The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mr President

  • Mr. President, remove the subsidies

    In its lead article, the influential London weekly, The Economist, quoting the late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, wrote, “This is a wonderful day, and it is all the more wonderful because we have awaited it with increasing impatience, compelled to watch one country after another overtaking us on the road when we had so nearly reached our goal”. That was on October 1, 1960. The wonderful day came almost five and half decades later, on May 29, 2015, at Eagle Square, Abuja. I was, happily, there.

    Since 1960, Nigeria, the “most African country”, slid into near failed state as one military regime after another, a civil war and successive kleptomaniac civilian and military governments interlaced. The single common thread among all past governments, civilian and military alike was corruption. Our country, year after year, is ranked among the ten most corrupt in the world.

    Subsidies on petrol cost the government a whopping $6 billion (N1,200 billion) annually, some N9,000 per annum for every Nigerian. It provides the biggest opportunity for corruption to thrive. The subsidies are stolen as the subsidized fuel finds its way into the black market or smuggled to neighbouring countries where it fetches higher price. I bought only yesterday, at a station on Murtala Muhammed, Ilorin, with ease, petrol at N110/liter. Drive round the town at major marketers stations, idle attendants tell you nonchalantly “no fuel”.

    But perhaps the most compelling reason to remove the subsidy is its hindrance to investment in the downstream sector. Solidarity with anti-apartheid and anti-minority struggles in South Africa and the then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) led to foolish nationalization of the downstream sector in the late 1970s. British Petroleum (BP) became African Petroleum (AP) and Shell became National Oil. Today these entities are back in private hands under bizarre and dubious privatizations that saw them sold to inexperienced and incompetent traders unwilling and unable to build any refinery but happy to import and claim subsidy.

    Remove the subsidy and dismantle attendant price control of petroleum products, private refineries would balloon and the country would rightly no longer perhaps export one barrel of crude. Competition for market share would inevitably bring down prices.

    If anyone is in doubt, take a look at what happened to the telephone business. NITEL, a state monopoly prior to deregulation, operated a mere 400,000 lines (for perhaps 100 million citizens) and for so long kept us not talking to each other. You have to pay its officials to have your application processed. You woke up at 3am to risk your way to its call kiosk to make an international call. Senator David Mark, then a communication minister, made the infamous remark that “telephones were not for the poor”. Alas, today, and thank God he is alive the event, even destitute have telephones.

    Today we import more than 80% of our premium motor spirit (PMS) thanks to public owned refineries in comatose most of the time. But reduce the role of the state in the economy as the system distorts and thwart production. The market is the best arbiter.

    Take the shiny example at home here of a tiny Exploration and Production (E &P) start up that I consult for and barely 10 years into oil and gas production. Its mini-refinery at Ogbele, Ahoada East LGA, Rivers State, is probably the only functioning refinery today in the country. The company (thanks to regulated pms) refines only Automotive Gas Oil (AGO). It sells (thanks to deregulated AGO) sells its product at market price. When its price is high no buyer shows up. When its price is low, buyers happily queue. The market is supreme. The company increases or reduces price at the whim of the market. That’s what works. It eliminates official permits- synonym for corruption. Where ever and whenever anyone is sitting in an office to exercise discretionary decision on economic matters you provide the perfect recipe for corruption. Remove it. Let the market sort it out.

    All that talk about inflationary consequences of petrol price hike is pure scaremongering. It is built on timid ignorance, irrational emotion and crude politics.   Commuter buses, supposedly used by the poor, consume less than 15% of the stuff. Most inter-state goods haulage are executed by diesel engine trucks whose fuel, diesel (AGO), is deregulated.  The subsidy, alas, is for the affluent few. Mr. President remove it today.

    Dokun, a Petroleum Geologist, wrote from Ilorin, Kwara State. 

  • Mr. President

    Mr. President

    • Some inspiring words, please …

    The president insists he is telling the truth.  The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counter he is “de-marketing” the economy.  The acceptable position would appear in-between.

    President Muhammadu Buhari has provoked a storm from the PDP (which has a partisan motive to growl) but also from not a few Nigerians (non-partisan citizens who just want the best for their country) for his stand on the current state of the economy.

    Put starkly, the president declares Nigeria is broke; and therefore cannot afford the things she used to afford — one of them, the pay and perks of a full retinue of 36 ministers; or for that matter, funding 36 ministries.  He therefore contended some ministers would just sit in cabinet meetings, without portfolios.  The PDP is especially riled that each time the president goes abroad, he trumpets Nigeria is broke, Nigeria is broke, therefore “de-marketing” the economy from the so-called foreign investors he claims he is wooing.

    The PDP gripe is not without merit.  But whether such plain honesty (as the president insists) amounts to “de-marketing” is another thing.  Still, using PDP’s own terminology, during its 16 years in power, particularly the last five years under President Goodluck Jonathan, what was it doing — “marketing” the economy?

    If it did, what was the result — the present economic collapse (and of about everything), which catapulted it out of federal power?

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance minister and coordinating minister for the Economy, was always rhapsodizing how strong the economy was; with gusto counting the beans and with zest, flaunting her “impressive” balance sheets.

    Indeed, at the “re-basing” that gifted Nigeria the “biggest economy in Africa”, the Jonathan administration virtually blew its top, piping Nigeria’s arrival at the long-awaited economic nirvana, especially with a yearly economic “growth” of more than five per cent.  Besides, the international rating agencies were beside themselves, awarding the economy high ratings.

