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Tag: President Goodluck Jonathan

  • The limits of pardon

    The limits of pardon

    President Goodluck Jonathan seems to like courting unnecessary controversies which keeps denting the image of his government. If not, how can he or his aides justify the surprise state pardon granted the impeached governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha?

    From one controversy to the other by him or his ‘born again’ wife, Dame Patience, the President continues to fritter whatever is left of the goodwill he initially enjoyed when he was elected.

    He has a way of sometimes leaving many of his sympathisers, including myself, speechless with some of his controversial decisions, which make one to wonder if he really cares about the implications of his actions.

    With the various challenges the federal government is battling on all fronts and the need to enjoy the support of as many as possible, the presidential pardon for his former boss, who was convicted for money laundering and other serious corrupt offences in 2007, is uncalled for.

    The President must know something we don’t all know to justify the surreptitious manner of getting the Council of State to endorse his hidden agenda of granting the pardon to Alamieyeseigha and others, which some of those present at the meeting are now faulting.

    If the president thought he could placate Nigerians by including the names of the former governor under whom he served as deputy along with some retired military officers who were jailed for a phantom coup, on the list of those pardoned, he now knows better.

    No amount of defence by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, can convince anyone that the president does not have a personal interest in exercising his right to grant pardon to those who at one time or the other have been punished for an offence against the state.

    Okupe has really been at his best churning out all kinds of justification for Alamieyeseigha’s pardon, including the laughable one that the former governor had used his political and stabilising influence in the Niger Delta region to ensure high volume of crude oil export by the country. The irrepressible spokesman is obviously stretching the truth too far for want of good reasons for the pardon.

    Interestingly, Okupe quoted Lord Denning as saying that “the purpose of punishment is not to destroy the offender but to reform him and deter others.” Alamieyesigha should be grateful that he is not languishing in jail for the offences he committed. Granting him pardon is clearly not the way to reform him or deter others from corrupt practices.

    If President Jonathan is really serious about his anti-corruption crusade, he should not have pardoned the former governor, who was convicted for stealing public fund or any other person like the former Managing Director of the Bank of the North, Shetima Bulama, who misappropriated bank funds.

    Clearly, President Jonathan is very desperate to help his ‘benefactor’ to erase his shameful past records, which explains why military officers who had earlier been granted clemency are now being pardoned.

    Time will tell what the real purpose of the pardon for Alamieyesigha is for, but President Jonathan will go down in history as one leader who sacrificed the desire of Nigerians for a corruption-free nation by pardoning his former boss who was found guilty and jailed for corruption.

  • Presidential jailbreak

    Presidential jailbreak

    The President’s pardon for men of corrupt past undermines EFCC and encourages official sleaze

    For President Goodluck Jonathan it was another low in the country’s annals when on Tuesday he approved presidential pardon for some Very Important Personality ex-convicts. Prominent among these was Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former Governor of Bayelsa State. Others included Gen Oladipo Diya, the Chief of General Staff during the reign of military dictator Gen Sani Abacha, who was accused of coup plotting; former Managing Director of the Bank of the North, Mr. Shettima Bulama, who was also convicted of fraud; former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, the late Gen Musa Yar’Adua; former Minister of Works, the late Maj.-Gen Abdulkareem Adisa, who was also found culpable in the alleged coup that landed Diya in prison. Others included ex-Major Bello Magaji, Mohammed Lima Biu and former Major Segun Fadipe.

    No doubt the constitution permits the president the privilege of granting such pardon, after consultation with the National Council of State (NCS). Specifically, section 175 (1) of the constitution says that the president may (a) grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions;

    (b) grant to any person a respite, either for an indefinite or for a specified period, of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence ; (c) substitute a less severe form of punishment for any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence; or (d) remit the whole or any part of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence or of any penalty or forfeiture otherwise due to the State on account of such an offence.

    Questions ought to have been asked about why soldiers who were convicted for plotting to overthrow the government of General Abacha should be pardoned. But, that, too, is covered by the constitution. Subsection 3 of Section 175 covers persons concerned with offences against the army, naval or air force law, or convicted or sentenced by a court-martial. However, in all the cases, it could not have been the intention of those who drafted the constitution that the prerogative would be so recklessly abused. It is assumed that whoever occupies the presidential seat will pardon deserving persons like prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in the overall national interest. At any rate, Nigerians seem not too interested in the pardon for the coup plotters as they are in those convicted for corruption probably because the Abacha government itself was not a product of a democratic process. Hence, the focus is on Mr Bulama and, more important, Chief Alamieyeseigha.

    We acknowledge that it is not in all cases that such a pardon is popular, but never in our wildest imagination could we have seen Chief Alamieyeseigha as a beneficiary of such magnanimity. This was a man elected Governor of Bayelsa State in 1999, and was re-elected in 2003 for a second term but could not complete the term as he was arrested for money laundering in the United Kingdom in September 2005. At the time of his arrest, the Metropolitan Police found about £1m in cash in his London home. He was alleged to have disguised as a woman and jumped bail in the United Kingdom (although he has denied this) and returned home in December of the same year (2005). Public outcry compelled the state’s House of Assembly to remove him from office, preparatory to his prosecution and conviction. This paved the way for the then deputy governor, Goodluck Jonathan, to become governor.

