ or ‘progressive’, to be theoretical is to be radical in what Professor Bade Onimode describes succinctly as “the literal etymological sense of going to the roots of matters”. It is to look beyond superficial surface appearances and seek to discover and apply the underlying general principles that explain given facts or events.

    This column has at least on two occasions dilated on the impressive attempts by Dr Dapo Thomas of the Department of History and International Relations, Lagos State University (LASU), to offer theoretical explications of some occurrences and trends on Nigeria’s contemporary political terrain. For instance, in the aftermath of the 2015 presidential elections, the unforgettable Elder Godspower Orubebe put up before global television, his theatre of the absurd clearly aimed at discrediting and derailing the exercise, which his benefactor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, had obviously lost. Dr Thomas sought to deepen understanding of this drama through the conceptual prism of what he called ‘Beneclientelism’.  In his exposition, Thomas sought to transcend classical theories of ‘Clientelism’, which assume asymmetric relations between all powerful benefactors or patrons dispensing benefits – material, psychological, institutional etc – in favour of dependent clients whose often reflexive and undiscriminating support they enjoy.

    Rather, he argued that the not inconsiderable influence of the client (Orubebe) on the patron/benefactor (Jonathan) must not be underestimated. But for Jonathan’s uncharacteristic demonstration of resolve and fidelity to superior values at that point in time, motivated perhaps by considerations of his own long term personal security, he could have capitulated to the self-serving antics of many of the ‘Orubebes’ around him with catastrophic consequences for the peaceful transition that eventually took place. One practical insight that emanates from Dr Thomas’ theorizing here is that the higher the professional competence, psychological balance and moral integrity of a leader’s inner advisory circle, particularly in the context of weak institutions and fragile values like ours, the lower the number of political liabilities such as the clownish Yahyah Jammeh of Gambia’s recent unlamented memory we are likely to have on our hands.

    Again, in response to the specter of public adulation of politicians accused of the most brazen and outrageous looting of the public treasury, including the appearance of praise singing throngs of ‘Aso-ebi’ clad supporters (Molebi) offering support to such criminals during court trials, Thomas formulated what he called the ‘Molebi’ theory. This sought to build on and expand on the earlier ‘Ebi concept’ expounded by Professor Akinjobi in 1961 to explain what he perceived as largely ethnically and culturally determined socio-political behavior. Among the Yoruba, the Ebi is a small closely knit micro entity made up of a group of people united by blood. In Akinjobi’s conception, the blood relationship that binds people together and forms the basis of fidelity, solidarity and loyalty is stronger than any other consideration and facilitates better comprehension of political behavior.

    For Thomas, however, “In Molebi theory, members of the Molebi don’t have to have blood relationship or share any cultural history. What binds them together is their loyalty, commitment, allegiance and belief in their political and economic godfathers”. “In most cases these “Molebi” shamelessly ignore or discountenance the obvious evidence and proof of reckless looting of the public treasury by their benefactors”. “A benefactor’s “Molebi” are beneficiaries of his ill-gotten wealth and dubious hospitality”. Thus, material and economic considerations are the deeply rooted determinants of political behavior even when such tend to manifest superficially as ethnic, linguistic, cultural or religious bias.  Now, is this mere idle theorizing? I don’t think so. It has certain practical implications for public policy.

    For instance, a state that enhances the general level of prosperity and collective well being, while reducing inequality between social classes, is likely to whittle down, substantially, the number of clients dependent on criminal patrons for sustenance and survival. The state that prioritizes social welfare and security for the most vulnerable sections of society will most likely wean the support of a significant number of its citizens away from benefactors that endanger the polity’s ethical fabric and compete with it for loyalty. Would this not imply promotion of an overextended state with negative implications for economic performance, transparent governance and individual productivity?  Again, I don’t think so. Rather, it requires a state that is lean and efficient, creates the necessary climate for the private sector to flourish thus generating more tax revenues as well as decentralizing power, resources and responsibilities to sub-national units to enhance developmental and transformational possibilities.

    It is not surprising that one of Nigeria’s greatest statesmen and performance oriented leaders, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, placed great premium on the critical importance of theory for informed and impactful action. Let me quote him at some length in a speech he delivered to graduands of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) on 30th June, 1967: “Indeed there will be many knowledgeable and well-meaning people who will tell you that you cannot bring theoretical and – as they say – impractical approach of scholarship to bear on the practical events of everyday life relating to business, politics, domestic affairs, etc. They will go further and tell you this, with which I have no doubt that you are already familiar, that what is sound and good in theory is not always sound and good in practice. But I declare unto you with all the emphasis at my command that if a thing is sound in theory, granting that the application is correct, it must be good in practice. If not, then you can be sure that either the theory is in error, or the application of the theory is faulty… In any case, in my capacity as one of your preceptors and exemplars, I make bold to invite you to follow my example. I have thus far – in my younger days through trial and error, and now by the employment of the scientific method – striven to base all my actions, both in private and in public, on sound theoretical principles”.

    Another great and accomplished Nigerian, the late radical historian, Dr Bala Usman, had virtually the same advice for members of the National Youth Service Corps, in a lecture which was published in the New Nigerian of 19th and 20th September, 1975. His words: “The point I want to make is that when you go to work and in your life, never be afraid or ashamed of coherently analyzing any problem and taking it down to fundamentals, and proposing solutions, which relate to this. Do not be ashamed of being theoretical, as long as you are coherent and guided by patriotic commitment…Coherent theory is absolutely essential for any meaningful activity whether it concerns natural or social phenomena. There is no conflict whatsoever, between this and action; that is action committed to and directed to meaningful goals…What is wrong, useless and should be avoided is talk, hot air jargon, what is known in Hausa as dogon turanci…All jargon, wherever it comes from,  is an expression of dishonesty, of dishonest attitudes, of false theory”.

    Even if you disagree with his politics, one must agree that Dr Kayode Fayemi is one of the most cerebral politicians of his generation in this dispensation. In terms of performance, he was an outstanding governor of Ekiti State no matter how one interprets the circumstances of his loss to the tempestuous and restless apostle of ‘stomach infrastructure’, Ayodele Fayose, in the October, 2014, Ekiti state governorship election. It is thus not surprising that in his book, Regaining the Legacy, published in 2013, Fayemi demonstrates a firm grasp of the theoretical and ideological moorings of progressive governance and policy, which definitely informed his policy choices as governor.

    It is unfortunate that so far the actions and policy orientation of the APC controlled Federal Government have not sufficiently reflected the theory and philosophy of governance which undergirds the party’s manifesto and serves as the basis of its social contract with the Nigerian electorate. We can only hope that with the bold steps taken in recent weeks to implement its social welfare and poverty alleviation programmes, particularly the payment of supportive stipends to the most socio-economically vulnerable Nigerians, the Buhari administration is reconnecting with the APC’s philosophical base as a progressive party and that coherent theory will begin to more forcefully inform its actions particularly in the area of federal practice and penetrating structural reforms.

  • FRC and sundry reform matters

    It is no longer news that the Financial Regulatory Council of Nigeria (FRCN), through its executive secretary, unilaterally implemented a certain clause in the Corporate Governance Code, especially for Not-For-Profit-Organisations (NFPO), which necessitated fixing the tenure of the general overseers of religious organisations in Nigeria. One of the major consequences of that decision was the resignation of Pastor E. A. Adeboye as the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Nigeria. The justification of the FRCN executive secretary was that he was upholding the relevant parts of the corporate governance code. If that were the case, then it would be within the legal purview of the organisation to do so. And this has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the executive secretary, now relieved of his duty, was a former pastor at RCCG. But, as with most things legal, social and religious in Nigeria, the reality is much more complex than what we are presented. The outcry that has trailed the FRCN’s move and the reactions from several quarters, especially on the resignation of Pastor Adeboye, not only points at a complex situation, but also calls for a cautious but critical attention to some key issues concerning corporate governance, religious matters and the democratic functionality of institutions in Nigeria.

