The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PMB

  • PMB, don’t run any ministry!

    One is much perturbed that President Muhammadu Buhari has elected to run the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Why do we do the same things that take us no where? This only suggests that he does not have a full grasp of the import and magnitude of the office he holds. If PMB has the time, energy and brilliance to add another office to his High Office, it should be Agric and Rural Development. If he understands the new strategic direction of the economy, he must make agric the new crude oil.

    But there is absolutely nothing PMB would offer in any ministry that another Nigerian somewhere would not do better. His job is to find that man or woman and put him there. His job is to supervise and supervise and supervise.

    Unless like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he needs to take care of himself, this is a huge distraction. He must help us by shedding his superman syndrome. He should help rebuild our systems across board so they can run well irrespective of personality.

  • It’s the economy, PMB!

    SIR: President Buhari has repeatedly stated that he has security, the fight against corruption and jobs creation through the economy as his top priorities. He has to pay proper attention to the economy.

    Since the return of democracy in 1999, the Obasanjo, Yar’ Adua and Jonathan administrations have tried to put Nigeria on the path of prosperity with their different economic plans, initiatives and strategies. These have failed to achieve the desired outcomes.

    Contrary to widespread believe that things will naturally fall into place with the appointment of ministers, our antecedent has shown that these appointments alone do not translate into the desired outcomes except there is a deliberate attempt on the part of members of the administration to work towards the implementation of the economic initiatives and genuinely dedicate time, effort and energies towards its success. Most ministerial appointments have only been consolation prizes while only a handful of past ministers have been able to make their mark. The impact of important ministries such as mines and steel development, science and technology, transportation, power and finance are yet to be felt on the economy. It is for this reason that the Buhari administration needs to have an economic development strategy taking into account certain sectors of the economy that are central to rapid economic development.

    A World Bank report titled ‘’Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency’’ ranked Nigeria 170 among 189 countries on the ease of doing business. One of the reasons for this poor ranking is unreliable power supply. Though some Nigerians have attested to the improvement in power supply since the inauguration of the new administration, President Buhari must as a matter of urgency initiate new power projects as well as review the National Independent Power Project (NIPP) in order to jumpstart the economy and create the avenue for the resuscitation of the manufacturing sector. Our energy potentials also need to be further developed while ensuring environmental protection. Government need to explore natural gas, renewable energy sources and thermal plants in order to meet Nigeria’s energy demand.

    It is a shame that our economy has been import dependent for so many years that we have to import simple items such as toothpick. We have helped to grow the economies of countries like India, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Mexico who were in our league by importing their goods and creating jobs for their citizens. Now is the time to resuscitate the manufacturing sector. President Buhari should begin with the textile and clothing industry by reviving it and provide players in this industry with tax cuts and incentives.

    Nigeria is blessed with mineral resources such as iron ore, coal, limestone, lignite, tin, gold among others. It is high time President Buhari developed this sector. One wonders what the ministry of mines and steel development has been up to since its establishment. It is a good development that China is currently investing in steel production in Nigeria. Other foreign investors should also be welcomed by the Buhari administration.

    Another area of focus for President Buhari is rail transportation. Though the immediate past administration made some investments in this area but this project cannot move us into the future. What is needed at this point in our economic life are high speed trains to connect major cities in Nigeria. Lack of effective rail transport has put a lot of pressure on our roads leading to bad roads and causing numerous accidents with too many lives lost.

    The Buhari administration must also reform the aviation sector. Investments in this sector over the years have not translated into improved standards due to massive corruption. The standard and operations of airports across the country is an eyesore.

     

    • Bolaji Samson Aregbeshola,

    Lagos.

  • Our Girls; PMB: Farmland is not ‘No Man’s Land’, NLC; ‘aguntasolo.com’; Roads or ‘Nigeria Airways

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. The military coalition is making progress. If done three years ago, we would never have had 20,000+ murdered and four million unhappy and often helpless ‘Internally Displaced Persons’. We must add as a cause of IDPs, the over 20,000 killed in the 20 year+ lethal Fulani herdsmen vs farmers war. Why do the herdsmen see farm land as ‘Federal No Man’s Land’ with ‘free’ cattle fodder, with no compensation offered? Is this a thinly disguised attempt to redress past failed ‘conquest and humiliate’ strategies? President Buhari must stop this war. The recent marches in Plateau and Nassarawa states where I did my NYSC in 1975/6 in Jos and Lafia leave me cold at the crimes committed. It is so easy to kill in Nigeria and we are so easy to kill. Just call yourself a ‘militia’ and you can kill at will. When Boko Haram is curbed, the same military is required for the Fulani herdsmen/farmers war, and the soldiers must ensure ‘‘Freedom and Security for Farmers in the ‘Front Line States’ ‘’.

    Happily the Third War in Nigeria, The Anti-Corruption War, is active at federal Level. All thieves must return amounts stolen and be imprisoned in proportion. A financial crime is as deadly as a violent crime. A crime is criminal, period! The term ‘Financial Crime’ must not make the crime ‘less criminal’, than the crime of an armed robber. It is not okay to commit a ‘financial crime’. Even law enforcement agencies ‘cooperate’ by charging such criminals with ‘MONEY LAUNDERING’ which has a MAXIMUM JAIL TERM OF JUST TWO YEARS, no matter the amount involved- N100,000 or N27billion! This is a legal scam law to deceive Nigerians that justice is occurring when it is criminal unwritten ‘plea bargaining’.

