The Nation Newspaper

Tag: President Goodluck Jonathan

  • Emergency declaration: Reason, not politics, please!

    Emergency declaration: Reason, not politics, please!

    Indeed, most Nigerians may not be fans of President Goodluck Jonathan because of his dowdy and most times grouchy approach to public affairs. As president with awesome powers, his country men and women would have wanted him to deploy his supposed high educational attainment for good causes by coming up with inspiring policies and actions that are rare in history. As a minority from the South-South, most of us, ab initio, looked up to him to rise to the occasion by proving to doubting Thomases that a good leader can also emerge from his ethnic region; and also make the nation’s political kingmakers regret decades of denial of leadership roles at the centre for people from the Niger-Delta. But he absolutely failed to so far lead the nation aright, leading us to the question of whether he thinks that the Nigerians unnecessarily disparaging him on virtually all his actions.

    In all conscience, the truth is that the president has clearly run adrift on salient issues of power generation, economy, employment generation, poverty alleviation and other developmental matters that Nigerians daily crave solutions for. Worse still, insecurity has bloomed to a level that can modestly be equated with that of a state of war. In view of these, most analysts have always viewed every policy decision by the president with contempt. It should not be so, especially on his latest action of state of emergency. Before now, most Nigerians wanted the president to take decisive action against Boko Haram that means, “Western education is sinful.” The sect comprises Islamic insurgents that have rejected western values and is calling for replacement through enthronement of Islamic education. The group has constituted itself into the greatest threat to the nation’s corporate survival today. In Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Abuja and Nassarawa states, among other northern states, the foot paths of Boko Haram have been awash with indelible blood-stains of innocent Nigerians. The churches were its members’ prime target; mosques are not spared, while public buildings, including police and military stations and barracks respectively, have witnessed devastating bombings. Even market places do have a dose of Boko Haram’s cruelty against humanity.

    The group refused to dialogue with the government. It actually has the effrontery of rejecting the amnesty shamefully canvassed for it by the northern elite. Yet, the killings of innocent souls continue unabated. The president had folded his arm long enough before waking up from his deep slumber. Yes, he did wake up; thus early this week, he declared a state of emergency in three states – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. Deafening hullabaloo greeted the emergency rule declaration. The president deserves commendation for complying with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    But most analysts still believe that a state of emergency will not solve the problem that is an equivalent of war that the Boko Haram has unleashed on the northern part and by extension, the entire country which lives under the fear of the cankerworm. A state of emergency is actually a governmental declaration suspending within a jurisdiction, few normal functions of government arising from a total or imminent breakdown of law and order. Such declaration could on some occasions be the consequence of natural or contrived disasters like the Boko Haram’s. But most times, it arises during periods of civil unrest, internal armed conflict or a declaration of war.

    Those that are averse to the declaration of war on Boko Haram by President Jonathan might be right to an extent when viewed from the aphorism that the greatest test of leadership is the ability to recognise a problem/crisis before it becomes an emergency. The reality today is that this current president failed that test having failed to recognise early enough that the Boko Haram insurgency is serious subversion until the problem now inevitably called for an emergency. As a result of his dithering nature, the president could not muster in good time, the desired courage, despite having been imbued with such constitutional powers to act in the nation’s interest before the matter gets out of hand. Now that Boko Haram members in some parts of Borno State have hoisted their subversive flag and have shown considerable disdain for the sovereign entity called Nigeria, our irresolute president has finally acted.

    There is a truism that it is better late than never. The issue now is not to berate the president for acting late. Rather, we should all be elated that the man, for once, realised the need to not only act but to also talk tough after his many years of timidity in power. Those that are talking about true federalism, state police and sovereign national conference as means that could finally solve the Boko Haram cankerworm could not be completely right because the motive of the promoters of the sect is far from these germane issues threatening peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic groups in the country. The undisclosed fact is that promoters of Boko Haram are only goading foment of trouble for President Jonathan so as to create a leeway passage for the return of a northerner to power at the centre in 2015. It is too bad that the president has, due to so many false steps until the last one on emergency, failed to impress anybody, which is why it has become the norm for every sane Nigeria to desire a change of leadership come 2015. How are we so sure that if a northerner emerges as president in 2015, he will carry out the much-desired surgery on the Nigerian Federation?

    However, the political leadership of the other regions must be careful so as not to fall prey to the selfish agenda of the northern elite that are already seeking amnesty for members of the group they created – an insurgent group hiding under the guise of Islamic religion (of peace), to foist mayhem on Allah’s creation. The president should not be deterred by criticisms against his declared emergency. One could only hope that he would quickly seize the moment by mustering effective force which yours sincerely believes will quell the insurgents and send a signal to their promoters in the hierarchy of the northern elite that their waterloo is imminent unless they jettison this inimical act to our national stability.

    Whatever any group or persons might say about the state of emergency declared in the three states, the fact remains that force, according to Dwight D. Eisenhower, when effectively deployed, can protect in emergency even when ‘only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.’ Even if Jonathan has obviously failed woefully in our collective estimation, can we in all assurances say that the northerners can guarantee all the above desired true federalism ingredients if they reclaim power in 2015? This poser is why we must, on this emergency rule matter, allow reason, not politics, to prevail.

  • QUOTES OF THE DAY

    QUOTES OF THE DAY

    “There is nothing new in the President’s action. It is more of the same: deployment of more troops to the affected states and the use of tougher, scorched-earth tactics against the insurgents. In the first instance, this stepped-up militarization of the states amounts to an asymmetric use of force in an environment where the insurgents operate within a civilian population, hence it will ultimately be counter-productive as the death toll will continue to mount while the civilian population – who will be caught in the cross fire – will be alienated”.