    Permit a caveat that should address all hints of prejudice. This is critical because I am aware of the enormous anxiety and anger that attend the perceived misadventure of religion in Nigeria. I am a Christian with strong conviction that the church is one and will best achieve its earthly mission if it remains one in spite of inescapable denominational imperative. Consequently, whereas I am a Baptist by birth and orientation, I was largely groomed into spiritual maturity by the RCCG as a full-fledged member. I, indeed like millions of others, holds Pastor E. A. Adeboye in the highest esteem for the tremendous grace upon his ministry of which I am direct beneficiary in a classical sense and for the achievements that the RCCG has garnered since he became the general overseer many years ago.

    But the issues at stake in this matter transcend my RCCG connection. It’s especially critical given the extent to which the legion of charlatans in the cloak of Levitical priesthood have infiltrated Christendom with diabolic and commercial mission and are daily denigrating the faith because they are provided umbrage by the absence of corporate governance codes and their enforcement.    These are issues of democratic surveillance, organisational integrity, institutional capacity and reform. In this regard, the FRCN constitutes a significant dimension of the ensemble of democratic institutions in Nigeria. And this is more so with regard to the monitoring of corporate governance matters. On its website, the FRCN outlines its mission as simply as possible: “To bring utmost confidence to investors, reputation to oversight and ensure quality in accounting, auditing, actuarial, valuation and corporate governance standards and non-financial reporting issues.” This is seriously commendable because corporate governance is a very significant aspect of democratic governance in Nigeria. Ensuring good corporate governance practices is a sine qua non for laying the foundation of an accountability principle in the national economy that will eventually devolve on the well-being of Nigerians. The Not-For-Profit-Organisations (NFPO) are equally part of this corporate governance accountability concern because they equally impact on the financial profile of the nation and of individuals and organisations.

    First thing first, every institution must react to its context and environment. With regard to the idea of corporate governance, the FRCN ought to have known that it was walking a very tight rope in its attempt to monitor a corporate atmosphere charged with complex practices. Religion is a crucial issue in Nigeria. And its mismanagement has led to critical losses for the Nigerian state. The Boko Haram insurgency that has cost many lives could be traced, in a significant sense, to some badly managed military and administrative policies. Stakeholders’ ownership is very critical in policy implementation success, and that translates into a due and meticulous diligence in ensuring that each policy issue makes the round of relevant stakeholders. The implication of this is simple: any policy arising from corporate governance issue ought to have gone through the entire stretch of policy assessment and even more. Of course, no policy is impeccable. But then the ripples and revelations trailing the corporate governance code, especially for NFPO, seem to demonstrate a sloppiness bordering on lack of professionalism and institutional hastiness. Suspending a policy in itself speaks volume about the appropriateness of such a policy for its intended purpose. Thus, as a commentator rightly notes, not properly deducing the intricate nature of this issue of applying corporate governance code to, say, churches amount to an overkill, an institutional excessiveness that poses the danger of heating up the society unnecessarily.

    But then, there is another side to the issue. And this involves the churches and other religious organisations themselves. While the FRCN is undergoing reconstitution, and the corporate governance code, hopefully, will be re-evaluated and reviewed, there is also a need for churches to look inward in the face of weak gate keeping that is undermining the Christian brand as the salt and the light of the world through the activities of charlatans in the guise of prophets-entrepreneurs riding on prosperity theology popular tendencies and vulnerabilities of a poverty-ridden and superstitious society and pervasive miracle mentality. The Federal Government has the right to instigate any policy that affects its citizens, and religion plays a huge role in this regard because whatever happens in the religious realms have extensive impact on the way people relate with themselves in the public spaces. Beyond this, the FRCN is right about the critical nature of corporate governance and why not even churches and mosques can be excused. Religious organisations owe the government an adequate compliance with regulations that probes accountability. This is even more so in a state that is attempting to increase its profile of democratic governance. A church or mosque may be theocratic but that does not preclude its legal response to certain democratic imperatives concerning structures and rules.

    On the other hand, the religious organisations owe their members a firm adherence to strict codes of accountability and other institutional structures that ensure not only spiritual adequacy but also financial openness. It would not be a sin if the financial transactions of a religious organisation are open within the bounds of regulation and best practices. Since the church or mosque is a custodian of morality, this institutional reform of its structures should not a big deal. Religious organisations are agents of development, especially within the environment of institutional incapacitation in Nigeria. From the Catholic Church to the RCCG and even several Islamic organisations, religious organisations play a dominant role in bringing the dividends of democracy to the doorsteps of members and other people alike.

    And development in this context of underdevelopment becomes a moral imperative which would not permit the organisations to champion a good cause while they are in themselves an emblem of institutional incoherence. A strong case can be made for the autonomy of religious organisations given that, for instance, some of their founding constitution sits incongruously with the legal requirements of the federal constitution of Nigeria. However, just as religious institutions have modified the way we think and rethink secularity in Nigeria, they must equally be modified by the imperatives of secularity and democracy. It will therefore be an act of good faith for religious organisations to firm up their institutional deficits in ways that will add to their credibility, spiritually and administratively. In many quarters, churches and mosques do not enjoy good public reputation. In fact, the reason why many lash out at them is the attempt to hide corruption behind the cloak of godliness to deceive the innocent.

    On the other side, and this is even more critical, it is high time Nigeria (and religious leaders would do posterity great service if they provide a lead in this rethinking and reform) commenced a deep institutional and administrative reassessment of religion and its corporate dynamics in a manner that will put to rest the debate around whether religious organisations ought to answer to corporate regulations. The review of the corporate governance code that jumpstarted the problem in the first place could be a wonderful opportunity to resolve it finally.

     

    • Dr. Olaopa is executive vice-chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP)
  • Development matters

    Development matters

    His Imperial Majesty, Ooni Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, made history on June 15, 2016 as the first Yoruba monarch to visit Howard University Washington, DC. in recent memory. In his honor, a symposium on Culture, Healing and Development was organized by the Departments of Philosophy and Mathematics, with Dr. Kola Abimbola as the Chief Organizer. In a moving ceremony, Provost Anthony Wutoh and Dean Bernard Mair welcomed Kabiyesi to the University on behalf of President Wayne A. I. Frederick who was out of town. My contribution to the symposium, which was keynoted by Professor Wande Abimbola and Kabiyesi himself, is the subject of today’s column.

    The 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Report, defines sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition raises five important points.

    First, the emphasis is on “sustainability” which requires consideration for the future generation. Second, this consideration for the future generation is African. A typical African will refrain from jeopardizing the future of his or her children and grandchildren.

    Third, however, sustainable development appears to have, over the years, come to represent the struggle to protect the environment on the fear that if our human actions or inactions negatively impact the environment, we are collectively endangering the future of our grandchildren.

    But Africa is in a dire shape. The resources available to her people are miniscule compared with those available to the West. The present generation of Africans in general, and Nigeria, in particular, are struggling to survive the harshness of the lottery of life that is their lot.

    Africa has mineral resources and fossil fuel deposits which others have exploited at the detriment of the owners. African land is easy target for dumping of toxic wastes from the West, which unsuspecting landowners negotiate to keep for money to feed their children and grandchildren. But what they bury on their land today will germinate in the not-too-distant future to harm those same children.

    The fourth point is no less troubling. If we shift the focus of sustainability from the future of the planet, an imperative which many in the wealthy West still resist, and concentrate instead on sustainability as preserving resources for our children and grandchildren, Africans are still in an uncomfortable position. The poverty that many who exist at starvation level endure in the present is so evident that there is little or no expectation that they are even capable of leaving anything for the future of their children. As in the case of the Widow of Zarephath, their concern is to fetch the firewood to cook their last meal.

    Finally, on the matter of sustainable development, there is always going to be outliers even in Africa, and some of these are not necessarily positive. For even in the midst of the hopeless desert of resources, there are oases of stupendous wealth, many of them acquired at the back of the poor masses. This is the group that Growth theories of development favor, the ones who benefit directly from the corrupting influence of capital and political patronage.

    How about focusing on development as meeting the basic needs of the people for, say, nutrition, health, education, and shelter? The purpose of development must be to provide the people with the opportunity to live meaningful lives. This requires moving away from abstract accounts of gross national product, rebased economy, and similar jargons, to concrete and specific issues of the needs for the survival and flourishing of human beings.

