The Nation Newspaper

Tag: presidential

  • Another presidential no-show

    Another presidential no-show

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s dramatic last minute abandonment of a second visit to a state of the federation is troubling and should be properly explained.

    His proposed visit to flag off the clean-up exercise of the polluted areas of Ogoniland on Thursday, June 2, had been well advertised. The visit was especially significant given it was a vital part of his electoral pledge to the people of the region.

    Aside the symbolism of being able to say to the whole world that he had fulfilled a major campaign promise, such a visit would have sent a signal of the government’s resolve to the militants who have been attacking oil facilities across the region.

    When the president called off his planned trip to Lagos State last month, there was at least the official explanation that it was down to ‘scheduling difficulties.’

    Many people found this hard to swallow given that a president’s schedule isn’t planned overnight; it is something that is worked out with the potential host over weeks and months.

    In the case of Ogoniland, the absence of an explanation hours after the cancelation is even more shocking. Again, we are left to speculate. Is the president ill? Did he back out because of the assassination threat by the avengers?

    Not being availed of the facts it is hard to say how credible the security threats against the person of the president were. However, if threats were proven to be serious it would be understandable if the responsible agencies decided not to put Buhari in harm’s way.

    But the wise thing to do would have been to say so. In the age of terror countries issue travel advisories all the time warning their citizens not to visit trouble spots. It is also not unheard of for political leaders to call off visits because of such threats.

    For Buhari, however, the second no-show in as many weeks is politically damaging. The mileage he would have received from flagging off the clean-up has been overshadowed by the drama and mystery surrounding his latest no-show.

    Even worse it plays into the propaganda game of the militants who can now claim before an international audience that they scared off Nigeria’s president from the Niger Delta. Every time such a visit is moved on the basis of some little threat, it chips away at Buhari’s credibility as a leader who is strong on security issues.

    Security threats against a leader in a volatile political environment such as ours will never end. Some presidents have been known to overrule their security aides to interact with the populace.

    With ample protection in place, Buhari should have made the visit if only to show that there’s no inch of Nigerian territory he can’t go to. Except if there are other explanations being kept from a curious populace.

  • Amata wins DGN Presidential election

    Amata wins DGN Presidential election

    Lucky at his third attempt for the post of President, Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN), and filmmaker Fred Amata finally clinched it on Saturday. Amata polled 48 votes to defeat his fellow contenders – Kingsley Omoefe (7), Dickson Iroegbu (3), and Lancelot Imasuen (43). He will preside over the affairs of the Guild for the next two years.

    The election climaxed the three-day session of the Guild at the Tourist Resort Hotel, Asaba, Delta State. To set the stage for the election the DGN  president and filmmaker, Andy Amenechi, on Thursday night,  passed the baton to an electoral body that took over the tension-filled atmosphere.

    Delegates had gathered for three days at the popular Tourist Resort Hotel & Suites, Asaba,  Delta State, for the voting exercise which was preceded by an Annual General Meeting, Unveiling of DGN Electoral Committee (DGNEC) members and manifestos on Thursday.

    Other positions contested for in the election are Welfare Office, Public Relations Officer,  National Secretary, Director of Finance and Assistant Secretary General. While other offices fielded unopposed contestants, the welfare office was contested between Prince Isaac Kola and Dan Chukwueze; the vice presidential position between Mike Ogundu and Okey Zubelu.

    The hotel was a beehive the manifesto proved huge debate as candidates pruned their responses to questions to just two minutes.

    And just few minutes to the elections, Dickson Iroegbu announced his withdrawal from the race, sparking a brief uproar. Iroegbu then tried to announce his support for a particular candidate but was not allowed to. He then publicly told The Nation that he would want his supporters to back Fred Amata.

    “The truth of the matter is that I was not in the race for some selfish reasons,” he said.

    “It was about the Directors Guild of Nigeria and the entire Nollywood. That was why my campaign was centered on Nollywood rebirth.

    “But I observed the desperation being expressed and being a candidate who has interacted with other aspirants, I decided to make a sacrifice for DGN. Yes, I’ve stepped down, not because of any inducement, not because of any horse trading but because we are not politicians.

