The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mr President

As Mr President continues to rest…

WHERE is Sai Buhari? Well, some would say the answer to this poser is simple: President Muhammadu Buhari is on medical vacation in London. The next question is: when would he be back to assume his responsibilities as President and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces including chief propeller of the engine of state of the Nigerian nation? Now, that is where the problem lies. No one, not even those who have turned his temporary address abroad to some sort of pilgrimage site, can tell us how soon that would be. Of course, among the visitors are those with genuine feelings for Baba’s health and those who were there to, as they say, fulfill all righteousness.

Ask them if our octogenarian President is battling a life-threatening ailment and you get stoned with a barrage of reasons on why that couldn’t have been a possibility. They tell you he was in cheerful, hale and hearty. They argue that his continued absence from official duties should not cause any panic as he has officially handed over the reins of power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in addition to intimating the National Assembly of an indefinite stay due to his doctors’ advice following series of tests carried out on him. If you think that was not convincing enough, they throw in the Donald Trump punch line.

Then you ask, how does a telephone conversation with the bumbling President of the United States of America justify the fit-as-a-fiddle narrative of a Nigerian President that has remained incommunicado for more than 36 days in a foreign land? Surely, this is not the time to play games with the intelligence of the citizens. Speculations thrive when those that should say the truth about the true state of health of the Nigerian leader embark on an endless misadventure of half-truths and deceit.

The other day, one of the anchors of a popular live breakfast show asked what I consider to be the dumbest question ever: he wanted his guest to confirm if it was right to conclude that the President’s prolonged absence meant that he could be dead! Of course, the guest—an Editor of a leading newspaper in the country— rambled his way through the baseless question. However, this particular scenario perfectly paints a troubling picture of how fatalistic we have become as a people. It is, to say the least, a sad commentary that such a question came up on a live discourse in spite of the different photo-ops that were made available to the Nigerian media presumably to debunk his rumoured death.

But then, isn’t that what secrecy breeds? Why, for example, is it difficult for Aso Rock to come out with something close to a believable truth on why a hale and hearty President finds it convenient to rest in London? In fact, we really dont know what to believe again. The other day, my good friend, Kehinde Amodu, came up with this collage in a response to something I posted on Facebook which has nothing to do with the President’s health. He asked: “Is he on extended vacation? Medical vacation? Test-induced vacation? Cabal-enforced vacation? Or could it be doctor-advised rest?” So, which is which? I understand the frustrations of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who challenged the security forces to deal decisively with peddlers of fake news which he said was deadlier than the Boko Haram insurgency.

But then, who gifted the social media community the free podium to flagellate the wavelengths with salaciously wicked versions of the Buhari health matter? It is no other person than the President’s men. I am sure the honourable minister would not have expected a forever suspicious citizenry to be balled over by all the pictures of the visits made to the Nigeria House in London by different categories of people to wish Mr. Buhari quick recovery. He should know that the sore point in all the visits remains the hastiness with which all some of these VIP guests sneak out pictures of their meetings and the adroitness with which they pronounced the President healthy and ready to resume duty in due course. When you juxtapose that with the plea to Nigerians to pray for the President and the contradictory statements from his media managers that their principal is yet to secure a certificate of clean bill of health from his medical team abroad, you can’t help but attempt to resolve the puzzling missing links.

That is how speculations set in and we sink into this needless miasma of arguments and counter arguments. Some have asked, what’s all the fuss over the health status of a 74-yearold man who is probably succumbing to the challenges of all men in his age bracket? They remind us that we all fall sick once in a while and Buhari should not be an exception. How I wish it were that simplistic. The problem here is that Buhari is not just any other Nigerian. He is the President of Nigeria, a flagrantly raped and perennially abused country in dire need of redemption. On his lean shoulders rest the fortunes or misfortunes of over 170 million Nigerians. If he falls sick, the entire nation feels the pain. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how far anyone who acts in his capacity can go, especially with the kind of ethno-religious politics we play in this part of the world. And that is why it appears many didn’t believe Acting President Osinbajo when he said he spoke to a President who sounded hale and hearty.

Does that mean he is mentally and physically fit to continue from where he stopped? How did this professor of law and pastor jump to that conclusion? Or was he just flying the usual political correctness card? Fake news abounds because this government has not made any conscious effort to avail us the alternative fact to the Buhari leave cum medical check-up saga. Instead, they seem to be treading the same route that led to the catastrophic ending to the story of then President Umaru Yar’Adua. We cannot afford to risk a repeat of that heart-rending episode at a period when Nigerians are swallowing the pills of poverty with the water of anguish. There are too many things that demand the urgent attention of a fit, robust and focused leadership. Unfortunately, that force of authority lies only in the hands of our ailing President. Ailing? Yes, contrary to the wishes of his sworn haters, our President is not dead.

He is alive but under the weather. Buhari confirmed our fears when he reportedly told the Kano State Governor, Umar Ganduje, that he was getting better in his latest phone call to select Nigerians. Of course, the rational conclusion should be that he was in London to treat an ailment. So, he is not dead. Question is: can he combine the painstaking rigour of treatment with the arduous task of piloting the affairs of state? I seriously doubt it. We live in denial when we shy away from this reality. I am sure a patriotic Buhari wouldn’t have stayed a day longer than necessary if he was truly in top notch condition as the hawks around him would want us to believe. Now that he has requested additional time for the healing process, The Presidency would do us a world of good by coming out with the real deal.

The public needs to know if they are in this for a long haul like it happened in the case of Yar’Adua or for some few more weeks. Aso Rock’s criminally opprobrious silence over this matter is unacceptable. Could it be possible that some powerful forces are holding our President hostage against his wishes? What kind of ailment would prevent this hale and hearty man from engaging millions of well-wishers in a 5-minute Skype teleconference? And why must we rely on the medical reports given by fourth or fifth parties to assuage our fears? In case The Presidency has forgotten, the social media community only lashed on to the lapses embedded in the official statement issued on Buhari’s trip to the United Kingdom some weeks back. It would have been dumb to gloss over the ease with which a 10-day leave transformed into an ad-infinitum extension. No sitting President anywhere in the world enjoys that luxury. And so, this endless wait for Godot is deleterious to the health of the entire nation.

We couldn’t have forgotten so soon how Nigeria regressed into coma with the anxiety over the late Yar’Adua’s health. We couldn’t have forgotten how a so-called cabal took maximum advantage of the unfortunate circumstance to fleece the country dry. Did we also remember the inspiring role played by the late Dr. Dora Akunyili who blew the lid on the officially packaged lying machine of that era? Could there be a possibility that we are about treading the same path with the ominous sign hanging over the actual state of health of our President? Who is the Akunyili of the Buhari regime anyway? Muhammed was right when he said fake news left unchecked could wreak damning damage on our tender societal fabric and cause unimaginable conflict.

But, on this matter, the easiest way to put an end to the wicked lies on the status of the nation’s leader is for those who sit on the facts of the matter to make it available to the millions who tend to believe the lies being peddled daily on the social media. What would it cost them if Sai Baba (as Buhari is fondly called) is persuaded to speak to those who cannot afford to fly on public funds to London to wish him soonest recovery in his hale and hearty condition? How much longer are we going to wait for this Godot who insists he needs to rest more in the UK on doctors’ directives even if there is no cause for alarm? How long?