    Yet, all of this seldom resulted in bridging the unemployment gulf; or having a dent on mass poverty, bordering on penury.  So, if “marketing” the economy only delivered such a parlous result, it would appear that growing or shrinking the economy would involve more fundamental factors, deeper than “marketing” or “de-marketing” the economy.

    So, the PDP would do well to quit emotional wailing on the economic front, just to score cheap political points, when critical thinking is called for.  Besides, if the PDP had been more diligent at its governing chores these last 16 years, the result would not be this paralysing mess.

    Having said that, however, President Buhari too needs to remould his communication style.  The religious-minded — or even the plain fatalistic — talk of the enormous power of the tongue.  That simply means: whatever you say may well, in the final analysis, be your “portion”, to use another religious-speak.

    That is why the president and his handlers must embark on more inspiring ways to present the unflattering economic situation (the woes of which about everyone can feel), even as they rigorously think out of the bog.  Hearing every time that Nigeria is broke, or that the economy is in near-collapse, and other ultra-negative war cries, have a tendency to paralyse.  How do you rouse a paralysed people to buckle up and work at a salvage?

    Without vaulting to the other extreme of flippant optimism, the president should be more positive; and provide a sunny face of the economy, even as his economic team x-rays the rather grim fundamentals; and come up with fresh thinking.  Yes, the president should tell Nigerians the truth — his personal integrity, after all, played a big role in his presidential  win.  But it must be truth wisely, rather than starkly, told.

    That measured optimism, of branding Nigeria’s a challenging economy, yet not at all beyond redemption, backed by a clear-cut policy direction, should provide the double elixir of caution and hope, that should inspire both Nigerians and foreigners, and eventually salvage the economy.

  • Mr. President, Nigeria na we own

    SIR: The latest appointment of persons released by the presidency on Thursday, August 27, 2015 into principal positions to serve in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration- in another world would not generate any furore. Think about it – the success or failure of any president hinges on the strength, capability of people appointed to cabinet positions – to fly with the president’s vision.

    Personages whose track record he is familiar with, people he can trust, that he only needs to tell his expectations and not tell what to do. The other president, many still say – failed to discharge his responsibilities to the citizens – largely due to the fact that he peopled his administration  with folks who saw public offices as a gateway to feed, make history, were ineffective, largely insecure, most without vision, hence many team members under them did not have the drive, were not motivated correctly to pursue national goals and they advised the president wrongly so as to protect their nest eggs.

    What is not in doubt with this president – is the qualification of the persons appointed by Mr. President, they are big picture players with track records that are undeniable. It can be deduced therefore that flowing with the vision of the president might not only be easy but it may perhaps be accepted, put to use, make it work and value added to the president’s vision.

    At the president’s present age – he needs visionaries on his team to lighten his burden. People committed to give a first-rate service always, know that output matters more than input, solution providers and not pessimists, who can carry out tough assignments and not patronise him.

    The disquieting picture, on the other hand – is that the president’s first and second appointments – it would appear shows a positive discrimination for the north over the other regions – a very dangerous trend.

    Coalition made this president, President, and side stepping balance and equality for one-sidedness will absolutely rock the Nigerian boat which almost keeled over, under the stewardship of the other party and president.

    While I do not believe in mollification for its sake, it is only natural in a democracy that groups which coalesced to pave the way for the electoral victory of this president need be appointed into offices, of course on merit.

    Non-partisan interpreters, like this writer, who caught the bug of, and threw his hat in the ring for ‘change’ is becoming worried and hopes that this president will not veer off course from the path of nationalism. Dispiritedly – I don’t see how appointing folks from one region more than the others will give us a semblance of unity or even unify us towards national statehood.

    As usual, many are drawing attention to these developments – some for good reasons, others who celebrate talks about cessation of state have been given an open cheque by Buhari to go on a frenzied pitch and chortle as they are eternally habituated to.

    Even though it is the president’s call to pick his team, ‘teaming’ will only work for the benefit of state if teams are not left in the “storming” stage of development. And to get a “performing,” team in a complex country like ours, President Buhari need not only consult widely to get people with impeccable character who will be committed to the national cause, but also people who will be accepted by most Nigerians.

    Think about it, yet again- perception is everything. And I don’t see how people will perceive that the president is fair, thus far, with appointments of mainly northerners into federal positions. Who knows – there might be a balance in the last batch.

    As a people, we have not yet evolved and are not mature enough to the level where appointments can be tilted towards a region. The ideal is to have persons appointed on merit, regardless of the location. Regrettably, Nigeria is still a developing country with a developing people who have all failed to work with the ideal. That’s our bane unfortunately.

    It is now left for the APC and President Buhari to assure Nigerians that we aren’t going back to the days when the politics of nothingness  was a party policy and to give Nigerians a democracy of inclusiveness because Nigeria, ‘na we own,’ not, ‘dem own.’

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt,

    Rivers State.

  • Weep not, Mr. President

    SIR: I could see your tears dripping down your cheek. I could see the redness of your once milky- white eye-balls. I could see the bleeding in your heart. I could hear the beating of your heart. I could see your mind roving for an answer to a burning and dear question whose answer seems elusive. I could see your pen romancing the plain white paper before you for the past weeks now, yet no name readily comes to mind. I could see the various questions streaming through your mind right now – who has bewitched my beloved country?;  ‘where can I find the men to entrust this onerous responsibilities of savaging this country, and giving hope back to my people?’ ‘With whom will I fulfill the great promises made in good faith to my beloved countrymen?