    But discerning Nigerians must have seen this pardon coming. Chief Alamieyeseigha has been too cosy with the seat of power. This in itself is reprehensible, but that is for a government that has a modicum idea of what is decent and what is not. As a matter of fact, President Jonathan recently described the former governor as his ‘political benefactor’. This may be true given the accident of history that brought both of them together. But if the intention is to rehabilitate a former boss, there are better ways to do that than by ridiculing the entire nation in the eye of right-thinking members of the international community, by granting such a convicted felon whose crime extended beyond the country’s borders, presidential pardon.

    We wonder what the Jonathan administration is teaching by such a precedent. As far as we are concerned, anyone who does not want to get wet ought not to go near the brook; in the same vein, anyone who cannot live with the stigma of ex-convict for life should respect the eighth commandment, ‘thou shalt not steal’. The pardon is a big blow to a country that is under the firm grips of corruption. It is unfortunate that the Jonathan administration is fighting corruption in reverse.

    Since the president took the decision with the Council of State, he cannot be accused of committing an illegality. But the morality of the decision is one that will haunt his administration and some of the ex-convicts, especially, Chief Alamieyeseigha, for long. The president abused the grand prerogative of his authority and demystified the grandeur of his position’s moral dignity.

    He has encouraged a cycle of immorality, which says a person in office can commit a moral outrage and expect the shining generosity of presidential forgiveness. It implies that we have officially deployed forgiveness for the service of criminality.

    If he compels his mercies to pardon soldiers, how do we place a name like Beko Ransome-kuti beside those of the former Bayelsa State governor and the ex-banker Bulama. Beko stood for a high idea with the heroic flavour and potential of martyrdom. But the other two represented the vile and base conducts of a drifting society. Clearly, if there were pardons, they were unequal. The one shames the other.

    In a country wanton with corruption, the show of mercy is tainted and subverted. The quality of mercy has been strained. A friend and former subordinate turns the lofty principle of the prerogative of mercy to save a friend and former boss. It is not only cronyism but also nepotism. Corruption cannot be more vile.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seems unnecessary and its efforts to corral the corrupt among us futile with this slew of pardons.

    It will take some time for Nigerians to recover from the rude shock of the uncommon generosity. But if Chief Alamieyeseigha and Bulama could be pardoned, we see no reason why there should be anyone behind bars in this country for fraud or corruption. So, in the interest of fairness, the gates of our prisons should be flung open for such prisoners so they can ‘go but steal no more’. That is the least we can learn from a government that says it is not corrupt but most of its actions point in the direction that its hands are too soiled to fight corruption.

  • Jonathan reassures international community on security

    President Goodluck Jonathan has  assured the international community that his administration will continue to do everything possible to enhance the security of lives and investments in Nigeria.

     Speaking at an audience with a 45-member trade delegation from the United States of America on Tuesday in Abuja,  President Jonathan reaffirmed that the Federal Government was working very hard to overcome the country’s  current security challenges, saying  that an intensive effort was underway to curb terrorism and other criminal acts such as kidnapping and hostage taking.

     The President also assured the delegation  led by the President and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa, Mr. Steve Hayes and the Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Ms. Mimi Alemayehou that his administration will continue to empower the private sector to serve as the main drivers of the federal government’s agenda for national economic growth and development.

     He  told  company executives on the delegation with interests in aviation, power, food processing, ICT, construction, housing, textiles, infrastructure and finance that they could be very confident of the safety of their present and future investments in Nigeria as the country already had one of the most liberal legal regimes for the movement of capital and profits.

     “We welcome your interest and commitment to Nigeria. You are coming at a time when sectors previously dominated by government monopolies are being opened up to the private sector because we fully believe that that is the best way forward and the best way to create greater efficiency, employment and economic prosperity.

     “You all know Nigeria’s potentials. With its very huge market and the conducive investment climate we are working hard to foster, it is a country where your companies can do very fruitful business and I assure you of the full encouragement and support of the Federal Government for your investments,” the President told the delegation.

     The co-leader of the delegation, Mr. Hayes thanked President Jonathan for his efforts to promote greater trade and economic cooperation between Nigeria and the United States.

     He assured  that the Corporate Council on Africa and its members fully recognized Nigeria’s immense economic potentials and will do their best to support his agenda for national transformation.

     Ms. Alemayehou told the President that the delegation had had very fruitful interactions with members of the Federal Executive Council, including the Ministers of Works, Housing, Transport, Agriculture and Communications Technology. She assured President Jonathan that Nigeria will get more investments from the American private sector.

  • How judiciary shot itself in the foot over Salami

    How judiciary shot itself in the foot over Salami

    Mr. Hannibal Uwaifo, a graduate of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), was called to the Nigerian Bar in December 1990. A member of the International Bar Association (IBA) and American Bar Association (ABA), he is an active member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos Branch. He has chaired its Law Week Committee twice. Uwaifo hails President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision not to negotiate with Boko Haram, and blames the Judiciary for some of its problems, including the refusal to recall the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami. He faults the NBA’s election system, describing it as elitist. He also shares his views on Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s call for INEC to be disbanded. Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU met Uwaifo.