    Assume that we focus on basic needs and the sustainability of development that makes basic needs the center of its approach. We must then ask the question: What matters in the matter of achieving sustainable development goals for Nigeria? Fortunately, Nigeria is not alone. She belongs to the comity of nations, which collectively sets standards for acceptable human interaction and relationships. Since what affects one part impacts others directly or indirectly, we have to abide by the treaties that we sign and the resolutions that we adopt.

    On September 25, 2015, the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, in which Nigeria was an active participant, adopted seventeen goals for sustainable development, the top eight of which are significant for fulfilled life.

    The top eight goals are to end poverty in all its forms everywhere; end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture; ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages; ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all; achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; and promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

    The United Nations is as strong as its weakest member. It cannot, and it is not expected to, take over the reins of power in any of its member nations to implement the resolutions that members adopt. It relies on the ability of each of its members to do that. Therefore, when one goal expresses the imperative of ending “poverty in all its forms everywhere”, what it actually does is to express its desire that every member state must make this a goal with a timeline of 15 years, to 2030. It is the call of duty and responsibility. So, what really matters and what does it require on the part of Nigeria?

    What matters are visionary leadership, ethical consciousness, and strong institutions. I recall my observation back in August 2015 that “a strong and selfless leader with a vision will see through the cracks, rise above the fray and inspire the entire nation, young and old, men and women, of all faiths and all backgrounds, with personal example of hard work, self-discipline and transparent incorruptibility. He will not be distracted by perennial nay-sayers, or partisan critics because he has his eyes set on the prize of national advancement. He will go for the necessary restructuring of the economy and the polity, and investment in human development, as the sine qua non of transformation.” I still believe that leadership matters in the case of Nigeria.

    Ethics also matters, and the major culprit in our development-deficit circumstance is the ego which has become the be-all and end-all in all areas of our lives. Where everyone only looks out for self and no one worries about the collectivity without which the self cannot be, the result is an inadvertent annihilation of the self. More seriously, however, where the focus of the self is the greedy lust for material possession, regardless of considerations of desert, it is easy to see the inescapability of a Hobbesian anarchy of the kind that has characterized the republic thus far.

    Finally, institution matters. Strong and purposeful leaders will create institutions that will outlast them, and ensure that their legacy of discipline and moral probity is immune to destabilization by forces of retrogression. We lack strong institutions because we lack strong and visionary leaders.

    For lacking visionary leadership, ethical consciousness, and strong institutions, Nigeria has yet to make the expected impact in the matter of sustainable development. Yet we have the tools and the potentials. The sleeping giant just has to wake up from slumber.

    Among the tools are traditional ethical and value orientation, including the values of truthfulness, hard work, community and fellow-feeling. Every nationality group in Nigeria has moral resources from its pre-colonial past to dig into and deploy for sustainable development.

    We also have the National Ethics, embedded in the “The Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy” clause of the 1999 Constitution, which includes discipline, integrity, dignity of labour, social justice, religious tolerance, self-reliance, and patriotism. We only need to worker harder to activate these in our national life to secure the future.

    Ooni Ogunwusi has started well in the matter of traditional leadership with the various steps that he has taken. I pray for an abundance of perseverance, consistency, and longevity for him.

  • Post-UTME matters

    The latest news making rounds that the Education Minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has scrapped the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has caused quite some ruckus.

    The second level screening was introduced in 2004 as a child of necessity when the integrity of the University Matriculations Examination (now Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME) had become questionable. Stories about paper leakages and widespread examination malpractices were rife in the pre-post-UTME era.  It was common to find candidates with high scores in the examination not able to defend it after being admitted because they had cheated.  It was also common to find low-scoring candidates with influence and money getting into school at the expense of better candidates.

    The introduction of the post-UTME screening checked all that.  Candidates needed to defend their UTME scores by also passing the university’s entrance test.  It gave more candidates a fairer chance to get admitted on merit than previously.  However, the post-UTME also became abused.  Most institutions charge at least five times higher than the N1,000 fee recommended by the National Universities Commission (NUC).  It did not also mean that only the best got in as a level of influence could also get students admitted if they met minimum standard.  Worse still, many candidates had to spend a lot of money on travelling expenses to institutions to take the examination, which further increased the cost and risks they had to bear.

    Since 2004, JAMB has indeed cleaned up its act and improved the conduct of the UTME.  The introduction of Computer Based Testing (CBT) nationwide two years ago further helped to improve the integrity of the examination, making people to question the need for a second screening again.  However, JAMB has not perfected the art of conducting a hitch free examination.  There were lapses during this year’s UTME, likewise last year, as a result of system failure which put a lot of candidates at a disadvantage.  So, JAMB presently does not yet engender 100 per cent confidence in the conduct of the UTME.

    However, beyond the integrity of the UTME, academics argue that institutions must have a say in how they select their students.  So, to them, the post-UTME is still in order.  The minister is yet to come out to deny scrapping the post-UTME.  But those who attended the policy meeting in Abuja have said he meant that institutions should not conduct examinations similar to JAMB’s but that they could perhaps conduct oral interviews testing other areas.  Whether that is what the minister meant or not, it really does make sense for tertiary institutions to conduct further screening tests that check suitability of candidates in other ways.  However, in doing so, they should care not to stress the candidates financially, physically, psychologically, and in any other way.  The screening should not be a means of generating revenue.  This is especially so as many institutions are highly oversubscribed and as a result, many candidates will not get it – not because they will not pass, but simply because there is no space to accommodate them.

  • Matters of Health: Questions from people and patients

    Dear Doctor

     I am a regular reader of your articles and will be very happy if you try and set time aside to talk to people and help find solutions to their problems. I am 42 years old married to a beautiful woman of 36 years of age . We love each other very much. Since we got married I found out that each time I look at my wife ,desire overtakes me .We have two children ,but the problem is that I can not do what is expected from me . Some times she does every thing and then we manage to have good sex, but any time I try to go on and take over, my body fails to respond .She is not the type that complains but I feel  her sadness. I have tried many ways, and done many tests, but nothing was found. I have seen many Doctors. Please help me before my marriage breaks down completely.

    Answer

    The situation here bothers on erectile dysfunction or impotence. Much has been written about the inability of a man to achieve and sustain penile erection adequate enough to penetrate and  successfullyperform the coital exercise . It is becoming more and more common these days because of the increasing exposure of men to stress from the environment and the stress brought on them by other internal conditions over which they havelittle  or no control. It is true that what you eat and drink can affect your ability to perform satisfactorily, but it is important that you know for certain, that, age is an important factor .More over, all men are not equal when it comes to certain physical endowments. Some men just happen to be born with the stamina and sex hormones similar to that found in Horses and Dogs .So  it is useless to  compare

    Interestingly, there  is now hope for every one ,including patients undergoing treatment for hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Medicines used to treat these ailments have a way of seriously affecting the rheology(blood flow dynamics) of the penis and the interplay of  relays between the two chains of the autonomic and central nervous system . Medicines are now available that completely restore men to their premorbid states ,and this in over 80% of cases occurs irrespective of age.  It is also very important for you to stop experimenting with sex performance enhancing drugs . It doesn’t matter  how qualified the person who prescribed for you or where you got them from . You simply need to see the right people and your problems will be over permanently.

     

    Dear Doctor

    Please don’t put my problem on newspaper .

    I am a thirty year old lady and my husband is either thirty eight or forty; I can’t tell .He usually behaves in a way that gives me surprise each time we have sex. He snaps, stays away from me and does not talk to me . Sometimes the abnormal behavior will last for almost two weeks . When he wants me again his behavior will become normal .I know there is something wrong and I need your advice. Also what can a woman take when her period is no longer regular?

    Answer

    The  problem recognizable from the first part of your question is best handled by you and your husband. Sit him down and talk to him . Something is getting  lost. The issues you have mentioned amount to  a catalogue consistent with break down of marriage. You need to do something fast before it gets too late and people start asking you to see a marriage counsellor

    Drugs are not prescribed online .At thirty, you should not be having issues with your menses, but be informed that  with regards to  length, onset and duration of bleeding, menstrual cycles can change from menarche to the period when menopause becomes established

     

    Dear doctor

    What drugs can I take to melt fibroid .Also can someone with fibroid pass it on to her children?

