The Nation Newspaper

Tag: President Goodluck Jonathan

  • Jonathan’s sudden search for Christ: A political gimmicks?

    Jonathan’s sudden search for Christ: A political gimmicks?

    We have read in the Holy Book about weaklings defeating the mighty, the great kingdoms built on God’s laws and principles surviving at the times of hardships such as flood, drought and pestilence and we have heard and seen healings and miraculous deeds by the ordained men of God globally. These signs are true enough for every person and nation to want to embark on a journey, no matter the distance and kilometer, in search for God as our incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has done.

    The Nigerian President remains a man after God’s own heart! He is still a man revered by me for his leadership style and intelligence which have projected Nigeria as a country whose governance style is worth emulating by other countries of the world!

    President Jonathan has since his assumption of office as the Vice President to the late former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory and later, as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2011, been a role model to someone like me and these breakthroughs were indications that everyone has the potential to become what they desire to become in life if they can hang onto God as our President is doing right now!

    I respect the God that the Nigerian President serve because He is the only one who can uplift someone that had ‘no shoes’ to become a giver of shoes and President of Nigeria, a country of over 170 million people! President Jonathan is today the number one citizen and this has only been through God and God alone. So, why would President Jonathan not go to, Jerusalem, Israel?

    Jerusalem is the world’s most holy land for the Christians, just as Mecca is for the Muslims. Jerusalem is a strong city in Israel and has hardly been defeated by other countries in war for many centuries according to History. God is believed to reside in Jerusalem and willing to answer anybody that visits and seeks His help either in times of trials and challenges. It must have been this God that our well-meaning President has gone to seek in order to deliver Nigeria from drowning: at least during his regime or tenure. Jerusalem is a peaceful land and all peace lovers yearn to experience this land. I am glad that the President is volunteering in the collective interests of all Nigerians!

    However, this sudden search for the eyes of God in Jerusalem can generate national suspicion or make one to want to ask questions such as: why did the President decide to visit Jerusalem for Prayer at this time? Is it truly for the sake of delivering Nigeria of all its challenges or for the fulfillment of a personal goal or ambition?

    The problems faced by Nigeria did not just begin; they had been with the country for several decades and have outlived both the military and civilian regimes the country had experienced since independence in 1960. The plights of Nigeria were glaring during the time President Jonathan was Vice to late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua and after the death of Yar’ Adua in May, 2010, and Jonathan became interim President of the country, these problems were still with us and things were even getting worse, with no effort made to prevent the country from sinking!

    In 2011, the election that confirmed President Jonathan as a full President of Nigeria was conducted and the consequence of this victory was the incessant shedding of blood; the massive killing of the serving innocent youth corps members in the Northern part of the country, a scenario which I was a survivor of. Not long after this subsided, the country began to experience on a very large scale the incessant killing of worshippers including the Christmas Day and the setting of fires on properties which people had toiled for decades to acquire by the mysterious insurgency- Boko Haram- in the Northern part of the country.

    In addition, while these incidences that have made the world to perceive Nigeria as an abode for terrorists continued, the killing of four promising young men by the people of Aluu community in River State, Port Harcourt, was staged: these young men were set on fire and burnt to ashes by fellow Nigerians and we hear nothing about the murderers. About months after that, a village called Baga, Borno State, was burnt to ashes (about 2000 houses were destroyed) and close to 187 people were killed during the clash between the President’s deployed Joint Task Force and the Boko Haram insurgency. And between 2011 and 2013, there had been series of protests over price increment or subsidy removal and currently Nigerian Universities have been shut down indefinitely for over four months now because of the Federal Government’s alleged refusal to pay the agreed salaries of the Universities lecturers. The rate of youth’s unemployment has increased geometrically from what it was and many more precarious events had hit the country under the eye of our President. Hence, while all these were happening, where was Mr. President? Why did the Mr. President not travel to Israel to pray for Nigeria during these most challenging times and periods in the political history of Nigeria? Why now?

    It will be biased to state categorically that the President’s journey to Israel is devoid of his genuine intention to save Nigeria, however, there might be more to this. Though time will tell whether President Jonathan is nurturing the ambition to run for second term in 2015 or will vacate the office after this tenure, his sudden search for the God of Israel in 2013: the Israel that existed several years since his assumption of office but refused to visit, says a lot about the President’s hidden agenda and serves as an indication that the President’s trip to Israel is a mere political ploy or propaganda to win, once more, the loyalty of poor Nigerian masses to support his hidden 2015 political ambition.

    Therefore, if we continue to wait for President Jonathan’s return from Israel to lay his anointed hands on us, the God of Israel might jeer at us all! Nigeria needs freshest air!

     

    Bello writes from Switzerland and can be contacted through; taiwoola83@yahoo.com.