    Action Congress of Nigeria  on President Jonathan declaration of Emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa state.

  • State of Emergency:House yet to receive details

    State of Emergency:House yet to receive details

    Forty-Eight hours after the declaration of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, President Goodluck Jonathan has not sent the details to the National Assembly.

    Deputy House Spokesman, Victor Ogene, at a media briefing said the president has not violated the constitution.

  • More than ever, the president now needs to inspire

    More than ever, the president now needs to inspire

    Judging from the way he talks, gestures and ruminates, sometimes angrily and at other times dismissively, President Goodluck Jonathan often gives the impression his pressing problems should be laid at the doorsteps of Nigeria’s boisterous and sometimes cantankerous media and the political opposition. The media is deeply judgemental, probing and censorious, and it has given Jonathan’s presidency no quarters. But it has always been all these, and will continue to be much more well after the Jonathan government; for even before independence, it never suffered fools gladly, not the white man and not his docile and colluding black servants. It is pointless for anyone to think that the media can now be tamed or diminished both by legislation and by brute force. Not only will such efforts remain undesirable, it will be ineffectual. On its own, the opposition, whether during military rule or civilian rule, is grounded on constitutional and cultural approbation. To attempt to put a leash on it is to try to make water flow uphill. It is as unrealistically unnatural as it is deliberately quixotic.

    It is, therefore, time for the Jonathan presidency to take the predilections of the media and opposition parties as a given and try to locate the problems, weaknesses and limitations of his troubled government elsewhere. Since he assumed the presidency, Jonathan has been suffering from insufficient appreciation of the country’s structural imbalances and disequilibrium, poor policy coordination, unprecedented security challenges gradually metamorphosing into full-scale insurgency, rampant militia activities such as the proselytising Ombatse cult in Nasarawa State, schismatic ethnic politics, and a self-inflicted underachieving cabinet, among others. Singly or collectively, these problems have caused and nurtured instability in the Northeast, dislocated the economy, created a frustrated and destructive army of unemployed youths, rendered Jonathan’s government desperate and insular, and pushed the country firmly towards the precipice. The media merely reports these issues, and opposition parties merely capitalise on them. Neither group has infringed the law or common sense. And neither has acted improperly or with less circumspection than is generally required to keep the president and his government on their toes.

    The Jonathan government is not underperforming because these problems are unique, unprecedented or severe. He is not failing because anyone wants him to fail or because he was programmed by legal and constitutional strictures to falter. And he is not confused because the problems are complex and interwoven. The Jonathan government is lost in a self-created labyrinth because he either lacks the capacity to grapple with the problems that mass before him, or he is naturally uninspiring, and so can no more inspire anyone than he can eat or converse with aristocratic finesse. It is well known that governments in Nigeria win elections against the run of play and in defiance of their appalling records. Perhaps Dr Jonathan hopes to capitalise on that historical antecedent by winning elections undeservedly, achieving unplanned breakthroughs, and solving crises either by avoiding them or ignoring them. If he embraces any of those options, he will have it tough going. For, this time, given the intensity of the socioeconomic and sectarian revolt in the North, it is hard to see how his customary pussyfooting and policy inexactitude would guarantee the survival of the country beyond the portentous 2015 an American military think tank warned a few years ago.

    Dr Jonathan needs to reinvent himself along the lines his flashes of verbal brilliance and candour indicate. In his many public engagements, he sometimes spoke with simplicity and honesty, almost with engaging bipolarity, as if he always needed to subordinate his real self to his public self, his tortuous and perhaps contrived Christian consciousness to his more popular and secular nonconformism. Not only is it time for him to determine who he wants to be, it is also time to ask himself whether he really wants to save his presidency and what is left of his reputation. He came into politics without having had the opportunity to define politics in terms of the values that shaped his life and upbringing. And from the time he became deputy governor, through the frenetic pace of his meteoric ascendancy, and up to the time he mounted the highest throne in the land, Jonathan did not appear to have paused to define his politics, what he intended to do with power once he got it, and what sort of country he hoped to mould out of its riotous disparateness.

    The national crises that weigh on his soul and grieve him endlessly call on him to vote one way or the other. That vote has been long in coming. Since he came in unprepared, he did not have a prepared template to face the problems. If he does not now take a walk in the wilderness and commune with his own soul, it will be difficult for him to make a choice, let alone the right choice. Worse, instead of scientifically and methodically confronting the evils threatening to undermine his presidency and even plunge the country into anarchy, he may find himself conceiving and administering ad hoc solutions. A president must come to the epiphanic realisation that he needs to change himself first before he can attempt to change the country.

    But rather than the hard and productive way of changing himself in order to change the country, inspiring himself in order to inspire the country, acquiring knowledge in order to lead the country from a position of knowledge, Dr Jonathan may be embracing all over again the unproductive and hackneyed method of summoning his security chiefs or cabinet whenever he faces an outbreak of crisis. In the past two years or so, the insurgency in the North and militia activities in other parts of the country have combined to unleash a steady stream of bloodletting on the country. The bloodbath never stopped for a moment; but the president has had to cut short his visit to parts of Southern Africa to attend to the killings in Bama, Borno State, and a village near Lafia in Nasarawa State. What initiatives does he hope to bring to the table? Indeed, what initiatives has he brought to the table in the past few months when horrendous killings took place?

    Cutting short his visit to Southern Africa is a mere public relations stunt. He had no choice than to do that, for not to do it would have compounded the blame he continues to receive for his inability to stanch the flow of blood in the country. But nothing serious will come from the renewed attention the president is giving the present crisis. His style and approach to the crisis will not change until he changes himself. When he changes, he will no longer go to the scene of rebellion and pass the buck to the elders of blighted communities, or make utterances that inflame passion, alienate the people, and aggravate the insurgency. And he will not also endorse the bloated impression the security forces have of themselves: that their uniforms somehow make them superior, invincible and untouchable. Now that militias and insurgents have defied his warning that no security agent should be murdered without eliciting a disproportionate response from the state’s awesome security machine, what does he intend to do to avenge the Nasarawa killings? Wipe out the entire state?