February 25, 2017
Kudos to Mr. President

Though everything may not be looking too bright at the moment, but President Muhammadu Buhari definitely deserves commendation for the way he has handled some issues in the country.

Sample one instance: the presidential vacation matter, a time the commander-in-chief takes a break.

Despite having a military background, Buhari has shown more respect for the rule of law as he sharply broke away from the behavioral pattern of some of the past Presidents and Heads of State.

It is on record that some of the past leaders never sent any communication to the National Assembly for vacations.

They more or less created time to cool off while pretending to be on duty throughout the period of their tenures.

One of the reasons given for their behaviours by political analysts is the fear of the unknown.

They couldn’t trust their deputies to temporarily step into their shoes for even a day.

Again, some of the leaders were not in cordial relationships with their deputies as they rather preferred to secretly go for such rest abroad under the cover of attending one international event or the other.

Some of them even preferred, knowingly or unknowingly, to hang onto power on their sick beds abroad.

The events leading to the adoption of ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ by the immediate past Senate President, David Mark, must still be very fresh in the minds of some Nigerians.

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan became Acting President on February 9, 2010 by virtue of National Assembly resolution based on Mark’s innovative ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ in Nigeria.

The whole episode was triggered by the late President Musa Yar’Adua’s long absence due to medical attention in Saudi Arabia without the constitutional communication to the National Assembly.

Nigerians, under the current dispensation, however, have been spared such drama and unnecessary heating of the polity.

For three times now, Buhari has been very consistent. He has never failed to transmit a letter to the National Assembly informing them of his desire to take a break as part of his annual leave.

By doing so, he was adhering strictly to Section 145 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

A statement issued last Thursday by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, reads: “In line with Section 145 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the President of the Senate, and Speaker, House of Representatives, have been duly communicated.

“While away, the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, will perform the functions of the Office of the President,” it added.

Through such letters, Osinbajo, for the third time within a year became the ‘Acting President’ of Nigeria.

It is a privilege or right some of the past occupiers of the office of the Vice President never enjoyed for the duration of their eight years tenures in office.

Buhari’s letters go a long way to show the trust and cordial relationship between him and Osinbajo and highlighting Osinbajo’s high level of loyalty to him.

The letters also showed that Buhari has placed the interest of the nation far above any other interests.

For him, the job of steering the ship of the nation on the right path should not stop for any reason.

The relationship between the two leaders, no doubt, is good for democracy in Nigeria.

Connecting troops at war fronts

Nothing could be better professionally for a Field Marshal to have unhindered access to his foot soldiers at the war fronts.

If for nothing else, at least to discuss new war tactics and to pass vital instructions needed to win the war.

As the Commander-in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, that privilege was enjoyed by President Muhammadu Buhari last week Sunday without leaving Abuja.

Through technology on display at the 2017 Armed Forces Remembrance Day at the National Arcade, Abuja, Buhari was not only able to speak with troops at various locations, but also saw live visuals of the troops at their stations.

He spoke with the soldiers at two locations in Nigeria and one location in Liberia.

The President first spoke with Nigerian troops occupying the Sambisa forest in Borno State. The troops were reported to have cleared the forest of terrorists.

Speaking with the Acting GOC, 7 Division Nigeria Army, Major General Victor Ezugwu at the Sambisa forest, Buhari had commended the troops for achieving the feat and urging them to continue in their assignment with the highest standard of discipline and efficiency.

The second location in Nigeria he spoke with were troops of the Operation Lafia Dole at the Air Force base in Yola, Adamawa State.

Through Air Force video conferencing, he spoke with the Air Commander of Operation Lafia Dole, Air Commodore Charles Owoh.

“With your hi-tech performance and platforms, we have been able to restore the sanity and the territorial integrity of Nigeria; I congratulate you. For the officers and men, you know you cannot be over-trained. With your hi-tech outfit, training has to be continuous and I am very pleased with the initiative that you have taken in maintenance of equipment.” He told the troops.

The President also spoke with and commended the Nigeria troops in Liberia led by Force Commander of United Nations mission in Liberia, Major General Salihu Zaway Uba.

Those conversations last week Sunday were not the first time Buhari was linking up visually with soldiers at the battlefronts.

He had added a special touch to the annual no-speech-making event during the 2016 Armed Forces Remembrance Day ceremony last year when he first spoke with soldiers at the war front.

Then, from the same venue, he had inspected a military surveillance vehicle where he saw and spoke with troops on ground at the war front in Borno State and a pilot in an aircraft in the area.

January 24, 2017
We are not in a short recession, Mr. President; we are in a serial recession that is close to a depression (1)
The programmes I have outlined will revive the economy, restore the value of the naira and drive hunger from our land. President Buhari, Independence Day Speech, October 1, 2016

Let me start by admitting that for a long time before the President’s Independence Day speech last week, I had been experiencing some concern, some discomfiture that most commentators have been saying that we are now in a recession that began with the official devaluation of the naira when the truth is that what we are going through not only started long before the devaluation of the national currency but has indeed been going on for so long that it is much closer to a depression than a recession..But having made this observation, I must nevertheless emphasize that it was the president’s speech that finally convinced me that I had to write about the matter. This is because both in the title that most newspapers and newsmagazines gave the speech –Nigeria’s Economic Recession Is Real But Would (sic) Not Last – and in the analysis of the crisis and the “solutions” proffered by Buhari, it was obvious that the President really had a shortrecession in mind, with depression absolutely nowhere in sight in his thoughts and projections.

As a matter of fact, this is clearly reflected in the sentence that I have excerpted from the president’s speech for the epigraph for this piece, a sentence which indisputably shows that because he thinks we are in a short recession that began with the catastrophic fall in the value of the naira, Buhari expects a quick fix for the severe shortfalls that the national economy and the good people of Nigeria are going through right now.Typically, a recession does not last long. Compared with an economic depression, it is like going through a brief ailment that lasts for a couple of weeks in comparison with suffering a long, life threatening illness. No, Mr. President, economically we are not suffering a bit of a cold that requires no more than a cold and/or cough mixture; we are in the grip of a serious pandemic that will require procedures and medications adequate to the nature of the serious nature of the illness – precisely because we are in a serial recession whose repeated occurrenceover the last two to three decades indicates that we are always on the brink of an economic depression.

Now, it is an elementary principle in the science of economics that though there are similarities and continuities between them, a recession is very different from a depression. As a matter of fact, the two terms would not have been invented and applied to describe different phenomena by economic theoristsif there were no great, perhaps profound distinctions between the terms. In a short series of two essays that begins in this column this week, I wish to discuss this issue with particular focus on its implications both for state or governmental policy and the expectations and hopes of Nigerians in their tens of millions across the length and breadth of the land. So, for starters, let us briefly deal with the differences between a recession and a depression, together with the issue of why it is very important not to either willfully or unknowingly confuse one with the other.