  • Jonathan condoles with family

    Jonathan condoles with family

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday condoled with the wife, children and relatives of the former Chief of General Staff (CGS), Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd.), who died on Monday in the United States.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President also commiserated with officers and men of the Nigerian Navy, the government and people of his home state, Edo, on the demise.

    He described the late Akhigbe as a courageous officer, who served the nation to the best of his God-given abilities in the Nigerian Navy.

    Jonathan mourned with the late Akhigbe’s family, colleagues and subordinates in the Nigerian Navy, friends, associates and all who knew him.

    The President noted that even in death, Akhigbe would forever live in the hearts of those he touched positively during his career in military commands and other offices he held as a military officer.

    Akhigbe, he said, would be especially remembered and honoured by present and future generations for serving with distinction as the military governor of Lagos and Ondo states and as the CGS in the military government which helped in the birth of the present democratic dispensation in Nigeria.

    The President also said the late Akhigbe began the “re-professionalisation of the Armed Forces after decades of involvement in politics”.

    Jonathan prayed God to comfort all who mourn the late Akhigbe and grant his soul eternal rest.

  • Jonathan to present 2014 budget, November 12

    Jonathan to present 2014 budget, November 12

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday wrote the Senate seeking for approval to present the 2014 Appropriation Bill to the joint session of the National Assembly on November 12, 2013.

    The President presented the 2013 budget of N4.9 trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly on October 10th 2012.

    Jonathan in a letter titled “2014 budget” dated October 23, 2013 requested the lawmakers to grant him Tuesday 12th November to enable him formally present the 2014 budget.

    The letter read in part, “I write to crave your indulgence to grant me the slot of 12 noon on Tuesday, 12th November 2013 to enable me formally address a joint session of the National Assembly on the 2014 budget.”

    Senate President, David Mark, read the Presidential letter on the floor of the upper chamber yesterday.

    Some Senators noted however that the Senate could only grant the 12 November date for the presentation of the budget if the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) is adopted and passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly.

  • Endless committees, no white paper

    Endless committees, no white paper

    Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines the committees set up by President Goodluck Jonathan to study many problems confronting the country and the implication of dumping their reports into the waste bin.

    Nigerians are sceptical about President Goodluck Jonathan’s proposed National Conference. They hinge their suspicion on the inconsistencies and the ad-hoc approach of his administration to sensitive issues. The government has set up many committees to study critical national problems. But it developed cold feet in implementing the reports.

    As the Acting President in 2010, Dr Jonathan set up a 26-member Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) headed by Gen. Theophilius Danjuma to advise on policy issues. PAC, in its report, urged him to reduce the size of government so that money can be saved for the development of the infrastructure.

    The committee’s recommendation was ignored by the President, who initially, created the impression that he was averse to bloated and wasteful government. The number of committees/task forces that have, so far, been set up calls to question the sincerity of the administration to genuinely cut down the cost of governance.

    Observers contend that, rather than conserve resources and plug all the loopholes in the system, the government is opening up more leakages that are bound to impact negatively on the polity and the economy. It has piled up over 20 extra-ministerial committees, in addition to the huge number of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

    The plethora of committees and task forces, whose reports are gathering dust in the cabinet include the Police Reform Committee, Presidential Advisory Committee on Constitution Amendment, the Ibrahim Bunu Project Assessment Committee, Restructuring of Government Agencies Committee, Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission and Pension Fund Reform Task Team. Others are Task Force on Management control within Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Committee on Transparency in oil sector, Committee to Monitor Oil Export, Presidential Committee on Road Infrastructure, Food Fund Raising Committee, Committee for Abuja Park and Zoo and Presidential Committee on Security Challenges and Amnesty for Boko Haram insurgents.

     

    Will conference report be

    implemented?

     

    The fear of many Nigerians is that the report of the Committee on National Conference and the recommendations of the National Conference may end in the waste bin.

    The Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Committee (TMG), Mr Moshood Erubami, said the motive of President Jonathan in organising the national conference has failed because it was not well intentioned.

    Erubami said: “The National Conference is not well intentioned. Planning conference now when the general election is due in 2015 is a master stroke for tenure elongation. It will take the planning committee, at least, three months to conclude its preparation and turn in its report. This government, known for its tardiness in implementing reports, may take another two or three months to come out with its position on the committee’s recommendations.

    “The deliberation in the National Conference itself may take another six months. If there are issues of sharp disagreement among delegates, the conference will be deadlocked as it happened when the Obasanjo regime organised a constitutional conference. By the time you know what is happening, it will be too late to organise 2015 elections.