    “This is a professional Guild.  So I have to make the sacrifice as part of my intention to serve. I have to step down so that the bickering could subside.  And get someone whom most of us can say we’ve made a good choice.  This is not a political decision but one that is good for the Guild I want to represent as president, “Iroegbu said.

    On who he would want his supporters to vote for as DGN president? Iroegbu said; “considering the presentations made by us, I have sensed that supporting Fred Amata will be better.”

    While some delegates pitched their tent of loyalty with their candidates based on ‘indebtedness’ , others voted with their conscience on the ground of conviction and performances during the manifestos and debate sessions.

    Earlier, the candidates had been asked about their disposition should they lose?

    “I will not lead DGN by proxy,” said Dickson, “I will not abandon a child I was part of his conception,” said Imasuen,  “We’ll will work together no matter what,” said Omoefe, while Amata said, “The four of us will come together to move the Guild forward.”

  • Presidential Vacationing

    A subtle but historical shift occurred lately in the application of our country’s laws. It seemed negligible, but it was significant as a test of new provisions of the Constitution following from a challenging national experience. Nigeria now has the record of a sitting president submitting power momentarily to go on vacation, in line with extant laws. President Muhammadu Buhari penultimate weekend took out a six-day vacation, upon which he transmitted power to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to “perform the functions of the President” in his absence. A statement by the Presidency said he had sent a letter to the leadership of the National Assembly in line with Section 145 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic, as Amended.

    Nigeria’s history of self-governance had no precedent of this momentary transfer of power. Not under the military who ruled omnipresently like the ‘Big Brother’ in George Orwell’s 1984 – not even when self-styled military President Ibrahim Babangida stayed weeks away from the country for his famous radiculopathy surgery in France; and not since the restoration of civilian rule in 1999. I have no recollection of former President Olusegun Obasanjo ceding power momentarily to Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for any reason during his first term, even though he retreated often to his Ota farmhouse for vacationing when he was not trotting the globe on solilateral or multilateral linkages; and certainly not during his second term when he would rather not have Atiku in office as vice-president. The constitutional crisis occasioned by the late President Umar Yar’Adua not transmitting power even in death throes is still raw in memory, and actually compelled amendment of the Nigerian Constitution to plug an embedded gap; and former President Goodluck Jonathan who was the immediate beneficiary of that amendment never once ceded power to take a break. For these leaders, vacations, when they hazarded one, were mere ‘staycations’ during which they held tight the reins of power.

    President Buhari took a different tack when he submitted power to Vice-President Osinbajo for his six-day vacation, and transmitted a formal letter on it to the National Assembly. Without detracting from the President’s high moral standing and reputation as someone eager to do things rightly, it is gratifying that the present framing of the Constitution leaves no Nigerian leader much choice to do otherwise. This is because the 2010 amendment, following from the experience of the Yar’Adua years, replaces discretion with obligation on a President who will be momentarily unavailable to serve the National Assembly a formal notice of that absence and accordingly transmit power. The amended provision, which is now sub-section 1 of Section 145 states: “Whenever the President is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, the Vice-President shall perform the functions of the President as Acting President.”

    For reinforced effect, a new sub-section 2 was inserted in the 2010 amendment stipulating that where an absentee President fails to transmit the written declaration within 21 days, “the National Assembly shall, by a resolution made by a simple majority…mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of the President as Acting President until the President transmits a letter to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives that he is now available to resume his functions as President.”

    These new provisions tightened the screws on the one-clause provision in the Constitution before the amendment, which tacitly left to the President the discretion on whether or not to transmit a letter to the National Assembly. That old clause had stated: “Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such functions shall be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President.” The discretionary undertone in this old provision, I dare say, largely contributed to the crisis of 2009.

    It wasn’t that President Buhari, under strict provisions of the 2010 amendment, needed to have transmitted power for his six-day vacation. Twenty-one days is the stipulated cut, and it must be a measure of his transparent leadership and strong morality that he followed through with the constitutional provision for a vacation lasting only six days. Meanwhile, not a few Nigerians wrestled with the novelty of their leader taking a voluntary break from power, and so, insinuations flew that the President had some health challenge that compelled his taking the time off. Some persons also suggested that the unfolding debacle of the 2016 national budget in the National Assembly might have unduly stressed the President’s psychophysical make-up. The Presidency, of course, debunked those narratives, affirming that the President was in good health and only took a deserved respite from work.