    For the anti-corruption war to work, it requires to progress from federal command and control for spread Buhari-ism to all states and LGAs for ‘national spread and federal character’ of anti-corruption. The NLC-led nationwide anti-corruption war march is not politics. The NLC and Co must practicalise things to guarantee the anti-corruption war’s success. The worker and the family will benefit from ‘Zero Corruption’. Every kobo stolen is stolen from people programmes aimed at making Nigerians own Nigeria, be they workers, children or retired. The NLC should produce ‘Anti-Corruption Ways and Means Guidelines’ and strategise to confront their own internal and also external corruption. The NLC and others must harness ‘useful Anti-Corruption information’. WHISTLE BLOWING MUST BECOME A RESPECTABLE PROFESSION with a Honours List and Role Model Status in Nigeria and Annual Whistleblowers Awards.

    The migration and trafficking nightmare are a sobering lesson for Africa’s corruption-prone leaders and thieves from public coffers. Under the uninspiring engine-rooms of corruption – the regimes of Babangida, Abacha, Abdusalami and Obasanjo – many Nigerians emigrated or were forced by circumstance to flee to Europe for normal work and even prostitution or died of thirst in the Sahara or drowned in the Mediterranean. The media should ban them and stop reporting every antic and word of these Ex-Presidents – a daily insult to Nigerians living in darkness. They richly deserve the Buhari anti-corruption treatment,

    The national anti-corruption project must be disseminated and domesticated nationwide in every village and by all organisations, societies, groups, forces and services. Let every honest Nigerian contribute to this anti-corruption war from Boy Scouts to PTAs. Every Nigerian will benefit from a bribe-free society. Bribery can be stopped immediately, overnight.

    Every Nigerian has experienced the corruption of the Nigerian uniform. President Buhari has an enormous task but in reality, it is easily achieved by delegation of authority and ready recourse to ‘termination of appointment (TOA) and ‘Pre-Signed Letters of Resignation’ from his management team. He can reverse this ugly but permanent stain on Nigeria’s flag by giving each ‘Head of Uniform and Organisation’ an ultimatum- a ‘Priority 1 Internal Anti-Corruption Drive’. ‘Stop Corruption Top To Bottom Immediately Today Or Face Sack in one month’. Give them one month to bring corruption to a halt. Invite the public to report to a ‘Corruption Monitor’ database. A monthly meeting thereafter will keep everyone on their toes and create the ‘ZERO CORRUPTION MODEL’. The Customs, Police, security agencies, VIO, FRSC, LGA road officials, SON, NAFDAC, judges, magistrates, greedy tax consultants and exorbitant levy imposers, road maintenance agencies, ministry officials, professionals, electricity [non]suppliers all on the long ‘accused of corruption’ list! They all need to be ‘under surveillance’ by anti-corruption citizens. By the time Buhari has ‘accepted’ the resignation of three or four successive IGPs, SON or NAFDAC bosses in three months, the police will fall in line from Constable to Commissioner as will the others.

    President Buhari should add ‘aguntasolo.com’ to his reading list. I agree that the national carrier  idea is strictly about pride and to be avoided like a plague in Nigeria’s weak economy. The New Nigeria Airways will cost us dearly but profit only 0.1% of Nigerians. Instead, that money could build many railways, 100 bridges and 500 roads used by 100% of Nigerians. After killing corruption, Buhari must have a legacy and plan to be more than ‘Buhari- The Anti-Corruption Tsar’ but also ‘Buhari- The Great Road/Bridge Builder’. He must avoid becoming ‘Buhari – the failed New Nigerian Airways Man’.  The Ibadan Lagos road is screaming to be completed. On Sunday afternoon September 13, it took seven hours to reach Lagos.

    ‘The national anti-corruption project must be disseminated and domesticated nationwide in every village and by all organisations, societies, groups, forces and services. Let every honest Nigerian contribute to this anti-corruption war from Boy Scouts to PTAs’

  • PMB: The dangers of one-man-show

    Perversive aura of power We must not grant President Muhammadu Buhari too much comfort. We cannot afford to blink or take our eyes off the ball. Not anymore; not after all the tormenting disappointments that have emanated from that Aso Rock Presidential Villa since 1999. Why should a President Olusegun Obasanjo have failed so woefully having rode into the scene with cognate experience none else in Nigeria’s history had? Yet he managed to set us back many years. Did we not think that President Goodluck Jonathan brandishing a PhD, and all that shoelessness, was indeed a breath of fresh air? But he fouled our air so much we are still choking.

    The mere fact that the sheer aura and majesty of power would circumscribe both the holder and beholder is enough reason we must be even more on our guards now and not assume that the long-awaited messiah has finally arrived. It is true that comparatively, PMB is imbued with finer character and personal integrity, but there are a dozen other virtues begirding transcendental leadership and transformational governance.

    It is for these reasons that we, the watchers of all the Estates of the Realm, must wear our skeptic’s cap always and set it askew at an irreverent and annoying angle. Now more than ever before, we must not be afraid not provoke and run against the grain of popular leaning. And like my brother Azu Isiekwene once said, we must not stop at ruffling feathers, we must make sure to pluck some feathers. Especially so when we are sure we are doing so in the interest of both the man in the pristine prison of the Villa and the hapless fella on the street.