     

    Strategy for tenure elongation

     

    “We won’t have time to arrange for election. The President will now decide when to hold election. They are using the national conference as a shield against 2015 because they know Nigerians are fed up with the lacklustre performance of this administration.

    “National Conference is the brain work of the political strategists in the Presidency. They believe it will be stalemated and that will make it impossible for election to hold in 2015 so that the President’s party will have more time to put its house in order.”

    The President, according to Erubami has exposed his diabolical intension by saying that he will send the conference report to the National Assembly for approval. The final authority on the outcome of the conference is the people, who will through a referendum accept or reject the report, he said.

    “If the National Assembly is doing well, there will be no need of national conference. The National Assembly is a conference on its own that ought to give us a new constitution.”

    Erubami said the conference will not hold and it will not serve the interest of the people. Nothing positive will come out of the conference and that is why people like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu described it as a distration, he said.

     

    Diversionary tactics

     

    Civil rights activist Shehu Sani shared Erubami. He said that the proposed national conference will produce reports that will not see the light of the day.

    Sani said: “It will amount to self deception for anyone to think that Jonathan’s government will embrace and implement critical views of Nigerians from the conference, given his failure to tolerate dissenting views within his party-the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    He added: “The national conference is another diversionary circus aimed at setting the North against the South in a war of words that will only overheat the polity. It is blackmail and a mischievous political chess game meant to hang the fate of the nation on the continuity of the Jonathan regime.

    “It is technically impossible to organise a meaningful and orderly conference at a time when the President, members of the National Assembly and governors are out on re-election campaigns. Thus, it will be a waste of time and resources on the part of those who will take the pain to write and submit their volumes of memoranda to the conference.

    “This government, like its predecessor, has not implemented any committee report and undoubtedly, this conference will meet its fate of dust. The conference will only be embraced and attended by people who have enough time to waste and government protégées.”

    The Director-General, Electoral Institute of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Abubakar Momoh, faulted the appointment of the planning committee by the President. It is a misnomer, he said.

     

    Faulty composition

     

    Momoh said what is is on the ground is the Presidential National Conference and not people-driven conference. According to him, the President has set the tone of the conference report because the committee put in place by him would ensure that the report reflects his thinking.

    “By setting up the committee, the President has pre-determined the outcome of the report. We should not expect a report that would re-shape the country from a national conference holding at the initiative of the President.

    “The President assumed that the national conference is the prerogative of his office, hence, we should expect that the outcome will reflect the thinking of the Presidency, Momoh added.

    Erubami examined the composition of the Okunrounmu committee and concluded that it is made up of PDP members, the Afenifere and The Patriots who are sympathisers of the Jonathan administration. The Afenifere, according to him, has lost political influence in its regional base, the Southwest. Afenifere is now seeking relevance, in view of the fact that the emergence of the new political party, All Progressive Congress (APC), has drowned its image . Hence, it has become an unrepentant supporter of the Jonathan administration.

     

    History repeating itself

     

    A lawyer, Emeka Ngige, said nothing would come out of the national conference or dialogue because the composition of the planning committee were made up of the President’s party men or political allies. The terms of reference were tailored to serve the President’s interest.

    Ngige said history is repeating itself. He recalled how former President Olusegun Obasanjo organised a constitutional conference headed by Justice Nikki Tobi, which was intended to legitimise his third term bid. The conference collapsed when the Northern delegates pulled out. Jonathan may be playing out similar script, he said.

     

    Pre-determined conference

    report

     

    Analysts say the report of the committee is easy to predict, going by its terms of reference. According to observers, the agenda for the proposed conference will reflect the president’s interest and his party while the delegates will be made up largely by government appointees. Despite the fact that one of the committee’s term of reference was to advise government on the legal procedure and options for integrating the decisions of the national conference, President Jonathan has pulled the carpet off the feet of the committee, when he said unequivocally that the conference report would be referred to the National Assembly for ratification and incorporation into the constitution.

    A social critic, Bernard Briggs, said the setting up of the Okurounmu committee was faulty. “I am yet to understand the rationale for the numerous committees that are springing up every day at a time the Jonathan-led government should be thinking about running a slim government and save for the country.”

     

    Job for cronies

     

    Briggs was furious with the composition of the committee which, he said, is made up of the President’s men. For instance, he said, Tony Uranta is Jonathan’s friend, Dr Mairo Ahmed Amshi is a PDP stalwart from Yobe State, Alhaji Daiuda Birma is Bamanga’s childhood friend, Dr Akilu Indabawa was former PDP National Youth Leader, Dr Femi Okurounmu is an ally of President Jonathan while Col. Tony Anyiam is a pro-Jonathan campaigner.

