Tag: prayers

In 1983, the Nigerian military after a disastrous federal elections marred by flagrant rigging took over power and chose the then Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as head of state. He issued a quotable statement that we have no other country than Nigeria and that emigrating was not an option for young Nigerians and that we were going to stay in our country and solve our country’s problems together. History seems to be repeating itself bearing out George Santayana’s dictum that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The same Buhari is faced with how to get Nigeria out of its economic quagmire caused by mismanagement of national resources, stealing, squander mania and collapse of the international price of hydrocarbons on which Nigeria’s economy has unfortunately depended over these years. The first administration of Buhari ably supported by Major-General Tunde Idiagbon dealt harshly with those who were found guilty of financial roguery as any military regime would have done. Those who were accused were dealt with through the legal system and no special military tribunals were set up. Revisionist historians and commentators sometimes give the impression that the military government of that time operated without following the law. It was only in the case of drug smuggling that some two young men were made to face the death penalty by the wrong application of a decree that was made retroactive. The other dark spot of that regime was the law of sedition that made publication of government secrets punishable by imprisonment. His Attorney General, the Distinguished and reputable Onitsha lawyer, Chike  Offordile  ensured that necessary decrees were crafted to deal with terrible moral and financial turpitude of those days. Ganiyu  Fawehinmi who cannot be said to be a military apologist supported the steps taken by that regime to whip us Nigerians into path of discipline and rectitude.

I am recalling those days to compare with today when the president seems to be taking his time to avoid repeating any mistake of those days. We of course do not have the luxury of time. We are a rather impatient country and rightly so. We have waited for good governance for too long and now that it seems we may have one we are rightly and justifiably in a hurry to see the dividends of good governance.

The president himself told the BBC in a recent interview that when a fish is rotten from the head, it affects the entire body of the fish meaning that since he is not corrupt he would prevent others from being corrupt. It is not going to be like a previous regime that says stealing is not corruption implying that stealing is tolerable! This is the first time we are having a regime since independence that sees a nexus between underdevelopment and corruption. There is enough in this country to take care of our needs and not our wants and our greed. There is a commitment on the part of the executive for good governance and transparency. Perhaps its example will resonate with the legislative and the judicial branches of government across the country. Sometimes we neglect to focus on the corruption in the judiciary because  of the arcane nature of the institution. A corrupt judiciary is in fact more dangerous to the welfare of the state than corruption in the other two branches of government.  This is because of the finality of judicial pronouncement. After the Supreme Court has decided, there is no other body that can countermand that decision. This is why we say the courts are the final saviour and arbiter for the common man. If we can curb corruption in all the branches of government, then we can breathe a sigh of relief and hope for good things to come the way of our country.

If there is minimal corruption then prudent management of national resources will automatically follow. Questions of misappropriation, misapplication and misuse of resources will be reduced to minimum. Funds meant for the military will not be given to politicians. Loans secured for railway modernization will not be diverted to politicians as happened in the last regime and any one caught doing the wrong thing will be dealt with according to law. Judges will not be bought to deliver judgement according to the illegal deposits in their banks and paid holidays for them and their families by criminals. There was a case of  corruption involving a former governor who was facing 40 allegations before a so called learned judge . He promptly threw out all the charges and pronounced the former governor innocent. This same governor was seized by INTERPOL at the request of Britain to face same charges in London. He was not only convicted, his lawyer, wife and two girl friends are serving term with him in Her Majesty’s prison. This reminds me what a friend told me in Lagos some years ago that if he had a case in court rather than hire lawyers, he would take the money for lawyers to purchase judgment in the judge’s chamber! While trying to uproot corruption from state institutions, we must not lose sight of the judiciary.

The economic situation will present the greatest challenge to this regime. I sometimes get angry when I hear apparently educated people blaming this government for the falling value of the naira vis-à-vis foreign currencies. It is simple arithmetic. Crude oil on which we are hopelessly dependent has fallen from a high of 140 dollars a barrel to 36 dollars and it is still going down. This has led to a diminution of foreign money accruable into our foreign reserves with the consequence of more naira in hands than dollar reserves. To strengthen the naira, we have either to export more produce apart from hydrocarbons or drastically reduce imports. There is no magic in this. If you bring a professor of economics from Harvard or the World Bank, he or she would not perform any magic. So the way forward is to find other sources of revenue apart from oil. We can increase taxes and also the efficiency of tax collection. The easy one is to increase Value Added Tax which is tax on consumption which will largely fall on the elite. But everybody must be made to pay taxes no matter how small. This is the way to make the people feel they own the government. They will therefore be more vigilant in protecting government property and calling to order those who think government property belongs to nobody. All these measures are for home consumption. A strong government at home will be respected abroad. This is where in comes in the exploitation of our relations with the outside world.

This government must use its contact through membership in OPEC to prevail on its Arab members not to flood the world oil market with overproduction of crude. It is not in anybody’s interest. Non OPEC countries like Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Russia and some of the countries in the Caucasus must be made to realize that the collapse of the oil economy globally will not be in the interest of all. If the world goes into another recession so soon after eight years of the last recession, we will all suffer. It will be a difficult sell but we should try by asking for an extra ordinary meeting of OPEC to discuss a coordinated rescue plan for the global oil market. But charity must begin at home. We should put all efforts to engender a disconnect from dependency on oil, find other sources of income from agriculture, light manufacturing, efficient tax regime and exploitation of solid minerals. We are not the worst hit of all OPEC countries. We can grow all we need to feed ourselves and to export. We therefore need not be desperate.

These are difficult times. We need not deny it. Financing our budget through borrowing is not as strange as some economic illiterates who have been criticizing the government would make us believe. Japan has the highest rate of borrowing in the world at 356 percent of its GDP and nobody is wailing that the country would soon go under. The USA is a close second in the rate of borrowing. As long as borrowing is not for consumption, the country can grow its economy out of this short-term debt. Those who are shouting about deficit budget are the same people who brought us to our financial knees.

Whatever government is going to do or is already doing cannot be achieved without hard work. Our people must be told that they have to work hard and there is no more free lunch anywhere anymore. They have to be carried along. Many toes would have to be stepped upon physically and figuratively. Because of this the enemies of Nigeria both at home and abroad would like to destabilize the country or even overthrow this government through fanning of the ember of religious and ethnic fanaticism and division. Eternal vigilance and survival is the first law of nature. While government must follow the rule of law generally, it must not lower its guard and allow its enemies to deal a mortal blow to it.