    Answer

    No one knows how fibroids arise and to the best that I know, it is not what a woman inherits from her mother. What is known however is that , fibroids tend to occur in clusters among women from certain ethnic groups and to some extent races . If there are drugs that melt any abnormal growth like fibroids, I do not know . Women with fibroids tend to believe any thing other than the simple truth that the only way to manage them safely is by surgery.  It is more certain that a drug or preparation that will melt fibroid will begin by melting other tissues like the breast tissues.

    Fibroids do recur and so one surgery does not mean that you will not have another one . It depends on many factors.

     

    Dear doctor

    I have this  problem that started two years ago. I  am 50 years old and have never suffered from any arthritis problem.  I just woke up one  morning and discovered pain in my right ankle. I could n’t walk well but after some days every thing healed by itself . Now I get severe pain anytime I walk fast for some time , So I stop from time to time . Please recommend some drugs I should take

    Answer

    Please go to the nearest Hospital ,one that  is likely to have an Orthopedic Surgeon. Nothing less. They may ask you to do X-Ray of the ankle, and then  take off from there .At that age, you need  to be careful what you do with a very important region  like the ankle where you may  think of  just one joint, but there are more than ten in that place

     

    My dear doctor.

    My wife has been struggling with different types of  skin diseases for over ten years. They have damaged the skin around her private parts and thigh. Different colors, all sorts .She is very unhappy

     I read your articles every time and can only pray that God will bless you. Where is your location so I can  come see you

    Answer

    Going further the way you indicated is going to worsen things for your wife .to the best of my knowledge, most rashes and eruptions around the private parts are more common with fat women.

    Besides, such skin diseases usually require more than one particular medication, cream, lotion or soap. Dermatologists sometimes recommend compounding more than one to get desired results

    Fat women are beautiful by the way, but obesity is a specific risk factor for some skin diseases

    Please see a dermatologist, Consultant Dermatologist so  that under his supervision, they will do other blood tests for her, including tests for glucose tolerance and blood sugar. He  may also want to rule out HIV/AIDS

     

    Dear Doctor

    I have a 19year old daughter who is actually my second child . I had her when I was 25 and every thing was very smooth. My sadness now is that her front is too heavy . Her breasts are too big for her age and I am worried that  this might  lead to one type of disease that we do not know.

    Answer

    Children born to the  second position in many families are usually bigger , stronger and healthier than others in the  nuclear family . It is either you spoilt her with too many sweet food or drinks or she is ingesting sex steroids. Baby fat cells never die completely .They are the Conner stones for adult fat, including those in the breast.Besides young girls are getting bigger these days .

     

    There are many questions to ask; how big is too big?. Are the two breasts equal? Are there lumps ?i Do Not Think Your Daughter  Has Any Disease Condition At The Moment ,but I would advice you to see a Gynecologist at your earliest convenience so you can have rest of mind or do something early enough if you need to

     

     

    Dear doctor , I am a 65 year old man and in the past twenty years I have been suffering ulcer . I have taken many drugs and I have done tests that I can not count. Is there a permanent cure ?what tests am I supposed to do? Also please direct me to a Hospital overseas where I can go for treatment

    Answer

    The diagnosis for peptic ulcer disease may be clinical and laboratory. It is only  whenthe ulcer is seen and it’s location determined that a Physician can say with certainty that a patient has either a duodenal, stomach or any other type of ulcer . The tools or equipment do not come cheap and the expertise equally uncommon.  Even for people that have had surgery for peptic ulcer disease, the problems have not completely disappeared .You might need to change your diet to go with your blood group , avoid stressful conditions, avoid ingesting  very hot and  very cold stuff . Stick to your Doctor ,because  emergencies are not uncommon for people with chronic peptic ulcer disease

     

    Dear Doctor

    I am a trained nurse in a private hospital .I am twenty nine and I  take care of my teeth as I know and don’t like sweet things

     I have observed that my upper teeth are coming out and then my upper lips are also rising up . Are my still growing teeth  or is this a disease of my gums ?

    Answer

    If you have pains and bleeding when not brushing, you might be having one type of disease of the gums

    If you bleed while brushing and no history of pains, perhaps there is avitiminosis. Outside these,

    Recession of the gums might arise from other causes .These factors and others are in the province of Dentists and Maxillofacial Surgeons. What about your Parents? Some inherited musculoskeletal features stay hidden until adult life when they now appear and affect how we look.

  • Matters Miscellaneous

    Matters Miscellaneous

    It is miscellany time again, Matters Miscellaneous being the rubric I patented more than three decades ago to take editorial notice, in broad strokes and short takes and in no particular order, of some events that might otherwise get lost in the glut of occurrences, and of some personages that might otherwise feel ignored.

    First, the Budget.

    To everyone’s relief, President Muhammadu Buhari drew the curtains on the 2016 Budget Drama last week as he signed the Appropriations into law.

    While it lasted, it was the most riveting drama in town, outpacing even the Bukola Saraki corruption trial in interest and incident.   Whereas the latter involves one individual seeking desperately but vainly to cast himself as an innocent person being persecuted vicariously for the Senate over which he presides, the other has as its subject nothing less than the long-awaited financial blueprint of the Change Agenda on which Buhari was elected, with expectations of deliverance from the ruinous era of Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

    If they take their self-assigned brief half as seriously as their audience takes them, the compilers will by now have entered Nigeria’s 2016 Federal Budget into the Guinness Book of Records.

    It may not count as the budget with the highest expenditure outlay, or the one with the biggest deficit, or even the one with the longest gestation period, though it scores high on all three. It will qualify as one of the most contentious – think, as an example, of whether or not it provided for the Lagos-Calabar rail line — and definitely as one of the least innovative, what with sections of it being no more than photocopies of budget items and expenditures from previous years, being themselves photocopies of items and expenditures from the years before.

    But it will be the first to go missing, and then to resurface, only for the best authorities to declare that it was never missing in the first instance.  It will also be the first to be disowned wholly or in part by ministers and department heads, on the grounds that what they had submitted had little in common with what the lawmakers were debating.

    They finally found a portion of the provision for the Lagos-Calabar project hidden between the lines, and recovered the remaining portion from appropriations the lawmakers had made for all manner of projects for their constituencies, among them town halls and public toilets.

    So, more than a century after the amalgamation – regarded as the Mistake of 1914 and not just by Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and his adoring followers — the two most storied cities in colonial Nigeria are to be linked by rail.

    Expectations run high that the project will create thousands of primary and secondary jobs, boost inter-state commerce, ease travel and boost tourism. Its execution will bring change  the public can see.

    It must not be just another declaration of intent.

    Switching gears, it must not be like the electricity that Dr Goodluck Jonathan (remember him?) promised to make available yanfu yanfu well before he was due for re-election, to the point that generators would become sentimental archaisms, like oil-wick lamps.

    I took Dr Jonathan for his word and was looking forward to snagging for the house upcountry one of the better sets that Aso Rock would ferry to the dump site, only to come to grief like everyone else who took him seriously, except those political conjurers who could get him to sanction the withdrawal of hundreds of millions of Naira from the Central Bank by waving across his face any document purporting to contain the key to his re-election.

    Today, the power situation is as dire as it ever was, despite the increased tariffs.

    Dr Jonathan earnestly believed that he could engineer a technological and industrial revolution and transform Nigeria without a dependable electricity supply.

    Time is running out for the Buhari administration to convince Nigerians that it does not share that belief.  The official targets for power generation are ridiculously low.  Meeting them is not going to bridge the yawning gap between supply and demand.

    Better to think big, really big.

    It would be an unpardonable oversight if this miscellany did not include Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose, far and away Nigeria’s most frequently reported and most frequently cited public figure.

    There is nothing so bizarre, so sophomoric, so egregious, so indecent and so repellent that you will not find Fayose doing it.  There is no thought so coarse, so vulgar and so prurient that you will not find him giving it robust utterance.