    My take is that whatever the President spent his brief vacation on should not detract from the moral of that vacation. Many Nigerians, in public as much as in private spheres, are chronically averse to vacationing. Top officers in most sectors of our national life are notorious for holding fort interminably and preferring that their annual leave be monetised – not because they are bionics who do not wear out with time and work stress, but because they could not afford to step aside and allow others to interrogate their records of official dealings when they are not there. President Buhari’s vacation was a refreshing break from the sit-tight syndrome, and an exemplar of clear conscience.

    But it is helpful still that the country’s Constitution now makes transmitting of power by a President upon temporary indisposition obligatory, rather than discretionary as it was before the 2010 amendment. That may be the compelling factor for a future leader, if not much so now with the high integrity quotient of the present leader. It was the allowance for discretion in the old provision that the infamous “cabal” of the Yar’Adua administration exploited in withholding power upon his medical trip to Saudi Arabia in November 2009, which resulted in the constitutional crisis that compelled the National Assembly to invoke a “doctrine of necessity” in appointing then Vice-President Jonathan as Acting President. If you recall, the “cabal” was so disingenuous with this constitutional provision for discretion that we were regaled by its frontmen, like former Attorney-General Michael Andoakaa, with theories to the effect that the President personified Aso Rock and could run the country from anywhere in the world – even while incommunicado on a hospital bed!

    Nigeria takes after the United States’ presidential system, and that country has its provision for temporary transfer of power in Section 3 of the 25th Amendment of its Constitution. The provision has, however, been used by only two Presidents in the country’s history: In July 1985 when President Ronald Reagan ceded power to George H. W. Bush (Snr.) for colon cancer surgery, and in June 2002 as well as July 2007 when President George Bush (Jnr.) transferred power to Dick Cheney to undergo colonoscopy procedures. President Bush (Jnr.) was in surgery for barely two hours in 2002, but America was then at war in Iraq, and he said he was ceding power “out of an abundance of caution.” Incidentally, American presidents are notorious for taking out short vacations, and they retain power when they do. Not that it is forbidden for ours to do likewise if they would be away, but visible and accessible within 21 days; except they deem it fit to let go out of an abundance of caution.

  • Presidential or parliamentary system: Which is better for Nigeria?

    There is a subject which is very crucial to the well-being of Nigeria, but which we Nigerians never give the seriousness it deserves. I refer to the question whether our country should be governed under a presidential or parliamentary system. From time to time, someone raises this question and a few other citizens respond to him, but then the debate quickly dies down. Yet, as a citizen with experience of Nigerian politics and government since the 1950s, I cannot get rid of the feeling that we will, someday, have to resolve this question quite definitively.

    We Nigerians have experienced two different systems of government since our country began to have a constitution in the early 1950s. We started off in 1952 with the British Parliamentary System. In this system, the members of parliament were elected by us citizens at the General Elections. From 1952 to 1966, we had a total of five parliaments, that is, a federal parliament, and a regional parliament for each of our four regions – East, North, West and Midwest.On the floor of each parliament, the parliamentarians then elected the Prime Minister (in the case of the Federal Parliament), or Premier (in the case of each Regional House of Assembly). The Prime Minister or Premier then nominates his ministers for his colleagues in parliament to accept.

    In this system, a minister is responsible for the management of his ministry, the council of ministers is jointly responsible for the direction of affairs, and the chief executive (Prime Minister or Premier) is just first among equals. The council of ministers considers and approves the plans and programmes of ministers, and ensures the place and harmony of such plans and programmes in the over-all direction of the government.  Each minister presents and defends his plans and programmes (that have been approved by the council of ministers) on the floor of parliament, usually with additional backing by the Prime Minister or Premier.

