The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria’s democracy

  • Nigeria’s democracy and its malcontents

    Nigeria’s democracy and its malcontents

    A series of events which took place within the past three to four weeks have brought to the fore the question of democracy in Nigeria. The pivot of these events was the celebration of the 2025 Democracy Day which was marked with a national holiday on June 12.

    On June 12, 1993, after about eight years of political merry-go-round by the military regime headed by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida from 27 August, 1985, Nigerians, with a lot of hope and enthusiasm, went to the polls to vote in the presidential election between the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC) – Alhaji Bashir Tofa – and that of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (popularly called MKO Abiola).

    When it became apparent that Chief MKO Abiola had won the election, Babangida’s military regime suspended the announcement of the results and annulled the election, thereby dashing the hope of millions of Nigerians across the nation. The regime went ahead, on 26 August, 1993, to install an illegitimate contraption called the Interim National Government (ING) headed by a well-known industrialist, Chief Ernest Sonekan, who, like MKO, was from Abeokuta in Ogun State.

    This weak impostor government was unsurprisingly sacked on 17 November, 1993, and General Sani Abacha was declared military Head of State. It is not clear whether the Babangida regime, the ING contraption and the Abacha junta anticipated the reaction of citizens to the electoral travesty. The winner of the election, MKO Abiola, resisted the annulment and the subsequent illegal administrations and insisted on the restoration of his mandate, and at a point in time he had to leave Nigeria to go and pile international pressure on the Abacha regime.

    There were widespread protests against the annulment, and various resistance groups emerged, with the most famous being the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) formed on 15 May, 1994. The longstanding Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, was part of this coalition. In 1994, MKO Abiola returned from exile, and on 11 June, 1994, he declared himself President at Epetedo in Lagos. He was arrested by the Abacha regime and kept in detention until he died on 7 July, 1998, after resisting all attempts to get him to drop his claim to victory at the June 12, 1993 election.

    READ ALSO: Again, the Fubara-Wike rapprochement

    One of the Nigerians who stood by Abiola prominently and continued the pro-democracy struggle even after MKO’s death was Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He represented Lagos West Senatorial District from 1992 and his membership of the Nigerian Senate was terminated with Abacha’s dismantling of all democratic structures in 1993. Going into exile in 1994, he continued the pro-democracy agitation, collaborated with other pro-democracy activists and provided refuge and sustenance to a lot of others outside Nigeria.

    Dismissive of this democratic antecedent, the former Governor of Jigawa State and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Alhaji Sule Lamido, in a 21 June, 2025 interview with Arise News, said: “I feel highly entertained by Tinubu’s rhetoric. The way he is dramatising his own role in Nigerian democracy. … With all respect to him, he was part of those people who were supporting Babangida’s annulment of June 12. He was part of it. His own mother, Hajiya Mogaji from Lagos, was organising Lagos market women to Abuja to pledge support for Babangida.”

    In a 22 June, 2025 press release, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, countered Lamido’s claims as follows: “Let us set the record straight: Mrs Mogaji never mobilised market women to support the unjust annulment.” Similarly, on 4 June, 2001, at the renaming of the newly-dualised Oregun Road in Lagos “Kudirat Abiola Way,” in honour of the Late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola (MKO Abiola’s wife), a then much younger Femi Falana (who has since grown to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria), acknowledged Alhaja Mogaji’s condemnation of the annulment. He noted that Alhaja Mogaji asked the Federal Government, through Oyinlola who was in a Federal Government delegation to Kudirat Abiola’s burial: “E ti oko m’ólé, e p’aya è. Èyí wa daa bí?” (‘You imprisoned the husband and killed the wife. Is that good?’)

    Onanuga also stated: “It is important to remind Nigerians that Mr Lamido, as secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – the party whose candidate, MKO Abiola, won the June 12 election – was among those who failed to oppose the military’s injustice. The SDP leadership, including Mr Lamido and chairman Tony Anenih, wrote their names in the book of infamy by surrendering the people’s mandate without resistance. To their eternal shame, Messrs Lamido and Anenih teamed up with the defeated National Republican Convention to deny Abiola his mandate. … In sharp contrast, Bola Tinubu stood firm even before General Abacha dissolved the political parties and all democratic institutions, including the National Assembly, on 17 November 1993, following his coup.”

    Moreover, in a 25 June, 2025 interview on Channels Television, Senator Shehu Sani said: “The contribution of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the struggle for the restoration and revalidation of the June 12 mandate was unequaled and unparalleled by anybody in the political realm.… In fact, the first time I met him was in the sitting room of Chief MKO Abiola [along with] the late Dr. Beko [Ransome Kuti] and Frederick Fasheun … strategising on how to mobilise a national resistance and a national protest at that very era. Tinubu played a pivotal role in triggering a national uprising that gave birth to the recognition of June 12 decades after. … Lamido played a role in Abiola’s victory, but he was absent in the resistance, and as far the resistance was concerned, Tinubu was in the forefront.”

    With the sudden death of the Head of State, General Sani Abacha, on 8 June, 1998, General Abubakar Abdulsalami became the new Head of State and drew a swift timetable for the return of democratic governance on 29 May, 1999, ushering in the Nigerian Fourth Republic. The more liberal outlook of the Abdulsalami military regime paved the way for many of the pro-democracy activists in exile, including Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to return to Nigeria to take part in the new politics enabled by the new administration.

    Tinubu contested the governorship election for Lagos State on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) which was a party formed by Afenifere. He won and was Governor of Lagos State from 29 May, 1999 to 29 May, 2007. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former military Head of State, who became the first democratically-elected President of Nigeria in the Fourth Republic, did not find it easy adjusting to the appreciably liberal nature of democratic governance.

    To President Obasanjo, it was an afront for Tinubu, the Governor of Lagos State, to create Area Councils in the state. For this reason, the allocations due to Lagos State from the Federation Account were withheld. The Lagos State Government approached the Court, and the Supreme Court ruled the Obasanjo administration’s action illegal and ordered the release of the withheld funds to the state. However, the Obasanjo-led Federal Government did not comply with the Supreme Court judgement. This was a flagrant contempt of the Supreme Court and an attack on the rule of law which is one of the major pillars on which democracy rests.

    Obasanjo’s manifestation of discontent with the democratic principle of separation of powers and his lack of respect for the free choice of the people was also shown in his attempt to muscle victory. In 1999, the bulk of the South-west voters did not support him at the ballot box. Being from the South-west himself, this amounted to a big source of embarrassment. To remedy the situation, Obasanjo approached the leaders of Afenifere and AD with a plea. He wanted the South-west to give him handsome votes in 2003.

    One of the terms of the agreement was that the South-west AD members would vote for him in the presidential elections, and he would work for the South-west AD governors in the gubernatorial elections. The governors fulfilled their part, but Obasanjo did not fulfil his own. So, while he earned good votes in the South-west and won in the zone, the acquiescent AD governors lost their seats to Obasanjo’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The only governor who didn’t swallow the bait was Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Referring to this episode, on June 12, 2025, a day that had been thoughtfully and duly declared by President Muhammadu Buhari as Democracy Day in Nigeria in honour of Bashorun MKO Abiola’s victory, Tinubu said in his speech to the National Assembly: “In 2003, when the then-governing party tried to sweep the nation clean of political opposition through plot and manipulation, I was the last of the progressive governors standing in my region. … My allies had been induced into defeat. My adversaries held all the cards that mortal man could carry. Even with all of that, they could not control our national destiny because fate is written from above.”