    The country is exploding into many theatres of war. It is time Dr Jonathan took the right and urgent steps. First, he needs to reinvent himself, discover who he is, what kind of politics he wants to play, and what concrete vision of a strong, free and democratic country he wants to have, enunciate and bring about. He cannot discover himself by simply sitting at the head of the table in situation rooms and listening to the same jaded ideas from his incompetent aides, misguided advisers and overwhelmed security chiefs.

    Second, he needs to take very bold steps to restructure the country if it is to survive beyond 2015. The first step here is to cause the devolution of the security structure away from the current unitary system. The more he delays, the more likely the kind of ugly incident that occurred at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital between grieving policemen, doctors and morgue attendants will repeat itself. That unfortunate incident is a pointer to the fact that nerves are getting frayed and patience is snapping dangerously. It is only a matter of time before the unimaginable happens. Worse, even if perpetrators of the Nasarawa killings are caught and dealt with, it does not mitigate the fact that more and more groups are defying the state, demystifying the security agencies, and signifying that the country is fast running out of time.

    Third, it is incredible that the president does not know he is actually the one playing politics with insecurity, wrongly accusing the media of insensitivity and sensationalism, and unfairly denouncing the opposition for warning of disintegration. It is in fact Jonathan that needs a new, invigorated, bold and effective cabinet. Apart from unadvisedly surrendering a crucial part of his responsibilities to one or two powerful ministers in his cabinet, the president has unfortunately surrounded himself with what a columnist with this newspaper described as ethnopolitical zanies, most of whom don’t know their left from their right, and whose preoccupation is greed and parochialism.

    The country is not decaying beneath a welter of crises, much of it sectarian, sanguinary and disruptive. The country is in fact decaying beneath a lack of leadership, uninspiring, insensitive, glacial, but deceptively bellicose, leadership. Dr Jonathan is lucky to be faced with the crises assailing his government. His problem is not that the crises are many, terrible and complex. His problem is how he is responding to them. So far, those responses have not been stirring. But they need to be if he is not to go down into 2015 a failure hoping to be rewarded with a second term for having led his country into chaos and decay.

  • The fire-eating quartet of Jonathan, Amaechi, Kuku and Asari-Dokubo

    The suspicion in many quarters is that President Goodluck Jonathan actually thinks he has done substantially well enough to justify his party presenting him for re-election in 2015. Kingsley Kuku, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, and Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), a militant group physically but not psychologically repentant, think so too, and have reiterated that fact in very unpleasant and annoying language. While the president has kept prudently but disingenuously silent on his records and 2015 ambition, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has spoken imprudently loud about his well-known enemies, their Abuja backers, and the subterfuge perpetrated by the presidency in the riverine state.

    Reacting to the massive disapproval that greeted his statements warning of economic sabotage and war if Dr Jonathan was not re-elected, but enjoying every bit of the publicity and attendant notoriety, Asari-Dokubo has goaded the public with yet more boastful and provocative comments. He could not be arrested, he threatened conceitedly, because the last time he was arrested and detained, oil production was cut down by a significant margin. This time, he thundered, his arrest would bring oil production to zero. Such buffoonery! There is no doubt that there are lots of troublemakers in the country, many of them lacking in restraint and sense of proportion, but the many silly remarks Asari-Dokubo made showed him to be a halfwit who should be noted but ignored.

    Hon. Kuku, who also heads the well-funded Presidential Amnesty Programme, was even more loquacious, insulting and conniving. “It is true that the Presidential Amnesty Programme has engendered peace, safety and security in the sensitive and strategic Niger Delta,” he began incongruously. “It is only a Jonathan presidency that can guarantee continued peace and energy security in the Niger Delta,” he concluded. He also managed to attempt to blackmail the United States warning them that if they fail to support Jonathan’s re-election it could threaten national stability and oil and gas exports. Unlike Nigeria, which is being blackmailed into precipitous appeasement of all sorts of malcontents, the US never likes to be arm-twisted. By now, after hearing all the careless talk by close aides and advisers of the president, foreign powers will have taken the measure of Nigerian rulers’ minds. They will not be surprised that Nigeria is embroiled in crisis.

    But much worse is the proxy war between the president himself and the governor of Rivers State. It is a turf war in which two leading politicians are fighting for supremacy. But the war is unsettling the state, promoting animosity, undermining the constitution, and worsening the tension that has enveloped the country from North to South. While the president’s men are fighting for control of the state in order not to lose it in 2015, Amaechi’s men tamely clutch only to the law and the constitution in a desperate struggle to stay afloat. It is not certain how the struggle will be resolved; whether the constitution will be sustained, or whether federal might will destabilise or even overwhelm the state.

    Whatever the situation in Rivers, and however the looming apocalypse in the Northeast, and now North-Central, plays out, the country should prepare for tough times ahead. The president can lower the temperature if he wants to. But there is no proof he knows how to or why he should, or more critically, the consequences of aggravating the turmoil in the country.

  • S’East leaders meet on Jonathan’s attendance of Achebe’s burial

    SOUTH East political leaders met in Enugu to map out reception plans for President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to the zone next week.

    Jonathan is due in Ogidi, Anambra State, for the burial of late Prof. Chinua Achebe.

    Chairman of South East Governor’s Forum, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, told reporters that the meeting focused on reception for the president.

    The South East will ensure that the president’s visit would be memorable.