    President Goodluck Jonathan has said he will not grant amnesty to Boko Haram members, in response to the call by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar. What is your reaction to this?

    With all due respect to the Sultan, I think that he missed the point; it is good to dialogue, it is good to grant amnesty, we can as well grant amnesty to all the murderers and all the assassins that have been arrested, and then to all the criminals and looters that have been arrested for looting the nations treasury. However, I am still blaming the President who is a good nurtured Nigerian, who we all have a lot respect and voted for and all expect him to perform. The President has underperformed in terms of this Boko Haram crisis, probably, because he had decided to thread softly, believing that that will solve the problem. But, unfortunately, from my own point of view, it is not going to be the case because the President and the security agencies must tap from the experiences of countries that had similar problems and they are many.

    Can you give examples?

    America, the Russia, Britain and others. They are many. Even Brazil and Mexico are also going through the same issue.

    What about the Niger Delta amnesty programme; can you draw any similarity between the two?

    Not at all; those who were agitating for Niger Delta did not wake up and started bombing mosques and churches in their area on Sundays and Christmas days. They were simply seizing people in their oil rich areas who were tapping oil and working within the region, polluting their environment and all that kind of thing. They were armed and were fighting within the region. It is totally different from a group of people who are fighting a religious war. The Niger Deltans were not fighting a religious war, a religious war is totally different from political agitation. To now ask for amnesty for that kind of people is a disservice to this country. Nigeria should tap on the experience of the past and possibly adopt the Russian example. Part of the things I learnt from the Russians a long time ago, even before America started this their hardliner thing is that the Russians never negotiated at all.

    So, for you, negotiation is not an option?

    We need to tell the Boko Haram that look, this country is for us all, this country cannot be governed by one single religion if that is what they are looking for and this country should not also be governed by the belief of a few people no matter how well intentioned it may be . It has to be a combination of every one of us and we all need to put heads together to solve the problems of this country. But in as much as they refuse to abide by the rules and regulations of this country and believe in going to bomb military facilities, bombing Churches and Mosques, the security agents should rise up to the challenges and the President should not hesitate to deal decisively with the situation rather than this dialogue, which to mind will not pay off in the long run.

    Recently, a group of opposition parties came together to form the All Progressives Congress (APC). How do you think it will affect our political landscape?

    I am one of those who believe that all these kind of mushroom parties that we have all over the country is not going to help our democracy to grow. If you look at those days when we had the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC) you are either here or there. I think that is the kind of arrangement that we need in this country now. If you look at the American system or the British system, they all have a maximum of three political parties. The formation of the new APC is a good development for the country politically and democratically in as much as they conduct their affaires within the ambit of the law. And that puts the ruling political party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on its toes, that a very strong force is coming, they can now be more serious and evolve more people oriented programmes that will definitely impact the lives of Nigerians positively. It is a good development, those who are in it may join the PDP tomorrow and those now in the PDP may as well join the APC tomorrow, so it is good for the country, it gives viable alternatives to politicians and Nigerian to freely choose their leaders. What is important is that we should have two or three solid political parties that are alternative to one another, so that one party does not take undue advantage of being the largest party in Africa or in the world to continue to run the country down without anything to show for years of existence. I am not particularly referring to the PDP, what I am saying is that the formation of the APC is good for the country.

    As a consummate Bar man, what are your expectations from the current NBA leadership?

    The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has grown in leaps and bounds, from one little branch in Lagos to about 100 branches across the country. I express my appreciation to our past presidents the incumbent president of the NBA Okey Wali (SAN) for their contributions and tireless efforts to bring the NBA to its current position. However, one of the things I feel that may not be in the NBA’S interest is that the national body seems to be operating the Nigerian style and thinks that it is only the national that it is operating whereas, the local branches are supposed to be the main bedrock of the national body. Without the local branches, there would not be any national body. One of my expectations is that the national body must as much as they can, aid the local branches to meet the aspirations of their local needs rather than appearing to be the arrow head of the entire NBA which is not true because a lot of lawyers can’t go to Abuja for conferences, a lot of lawyers can’t go to all these places we organise conferences, apart from that, they can’t even afford to pay. So there is need for capacity building at the local levels to encourage branches.

    How do we get the best out of the system?

    Well, if you remember the speech I made at the Bar Dinner of our NBA 2012 Law Week, I did say clearly that the way the NBA national body was going about organising all kinds of conferences here and there was a cause for concern, because if do this one, they will say National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, you take another date, they will say that they are holding one conference or the other. I f you want to choose this date, it is another conference, so the national body should conduct itself in such a way that it will assist the branches to build capacity, to meet the aspiration of a lot of lawyers and to assist the local branches to create wealth. For a lot of lawyers, the way we are now, they see the Bar as an elitist Bar and it only those who are running their affairs and those who are connected to them that are known.

    What, to you, is the solution?