    Relating this to the allegation that the Tinubu administration and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were working to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, the President said: “Look at my political history. I would be the last person to advocate such a scheme.” He also noted: “A greater power did not want Nigeria to become a one-party state back then. Nigeria will not become such a state now.”

    Even with respect to the APC, some believe that Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s inability to scale through the Senate ministerial screening in 2023 led him to defect from the APC, and become a strident critic of both the party and the president. Former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, in his case, didn’t leave the party, but due to his loss in the 2022 APC primary election to then-Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he seems to have become an inconsolable critic of the winner. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who was the candidate of the PDP in the 2023 presidential election has also been an implacable critic of the president.

    These political figures are part of a coalition named the All Democratic Alliance with the principal declared aim of stopping President Tinubu from winning a second term election in 2027. The National Chairman of the new SDP, Shehu Gabam, noted, in a 24 June, 2025 press conference, that there are certain “forces of the coalition who believe that SDP must be hijacked at all cost or who believe crisis must be induced in SDP because they couldn’t hijack SDP.”

    Democracy is by nature conflictual, and such conflicts where properly moderated can propel growth. It is necessary to assess the extent to which these conflicts, instances of which are mentioned above, have been managed in the Nigerian experience, and which expectations for development citizens should realistically have.  

  • Nigeria’s democracy worth defending

    Nigeria’s democracy worth defending

    Nigeria’s democracy was never more threatened than immediately after the February 2023 presidential election. The threats were multilayered. Those who lost the poll headed for the courts, tried to browbeat the judges through orchestrated campaigns to shame them, suborned foreign courts and organisations to sanction the delegitimisation of the poll, incite public and civil society insurrection, attempted to arrest the conclusion of the electoral process, campaigned for and instigated coup d’états, and sponsored street protests of all kinds using the unions. That democracy has lasted for some 24 to 25 years, though it sometimes wobbled badly along the way, is of no significance to the plotters. Their main goal was to destroy democracy than celebrate the longevity of a process that seemed to have disinherited them, nor were they keen on getting bogged down in debates about whether what would replace the democracy they resent met civilised standards. Their last gasp plot was the deployment of hunger and hardship concerns to instigate violent street actions – not protests as Amnesty International persistently conflates – capable of overthrowing democracy.

    After about 18 months of feverish plots to undermine democracy, the plotters appear to be ready to give up and instead focus on organising themselves for the next polls. They may not have relented in sabotaging public facilities, such as electricity transmission lines and towers as well as national facilities in order to discredit the administration, but they are quietly turning their attention to the internal affairs of their opposition political parties. The jostle for positions of influence is gently beginning, but there will be no commensurate fight to reform or sanitise party platforms and fine-tune party ideologies. Neither of the two opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), has cleaned up its act, but they hope that by some magic, their parties would suddenly become better organised and more appealing to the electorate. They hope they can palliate the unhappiness of internal dissenters and smother the fires within. Hope may be irrelevant in delivering needed solutions to the parties, but they will keep hope alive for want of a more scientific approach to the crises that have baffled them for two agonising years.

    It is too early to tell how sanguine the anti-democratic forces would be about their chances of surviving the next two years intact, let alone flourishing, until the next polls. They are limited in every area of politics, and are stymied by their almost total lack of imaginativeness. Indeed, two factors will in summary determine how well they can respond to the changing dynamics of Nigerian politics. Firstly, the PDP and LP presidential candidates in the last poll, former vice president Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra governor Peter Obi respectively, probably feel a sense of emptiness gnawing at the back of their minds, particularly their political ideas and platforms. Alhaji Atiku will be 80 years old at the next poll, and neither he nor his family can tell what kind of deterioration will come upon him or unnerve him. Already, despite retaining his age-old truculence and intransigence, he has become lethargic. Mr Obi deployed ethnic and religious politics in the last poll with devastating aplomb. But the Bola Tinubu administration has taken away the religion leg of that infamous pair of weapons, leaving only the ethnic card for the former governor. Mr Obi will be unable to exploit the remaining isolated card as ferociously as he did in 2023. The Southeast may be clannish, but they are not stupid. They read the trends diligently and will be painfully aware that the ethnic card alone will not fetch their champion the presidency, assuming he contests.

    But a video shared on X (Twitter) last Saturday may perhaps hold some promise for Alhaji Atiku’s and Mr Obi’s supporters. In the video, the former vice president hosted Mr Obi to a breakfast in Yola, Adamawa State, prompting, despite the incongruity of the event, discussions about an impending coalition between the former candidates. They had aligned in 2019 on the PDP platform to fight the presidential election of that year against ex-president Muhammadu Buhari, but were trounced. The joint ticket failed mainly because it could not find a platform that resonated with voters. In the 2023 poll, however, Mr Obi’s platform was as passionate as it was evocative; but delinking from Alhaji Atiku made both candidates vulnerable to the APC’s divide and rule tactics, and a great thrashing. Speculations about the purpose of the Yola breakfast may not be far off the mark. They indicate that some form of alliance may be in the offing, for the two gentlemen have recognised that going into any presidential electoral war individually was a recipe for disaster. That disaster is certain to reoccur if the two politicians do not join forces. Even then, they may yet discover that forming a coalition takes hugely away from their individual appeal. It is not clear why Alhaji Atiku uploaded the video, instead of Mr Obi. What is, however, clear is that the former vice president still entertains the chimerical hope that he could still run for the presidency at 80. He obviously hopes that President Tinubu will make more enemies than friends in the months ahead, and the economy would go into a tailspin, in order to facilitate the chance of beating the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.

    Read Also: Tinubu and Macron: Leveraging friendship for development, by Tunde Rahman

    Secondly, the anti-democratic forces, aided by saboteurs of power grids and other facilities and policies, will hope that the economy will not respond to all the medications administered by the Tinubu administration. Should hunger, exchange rate, inflation and insecurity remain on the front burner months to the election, they would hope the formation of a political coalition could finally unhorse the administration and doom its chances in the next poll. But that is hard to bank on even for politicians as indurate as Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi. Current economic indicators, not to talk of the immense potential of other far-reaching and radical measures like the hated tax reform bills, seem to show that the economy is both on the mend and remains responsive to medications. It may sound propagandistic, but official statements by the administration’s economic managers suggesting that the economy has turned the corner and is on the mend may be right. Exchange rate has not worsened as many analysts projected, and inflation has appeared to reduce its furious pace. Balance of trade and economic growth have remained positive, and other drivers of negative economic indices appear to have been tamed. Insecurity has also declined significantly. Hardship and hunger remain, but in the next 12 to 18 months, they are unlikely to be as ferocious as they have been in the past months.

    Hamstrung by their own identity crises and internal wrangling and limitations, and disappointed by an economy cautiously churning back to life, both the PDP and LP, in coalition or singly, will struggle to find vulnerable parts in the ruling party. They will point at the ruling party’s sometimes chaotic approach to national challenges, and they will be right; but they will also be unable to deflect attention from their own self-generated chaos and mediocre politics. Their misery will be worsened by the extraordinary performance of some governors eager to transform their states and prove more than a point, not only on account of the politics of reelection, but also on account of genuine appreciation that fame can be easily procured with showpiece works in the age of social media. Niger State’s Governor Mohammed Umar Bago, Kaduna’s Uba Sani, Enugu’s Peter Mbah, Imo’s Hope Uzodinma, Anambra’s Chukwuma Soludo, Katsina’s Dikko Umar Radda, and Benue’s Hyacinth Alia, among a few others, have shown exemplary aptitude for deft politics as well as brilliant developmental strides. They were among the reasons the frenetic desire to torpedo Nigeria’s democracy did not resonate beyond a few angry and pampered cities and elites.