Before getting to the issue itself, a note of caution. I am by profession not an economist; I am a literary critic and cultural theorist. However, for nearly half a century now, I have been deeply interested in the science of economics, especially in its more progressive and/or”philosophical” traditions (Adam Smith; Karl Marx; John Maynard Keynes; Obafemi Awolowo; Julius Nyerere; Paul Krugman; Eskor Toyo) as distinct from its more conservative, neoclassical and “econometric” currents (Milton Friedman and the Chicago School; Ragnar Frisch; Bruce Hansen; and our own Charles Soludo). This in effect means that while I will not avoid conventional or even neoclassical economic considerations in this piece, my focus will be more on the public good in relation to the driving ideologies and effects of economic activities, far beyond their reflection in narrow professional disputes among economists. In other words, just as it is often said politics is too important to leave to politicians and law is too important to leave to lawyers, I say here that the economies of our nation and our planetary community are far too important to leave to economists. At any rate, our discussion of recession(s) and depression(s) as economic phenomena will be very brief, the main point being essentially to address the central issue of this discussion which is that we are not in a short recession as the President and his (economic) advisers obviously think, to go by his Independence Day speech last week.

To give a concrete illustration of the essential difference between a recession and a depression, permit me to draw an instructive analogy from the field of medicine. Thus, just as physicians of the homeostatic school of medicine believe that the body, the organs and the tissues all naturally tend towards health and wellness anddisease is an aberration, an abnormality that the body always quickly tries to “heal”, so do most traditional or conventional economists believe that expansion and growth represent the normal state of affairs in economic activities while most “slowdowns” or recessions are brief and tend to be more rare than frequent. Indeed, some economists go so far as to define recession as being characterized by a period of negative economic growth for no more than two consecutive quarters! Unemployment rises, industrial production falls, real GDP adjusted for inflation decreases, incomes stagnate or fall especially with regard to their purchasing power in wholesale and retail sales and government borrowing increases. These are the typical features of a recession. If they all seem like frightening things, mercifully they tend not to last for too long in a recession. If they last for too long and moreover get worse, then you have a depression, the mother of all recessions. Please always remember, dear reader, that most traditional or conventional economists believe that, as in life itself, expansion and growth constitute the normal or even “natural” state of economic activities and recession is an abnormality that doesn’t or shouldn’t last too long.

But now think, compatriot: when hasevery single one of these phenomena not been happening in our national economy and on a more or less continuous basis for a long time now? When has unemployment not been high and in double digits? (In a recession, unemployment is supposed to be in single digits; it is in a depression that it falls into double digits). When has industrial output not been in continuous decline in our country in the last three decades? When has our governments, federal and state, not been borrowing from both internal and external creditors even when the world price of oil was relatively high? Did the rise in unemployment in our country begin with the official devaluation of the naira? Hasn’t the value of the naira in relation to the convertible currencies of the world been falling, falling and falling for a long time now, only to assume its present catastrophic and spectral scale with the devaluation?

To put concrete, human faces to these questions, I cannot remember a time in the last two decades when I have not been overwhelmed by relatives, friends, acquaintances and neighbors with the CV’s of their university-educated daughters and sons who have been on the job market for years and years after their graduation. In my neighborhood at Oke-Bola, Ibadan, I can’t remember a time when there haven’t been scores upon scores of youths with absolutely no prospects of gainful employment now and in the future. And I have lost count of the number of years when most of the factories at the Oluyole Industrial Estate, the main manufacturing corridor in Ibadan, all closed down and laid off their employees. Every time that I drive through the area, I shake my head in great sadness and bewilderment. Is this not a profile, compatriot, that is applicable to virtually all neighborhoods in the country, both urban and rural? And yet the President and his economic advisers and speech writers talk of a short recession that began only recently and will not last long! Any thinking, concerned and caring Nigerian who for one second believes the President and his advisers ought to have his or her mental and emotional state checked!

In the context of all I have been saying in this essay, it might be profitable to ask why no one has ever said that we are either in a depression or close to it. I think there are two reasons that are closely linked for this. First, we have not yet seen the worst or the most frightening things associated with economic depressions. What things, what phenomena are these? Well, things like a total collapse of the banking system that induces a run on the banks as millions of people line up to take as much as they can from their accounts before it is too late. Things like a national currency whose value is little better than toilet paper. Things like wholesalers and retailers hoarding foodstuffs and other essential commodities while waiting for prices to rise again. And things like the disappearance of “payday” as deliverance day because pay packets no longer serve any valuable purpose. The far more dramatic phenomena are the mass suicides of men and women completely overwhelmed by the hardships they and their families have to endure. There are countries on our continent and other parts of the developing world undergoing most of these phenomena that have not (yet) declared that they are in the grip of an economic depression. If that is the case, why would a country like Nigeria that still has oil wealth coming into its coffers declare that it is in or close to a depression?

And of course, there is that oil wealth itself. It is considerably down because of the fall in the world price of crude petroleum and the shortages in production caused by destruction of facilities by the Niger Delta militants. But it is still flowing into our national coffers in magnitudes that make it possible to stave off a full-blown slide into economic depression, even though our recessions have been so long that they abstractly and formally qualify for being declared a depression. Meanwhile, please note, compatriot, that Buhari could have made things easier for himself and his administration by stating, quite truthfully, that since the recession did not start with his coming to power, it will take time to tackle the challenges. He and his advisers didn’t take this path apparently because they believe, like all administrations before them, that with oil wealth, you can spend, or more appropriately “buy”, your way out of any recession or depression. This extremely naïve and dangerous thinking has its roots in a national economy in which nearly everything is imported. In next week’s continuation of the series, we shall start with this simplistic assumption that reflation through access to oil wealth is what will keep our economy afloat and in the President’s own words, “drive hunger from our land”.
- Biodun Jeyifo bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu
October 9, 2016
No, not another front, Mr President

SENSING that he continues to receive significant and unalloyed support in his war against corruption, President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated his ownership of the war and even seems prepared to expand its reach. The president had been advised to let the public take ownership of the anti-graft war, but its value as a tool for political mobilisation and its distractive usefulness for refocusing attention from the more encompassing and salient issues of the day make the Buhari presidency unyielding. Even in his style of fighting the war, the president has often been criticised for his readiness to tolerate and excuse collateral damage. The criticisms have produced some changes in administrative style and amelioration of damaging policies, but they have not quite promoted the kind of fundamental changes many civil rights groups have campaigned for.
President Buhari may be right to emphasise his strengths and downplay his weaknesses, but the manner he has seized upon the anti-graft war almost as the sole purpose of his government may leave some gaps in tackling other national crises. However, as some have argued, the anti-graft war can indeed be legitimately made the sole business of the Buhari presidency. But — and there is no proof that the government has appropriately weighed this — it is crucial that that sole cause be prosecuted so scientifically and methodically that it becomes a societal elixir with far-reaching positive impacts. For while corruption has constituted a drain and cancer on the body politic, it is not obvious that the methods of fighting it, not to say its many dangerous spinoffs, have not themselves become both enervating and dendritic.
Apparently oblivious of criticisms that the anti-graft war has led to the exclusion of other presidential responsibilities, the president now seems strangely prepared to open another front in the wars he is waging against societal ills. As he put it during a session of breaking Ramadan fast last week at the presidency, “Whoever deter us from fighting corruption will suffer the consequences. It is unfortunate that the elite are self-centred and they only think about themselves.” As many observers have noted, the anti-graft war is a noble one that should be prosecuted diligently and with single-minded resolve. But they also warned it must be prosecuted with carefulness and brilliance, taking care not to bite more than can be chewed.
Worse, many months ago, the Buhari presidency eagerly opened multiple war fronts against Niger Delta militants, promoters of Biafra, legislative leaders, and the judiciary, including judges and lawyers. The country in fact seemed to resemble a huge canvass of battles and wars, some bloody, others phony. After it was restrained, the Buhari presidency seemed to temporarily abandon some of the fronts, perhaps not out of conviction, but out of expediency and deference to public observations. So, why is it attempting to open another front when it has been unable to sustain activities on all the other fronts it had previously opened?
Yet, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is empowered by law to go after those who obstruct justice in the anti-corruption war. The arraignment of Ricky Tarfa (SAN) for obstruction of justice is an example. The president does not, therefore, need to focus on those he warned were opposing his anti-graft war. It is the constitutional right of any person to oppose public policies, whether rightly or wrongly. If no law is breached in the process, if justice is not obstructed, if the opposition is genuinely and legitimately done, it will be wrong of the president to imagine he must receive unanimity of opinion, even on the all-important anti-graft war. After all, much of the opposition to the war has not been against the goals of the war, but against the methods. If the president should make a fine point of dealing with those who oppose his war, it is a question of time before he conflates, as indeed he has seemed to do, opposition to his methods with opposition to the goals. He should let the relevant agencies do the job of hunting opponents of the anti-graft war while he minds the terrible consequences of the economic downturn crippling life and criminalising those whose hunger threshold is low and disturbing.