    I believe that time has come for the NBA to stop this delegates election arrangement. We cannot keep asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise elections for the President of this country using the parameter of the entire country, that is, asking all Nigerians to vote whereas the NBA where we are not even up to 120,000 lawyers in the Nigeria, we cannot even organise elections for ourselves. It is unfortunate. And then we ask a few people to go and vote for people. At times, these are people who were not even chosen by those they go and vote on behalf of. This is the reality on ground. I am not saying that some branches did not elect their delegates by democratic means, but then, to say that 50 people should go and vote for a population of about 4,000 or 5,000 people, does not make any sense. If we had problems those days that led to this kind of arrangement, time has come for us to reform ourselves, so that we can as well advise Nigerians because to advise them now will amount to physician, first heal thyself.

    The Judiciary has always been referred to as the last hope of the common man, can you confidently say this of Nigerian Judiciary today if not why?

    The Nigerian Judiciary has really done so much to strengthen justice delivery in the country but that notwithstanding, they still have a long way to go.

    Why do you say so?

    There are a lot of problems, corruption has actually crept into the judiciary and we can see the way the National Judicial Council (NJC)is trying to deal with the issues. Nevertheless, I think that the Judiciary is still its own problems, its own problems in the sense that the Judiciary is still relying on the executive arm of government without asserting itself. If you are the arm of government that interprets the law, why not interpret it to favour you so as to strengthen the judicial process? For instance, look at the case of Salami, why do you send the process of recalling the President of the Court of Appeal to the executive, why? So, they shot themselves on the foot and now they cannot get out of it.

    What is the best way to go about it?

    The Judiciary should interpret the law in such a way as to favour the Judiciary because the Judiciary is said to be the last hope of the common man. Then, if it is the last hope of the common man it must protect itself before the common man will protect it but right now the Judiciary is not protecting itself. We need serious cleansing in the Judiciary, so the Judiciary should cleanse itself. By so doing, it will remain the last hope of the common man. But the way it is today, I don’t think that the common man has any hope in the judiciary. Look at the recent judgement in this corruption. The judiciary should take lead in the fight against corruption. A judge is not sitting there to listen. A judge also has the power to make comments, especially when it is a crime against the State; the Judge has the power to ask questions.

    How exactly do you mean?

    Like the pension thief case for instance, the Judge has the right to ask the prosecutor, why is this man being brought under this law? This is because the Court is believed to take judicial notice of every law. Why not this, because it is a crime against the State? And in any case, the prosecutor is meant to prosecute it on behalf of the State and the court is meant to do justice both to the accused and to the state. So, if a Prosecutor has brought a charge under a wrong law, at least the court should make a comment on that so that the public can know and if the prosecutor refuses to heed, then he can go back. There is nothing wrong with that. I want to see a judiciary that is proactive in dealing with corruption because that is the beginning and end of this country. If we do not stop corruption, this country will go down; nothing is going to save this country. We need to put our acts together, the Judiciary, the prosecutors, the lawyers, we need to do more to save this country from this scourge called corruption. I do not believe that the Judiciary as it is today can be said to be the last hope of the common man because the common man has not received justice from the Judiciary recently.

    Former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari has called for the disbandment of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before 2015 general elections. According to him, Nigerians cannot get a free and fair election under the current leadership of INEC. What is your reaction to this?

    I want to pay my respect to General Buhari. He is a distinguished Nigerian and a former head of State, his regime was one of the best as far as I am concerned in this country because if we had continued with the discipline which is the bedrock of the country, we would have definitely surpassed where we are today. We won’t be where we are today. That is the truth, but I find it difficult to agree

    Why don’t you agree?

    I am unable to agree with him on his sweeping statements. To me, the current INEC is doing its best. When you go to a place to operate, you cannot operate outside the terrain, or outside the system. People say all manner of things like, this one is his brother, this one is his sister, this one is his in-law, this one is from the North, this one is Igbo, this one is Youruba and so on. General Buhari may be talking from any of those perspectives or the mere fact that he has not won any election in recent times, but his party won election in some States. If it was that bad, that he has no confidence in the INEC, why did he not reject those States where his party was declared winner, on the ground that he is not too sure that he actually won them?

    Is his concerns misplaced?

    I believe that General Buhari should have confidence in the INEC, especially with Prof. Attahiru Jega as the chairman. He is a man that we all respect and know very well. I believe that we should give Jega a chance, we should all support him, follow him and also criticise him. And we believe that Jega should also cry out and weed out those who should not be there if he finds any of them wanting. There is no need to disband INEC and there is also no need to say that there will be no credible elections in 2015 because that is just like placing the cart before the horse. The elections are not here yet, when the elections eventually come, it is not only INEC that is going to prepare for it, all Nigerians must prepare for it. We must cooperate, the government must cooperate, citizens must cooperate, the voters must cooperate, the security agents must cooperate because if the security agencies do not cooperate with the INEC, there will be no credible elections. So we need to give the people in charge a chance and I believe that if that is done, Nigerians will get credible elections. Of cause in Nigeria today, if we win, it is a credible election and if we loose, it was not a credible election. If Gen. Buhari was declared winner of the election between him and Jonathan, will he say that it is not credible, that the INEC should be disbanded? So, the respected former head of state should take it easy and allow INEC to do its job

    Can you remember your first day in court?