    Rivers State may return to the medieval era, and the Southwest to strange mental and physical inertia, but the boldness and inventiveness of the Tinubu administration, assuming it can restrategise its flailing palliative policies, not to say the inspiring stories from some of the states, will help democracy retain its potency and lustre. Critics will still have a field day as long as hunger and hardship continue to defy solutions, and the political opposition, hungry for power, will be unsparing and ill-tempered. Even then, Nigeria is unlikely to return to a time when a few people will procure military insurrection or instigate anarchy, no matter how precarious the country’s condition. If the system could withstand such aggravated hardship as the Tinubu administration’s retooling policies have unleashed, without becoming vulnerable to a coup d’etat or embracing unconstitutional and repressive measures to curb criticism and disaffection, then democracy may have a bright future in these parts and be worth defending and refining.

  • Olanipekun to speak on Nigeria’s democracy at Oxford

    A former President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), will tomorrow deliver a keynote address on ‘Electoral Law, Election Petitions and the Future of Democracy in Nigeria’ at the workshop on “Nigeria in Transition” at St Anthony’s College, Oxford University, United Kingdom.

    The African Studies Centre and the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, UK are the organisers of the workshop.

    According to them, the workshop will use the Nigerian presidential and National Assembly elections to open up questions around the elections, related political process and more widely on “transitions’ in Nigeria, in political, economic, social and cultural senses of the word”.

    Read also: Agbako’s apotheosis

    Scholars, technocrats and others from Nigeria, the UK and North America are also expected to present papers at the workshop.

     

     

  • Apathy in Nigeria’s democracy

    Democracy, as a system of government, is rooted in the idea of mass participation of people in the electoral process.  However, mass participation requires mass interest in political outcomes, and the erroneous supposition has always been that this interest is enough to ensure participation. In Nigeria and around the world, we are now learning that whilst people remain interested in political outcomes, this interest does not always lead to participation during elections.

    In Nigeria, the reasons for voter apathy are no mystery. The stress of the process of voter registration and voting in elections, lack of faith in the process or security of the process, and general lack of confidence in government, are amongst the leading reasons people do not participate in the electoral process. In earlier years, there was evidence of outright fabrication of election results, and the credibility of official voter records was highly suspect. That was the era that witnessed the entry of thousands of names like “Michael Jackson”, “Nelson Mandela” and others in the voter register.

    The biggest participants in Nigeria’s elections are the section of society that bear most of the brunt of the failure of government and society. They are the low-income earners, the unemployed, the uneducated, unskilled workers, rural dwellers, and deviants. They form the most oppressed and vulnerable section of society. The paradox is not subtle. Although one expects this ‘voting majority’ to make better decisions because of their social state, they are indeed their own tyrants, through the choices they make during elections. These choices sometimes include active participation in electoral malpractice and, more rampant in recent times, outright selling of votes.

    For context, a look at the electoral data in the United States of America (US) shows that the most comfortable members of US society are the most involved politically. Voters in the US tend to be older, wealthier and more educated, and more women voters have taken part in every presidential election since 1980. One could say that this section of US society understand the need to protect their interests and investments through political participation and active engagement in the electoral process. If this is true, why do the corresponding demographic in Nigeria not participate more in the electoral process?

    As recently as 2009, national attention was drawn to the existence of a section of the Jibu tribe who live up the mountains around Gashaka Local Government Area of Taraba State, away from civilisation. Some missionaries claimed to have ‘discovered’ the people in their remote dwellings, with only fresh leaves covering their genitals, similar to the Koma hill-dwellers of Adamawa.  With no government presence, people like the Jibu are the only ones with a real claim to lack of interest in the electoral process in this country, because of their willful or inadvertent ignorance of modern structures. Yet, the most successful and educated members of our society have chosen to align their political interest with the blissfully ignorant mountain dwellers.

    The problems of the electoral process that deter the more exposed or comfortable members of society are heightened by politicians of questionable morals and character, in league with vulnerable individuals who assist them to pervert the process. Our democratic system is therefore caught in a loop where perversion of the process discourages large participation, and the lower turn-out of voters facilitates the manipulation of the system.

    The reform of the electoral process carried out by Attahiru Jega, former head of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has made the manipulation of electoral data in Nigeria more difficult, thereby forcing the manipulators to corruptly engage the electorate directly on poll day, as has been reported in recent elections. There is progress here somehow, as the corrupt money is no longer being offered to INEC officials, adding a bit more credibility to the process from that end.

    In a country with large numbers of the citizenry living below the international poverty threshold, there will be difficulty stopping the unholy transaction at the polling units. Faced with the offer of amounts that exceed their daily income, poorer people will be tempted to sell their votes to the agents of corruption. With a section of society not showing up at the polls at all and another section in serious danger of selling their voting rights for porridge, political outcomes will likely continue to be poor at all levels.

    Voter apathy in Nigeria is not a product of lack of interest in the political process or political outcomes. Rather, it is a product of orchestrated disruption by the political class to make the electoral process inconvenient. This plan spreads into the bureaucratic choke of voter registration, violence at the polls and the volatility of party politics. All these work together to exclude the enlightened voter from participation, while the ropes of religious and ethnic sentiments continue to tug at the gullible, even within the ranks of the intelligentsia.

    The journey to apathy is thus an incredibly short one. One can arrive there after meeting a discouraging process of voter registration or after hearing news of election violence. It could also happen during the surprisingly difficult process of obtaining a membership card for a political party. The odds are stacked against political participation in every angle, so much that only the very determined or desperate can withstand the trying obstacles. In a country where one’s determination is tested in everything, the resulting apathy is hardly surprising.

    Whether through determination or desperation, 84.2 million Nigerians have now registered to vote, according to INEC. This figure rises from 69.7 million registered voters in 2015. Average voter turn-out in Nigerian elections since 1999 is 49.7% of registered voters, and this does not take into account the suspected falsification of electoral information and other maladies in previous years. The authorities now need to embark on a sensitization campaign to encourage more registered voters to turn up for elections in 2019.

    To achieve this aim, there will be questions to be answered about security. By and large, this is still one of the biggest deterrents to voter turn-out during elections. In other climes, elections are conducted in the course of a normal day (or number of days), where people do not necessarily have their movement hampered. The Nigerian experience already creates tension, where there is official and unofficial restriction of movement except to and from polling centres.

    Exploring the possibilities of easing the sense of insecurity during elections is important in the short term, especially in the less volatile areas, in so far as corresponding security arrangements and exigencies will allow for this. In the medium term, making voter registration and the process of actual voting easier and faster will go a long way. This will involve efficient logistics in the movement of materials, punctuality of officials, further incorporation of relevant technology, and establishment of more polling units and registration centres. In the long term, however, more transparency in the membership and running of political parties, with regulations that allow for a level playing field will encourage participation and more enthusiasm in the political process.