    “What kind of report do we expect from this President’s foot soldiers? The conference foundation is built on sand. We don’t need a soothsayer to tell us that it will collapse. President Jonathan is using the issue of national conference to divert the attention of Nigerians from 2015 general elections. He and his party-PDP-will fail just like his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo failed in his tenure elongation bid.

    “The committee is not coming out with anything spectacular. The Presidency has drawn up issues to be discussed by the delegates at the conference. The delegates list is a foregone conclusion. The contraption is deliberate. It is intended to cause more confusion and over heat the polity as issues to be discussed are likely to divide the delegates and the conference will end abruptly, Briggs added.

     

    Legitimacy crisis

     

    Momoh’s main concerns are the issues to be discussed, the quality of delegates and the outcome. If people are not going to make in-puts in reshaping the country, I don’t think there is anything to expect from such gathering, he said,

    “If you don’t invite the right persons, if the real issues are not deliberated upon, then we are wasting time on trivialities. The quality of discussion and the outcome are very important. If the outcome failed to address the issues that will reshape the nation, the whole exercise is diversionary and a waste of time and resources”, he concluded.

    Briggs said the planning committee may likely remain in office after submitting its report in order to guide the conference delegates in their assignment.

    According to him, the planning committee will set up its own office or operational base and recruit ad-hoc staff that will also draw some remuneration. The committee and delegates will procure vehicles for mobility and also enjoy some allowances amongst other financial considerations.

  • Jonathan’s national conference and the true believers

    Jonathan’s national conference and the true believers

    Permit me to begin this contribution with the words of Senator Femi Okorounmu who is the Chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on the National Conference. In the February 12th edition of the National Mirror Newspaper, he said the following about President Goodluck Jonathan-

    “Jonathan has betrayed the goodwill of the Yoruba. The man doesn’t seem to have a clue about anything. First, he has no clue about governance- it appears as if he does not even have any slightest idea of what he wants to do. He never thought of becoming President and what he would do as President. He was just talking of transformation and I don’t even think he knows the meaning of transformation. The man is just being pushed around everywhere and to anywhere. The only thing he understands is that he wants to make money and he is making a lot of it. And because he wants to make money, he cannot tell people not to make money when they are making their own. So a lot of people around him are making money and he cannot do anything.”

    This is quite an indictment and more so these words were spoken only seven months ago. Okorounmu is a man of honour. Anyone that knows anything about the struggle for the emancipation of the nationalities, restructuring and self-determination in Nigeria can testify to the fact that he is not only a much-loved and deeply courageous man but he is also one of those that has dedicated his entire life and distinguished political career to the noble cause of creating a new Nigeria where regional autonomy is established and where power is devolved from the centre. One wonders what made this distinguished elderstatesman change his mind, put his reputation on the line and accept to chair a committee that was set up by the very same man that he dismissed with such contempt only a few months ago. Yet the truth is that people do change their minds about others from time to time and I am prepared to give Okorounmu the benefit of the doubt for doing so.

    Yet in this matter we must be candid. The truth must be told and that truth is as follows. If any serious-minded person thinks that a ‘’national conference’’ that is not ‘’sovereign’’ and whose recommendations are subject to the will and caprices of the President and the National Assembly can make any difference in our country or bring any meaningful change then they are living in cuckoo land. Besides which nothing good can come from Jonathan and his PDP. The whole thing is an attempt to divert attention from their own shortcomings and dwindling fortunes and to divide the ranks of the opposition.

    For the last 20 years some of us have been calling for a national conference but we have always insisted that the resolutions of that conference must be ’’sovereign’’ and binding on all, that it must comprise of representatives from every nationality in the country (no matter how big or small) and that it must have, as it’s first item on the agenda, whether Nigeria should remain as one and, if so, under what terms.

    Anything short of this is fake. It is nothing more than a palliative. It is a ‘’made in China’’ copy of the original. If you take the ‘’sovereign’’ out of the ‘’national conference’’ it is like taking the ham out of a ham sandwich. All you will have left is a talk shop whose recommendations will eventually be tossed into the dustbin by both the Federal Government and the National Assembly.

    The almighty Federal Government of Nigeria is not about to give up it’s awesome authority and ability to control literally everything and everyone in our country by allowing devolution of power from the centre, resource control, autonomy for the regions, derivation as a principle for revenue allocation, the right of every nationality to self-determination and to seceed from the federation, the confirmation of the secularity of the state, the confirmation of the rights of all religious, gender and ethnic minorities and all the other wholesome, progressive ideals that the true believers hold so dear.

    The PDP is simply incapable of delivering all these things and no PDP President, least of all one like Jonathan, would ever make such concessions. The PDP is a party of wily old dinosaurs and conservatives. When the time for a real conference comes it will not be by government fiat but as a consequence of a series of unpleasant, unforseeable and violent events that will compel us all to come to our senses, to come to the table and to once and for all sort out our differences or just go our separate ways. That is the bitter truth. It will never be given to us on a plate.