    At the meeting were Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, South-East governors, Senators, House of Representatives members, Speakers of the zone’s Assemblies and LG chairmen.

  • A distracted Presidency

    A distracted Presidency

    There is nothing but ‘darkness visible’ on the Nigerian horizon. The portents are ominous. The country descends deeper into anarchy daily under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch. Like the ‘Titanic’, the fabled giant of Africa is moving swiftly towards a giant iceberg but the Chief Helmsman obviously has other things on his mind than offering effective leadership, averting imminent danger and steering the ship of state to safety. Commenting on the state of the nation, an exasperated Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, recently told Al Jazeera that “Nigeria is in a war situation and the entire population must consider itself as being in a war situation and that means the Boko Haram phenomenon should not be regarded as being limited to the Northern region alone or Borno and Yobe States”.

    This is certainly no exaggeration. The stories get scarier by the day. No wonder, Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Azubuike Ihejerika last week complained at an army seminar that the increasing wave of ethno-religious violence in the country had severely strained the military’s resources. This is not surprising. The military are now performing police functions in virtually all states of the country. Joint Task Forces comprising the army, navy and air force operate in most states indicating the utter helplessness of the Nigeria Police Force to contain the situation. Surely, this is a situation of war. We are yet to get over the tragedy in Baga, the border town between Nigeria and Niger in Borno State where 185 people, mostly civilians, died in a reported battle between soldiers and Boko Haram insurgents.

    On Tuesday, members of the Boko Haram sect attacked Bama in Borno State leaving 55 people dead – 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers, four civilians and 13 Boko Haram members. About 300 heavily armed Boko Haram members attacked the town razing the Bama Police Station, the prison and the military barracks in the town. The following day it was the turn of Alakyo, a town 10 kilometres from Lafia in Nassarawa State. A hitherto little known cult, the Ombase militants, opened fire on security agents deployed to arrest their leader killing at least 30 policemen. On the same day, Fulani herdsmen in Benue State attacked Agatu Local Government Area of the state leaving “high casualties including women and children” according to Governor Gabriel Suswan. “There are a lot of killings, a lot of property destroyed and I felt that I should come to brief the Vice President who is holding forth for the President” the Governor said.

    It is itself illustrative of the seriousness of the security breaches in their states that Governors Tanko al-Makura and Gabriel Suswan of Nassarawa and Benue states, respectively, rushed to Abuja to seek help. This again is an indictment of our dysfunctional, over-centralized security system that Governors who are supposedly Chief Security Officers of their states, could be so helpless to protect the lives and property of their residents without having to rush to Abuja.

    In the South East, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has declared that the 8th of June will be sit-at-home day in the entire region. This the organization announced is to protest “the killings of Ndigbo in Nigeria, mostly in the Northern region, extra-judicial killing of our people in Biafra land, the wanton destruction of our people’s properties and the insensitive murder of six Igbo traders on June 8, 2004, at Apo Village, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”. The group contended that only the ultimate actualization of Biafra could properly avenge these deaths. One can continue to itemise all kinds of security challenges across the country including the Niger Delta where President Jonathan comes from.

    Of course, the President deserves full marks for cutting short his trip to South Africa where he was attending the World Economic Forum on Africa as well as cancelling his state visit to Namibia to rush home in response to what his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, described as “fresh challenges to national security which has emerged this week in Borno, Plateau and Nassarawa states”. But there is certainly nothing fresh or recent about these security challenges. They have been a recurrent decimal in diverse parts of the country for the last two years. This is easily the most precarious period in the existence of Nigeria since the civil war.

    Indeed, the current conflicts and insurgencies are potentially more dangerous than the civil war precisely because the world has become a very changed place. Weapons of violence have become more numerous, sophisticated, mobile and available to rogue groups who challenge the monopoly of these instruments by organized states. It is much easier now for fragile federations like Nigeria to disintegrate under the weight of centrifugal conflicts fuelled by external influences. At times like this only the most critical and unavoidable foreign trips should be undertaken by the President. Surely, the country would have lost nothing if he had been represented in South Africa by the appropriate Ministers. But then, that is not even the crucial issue.

    Nigeria today can only be saved by the most focussed, determined, creative, imaginative, selfless, industrious and patriotic leadership at the highest levels. It is thus astonishing that while the country increasingly becomes a veritable wasteland of sorrow, blood and tears all around him; a time when the people that have entrusted him with their sacred mandate deserve that he serves with all his physical, mental, psychological and mental energies, the Jonathan presidency can afford to dissipate time, energy and concentration on petty squabbles and avoidable power shows. A good example is the show of shame currently going on in Rivers state. Following speculations that Governor RotimiAmaechi has presidential ambitions, the full weight of higher state powers has been unleashed to castrate and demolish him politically.

    All of a sudden, desperate attempts are being made to prevent his re-election as Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) despite the will of majority of his colleagues. A PDP Governors Forum has been formed to destabilize the apparently recalcitrant NGF. The Aviation authorities are suddenly fishing for all kinds of reasons to justify the grounding of the state’s aircraft. A curious Abuja court judgement has dislodged the duly elected Rivers State PDP executive loyal to Amaechi and installed one favourably disposed to the anti-Amaechi forces in Abuja. The stage is currently being set in Rivers for recourse to the kind of shameful impunity that saw state governors illegally impeached by a minority of legislators in the past. Shouldn’t all these energies be channelled to confront the serious tribulations that threaten the existence of Nigeria? Is Rotimi Amaechi a security threat to Nigeria? Do the powers that be at the centre want to add a crisis in Rivers State to the multifarious crises they have been incompetent to effectively tackle across Nigeria?