    To achieve all these, there is need for a re-orientation of citizens on their importance as electorates and their role in the processes of government, not only in elections. Until we find a common purpose that cuts across religion, ethnicity and social class, there is little chance of changing the mindset of electorates. We all need a narrative of common ownership of the country and the processes of government that may perhaps aid in our decision making at the polls.

    One of the greatest dangers of the democratic system is the tyranny of the majority. In Nigeria, whether the tyrants are the ‘voting majority’ who go to the polls to make the decisions that bind the rest of the citizenry or the greater ‘non-voting majority’ that steer clear of the electoral process altogether, one cannot say for certain.  Although some may have a different view of who the ‘tyrant majority’ is, what is for sure is that the country needs a change of course in political and electoral matters to escape the tyranny of the majority.

  • Nigeria’s democracy improving steadily – Buhari 

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja said Nigeria’s democracy is steadily improving with deeper understanding of the culture and tenets among the people, and strengthening of the institutions that guarantee free and fair elections.

    Receiving Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency Rt. Hon. Julie Payette, at the Presidential Villa, President Buhari said he saw the evolving strength of democracy in the country by contesting for elections three times before winning at the fourth trial in 2015.

    Read Also:Anenih gave so much to party politics, democracy in Nigeria, says Tinubu

    The President, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, told the Governor General that Nigeria had been learning from the mistakes of those who practiced democracy for a longer period, and by looking inward at its own peculiarities.

    “I emphasize free and fair elections at all times,’’ he said.

    The President said the bilateral relations with Canada will continue to be improved considering the huge interest of the country in Nigeria and growing economic ties, with many Nigerians schooling and working in the country.

    He said Canada played a brotherly role in helping displaced persons in the North East, following Boko Haram insurgency.

    In her remarks, the Governor General said Nigeria and Canada enjoy a warm and strong partnership that has translated into ease of migration, large trade relations and cultural exchanges.

    Rt. Hon. Payette, who is an astronaut, said it was important for nations to pool resources together to start exploring the benefits of space in providing solutions to some problems on earth.

    The Governor General noted that the world would achieve more by de-emphasizing geographical differences and refocusing its energy on the commonality of humanity, pointing out that from space one can only see an earth without borders.

    Rt. Hon. Payette said her visit was about showcasing “youth, innovation and technology’’, adding that Canada would like to partner with Nigeria in the ongoing diversification of the economy.

    “We wish you free and credible elections in 2019,’’ she said.

    Speaking with journalists at the end of the meeting, she disclosed that the two countries have resolved to deepen bilateral relation in the areas of Trade and Commerce, education, security, Science and space technology advancement.

    Payette, who is accompanied on the visit by eminent Canadians including government officials, members of parliament and members of the business sector, noted that Nigeria and Canada had been friends and partners for decades

    Describing Nigeria as the largest trading partner in Africa and largest investor in Canada, she said Canada had a strong base in Nigeria as the number of companies doing business in the country had grown significantly in recent years.

    She said “Many opportunities exist for deepen cooperation as you mentioned to me during our conversation there is a lot of room for growth for the bilateral relation between Nigeria and Canada.

    “Fortunately, we already have a strong base and we will continue to build on this.

    “Nigeria is Canada’s largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa and as well Nigeria is the largest investor from Africa in Canada.

    “The number of Canadian companies doing business here, have grown significantly in recent years and we really hope that this delegation would foster even more trading and commerce between our two countries,’’ she said.

    Payette said that, at the height of the Nigeria – Canada relationship, more than 10,000 Nigerian students were studying in Canada.

    She further revealed that another set of over 5,000 Nigerians residing in Canada had been contributing positively to the growth of the Canadian textile industry.

    She said that one of the priorities of her visit to Nigeria was to meet and celebrate the vibrant youths of the country.

    Payette said the visit would also focus attention on the National Space Research and Development Agency in Abuja.

  • How to save Nigeria’s democracy, by Osinbajo, Onnoghen, others

    VICE President Yemi Osinbajo and some other eminent Nigerians have observed that the best way to grow and sustain the nation’s democracy is to ensure an effective justice system.

    Osinbajo, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen; Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami; Chair, Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC), Kefas Magaji and ex-Solicitor General of the Federation (SGF), Prof I. A. Ayua, said democracy would be better served where the nation’s laws were up-to-date and applied dispassionately without fear or favour.

    They spoke in Abuja yesterday at the opening session of a national summit on law revision organized by the NLRC. The summit has as its theme: “Law revision towards national development”.

    Osinbajo said the law revision exercise was in line with the present administration’s policy of reforming the justice sector as a measure for sustaining democracy, based on the principle of rule of law.

    Osinbajo, who was represented by the Solicitor General of the Federation (SGF), Dayo Apata, said: “I believe that every successful democracy thrives on the principle of rule of law. And I also believe in law as an instrument for social change and development

    “It, therefore, follows that, if the law is expected to meet these critical demands of the society, it has to be revised, at least every 10 years in line with international best practices and in consonant with the prevailing laws and values of the society.

    “It is equally in line with international best practices that, while the Parliament makes laws, the law reform institution is expected to monitor, review, reform and revise the law to guarantee its efficacy, utility, availability and accessibility to the public and to the end users.”

    Onnoghen was of the view that the nation’s nascent democracy has to be nurtured, consolidated and developed because democracy still remains the best form of government.

    The CJN, who assured that the judiciary would not fail in its duties of law interpretation and justice dispensation, noted that the “duty of nurturing our democracy, no doubt, imposes on all of us severe obligations and conscious efforts”.

    He noted that the court, with its process of adjudication was capable of rapidly enhancing the true comprehension of “our constitutional provisions as a step towards the identification of the grey areas, requiring future amendments, modifications or alterations and or even deletion”.

    Onnoghen expressed the hope that the Federal Government would fund the various law reforms initiatives to fruition, because of the positive impact, which include providing solution to the various loopholes, which encumber the justice system

    He urged support for the initiative, which he believes would impact positively on the nation’s justice delivery system.

    Malami, who was represented by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Etsu Mohammed, stressed the importance of continuous law revision in every democracy.

     

  • Wike to global community: save Nigeria’s democracy

    Wike to global community: save Nigeria’s democracy

    RIVERS State Governor Nyesom Wike has asked the international community to save Nigeria’s democracy from imminent collapse by mounting pressure on the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.

    He said by so doing, the party will uphold the rule of law and guarantee the integrity of the electoral system.

    Wike stated that Nigeria’s revenue sharing formula had made growth difficult in states as the Federal Government carts away 53per cent of national revenue.

    The governor said the 36 states share “a meagre 22 per cent”.

    He spoke on Monday at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London when he delivered a lecture on the topic: “Defining development for Rivers State and steps to sustainable implementation”.

    The governor said: “There is need for the international community to save the country and its democracy from imminent collapse by putting sufficient pressures on the Federal Government to uphold the rule of law, guarantee the integrity of the electoral system and do socio-economic justice to all segments of the Nigerian society

    “The fact cannot be disputed that states bear greater development burden than the Federal Government.  However, under the flawed revenue allocation regime, the Federal Government alone retains 53 per cent of national revenue and allocates only 22 per cent to the entire 36 States of the federation.

    “Obviously, when 22 per cent of national revenue is disaggregated among 36 states, what comes to each state is not more than 0.6 per cent on the average per annum, which by any stretch of imagination is incapable of funding serious developmental programmes for any state”.