    These are the predicaments you are faced with right now.

    Sir, your worries and fears are not different from ours as we watch the show of shame going on among the so called honourables, who are on the verge of rubbishing the goodwill and trust the international community has expressed for your government, and the subsequent support such trust could garner for our dear country, who are on the brink of making the masses lose all the trust they had in your person. , We could understand your worries and uneasiness because some political analysts have already stated to blame you for the impasse in the National Assembly.

    Sir, it is now dawned on us why you have been unable to appoint your cabinet members three weeks after inauguration. Where are the men who have the interest of our beloved nation above theirs? Where can one still find among the young today, those ‘colonial values’ of our fore fathers? Or should so much be expected of the political crossbreeds flocking around, and fighting shamelessly over who becomes what in the National Assembly?

    Sir, my advice is simple. Do just as King David did in the Holy Scriptures when he was at a cross- road because King Saul dearly wanted him dead. He raised an army of soldiers among the nonentities in Israel, those that were not reckoned with, the non- soldiers, the commoners. He gathered them, and gave them the necessary military trainings. And they turned out to be the most valiant armies in the history of Israel.

    Sir, I know you will be kind enough to admit that the greatest political flaw you have made was not to have taken time over the years to tutor like minds that would share and appreciate your values. However it is of no use crying over spilled milk. Time is of essence here. Take the bull by the horn. Do the unimaginable. Get the ground running. Look beyond political affiliations. Get the work started. The masses are with you. Wish you well.

    • Ohimai Daniel,

     

  • Advice for Mr. President

    It is a known fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in at a time our economy had been hopelessly mismanaged by the outgone Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government. In the last days of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, the nation’s debt profile increased and despite our huge resources, we saw the country on its tow, struggling to meet up with its daily expenditure.

    The situation has left many people in penury and prices of food have skyrocketed to a level people cannot afford. Healthcare is shambles as our hospitals have been reduced to mere consulting clinics because of lack of drugs and necessary equipment to keep them running.

    Is the present state of our education is what we want? Rather than being a catalyst to solve joblessness among the abled bodies, the system has only compounded the unemployment in the country, which is increasing to embarrassing level. In some states, salaries have not been paid in the last 10 months; workers have been going through harrowing experience in catering for their families. Yet some of our leaders revel in affluence.

    The Buhari government came at a time the nation wanted change in the way its affairs were being run. Having being rejected at the polls three times, President Buhari appears to the messiah the people have been expecting to clear the mess of the PDP misrule.

    The president must make the people the focus of his administration. He must know that the same people voted for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, voted him out in 2015. The people are what political scientists called leviathan. They are the majority. They are the reason for government. The government, at all times, must know what they want and how to deliver them. Any administration that fails in this respect will be booted out.

    A careful analysis of the immediate past Jonathan administration would how that the former president surrounded himself with those feeding fat on our collective patrimony. The the overfed advisers and overpaid ministers who served President Jonathan became albatross on the administration; their greediness and excessiveness may have been responsible for his electoral misfortune. President Buhari must avoid toeing the same line in his interest.

    As president, Buhari must promote peace among the six geopolitical zones and see every zone as part and parcel of his presidency. The mutual suspicion among Nigerians, which was created by the political class during and after elections, must be cleared. This horrible lexicon of politics “he is our son” should be removed from our political parlance to bring out the best in people. Ethnic politics is a politics for the weak and mediocre. It is a politics that preaches violence and engenders underdevelopment.

    The president must heal the country of ethnic strife and we must join hand with him to make Nigeria an indivisible nation.

    “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody” has been a quotable sentence in the president’s inaugural speech. He must show example by seeing every Nigerian as equal under the law of the land.

    Buhari inherited a country that is corrupt and badly mismanaged. Corruption has become a Frankenstein Monster in public offices and institutions. It is everywhere. If this scourge must be fought to a standstill, the president needs strong political will to bring powerful politicians to book. He must do this by not witch-hunting the opponents as his predecessors did.

    Insecurity is another major setback we have faced in the last five years. While it is good that the president is deploying his military tactics to solve the challenge, he must know that, as Aristotle observed, poverty is the parent of both revolution and crime.

    Before spending money on ammunition, President Buhari should also consider investing on human development, which I believe would reduce poverty and make people to stay away from crime.

    Insecurity scares away investors because no one is ready to invest their resources in a society where large scale violence is the order of the day. And without industries, development is unachievable. But, if the nation must be secured, investment is human capital development must be given priority.

    On Education, the president must know that the currency of this century is knowledge. It is this knowledge that will give birth to innovation and invention. By investing in education, the present administration would be making a progressive society. The state of our education brings tears to the eyes and renders society in incapacitated.

    Public education has been in bad state because of funds and bad policies. This must change and our education must take its departure from its current state.

    Since Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is a professor of law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), we do hope that our court won’t open only for the wealthy people. The poor have been priced out of courts because of high legal fee by lawyers. The Buhari administration will do well if it reforms our justice system and make the poor have access to justice.

    Electricity is another major challenge that has arrested the nation’s development. It is a shame that a country with over 140 million people is battling to generate 4,000 megawatts, which is far from what it needs to power the homes and industries. We have resources, such as water, gas, coal and biomass to generate power from, but the country remains in darkness because of lack of foresight. This is a daunting task that requires urgent attention.

    It is disheartening that President Buhari came back decades after he ruled the country to face challenges, which he battled. We have had successive civilian governments since 1985, but the problems of the country persist. Now that the president wants change, he should know that people expect him to rise above board and place the country on solid footing. Like a saying goes, to whom much is given, much is expected. President Buhari must be the change we have been expecting.