    The breeding a benign dictatorship This is why we must not fail to sound the alarm about what is clearly an incipient one-man government and the making of a leviathan; a benign dictatorship. It is not acceptable and neither is it justifiable that PMB would take almost half of a year to form a government. We simply do not have that luxury of time. He tells us he will not appoint members of his cabinet till September. We hear the Senate may not complete ratification of nominees till end of October and we know that it would take these men and women upmost of another six months to master their not so simple environment and begin to deliver any reasonable result.

    Why should we hand over one full year of our lives to a man we elected to office to play around with as he wishes? There is absolutely nothing PMB is doing now that he could not have done with the full complement of his cabinet in tow. It is a dangerous fallacy for one man to imagine he could reform a deeply rotten system all alone in a few months.

    In fact, the dangers and shortcomings of the President discharging executive functions in the manner he has been doing are numerous and indeed, scary. First, most of the activities so far – wholesome and positive as they may be – are at best ad-hoc and direly limited. He does not have the option of robust debate and a weighing up of numerous alternatives to arrive at the best options.

    One example was the setting up of the Adams Oshiomhole-led panel to probe the management of the Excess Crude Account during the Jonathan era. It had one month to report back to the National Economic Council (NEC). But it took all of one month to find out that the panel was inadequate and indeed awkward for that assignment. It took one month to know that audit firms are better suited for the job. That was one month wasted and several opportunities lost.

    Another shortcoming is that the country has remained at a standstill and will be so till a cabinet is formed. A visit to federal secretariats will prove this. It was not that diligent activity was the hallmark of the Nigerian civil servant, but ask anyone of them now and he will tell you there is nothing doing since the new dispensation. Again, it is not for fun that the weekly cabinet meeting is held: it is for setting broad policy guidelines, tracking implementation and reviewing performance and progress taking place simultaneously in all sectors. No one person can do this alone.

    What really is the purpose of the current exercise of having permanent secretaries review their ministries before the President one at a time? This exercise, which is taking months to carry out, would have been better accomplished in a one week summit under a full cabinet. This way, even the ministers would benefit immensely and at the end of the day, the President would set the tone for his presidency and government in the purview of all – the appointees and civil servants. So we would have done in one week (and with better result) what we have been grappling with for months.

    And there is the more foreboding danger of the President getting used to the current situation of ‘working’ alone and all the minnows around him falling all over themselves when he sneezes. He is in danger of creating a debilitating environment that does not allow for debate, questions and a weighing of options. If he gets used to dishing out instructions and people jumping, his cabinet would be ineffectual and he, as much as Nigeria, would be the worse for it.

    Now and for as long as the President’s slow motion lasts, the budget is in abeyance, most projects are abandoned, work cycle is lost and funds are disbursed whimsically from the presidency.

    APC’s slumbering new era? If PMB is taking things slow to dredge the rot in the system, are governors too, who have followed his example, also dislodging sludge? It is worrisome that most of the ruling APC governors have conveniently neglected to initiate governance; even second term governors.

    If Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State (a first timer) could get started immediately, what is holding up Governors Akin Ambode (Lagos), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), among others? Why is it taking Governor Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) almost one year to form government? This precedent is dangerous and unacceptable. Apart from the fact that they are running government from their breast pockets, some fellow will come tomorrow and take all of two or three years to form an executive council (exco), standing on Aregbesola’s example.

    One sees absolutely no benefit in a president or governor hedging to form government upon inauguration. None.

    PRESSID: Let’s not throw Jonathan away with bathwater

    One of the most ingenious initiatives of former President Goodluck Jonathan was setting up of the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and Development (PRESSID).

    The scheme, which is in its third year, selects about 100 best of Nigeria’s first class graduates for scholarship in the best universities abroad. The idea is simply to harness a critical mass of thinkers and leaders in all spheres of life for Nigeria’s future. The US has perfected this strategic initiative, reaching beyond their borders to poach the best from around the world.

    The successful candidates for the third batch for the 2014/2015 academic session, who have been offered admission in universities across the world, have been left hanging since President Buhari came to power. If these young Nigerians are being denied their well-merited national scholarship, which they have already won, by the new government, they at least deserve to be informed formally so that they may move on with their lives.

    America, Israel, China, etc., lead the world because they make serious effort to select and groom their very best minds. It is hoped that PMB would sustain PRESSID.

  • This Saraki Senate can delay, indeed, frustrate PMB

    This Saraki Senate can delay, indeed, frustrate PMB

    When I read about the obfuscation coming from an Abuja court about  the forgery at the senate,  claiming it was an internal affair, I knew, instinctively, that we  were beginning to  see a recrudescence of  PDP-ism , now emboldened  by Saraki’s  ego-driven theatricals.

    Unless and until Senator Ike Ekweremadu honourably steps aside/or is eased out as Deputy Senate President, the crisis in the senate cannot be said to be over. The intrigue and contrivance woven by Saraki to bind and bond with Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President is most subversive. It cannot breed trust between the senate and the ruling party, APC, and the Buhari presidency. Since we are not running a government of National Unity, the question of a bi-partisan legislature becomes an aberration. What is not morally right can never be politically correct.” – Canada-based Sir Fred Akinsanmi, JP.