July 10, 2016
Tell them, Mr President

It was their first formal meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, but one that will continue to ring in their memories for the fatherly advice they got from the President. At the forecourt of the Presidential Villa on Wednesday, President Buhari told hundreds of Aso Rock workers the vanity in amassing wealth they cannot honestly justify and likelihood of humiliating not only themselves but their families.

“If you don’t have houses in Abuja and the whole of Europe, you will sleep soundly. You and your family will earn respect. But if you shortchange the treasury, you will be caught, and I pity your family because people will be abusing them. People will be calling you big thieves, that how did you raise money to build all the houses in Abuja and Europe with your meagre salary. I think personal integrity is something to be encouraged,” the President said in a homily that drew rapturous applause from the deleterious gathering.

I have said repeatedly in this column that corruption is the biggest monster that this country has to contend with. Remove the evil and other aspects of our political and economic lives will fall in place. The story is told of a community that once conquered a smaller one in its neighbourhood a long time ago. The community imposed its authority on the conquered one and appropriated the latter’s resources to itself as was the practice in the olden days.

After years of negotiation, the community in question granted autonomy to the smaller one. To the surprise of the traditional ruler of the bigger community, the smaller community was growing at a pace that left him and his chiefs bewildered, He decided to send a delegation of seven of his chiefs to the ruler of the smaller community to find out the secrets of its rapid development.

The traditional ruler of the smaller community received the delegation warmly and ordered that they should be taken to the guest house prepared for them. As the visitors entered the guest house, they saw seven drums lined up in the corridor. They opened the drums and found that they were loaded with gold.

Shortly after they entered their rooms, the traditional ruler invited them for lunch in his palace, where the two parties also agreed to hold a meeting the following day. Unknown to the visitors, the seven drums of gold had been replaced with seven drums of palm oil while they went for lunch. As they returned to the guest house in the evening, they consulted among themselves and decided that they would get up when everyone else must have slept and pack as much gold as they could from the drums.

It turned out, however, that they dipped their hands into the drums only to find them soiled in palm oil. Before they knew it, their dresses were badly stained with the substance. When they arrived in the palace in the morning for the meeting with the traditional ruler, he told them that there was no longer any need for a meeting. The oil stains on their dresses, he said, were the reason their community would not develop.

For years before the advent of the Buhari administration and its anti-corruption campaign, well-meaning Nigerians were left stupefied by the triumph of the Boko Haram sect over the Nigerian troops. They seized community after community and it became increasingly apparent that the federal government had conceded the entire Nort East to the deadly terrorist group. They forced the troops to flee to flee as far as Cameroun and had almost realised their ambition turn the zone into an Islamic state when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power. A probe into how the sums budgeted for acquisition of weapons with which our soldiers were to confront the Islamist sect revealed that about $2.5 billion had gone into private pockets while the hapless soldiers were pushed to the war front to confront the heavily armed Boko Haram army.

In the Niger Delta region, militants insist that the federal government must suffer dysentery for the excess sugar consumed by rapacious leaders of the region. Alleging neglect, marginalization and degredation of their environments, some youths in the region are up in arms against the federal government even though the latter has done a lot to appease the inhabitants of the region. Besides establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and dedicating a ministry to it, states in the region are getting from the federal purse monthly revenues about three or four times the sums allocated to others. But rather than use the funds for the development of the Niger Delta, governors, ministers, lawmakers, local government chairmen and other leaders of the region divert them into their private pockets.

Strangely, the signs are still not clear to the protesting youths even when some of their leaders are in jail or are in the process of being jailed in foreign lands for jetting out with funds meant for the development of the Niger Delta. Rather than blame their plight on the greed of their leaders, they are busy destroying oil installations, unwittingly compounding the plights of the innocent inhabitants of the Niger Delta.

Fighting corruption is so fundamental to a nation’s progress that no amount of effort channeled into it can be considered a waste. And there lies my grouse with those who complain that the Buhari administration is devoting too much time to fighting the evil. Whether we know it or not, fighting corruption in a country like Nigeria is a tougher task than Boko Haram and Niger Delta Avengers combined. We are talking here about thousands or millions of individuals each of whom can boast of sums that run into billions of naira. That is why I consider those who say that Buhari achieved nothing in his first year blind, deaf and dumb. That, certainly, cannot be the thinking of Sambo Dasuki, Olisah Metuh, Alex Badeh, Ayodele Fayose and Femi Fani-Kayode, to mention a few.

It smacks of mischief or ignorance to say that Buhari is devoting too much time to fighting corruption; he is simply putting the horse before the cart. Considering that corruption is a disease that has seeped through the pores of our country’s once healthy body and ravaged it almost beyond repairs, embarking on any developmental agenda without first confronting the monster will be tantamount to planting corns in the midst of guinea fowls.

June 25, 2016
Mr President, things is hard

The story of the woman and her children who ate amala with palm oil in Ekiti tells it all

It is tempting to see what happened last Sunday at Odogede area of Igede Ekiti, headquarters of Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State at about 1.30 p.m. as something that provided comic relief; that is something to just laugh over. But to do that will be glossing over a potentially explosive issue; to do that will be missing the point and the import of the larger implication of that singular incident.

It was supposed to be a holy day; one in which Christians are expected to be as holy as the angels. But that was a day when a woman, said to be a teacher at Ekiti Baptist High School in the area chose to steal the pot of amala from her neighbour’s kitchen. The teacher had apparently taken her time to watch the neighbour preparing the amala and praying that she would at least get up from the kitchen to do something inside. As soon as this happened, the teacher went into her neighbour’s kitchen and carried the pot and the amala to her own apartment where she and her children began to eat it with palm oil. When the neighbour returned to the kitchen and could not find her pot and amala, she was shocked. Eventually when she saw her neighbour (the teacher) and her children eating the amala with palm oil, she was so touched that she went back to her kitchen to bring soup for them.