    His strictures on President Buhari have been unceasing and unsparing, but not entirely unwarranted.  The trouble is that his everyday conduct manifests all too disgustingly what he so stridently condemns in Buhari in and out of season.

    Some commentators who would like to say the things Fayose says but cannot for all kinds of reasons bring themselves to say have conferred on him the status of “voice of democracy” and “conscience of the nation.”

    Fayose as “voice of democracy,” this man who is a living refutation of virtually everything that democracy connotes – this fellow who converted seven of the 27 members of the House of Assembly into a majority, who prevents the judiciary from sitting, leads his thugs to beat up court officials, supplants the Assembly to announce passage of budget proposals it never had a chance to discuss and runs Ekiti as if it were his private estate?

    Fayose as “conscience of the nation?”  Our modern-day Tai Solarin and Gani Fawehinmi?

    Is this what Nigeria has been reduced to?

    Phew.

    A country that has Fayose as its “conscience” and an exemplar of “democracy,” howsoever defined, is well and truly finished.

    You’ll never guess who turned 80 the other day.

    Chief Ernest (ha!) Shonekan, head of General Ibrahim Babangida’s so-called National Interim Government, the fìdìhè  contraption that was mercifully interim but was not a government and was not national.  He doddered on for 83 days before the loathsome dictator Sani Abacha put him out of his delusion and supplanted him.

    Probably more from duty than conviction, Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun took a full page in this newspaper yesterday to mark the milestone and to praise Shonekan for heeding “the call to higher national service” at a critical moment in Nigeria’s history.

    What Shonekan heeded was a treacherous call to subvert the sovereign will of the Nigerian people as expressed clearly and eloquently in the June 12, 1993 presidential election which no sane person now disputes that it was won by Shonekan’s Egba kinsman, Bashorun Moshood Abiola.

    The advertorial goes on to hail Shonekan as a “national treasure.”

    Some treasure.

  • Why industrialisation matters

    While fixing my car last week, I overhead two Okada riders reminiscing about “the good old days.” From their discussion, they had worked in the textile industry some years back. They shared how the shift policies in most of the textile companies in Lagos provided them the opportunity to “do other things” which made it almost impossible for them “to ever be broke.” Before I left, they posed the question: “can our industries ever come back again?”

    To me, this is a loaded question. A friend told me he conducted a research in an area of Lagos among Okada riders and his conclusion is that over 90 percent of them had worked in the textile industry before its collapse. Even without undertaking any research whatsoever, it is clear that the textile industry was one the largest mass employment industry after the government. But all changed as government policies and stifling operating environment made it “cost effective” to import rather than produce locally.

    In the last dispensation, the government toyed with schemes like SURE-P, GIS, YouWin etc when it was apparent that was not the solution to our problem, but a mere populist move to try and gain relevance. Even a basic knowledge of Economics reveals that no nation can progress without a firm industrial base. China rose to become the second largest economy in the world because of its focus on industrialisation. In our own case, our stifling operating environment, forced companies we had in the past to close shop and relocate to other sister African countries and we were left with an army of unemployed citizens after the exodus.

    The United Nation (UN) predicts that by 2050 there will be 2.5 billion Africans – a quarter of the world’s population. Because of this and other predictions, Africa has remained the toast of investors who would not want to miss the opportunity of investing in an emerging market with such huge population. But things have started changing the way few predicted. The way things stand presently, four of Africa’s biggest economies are showing strains.

    Nigeria, South Africa, Angola and Kenya, the four leading economies, are seriously affected by the fall in oil and commodity prices. According to the IMF, South African economy will grow by just 0.6% this year. The rand plummeted 30% last year, and political turmoil emanating from a corruption scandal tied to President Jacob Zuma has also had a big impact.

    Back home, Nigeria relies on oil for 70% of government revenue and accounts for 90% of export revenue. That leaves very little room to adjust the country’s budget. From an economic point of view, that can only mean one thing – slower growth. As a result, growth prediction is fixed now at 2.3%, the lowest rate in 15 years, according to the IMF. We have drawn down on our currency reserves and implemented capital controls, making access to dollars very difficult. In an economy that relies on imports, the controls have made life difficult for citizens and companies.

    Angola, which was once one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, is now on its knees and asking for help from the IMF. Angola is Africa’s second largest oil producer and relies on oil for 95% of government revenue. It has requested assistance from the IMF in the form of monetary support. The country is set to grow by 3.5% this year, down from 6.8% in 2013, according to the IMF.

    Unlike other African economies, Kenya’s economy is more resilient and diversified but there are challenges with its banking sector. Three banks are being wound down by the central bank. Two of the banks failed last year, and a third was forced into the arms of the lender of last resort early this month. A fourth bank is being investigated, and analysts believe consolidation in the industry is inevitable.

    All these point to one thing: the continent’s future is in the balance. Whether it bounces back from this commodity slump or slips back into stagnation, war and autocracy of the past will depend on whether its leaders have the will and determination of moving forward.

    For me, two things are crucial. The first is to recognise the new reality. Given the decline in its terms of trade, Africa’s buying power has gone down and governments are being forced to adjust to this reality which is also affecting rich Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and others.

    The second is to focus on people, infrastructure and industrialisation. In recent years, the Economist and popular publications alike have argued that Africa was on the threshold of an economic boom. Pointing to a decade of high growth and increased foreign investment, this argument held that the continent was finally on track to leave its long years of poverty and under-development behind. Some even said that Africa could become the next global economic powerhouse, following in the footsteps of East Asia.

    However, with this new reality, this position is now contentious for one obvious reason: weak or no industrial base. Africa’s growth would not be real, lasting, or beneficial for its people until it was based on industrialisation rather than exporting raw commodities. Rather than focusing on the hype of mobile phones we should ask critical questions and study some basic development indicators: Was manufacturing increasing as a percentage of GDP? Were the goods African countries exported becoming more valuable – finished products rather than raw materials?

    It is instructive to note that a 2011 U.N. report looked into these questions, and found that most African countries are either stagnating or moving backwards when it comes to industrialisation, quite unlike the East Asian experience.

    We are here because oil and commodity prices are plunging, China’s purchases are slowing, and GDP growth rates across the continent are in steep decline. Reflecting these trends, the IMF has cut its 2015 projection for growth in sub-Saharan Africa from 4.5 to 3.75 percent, concluding that the decade-long commodity cycle that had raised African export revenues “seems to have come to an end.” With a population boom on the horizon, experts now worry about how the continent will produce enough jobs for its people. For Nigeria, this is a tough period to be in leadership position.

    Without the commodities boom, the actual failure of Africa’s development has now been laid bare. In November, the Economist noted that “many African countries are de-industrialising while they are still poor, raising the worrying prospect that they will miss out on the chance to grow rich by shifting workers from farms to higher-paying factory jobs.” But like most free market champions, it got it wrong when analysing why Africa has not been industrialising, citing the conventional lack of the “basics” — infrastructure, skills and institutions.

    But development economists will point out that Africa has had difficulty industrialising because its leaders swallowed “hook, line and sinker” free markets and free trade policies proffered by the World Bank, the IMF. As a result, African countries have abandoned key tools, which they could have used to build up their domestic manufacturing sectors – even in the face of challenges.

    Free market advocates told African countries that such “state intervention” in the economy usually does more harm than good, because governments shouldn’t be in the business of “meddling in the economy” but leave it “ to the market” to handle. Africans were told to simply privatise, liberalise, deregulate, and get the so-called economic fundamentals right. But Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia proved that “the market” can be wrong when he propelled Malaysia to be among one of the Asian Tigers of the 1980s.

    There’s however a ray of hope as the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has begun promoting what it calls “smart protectionism,” suggesting that trade policy in Africa should be “highly selective,” with special treatment for certain sectors to advance national development goals.

    This is right thinking. For Nigeria, job creation will continue to remain a cliché if we do not make concerted efforts to bring back the industries that defined Lagos, Aba, Port-Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna and other urban centres in the past. They were the once that kept our army of Okada riders engaged.