    Granted that Senate President Bukola Saraki has, in the past, severally proved himself totally unscrupulous in the pursuit of power, it  still comes as most  puzzling,  if,  indeed, not  politically suicidal, that he, a medical doctor, two-time state governor and former Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum,  one  you would have no qualms describing as a brilliant politician could, well aware of the plethora of  allegations against him, still decide to railroad himself  into the office of the president of the Nigerian senate, not only against his party’s  preferences, but  do so through standing orders he knew were  forged, as has now been confirmed by the office of  the Attorney-General vide a statement by the Head of  Civil Litigation, Federal Ministry of  Justice.  Talking about his multitude of outstanding  problems,  a  yet  to be controverted  report by POINTBLANKNEWS of  13, August  2013 reads as follows:”Senator Bukola Saraki who returns to the EFCC today to face further grilling over some alleged fraudulent transactions, is having tons of massive fraud charges hanging on his neck. He was a guest of the EFCC on Monday for several hours, but was released on administrative bail and asked to return Tuesday. The former governor maintained that he had no cause to be invited, since the issues had been investigated by the agency over the years. It will be recalled that the commission had, last week, vowed to take all necessary measures to arrest and bring Saraki to justice over his tenure as governor and at the SGN bank. EFCC vowed last Friday to take necessary steps to arrest and try him for several fraud-related cases. He allegedly laundered billions of naira belonging to Inter Continental Bank of Nigeria Plc (now Access Bank) and also allegedly used fronts like Sintex Ltd, Skyview Properties Ltd, Asam Oil, Quality Packing Ltd, Bastone Ltd, Madison Properties Ltd, and Airline catering Services, to launder billions of naira. The monies, which were given out as loans, were later written off as bad debts’. (Report slightly edited for space constraints). The last Nigerians heard about this is not that he has been discharged and  acquitted but rather, that  efforts to get him prosecuted  are being frustrated by a certain bank.

    My respect for Senator Saraki inched a notch higher when it turned out he was the whistle blower in the humongous oil subsidy scam. President Buhari, no Nigerians, would still have had to be wary of the present senate even if it had not started off forging its own standing orders consisting, as it does, of a glut of former state governors who literally ran their states aground; those the respected former Nigerian Attorney-General, Chief Richard Akinjide, recently described as very corrupt. For instance, an investigation by Saturday PUNCH has revealed that over N172bn fraud cases are in court against these former governor -senators.  It should not surprise therefore that most of their states lead in the unpaid workers saga.

    I digress.

    Can a determined effort to escape justice then be the  sole reason  a former governor and returning  senator, would smuggle himself into the National Assembly premises at an ungodly hour, hide in a small car – his own words – and proceed, rather shamelessly, to trade off the Senate Deputy President  position which should normally be held by a member of his own party to a member of  a discredited PDP, which party Nigerians so comprehensively rejected only a few weeks earlier?  Could it be he momentarily forgot that the ancien regime was gone with all its wiles? Could this be why, sitting pretty in that office, and edged on by some ex- SUG, karate fighting muscle-men, he permitted /schemed the elevation of a first time senator to the post of  Senate  minority leader where there are ranking senators?

    Obviously, ambition must have limits.

    My fear of this senate leadership, perched there dangerously just because Bukola Saraki so disrespects both the president and the APC on whose platform he emerged senator, is enormous. At least, a more respectful Speaker Dogara, has since shown respect to both the president and to party supremacy. My fear of the senate  leadership’s capacity for evil is huge because  it can delay, if not frustrate, the president’s change agenda  and  thus  constitute a stumbling block to  a country genuinely and eagerly in search of real  change: a  change  from  the suffocating kleptomania of the recent past, to a robust, corruption-fighting government which will be seen to be  working for the good of the greater majority of  the people – a change indeed, that Nigerians are beginning to see.

    Only this past week, the Buhari administration appointed a first class and very experienced Ibe Kachikwu, as the new helmsman at the NNPC and before you know it, eight hitherto wasteful and unaccountable group divisions came crashing down to four. That can only be the least of the positive tidings to come from a corporation that has since been turned to a cesspool of corruption.

    When I read about the obfuscation coming from an Abuja court about  the forgery at the senate,  claiming it was an internal affair, I knew, instinctively, that we  were beginning to  see a recrudescence of  PDP-ism , now emboldened  by Saraki’s  ego-driven theatricals. The PDP crowd has always believed that everybody has a price since money, illicit money, is not their problem.  But God be praised, both the Attorney-General’s Office, and that of the Inspector-General of Police have made a short shrift of that effort. It was particularly fascinating reading the IG’s office saying that: ‘IGP Solomon Arase believes that the allegations are criminal and that the police cannot be restrained from investigating it.’ It actually went on to question the powers of the court to restrain either the police or the AGF from performing their statutory responsibilities.

    How time changes?  GEJ days, the A-G would have simply withdrawn the case from court.