     

    • Afees, 300-Level Political Science, OAU Ile-Ife

  • One thing Mr. President should do before May 29

    Consigning the blood thirsty insurgents to history is one thing President Goodluck Jonathan should achieve before quitting the stage on May 29.

    Thousandsof innocent souls have been lost due to the insurgency in some parts of Nigeria, which were mainly carried out by the Islamic sect Boko Haram.

    Not only have many Nigerians also been maimed and orphaned as a result of the deadly onslaught of the sect over the years, a great number of them have been rendered homeless and life may never be the same again for them, even when the insurgency ends.

    Apart from the lives that were lost, maiming and destruction of properties by the sect, a substantial part of Nigeria’s annual budget that would have been used for development was appropriated towards procuring military hardware needed to fight the insurgents.

    It is also on record that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is said to be achieving giant strides against Boko Haram in the past one month over and above what was achieved in the past years of the war.

    Besides reclaiming almost all  lost territories from the insurgents, over 300 women and children in Sambisa Forest were said to have been freed from the clutches of Boko Haram in the past two weeks.

    While attributing the recent successes to the acquisition of necessary equipment for the war against the insurgents, President Jonathan has even opposed the deployment of international forces against Boko Haram.

    He had rather called on the international community to assist with rebuilding the areas destroyed by the sect over the years.

    The President was so confident now against the sect that he even vowed on Thursday last week that he would handover a Nigeria free from Boko Haram to the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on May 29.

    No doubt, Nigerians will be happy if the President can really achieve that on or before the handover date.

    But they will be happier if President Jonathan can go further to unveil the ‘real’ sponsors and financiers of Boko Haram before he leaves office on May 29.

    Even if there won’t be time for his administration to prosecute the sponsors to logical conclusion, the incoming administration will pick up the cases from where he stopped.

    As a Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, many Nigerians won’t believe that President Jonathan has not had access to security information over the years pointing to the real sponsors and financiers of the insurgents.

    Not a few numbers of the terrorists were arrested by security agencies in the past five years and, as expected, valuable information on the ‘real’ sponsors should have been gathered by the government.

    To wash his hands of the blood of innocent souls shed by the insurgents, President Jonathan should ensure that there are no cover-ups on the sponsors. He should also ensure that urgent steps are being taken to expose and bring them to book, even if that is the last thing he will do before leaving office to start his statesmanship role.

    To expose and prosecute the sponsors is very important as it will reduce the possibility of Nigeria and Nigerians experiencing such insurgency in the future.

    Again, it will give the incoming administration a clean slate to begin work without the evil sponsors and financiers walking free in the society.

    To remain silent and conceal the real identity of the sponsors will not be the best for Nigeria.

    And if what has happened over the years were manipulations by some persons in the system for financial or other gains, the President should move against them as there is still time to act before leaving office.

     

    Massive turnout excites Jonathan

     

    President Goodluck Jonathan was, on last Saturday of April, stunned with the turnout of people for the last and fifth Presidential Prayer Breakfast at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

    The turnout was complete opposite of the attendance at the Palm Sunday Service in the Aso Villa Chapel on March 29, 2015.

    The Palm Sunday Service, which was a day after the Presidential elections was held across the country, had very few people in attendance.

    Even though President Jonathan was yet to concede defeat to the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, many of the worshipers, who stayed away probably saw the handwriting on the wall as the results of the election were trickling in from across the country.

    Attendance during that Sunday service, besides the choir, did not exceed the first three rows on both sides of the hall while workers and few security aides and media men occupied the rows behind.

    In spite that the Chapel was always filled beyond capacity anytime President Jonathan was worshiping there, he however, kept calm in his usual style and didn’t show whether he was surprised with the low turnout at the Palm Sunday Service.

    President Jonathan, who was getting used to the thinning crowd after he conceded defeat, couldn’t hide his surprise when he saw the massive crowd at the prayer breakfast in the State House.

    Hear him: “Today, I expected a very low turnout because, in most cases, when government is going, the number of people that attend service here reduces. You will notice that even the number of people that have been coming to the chapel becomes less and less.

    “But when I came in, I noticed that the hall is filled up. So, I have to sincerely thank all of you.”

     

    Mohammed’s uncommon gesture to church

     

    It is no longer news that  a quiet and godly place known as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Jubilee Resort and Leadership Centre has been inaugurated and is ready for use in Abuja.

    The edifice, located within the premises of the National Christian Centre Abuja, has four suspended floors and a basement, 53 standard double and single bedrooms, two presidential suites, 1,000-capacity conference hall with two-wing galleries, board room, restaurant, two units of elevator, 500 KVA standby power generating set, 500 KVA transformer, 60,000-litre capacity underground water tank with 25.5 distribution pumps, laundry rooms and parking lots.

    But what is amazing in the construction of the project is the role played by a Muslim Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed.

    Not minding that he was not a Christian, he gave his all to the project that made the CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor to single him out among other donors.

    He said: “This dream would have just remained a dream without good people, great Christians with great hearts. Many promised to support us, but unfortunately, not many paid, a few responded to our requests. In your presence, your Excellency, we want to recognise them, we want to be able to give them a little plaque representing how we feel about what they have done.

    “It all began with the FCT Ministry led by the Hon. Minister, Bala Mohammed. Thank you for being the starting point for us. Also the Minister of State standing by you to support us.”