    He said the country was in serious political and economic decline.

    He said: “The politicisation and active involvement of key national institutions, such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police in the rigging of the re-run elections in Rivers State was not only an affront to democracy, such acts constitute a serious invitation to chaos with destructive consequences of unknown dimensions.”

    The governor explained to the international community that despite generating a huge percentage of the nation’s resources, Rivers State has suffered untold neglect and deprivation by the Federal Government over the years.

    Wike lamented the developmental challenges that have bedevilled Rivers State, despite her enormous resources.

    He said though previous administrations have played key roles in developing the state, the immediate past Amaechi administration stagnated development through alleged “unbridled theft of state funds during an era of resource boom”.

    Chair of the presentation Sir Richard Gozney KCMG CVO, Lieutenant Governor, Isle of Man and British High Commissioner to Nigeria (2004-2007) noted that Rivers State is important to Nigeria’s growth and plays a significant role in regional affairs.

    British High Commissioner to Nigeria Mr. Paul Awkright, who attended Wike’s presentation, urged him to continue to work for the improvement of security to increase foreign direct investments.

     

  • PDP crisis great danger to Nigeria’s democracy, says Bayelsa Gov Dickson

    PDP crisis great danger to Nigeria’s democracy, says Bayelsa Gov Dickson

    Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has raised the alarm about the danger posed to Nigeria’s democracy by the ongoing crisis in the main opposition party.

    In an interview with The Nation in Lagos, Dickson, who is the Chairman of the PDP’s National Reconciliation Committee, described the crisis as needless. He argues that the nation was the loser since the former ruling party could not play its proper role, providing virile opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    “What is happening in PDP is a great danger to Nigeria’s democracy,” he said. “But what is happening in PDP is not just peculiar to PDP, it is also happening in APC. For our democracy to be secured, we need a strong party in government, strong cohesive united party in government, pursuing their democratic agenda as well as a virile party in opposition.”

    Dickson decried the fact that PDP members had to resort to the courts to resolve what was an internal problem and says that the judicial intervention was an indictment of the political class.

    He said: “Relying on the court to resolve internal crisis is an indictment of the political class; it is an indictment on the democratic credentials of all players. My belief is that the judiciary is overworked or over-labored unnecessarily by political actors of all parties.

    “We have abdicated our responsibilities as political players; we have surrendered too much to the judiciary. We have involved the judiciary in too many unnecessary political issues, thereby exposing them to ridicule and we are not helping the judiciary.

    “Political leaders who are key players in the democratic system should show the maturity, the political temperament to be able to recognize and solve problems within themselves and see politics as essential element of democracy, which is a market place of ideas. We all do not need to belong on one political party.”

    On the recent quit notice issued by some youth groups to Igbos living in the North, the governor condemned and backed all the steps taken by the Northern Governors Forum and their counterparts in the South East to promote peace.

    Dickson blamed the APC-led federal government for increased ethnic tensions and said it could have been done more in the area of promoting national unity in the country.

    “Government has not done enough to promote national cohesion, whether in the national management of federal political power, appointments or in evolving a national strategy to deal with the menace of herdsmen. The government must evolve the right strategy to contain all these as quickly as possible,” he said. READ FULL DICKSON INTERVIEW ON PAGES 46 & 47.

  • PDP crisis great danger to Nigeria’s democracy -Dickson

    PDP crisis great danger to Nigeria’s democracy -Dickson

    Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State is passionate about the ‘big ticket’ infrastructure projects his administration has delivered, or is presently executing. He ticks them off one after another: a world class diagnostic center, roads, flyover bridges, hospitals and the Cargo International Airport which he said would be commissioned before end of the year. Dickson who has been in office for five years, points out that in spite of the dip in revenue accruals to the state, his government introduced free and compulsory education at both primary and secondary levels, built modern schools and started boarding school system for the first time in the state and spent billions on scholarship of Bayelsa and Ijaw students abroad. In this interview with selected journalists in Lagos, the governor who is the Chairman of the PDP’s National Reconciliation Committee bares his mind on the leadership crisis within the party. He also speaks on the secessionist agitation in the South East as well as the recent quit notice issued against Igbos in the North by some youth groups. Festus Eriye was at the interaction.

    What is the future of your party, the PDP, in the light of its well-advertised divisions?

    I think the right question should be what is the future of Nigerian democracy? The tragedy of our democracy today is that we have neither a strong political party in government, nor a strong party in opposition. You all know the efforts my committee made to reconcile the various tendencies in PDP so that the party could come back on stream to play its role as a credible opposition platform. As a matter of fact, Nigeria’s democracy is worse for it without a strong PDP. Unfortunately, our party has not been playing a role of an opposition party because of the needless crisis plaguing us. What is happening in PDP is a great danger to Nigeria’s democracy, but I still believe that all hope is not lost. But what is happening in PDP is not just peculiar to PDP, it is also happening in APC. For our democracy to be secured, we need a strong party in government, strong cohesive united party in government, pursuing their democratic agenda as well as a virile party in opposition. But so far our democracy is weak because of the absence of these. There is crisis in APC, it is brewing and nobody is talking about it. The sooner we in the PDP salvage our platform that is now terribly suffering a lot of de-marketing, the better for our democracy. It is unfortunate that a political party has to go to the judiciary to resolve an internal problem that is essentially political. Relying on the court to resolve internal crisis is an indictment of the political class; it is an indictment on the democratic credentials of all players. My belief, my views might be in the minority, but my belief is that the judiciary is been overworked or over-labored unnecessarily by political actors of all parties. We have abdicated our responsibilities as political players; we have surrendered too much to the judiciary. We have involved the judiciary in too many unnecessary political issues, thereby exposing them to ridicule and we are not helping the judiciary. Political leaders who are key players in the democratic system should show the maturity, the political temperament to be able to recognize and solve problems within themselves and see politics as essential element of democracy, which is a market place of ideas. We all do not need to belong on one political party. Even within our parties there are tendencies, there should be contestation of tendencies but

    the irony in Nigeria is that politicians are more militant than the military. Honestly, politicians in Nigeria do not know how to argue, disagree amongst themselves. We don’t listen to ourselves, we can’t argue amongst ourselves. If you hold a divergent view, you are marked for destruction or blackmail, or tagged as doing antiparty activity and this is so because our political actors, leaders neither have the skills and the democratic temperament to drive the political process. These are partly the reasons why the crises in both PDP and APC are strong. In the US, for example, you see all the tendencies playing out; Clinton on the center of the Democratic Party, you have Bernie Sanders on the left of the Democratic Party and others – so also in the Republican Party, all marketing their ideas

    But I am confident PDP will still bounce back after the Supreme Court judgment. But my view is that we have no business going to a court. If PDP leaders had agreed to implement our template for reconciliation, a national unity convention would have held this month to elect a brand new leadership. The irony of it is that the judiciary does not reconcile, it only adjudicates. Even after the Supreme Court judgement, the party will still hold a convention and embark on aggressive confidence building and reconciliation. So what is the real reason for going to court?

    I was opposed to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff when some of my colleagues and others brought him. I didn’t like that. I thought that our party needed a fresh face to craft a fresh message after losing power at the center. Losing election is bad but that is not the end of the world for a party or for a politician. Unfortunately, those who brought him for whatever reason, fell apart with him. And when the Appeal Court upheld Sheriff as chairman, I as a product of the law, as a law-abiding citizen adhered to the court judgement by duly recognizing him as chairman and the same people said I was a Sheriff man! As politicians we shouldn’t be law breakers or hold the judiciary in contempt. We should not personalize judicial pronouncements by selecting the verdicts to respect!