    I am happy for  IGP Arase who,  it seems, wants  to  use the  short time at his disposal to make a mark,  reposition the police and leave a worthy legacy like the Hon. Justice Alfa Belgore (GCON) – 2006-2007-  did within a few months, as Chief Justice, and left his name in gold. With the current senate leadership in place, not only could it be maneuvered into opposition against the change agenda, the president could, indeed, be serially frustrated by delaying tactics, especially in enactments  and in appointments that require its approval. Also with Saraki successfully rebuffing the ruling party, and given these senators’ penchant for, and  their unquenchable thirst for what they call juicy committees which underpinned  Saraki’s recent endorsement by 81 members, a very bad precedent would have been laid, literally making them  untouchable. Who then will ask them to reasonably, and substantially, reduce their mountain of remunerations which has seen them emerge as the highest paid legislators anywhere on the face of the earth?

    It is heart-warming, however, to hear the I-G’s office say that the senate forgery raises issues of criminality about which the police owes Nigerians the duty to unearth the truth. It is  equally  sweet  music  to hear  that the investigation has since been concluded and, according to the Head of Civil Litigation, Federal Ministry of Justice, Taiwo Abidogun, who gave the clincher,  those involved will very soon have their day in court, since, according to him, ‘a completed act can no longer be stayed.’

  • The promise of PMB

    The promise of PMB

    President Muhammadu Buhari is working. Nothing best demonstrates the promise of PMB to rise up to Nigeria’s myriad challenges than his prompt response to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on the environmental restoration of Ogoniland. It is a show of good faith, a promise kept and a hope restored.

    At the instance of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the UNEP began an investigation into the environmental pollution of Ogoni, part of the oil-producing Niger Delta of Nigeria, in 2008. The investigation followed over 50 years of environmental devastation engendered by oil exploration and exploitation, on the one hand, and 20 years of community protests over environmental human rights abuses by Shell Petroleum Development Company (Nigeria) Limited which led to a halt in oil-drilling in 1993, on the other.  The invitation to UNEP was part of reconciliatory moves with the Ogoni in order to ensure the resumption of oil production in the area. UNEP completed its assignment, and submitted a report to the Nigerian government on August 4, 2011.

     ”The Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland is the most comprehensive and complex assessment ever undertaken by UNEP,” UNEP’s Director, Division for Environmental Policy Implementation, Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, noted during the formal presentation of the assessment results to President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Thiaw stated, “This assessment encompasses contaminated land, water, sediment, vegetation, air quality, public health, industry practices and institutional issues. And, it represents the best available understanding of what has happened to the environment of Ogoniland following 50 years of oil industry operations. It also provides operational recommendations on how that legacy can be addressed, including priorities for action such as clean-up and remediation.”

    The report confirmed and emphasised a wide range of health and livelihood damages inflicted upon the people by the oil activities, stating, “The Ogoni community is exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons in outdoor air and drinking water, sometimes at concentrations at highly elevated levels.”

    To ameliorate the situation, UNEP recommended the establishment of three new institutions to plan and manage the restoration effort. It proposed the setting up of an “Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority,” a government body to oversee the implementation of the report; “an Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Centre,” as a major industrial enterprise in Ogoniland that would employ hundreds of people, and a “Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration” to train the stakeholders in environmental monitoring and restoration; and “an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland with an initial capital injection of USD 1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the government.”

    UNEP concluded, “The clean-up efforts undertaken to date are inadequate and have not resulted in environmental restoration,” stressing, “Full environmental restoration of Ogoniland will take an estimated 25 to 30 years. This will be possible through a combination of modern technology to clean up contaminated land and waterways, backed up by practical action at the regulatory, operational and monitoring levels.

    “The happy news is that with a more focused approach it will be possible to attain major improvements in just five years.”

    It said the situation required, “The swift commencement of clean-up before the pollution footprint spreads any further.”

    Unfortunately, four full years after, no concrete action was undertaken by the federal government to implement the crucial report. This is despite the fact that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, a son of the Niger Delta, superintended over the affairs of the country at the time of the submission of the report of UNEP’s Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland and, in fact, received it on behalf of the Nigerian government.

    In a report published in October 2014 titled, “Still Polluted: Monitoring Government and Shell’s Response to UNEP’s Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland,” the Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action), a non-governmental organisation, accused the Nigerian government under President Jonathan of nonchalance. The organisation condemned government’s failure to respect its responsibility for environmental protection as contained in Section 20 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) that stipulates as follows: “The State shall protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air and land, forest and wildlife of Nigeria.” Social Action observed that the response of the Jonathan administration to the UNEP report was the establishment of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in July 2012.  With respect to Shell, Social Action quoted the company as saying that its counterpart funding to the USD 1 billion Ogoni Restoration Fund had been reserved in an offshore account. In the absence of a legal framework and technical work-plan to be worked out by the Nigerian government, the clean-up exercise could not commence.

    Praises are due to President Buhari for the bold and clear commitment of the new administration to implement the UNEP report. The wide-ranging measures meant to accelerate the implementation of the UNEP report approved last Wednesday, 5 August 2015, by PMB included the amendment of the Official Gazette establishing the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) to reflect a new governance framework comprising a Governing Council, a Board of Trustees, and Project Management.

    The measures were based on the recommendations of the Executive Director of UNEP, the UNEP Special Representative for Ogoniland, Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministries of Environment and Petroleum Resources, and other stakeholders.

    The president appointed a HYPREP Governing Council and a Board of Trustees for the HYPREP Trust Fund to collect and manage funds from contributors and donors towards the clean-up effort. He also approved an initial contribution of $10 million to the fund.