    Fortunately for me as a young lawyer, my first appearance in court was at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

    How did this happen?

    Well, a day after my call to bar, my principal then Mrs. Roselin Ikwuonwu gave me a case file and said: ‘Prepare, you will follow us to the Supreme Court tomorrow.’ I well remember, it was in Ezekiel Izuogu‘s case.

    Why did she do that?

    That was the way we were, my boss was a very disciplined person. She was a very strong woman, an active legal practitioner. It was indeed a very interesting case.

    What was your experience at the apex court?

    That was the day I saw the beauty of the Bar, with Justice Andrew Otutu Obaski (JSC) presiding, with such eminent Justices of the Court like Chukwudifu Oputa (JSC), the late Justice Augustine Nnamani (JSC) and others that I cannot easily remember now. It was indeed a beauty and I was introduced by one of the senior members of the Bar as a new wig. And they told me a lot about the legal profession, they told me that it is something I should be proud of; that I am in a noble profession and that I should keep it and ensure that we do not foul it. That remains one of my guiding principles today.

    As chairman of NBA Lagos Law Week Committee in 2012, what were your experiences and how will the benefit of such experiences help the branch to move forward?

    I express my appreciation to the branch, particularly the chairman for appointing me chairman of the committee that was set up to organise the Law Week in 2012. But I was also the chairman of the Law Week in 2009 and that was when our then chairman, the indefatigable Bola Baderinwa of blessed memory, was the branch chairman. If you remember very well, that time, we took the Law week to the premises of the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. We called it the homecoming and that was the first time we set the stage for a Law Week that was strictu sensu more like a conference. And that was born out of my experience as a member of the International Bar Association and as a member of the American Bar Association. I have seen conferences organised, the way and manner in which it is properly done, where people enjoy themselves. That was the first conference where we had four sessions in a day in contradistinction to hitherto arrangements where we used to have one session in a day.

  • Jonathan declines amnesty for Boko Haram

    Jonathan declines amnesty for Boko Haram

    …Says ‘We cannot give amnesty to ghosts’ 

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said the call of amnesty for Boko Haram members by some people is out of question, just as he declared that his government cannot grant amnesty for “ghosts.”

    The president, who was in Damaturu for the first time since almost one year of the insurgency in the state, also dismissed insinuations that he does not like the north-eastern part of country.

    President Jonathan met with the stakeholders in a Town Hall Meeting at the Wawa Hall of the government House in Damaturu and said that his visit to the state is to reassure the people of the state that he does not discriminate against any section of the country.

    Speaking on the issue of amnesty, the president said,“Even the media was saying the president was going to Yobe to declare amnesty …… you cannot declare amnesty for ghosts. Boko Haram is still operating as ghosts. You don’t see the person. I am from the Niger Delta and I know the amnesty issue of the Niger Delta. Some of these names you hear- Asari Dokobo, Tom Ateke, I never knew them before.

    “The first time I saw them was when I was a deputy governor and a came to Abuja for with a meeting with ex- president Olusegun Obasanjo at the villa. I never knew them even though I am from Bayelsa State, the hotbed of the militancy then. What I am saying is that in the Niger Delta, if you call them, they will come and tell you their grievances whether rightly or wrongly. They will be there to tell you that this is what we want and this is why we are doing this.

    “But the Boko Haram, you don’t see anybody who says he is a Boko Haram as such you cannot declare amnesty. For you to declare amnesty, you have to be communicating with people. You cannot declare amnesty for people that are operating under a veil so we cannot even discuss the issue of amnesty.

    “Let them come, let us discuss how we solve the problem. If amnesty will solve the problem, no problem about it. We can define what the amnesty is. I say so because even the Niger Delta amnesty was poorly managed with a lot of challenges. If I am not from the Niger Delta, the whole thing would have been disastrous by now because of the way it was poorly managed, “the president said.

     

  • Jonathan signs 2013 budget

    Jonathan signs 2013 budget

    The 2013 Appropriation Bill has  finally been  signed into law on Tuesday by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati said in a statement that the bill was signed after consultations and an agreement between the Executive and the Legislature.

    According to him,  President  Jonathan wishes to reassure  Nigerians that the consultations  over the budget have been in the best interest of the country, and in pursuit of understanding and mutual cooperation between both arms of government.

    “As part of the understanding reached with its leadership, the observations of the executive arm of government about the Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly will be further considered by the National Assembly through legislative action, to ensure effective and smooth implementation of the 2013 Appropriation Act in all aspects.

    “The administration remains fully committed to the positive transformation of the country, and effective and efficient service delivery for the benefit of all citizens.

    “All Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government have therefore been directed to work very hard to ensure that all the services, projects and programmes contained in the budget are successfully delivered on schedule in spite of the slight delay in its enactment” Abati stated.