This is a serious matter; it is poverty of indescribable proportions. I know some food items can flow with palm oil; like yam, for example. But amala with palm oil is not a good combination. I doubt if it was worse than that during the civil war when some of my Igbo friends claimed they rejoiced anytime they had lizard to eat. That was at a time when bush meat and ‘home meat’ (rats and all) had been exhausted. It was lizards to the rescue. That is why many of them keep wondering why the new generation of Igbos is reawakening Biafra.

Things must be so bad for people to ever dream of the idea of eating amala with palm oil, and for the food to flow. Ordinarily, it should get stuck in their throats. How they perfected that art is still confounding. And to think that such a thing happened in Ekiti; south west Nigeria! One, Ekiti people are naturally proud. Two, they are so well-read that some people now think that is their bane, considering the things they do these days. Well, nothing suggests that the woman teacher is an Ekiti; but that is not important. Even if she is not; the characteristic Ekiti pride should have made her (as one who lives in an Ekiti town) to rebuff stealing, which was what she did; even if with an explanation, as they sometimes say in court.

The incident reminded me of a similar one that occurred to me and my fellow youth corps member, Olaitan Olubiyi, who was the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) public relations officer for Gongola State for 1984/85. Olubiyi and I shared the same pot of soup; our rooms were adjacent in the five-bedroom flat that five of us (corps members) shared then. Both of us had been classmates since our days at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos. What happened was that, on December 31, 1984, we had cooked what was supposed to be our New Year delicacy and had hoped that we were going to start 1985 on an exciting note (after a not-so-exciting George Orwell’s 1984) with the choice soup, specially prepared for the season. But alas! By the time we returned from the cross-over night service, our pot and its content had disappeared, without trace! They had crossed over to God-knows-where!

That was back then. As serious as the matter was, we took it with philosophical calmness. As a matter of fact, we were grateful to God that we were out of the house when the thieves struck because such people would not mind to kill to steal even a pot of soup, especially considering that people were just putting the Maitatsine incident behind them in that part of the country at the time. For the younger generation who do not know Maitatsine, (like the pupils in an Ikenne, (Ogun State) primary school who did not know Chief Obafemi Awolowo and indeed mistook him for Obafemi Martins (Obagoal), it was another Islamist fundamentalist group that unleashed mayhem in that part of the country in the early ‘80s.

Incidents like these should jolt our leaders to the tasks ahead of them. They are more of a wake-up call for them to think outside of the box. President Muhammadu Buhari might not have caused the problems on ground; but he has to do more than ever before in this second year of his administration. So far, the cavalier style of his administration does not convince me that he knows some of these issues on ground ought to have been solved as early as yesterday. That is my problem with his government; and that is what many people feel and that is why they are also saying the era of excuses is over.

But this is not a challenge for the president alone. Governors too have a lot to do to steer their states away from the monthly handouts from Abuja. As they say in Yorubaland, Olorun o pa enikan lekun (God has made enough provision for all). I do not know any part of this country that is not blessed. Why would everyone be waiting on Abuja for handouts? It has been said now and again that the present structure in the country is unsustainable. Why would the entire country collapse simply because oil prices have crashed or because some militants decided to be fighting for God-knows-what? It doesn’t make sense.

The point is; by and large, governments in some of the states can do with far less number of people pushing files in their ministries. Many of them may regard this as an unkind cut; Labour union leaders may hit their heads on the ground; but that is the simple truth. How can some states pride themselves as ‘civil servant states’? What does it mean? What do civil servants produce to require the huge number of workers that gulp 60 to 70 per cent of the revenues of some of the states monthly? Let the workers strike till thy kingdom come, the fact is that unless the economy improves, workers in many states will no longer get their pay as at when due again. Strike cannot bring out the money that is not coming as it used to be from Abuja. Ekiti State governor, the darling of his people, Ayodele Fayose of the ‘New Awada Kerikeri’ fame, has turned the strike in his state to a wall-clock joke by saying he has joined the workers on strike in solidarity! Show me any other governor who has exhibited such outpouring of love.

Now that there is no money to pay the civil servants in Ekiti and many other states, reports say many of them are now returning to their villages to farm. That is the way to go. Before the discovery of crude oil in the country, we were making some progress; each region according to its ability. It was the soldiers who came and truncated all that. They brought us to the situation where we have a monster centre that is consuming unproductively and cannot sustain itself without the oil from the Niger Delta. A centre that was supposed to depend on its constituents parts, with true federalism, is now the one dishing money to those parts. It is a misnomer and that is part of the reasons why we are all now catching cold because the oil that we rely on is being threatened not only from without (falling prices) but also from within (militancy).

But what is happening in the country right now with the multitude of workers not getting paid for months should be a blessing in disguise. Yes, we may be able to solve the problem with the militants once again, if their issue is not about the government stopping its anti-corruption war. But that should not be an excuse for states to remain complacent and do nothing to look for money elsewhere for their survival. Those calling for the creation of all manner of states will stop their agitation once they know they have to look for money to run those states. Whatever truce we get now with the militants will as usual be temporary. It is high time state governments began to think of life without crude oil. We did it before; we can do it again. Where laws have to be tinkered with; let the legislators begin to do that right away. Many countries had used this kind of hard times to turn their fortunes around. We can do it if only we are able to see that oil is not just the answer. As a matter of fact, diversification alone is not. Let’s return to federalism; or true federalism, as our politicians call it. Apparently we have been having problems because we have been operating false federalism! Otherwise, ultimately, all so-called ‘civil servant states’ will die naturally, or be annexed by healthier ones. It is a matter of time.

N.B. I always confess whenever I use this headline that I am not its originator. Sonala Olumhense used it (Things is hard) sometimes in 1983 or so.

June 12, 2016
Mr. President, very many Nigerians live in fear

Dear President Buhari, in the light of the on-going Fulani herdsmen’s killings and destructions in many places in our country, many of us Nigerians are living in fear. In most of our rural countryside, our farmers and their families are afraid to do their accustomed work on the farms. Across our country, farms, the handwork and means of livelihood of our farmers and their families, are being destroyed by roving cattle. When farmers’ families go to sleep in the night these days, they are no longer sure whether their farms will be there in the morning, or whether the cattle herds would have wiped out everything during the night. They are no longer sure whether their villages will be allowed to sleep peacefully through the night, or whether the killer herdsmen will come in the dark, kill villagers, destroy and burn the houses, and rape the women and girls. Nobody is sure where and when the sudden attacks will come, or what the magnitude of the killings and devastations will be. State governments, local governments, and traditional rulers, all are unsure what to do to protect their people. One governor burst into tears when he saw the scene of rampage in a village in his state.

The situation is desperate, Mr. President. As you very well know, we seriously need to improve agricultural productivity in this country. To that end, most authorities and leaders of our country have been trying to encourage our people to return to the land. Since you became president, you have repeatedly contributed your very influential voice to the call for agricultural growth. And you have made it a priority in your policies, plans and programmes. In many parts of our country, especially in most of our southern states, the return to farming is still very slow and very hesitant. But now, the Fulani herdsmen are scaring farmers away from the farms. A very major disaster is being enacted.

In response to the disaster, a whirlwind of agitated comments and cries is sweeping through most of our country. To allow these fears and this whirlwind to continue is inimical to the well-being of this country. It could even wreck this country – and lead to its collapse. Mr. President, you must take steps without delay to bring this dangerous situation to a satisfactory end. We need to have a definitive and lasting solution. Merely ordering the Nigerian military and police to stop these herdsmen from attacking farmers and villagers, as you have done, is not enough. As long as these killer herdsmen remain, and as long as important questions about them remain unexplained, the wild and inflammatory speculations will continue to shake Nigeria.