    Though, government is a continuum, it is instructive that a Nigerian president of non-Niger Delta origin is now the one who has taken the focused approach required to pull the region back from the brink of oil-instigated ecological disaster. Buhari’s decision to prioritise implementation of the UNEP report on Ogoniland speaks volumes for his determination to make the lives of people in the Niger Delta better. It is a strong statement that those who have tried to impute anti-Niger Delta sentiments to the coming of Buhari have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick. It is appropriate to also thank Timipre Sylva, Rotimi Amaechi and others from the Niger Delta for standing solidly with Buhari, against all odds, in the 2015 Presidential Election.

    In responding to the UNEP report on the Ogoni, PMB has just taken a step in a long journey towards resolving the Niger Delta question. As a matter of fact, there are a few issues yet to be sorted out before the commencement of the clean-up exercise. These include issues of representation in the proposed structures; appropriate name of the agency to drive the process, and the scope of the project.

    My take is that with the acceptance of the demand to set up a public trust to manage project funds, every other grey matter can be sorted out through dialogue and engagement. Significantly, the ecological think-tank, Home of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has drawn attention to the misnaming of the body to undertake the clean-up. “Certainly, government does not wish to ‘restore pollution’ as the name Hydrocarbons Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) suggests. The object is to remediate the environment, not to restore pollution,” HOMEF noted. My suggestion is that government should retain Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority as recommended by UNEP, to start with.

    Similarly, I fully endorse calls for the Nigerian government to commission an assessment of the whole Niger Delta environment.

    The Ogoni environmental problem mirrors the global ecological crisis faced by the peoples of the Niger Delta. It echoes the vast economic catastrophe wreaked in the Niger Delta by the destruction of livelihoods in the service of the oil and gas industry.

    Central to the Niger Delta question is the destruction of the people’s environment and means of livelihood by oil and gas activities, expropriation of the region’s mineral resources, unemployment, and shortage of infrastructure.

    Answers to the Niger Delta question have been captured in various reports on the region. But common to the reports are a clean-up of the Niger Delta environment by government and the oil companies that do business there; a firm resolve by the authorities to ensure that the extractive sector in the region conducts its activities in line with international best standards; employment creation through integration of the local economy with the oil economy and a conscious effort to change the culture of enclave development whereby lavish facilities that house and service the oil economy exist side-by-side run down communities; and establishment of institutions primarily dedicated to facilitating development in the region.

    Buhari has launched a strategic attempt at change in the Niger Delta. It behoves us to support the move to bring the region to the expected end of environmental and economic restoration that the people and, indeed, Nigeria badly needs.

    • Mr. Doifie Buokoribo is a media and political strategist, development consultant, social and political activist. He can be reached on:  Email: doifieo@yahoo.com; Twitter: @doifiebuokoribo

  • Almajiri: PMB please end this evil

    SIR: Destitute Children roaming the streets in Northern Nigeria are almost becoming a normal feature. The children commonly referred to as “Almajiri” derived from the Arabic word Al-Mahaajirun, which literally means, a learned scholar who propagates the peaceful message of Islam. Almajiri system has since outlived its purpose and has become a breeding ground for child begging and potential terrorist camps. The pupils who were meant to be trained to emerge as Islamic Scholars have now had to struggle to cater for themselves through begging rather than learning under the watch and supervision of the semi-illiterate Quranic teachers or Mallams who themselves lacked the requisite financial and moral support and use the system as a means of living rather than a way of life.

    Deprived of a normal descent upbringing, Almajiri children who are usually little boys, are the direct product and consequence of polygamy, broken homes and lack of adequate family planning by a large chunk of northerners who sees family planning as against their religion and culture. Almajiri children grow up in the streets without the love, care and guidance of his parents; His struggle for survival exposes him to rape (homosexuality and pedophilia), used as a slave, brainwashed and used for destructive and violent activities. These aptly capture and describe the pitiful plight of an Almajiri child in Northern Nigeria.

    Because the Almajiri system is believed to be rooted and founded in Islamic religion and Hausa Fulani cultural practices, many attempts to  reverse the trend or put an end to the abuse to humanity had always hit a brick wall. The fact that Islamic teachings strongly forbids begging, except in very special circumstances which includes; a man’s loss of properties in a disaster, or when a man has loaned much of his money for the common good, such as bringing peace between two warring parties, already proves that Almajiri system as it is being practiced today is completely unislamic. The Almajiri child is totally neglected by his parents, highly vulnerable to diseases and social crimes.

    The Almajiri system of education has deviated from its original motive and is giving this country a bad image in the eyes of the international community. Even though the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan designed a programme under which a few Almajiri model boarding schools were commissioned, the federal government’s intervention which is aimed at integrating conventional western education with Islamic education only turned out to be merely “taking out a spoon-full of water from a tank filled with water” as it wasn’t enough to properly address the problem. Only less than 2% of the children were captured by the federal government’s intervention programme which was meant to remove the Almajiri child off the streets.