  • Of current‘messiahs’ and ‘spent forces’

    Of current‘messiahs’ and ‘spent forces’

    The public has been thrown into theatrical frenzy over the bombshell in an article written by Reuben Abati, Senior Special Adviser (SSA) on media to President Goodluck Jonathan. The article published in virtually all major newspapers last weekend was titled: ‘The hypocrisy of yesterday’s men.’ That well crafted piece was definitely the consequence of former Minister of Education and one-time World Bank Vice President (Africa), Dr. Oby Ezekwesili’s allegation at the convocation lecture she delivered at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) that the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Dr. Jonathan squandered $67 billion left behind by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Oby had alleged that $45billion in foreign reserves account and another $22billion in Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings during the Obasanjo regime in 2007 were squandered by Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s administrations.

    Since then, Jonathan’s hirelings including Labaran Maku, his Minister of Information, and Doyin Okupe, media aide on public affairs have not given satisfactory explanations on how the money was spent. They all blabbed endlessly. Maku left issues raised by calling on Ezekwesili to account for over N40billion voted for education between 2006 and 2007 when she was in charge as minister. Okupe merely accused her of ‘grandstanding’.

    Abati, however, threw a punch through this piece that drew the ire of more men of yesterday from the Obasanjo camp out of their cocoon of comfort. Nasir el-Rufai and Femi Fani-Kayode, both ministers under the former president joined the scrimmage. Even their boss/mentor, Obasanjo has inexorably been virulent in his criticism of President Jonathan’s handling of especially insecurity and other challenging issues.

    Abati wants Obasanjo’s ‘navel-gazing, narcissistic…and loosely-bound group of yesterday’s men and women’ to stop criticising the policies of his boss through their arrogant and pretentious posturing as know-it- all persons simply because ‘…they were privileged to have been in the corridors of power once upon a time in their lives.’ He added: ‘We are in reality dealing with a bunch of hypocrites.’

    Beyond the name callings between today and men of yesterday, it is apt to find out what the issues are: First is the issue of whether or not Obasanjo’s administration left N67billion in foreign reserve; second is whether the response of the government on the matter really addressed the allegation that was raised by Oby: Third is to determine whether there is what in law is calleduberimei fidei behind the actions/inactions of today and yesterday’s men of hypocrisy.

    Without mincing words, it is very clear that Maku was found wanting in his official response on behalf of government to the allegation raised by Oby. Rather than brilliantly address the issue raised, he adopted the obsoletely ruthless method: ‘You Tarka me, I Dabor you’coined by the media to describe the quarrel that transpired between Joseph Tarka and Godwin Dabor during the General Yakubu Gowon era as Head of State of over four decades. He brazenly accused Oby of not accounting for the N40billion she collected as Education Minister. On the second leg of the question; the government should tell the public the time at which it realised that its accuser and one of the precursors of ‘transparency and due process’ in government mismanaged the money released for her to salvage the still epileptic educational sector? The delay by the government in accusing Oby in this regard defeats equity.

    The most important leg of the posers is to determine whether or not both parties in this exchange of brickbats acted with utmost good faith, that is, in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. The truth is that both are playing politics with the welfare and wellbeing of Nigerians. One group criticises from the position of hurt, the other defends from the position of pressure.

    For instance, the hypocrisy of men and women of yesterday, including Obasanjo, towards Jonathan would have been impossible if the president is working hard and well enough to lift the nation out of her current doldrums. The truth as it is today is that most things seem not to be working for the country because the president in the saddle does not understand the real meaning of governance. As an Ijaw man, he seems to perceive governance from the privileges and respects that are normally accorded the position forgetting that a leader can only be effective when he has good vision and purposeful mission in power.

    Jonathan does not have this because those (Obasanjo and company) that put him there wanted him to be playing their game. And he was not doing that and worse still doing badly for Nigerians. They didn’t put him there so that they can go back to their different professional callings after office, contrary to Abati’s postulations that ‘People are called upon to serve; they do so with humility and great commitment, and when it is all over, they move on to other things. The quantity surveyor returns to his or her quantity surveying or some other decent work; the lawyer to his or her wig and gown; the university teacher, to the classroom, glad to have been found worthy of national service. When and where necessary, as private citizens, they are entitled to use the benefit of this experience to contribute to national development; they speak up on matters of public importance not as a full-time job.’ The contrary is what we all currently witness in Nigeria.

    For instance, what job does he expect Femi Fani-Kayode to go into after leaving government? He was known to have written the most virulent articles against Obasanjo while he was in power but the moment he was appointed, he changed his tune. Today, those in his shoes still see Obasanjo as a godfather they must protect so that he can still make things happen for them in the corridors of power. Oby was also visible in the civil society group activities articulating views on how to make her country forward. She got to power under Obasanjo and her most visible achievement was her attempt to callously privatise Federal Unity schools, our collective patrimony. Her likes laid the solid foundation for the destruction of public institutions in the country today. What were el’Rufai’s achievements in the Bureau of Privatisation? Nothing but capitalist confusion and unbridled superciliousness! They are the people that Abati describes in his piece as ‘a group of power-point technocrats who have mastered the rhetoric of public grandstanding.’