    Today, there are many within the corridors of power that have made their position clear and that have left no-one in any doubt about where they stand on this issue. One of them is Senator David Mark our amiable Senate President who recently said “I’ll crush the bid to add ‘sovereign’ to the National Conference’’. Many of us may disagree with Mark on this but at least he has the courage of his convictions and he is not one of those that relishes in double-speak and subtefuge. He has told us that he wants a conference but that he doesn’t want it to be ‘sovereign’. Good for him. My only prayer is that the Senate President himself doesn’t get ‘’crushed’’ in the process of trying to resist the ‘’sovereign’’ in the conference because when it’s time comes, no force on earth can successfully resist the people’s will, the forceful struggle for freedom and the right to self-determination.

    Permit me to end this contribution with the words of another man who was painfully honest about his intentions right from the start and who also had the courage of his convictions. In 2001, when pressed on the issue of the virtues of convening a sovereign national conference, President Olusegun Obasanjo said ‘’I cannot surrender the sovereignty that was given to me by the Nigerian people’’. Many of us found Obasanjo’s position on this issue unacceptable and downright repugnant. Yet one thing that we could not take from him was that he did not offer what he was not prepared to give. He went on to convene a national conference in 2005 but, like Jonathan’s one today, it was not sovereign and consequently it had little relevance or meaning. Many of us lampooned Obasanjo for outrightly rejecting the idea of a sovereign national confrence at the time and on March 18th 2001, I wrote the following words in a scathing essay for the Comet Newspaper (which later transmuted into The Nation) titled ‘’President Olusegun Obasanjo, The National Question And The Imperatives Of A Sovereign National Conference’’. I wrote-

    ‘’As a direct consequence of the gradual degeneration of the Nigerian state, the passionate campaign and vigorous agitation for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) is once again steadily gathering momentum. For even though we have a “democratically” elected government in power today, the fact remains that the, “National Question” is yet to be answered. And until we have searched our souls and settled some outstanding fundamental issues that still exist among our varous nationalities, until the brutal role of internal  colonialism has been completely and irrevocably shattered, Nigeria cannot possibly prosper and neither can she achieve her full potentials. This is because there can be little doubt that the many problems that this country faces cannot be solved simply by the establishment of democracy, the provision of good government and the equitable distribution of ministerial portfolios.

    There is far more to it than that and anyone that seriously believes otherwise must have been living on another planet for the last 41 (forty-one) years. And with all due respect to President Obasanjo’s efforts, it is painfully obvious that a sovereign national conference remains the only permanent solution to the myriad of complex problems in this country. For example, when did we as a people ever agree to stay together as one? And even if we ever did, what were the terms of our union? Did the people of the South ever agree to become perpetual slaves to the Fulani ruling class and their military collaborators? And even though we have a southerner in power today, what happens in 2007 after Obasanjo goes? Or can he remain there forever? Will the hegemonic forces, at that point, not insist on taking the Presidency back to the core conservative north? And in the event of this happening will we not have come back to square one? And in any case when did the south ever agree to assume the role of a wealthy yet submissive and timid wife that has been systematically and consistently cheated, raped and sodomised by a domineering and arrogant northern husband?’’

    Harsh words indeed but those days called for harsh words and extreeme measures. Needless to say, I wrote the essay one year before I met Obasanjo and after eight years of being radicalised by the annulement of the June 12th 1993 election of Chief MKO Abiola, five years of self-imposed exile in Ghana and six years of watching my people, the yoruba people of south-western Nigeria, being persecuted, tormented, butchered, jailed, tortured, driven into exile and humiliated by General Sani Abacha and his military junta. All that had a profound effect on me. These were the words of a man at war and to all intents and purposes, we are still at war in this country because nothing has really changed. The cry for a sovereign national conference is as legitimate today as it has ever been and until we have one Nigeria can never know peace.

    Those that have been seduced by Jonathan’s promise and charm offensive in this matter will soon learn that he is simply deceiving them. It is a poisoned chalice. At the end of the day, their greatest expectations, hopes and aspirations will be dashed and frustrated and they will be made to look like utter fools. A man that does not have the passion, strength and conviction to crush Boko Haram cannot possibly muster the necessary wherewithal or cultivate the strength of character to liberate the numerous ethnic nationalities that make up our country from the bondage, tyranny and oppression of an all-powerful centre. Some have said that the national conference is ‘’Jonathan’s gift to Nigeria’’. I strongly urge those that honestly believe that to remember the words of the Trojans- ‘’beware of the Greeks, especially when they bring gifts’’.