    Why should a politician, for example, want to pocket his party? Why should you be the one to select the national chairman and secretary and all the other posts, they must be in your pocket for you to be a member of that party…does that make sense, is that not madness? If that is the thrust of a politician then you can go and form a political party of your family and be in charge then, but once it’s a national party, it is an aggregation of all interest and top of which is the national interest. After the Supreme Court judgement, PDP must address many its problems top of which is funding

    What is your position on the recent quit notice given Igbos in the North by some youth groups?

    I condemn in strong terms the quit notice on Ndigbo. Nigeria has gone past that. We must remain as one indivisible country because our strength lies in our diversity. We didn’t even need the civil war we fought as a country because it didn’t result in anything. I support what the Northern Governors Forum and their counterparts in the East have done. I read the statements by my governor colleagues and I believe that all governors are united in this to see how we can promote peaceful co-existence and harmony.

    I believe that the APC-led Federal Government could have done more in the area of promoting national unity in the country. I have spoken about this severally; the country was too divided.  The Federal Government should consciously promote national cohesion, unity

    and unite the various ethnic groups in the country. But unfortunately government has not done enough to promote national cohesion whether in the national management of federal political power, appointments or in evolving a national strategy to deal with the menace of herdsmen. The government must evolve the right strategy to contain all these as quickly as possible.

    What is the status of the new airport you are building in Bayelsa?

    When I came on board, I wanted an airport in Bayelsa State – the heart of Ijaw land – to boost our economy and play an active role in the Gulf of Guinea. I lobbied the Federal Government for partnership on the airport. But I was told contract for sand filling of the airport was already given to someone by NDDC, which they said was about 50 per cent of the cost. I said no problem, but I wanted to drive essential elements of this airport by myself so that it won’t suffer unnecessary delays.

    I told the contractor, your contract with NDDC stays; I am not interfering. I cleared another place and gave the contractor that place to stockpile that NDDC sand. After all, we can use it in the other development projects in the state. Up till date, the contractor has not delivered on the sand.

    I then took over the dredging of the sand for the airport proper and called in the biggest dredging company in Nigeria and gave the contract to them, paid them. Then I went to the Bayelsa State House of Assembly and insured a N50 billion facility to deliver on the airport and tied it to the various contracts that would be awarded.

    So, immediately the dredging companies verified, they went to the bank, they knew that their

    money was there in the bank. They worked day and night and within one year, they finished the dredging, and we expanded the scope of the airport from two kilometers runway to 3.5 kilometers because we have to make it commercially viable. Right now it is only in Lagos that all these big cargo planes can land, even cargo plane servicing the oil industries bring in oil tools, big cargo planes carrying merchandise – they can’t land in Port Harcourt; they can’t land in Enugu, they can’t land in any other airport in the South-South. Cargo planes can only land in Lagos, Kano and Abuja airports. So we had to structure it for that type of traffic – to cover the South-South, South-East. Big cargo they bring in from China and other places can land in Bayelsa when the airport is completed.

    So we are building actually the biggest state-owned airport. The contract was awarded to Dantata and Sawoe and it is now almost 90 percent completed. We now have the runway, we have the terminal building, now I am awarding the contract for the navigational instruments; when they are installed, you have the airport.

    By why an airport with so many airports in surrounding states?

    The airport will open up the state, enable people to fly into Bayelsa and fly out both for business, pleasure and generally create a hub for businesses. The airport will help to take Bayelsa to the world and bring the world to Bayelsa State. You know Bayelsa State is a historical center of oil and gas, yet there is no activity and when you ask the companies why they are not in Bayelsa, some of them would say because there is no airport; they can’t fly in and fly out. So we don’t even control elements of the oil trade because there is no airport, no seaport.

    So you started the airport from scratch?

    We started from the scratch, there is no federal government or NDDC sand in that runway, that is the point I am making. I wanted the state to be in charge of the essential elements of the airport, sand filling, runway, once you do that, you have gotten an airport. I wanted to drive the essential elements of the airport and I am happy that it has paid off. So by the end of this year, I will be commissioning the airport which is one of our biggest infrastructure investments. There are a lot of companies outside that are in touch with my team and I and we will also be meeting with many more. They want to use it as a hub, they are coming in with planes, to run their services, fly from Bayelsa, Lagos, Abuja and other cities and also service the Gulf of Guinea. Most of you don’t know that you can stay in Bayelsa and service the Gulf of Guinea because we are at the tip of the country just by the ocean; you fly thirty minutes from Bayelsa and you are in Equatorial Guinea. So that is the way it is and that is the market we are targeting. I will be reaching out to a lot of business people, because the airport is not just an airport, we want to make it as I said a trading hub. I want to talk to businessmen, all these importers, come and build warehouses. So from China, for example, they can come, it is going to be actually a trade zone, a free trade zone, the airport itself. So all the goods coming into South-South, South-East and most other parts of the country will be there, there will be market for it – that is why the airport is very important.

    Are you also building infrastructure to enhance operations at the airport? If you can connect a road between the airport and the East-West road, that can take one straight to Warri, then you will also be thinking of capturing the Warri market…

    It is all part of the calculations; we have done a road now going to Amasoma, which late Governor DSP Alamieyeseigha started but which my government re-awarded to CCC. The company did a great job, they built corners, bridges, from 2012 when I gave them the job and the road is very solid. But we are doing a road from that road to the airport, so from the East-West, you can easily get to the airport. We will capture all that market – Warri, Ahoada, Ughelli and so on. But we have a strategic plan targeted at opening the airport for business because it can accelerate our development. To develop any state, or any nation, you must create a business-friendly environment, build the capacity of the people as we are doing in Bayelsa and build the infrastructure that can attract and encourage businesses to grow. So we have a strategic plan and that’s why this airport is so critical to our development as a people.

    There is a plan for a deep sea port from the airport, about one hour drive, you get to the Agge Deep Sea Port. Again, we have been labouring to build the road that will take us to Ekeremor, the next local government which is 50 kilometers. These are the big ticket projects we will commence. When you visit Bayelsa you will have an idea of what we go through to build roads.  We are already building the road from Sagbama to Ekeremor which is about 50 kilometers. We have sand filled about forty seven kilometers already.  I moved in a second dredger recently – even in this recession we are doing that even though it is costly, very expensive. They are pumping sand day and night because we have got to get to that local government and see how we can move from Ekeremor to Agge – which is about 67 kilometers from Ekeremor. We also did another 70 kilometers to get to Agge that is by the ocean.

    As I always say, the wealth of Bayelsa lies in the sea. We have the most beautiful beach in the whole of this area, the Agge beach – white sand, long stretch of beach, lot of things can happen- tourism, maritime-related investment and that is the best location for a deep sea port in this country. As we know, we don’t really have a deep sea port in Nigeria, we have lots of trans-shipment going on. The Ekeremor road I talked about will cost

    over N40 billion! I am even scared there will be other variations, because of inflation and the exchange rate and so on. We are bent on delivering that road before the end of my tenure. We have already stabilized up to fifteen kilometers, sand filled, stabilized and now vehicles can run on it. Already they are calling me that the economy is improving, there are young people who are now in the business of loading vehicles in some of the Ekeremor communities for the first time, and they have some young men in the parks shouting ‘Ofoni! Yenagoa!’