    The Prime Minister or Premier, as well as the ministers, are responsible for making programmes and plans acceptable to the legislature, and are usually subjected to questioning by the legislators trying to satisfy themselves before giving approval. The Prime Minister, the premiers, and the ministers are also responsible for presenting the reports of the executive government to the legislature. To ensure success in parliament, the Prime Minister or Premier and his ministers must keep their party members in parliament well informed about, and satisfied with, their plans and programmes. On the whole, this is a system characterized by joint responsibilities, systemic accountability, copious informing and persuading. In such a system, the Prime Minister or Premier was very far from being a “Sole Ruler”, and could not easily give vent to his whims and caprices.

    But in the 1970s, under the thick shadow of military rulers and heavy influence of military rule, Nigeria’s leaders gathered in Lagos and chose the American Presidential System for our country. We did not know the nuances and possible pitfalls of this system then; but now we know them – and they are many and serious. For one thing, the presidential system makes the political process, with countrywide presidential elections and statewide gubernatorial elections and senatorial elections, far too expensive. No Nigerian who (like me) has taken part in the system, who has been through its heavy expenses and usually heavy debts, can deny that these enormously expensive elections have been a major factor in the boosting of corruption in our country’s political life.

    For another, the system concentrates power and responsibilities too heavily in the hands of the President or Governor. It has had the effect of turning our presidents and governors into virtual autocrats, their colleagues in the executive arm of government into mere waiters-on, and our legislators into glorified outsiders. Some Nigerian intellectuals have just completed a joint book in which they have pooled together their various and widespread studies of the steadily growing impotence of legislatures, the growing dictatorial tendencies of presidents and governors, and the enormous influence of the whims and caprices of presidents and governors in our governmental system. Because presidents and governors tend to view their administrations as their exclusive personal mandates, our country has been sustaining heavy financial losses through poorly digested, unreasonably chosen, and inadequately discussed programmes and projects, through presidents’ and governors’ tendency to insist on having their own ways in the making of government policies, and through thoughtless abandonment of programmes and projects initiated by predecessors.

    Furthermore, the system has made the position of president or governor so insanely desirable to our politicians, that the quest for it has become a major source of conflicts and confusion in our political system. And finally, on the whole, the system has contributed greatly to the destruction of the professional quality of our civil service and bureaucrats – and this has been a major factor in the general decline of the quality of governance in our country.

    This concentration of power in the hands of chief executives has proved culturally difficult for some Nigerian peoples to live happily with. Left to choose their own system of government, there are Nigerian nationalities that would hardly ever choose the presidential system – peoples (like my own Yoruba nation) who are used, in their history and political traditions, to shared responsibilities, mutual respect, and accountability, among the rulers of society.

    The generally arrogant and thoughtless directions given since the 1960s to the ordering of the governance of our country have dragged our country down in many directions. It is my considered opinion that the choice of the presidential system has been one of the worst steps we have ever taken, and I humbly propose that Nigeria should return to the parliamentary system.

    However, if any state in our federation chooses to run its affairs by a presidential system, it should be free to do so. The fundamental philosophy behind the whole idea of a federation is acceptance of, and respect for, difference. For some historic reason, a number of nations, living in their different homelands, find themselves joined together as one country, sharing one sovereignty.  To be able to relate to one another harmoniously, they evolve a federal system of government – in which each nation governs itself in its own way, in the general context of their whole country. There are variations in system among the states of the United States of America, the states of the Indian Union, and the cantons of the Swiss Federation. Even in such a minor particular as traffic regulations, there are differences from state to state in the United States of America.

    In the matter of mode of government, there might be differences in the ways in which our states would design their constitutions. For instance, even if there continue to be a president in Abuja and governors in some states, I seriously doubt that we Yoruba will ever have governors if we are allowed to choose our own system of government. For years now, we have seen what governors look like – and the general Yoruba opinion is that being ruled by governors is quite ugly. It is not so much our men that are ruling in this ugly way, it is the system that is ugly and warped in nature. We Yoruba as a people throughout our history have been very good at structuring and managing the principle of balance of powers in government in order to prevent the abuse of power. We would rather be ruled by a council of ministers, in which a Premier is only first among equals, in which each minister or commissioner bears definite responsibilities, and in which all are members of our elected legislatures and are responsible, on a daily basis, to our legislatures. That’s the kind of people we are. That is the kind of system charted for us by our political history and culture. And that is the kind of system I would strongly recommend for our country.