    Even though President Jonathan has claimed that he has not made up his mind on 2015, it is obvious that his presidency has become terribly distracted by an obsession to secure a second term at all costs. Amaechi’s only crime is that he is rumoured to have ambition for a higher office; an aspiration that may jeopardise Jonathan’s chances. But does the governor not have the same constitutional rights as Jonathan? Now, the worst forms of impunity are being perpetrated to cut Amaechi to size. State institutions are being undermined to subvert the legitimately elected government of Rivers State. Let the men of today in Abuja know that the kind of impunity being brazenly perpetrated today in Rivers State is as immoral and unacceptable as that exhibited by Boko Haram in killing innocent citizens. Those who perpetrate a form of impunity that violates due process and the rule of law in the selfish pursuit of power are as guilty of crimes against the polity as those who perpetrate violence against innocent citizens with impunity. They both belong to the same degenerate moral category.

  • Is govt losing anti-graft war?

    Is govt losing anti-graft war?

    On Workers’ Day, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) told President Goodluck Jonathan that he is not fighting corruption hard. It observed that, over the years, the country has been pilfered by those charged with the mangement of its resources. But Jonathan told workers to advise their colleagues to stop stealing. To some lawyers, Labour is right. The Jonathan administration, they say, has been treating corruption with kid’s gloves. JOSEPH JIBUEZE reports.

    Is the Federal Government losing the fight against corruption? To the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the answer is yes. Lawyers think so too. The issue of corruption in public service came up last week when, speaking during the Workers’ Day celebration, NLC President Comrade Abdulwahed Omar said the government had not successfully prosecuted those accused of embezzling public fund in the past 10 years.

    “Corruption remains the most serious factor undermining the realisation of our economic potential. Government must not only make commitments to fighting it, government must demonstrate this commitment by its actions, by its style and by its body language,” Omar said.

    He added: “We find the pardon granted to a former governor who was convicted of corruptly enriching himself as unfortunate and a major dent on the government’s commitments to fighting corruption. To reclaim lost ground, government needs to reassure Nigerians that it is still committed to fighting corruption by conclusively dealing with pending cases of corruption.”

    The President-General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Peter Esele, condemned the light sentence given to John Yusuf, who pleaded guilty to stealing about N23 billion pension fund, even as he called on the National Assembly to review the laws under which he was tried.

    He said: “We also prescribe that the provisions of the laws under which he was charged and sentenced be reviewed by the National Assembly with a view to stipulating commensurate punishments for the offences therein. John Yusuf and his likes should not be allowed to loot our collective commonwealth and go scot free.”

    Responding, Jonathan condemned junior and senior civil servants, whom he described as the perpetrators of corrupt practices. He recommended civil servants for peer review.

    His words: “Labour has been in the forefront of the demand for good governance and the increase action against corruption and these issues are been vigorously tackled on various fronts. Prosecution is being pursed in matters arising from the fuel subsidy fraud, embezzlement of pension funds and other serious long standing malpractices being demystified by this administration. Even at the core of this perpetration are the senior and junior members of labour unions. Greater attention to peer review action on the part of labour will be much appreciated.”

    Political corruption is not a recent phenomenon that pervades the state. Nigeria is ranked 139th out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index. It tied with Azerbaijan, Kenya, Nepal, and Pakistan.

    Analysts blame greed and ostentatious lifestyle as the cause of corruption. Others attribute it to poverty of the mind.

    Another major cause of corruption is ethnicity, called tribalism. Friends and kinsmen seeking favour from officials may impose difficult strains on the ethical disposition of the official. Many kinsmen may see a government official as holding necessary avenues for their personal survival or gain. However, the bottom line of the views of many is that corruption is a problem that has to be rooted out.

    Corruption has an adverse effect on social and economic development and also in building a nation. The effects include diversion of development resources for private gain, misallocation of talent, negative impact on quality of infrastructure and public services and slowing of economic growth.

    For lawyers, labour has a valid point. They readily point to the state pardon granted former Bayelsa State Governor Dieprieye Alamiesiegha as a demonstration of the fact the government encourages corruption.

    They also alleged that the government has been selective in those it prosecutes, giving the impression that some are untouchables. They cited the House of Representatives member, Farouk Lawan, who is facing trial for allegedly receiving bribe while the alleged bribe-giver, Femi Otedola, was not charged.

    Again, to lawyers, not much progress has been made in the prosecution of public officials and former governors charged with graft, with one of them even obtaining a perpetual injunction against his trial.

    For the analysts, to deal with corruption effectively, Nigerians should emphasise transparency, integrity, and accountability in private and public transactions. It must begin at the level of the individual.

    There is also the need to enforce the laws without fear and favour. The establishment of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau and its Tribunal was seen as a laudable start in the war against corruption.

    Unfortunately, though some successes have been registered, the general impression is that these bodies have gone after the tail of the monster of corruption rather than its head.

    It is not helpful that some politicians allege that these bodies are being used by the Presidency as instruments of blackmail or vendetta against political opponents. There is, therefore, a need to expand the activities and range of instruments available to the bodies.

    A social analyst, Oyinola Ayobami, said an effective war on corruption has to be fought from three angles: Prevention, Detection and Sanctions and Restitutions.

    A human rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Projects, urged Jonathan to show leadership and end impunity. It said rooting out high-level official corruption, ending impunity of perpetrators, and turning around Nigeria would take more than mere promises and preaching of decency. It requires strong leadership at the highest level of government, the group said.

    SERAP said half measures which avoid public scrutiny of the President’s own asset declaration, and effective prosecution of corruption cases when they involve those connected with this government were utterly inadequate and threw the government into disrepute.

    It added that the lack of accountable leadership and transparency in the management of public finances and spending has continued to exacerbate the growing poverty and underdevelopment.