  • Mr. President’s many suitors From the Villa

    Mr. President’s many suitors From the Villa

    It is just four days to the Presidential elections, and various groups keep storming the Presidential Villa to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan for reelection.

    Prior to picking his nomination form till now, various groups ranging from artistes, actors and actresses to transporters and from other sectors of the economy had expressed their solidarity with the President.

    The latest of the visits was by the Fulani Socio-Cultural Association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, which visited Mr. President last Wednesday not only to endorse him for the election but declared him as their “sole candidate” for the March 28 presidential elections.

    The group also made President Jonathan their Life Patron.

    The National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Abdullah Bello Bodejo, who spoke through an interpreter, said: “We will go back and mobilise our people to support you because you have the interest of Fulanis at heart.”

    Apart from those who came to express such solidarity at the seat of government, President Jonathan has also in the past months met many groups at political rallies and stakeholders meetings.

    Being the incumbent President seeking reelection, I warned Mr. President to be wary of most of these groups in my write-up about five months ago entitled ‘X-raying Jonathan’s form donations’.

    Then I pointed out that many of those who will come to him, just like many past presidents and heads of state in Nigeria had experienced during their times, will only come to promise heaven and earth just for what they can get out of it.

    But in that write-up I didn’t advise Mr. President to ask the many groups that would visit him to come with and show their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) because as at then it wasn’t really certain whether the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will not go back to the Temporary Voter card.

    Now that INEC seems unstoppable in its plans to use the PVC and the card readers for the elections, I hope Mr. President has been asking the various groups in the past months to show their PVCs, as a proof that they are really eligible voters.

    Even if they have their PVCs, it is another kettle of fish whether they will actually vote for Mr. President in the election or not.

    Do they really have any electoral value as they have made the President to believe? Do they really have the influence to sway the votes of their groups or constituencies in Mr. President’s favour?

    Even as Mr. President and his team will continue to ponder on these questions till the final result of the election is announced, I did warn Mr. President in that my write-up to try hard to unveil the real motives behind those who will come and declare their support to him and also try to see through donations made for his nomination form.

    Definitely, more groups and individuals will still see him with just few days to the election, I hope he will continue to shine his eyes and look at them deeper and critically.

     

    Injury time Ministers must perform magic

     

    President Jonathan last Wednesday charged eight newly sworn-in ministers to do everything to shine like footballers who just came to the field during extra-time of a match.

    The eight ministers, who just came on board with barely 10 days to the Presidential election include Musiliu Obanikoro (Lagos), who was a former Minister of State for Defence before resigning to seek the ticket to contest governorship election in Lagos State in October last year. He has now been reengaged as the Minister of State II in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

    Before now, he represented Lagos Central in the Senate between 2003 and 2007, and was appointed High Commissioner to Ghana after leaving the Senate.

    Joel Ikenya (Taraba), who was named as the Minister of Labour, was elected to represent the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as Senator for Taraba South in 2003 and was reelected in 2007. In 2011, Ikenya made an unsuccessful bid to become the governor of Taraba state.

    Patricia Akwashiki (Nasarawa) is now the Minister of Information. She was elected Senator for the Nasarawa North constituency in May 2007.

    Hauwa Lawan Baffa (Jigawa), who has been assigned the portfolio of Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, was Honorable Commissioner for Commerce, Industries, Cooperatives and Tourism in Jigawa State.

    Nicholas Ada (Benue), who is the Minister of State I for Foreign Affairs, was a Professor of Science Education, Department of Curriculum & Teaching. He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Admin), Benue State University, Makurdi.

    Augustine Akobundu (Abia) named Minister of State for Defence was a retired Colonel in the Army.

    While Kenneth Kobani (Rivers) has been assigned Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Fidelis Nwankwo (Ebonyi) was named Minister of State for Health.

    President Jonathan, during the swearing-in ceremony, did not hide his feelings about the need for them to hit the ground running.

    He said:  “For the ministers this is an injury time, it is like bringing a player when you have just five minutes to go in a football match. So everyone wants to know what that player will do, the magic the player will perform within that short period. The player himself will be struggling to at least kick the ball before the end of the game.”

    “So you are coming in at a quite challenging period and I believe that a number of people will not envy you because government is coming to a close. But sometimes it is even good to come at this time because you are now well exposed to Nigerians.”

    “Your dancing steps will be watched by everybody and we believe you will dance well.” he stated

    The President’s remark could be interpreted in two ways of either asking the Ministers to contribute their quotas towards his re-election coming up this weekend or their quotas towards developing Nigeria before May 29th handover date.

    If Mr. President’s directive is towards his reelection, then the eight ministers must really perform magic in their constituencies if they have not started to canvass votes for Mr. President before the swearing in.

     

  • Letter to the President

    Letter to the President

    In the tribute I paid to the late Malam Abubakar Gimba last week, I said his open letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo on August 27, 2001 was one of the three best articles I have read in the last 15 years for their precision, eloquence and profoundness of insight. Several of the texts I have received from readers have requested me to send them the articles. I have decided to oblige by reproducing the articles because of the lessons they hold for our politics today. So I will like to crave the indulgence of readers to be absent without leave from these pages for the next three weeks and publish those three articles, beginning with that of the late Gimba today. I have the permission of Professor Femi Osofisan and Eniola Bello to reproduce their articles. I guarantee readers that the journey backwards to the beginning of the current Republic would be worthwhile.