We Nigerians need, want, and demand, to have answers to many questions concerning this situation. Who really are these so-called Fulani herdsmen? From official and non-official sources, we are getting loads of information about their identity, about why they are behaving as they are now behaving, and about the sources of their strength.

We are told that these people are ordinary nomadic cattle herdsmen. We are also told that the recent civil commotions in the Maghreb (especially in Libya) makes it easy to get sophisticated weapons in the Sahel parts of West Africa, as a result of which these herdsmen have been able to acquire even such highly sophisticated guns as AK47. But, how do ordinary nomadic herdsmen afford to buy expensive things like AK47 rifles? How are they able to train to use such sophisticated weapons?

The suspicion is being voiced in the media that some rich and influential Nigerian citizens have been supplying the herdsmen with these weapons, and training the herdsmen to use them. If yes, who are these rich and influential Nigerian citizens? What are these rich and influential Nigerian citizens trying to achieve?

You, Mr. President, were recently reported to have revealed in an interview with CNN in London that some of these herdsmen are really Libyan militiamen, trained under Ghadafi, well-armed and well-trained fighters who fled southwards to West Africa after the fall of Ghadafi. If so, how did these militiamen become cattle herdsmen in Nigeria? Who gave them thousands of cattle to herd?

You said in the interview, Sir, that these militiamen have become an Africa-wide problem. Why has the government of Nigeria never informed Nigeria about this problem? What steps has the Nigerian government taken to prevent the problem from coming into Nigeria or to expel it from Nigeria? If no step, why?

Why have some prominent Fulani leaders been representing these militiamen to us as merely Fulani herdsmen and claiming Nigerian citizens’ rights for them – even though they must know that they are, in fact, extremely dangerous Libyan killers? Why have some Fulani spokesmen been threatening that they would break up Nigeria if these Libyan militiamen are thrown out of Nigeria?

Do we now have the president’s word that Nigeria is under invasion by Libyan militiamen? And, what does the Nigerian government intend to do about that?

A highly placed citizen from the Middle Belt, Governor Balarabe Musa, warned in 2014 that a new insurgency was in the offing – a new insurgency different from Boko Haram, better organized, better armed and much more dangerous than Boko Haram, and planned by some highly influential Nigerians for the purpose of achieving some major political objective in Nigeria. Are we now seeing part of that insurgency?

Some Arewa North citizens have threatened again and again in recent years that the North would go to war rather than accept certain kinds of change in Nigeria. And they have also repeatedly assured us that the North is more ready for war than the South. In the background of these threats, there have been repeated reports in the media since 2012 that large quantities of arms are being illegally imported into Nigeria.

Are today’s depredations by the Fulani herdsmen part of what these various members of the Northern elite have been threatening? Are the Libyan militiamen part of a mercenary army that some influential Nigerians have hired to wage war against some parts and peoples of Nigeria?

Some Northerners are frenetically demanding “grazing reserves” for the herdsmen. Some are threatening that we Southerners will find ourselves in greater danger if we refuse to grant land for such grazing reserves. Some say that they will break up Nigeria if the herdsmen are refused entry into Southern Nigeria. We Southerners suspect a hidden agenda for these grazing reserves. What are the true purposes of the grazing reserves? Are they designed by some people to house illegal armies of occupation in the states of the Middle Belt and the South, for the purpose of intimidating the peoples of those places? Are they meant to be jihadist instruments for forcible Islamization? Are they designed as weapons of one ethnic group’s conquest of Nigeria?

Mr. President, you owe Nigeria clear, truthful, and statesmanlike answers and explanations on this situation. More importantly, you owe Nigeria policies and actions that will remove this horrible threat from our country – in the interest of the peace and existence of our country. We Nigerians pledge our strongest support to such policies and actions when you design and implement them. But delay is dangerous.

June 2, 2016
Mr. President, time for state of the nation address
I am writing this to you for two reasons. One, as a very passionate Nigerian who wants you to succeed, because in your success is ours. Two, as a professional who believes you definitely need help at this point. And I am not playing any blame game; you are probably already under immense pressure, and blaming you can only aggravate the situation.

I am writing about the situation in the land. I don’t know how much time you have for news; whether you read the papers or your aides simply extract details for you. I don’t know if you watch TV, or you are like OBJ who curiously boasted that he didn’t read local newspapers or watch local stations. Sir, either you have been doing this or not, the news out there is not very good.

Nigerians are suffering in more ways than you would believe. And I am not talking about the endless queues for fuel that never arrives. There is no electricity either. As I write this, we have several homes and business facilities that have all manner of generators using fuel that is hard to get. Worse, the power companies have increased tariffs even when we are not getting value, with the promise that the additional income would help them operate better. So we are funding their investments when we are not stake or shareholders.

Things are very expensive in the markets. Companies are labouring to keep their plants open because they cannot get enough forex for packaging and raw materials. People are complaining about too many things. I don’t even want to talk about parents who are finding it hard to get forex to fund their wards’ education outside Nigeria; we have been repeatedly told it’s indulgent to send children out for quality education. No one is talking about the reason why this is happening; that the overall quality of public education is down and private schools cost as much as sending children out.

Sir, I believe it’s time to speak to Nigerians as a father and President in a State of the Nation Address. Usually we are told that silence is golden; this is one time when it is not. You missed the opportunity to say some critical things during your inauguration. Many had hoped instead of the 11 minutes speech, it would be an opportunity to form the basis for bonding with your people. At that time, it would have been appropriate to let Nigerians into the mess you inherited, far worse than what you feared. It would have helped if you told us that as a result of this, some election promises might be slow in coming or might not even come. (IBB was a master in this communication style). You were so hugely popular then that Nigerians would have understood and would have empathised, and would have accepted your words.

Now the things you did not say are happening and everyone understandably is upset with you because, let’s be honest, you and the APC over promised during the campaign. It was understandable that after three unsuccessful attempts, you were throwing in all to clinch the ultimate prize. Still, some of the promises were way above reality. The chicken has come home to roost. People are asking for the CHANGE you promised us. And sir, don’t be upset, for as long as you promised, Nigerians have a right to demand a performance. It probably has not helped that the government communication machinery has not rallied to cover these areas and your flanks.

Mr. President, the effect is that we have this gap between you and your people. They are wondering if you are aware of their suffering. They are asking for the CHANGE they voted for. They are not getting answers; instead they are getting plenty of excuses and spin and propaganda, but not the genuine truth they crave. And mind you sir, they know things are tough. They are literate enough to know that our oil is not selling. But they are not hearing it from YOU in a way that suggests you care about them and what they are going through. And don’t let the spin-doctors deceive you, this is not about PDP and APC; I have lately heard die-hard APC stalwarts totally condemn your administration and the party.

What to do?