    “Ultimately, the responsibility for sorting out Nigeria rests with President Jonathan. The buck stops with him,” SERAP said.

    It added: “This government should be concerned about the 2012 Failed States Index published by the United States based Foreign Policy Journal which placed Nigeria in the 144th position of its annual ranking of 177 countries; and the 2012 United Nations’ Human Development Index, which rated Nigeria 159th out of the 172 countries polled.

    “This shows low quality of life across the country brought about by the systemic denial of access to safe water, health and educational infrastructure, among others,” said SERAP.

    A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Deacon Dele Adesina said it is not the government’s responsibility alone to fight corruption. “This issue is not limited to leadership. The followership also has a responsibility to fight corruption in our land. Both the leadership and the followership have a role to play.

    “We need to look at some of these things, including even our culture, practice, our habit, our behavior. For example, if your neighbor today is appointed a minister in Nigeria, the expectation of everybody around that person changes suddenly.

    “If he is a person who has been giving N500 to his dependant, that his dependant would no longer expect N500. He would be expecting N1,000 because he is now a minister or member of the parliament. So, we have to change our expectation. We have to change our habit and change our culture.”

    On Labour’s accusation that Jonathan’s government was corrupt, SERAP’s Executive Director Adetokunbo Mumuni said: “Yes, of course, the Labour is absolutely right. The government has a lot to do. The President has not even publicly declared his assets, Ribadu’s recommendations have not even been implemented.

    “Alamieyeseigha’s pardon perhaps is the strongest sign that this administration is not tackling corruption as it should. And on top of this, nobody knows what has happened to recovered stolen wealth. Also, anti-corruption agencies have to be strengthened to be more proactive and efficient in going after the ‘big fish’.”

    Former Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch, Dave Ajetumobi, agreed that the Labour leaders have a valid point in saying the government has not shown seriousness in the fight against graft.

    He said: “The President said fuel subsidy scammers and others were being prosecuted, yes, but has there been any result to date? No! The prosecutors have been lackadaisical. Perhaps that was their instruction because government has never complained about the pace of prosecution.

    “In some cases, the government embarked on plea bargain which tend to rob Peter to pay Paul, thus sending the wrong signal that you can steal and negotiate later.

    “Lawan Farouk is facing prosecution, but Otedola the alleged giver of the bribe is moving about freely. Does that show seriousness? We should ask ourselves how many cases involving government officials, eg, ex-ministers, governors, National Assembly members have been concluded by due trial from 1999 to date?

    “For instance, what has happened to the criminal charges against Orji Kalu, Ayo Fayose, Chimaroke Nnamani, Rasheed Ladoja, Adolphus Wabara, Mrs. Patricia Etteh and Dimeji Bankole, etc? The criminal case against Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN) was withdrawn by the Federal Government so he could be made a minister. Corruption is an official state policy in Nigeria for now,” Ajetumobi added.

    Activist-lawyer Bamidele Aturu said the President was not fair to Nigerians by trivialising a weighty matter. “There is no doubt that there is no more war going on against corruption in Nigeria. All the matter that we have about prosecuting people have become mere drama. People are not seeing any conviction; people are not seeing any commitment about fighting corruption,” he said.

    He said those being tried give one flimsy excuse or the other, collect their passport and travel out of the country. “Nobody is really taking the government serious on the war against corruption.”

    Aturu added: “NLC was right on target when it criticised the government for not doing much on corruption. I agree with the NLC and would even go further to say that I do not see any war going on in this country against corruption.

    “So, that is why we must be careful not to use some people as scapegoats or to just sacrifice them though they must have done something wrong. I think that if the government must be fair to us, it must admit that we have never had it so bad.

    “Corruption is really thriving and this culture of impunity has really been promoted in Nigeria. People do what they like, without anybody stopping them. Everywhere you go, it is all about corruption. People believe that the best way to survive is when they steal public money and this is going on every day at all levels and everywhere, all over the federation.”

    Aturu believes the problem is not with the laws, but with adequate and effective enforcement. “It is not that we don’t have laws to fight it. We have adequate laws and these laws have been there since God knows when. But, the point is that we have a system, a state that elsewhere, I would call a rogue state.

    “A rogue state is one where people that compose the state, that form the institutions do all possible to promote looting. In such a state, other institutions — the Judiciary, Executive, whatsoever, tend to, one way or the other, do everything possible to promote corrupt practices. It is only those who are corrupt that have a chance of rising in a rogue state.

    “Nigeria has become a rogue state, not because it produces one resource or the other but in the sense that all the structures, the agencies, the ministries are just there to protect a culture of looting. So, we need to do something politically about it.”

    Aturu added: “We need a social revolution if we must deal with corruption. In other words, people must be involved. We need the kind of people that must be ready to change Nigeria. So, we must put the question of change on the political agenda and that is not the kind of thing the existing parties can do. We must be honest with ourselves.

    “So, how do we stop what is happening now? We need a vanguard political party, a vanguard organisation, with a new attitude of democratic culture to challenge this kind of thing with all means possible.”

    Lagos lawyer Emeka Nwadioke is of the view that corruption is endemic in Nigeria and that Labour is right.

    He said: “While Mr. President is at liberty to urge Labour to do a self-appraisal in matters of corruption, it seems to me that Mr. President was merely playing to the gallery by perhaps alluding that the pension scammer was a public servant and therefore an NLC member. Such light-hearted treatment of a very grievous subject is unacceptable.

    “What most watchers expect Mr. President to do is to outline in a more focused manner how the government is tackling this very serious malaise that is causing so much privation to all. Aside from the fact that the battle against corruption is at best weak, even the government is perceived as either corrupt or hobnobbing with corrupt persons or both.