  • PRESIDENTIAL REWARD: Adekuoroye thanks Buhari

    PRESIDENTIAL REWARD: Adekuoroye thanks Buhari

    • Promises better outing in Rio

    RIO d’Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games medal hopeful, Odunayo Adekuoroye has expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari after honouring her for winning bronze medal at the 2015 World Wrestling Championship in Las Vegas, USA.

    Buhari, at the reception for Nigeria athletes and officials who did the nation proud at international competition in Abuja, announced a token reward of N1.2million for Adekuoroye while the coaches got N600, 000.00 each.

    “I want to use this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to President Buhari for this reward, I never expected to be among those that will be honoured today. This has really showed that whatever one is doing, there is always a reward for it,” the 2014 Commonwealth gold medalist told SportingLife on telephone.

    “I also appreciate my president, Hon Daniel Igali and other members of the federation, my coach, family, friends and Nigerians for their support and prayers at all time. I will continue to train hard and do my best to ensure I bring more honour and glory for this country especially at the coming Olympic Games,” she assured.

    It will be recalled that Adekuoroye qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics after winning a bronze medal at the 2015 World Wrestling Championship in Las Vegas, USA.

    In the year 2015 in review, the Nigeria’s highly rated wrestler became a two-time Africa Champion, double bronze medalist at both World Wrestling Championship held in Las Vegas, USA and the World Grand Prix in Baku Azerbaijan.

    Nigeria’s hero, Adekuoroye 53Kg, was crowned best female wrestler at maiden concluded Pro Wrestling League in Delhi, India where she helped her club, Mumbai Garudu to the title. She maintained a perfect record: fought 6 bouts, winning all six battles and four (4) were by technical superiority, as she remained unbeaten throughout the tournament.

  • Presidential media chat and journalistic faux pas

    SIR: I had looked forward to President Muhammadu Buhari’s inaugural media chat with gung-ho spirit. And unlike some in the past, the chat gave the participants the latitude to ask questions on the go, and the president, showed that he knew the territory and didn’t unnecessarily skirt on issues that needed forthright answers.

    I expected the panel of journalists to have done better than they did (no disrespect intended) but I got the impression that there were only two journalists on the panel that night – Kayode Akintemi of Channels Television and Mannir Dan Ali of Daily Trust. These two were on top of the journalistic game.

    The chance to interact and quiz statesmen whose policies shape our world, either good or bad, is a chance of a lifetime that must be used well. Nigerians watching do not expect to see journalists either toadying up to such statesmen or asking questions based on canard.

    It didn’t strike me that some questions were properly researched especially the one on national security which almost ruined the show for me because the president had to teach a journalist the importance of national security, and the danger of allowing indecent behaviour to thrive in society.

    I learned from an early age to be alert when engaging with two classes of professionals, a well groomed military officer and a lawyer for they are tenacious, and many have helped shaped societies positively.

    * Interacting with them on national issues by journalists therefore isn’t just a handout; it should be a strategic investment with huge returns possibly to lift the hopes of people.,  I expected to hear piercing questions, the Tim Sebastian, and Stephen Sackur type that unsettle even interview veterans like a Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah.

    After all, soldiers have thick skins, can take the heat, their training welcomes challenging questions, but the research team for this media chat didn’t test the president enough. Even though I didn’t expect to see an axe-grinding exercise, after all Buhari is not a Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, I expected questions to make him stutter a bit but got none. That works if the home work was done well.

    It was bad enough for me that the President had to advise media gurus against jumping to sensational reporting instead of investigative journalism to reveal truth in their reporting. Journalists should know better, at least tested hands know when not to overplay the card, when to ask the eyeball-to-eyeball questions and when to balk for national security.

    The commission for media chat if there is any, should make the next media chat effervescent by restricting the chat to an area of specific interests, say foreign affairs or international diplomacy and the economy, etc., etc., etc., and not a hodgepodge of all national issues in limited time. Consideration should be given to subjects of current topicality at that time.