It’s time to speak to Nigerians. I am not talking about one of those interviews where the questions might have been agreed before the interview session. I am talking of a direct, one-to-all communication, where you will address every Nigerian. It’s time to let us know how we got to this pass, the efforts you are making, the huge challenges you inherited and have to manage, the plans and work-in-progress, the good times that are ahead, the hard and painful fact that Nigerians once more must be prepared to sacrifice again at this point. Fortunately for you, Nigerians are not like our North African brethren who will riot over a few cents increase in the price of bread; Nigerians are patient and stoic and don’t really demand too much. Some of your ministers may not have helped. Ibe Kachikwu has forgotten he is no longer in MOBIL; he spoke with impatience to a people suffering from the lapses of our oil management policies. Lai Muhammed? I do not want to say anything that may upset or offend.

So sir, please choose a date, let the best of your wordsmiths prepare a speech after discussing with you. Open up to Nigerians. Give the necessary assurances. Many smart leaders, especially the Americans do this during periods of crisis; and trust me we are in a period of crisis at this point. I assure you sir that your speech will calm many frayed nerves and give hope to many who are so despondent now.

We are praying for this government and your good self; we want you to be very successful. But we also owe it a responsibility as part of our civic commitment to tell you things like this; it is not unlikely that within the hallowed chambers of the Villa, words like these are a taboo. Nigerians want to hear you. Nigerians want to hear from you NOW.

Mr. President, PLEASE DO IT!
- Akinwunmi, frpa is Immediate past chairman, APCON.
April 11, 2016
Mr. President, can you tarry awhile?

Dear President Muhammadu Buhari, pardon the route through which this open letter gets to you. I know that as one of those people who damned the consequences and risked everything in the bid to make possible your presidential ambition, it wouldn’t have been unusual to have an opportunity to discuss the issues I am about to raise here in the corridors of power, away from the prying eyes of the wailing wailers. By that, I refer to those who see absolutely nothing good in your emergence as President, especially the way you thrashed an incumbent who had no option other than accepting defeat. Let me hasten to note too that you genuinely appreciated the way former President Goodluck Jonathan swallowed the humiliating defeat with inexplicable equanimity while you moved into that palatial edifice called Aso Rock.

Needless to say that some of us were truly shocked beyond expression at the aplomb with which you shrugged off your decades of Spartan lifestyle and embraced the stupendous luxury and splendour that the Presidential Villa offers. I guess, in life, certain things cannot be hidden. The difference is getting clearer by the day. For instance, we read that Your Excellency ‘improved’ on Jonathan’s use of Mercedes-Benz S 350 that costs $135,000 for the non-bulletproof edition of Mercedes-Maybach S600 which non-bulletproof version is around $258,000. That’s okay. After all, we know it is the responsibility of the state to do everything within its might to protect you.

However, we knew from experience that there is something beyond our understanding about that place that changes otherwise humble men into arrogant demi-gods. We are living witnesses to how easy it was for certain past occupiers of that seat to lose their humanity; they not only get corrupted by power but got corrupted so absolutely. If we may excuse the despicable reigns of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha based on their foundation of jackboot mentality, what do we ascribe to the irascibility of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo or the detached cluelessness of Jonathan? Though we may not have seen enough of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua to properly place him in our long history leadership crisis, the little that we could remember of him speaks volume about the failures in our recruitment process. Naturally, we were worried that in due time, you may join the bandwagon of leaders who loaf around in aloof manner in the luxury of government houses while the populace wallow in poverty, realising at a late hour that nothing has really changed enough to give them hope.

Mr. President, it is just some eight or so months into your four-year tenure and hope is already fizzling away. That is the crying truth. Unfortunately, it is a bare-knuckle fact those who mill around you might not be able to tell you. Baba Buhari, there is anguish in the land. The people in the streets are beginning to ask critical questions about the form and shape of a change that seems to be in perpetual motion without movement. The excitement of a new dawn wanes daily. It is not that these hapless Nigerians have not read or heard about your spirited battle against corruption and corrupt practices. They know how deep the sore is and how painful the blisters can be. They are equally abreast of the earth-shaking details regarding the unbelievable looting bazaar that was freely perpetrated by some privileged Nigerians during the last administration and that ultimately resulted in the economic quagmire the country has found itself. Our people fully support your efforts to trace and recover the entire stolen commonwealth running into trillions of Naira no matter where they are hidden. Even your harshest critics would attest to that objective as non-negotiable, going by your famed zero-tolerance for corruption.

Be that as it may Mr. President, quite a number of your staunch supporters think you have started derailing too early in the day. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that you are increasingly treading the same path to perdition that Jonathan ignominiously trod with astonishing naivety. Somehow, you are gradually losing touch with your base, the constituency of the voiceless majority that voted you into power against all odds. Question – a big one for that matter – equally hangs on your humanity. No matter the spin your very media-savvy aides put on it, there is something wickedly wrong with that visit to Ogun State earlier in the week, to felicitate with its people, on the 40th anniversary of the state. It was, to say the least, a bad time to party. It was a cruel insult on the memories of the over 80 lives lost to the Dalori massacre perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect. The grim pictures of burnt children, scarred limbs and body parts should have been enough to sober the President on the need to tread with caution. Besides, the grisly details of the Dalori attack as recounted by eyewitnesses and many other narratives from the North-East call for a sombre reflection on the part of the government instead of the tasteless declaration of a ‘technical’ defeat of a group that routinely persists with its callous campaign of deadly attacks on defenceless citizens.

Unless you have chosen to flourish in self-deceit like your predecessor did, it is jejune illogic to whine that the Dalori incident and several others were aimed at embarrassing the administration. Hian! Even Jonathan did not run away with that sacrilege when he hugged the sky and frolicked with party faithful in Kano shortly after the deadly bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja. Then we reasoned, and quite rightly so, that such tendentious excuses were meant for the marines. So, whosoever lifted that dumb gambit from the Jonathan tales of woeful whingeing for you did this administration no good. It is even more pathetic that, as I write this, the President is on a four-day junket to France and the United Kingdom while survivors of the Dalori massacre are chewing their pain in isolation. If we accused Jonathan of dancing on the graves of the slaughtered students in a school in Yobe State, why shouldn’t we marvel at the way you shook your head to Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey’s live performance in Abeokuta? Question is: Whither the humanity that was the thrust of the campaign era when nothing has manifestly shown that this administration is poised to do things differently?

Baba, as some people call you, do you know that an ominous pall of doubts hangs over your Presidency? To be honest, it is not just a mere gloating by those who don’t like the presence of an old man on that seat. It is more about glaring failed expectations. How was it possible that the 2016 budget comes with such humongous padding, even in the appropriations for The Presidency? What has changed if more money would be spent on buying exotic animals for the Villa Zoo, rehabilitating previously rehabilitated buildings and tending the culinary buds of Aso Rock tenants and their friends with hundreds of millions of naira? Why, for example, should Aso Rock Clinic get an allocation of N3.8bn to buy some unspecified medical equipment when the entire allocation for all teaching hospitals serving Nigeria’s 160 million populace gets much less than that amount for a similar purpose? How many sick Nigerians have access to such exotic health resort called Aso Rock Clinic anyway? Apart from the lower cadre staff, how many ‘big men’ in Aso Rock would entrust the clinic medical experts with the treatment of toothache or even minor flu?