    “A Gallup poll published at the height of the petroleum subsidy protests showed that a whopping 94% Nigerians perceived the government as corrupt. More recently, a report by the US State Department towed the same line, stating that ‘Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security forces.’

    “It is also instructive that there is a widespread perception that the Legislature and Judiciary are equally tainted with corruption. One can then see that we are firmly swimming in a cesspool of corruption.”

    Nwadioke said after doing an indepth, multi-jurisdictional study on corruption, with EFCC as a case study, he came to the conclusion that several dynamics in the anti-graft fight were patently out of sync.

    His words: “It was obvious to me that the EFCC lacked the capacity to deal a fatal blow on corruption. What was an EFCC operative doing pursuing oil bunkerers? Does the EFCC have too much on its plate? A prosecutor indeed confessed to me that charges could not be filed due to work fatigue. While capacity may have increased, I am not aware that an optimal level has been achieved. Even routine tools were not in place.

    “Also, who polices the police? Who is policing the wide discretion given the EFCC on plea bargaining? Or do we merely wait and shout later? Even the National Assembly that the EFCC is required to submit an annual report to has apparently not been rigorous in its oversight role, moreso as it has had its fair share of corruption related scandals.

    “It is only in Nigeria that an EFCC czar is hunting governors today and hobnobbing with them the next day as their DG! Aside from telling riggers to go and sin no more, who has been convicted for rigging in Nigeria or for thuggery and sundry cases of political corruption? More recently, there is a seeming resurgence in deploying anti-graft machinery for selective hounding of political opponents, even as some persons perceived as having less than stellar reputations hobnob with the power elite. The anti-graft war in Nigeria is one huge macabre dance with neither rhyme nor rhythm.

    “Combating corruption has never been a tea party. Accordingly, government must pay living wages to dissuade people from pandering to corrupting influences, while a moral rebirth has become urgent. A reform of the anti-graft agencies is imperative; what we need are strong institutions, not strong men or women. Such reform must be extended to the oversight and enforcement mechanisms.”

     

  • Six-year single tenure: Fear grips Jonathan’s men

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s political family is uncomfortable with the recommendation by the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution for a six-year single term for President and Governors.

    The President’s camp sees the recommendation as a huge threat to his yet- to- be -announced plan to seek a second term in office.

    His handlers believe it is part of the grand plot to stop him from continuing in office beyond 2015 since he and second term governors will not be eligible to benefit from the planned single tenure.

    It was learnt that members of the committee, who held a three-day working retreat which ended in Lagos last Sunday, arrived at the decision after a rancorous deliberation.

    With the proposed amendment, Jonathan, the Vice-President, 16 Governors and Deputy Governors will end their tenure by 2015.

    Sources close to Jonathan’s camp said though the President has once proposed a seven-year single term for President and Governors, he was taken aback by the decision of the lawmakers to adopt an arrangement that precludes him from seeking re-election or enjoying an elongated tenure.

    The source said:”The President’s men see this as an attempt to stop him from seeking re-election. They feel there is no way we will amend the law and stop certain people from benefitting from it.

    “Some Senators from the Niger Delta, who see it as another ploy by the North to stop Jonathan in 2015 are ready to work against the proposal. Not only that the President’s men are also working round the clock to counter this latest move to checkmate him.”

    The Nation learnt that the thinking in Aso Rock Villa is that the alleged plot to stop Jonathan is being spearheaded by some hawks in the PDP who are opposed to the President’s second term bid.

    A Senator from the Southsouth said:”The proposed amendment is part of a grand-plan being championed by some young but influential elements within the PDP with the sole purpose of stopping the President from seeking re-election.

    “These people include notable party leaders across the states, lawmakers, governors, former and current public office holders and even financiers of the party across the country.

    “The plot has been on for a while. Don’t forget some people went to court to ask for a pronouncement barring the President from seeking re-election in 2015. There are also those working within the party to get the Presidency zoned specifically to a particular section of the country. This is their latest move.”

    It was also gathered that a committee headed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Research and Documentation, Oronto Douglass, has been saddled with finding the best way of handling the matter.

    Besides, the leadership of the party has been instructed to whip into line dissenting members.

    It was also learnt that following the sack of loyalists of former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the PDP National Working Committee they have perfected a plan to hit back at the brains behind their ordeal.

    The Obasanjo loyalists across the country are said to be waiting patiently to respond to their humiliation.

    This, sources say, has become a source of serious concern to Jonathan and his aides ahead of the 2015 general election especially with the emergence of the All Peoples Congress (APC) as a veritable opposition to the ruling PDP.

  • Can National Assssembly pass PIB?

    Can National Assssembly pass PIB?

    The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has polarised the House of Representatives members into the protagonists and antagonists. Correspondent VICTOR OLUWASEGUN, who witnessed the public hearing on the bill, reports that the division in the House mirrors the divided opinion among the various stakeholders in the polity.

    PIB GREY AREAS

    • Fiscal regime

    • Dispute resolution

    • Petroleum Technical Bureau

    • Upstream inspectorate

    • Downstream inspectorate

    • Host community fund

     

    The House of Representatives is in a fix over the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). The executive bill, which was Presented to the House by President Goodluck Jonathan, has polarised the legislators.

    The lawmakers from the South have no objection to the bill. But their counterparts from the North are raising eyebrows. According to the Northern legislators, the passsage of the bill will further widen the revenue distribution gap between the North and South, thereby pauperising the North.

    So far, there is no consensus between the two blocs. When the House organised the public hearings on the contentious 493-chaptered bill recently, the views mirrored the antagonistic positions of the legislators. They also reflected the Noth-South dichotomy.

    The public hearings took place in Lagos (Southwest), Port Harcourt ( Southsouth), Enugu (Southeast), Kaduna (Northwest), Ilorin (Northcentral), and Gombe (Northeast).