  • An untainted judge

    An untainted judge

    Justice Salami retires with his head high

    Justice Ayo Salami, former President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) finally retired from service on October 15. His case is one good example to show that the judiciary should not be in the hands of politicians, particularly when you have the kind of power mongers that are ruling the country today. All right-thinking Nigerians know that the discipline of judges starts and ends with the National Judicial Council (NJC). Unfortunately, the NJC at the time of the Salami crisis took the matter to President Goodluck Jonathan, who quickly seized the opportunity to exercise powers he obviously did not have, simply because it suited his partisan interest.

    At the risk of repeating myself, I dare say, without fear or favour, and without fear of contradiction that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not win the elections that it claimed it won in 2007 in the southwest. Those of 2003 were probably understandable; the people in charge of political leadership in the region committed political hara-kiri which made them lose the states, with the exception of Lagos, to the rampaging PDP. The saving grace for Lagos then was the political sagacity of the political leaders there, particularly the then Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who saw through the shenanigans of President Obasanjo and refused to flow with him.

    However, as the leopard can never change its spot, the PDP that took over the south west after the 2003 election soon showed its true colour. To say that it did not know what to do with the power placed on its laps on a platter of gold in the election would be charitable because it knew what to do with it and in fact made a fetish of its misrule. It was not long for the politically sophisticated southwest people to realise that the PDP had no development blueprint for the region that used to be a pace setter in the country. Soon, the region began to witness the decadence for which the ruling party is notorious, a thing that made the Yoruba people swore to sack the PDP from the region. This they did with their feet and their votes in the 2007 election.

    Unfortunately, the PDP chieftains as usual, so enjoyed the government houses that they were not ready to leave the stage even after they had been voted out. That was an era when people who claimed they won governorship election lacked the courage to be sworn in in public, preferring instead, to do it in the confines of the government house. What followed the electoral heist in the region were litigations upon litigations and Justice Salami’s crime was that he was President of the Court of Appeal, the court that had the final say on governorship election petitions, going by the law at that time. Since virtually all the governorship elections in the region were rigged, save, again for Lagos, the PDP governments in the states one after the other, began to ‘capitulate’, with the election rogues in Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and Osun states sacked by the courts and the mandates reverted to the original owners.

    Although the PDP had been seething with rage over these monumental losses of a region it never won in that election, its anger was later to find expression in the crisis between the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Aloysius Katsina-Alu and Justice Salami, over the governorship election petition in far-away Sokoto State, which Justice Salami decided to look into, perhaps not knowing that the matter had deliberately been kept in the cooler by the powers-that-be who wanted it in the cooler, perhaps forever. That was the beginning of his ordeal. It was on this matter that the deep-seated hatred the ruling party had for him began to manifest, with one thing leading to the other until Justice Salami was suspended in 2011 by the NJC under the chairmanship of Justice Katsina-Alu. The man was never recalled; even after the NJC with which he had issues initially on the Sokoto matter had said he should be recalled. Thus, we had a situation whereby the government, for obviously partisan reasons, acted like an outsider that is weeping louder than the bereaved. The haste with which President Jonathan ratified the NJC’s decision to suspend Justice Salami is uncommon with his government and it left many tongues wagging.

    All these, for me, explain why we must ponder the Salami debacle, especially as the man had to retire from this unjust suspension foisted on him and the nation at large, by some infantile minds that would rather truth be put on the shelf for sale to whosoever may be willing to buy. It is a sad commentary on the way we easily allow serious matters to be swept under the carpet. I have always said that this is one of the things that successive governments in the country exploit. When the Salami matter started, many individuals and organisations, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) stood with the embattled PCA but the support soon waned, with time.

    This should not be so; unfortunately, it has always been so in Nigeria. It is Justice Salami today; we do not know who is next. It is particularly saddening because this is happening to the judiciary, the last hope of the common man and at this crucial time in the life of our country. If the government, particularly they type we have today, can get away with this, then, this country is in trouble. With the way things are going, the courts will be so busy after the 2015 elections; we can be sure of this given the desperation that is manifesting even when the contest is yet to start. Justice Salami’s experience is going to be at the back of the minds of many judges when electoral petitions involving the ruling party come before them after the elections. Of course, we know the likely consequences when people are denied their electoral choice. We know what to expect when the courts can no longer deliver justice.

    But the point still has to be made though, that those who ensured that Justice Salami never returned to service from his so-called suspension will always come to their own comeuppance; it is only a matter of time. There is a spiritual dimension to some of these things and when the punishment begins, people will be feeling sorry for them. Justice Salami should however, be proud of his service to the nation. He should be proud of the fact that he was able to hold his head high when many others would have lost theirs.