    Unless the Almajiri system is banned or adequately reformed to meet the present economic challenges and realities, the problems of underdevelopment, educational backwardness and mass poverty in Northern Nigeria would continue to go from bad to worse. People continue to bear children they do not have the resources to cater for, just because they could easily push such children out on Almajiri. Until this barbaric and inhumane system of modern slavery is outlawed and banned, families wouldn’t stop to produce children outside their income and meager resources. The deliberate breach of the fundamental human right of these young ones calls for urgent concern and the neglect and levity and lack of commitment to the pitiful plight of these minors is unfortunate. As it is presently, Almajiri represents everything that is evil; it is the face of poverty and it is anti-Islam. This is time for President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently put measures in motion which will see to the banishment or reform the Almajiri system in order to save this country of this humanitarian crisis which has given north a bad image for so long.

     

    • Hussain Obaro,

    Ilorin, Kwara State.

  • Restructuring the presidency and the nation

    Restructuring the presidency and the nation

    THERE is every good reason to believe that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) means business and is serious about restructuring government agencies for better outcome. The latest evidence is his declaration in far away Washington, DC, the capital of the industrial world last week. To the disappointment of political jobbers but to the pleasure of genuine change enthusiasts, Buhari announced that he will not appoint ministers until he has put in place good structures to prevent the kind of rot that he is trying very hard to clear. Who can quarrel with that?

    As President-elect, Buhari had set up the Ahmed Joda Transition Committee to work with former President Jonathan’s team. The Joda Committee received the 18,000 page report of the Anyim Federal Government Committee on May 25th.  It worked hard to make sense of the report and make its recommendations which it submitted in an 800-page report to President Buhari shortly after the inauguration of the new administration.

    It is significant to note that when he submitted his committee’s report, Joda had urged the nation to be patient with the president as he mulled over the report to determine what was best for his administration and for the country. He noted unambiguously that the transition from one political party to another was not an ordinary one and that the President needed time to digest the report and do the best.

    As a deliberative leader, who understood the historical significance of his election and who took his mandate seriously, Buhari decided to take his time to study the report before moving on with any appointments. This is reasonable especially in view of the disclosure by Chairman Joda that due to time constraint, his committee wasn’t able to interview and seek clarifications from former ministers and government operatives on their hand-over notes which were received only four days to the May 29 inauguration.

    In the circumstance, Buhari and his team had to carefully sort issues out on their own. In view of that situation, is it reasonable for the president to start with ministerial appointments? It makes perfect sense to see clearly where the nation is, align its present condition with the destination PMB wants to lead it; and on the basis of these appoint individuals who will be round pegs in round holes.

    In a media interview that he granted after the submission of his committee’s report, Malam Joda observed that Buhari cannot afford to make the kind of mistakes that previous administrations made. He made particular reference to the military era when security reports on prospective appointees were not considered before appointments were announced only for such appointments to be rescinded shortly after they were announced.

    Joda noted further that since Buhari had made up his mind that he was going to have perfect people work with him, every prospective nominee had to be scrutinised well to avoid past mistakes. This explains the need for time and the presidential declaration in Washington, DC. Patience is counseled.

    Beside appointments, the other major issue in Joda’s report is the recommendation for the restructuring of the executive branch. From media reports, it appears that the committee had recommended a maximum of 36 ministers to satisfy constitutional requirement and cover the restructured ministries. If the President accepts the recommendation, he will have started on a good and promising note. From the leaks concerning the ministries and agencies recommended for merger, the committee has rendered a good account of its stewardship. The ball is in the court of the president.

    By the same token, however, with the courageous restructuring of the executive branch, other extant structures cannot be kept in place to avoid pouring new wine into an old bottle.

    First, there is a crying need for the restructuring of the legislative branch and its budget. This has been a sore finger in the body politic and the growing pain can be allowed to linger only at the expense of our national comfort.   Some defenders of the indefensible have argued that among other necessities, each NASS member must have at least 5 aides. But they have not provided any reasonable justification for such wastage.  Sure some private professionals do need aides to care for the house, cook their meals, and carry their portfolios and handbags. But do they charge these to company accounts?

    Second, state governments certainly need restructuring in the face of the obviously unsustainable cost of governance. It is unfortunate that states now depend on federal bail out to pay staff. I am sure that the situation is not totally due to gubernatorial incompetence or profligacy. Most of them inherit huge bureaucracies that put a drag on capital development. The question is whether a few must determine the pace of government investment in infrastructure? Sure every governor needs a rethink of large cabinet for far too many ministries. If PMB takes the lead, states must follow.

    Finally, the nation as a constituency has the most need as far as restructuring is concerned. Unfortunately, this is also the space where the most challenge is. Are members of the president’s party on the same page? Is he able to summon the political courage to challenge his party to take the high road?

    For far too long, at least since 1966, the federal government has grabbed too many functions, with far little success, and a monumental failure in the matter of satisfying the yearnings of the people, which is the sine qua non of governance. We have been getting the same failing results for almost fifty years and we still keep doing the same thing. That is insanity and we need to come back to our national sense.

    In the case of those functions such as citizenship and immigration matters, including the issuance of international passports, which are rightly assigned to the federal government, we err grievously in the over- centralisation of such functions. A passport holder had her name incorrectly written on her passport by Immigration agents. But she was told that the correction cannot be made in Lagos where the mistake occurred. She had to go to Abuja to have the mistake corrected. This makes no sense.

    In every aspect of our national life, we embrace our ethnic nationalities. We protect and promote our diverse cultures, and we respect and seek to conserve our various traditions. What is even embarrassing is that ethnics protect their own kin no matter the depth of corrupt practices they are identified with.