    Dear Mr. President

    I am aware you run a very tight schedule. And you may not have read the front page comment (editorial) of the Daily Trust newspaper of Monday, August 6, 2001. The newspaper’s comment was on the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa. The current goings-on at the commission’s sittings apparently caused the paper to express its fears and misgivings about the goals the Oputa-led body was set up to achieve.

    Most of us (have been made to) believe the HRVIC is for truth and reconciliation a la South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) under the chairmanship of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Bishop Desmond Tutu. Daily Trust believes our HRVIC may at the end of the day neither arrive at the truth nor achieve any reconciliation. Indeed, the commission could be swarmed by distortions of truth, falsehoods, and produce new landmines of acrimony, hate and irreconcilable discord. I share the opinion of the paper, and strongly too. The Oputa panel, or its abbreviation, the HRVIC is becoming as frightening as the dreaded virus whose abbreviation it almost resemble, BIV/AIDS. And unless urgent measures are taken to redirect the modus operandi of the commission, the HRVIC will carry the same stigma and life-threatening consequences for our national body politic as HIV/AIDS. Given the orchestrated threatricals at the HRVIC public hearings, often staged with venomous deliberateness to the applause of a cultivated (and rented) jeering crowd reminiscent of the inquisitorial Roman Coliseum of yore, I don’t see how the commission can achieve anything but a modicum of short-lived reconciliation.

    Perhaps the commission was never intended to achieve any reconciliation. Nowhere in the panel’s terms of reference is there any mention of a deliberate effort at reconciliation as a main goal. The official name of the commission adequately sums up the commission’s terms o f reference: human rights investigation, at the end of which it is to “recommend measures which may be taken whether judicial, administrative, legislative or institutional to redress the injustices of the past…” Translate: who’s done it? Punish (from an agitated spirit full of vengeance)! And the fact that ab initio, the time period initially meant to be covered by the commission was 1993 to 1999, provided grounds for suspicion and concern that the HRVIC was a camouflaged battle-tank to get the Abacha men (principally), and Abdulsalami’s men. These are certainly no green lights for a reconciliation train.

    Truth and reconciliation that bind are not made in the disorderly noise of the marketplace, nor forged out of a playwright’s scripts for a grand theatre performance to an audience that knows little difference between reality and the make-belief world of virtual reality. Any meaningful reconciliation requires a proper understanding of the concept (or word) itself: the dictionary (Collins) defines reconciliation as “to cause to acquiesce in something unpleasant; to become friendly with someone after estrangement; to settle (a quarrel)…” And since you are not so secularly inclined (despite the insistent voices that have made you to hold our nation’s flag high as a foremost secular entity), the Holy Bible fully endorses reconciliation, when it says (2 Corinthians 5:19) “that God (the Most High) was in Christ (may Allah’s peace be on him) reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word reconciliation “ (italics mine).

    And between men, how do we achieve the true reconciliation outlined above? Again the Holy Bible offers some invaluable help: It says (Matthew 18:15.). “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him hit fault between you and him alone… “ (italics mine). The Alaba market atmosphere and the Hollywood syndrome of the dramatis personae hitherto at its sittings, have pushed our Oputa-led HRVIC far away from the ideal of a sanctified reconciliation. Sadly, you have not injected the most important energising tonic into the whole process. The tonic of forgiveness: only you can start the process of injecting this antidote into the rancour that has poisoned our body politic these past years. By word and action.

    If the South African TRC achieved any success at all, it must be because of the forgiveness factor. Dr. Nelson Mandela was very magnanimous in his forgiveness. He did not make frequent references to his torturers for 27 years when he was in jail. You, unfortunately, have not been able to kick the habit. I don’t blame you. You are just being human. But by proclamation and actions, I know you are a Born-Again Christian. And this has heightened one’s expectations of a high moral standard based on Christ-like principles and ethics. Yes, principles, ethics, and Christian morality. I believe these are what prompted you in the first place to set up the Oputa panel. Not the bug of an imitation syndrome to be like Mandela of South Africa. But even in the South African TRC’s case, morality and Christian values played no small role. For how else do you explain Bishop Desmond Tutu’s Chairmanship of the TRC?

    If you can forgive Abacha (I do not mean you should stop your efforts to recover anything he undeservedly took from our national wealth), forgive his family, forgive all those who tried you at the tribunal and got you incarcerated (escaping death by whiskers), forgive all, you would have laid a sound foundation for a proper reconciliation in the country. Again, remember the parable of a king and his servant in the Bible (Matthew 18:23-35). Those who benefit from divine grace must never refuse same to others. From the fertile grounds of your example, I believe, would sprout healthy olive plants of predisposition for forgiveness. The Abiola family, the Rewane family, the Dele Giwa family, the Ibru family, the Kaltho family, the Umaru Dikko family, and many, many more such families would want to follow the President’s noble footsteps. This would stem the rising wave of the rancorous showmanship at the Oputa sittings, the antithesis o f the reconciliation Nigeria needs. This would block the agenda of all those with sinister and personal agenda for vendetta, blackmail, humiliation and even scavengery.

    These do not enhance the course of reconciliation: they only deepen and aggravate acrimony.

    Over and above individual forgiveness and reconciliatory moves however, there is a great need for the reconciliation of institutions, groups and communities. Let’s remember that even the South African TRC was essentially an attempt to reconcile groups after the apartheid era, reconciling the blacks with the whites. It was not an attempt to settle personal scores per se; it was to assuage the psyche o f a people. We should borrow’ a leaf from the South Africans and keep that at the back o f our mind.