  • Why economic philosophy matters: Economic transformation and the vision thing (1)

    Why economic philosophy matters: Economic transformation and the vision thing (1)

    Professor Kingsley Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), teaches International Business and Public Policy at The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, United States, in this first part of a series, argues that those at the helm of affairs must  build a sustainable economic future for the country by looking beyond oil.

    Nothing concentrates the mind of a profligate, commodity-dependent nation like a fine crisis of crashed oil prices and an embattled currency. Even then, given our past record with oil booms and busts in which we get born again when oil prices crash but backslide once they recover, one cannot be certain that we would have learnt our lessons if the price of crude were to ramp up to $70 a barrel, let alone the pipe dream of $100 oil, in the next two years.To build a sustainable economic future beyond oil,Nigeria must now address the aching need for a clear economic vision, situated in a philosophical framework, from which public policy should be derived.

    This is the philosophical self-examination that Nigerian economic policy has not done since the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was introduced by the government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida in 1986. Yet, we can see that this tension has continued to shadow economic policy by successive Nigerian governments and public or elite reactions to these policies to this day. This has been especially so since the return of democracy in 1999. Today, this tension is encapsulated in the suspicions, support or criticisms of what has been termed “Buharinomics”.

    To be sure, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is itself yet to publicly indicate a clear economic philosophy beyond what is evident from the president’s comments and policy actions, which is that he is pro-poor in his inclinations rather than pro-elite. This is important in itself because the real test of success in economic transformation is not just how much the elite or the middle class prosper, but even more importantly for an underdeveloped nation such as ours, how many millions of the poor are transported from poverty into middle class status. This test is what has been adopted in China, South Korea, Brazil, India, United Arab Emirates and Chile in the past 50 years, and is what is at play in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Rwanda today. So, President Buhari’s pro-poor focus is right because to give the poor a way out of poverty is, to use a turn of phrase from another former military leader, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, “a task that must be done”. The question is: how?

    It is necessary to remind ourselves that the SAP, whether we consider that it was right or wrong, a success or a failure, was a child of circumstance and not of choice. It was an externally induced policy response to a balance of payments crisis that was long in the making. That crisis resulted from cumulative structural and policy missteps that began in the 1970s because of the oil boom, and came to a head in President Shehu Shagari’s government. If we had managed our economy more wisely and not lost our head to a wasting natural resource, Nigeria would not have experienced the kind of wrenching economic crisis that the then Head of State Gen. Buhari inherited when he came to power as a military leader on December 31, 1983. The same scenario, without question, is true today.

    In this four-part series, I intend to open a philosophical inquiry into our national economic vision and aspirations, with the aim of establishing that the key to prospering and mattering as a nation, beyond being a point of global commodity and human extraction for hundreds of years, is the reinvention of our minds to understand what creates the true wealth of nations and how to apply those basic understandings to economic policy and governance.

    The wealth of nations always has philosophical foundations. It is these fundamental understandings and how we share and apply them as a nation, rather than going “upandan” (up and down) with no particular compass or lodestar in view, that makes the difference between success, failure, or a journey that takes longer than should really be necessary. This might surprise those who have placed much stock on the technical equations of economists, which are doubtless also important, but really as a back-up that gives validation toa philosophically grounded economic vision.

    As such, I will address in this series four issues. The first is why a national economic vision is important. Second,I will demonstrate the umbilical cord between the philosophical concept of worldviews and why America and China rule the world and why Nigeria is yet to fly. The third part will examine the importance of the forces of globalization and, even more importantly, understanding their implications for the economic man or woman in Nnewi, Kano, or Lagos and how we should navigate those currents. Finally, I will discuss how all these subjects wrap up in capitalist economics, why capitalism does not automatically create the wealth of nations, and what exactly Nigeria should do to make capitalism actually work for it and its citizens, not just for a few plutocrats.

    Why does an economic vision matter? The “vision thing” matters because it sets out a national ambition for transformation against a canvas of both the long term and a destination. Second, it matters because, if communicated effectively it can, to deploy the Nigerian politician’s ultimate phrase, “carry the people along”. Third, it matters because visioning is the ultimate task of leadership. Managing, which is a different thing, is the necessary next level below,and ensures that visions become reality. Fourth, a national economic vision, which must be anchored on a discernible economic or political philosophy, makes derivative policy more robust by imbuing it with internal consistency. And fifth, clarity of vision matters because there are different and competing economic visions that have delivered prosperity to different parts of the world, so the real mystery of economic transformation is that no one economic vision is the ultimate elixir in every clime or circumstance. Economics is not exactly an exact science!

    Thus, as I have argued in my book Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s ‘Last Frontier’ Can Prosper and Matter, this clarity about the basis on which we seek to prosper and matter is a fundamental requirement for economic transformation in Nigeria and other African countries. Anything short of this is a muddle, and we have been in a muddle for some time.  This is the case despite the illusion some have self-interestedly created, that Africa is “rising”, when in fact nothing about the structure of its commodity-dependent economies has changed in any fundamental manner.

    You might be saying, as you read this: “But what about Sani Abacha’s Vision 2010, Yar’Adua’s Vision 2020 and Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda?” Good question. Here’s the answer: These documents, worthy efforts though they are, lacked a foundational worldview, which is to say an interpretation of the world and why it is the way it is, the world economy and Nigeria’s place in it as a basis for a clearly articulated quest for economic development and transformation. They lacked a grand, unifying vision for Nigeria that will guide any government in power, regardless of its political leaning. There was subsequently no single strand of narrative that connected every action of governance and economic management to that vision. The vision need not be verbose (Rwanda’s Vision 2020 is just 30 pages). And these “visions” were not embedded in the various structures of governance, and were not executed with consistency, discipline and grand strategy, with targets and milestones measured constantly against implementation. Conversely, Malaysia adopted these approaches, and has already achieved most of its Vision 2020. That vision was articulated in 1991 by Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, the Asian country’s driven, articulate and inspirational Prime Minister at the time.

    Nigeria has veered since 1999 from a capitalist economy accompanied by far-reaching liberalization reforms to one that now appears to be leaning towards a welfare state and a commanding role for the government, all without an interrogation, let alone an articulation of any economic philosophy as a basis on which we hope to attain prosperity in the long term. This approach, by definitionad hoc in nature, of “doing” things before thinking deeply and developing coherent, long-term strategies has not served Nigeria well. It is what has created the reality of running around in circles after 55 years. We cannot carry on this way.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo guided and empowered the private sector but was in the driving seat. The private sector dominated President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, leading to the “subordinate state” in which some business titans became alternate centers of power and “captured” the decision-making process of an elected government. Today, the captains of money and commerce appear unsure of their place under President Muhammadu Buhari. Beyond the seeming mistrust between the president and the “oligarchs”, state-business relations, a process of collaboration between the state and market players such as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the main chambers of commerce, remains necessary. The outcomes of those consultations ought to be evident in public policy.

    Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan both believed strongly in business as a major driver of the national economy. The liberalization of the telecommunications industry, which the former spearheaded,had a huge and positive economic impact. Thus Nigeria progressively rose to become Africa’s largest economy based on a “rebased” Gross Domestic Product. But the electric power sector remained moribund, with our national wattage embarrassingly one-tenth of South Africa’s. Poverty and unemployment rates have remained high because the trickle-down effect on the common man from the Olympian heights of the neo-liberal economic paradigm has not happened. What’s the point of being Africa’s largest economy if poverty, unemployment and infrastructure deficits have remained high despite the efforts of successive governments?

    Enter President Buhari, from a field apparently left of center, with his government taking on huge welfare obligations at a time of declining fiscal revenues. Let’s be clear: a social safety net of some sort is necessary in every society.  But welfare economics needs careful thinking before jumping into, for the simple reason that the welfare state as an economic model, just like all the others, has its unique, inbuilt problems. The most important of these is sustainability. How will wealth be created before it is shared or redistributed, or are we to simply to borrow and “manage” our resources and “share” from a progressively empty pot?