  • ETHIOPIA 1-2 NIGERIA: President Jonathan thanks Eagles

    ETHIOPIA 1-2 NIGERIA: President Jonathan thanks Eagles

    President Goodluck Jonathan has thanked the Super Eagles for doing Nigeria proud in Sunday’s 2014 World Cup play-off against Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.

    A brace from Emmanuel Emenike saw the Eagles beat the Walya Antelopes 2-1 despite Samson Asefa putting the home side a goal up after a Vincent Enyeama howler in the 57th minute.

    Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President, Reuben Abati, on his Twitter handle, @abati1990 tweeted that: “President Jonathan thanks the Super Eagles for doing Nigeria proud. He congratulates them on their victory against Ethiopia today.”

    Recall, that President Jonathan was in Addis Ababa where he attended the Extraordinary Session of the African Union.

  • Governors to Jonathan: call Okonjo-Iweala, NNPC to order

    Governors to Jonathan: call Okonjo-Iweala, NNPC to order

    The All Progressive Congress (APC) governors yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to call the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to order over the disputed indebtedness to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

    In a statement titled “FAAC: Dishonesty and NNPC’s unacceptable etiquette,” the progressive governors urged the leadership of the National Assembly to protect the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution.

    The governors said: “Mr. President needs to urgently intervene to protect the image of the Federal Government and safeguard the provisions of the 1999 Constitution. We, therefore, urgently call on Mr. President to call NNPC and the Ministry of Finance to order.

    “We also would like to invite the leadership of the National Assembly to urgently take steps to protect the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution.”

    Besides, the APC asked NNPC to state the amount it credited to the FAAC.

    The governors said: “Our attention was drawn to NNPC’s denial of a N2.3 trillion debt being owed to the Federation Account. The statement, which is credited to Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ms. Tumini E. Green, is to say the least escapist, dishonest, contradictory and in many respect fraudulent.”

    The governors urged the corporation to say how much it paid into the account of the relevant agencies it referred to.

    They also asked NNPC to state how much it paid as outstanding subsidies.

    The governors said : “The question is how much was the revenue collected by NNPC? How much of it was paid to the Federation Account? How much was paid to the accounts of other relevant government agencies? How much was credited to FAAC? How much was committed to the payment of the so-called outstanding subsidies? What other associated costs of operations and losses were incurred and how much?”

    The governors asked NNPC to explain how much had been realised in oil revenue on monthly basis since January and the other associated cost of operations and losses it incurred.

    The statement noted that while claiming that NNPC does not owe the Federation Account, “taking into account outstanding subsidies and other associated costs of operations and losses”, the NNPC spokesperson claimed that payments have been made consistently into “its Central Bank of Nigeria account”.

    The governors said Green emphatically stated that “not all revenues collected by NNPC are paid directly into the accounts of the Federal Allocation with the Central Bank of Nigeria. Some are paid into the accounts of the relevant government agencies, like the Federal Inland Revenue Services and the Department of Petroleum Resources, with the CBN. But eventually, all these payments are credited to the accounts of FAAC.”

    Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution, they said, “is unambiguously clear and it has directed that the Federation shall maintain a special account to be called the Federation Account into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation, except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnel of the armed forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Ministry or department of government charged with responsibility for Foreign Affairs and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

  • A deal or just another dummy?

    A deal or just another dummy?

    If Jonathan’s ‘national dialogue’ passes the muster of public perception, here might just be a few items on its agenda

    After Gen. Sani Abacha’s “National Constitutional Conference with full constituent powers” and former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s “National Political Reforms Conference”, President Goodluck Jonathan has set the ball rolling for yet another “national dialogue or conference”.

    For this new confab, the president has named a 13-member planning team, chaired by former Senator Femi Okurounmu, an Afenifere chieftain; with Prof. Ben Nwabueze, The Patriots chairman and long-term advocate of the Sovereign National Conference (SNC) as member. The other 11 members are Dr. Akilu Indabawa, Prof. George Obiozor, Senator Khairat Gwadabe, Senator Timothy Adudu, Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), Prof. Funke Adebayo, Dr. Mairo Ahmed Amshi, Dr. Abubakar Sadiq, Alhaji Dauda Birma, Mallam Buhari Bello and Tony Uranta.

    This list is a mixed grill, with the jury still out on its appropriateness or otherwise, to midwife a credible national confab, by whatever name called. The land heaves with anxiety: is this a real deal at last to fix Nigeria and set it on irreversible development; or yet another dummy, by the ruling clique to buy time?

    No doubt: the national confab to restructure Nigeria is an idea whose time has come. Given the gradual meltdown of the country, captured in citizen massacres by Boko Haram, high crime and a general sense of anomie, critical segments of the country must start talking fast, if Nigeria were not to unravel in hideous violence.