    No doubt individuals are important, but the interest of the society should be paramount. First and foremost, the military as an institution has wronged the rest of the population ever since the 1966 coup. Who needs any eyidence(s) of their culpability?

    The present military High Command should apologize to the nation (publicly). The National Assembly should accept or reject the apology, with or without sanctions (if accepted) .We, as a people then should stop blaming the military in our daily litany of songs of our sorrows, and get on with the business of nation building.

    Then, the reconciliation efforts should shift focus to the suspicions between the North and East, the North and the West, the East and the West, the minority tribes and the so-called major tribes, then communities and tribes, Muslims and Christians, et cetera, et cetera: And by this, I do not mean the highly tendentious Sovereign National Conference (SNC), which is a conference in the mould of the Berlin Conference of the 19th Century where the then European colonial powers balkanized the African continent into its present fractious units: Reconciliation holds our oneness sacred. SNC does not: for the most vociferous of the conference advocates, nothing is sacred.

    The problem, when all is said and done, is not with the Oputa panel. The problem is with the thinking and motive behind the setting up of the commission. Both are defective. And this is why HRVIC will not live up to our expectations. Hope is far from lost though. The situation can be retrieved. But only you, Mr. President, can make the difference. You can do it. I trust you can do it. And if you want this country to survive in greater peace and harmony than you found it in your second coming, you must do it. Re-evaluate the Oputa panel. Redefine and refocus its objective and procedures, if after the exercise we want to emerge as a stronger nation. Build our nation.

    You are destined to by God. Think about it: in particular Psalm 118:22, The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief  cornerstone.

    Your Excellency, Mr. President, you were once rejected.

    Then the Lord restored you to His grace. Now you are our chief cornerstone. You must do the Lord’s will. God bless. And long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

     

    Gimba is the president of Association of Nigeria Authors (ANA)

  • Mr President, Sorry, You Do Not Deserve Another Term

    Mr President, Sorry, You Do Not Deserve Another Term

    While I commiserate with President Goodluck  Jonathan about the death of his younger sister, I must also state that this president does not give a damn about the plight of other Nigerians.

    The President was able to postpone the inauguration of his campaign team simply because he lost his sister, meanwhile, when hundreds of Nigerians were killed during the first Nyanya bombing, the President not only called the bluff of those that died due to the failure of his government, but was also seen dancing Azonto in Kano. Why was Kano carnival necessary? Simply because one former governor was returning to the corrupt PDP camp? The President could not shift the event, as he did with his campaign team, perhaps if one of those that died in the Nyanya was to be his relative, he would have shifted the event. The horror of PDP’s misgovernance and cluelessness have already created a virtual state of war in the North-East of the country, where Boko Haram is wreaking havoc, death and destruction in our fatherland and has even seized territories from Nigeria in the area.

    On the day he was to give his consent to contest the 2015 election, there was a bomb blast in Yobe, where many students lost their lives. It was utterly insensitive and absolutely callous the decision by President Goodluck Jonathan to declare his second/third term ambition on a day almost 50 students were killed and about 80 injured in a suicide bombing in Potiskum. Mr President by all his actions, was only dancing on the graves of the students, as well as those of all the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Since he chose to celebrate a national tragedy, Nigerians should also be ready to celebrate his electoral failure come February 14.

    Today, the three North-East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe are being overrun by Boko Haram and over 650,000 Nigerians are internally displaced in those states by the insurgency.

    Yet, Mr President claimed he has been putting Nigerians first, while his actions show otherwise and lies have never worn a bolder face. The truth is that for President Jonathan, it is Jonathan first, Jonathan second, Jonathan third, Jonathan always!” as he had just demonstrated with the death of his sister.

    When about 60 students were killed in the terror attack on the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, in February 2014, President Jonathan never visited the scene to commiserate with the families of the victims.

    Since the war in the North Eastern part of Nigeria began, not for once has this man from Utuoke visited the area to commiserate with the bereaved families or even to pay a visit to our officers, who are being sent daily to commit suicide in the warfront as a result of poor ammunition supply, due to the corruption in the presidency and within the command. Just few days ago, Professor Jerry Gana just told us that the President will campaign in the North East area of the country. How insensitive can this be, when the President could not deem it fit to visit those area since the war broke out, he now wants to go there to ask for their votes? I’m very sure this AGIP (Any Government In Power) man (Jerry Gana) was quoted out of context. Would the President, who has refused to hear the cries of the people in that area, be bold enough to ask them for their votes? Like my people would say: “I dey laugh oh”.

    Chibok school girls issue is still outstanding. Up till today, Mr President has not deemed it fit to visit the area, and when almost 300 girls were freshly abducted, he neither acted fast enough to rescue the girls, nor visited the village. His administration even denied anyone was abducted, until 19 days after. He failed to act decisively simply because none of his wards were involved? Because it shows that this shoeless man can only bite when it concerns him or any of the corrupt cabinet members, as it was the case when his uncle and the mother of one of his ministers were kidnapped. He not only gave a marching order to the security agents to rescue both, a huge sum was also parted with to free the duo. Many of those kidnapped victims were not that fortunate like the uncle of the former governor of Bayelsa State, who was murdered in cold blood.