    The president may not have scored high on statistics like a Bill Clinton, but he engaged in an effective heart-oriented harangue which to this writer is better when compared to others in the past when grandiose statements were made to compete with the ‘grandiosest’  already made.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port  Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Presidential monitoring visit boosts FESTAC Phase 2 project

    The A seven-member Presidential project monitoring team led by its director, Mrs. Sandra Fadeyi, has vistited FESTAC Phase 2 project located in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government area of Lagos State.

    The visit was a boost for the concessionaire, the New Festac Property Development Company Limited (NFPDCL).

    Also on the inspection tour were some officials of Federal Housing Authority (FHA), led by its General Manager, David Kpue, the concessionaire with their consultants led by its Managing Director, Mr. Goody Egbuji. The FESTAC Phase 2 estate sits on 1, 126 hectares of land.

    Before the commencement of the tour, officials of the NFPDCL, had at a meeting with the government team, made a visual presentation of the project, detailing all aspects of the project, including already completed site investigation studies and preliminary works , the status of ongoing reclamation work  and some legal challenges that were standing as impediments to the advancement of the project. Several structures, mainly said to be illegal since they were built without the necessary approval from the FHA, were noticed by the team, especially a massive building erected directly on the main road and on a drainage channel, thus blocking some access routes, and causing disruption to the original masterplan of the area.

    At one of the sites, a member of the team, who declined to be mentioned because he is a civil servant, said the concessionaire has a an pu hill task ahead. Presently, the NFPDCL has commenced development works on the land, especially the sand filling and land reclamation aspects of the land. This is the second phase of development in the bigger land mass of Festac Town, whose entirety sits on a total land area of measuring 2, 024 hectares. The first phase was developed in 1977 and served as home for visitors to the second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) hosted by Nigeria in 1977.

    Consequently, the concessionaire has assured the investing public of good return of investment (RoI) as the development would make the estate an investment haven. Already, the concessionaire explained that the estate would be second to none and for the discerning investor, FESTAC Phase 2 would be an unprecedented estate because of the planned facilities to be put in place. For instance, the serviced plots to be realised through the concession will be complemented with green areas, off street parking, power supply, petrol stations, shopping malls, hospitals, hospitality centres, well laid roads, water  works, street lights, sewage disposal systems, and all necessary support infrastructure.

    “FESTAC Phase 2 has attracted strong interest from savvy investors who see beyond today in their investment decisions; this is why it is an investors’ and investment destination. There is an excellent location in here; the large population of Festac Phase 1 also makes for a ready market for any form of investment including schools, shopping malls, banks, eateries, and small and medium enterprises,” Egbuji explained.

    Real estate operators have also expressed optimism that the development of the FESTAC Phase 2 will transform the entire axis into a modern city and yield great benefits both in the infrastructural and socio economic development of Lagos.

    In September 2014, the federal government approved the concession of the Phase 2 of the FESTAC scheme to NFPDCL under a 30-year build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) lease agreement. Based on this agreement, NFPDCL, is  undertaking land reclamation, sand filling, infrastructural development, marketing and sale of the over 7, 000 plots of land to be created from the reclaimed land.

    Also, from the project, the Federal Government is estimated to earn N25.765 billion as premium and an additional N150 million ground rent annually for the 30 years of the concession.

  • Crocodile found in Presidential Suite

    A crocodile has been found at the Niger State Presidential Suite in Minna, where the Finance Committee investigating the finances of the last administration has been sitting.

    The crocodile was discovered under a car of a guest who lodged in the suite.

    It was found by security men, who came with another guest.

    The discovery caused fears among workers.

    The security men caught the crocodile and took it away, while the workers were calmed, as they were assured that it was nothing out of the ordinary.

    The incident was confirmed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Niger State Governor, Dr. Ibraheem Dooba, who said it was very unusual for a crocodile to be found in the Presidential Suite, as the area was not the kind of environment a crocodile should be found.