    But given the penchant of Nigeria’s ruling elite for brinkmanship, is the government sincere? For one, the Jonathan Presidency has demonstrated it is not exactly averse to rank opportunism, not unlike his presidential predecessors; not to talk of the president’s sudden, almost Pauline-like conversion to the idea. For another, citizens involved in previous attempts at national talks did not do enough to resist the manipulation of the sitting government.

    This 13-member panel therefore has the bounden duty to fashion fair, transparent and equitable recommendations on the confab brass tacks: agenda, structure, modalities, time-frame, legal fundaments, and implementation of decisions, among others. It is only when the proposed conference has passed the muster of public scrutiny and earned positive perception that any conference agenda can be meaningful.

    Be that as it may, it must be held that the fundaments of the Nigerian crisis are economic. Because resources are mismanaged, many times skewed along ethnic lines, the result is political tension, ethnic distrust if not outright mutual hatred, a prostrate economy, mass poverty bordering on penury, and the resultant mass hopelessness, alienation and structured underdevelopment.

    Fresh thinking is needed to solve this basic problem. First, there should be a radical leap from revenue allocation to revenue contribution. Indeed, the core of the present crisis is everyone looking up to the over-bloated centre for “revenue allocation”, when they could easily, given an alternative paradigm, drive their own wealth and spend it as their peoples’ needs dictate.

    But the principle of revenue contribution calls to mind the viability or otherwise of the current 36 states. Should the states remain as they are, or should they be grouped into larger blocs, at least for the purpose of contributing an agreed percentage of their wealth to a federal purse, to fund common services? That would clearly tilt toward the regionalist approach, which current governments in the South-West, and to a less extent, South-South, are already working towards.

    Regions, as direct federating units with the Federal Government, are not just premised on bigger territories; with bigger markets for intra-regional and inter-regional trades, with the rest of the country. They come recommended because they have combined natural resources, which they can leverage for local and foreign capital and investments that would create jobs, drive development and foster prosperity. Before all these can happen, however, the confab would have to abolish the federal monopoly in mining. That way, these buried resources can be free for the regions or states to exploit.

    However the legal hurdles are tackled, a post-confab Nigeria must be structured on productive federalism, where every part of the country is put to work, in contrast to the present largely idle and parasitic entity, where the Federal Government looms large, even when it is distant and mostly dysfunctional.

    It is from this firm root that the concept of fiscal federalism would make sense. Though right now it is perfunctorily applied to sharing (as in valued-added tax, VAT for instance), it should be applied to creating wealth, where the most hardworking part of the country keeps most of the result of its sweat. Such positive reinforcement would, other things being equal, drive healthy regional competition nationwide.

    Still, though the economy is core, politics holds the key on how best the economy is structured. So, it is imperative the confab panel recommend political restructuring as central to a future Nigeria. Right now, the six geo-political zones are not constitutional. But they have already become conventions on which national balance is structured. The confab may therefore want to formalise these six political zones, as the basis of possible future regions.

    Of no less importance is confab representation: ethnic nationalities, professionals, demographic and gender groupings, special interests, for example, security and the armed forces, etc. Whether by election or nomination, the recommendations into the eventual constituent assembly must be such that both advocates and opponents must feel they operate on level-playing grounds. To make this possible, the panel should consult as widely as possible to build confidence and convince everyone that such an assembly is best to re-jig the country and preserve its unity.

    It is also imperative that the confab federalises security by creating state police for obvious reasons.It should not have “no-go” areas; nor its recommendations suffer vetting by the sitting government. However, its decision should be subject only to regional and national referendum, as necessary. The panel could also suggest external mediation, under the steady hands of the United Nations, to build confidence and assure all.

    For once, this is not time to play games. The more both the political authorities and the confab panel realise this, the better for everyone at this critical juncture.

  • States allocations: Call Finance Minister to order, Reps tell Jonathan

    States allocations: Call Finance Minister to order, Reps tell Jonathan

    The House of Representatives yesterday called on President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently direct the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to stop playing politics with the statutory allocations of state government.

    Speaking through its Chief Whip, Hon. Samson Osagie the House said the call be came necessary in order to avert the collapse of the economy of the states due to non remittance of statutory allocation to them for almost three months.

    Osagie, said members of the National Assembly are worried that states were yet to get their statutory allocations from the Federation Account even in the face of improved revenue from both oil and non-oil sources.

    He said: “We don’t want to accept any argument of paucity of funds as field reports from our oversight shows that revenue targets have been met and surpassed.

    “We will not fold our hands and allow the Federal government to castrate our states of their entitlement from the Federation Account in order to make state g overnors pliable to the PDP government ambition to hold on to power beyond 2015.

    He urge state governments to immediately seek an order of mandamus to compel the Finance Minister to release the funds.