    Well, Abati might talk gleefully about his concocted achievements of this administration but the truth today is that majority of Nigerians perceive this administration as the weakest in their history. Abati himself ought to have seen clearly that his boss’ administration is a hard sell to Nigerians in view of his lacklustre performance. What would Abati have written today on this administration of Jonathan were he still to be with the Guardian? While admitting that the Obasanjo group are spent forces, the messianic status accorded the Jonathan group of men of today in Abati’s piece cannot be justified. Therein lies his own hypocrisy and those of the other hirelings of Mr President.

    For today’s men and men of yesterday, the louder they talked of their honour, the faster we counted our spoons. They all mask their self-interest as public’s and are always ready to manipulate collective aspirations for personal good. The two groups, to adopt Abati’s words, try ‘to play God, forgetting that the case for God is not in the hands of man.’

  • High flyers and the flops

    High flyers and the flops

    CABINET RATINGS

    BARELY hours to Christmas Day, President Goodluck Jonathan, speaking at the foundation laying of the Living Faith Foundation’s Bible College in Kaduna, had a message for Nigerians:

    “Let me assure all of you and indeed all Nigerians that 2013 will be better for us than 2012 in all aspects of the nation’s history. The new year shall be better for us in terms of job creation, wealth creation and improved security among others,” he said.

    In one breath the President was challenging Nigerians to dare to hope that the oft-repeated promises to deliver dividends of democracy would be actualised in the New Year. At same time, his comments appeared to be an admission that his large cabinet had fallen short in meeting the expectations of longsuffering Nigerians in every area from security, to job creation to provision of electricity and basic infrastructure like roads.

    In a moment of defensiveness in the face on unrelenting criticism earlier this year, Jonathan vowed that he and his cabinet would no longer rely on the assessment of the media, but rate the government’s performance by themselves.

    In the real world that hardly makes sense because the entire cabinet put together cannot muster more than 50 votes, whereas the opinions of millions of voting Nigerians who don’t sit in the cabinet room would ultimate determine whether the administration has done well enough to be given another chance.

    This Sunday we begin an assessment of the Jonathan cabinet by allowing the people and experts in relevant areas to rate ministers on a scale of A to F.

    The concluding part runs next Sunday.

  • SURE-P: Lagos, others yet to get palliatives

    SURE-P: Lagos, others yet to get palliatives

    ALMOST one year after President Goodluck Jonathan launched the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) in the wake of the mass protests against the removal of the subsidy on petroleum, many state governments and other stakeholders are yet to receive the much touted palliatives promised by the Federal Government.

    Abuja had pledged, while unveiling the programme, to commit proceeds of the funds to boost health facilities, housing and transportation, including road construction and provision of mass transit buses to the 36 states and the Federal capital Territory (FCT).

    But investigation by The Nation revealed that many states across the federation may not have not benefited from the operations just as its impact on the populace is non-existence.

    Confirming this development, Lagos State Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, in an exclusive interview with The Nation yesterday, said: “Nothing was given to Lagos State. We didn’t receive a single vehicle. And we didn’t know who to make requisition to. And to the best of my knowledge, I’m not aware of any state getting anything. But frankly, we didn’t get anything from the subsidy relief programme.”

    His counterpart in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Jide Idris, also said he was not aware of any support to his sector.

    “As far as I know, I’m not aware of any support from that end to the Lagos State Ministry of Health, not at all,” Dr. Idris said.

    In separate interviews with officials of Ondo, Ekiti and Osun States, governments, they denied the existence of the SURE-P in their respective States.

    Echoing similar sentiments, Chief Olabode Afolayan, National President, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), in an interview with our correspondent while acknowledging that the SURE-P had a component for housing in 2012 however, regretted that no structure was put in place to actualise same.

    He said:”Unfortunately we have not been able to access any funds from the SURE-P. It was not available for us to access because some of these things from government you need to come up with a template so that we all understand before you start allocating funds.”

    “We only hope that maybe what we were unable to achieve last year we will be able to achieve this year. But honestly why it was like that was that the stakeholders were not carried along in an attempt to draw up a programme.

    “You don’t just allocate money. You come up with a programme; let the programme drive the allocation of money. You don’t just say this is N1billion for houses; you have to first ensure the availability of land on which you want to build. It should be from question to answer and not from answer to question because what they have done in SURE-P is like from answer to question.”

    Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has said it will look into the mandate and operations of the SURE-P launched by the Federal Government.

    The investigation which will kick off this week is to be conducted by the Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Finances, States and Local Governments.

    Chairman, House Committee on Downstream, Hon. Dakuku Peterside, said the investigation was in compliance with a resolution of the House following a debate on the operations of the programme.

  • Corruption as opium

    Corruption as opium

    Unless President Jonathan acts fast, this ‘forbidden fruit’ that is eaten freely now might define and destroy his govt

    Without trying to act a seer, I can see President Goodluck Jonathan struggling to do something about power supply in the country, at least to have something to showcase in the 2015 elections. He has no choice; he must do something so he does not lose his deposit even with the elections still months away. Losing his deposit would be tantamount to committing political suicide. A saying common in the south west of the country says that after one has prayed that God should not make one fall into disgrace, the next thing one begins to pray against is for God not to allow one die the moment disgrace becomes imminent.