    From that deep sea port to remote areas, we are opening up a joint trade corridor in the South- South and South-East because the end of my local government, Sagbama Local Government is very close to Onitsha and there are a lot of oil facilities – gas flaring going on. What I have started doing as part of our strategic plan is to engage even the oil companies, NNPC, and I have visited all of them, gotten their support to provide power 24-hours.  We have acquired 400 hectares space of land and we shall make it a huge market for industrial estates linking it up with the South Eastern market – Onitsha and so on.

    How much of these can you finish before 2020?

    As I have said the airport is already being completed- end of this year. As a matter of fact, some months back, an aircraft on a mission landed there and took off, because what we call an airport is a road, essentially fortified road with the navigation materials. So they will be delivered. We are working with our partners collaborating on the big industrial park, collaborating with IOCs, the NNPC, on supply of power. They are flaring the gas even as we speak. We are converting gas to power, so that when we have 24 hour supply, it will now be a manufacturing hub for companies that want to manufacture. Part of the challenge in Bayelsa State is we don’t have strong private sector participation. The whole economy revolves around the state government expenditure, so that puts a lot of pressure on governance and affects the politics adversely. These are the reasons why we need the participation of the private sector.

    Two days ago Shell’s country chief was my guest in Bayelsa, a lot of things are changing, and the international community know the narrative about Bayelsa is changing. People can see life-changing projects and government projects are impacting on the people and there is stability.  We have invested heavily in security and today, Bayelsa is the safest and most stable state in the Niger Delta – even though it is the epicenter of the Niger Delta issues, concerns and struggles. Next week, I will be receiving the Agip Country Chief, I have met the NNPC MD, last week and I interacted with the Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo to market the Brass fertilizer project as well. I will also meet the chairman and management of the Brass LNG project, Dr. Jackson Gaius-Obaseki in Lagos before I go back to Yenagoa. You can see that my agenda is to a large extent delivered, the social investment end fully delivered. You have the best public schools, not private funded schools in Bayelsa State.

    In Bayelsa we have made a revolutionary intervention in education not only in terms of the scholarships that we are giving out and our students are doing very well but we are building schools, schools and schools. As you know, I did declare emergency in the education sector, but it was not just a political slogan. I really meant it. Primary and Secondary education are free and compulsory in Bayelsa State.

    We have committed over N55 billion, building schools, on scholarships, building quarters for teachers, building laboratories, boarding houses, libraries, supplying books, supplying uniforms, paying JAMB, NECO, WAEC. We now have for the first time boarding schools in the state.

    In the Ijaw National Academy, for example, a school we designed and built from scratch in Kaiama – it was a massive forest designed – built from scratch. It is now like a university but it is a secondary school. You have 1,000 students right there now, all on state government sponsorship and it is boarding. We feed them three times a day and their uniforms are provided. We select the best students from all the primary schools, boys and girls, top students, and they do an examination and we select the very best again and tell their parents from now on till they end their secondary education, these students are state government ”property”, what you do is only buy buckets, cutlass and then the hostel wear.

    We are embarking on massive mobilization of people. I had to even threaten parents and guardians by telling them ‘I have built the schools, the facilities are there, the children have been tested, exams taken to select them school by school, the best set, if you don’t allow your child to go I will order your arrest.’ I have built the schools and I have equipped them and given uniforms, books, feeding free and I have taken pains to send people to go around and select the best 10 in every secondary school. Those ones were brought together and they took exams and we took the very best. We said ‘This is the list, you parents only buy buckets, cutlass, brooms and house wear of N5,000 and now send that child to the school.’ Do you know that my press team is still running adverts telling parents to release their children to go school? Look at Ijaw National Academy… 900 Bayelsans were offered admission, the remaining 100 are Ijaw drawn from states like Ondo, Edo, Delta, Akwa Ibom and Rivers because a Bayelsa governor has a responsibility to cater for the Ijaw outside the state. The head girl in the Ijaw National Academy is from Edo State and I selected them four years ago. Initially what I did was to give scholarships and send them to the best secondary schools in the country. After building these schools, I brought them back home. So in every local government we have well equipped schools and in Kolokuma-Okpokuma Local Government alone, you have Ijaw National Academy and the Sports Academy.

    Is the state not taking on too much by doing that?

    Well, that is the reality of Bayelsa and the reason we are doing that is because unless you consciously intervene and build a new generation of citizens, leaders, there is no meaningful development that you put on ground that can last. That is why we are investing in human capital development.

    We have put in place laws and measures to sustain what we have done even after leaving office. We have sponsored the ‘Right to Education Bill’ which is the right a Bayelsa child under the age of 18 has to educational support. Now these are necessary because I don’t want anybody to defund education after me. The second one is the Educational Development Trust Fund. By this June we will begin to take contributions. I have appointed one of our respected elder statesmen and leaders in this sector, Professor Turner Isoun, former Minister of Science and Technology, former Vice Chancellor of University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt to chair the Educational Development Trust Fund Board. We have made a case for the oil industry to key into it and the provision there mandates them to put a certain percentage of their CSR budget every year to support it so that it doesn’t amount to double taxation. Also, all corporate players, every Bayelsan contributes to that fund – all of us, civil servants, political appointees beginning with me, everybody, will generate quite some money. Once it is there, that fund will be used not to build schools because we have already done that but to sustain feeding of the students, supplying computers, feeding, uniforms, routine things, can be done with the funds.

    What kind of guarantee do you give to investors on security considering the volatile terrain?

    I acknowledge that we are starting off from the position of disadvantage, where there is a mindset that in places like Bayelsa, that if you go and put in something there, something bad will happen to you. That is a mindset, it is a perception, which is why we are having this type of interaction with the press. We are going to have more of it and actually that is why am keen to host most of you, a number of you, am not talking about investors out of Nigeria, even a number of you have not visited Bayelsa, you haven’t  visited the creeks and communities out there to even see how the people live. What you hear about Bayelsa is actually exaggerated. In Lagos, for example, if you keep a diary of crimes committed per square kilometer, per population, of course you know what happens but it is not reported because the media houses are all here. Lagos State is number one in crime yet the investors have not left Lagos. Crime is crime and we condemn it. Look at what happened in London within the last three months, terrorist attack worse than what is happening in Nigeria, except in some areas in the North East.

    The guys who put up the travel advisory exaggerate our situation. The US Ambassador spent three days, returned back safely. Two days ago, the Political Secretary to the British High Commission visited Bayelsa and I receive high profile international diplomats almost on a daily basis because they know what is going on in the Niger Delta. I tell them this narrative about Nigeria, Niger Delta and particularly Bayelsa has got to change, for it is over-exaggerated. Bayelsa is safe for investors. On a daily basis, you see people in far-flung creeks in Bayelsa drilling oil. There are people evacuating crude on a daily basis, from Brass terminal in Bayelsa, from Forcados, from Bonny and everywhere in the Niger Delta but when there is a little incident it is blown out of proportion. Security is an investment and for that investment to happen it takes two, the public and private sector to come together with the government, creating the enabling environment – which is what we are doing.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • X-raying Nigeria’s democracy, development

    This book takes a panoramic view of the Nigerian socio-economic and political landscape. It attempts a deconstruction of the notions of politics and of economics which underpin public policy and practice. These attempts are made in two parts spread across forty-seven chapters under themes dealing with varied issues which in the first part include among others leadership, democracy, power and power politics, the configurations of political interests and the patterns as well as implications of the constellations of these interests.