    Many observers of Nigeria’s economy sighed with relief when, after much debate and controversy, President Buhari did the right thing and walked back from an apparent commitment that his government would pay a monthly stipend of N5,000 to millions of unemployed Nigerians, but rather would focus on investments in infrastructure and other productive aspects of the economy. The relief was not because any genuine patriothates the poor and would not want their progress. It was because even in the best of times such a huge expectation would have been difficult to implement. Moreover, given Nigeria’s present economic distress, it is well-nigh impossibleto do so at this time without severe and negative fiscal, monetary and other long term-consequences.

    The populism of political campaign rhetoric is frequently a different thing from the reality of things when politicians are voted into office, and populist instincts are a problematic basis for sound economic policy.  Not understanding this subtlety has been a bane of governance in Nigeria, and highlights the prevalent short-termism instead of a longer term worldview. On the other hand, the Buhari government’s policy announcement of its intention to spend N60 billion to economically empower 1 million artisans (there should be more participants, with a sum like N60 billion), is doable and would make direct economic impact if well-conceived and implemented effectively.

    Thus, we need to return to the basics before we proceed on possibly flawed assumptions. First, we must assume, and affirm, that Nigeria operates a market economy in which the state nevertheless should play an important role. But what exactly should that role be?  Do we or should we have a developmental state, or a “night-watchman” state? This is the critical question. In the night-watchman state the economy is believed to run on the assumption of efficient markets. The role of the state is simply to regulate the playing field, protect individual and property rights, and then get out of the way. This is the neo-liberal paradigm, articulated influentially by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Robert Solow, which argues that growth is created by production and innovation. This creates “rents”, or payments that exceed the opportunity cost of an asset. This is different from rent-seeking, in which wealth is transferred mainly by government actions (such as inflated contracts, import duty waivers for cronies, petroleum products import subsidies, or the discretionary allocation of oil blocks). The neo-liberal paradigm, in its pure form (not the corrupted form we have practiced in Nigeria) actually tries to dislodge rent-seeking by reducing the state’s role in the economy.

    The concept of the developmental state, intellectually championed by thinkers and politicians such as Meles Zenawi, the late President of Ethiopia, challenges the night-watchman or neo-liberal paradigm. Developmental state theory argues that the neo-liberal state idea is a reflection of the historical evolution of western capitalist societies, and that it assumes that all things are equal, which is not the case at all in developing countries. The state must therefore consciously drive development by shaping the economic market-place in pre-determined directions consistent with the needs of development, and not just the idiosyncrasies of the market-place.

    As we will see when we discuss the different kinds of capitalism and their relevance to the Nigerian conundrum, this approach to economic development requires a highly capable state in which public policy is driven by highly competent, knowledgeable and motivatedindividuals. If a country tries this approach and those in the lead are wrong or lack the requisite economic and public policy knowledge, good intentions alone will mean nothing in the end, and the consequence of error can be high. The level of competence and focus of its leadership and bureaucrats, under the brilliant lawyer Lee Kuan Yew, is why Singapore rose from being an Asian backwater to become a prosperous nation.

    Ethiopia and Rwanda, the two main examples in Africa of the developmental state, are in fact pursuing growth with transformation objectives in different ways. In Ethiopia which has a population of 80 million people, the economy remains under significant state control even as the private sector expands, and the financial sector is yet to be fully liberalized. But there is a clear emphasis on and industrial manufacturing economy and the acquisition of technical skills necessary for the viability of this model of development. In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame leads a country with a developmental model that is heavily private-sector driven, but a strong state sets the overall strategic agenda and executes with ruthless discipline. Corruption practically does not exist in Rwanda. One million people have verifiably been moved from poverty into the middle class already. The country of 10 million people is pursuing a Singapore-based development model, is developing an information technology based economy, and aspires to become a middle-income country by 2020, all from ground zero two decades after the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Kagame has been extraordinarily effective at mobilizing the buy-in and participation of Rwandans in the country’s development vision.

    All of this is different from a command economy or a big but unproductive state, in which government controls the levers of economic activity but lacks the ability to produce and allocate efficiently, while impeding the possibility of more efficient outcomes that could be created by market competition. This is especially so when a country has already repositioned to a broadly market economy for many years, after the failure of state controls in the first place.

    What is the path forward for Nigeria? It lies in returning to the drawing board and building the right philosophical foundations for national prosperity. We cannot turn back the hand of the clock and return to the command economies of the pre-SAP era, which also failed partly because of the weakness of their conceptual foundations and our progressive inefficiencies as societal values became eroded, but we can re-position for a better tomorrow. And the place to begin is in the mind.

    •To be continued

  • Matters arising

    Matters arising

    Still on taxation, Obasanjo’s letter and transparency in the National Assembly

    Three developments in the past week  in a sense lent credence to my position on this page last Sunday that what Nigerians need to get out of the woods is not  taxation. Asking Nigerians to pay more taxes now cannot be called creativity, especially since we had already travelled in the past the way of some of the taxes. As a matter of fact, we are still paying some of the taxes which some people want increased. Our problem is beyond that, and that much is evident in the mindboggling revelations on the $2.1bilion Dasukigate. As I said last week, this is only a tip of the iceberg because we are still going to witness even more damning revelations when the searchlight is beamed on the oil sector with its odious stench.

    The first development was the presentation of two bills by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly seeking to facilitate the war against money laundering.  The bills are: “The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016” and “The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, 2016.” The letter to which the bills were attached was read by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, to legislators during the assembly’s plenary session on January 27.

    The first bill seeks to repeal the existing Money Laundering Act to allow for stronger punishments against money launderers while the second will make provisions that will enable Nigeria seek international assistance in recovering looted funds.

    The other development was former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to the National Assembly on the obvious opaqueness of their spending, the N4.7billion cars they want to purchase, ostensibly for committee work, and sundry matters bothering on insensitivity and corruption.

    The third development was the announcement by the Federal Government that it does not intend to increase taxes. Coming barely five days after I had vehemently opposed further tax burden on Nigerians, these developments were such sweet music to my ears. Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, said after a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) that “Government will not impose additional taxes on individual and corporate bodies to avoid additional burden on Nigerians”. This shows the government already knows that the people are going through hell and would not want to compound their woes. This is compassion at work and it is the kind of soothing balm that Nigerians need in these trying moments, not harsh words like they ‘MUST’ pay. The government does not have to be a tax master to meet its budgetary obligations.

    Anyway, whilst Senate President Saraki’s reply to Obasanjo was somewhat courteous and understandable, Senator Dino Melaye launched into how Obasanjo bribed the then National Assembly over his third term ambition. I am not an Obasanjo fan and those familiar with my column know that much. But the fact is that as much as possible, we should always try to separate the message from the messenger. Obasanjo’s message in this instance is clear: the senators should reconsider their decision to buy 120 exotic cars at N4.7billion for committee work in view of the economic situation in the country. Senator Melaye simply failed to address that issue. Some other senators say Obasanjo wrote the letter to cause disaffection between them and the president.

    Pray, how does that also address the issue? Chief Obasanjo we all know. But, whether you like or hate him is not important. What is important is to realise that a bad child sometimes has his good days. Today, he is wrong; tomorrow he is right. You can even say, like Azu Ishiekwene once said, that whatever he did right was a mistake. May be his letter this time around was one of such mistakes; but he was right all the same. What Senator Melaye and the rest should tell us is whether Obasanjo made sense or not by telling the law makers to save the country the N4.7billion for cars, and make their spending transparent instead of wasting time telling us things we already know. Nigerians must be wary of this divide-and-rule tactic by our political elite. When they wanted to sweep former President Goodluck Jonathan out of power, many of them made Obasanjo’s home a Mecca of sort. It was convenient for them to forget then that he once bribed National Assembly members. They suddenly opened the book of remembrance now that Obasanjo attacked their collective insatiable desire for materialism. Nigerians must read between the lines. Senators cannot be clinging to the luxuries they presently enjoy only to turn to hapless Nigerians to pick the bill even on their empty stomachs.

    Nigerians should find it curious that it is their representatives, I mean the senators in this instance, that are clamouring for increases in taxation at this point in time while the executive arm is saying there won’t be anything like that. Isn’t this a curious role reversal?  Should it not have been the other way round? It is heartwarming though that President Muhammadu Buhari realised that the buck stops at his desk and has said there won’t be any increases in taxation. I commend him for that. I also commend the creative ways he has chosen to go about the dwindling government revenue without necessarily overburdening Nigerians to sustain the luxurious lifestyle of some public servants.