    No doubt, power supply would play a crucial role in deciding the president’s fate come 2015. And it appears this is one of the few things he can do without much sweat. He is not winning the war on the economic front; he is not winning the security aspect of it either. Education is in a shambles; health care in tatters and there is a massive infrastructural deficit that fixing is beyond the government’s ken. But most of the ‘ingredients’ needed for changing the face of the power sector are already here; all the president has to do is mix them in the appropriate proportions and food (power) is ready. His estranged political godfather, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had done much of the spade work; only that he (Obasanjo) was not destined to wear the crown of glory as the president who gave Nigerians light. Some would say an ‘ebora’ can never give light. Nonetheless, Obasanjo had imported most of the equipment needed for the power sector; forget the many mistakes associated with the decisions, i.e. their failure to reckon with the transportation needs for the equipment, given that most of them were too large to be transported by road, and the non-dredging of the rivers to transport them by sea, etc.

    Before the former president takes me on concerning the ‘crown of glory’ that I said he was not destined to wear, let me say that being a two-time head of state is good; but it is not necessarily synonymous with wearing the ‘crown of glory’. Even in the scriptures that I know the former president must be familiar with as a Baptist Church senior citizen, the crown is not for the person who began something but for someone who accomplished it. Chief Obasanjo had all the time to lighten Nigerians’ darkness; unfortunately, he chose to squander the chance by pursuing irrelevancies, including an impracticable third term agenda that he dissipated much of his energy on.

    But this piece is not about Obasanjo; it is about his godson, Jonathan that has now come of age and has severed the umbilical cord that tied him to his godfather. But Nigerians have nothing to worry about that; the war between the godfather and godson is spiritual and it has just started. God has a way of smashing any scheming that is not of Him, the same way He knows how to put asunder what he has not joined together.

    Be that as it may, I wonder how President Jonathan manages to sleep with the mindboggling corruption ravaging the country. I have not seen this type of corruption in my life; not even in the Alhaji Shehu Shagari years. As a matter of fact, if I were President Jonathan, the only agenda at the Federal Executive Council meetings would not be award of contracts, but ‘corruption, corruption and corruption’, because, unless and until we fight corruption, we are deceiving ourselves; all the contracts awarded would only serve as avenues through which some emergency billionaires would emerge. I can see some people chuckle that that is the raison detre of the contract awards in the first place! Even in the Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha years, corruption was rife but it was not for all but for a select few in power and their cronies in the corridors of it.

    If the Jonathan presidency cares to be told; it is the laughing stock in all the high-wire intrigues that led to the Lawan Farouk/Femi Otedola ‘sting’ operation and its present stalemate. It is also the butt of all the jokes in the Ribadu/Oronsaye matter. As far as Nigerians are concerned, the Jonathan government has a case to answer in the scam that the fuel subsidy has become; indeed, its culpability is the reason why we are not making any headway in our attempts to punish the culprits. How it kept paying trillions for subsidy that we never spent N400billion in any given year on in 2011 (an election year) alone without asking questions could not have been a mistake. This could not have been anything but a premeditated swindle.

    And when one would have expected the president to be remorseful of his government’s action, he came out as usual with a most shocking statement that the fuel subsidy protests of January were sponsored. This is the height of his contempt for Nigerians. It is visible to the blind and audible even to the deaf that Nigerians have been milked dry by some fat cows most of who hobnob with the president himself, through fuel subsidy payments. And this much Nigerians have always known even if the Jonathan government pretends not to. So, in spite of all they know on the subject-matter, Nigerians still need some sponsors to give them bottled water and food to protest the insensitivity of the government that lacks the will to fight corruption? How can a president who understands the issues still have the guts to say this kind of thing at a time his government should be tendering unreserved apologies to Nigerians for the untold hardship that had been caused them by the conmen (and women) involved in the subsidy racket?

    Verily, verily I say unto the president, no matter what he does, his government cannot make any headway because he himself lacks the will to deal with those who stole subsidy money among numerous other frauds, for obvious reasons. Whatever anti- corruption war this country wants to fight can only make sense if it begins with the subsidy trillions. What the country has lost in the Jonathan years alone is mind-boggling. Even clerks now steal in billions. Let President Jonathan attain 20,000MW of electricity before 2015, it would end up amounting to nothing if corruption still rules the country. Why? The reason is simple: a child that one did not train will end up selling whatever inheritance one left for him, and for peanuts (to boot) because he cannot appreciate their worth.

    So, for President Jonathan to think he can leave any positive legacy in the power sector (or any other sector for that matter) is wishful thinking. He can only try; it won’t work for the simple reason that corruption will be at every juncture to wipe off the gains. What I am saying in effect is that the government can only succeed if it is possible to build on nothing. When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He told them they could eat of all the fruits there but one. It would appear that ‘forbidden fruit’ is the corruption that is the only exotic fruit that is freely eaten by the big people in the Jonathan era.

    •I could not feature last week but the printer’s devil burnt off the portion of my column where the notice to this effect was put. Sorry about that.