    The author engaged with the challenges of development in the second part of the book detailing his thoughts on issues of vision and growth, the imperative of education as well as exigencies of innovation and its inevitability as a catalyst for growth and development. Also capturing the analytical focus of the author are the issues of poverty eradication and unemployment, economic diversification, entrepreneurship and the prospects for Nigeria’s global competitiveness.

    The diversity of the issue areas covered by the book is indicative of the broad dimensions of the author’s concern with the multiplicity of the malaise currently besieging the Nigerian State, especially its political economy. He correctly placed the leadership question upfront and in the epicenter of his analysis. He sees leadership as ‘a complex ethical relationship’ between leaders and the led, one which ought necessarily to be underpinned by trust and good faith. Unfortunately the ‘illusion of omnipotence’ i.e. the assumption by leaders that they possess unlimited power enables the embarrassing, oftentimes dysfunctional, mismatch between policy and outcome. African leaders over promise and underachieve.

    African leaders, true African leaders, must in the author’s opinion be realistic, transparent and accountable. He bemoaned the genre of leadership in Africa and ascribed the failure of governance to them. He substantiates his argument with the point that Africa lags painfully behind on all the major indices of human development. He canvasses for courageous and committed leadership guided by truth, discipline, and transparency. He calls for leadership that is inspirational, propelling citizens’ confidence and action towards growth and development.

    But citizens’ action is predicated on the extent of the prevalence of the ethos of democracy and the pursuit of political inclusiveness. The author’s analysis of the shades of democracy was very brief, almost too brief in fact. Any one craving for more details will therefore need to consult other academic materials on the subject. However, the author elaborated fairly well his thoughts on the Nigerian situation positing that “There is currently a growing concern in Nigeria about the mismatch between democracy and development”.

    Of further interest perhaps is the author’s depiction not only of the stunted, malnourished nature of Nigeria’s political system, but even more serious the wanton display of infantile political predilection by the political elite. How else can one describe the boxing contexts that take place every now and again on the floor of the supposedly hallowed chambers of our state and national parliaments?

    The author also took a swipe at the country’s political party system. This is a particularly strong point although he came short of fruitfully and maximally exploring the several key aspects of this aspect of our political praxis. For instance, the obsession with the notions of party supremacy as well as the culture of imposition of political appointees is discussed. However, the point could have been developed further by pointing out, inter-alia, that as the statutorily recognized machinery for capturing the reins of power, political parties themselves ought to rise to the higher calling of serving as veritable breeding grounds and ‘colleges’ for the production of qualitative, visionary and law respecting leaders. But alas the reverse in several cases appears to be the norm. Banausocracy, i.e., government by the uncultured and vulgar elements of society, now prevails.

    The author passed a critical test of political economy when he attempted to link democracy and the economy. His point of departure was the perennial contestation over the value of the naira and the petroleum subsidisation policy. The author’s points are well taken, particularly his call for caution over the simultaneous adoption of currency devaluation and the removal of subsidy. However, it must be stated that the issues are more profound and ramified that the position assumed in the book. At stake is the character of the structure of the Nigerian economy especially the system of production, distribution and consumption. These in turn must be placed within the wider context of the contemporary global economy, bearing in mind also such dynamics as economic power and globalized competition. All these constitute exogenous constraints which in themselves impact domestic policy options and strategies.

    The author’s capacity for deploying useful analogies serves his communicative function very well throughout the book. Farmers and Hunters in Governance, Chapter 7 of the work, compared and contrasted the sniper, ad hoc activity of the hunter with the skillful, innovative, futuristic mindset of the farmer. Public officeholders in contemporary Nigeria are likened to the former while what is needed for long term, sustainable growth and development is the mindset of the latter.

    His illustration of governance failure with the inability of governors of oil rich states of the Niger Delta region to pay civil servants’ salaries is apt. It signposts clearly not only that there are high levels of corruption and profligacy in government, but also that there are manifest inability to be proactive, creative and resourceful.

    The author correctly identified the power politics among nations in the international arena as a critical context and determinant of national development. From this arena, the prospects and/or fortunes of nations, Nigeria’s inclusive, cannot therefore be divorced from the capacity to use economic resources and influence meaningfully.

    The author clearly and correctly commented on Nigeria’s waning power and influence not only in the region but also globally, attributing same  to its dwindling economic fortunes, especially the fall in the international price of oil. That point, as sound as it is, is however not a sufficient one in itself. The mangers of the state have also failed to harness and develop the country’s other frontiers and indices of power – population, military, industry, the diverse element of soft power including media, culture, tourism etc. Nor has the state been able to arrest and/or mitigate the fallouts associated with such dysfunctionalities like the country’s negative image abroad in terms of corruption, terrorism, kidnapping, 419, drug trafficking, election rigging and violence, etc. Efforts at rebranding the country have had suboptimal results. Perhaps because of the DNA of disorderliness?

    The scholar also elaborated on the notion of national security, linking same to the prevalence of poverty, unemployment and the general low living standards of the populace. His prescription for national security therefore is: improve the lot of the citizenry.

    The author spared a few words for the Buhari administration particularly on issues that border on quality of leadership and of appointments of state officials to drive the policies of his administration. In this connection he opines that the President ought to screen for leadership traits which are devoid of the greediness which now plagues the current crop of leadership in Nigeria. He also canvassed for leadership which is enamored of youth development, nurturing the youth for leadership roles. Unfortunately however, the president appeared, in the opinion of the author, to have succumbed to the typical Nigerian disease of using the exercise as an opportunity for providing jobs for the boys.

    Nonetheless, the author does not believe that the all was lost. In other words the ‘boys’ could still perform, rising to the billings of true statesmen and women and charting a course for the country out of the present doldrums. All these so long as they are able and willing to adopt the appropriate mindsets, develop the vision for growth and development and most importantly pursue, adopt, apply and activate complex innovations to all those processes that are germane to socio-economic and political transformations, growth and development of the country  .

    On a final note the author accessed the global development framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is noted here that the framework itself has been succeeded by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs). However the take home point remains that government must up its ante. A critical and objective post-MDG review is necessary to ensure a consolidation of past gains while reviewing areas of poor or even negative performance.

    On the whole these are the major themes around which the thoughts and analysis of the author are built and across which other subthemes were developed.

    The book’s main contribution to knowledge lies mainly in the non-technicist manner in which it intervenes in the discourse on the Nigeria social formation. Devoid of any technical jargons it is still able to dissect the problems, isolate the critical variables around which contestations turn, evaluate policies and strategies and ultimately take an informed stand on designated issues.

    A major flaw of the book lies in the structure of its presentation. The chapter outline is not only way to long (47 chapters), it is onerously repetitive.  A book so lucidly written and dwelling on so many important themes of national significance is deserving of a well-structured, revised reproduction. At such point, it is advised that the author streamline the book’s chapter outline. Chapters suitable for merging, for instance, include chapters 2 and 3; 14 and 15; 1, 12, 16 and 17; 22 through to 28; 29 and 30.

    In the final analysis this is a commendable effort and one expects to see a continuation of a very robust debate around the issues which have been raised therein by the author in the near future.