  • Presidential pay slash

    Presidential pay slash

    •What is more important is discipline and curbing extravagant lifestyle

    President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo recently declared their intention through an official memo with reference number PRES/81/SGF/17 to voluntarily slash their salaries by 50 per cent of what the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) statutorily allotted to their posts. This is to us a glib approach to an endemic problem of waste in public life.

    President Buhari’s current annual remuneration as approved by RMAFC is put at N14, 058,820.00. By halving his salary, Buhari will be earning in each year of his four-year administration tenure life span, the sum of N7m. The same applies to Osinbajo who earns N12,126,289.8 per year, which at half salary translates to N6,063,144.9 per year. Apart from these remunerations, the president and his deputy are entitled to various regular allowances like: hardship allowance which translates to 50 per cent of their basic salaries and consistency allowance which amounts to 250 per cent of same basic salaries.

    But the important question at this juncture is who determines whether the president/deputy is consistent in the discharge of their duties; and also what type of hardships are the president and his deputy faced with in the discharge of their duties? This is one fundamental dilemma faced by a country in search of a realistic remuneration package not only for her executive arm of government but the legislative and other appointive positions in the land.

    This season of salary slashing calls back to former President Goodluck Jonathan at a point during his administration when the price of crude oil slumped. He reduced his salary by 30 percent. This he did despite the fact that his administration witnessed the highest level of crude oil theft and other extreme corrupt practices without any known significant attempt to nip such in the bud. In the end, such publicity stunt stands for its symbolism and not substance because nothing really changed. Under the current dispensation, it is also on record that the governors of Abia, Kaduna and Kano states, amongst others, reduced their salaries but the public sees that as another publicity trick that would not positively impact on the lives of the common man.

    Sadly, the executive and the legislative arms of government are only able to maintain a greedy and ostentatious lifestyle of buying private jets and building grandiose houses of opulence and procurement of bullet-proof vehicles because of the odious slush funds at their disposal. What ought to be done is for them to slash the diverse allowances like security vote, hardship and consistency allowances, including travelling estacode, amongst others, such that the wage bills of the states and the centre government would drastically be brought down. So far, public officers’ allowances account for the bulk of their financial entitlements, creating in the process a heavy toll on public till.

    The RMAFC is statutorily empowered by Section 32 (d) of Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the Constitution to determine the appropriate remuneration for political office holders. Consequently, we call on this statutory body to come up with a pay package for all arms of government, which reflects the economic reality in the polity. We do not subscribe to perquisites of office that are adhoc or individualistic like the current executive/presidential salary cut initiatives. We want realistic meaningful salary structure for elective and appointive officers of state but we abhor remuneration excesses and ostentation that are insensitive to the prevailing economic realities. That is what RMAFC should curtail without further delay. The Buhari administration may mean well by the salary slash, but we need greater show of discipline in public life.

  • Presidential poll: Group demands detained APC members’ release

    A non-governmental organisation, Coalition for Change and Good Governance, has demanded the release or prosecution of four All Progressives Congress (APC) members allegedly arrested before the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections.

    In a statement yesterday by its coordinator, Rasaq Olasunkanmi, the group listed those allegedly arrested as Ismail Abiodun, Sakiru Abiola, Olalekan Akin Taiwo and Yemi Taiwo.

    It alleged that they were arrested about three days to the elections, adding that they are being detained at the State Security Service (SSS) facility in Shangisha, Lagos.

    Olasunkanmi said more than a week after the elections, the APC members had neither been released nor charged to court.

    He claimed that they are being denied access to their family members, adding: “Their continued detention has put their families in psychological and emotional turmoil.”

    The statement reads: “By this token and in the spirit of national healing, we call on the security agents that arrested these APC members in Bariga area of Somolu Local Government during the build up to the March 28, 2015 election to release them immediately.

    “We also call on the President to prevail on the SSS to effect the release of these people immediately as their only offence is choosing to support a particular candidate. We implore the leadership of APC not to abandon these people to their fate but to engage the relevant agencies to facilitate their freedom.

    “Democracy goes beyond voting. Deepening our democracy is not limited to change of political baton but include all pre-and-post election best practices. Hence, releasing the arrested persons for supporting some candidates or party will put our democracy on the path of greatness.”