    What the government has done is to follow the maxim that a child looks to the front when he falls; but when an adult falls, he looks backwards to see what made him to fall. Jumping to raise taxation so soon cannot be the product of any rigorous analysis of the Nigerian economic crisis. As a nation, we must know what led us to where we are to be able to better appreciate the way out; I mean we must reminisce. That is what an adult does. To begin to ask for increased taxation and introduction of new taxes is out of the question because it is not just the fall in crude prices that is responsible for the country’s economic downturn. Rather, it is corruption; monumental corruption, the type that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard. So, it is that corruption that we must take out before asking people to bake again. To keep baking under the prevailing circumstance is akin to fetching water into a basket. Anybody who made his money genuinely must be wary of such sense of reasoning.

    If we must do anything about taxation, it is to widen the net. Let the people enjoying luxurious lifestyle also pay luxurious tax. Let churches and mosques with investments pay. We can also consider tolling the major expressways in the country to sustain the maintenance of those roads. But to want to raise Value Added Tax (VAT) because Nigeria is the country paying the lowest VAT (even if I do not know the proof for this or what it is supposed to mean) seems to me a mere regurgitation of jaded economic theories or, at best, genuine intentions in climes where there are already structures to prevent such revenue from being plundered, or deny the plunderers the right to perpetual injunctions, so that they can speedily have their day in court when they lust after public funds.

    As far as I am concerned, increased taxation can only be an option when all else had failed; I mean it should be the last resort if indeed, national development is the true reason for the hike. The Buhari administration has done what looks to me to be imaginative or creative in addressing the gaps in the budget proposals. For instance, it talked about possible cuts in the country’s cash call elements by innovative financing which is about N1trillion; the possibility of getting private sector financing for some projects; looking into the activities of some government ministries, departments and agencies that are generating money in dollars and remitting in Naira; etc. So, one sees a government that is unwilling to tear Nigerians’ pockets in the name of making up for shortfall in government revenue. It is the senators that MUST (to borrow their emphasis) show that they care by acting on President Buhari’s letter and facilitate the war against money laundering. As a matter of fact, the bills must be debated and passed expeditiously if the senators are desirous of fighting corruption. Another point is; there is so much money hanging out there that would be useful if it is recovered. The Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), for example, has just expressed frustration with the N5.4trillion debt owed it by a handful of Nigerians. If only the Senate can address all of these, we may end up discovering that we do not need to raise taxes.

    We may not have to arrest Dasuki and others involved in Dasukigate another time, but we would have succeeded in sending the message across that such plundering of the national patrimony would no longer be treated with kid gloves, thus minimising the propensity of public officials to want to feed fat on public funds.

  • Nigeria 2016: Matters arising

    Obviously, 2016 is a year in which Nigeria will be facing a number of very grave dangers. There is absolutely no need for anyone to lay claim to gifts of prophecy in order to comprehend a self-evident fact of this nature. In fact, every Nigerian above the age of 12 should easily be able to understand what is going on. Whether we like it or not, the harsh reality confronting us today is that Nigeria is a nation at war! War is currently being waged against our people and our land on a number of separate fronts.

    In the main theatre of war, the forces ranged against us are hunger, poverty, corruption and under-development. Only a fool would underestimate the potency of the formidable armies that have been marshalled against us by these entities, which, far from being abstract ideas, are actually very formidable adversaries that have destroyed far better prepared nations than Nigeria in the past.

    However, there is no doubt that the terrifying forces ranged against us in the main theatre of war can be successfully confronted and defeated. The most inspiring recent example of a people and a nation that rose from the verge of defeat to largely overcome hunger, poverty, widespread corruption and under-development is China, which has now gone on to start vying for the position of the world’s leading nation with a fast declining United States of America, leaving erstwhile giants like Britain, France and Italy far, far, behind.

    Unfortunately for us, far from offering worthwhile leadership, the western educated Nigerian elite has demonstrated an astonishing capacity for self-delusion, unrelenting greed and blind attachment to a self-destructive quest for accumulating material wealth since the era of direct colonial rule came to an end.

    Indeed, examining Nigeria’s history since we attained nominal independence from Britain in 1960, one is forced to wonder what sins the peoples of Nigeria might have committed to deserve such a thoroughly rotten and incapable leadership class!

    How else can one describe a situation in which individuals occupying high positions as governors, ministers, heads of the civil service and even presidents have been involved in looting the national coffers on such a monumental scale that Nigeria would have collapsed completely within the next few years if providence had not miraculously brought Buhari to power last year?

    The danger is however far from over: Corruption is fast regrouping for a major counter offensive that is already  gaining ground through deliberate acts of economic sabotage (such as the recent petrol shortage) and a desperate propaganda onslaught spearheaded by odd jobbers like Ayo Fayose and Femi Fani-Kayode, whose deafening hypocritical clamour about the violation of the “human rights” of those who are currently being investigated for their role in the recent massive looting of our national resources is obviously being coordinated from somewhere.

    It is also certainly not by pure coincidence that a well funded agitation for a new “Biafra” homeland has been unleashed of recent on the Nigerian nation, with a dangerous intent to plunge the country into a massive civil war in which hundreds of thousands of lives would have been lost.

    Who are the brains and the deep pockets behind this bogus “biafran emancipation movement”?

    There is no doubt that there will be many interesting revelations whenever Nnamdi Kanu (a hitherto largely unknown youth who mysteriously emerged overnight as the leader of the so-called Biafra Independent Movement) is brought to public trial for his nefarious role as a puppet in the pay of some powerful individuals who were plotting to provoke a new civil war in Nigeria, possibly as a means of evading arrest and prosecution for their horrendous financial misdeeds during the Jonathan administration.

    Most amazingly, a hitherto highly respected Nigerian cleric recently came forward to recommend that President Buhari should hold “peace talks” in person with the shadowy Nnamdi Kanu, whom the cleric described as the most popular leader in Nigeria today!

    This flight of fancy might easily have been dismissed as having been provoked by a moment of indulgence in what my late friend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Abami Eda) used to fondly describe as “Nigerian natural grass”, but for the fact that this same cleric drew unwanted national attention to himself some time ago by leading what he described as s “peace and reconciliation delegation” to Aso rock to plead with President Buhari to discontinue investigation into the looting of Nigeria’s national treasury during the Jonathan era… Curiouser and curiouser, as the saying goes in “Alice in Wonderland”!

    After all is said and done, however, the easiest way of bringing the whole silly “Biafran emancipation” agitation to a quick halt is for the Federal Government to agree to hold a nation-wide referendum to allow Ndigbo residing and running businesses in different parts of Nigeria to opt to return to the land-locked and resource-deficient enclave that will be formed to accommodate the new Biafran nation. It is highly doubtful that the so-called emancipation movement would survive such a referendum by even a single hour! No need to deploy troops or attempt to prevent the rented crowds of unemployed youths from marching up and down to their hearts’ content!

    Finally, on a more serious note, the Buhari administration needs to devise a more efficient way of deploying the nation’s armed might against the rag-tag Boko Haram forces, which continue to have some residual capacity to perpetrate cowardly suicide bomb attacks on innocent civilians. The problem is that the federal government is wrong to rely on the current Nigerian Army (which is essentially an outgrowth of the original repressive force established by the British colonialists as a tool for “pacifying” Nigeria) for a task that requires unorthodox tactics and a high degree of motivation, as well as a willingness to confront death. In their place, the federal government should deploy a civilian volunteer force of one million Nigerian patriots, armed only with sticks if necessary, to comb every inch of the Sambisa forest and root out the cowardly Boko Haram louts, who will never stand and fight against a determined citizenry that is not afraid to die. How many of the civilian patriots can the Boko Haram rag-tag army of cowardly renegades actually kill before they are all flushed out and dispatched to kingdom come?

    • Dr. Balogun is an author, film maker and musician based in Cotonou, Benin Republic.