    To succeed, however, genuine and justifiable ethno-national interests need a governance structure that is truly federal. With such a structure, each ethnic nationality can do the most for itself in terms of promoting its cultural traditions and giving the best education to its residents. This is done effectively only by making states and zones the loci of some of the most important functions of government.

    It is true that many states lack the viability needed for success and zonal collaboration becomes essential to generate adequate internal revenue so the dependency on the center is eliminated. Fortunately, it now appears that we have moved away from treating geo-political zones as no-go areas which was where we were during the National Conference. Some had argued then that zones have no place in the constitution and therefore none in governance.

    Speaker Dogara has perhaps inadvertently legitimised zones with his recommendation for the sharing of House principal offices among the six zones as a requirement of Federal Character. We should now expect zones to feature more effectively in our discourse on restructuring. This is an unintended consequence of the embarrassing NASS leadership crisis.

  • PMB: Save our investment in cement sector

    SIR: Our hearts bleed as we make this passionate appeal to you as father of the nation, our last hope in this lingering callous and inhuman matter of life and death.

    We are a group of new entrant Investors in the cement sector, licensed by the Federal Government under the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua to import, package, grind and produce cement locally in a backward integration policy programme effective 2008.

    Our sin is that we answered government clarion call after a rigorous pre-qualification exercise to help reduce cement prices which went as high as two thousand, two hundred naira (=N=2,200). To sustain this policy and widen the investment space in this sector, government set up a program to be followed.

    But as soon as we commenced importation and the building of local plants which coincided with the death of President Yar’Adua, an industrial giant in the sector petitioned the Federal Government and the licences were IMMEDIATELY withdrawn, and the programme stopped, occasioning untold economic hardship and default in various local and international contracts.

    It may be of serious concern to you, dear President, to note that over 10 vessels already laden with cement at high sea under the licence were not allowed to berth. This episode marked the saddest point in our business lives, as all efforts to allow these vessels berth were rebuffed.  Suffice it to state that all our members had met Federal Government requirement on backward integration policy under late President Yar’Adua. But all these were jettisoned under former President Jonathan with impunity in favour of few individuals.

    Based on the capital intensive nature of cement business, we borrowed heavily in billions from local and foreign banks to meet our patriotic duty to our country. But, unfortunately, the cement so imported were callously not allowed to come into this country by fiat, including those awaiting discharge at the ports.  Based on this unbelievable act by the past government and their cohorts, our businesses, families, integrity, banks and the economy had been ruined as we cannot repay our loans, sustain our employees and redeem our collateral which had been seized by banks and AMCON. All attempt to get Federal Government intervention or bailout has met brick walls as the past government was an accomplice in this “Man’s inhumanity to man”.

    Our members have been in various courts seeking redress for losses ranging from N5Billion – N17Billion as damages.

    Since our participation was on the invitation of the Federal Government who mindlessly ruined our lives and business with impunity, our prayer are that – an approval to be paid damages and cost of products to enable us meet our obligation to local and foreign creditors and resume production; that government approves intervention fund of N20 billion for all the affected companies to revive their factories, generate employment, make cement available and affordable.

    • Chief Reagan Ufomba

    National Secretary,

    Cement Producers Association of Nigeria – CEPAN

  • PMB should be President for all

    SIR: There is no denying the fact that the Igbo in a swoop voted for former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last presidential election.  However, one sees no error in that calculation as politics is a game of interest.  Just as equally the Hausa-Fulani voted massively for the victory of President Muhammadu  Buhari.  Democratic tenets tend to lean towards a zero sum game.  The winner should ideally wipe the slate clean of the election result and lead the populace with fairness.  Failure to do that is myopic and could construe the leader as a bigot.

    Even former President Jonathan with all his leadership flops knew that it was politically expedient to appease those who did not vote for him.  Hence, he spent a lot of political capital attempting to woo the North to his support.  Though, one may have to question his judgment.   The North accused him of taking their mandate.

    The poet said that love may be blind but the world could see.  President Buhari may be earnest in his desire to change the country but his decisions, so far, are not inclusive of the whole nation.  His choice of chief security officers does not reflect the picture of the political zones.  Without any intention to preempt the president’s political direction, his exclusion of the Igbo in such pivotal appointment is so glaring to be ignored.

    But one is grateful for Nigeria’s political landscape.  A policy initiative that is not balanced is bound to have repercussions.  The ethno-religious structure of the country necessitates diligence in winning the support of more than one of the three major groups.  A wise leader will position himself, at best, to be acceptable to the nation and by political expediency, to have the support of two of the major groups.  He runs the risk of not having an effective administration, talk less of winning a re-election, if he neglects the significance of regional factors.

    The clarity in President Buhari’s government is impressive.  Any lover of progress of the country will do well to be patient for his policies to mature.  Though some of his earlier supporters may be shifting uncomfortably in their position because what they are seeing is not what they expected, the end will justify the means.  I believe some segments of the economy will have to sacrifice as a result of some of his policies for the growth of the nation.

    The president’s party should extend their wings to cover the country.  You do not succeed as a ruling party by showing your inability to overcome your antipathy over electorates who do not favor you during the election.  The dynamics of Nigerian politics is very fickle.  Your political enemy today could be your best associate tomorrow.  Good leadership is making your opponent respect you.

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.