    The bill is meant to establish institutions, regulatory authorities and legal frameworks for the petroleun industry. It is also meant to stipulate rules for the operation of the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. But the proposed law is also expected to make it mandatory for the giant oil companies and other operators to embark on development projects in the oil-producing areas.

    Many Nigerians believe that the bill will compel the government to strive at probity, transparency and accountability in the sector. According to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who first mooted the bill, it would revive the industry and avert the attacks on pipeline and constraints on investment.

    The amalgamated bill is a fusion of the 16 petroleum laws.The House Committee headed by the Chief Whip, Hon. Isiaka Bawa, commenced work after its formal inauguration on March 13, with a retreat with stakeholders in Lagos. But when the Senate beamed a searchlight on the sector, the remark by Senator Ita Enang that 83 percent of the oil blocs are owned by Northerners inflammed passion.

    In the Lower Chamber, the 10 percent proposed for community development in the oil-producing areas has been the bone of contention. According to northern legislators, them, it amounts to allocating more revenue to the Niger Delta.

    To douse the tension, Bawa, who addressed reporters in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said that the House had no hidden agenda. He explained that the bill is important because oil is the live-wire of the country’s economy.

    “The bill is still in a raw material form and that is why we are subjecting it to scrutiny. What we are doing is subject it to the overriding interest of Nigerians and what obtains at the end of the day is what Nigerians decide”, he added.

    The public hearing gave opportunities for the stakeholders from the north, especially the civil society groups, to challenge the sweeping powers of the Petroleum minister. They said that the exercise of these powers could be abused.

    Kwara State Governor Abdulfata Ahmed said Section 6 of the bill is worrisome. “I am concerned here about the power that has been put together for the Minister because I see the Minister as a politician. We can’t allow the fate of 157 million Nigerians to be tied to the hands of a politician. It would be too dangerous.

    “Rather, I will suggest that we have an institutional framework that would sustainably be administering that portion of responsibility, that would ensure that on a continuous basis Nigerians would have a source of confidence, a source of belonging, and most importantly, a source of hope driven by persistent optimism in the future.

    “But it must be based on equity and justice, these two will keep us together as a country”, he submitted.

    His Kogi State counterpart, Capt. Idris Wada, who was represented by the Special Adviser on Petroleum Matters, Dare Adesina, echoed the same sentiment. “ It is evident from the PIB draft that a lot of power is vested in the Minister of Petroleum. If such powers lack the motive of making the Minister of Petroleum to be more productive, it should not be encouraged.

    “ We do not want a PIB passed where some roles and functions that was erstwhile exclusive to the President of the Federal Republic now scrapped off and given to the Minister of Petroleum.”

    Niger State Governor Aliyu Muazu, also lent its voice. to condemn the section.“ PIB 2012 grants disproportionate powers and authority to the Minister of Petroleum Resources over policy, regulatory and operational issues.

    “Thus, it is not justifiable to grant such enormous powers to a single functionary of a tier of government, given that the PIB deals with the Federation as a whole.

    “It is noteworthy to establish that such laws should not be enacted because of the present occupant; it should rather embrace generality and universality.”

    The grey areas of the bill, which also agitated the stakeholders, include fiscal regime (Section 3c), dispute resolution ( Section 115), unitisation (Section 180) and the establishment of Petroleum Technical Bureau ( Section 9), Upstream Petroleum Inspectorate ( Section 13), and Downstream Petroleum Inspectorate (Section 43), and the contentious host community fund.

    The Center for Democracy and Development, in a presentation by its Co-ordinator, Comrade Taiwo Otitolaye, also spoke on the power of the Minster.

    Otitolaye said: “The powers of the Minister of Petroleum and the discretionary powers of the President as contained in the bill should be unmistakably and distinctively clarified..

    “ The bill empowers the Minister to coordinate and supervise all the activities in the petroleum industry, including powers to grant, amend, renew, extend or revoke upstream and downstream petroleum licences and leases.

    “The draft law stipulates that the Minister of Petroleum Resources only gets the approval of the President. If these sweeping powers are not toned down, they can be abused.”

    After the public hearings, the question is: what next? Bawa said the final public hearing will hold in Abuja to give the committee for final collation of views. He said that, following the collation, the House willmove to the next stage in law-making.

    However, sources said that the foreign oil companies are plotting to frustrate the exercise. But Bawa dispelled the rumour, saying that the committee is not under any pressure from the firms.

    In the past, there were allegations that the Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Addax Petroleum, Agip and Total, who are opposed to the stringent terms of the new legislation, wanted to influence certain aspects of the bill.

    According to analysts, the proposed fiscal regimes in the bill would not only negatively affect future deep water exploration, but add to the long list of contending issues, including the high risks and costs of security and bunkering.

    Another source of concern is funding. Since the House has cut down on its spending, members who expected logistics assistance from host states were disappointed.

    On the appropriateness of the zonal public hearings, the Chairman of the Northcentral Public Hearing, Hon. Bassey Ewa was of the opinion that the exercise was necessary. He decried the poor attendance by the stakeholders.

    However, it was learnt that poor planning and lack of adequate communication contributed to the poor attendance of the event.

    Another legislator, Hon. Uche Ekwunife, who is also the Chairperson of the House Committee on Environment, lauded the initiative, saying that it would give credibility to the exercise.

    She raised points on the environmental issues being considered by the bill. “Environment issues is a global issue and you can’t talk of redeeming the petroleum industry without talking the damage the oil is doing to the communities where the oil is being produced”, Ekwunife said.

    Can any minority report be ruled out, judging by the division over the bill? A lawmaker, Hon. Osagie, who chaired1 the hearing in Lagos, said that there will be no minority report.