Mr. President, you may need to tarry awhile and reassess the steps you have taken so far. While pointing an accusing finger at perceived enemies especially those who allegedly looted the country, it is important to avoid a situation where the remaining four fingers directly point back at the dreadful indiscretion of the Presidency. This Presidency is becoming estranged and alienated from the masses it claims to serve! Of course, Nigeria did not deserve a sit-at-home leader who loiters around while the international community beckons; it does not also require one that jumps into the presidential jet at every occasion travel opportunities come up. By the way, what happened to the vow by the President to reduce the number of jets in the presidential fleet? We heard that the United States’ President and the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister put together, have lesser number of aircraft than that of the Nigerian Presidency. Do we take it as one of the trickeries of electoral campaigns that becomes unrealistic immediately after the administration of the relevant oaths? By the way, is anyone taking an inventory of the President’s foreign travels, including the grave injuries such must have inflicted on the national treasury in this era of belt-tightening for millions of less-privileged souls? Of course, the cost might not be as high as the $1m per trip credited to it by the errant Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose. It is nonetheless important to know if the country gets value for countless junketing across the globe. By the way, your aides call it diplomatic shuttles but we are beginning to feel that the frequency of it in the last eight months is, to put it mildly, diplomatically irritating. Tarry awhile President Buhari, tarry awhile!

Past occupants of our Presidential villa have become people we hardly understand, even as they scoff at our criticisms and anxieties, which they perceive as mere indignities. For all the trials that many of your diehard supporters suffered to arrive at this auspicious occasion in which Sai Baba is now at the top, they just hope that President Buhari has not overshot the runway leading to the redemptive bend! They would like to believe that you have not become yet another victim of that virus in Aso Rock. They wait on time for the answer, your Excellency sir!

February 6, 2016
Mr President, take a look at our 1970s

Mr President, I am sure you hear this everyday so I am not saying anything new – namely that you are producing a revolution. It appears that your promises are no longer just promises but a major programme of change and improvement in the quality of life in our country. A young Nigerian living abroad telephoned me a few days ago and he was totally ecstatic about the news from home. I am sure that many Nigerians at home feel the same way. From various directions, you are doing things that Nigerians had never imagined possible.

Take for instance what you are doing with our military bosses – about 20 generals being called to answer for the money they have allegedly been looting for decades. We used to be told that the military was incapable of fighting Boko Haram, that our young soldiers were being sent into battle without the right quantity and quality of arms and ammunition which meant that they were being sent to their sure deaths. Desertions became a regular feature in our military. It was so bad that the wives of soldiers demonstrated in the barracks because their husbands were being sent to their deaths. Some of our soldiers tried to kill their commanding officer. Morale in the military was at an all-time low. All in all, the image of Nigeria was being destroyed worldwide.

Thanks to your war on corruption we are now getting to the roots of these things. The number of hitherto untouchable eminent Nigerians involved and the huge amounts of money that are being mentioned makes the average Nigerian wonder how this country has survived until now. Obviously, the people stealing these humongous amounts of money were not only seeking to enrich themselves, they were actually engaged in an effort to destroy their country. If your effort against corruption succeeds to its logical conclusion, you may go down in history as the man who saved the image of the black man in the world.

It’s for these reasons that I have been coming up with suggestions about the directions in which you could take our country to the best advantage. Last week, I suggested that you focus on empowering our youths, giving them new skills and training them in job ethics, thereby attracting businesses and investment to our country. I described how the small country of Singapore achieved those purposes. Today, I want to show you an opportunity that existed in the 1970s but was rejected by our leaders of that time. The 1970s were a decade of choice for Nigeria. After putting an end to our civil war in 1970, we suddenly began to find ourselves in a lot of money coming from the mining and export of our oil. The rush of money was so great that our young head of state, General Gowon, told us Nigerians that we were making more money than we had the executive capacity to utilise. He then decided to pump the money into the pockets of Nigerians through wage increases and arrears of increases. It was a good and patriotic thing to do, but it was not backed by a careful study of its possible effects. The effect that immediately arose was that we began to import anything and everything.

Moreover, in the midst of the euphoria, our military rulers decided to themselves that they were entitled to become rich by sharing public money. A system of government was quickly established in which the stealing and sharing of public money was the norm. They destroyed the old rules and regulations that protected the nation’s purse and instituted various ways of direct access to it. The system became known as kleptocracy i.e. government of thieves for the principal purpose of stealing government money. The name became popular but unfortunately the system also became popular. It became the norm that if one got a job in the government it was paramount to show that one is doing very well for oneself. From all directions, Nigerians struggled to benefit from the system. The rest of the story is well known. Its chief consequence is poverty for masses of our people.

There was however another tendency alive at the same time. After Chief Awolowo came out of the Gowon military cabinet, his unhappiness with the growing system of corruption became gradually well known. Fortunately he was appointed Chancellor of the then University of Ife and that brought him frequently into the company of intellectuals who agreed with him on a whole lot of things. Around him a whole national movement gradually crystallised. The direction sought by the new movement was to terminate the corruption in the regime and to institute a new effort to use the huge oil revenues for a broad based development of our country. I write confidently about this movement because I was one of the persons in the centre of it. The objectives were to strengthen Nigeria firstly by improving upon the educational system and by empowering the local leadership of the various sections of Nigeria to promote the new education in their areas.

Secondly, we intended to promote a widespread programme of skills and entrepreneurial development among the youth. We intended also to put a lot of money in various programmes of micro credit and assistance to small businesses among our people. We planned to promote a strong programme of exportation of Nigerian goods, especially to the richest markets in the world. We wanted to make Nigeria the Japan of Africa. We also wanted to promote a programme of integrated rural development which would not only develop agriculture but also strengthen our rural populations.

Then we pinpointed certain broad national challenges that Nigeria needed to attend to emphatically, such as the encroachment of the Sahara desert, gully erosions in our eastern states, the terrible challenge of environmental degradation in the Niger delta states, and the growing threat of flooding in the Lagos area. But perhaps the most important of these challenges was the low level of education in the northern region. We intended to consult with our leaders in the north to produce a system acceptable to northerners for the expansion of education in the region.

The summary is that we wanted to put the opportunity to prosper within the reach of every Nigerian. We were confident that if we had the chance to institute these programmes, there would be no need to fight corruption at all because all the available money would be going into urgent development programmes. In the constitutional realm, we were sure that our country needed a properly structured federation. We studied the Indian example and came to the conclusion that each of the largest nationalities of Nigeria should constitute a state in the federation, and the small contiguous nationalities in various parts of the country should form local federations that would become states in the Nigerian federation.

This would have given us not more than 20 states in all. The objective of this was to give each Nigerian people a stake in their development and in the overall development of our country.

I urge you, Mr President to look again at this whole programme. It is a very significant part of the heritage of our country. We who put it together were sure that it would make our country prosperous – a great and powerful country in the world. I believe that if you look seriously at it you will agree that there cannot be any better way to destroy corruption. The actions you are taking now against prominent barons of corruption are commendable but I believe that the system that was developed in the 1970s would go a long way in destroying corruption for good and making our country prosperous and great.

Ultimately as you would remember Mr President, our movement became the Unity Party of Nigeria. It was a broad and bold national effort towards greatness, prosperity and power. There was absolutely nothing sectional about it. Our leadership included brave men and women from all over the country eager for a new and prosperous Nigeria. As most Nigerians would remember the movement succeeded tremendously but the military leaders of the time did not want that kind of change. I believe the time has come for that change and I wish you Godspeed and I wish Nigeria the very bestof luck.

January 21, 2016