    President Jonathan has therefore established a pattern of putting his political interest above the security and welfare of Nigerians, who voted him into office. This President has trampled upon the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which makes the security and welfare of the citizenry the raison d’etre of government’s existence. It is time for Nigerians to respond in kind by trampling on his political ambition and sending him back to Otuoke,”

    His security agents can also be termed as a political wing of PDP with their frivolous accusation and biased statements being dished out constantly.  The culprit amongst them is the spokeswoman for the DSS, Marilyn Ogar. This woman needs to have been fired from her position if it were in a saner clime. How could someone in her position be dishing out reckless statements virtually on daily basis? If she wants to join those jobbers in the presidency, she ought to have resigned her appointment and join the likes of Mr Doyin Okupe and Femi Fani-Kayode. What right has she to be issuing a threat to a sitting governor that has immunity from prosecution. She has ridiculed the agency she’s representing with her shameless arrogant ways. She promised Nigerians that we would be shocked by the time she reveals what was found in her agency’s illegal raid of APC secretariat. Since she made that promise, we are still waiting to hear from this shameless spokeswoman of the DSS about their discovery and neither has the agency tendered unreserved apology to the party for its officers’ crazy behaviour.

    President Jonathan’s transformation agenda and whatever achievements he and his team are boasting of cannot be felt by ordinary Nigerians. Nigerians are hearing everyday that our economy is the best in Africa. We however wonder how our economy be the best, when our electricity supply is still at zero level? The Naira is nose-diving daily; workers are not being paid, while those dubious PDP governors are busy donating towards the president’s electioneering campaign. The roads are nothing to write home about, while corruption is synonymous to the government at the centre. After all the President and his party do not give a damn about corruption, as they claimed that the problem of Nigeria is not corruption but stealing.

    So I want President Jonathan to agree with me that he does not deserve another term because what Nigerians want now and urgently too is CHANGE and not business as usual. ‘Change’ is also a clarion call for the people to get seriously involved in rescuing Nigeria from shame of corruption and poverty, which the PDP-led government has imposed on Nigerians since 1999.

    When he declared his assets during the late President Yar’Adua’s administration, he claimed to worth N270 million. Though no one queried he amassed such wealth, because he was just an ordinary teacher before he ventured into politics and by now he must have been one of the wealthiest Nigerians since his government is the most corrupt in the history of Nigeria. Even General Ibrahim Babangida, in his latest interview, affirmed that his government that was alleged to be most corrupt is now a saint when compared with the level of corruption in the current administration.

    Only God knows how much he is worth now. All we are saying now is for Mr President to please go back home, as we are tired of his clueless style of governance.

     

  • Mr. President, no condition is permanent

    SIR: The recent spate of vitriol unleashed by President Goodluck Jonathan on his predecessors in office, in the course of the presidential campaigns, calls for sober comments and condemnation by Nigerians of goodwill irrespective of party affiliation. The comments are the more troubling when the President himself had gone around the country asking contestants to the various political offices to desist from making incendiary statements that could heat up the polity.

    First, it was all the previous Heads of State that were accused of doing one thing or the other while in office. Next, was Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who was accused of speaking like “garage touts.” Thereafter, it was Muhammadu Buhari who the President claimed cannot “remember his mobile phone number.” Since the President reportedly craved an issues-based campaign, what are the campaign issues in these statements? The economy? Unemployment? Education? Infra-structure – stomach or otherwise? Is it national security?

    Let me remind the President of a past incident. Nigeria once had a former Governor-General General, who later became President. Previous to these offices, he was ex-Premier of Eastern Region. His name, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, of blessed memory.  Also, there was, then, an incumbent Administrator of the East Central State, a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Ibadan on secondment to that assignment. His name, Dr. Ukpabi Asika.

    Dr. Azikiwe had written a lengthy article in the papers on what he felt were the “failings” of the Asika administration. Anybody who remembers Dr. Azikiwe and his writings would know that the article was detailed, sequential, to the point and written out of purely patriotic inclinations. After all, Dr. Asika was part of a military administration and Dr. Azikiwe was just an elder statesman and ordinary Nigerian.

    Well, Dr. Asika wrote a scathing rebuttal of Dr. Azikiwe’s article. In the rebuttal, he had claimed that the offending article by Dr. Azikiwe was written by none other than “an ex-this, ex-that, and ex-everything else”, a politician who was seeking relevance in the scheme of things.

    Dr. Asika’s rebuttal drew a more scathing response from Dr. Azikiwe. He thanked Dr. Asika for remembering him as Ex-Premier of Eastern Region, Ex-Governor General of the Federation and Ex-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  He then went on to say, and this is the germane issue dear President, that the commercial mammy-wagon that plied Lagos to Onitsha, his hometown, has an inscription that reads “No Condition Is Permanent.”

    Erudite as ever, Dr. Azikiwe informed Asika, that someday, he Dr. Asika, would be known and referred to as former Administrator of the East Central State, just as, he, Dr. Azikiwe was then known as Ex-Premier of Eastern Region, Ex-Governor General of the Federation and Ex-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and Dr. Asika’s father is known as ex-Postmaster General of the Post-Office in his hometown.

    There is the message Mr President. No matter how long you serve as Mr. President, one of these days you will be referred to as former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria just as your predecessors are right now. It is my hope that, at that time and in that capacity, when you offer some positions on issues of national interest, the incumbent President does not hurl the type of incendiary allegations at you or your person like you did to your predecessors.

    Character is the defining quality of a president and it helps a president set directions for a country; in words and actions. In whatever situation a president finds himself, he must maintain a state of equanimity that is consistent with the office, for, as the mammy-wagon said “No condition Is Permanent.”   By nature’s design, incumbents will be become former occupants. You cannot be President for life or forever; not in Nigeria! And, the chicken will always come home to roost.

    • Angelicus-M. B. Onasanya, DBA

    Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State