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Tag: progressive

  • ‘Ekiti ‘ll return to progressive bloc’

    ‘Ekiti ‘ll return to progressive bloc’

    Hon. Bamidele Faparusi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) represented Ekiti South  Constituency 2 in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2015. In this interview with ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA, he speaks on the Ondo governorship election, the Ekiti 2018 election and other issues.  

    What is the import of the recent APC victory in Ondo State?

    I want to congratulate the people of Ondo State for coming all out to vote in favour of progressive politics in Ondo State. I want to congratulate them for voting en masse for the APC. No doubt that is the direction for development and Ondo people don’t want to be left behind. It was not a surprise, knowing that the incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko had deceived the people for eight years when resources coming to the state were enormous. The state has been receiving 13 per cent derivation as an oil-producing state, yet there is no visible development on ground to justify the receipt of such big allocation. Workers are not receiving their salaries as and when due and there are lots of problems on ground. All these served as pointers to the APC victory at the election and the candidate of the APC is an astute lawyer, a Senior Advocate and a very credible candidate. He is a man of character who, to some people, is not the usual politician; he will call a spade a spade and tell you what he will do. I am very close to him; he is a very principled man in the sense that he is not the usual politician that will want to deceive voters to get their votes. So, the people of Ondo should expect that all the elusive development will come back to their state and we hope that very soon, the backlog of salaries will be paid to workers. We want to congratulate the people of Ondo State for the choice they have made.

    Do you see the Ondo feat being replicated in Ekiti State in 2018?

    We are very optimistic; our people in Ekiti State have weighed the two and they have realised that the administration of Ayo Fayose is a deceptive and they are prepared to chase him out. You can see the discontent in Ekiti today; people are already tired of this administration. Fayose is like somebody who is sinking and he is trying to hang on to any available straw for survival. But, I want to assure Nigerians that come 2018, there will be no trace of the PDP in Ekiti.

    But Fayose has boasted repeatedly that he will beat the APC 16-0 again in 2018…

    That is just grandstanding; it’s his usual way to mask his fear, because he is already gripped with fear, seeing what happened in Ondo State. Mimiko is even a better politician than Fayose in looking for the good of the people and if Mimiko could not survive in Ondo State, I don’t see Fayose surviving in Ekiti State in 2018. What he is just saying is empty grandstanding; an empty boast just to deceive his supporters, but time will tell.

    There seems to be a crack in the Southwest APC…

    I want to urge Nigerians to disregard the rumour of a crack in the Southwest APC; the party is one in the Southwest. Mr. President is the leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is our National Leader recognised by all. So, in the Southwest, the party is one. The rumour being peddled around is just a mere wishful thinking on the part of PDP elements to destroy our party, by projecting it as factionalized like theirs. But, that will never happen.

    You are one of the many aspirants for the APC ticket in 2018. Ekiti APC may be heading for a rancorous primary election as witnessed in Ondo…

    I don’t envisage that happening in Ekiti; anybody eligible to contest should be given the opportunity to do so. In our party, we encourage anybody that has something to offer to come out and present his plan for the state. Nevertheless, the state is looking towards Ekiti South senatorial district to produce the next governor. Be that as it may, whatever lesson that was learnt during the Ondo primary will definitely help us in Ekiti State to have a better primary devoid of rancour. You cannot give 100 per cent perfect election, but if an election is graded to have a pass mark, it should be acceptable. Whatever it is, I am very hopeful that a level-playing ground will be provided for all the aspirants and I believe that nobody will want to impose any aspirant on the party. If that is taken out, and people are allowed to choose freely who they believe has the best quality to lead them, we won’t have any rancour in Ekiti.

    Fayose has just branded APC as a party of hunger. He says if he were to dump PDP, his destination won’t be APC…

    The likes of Fayose are not welcomed in the APC; he is a shallow politician. The APC is not a party that embraces caricature politics he plays and for him to be saying that the APC is not an option is like overrating himself. We don’t want him in the APC and we are very clear about that: he is trying to use that as bait, but we don’t want characters like Fayose in our party.

    Are you saying that if he decides to join the APC today, he won’t be accepted?

    He is a liability to the party he is now, so how can we accept him in a party of decent people? Fayose is one of the people who destroyed the PDP to the level the party now finds itself. We don’t want the fate that befell the PDP to befall our party; he should not just think about it. We are intellectuals in the APC and his kind of politicking cannot stand in the party. So, as I said earlier on, he is just grandstanding, and to me, he should not be taken serious, because he has lost ground completely.

    What makes you believe that your party has the edge over the PDP in 2018?

    In the APC, we focus on development, infrastructure and human development. We are better politicians, because we are sincere and we don’t play the type of deceptive politics that Fayose plays. Deceptive politics is giving a family man one kongo of rice and N200 and you think you have empowered that fellow. Or cutting a narrow road into two and claiming that you have dualized the road; that is deception. Most of his programmes and activities are to deceive the people. But, in the APC, we focus on developing the state; we focus on developing the people. We provided employment for the youths under Youths in Agriculture scheme where we established farm settlements for graduates to stimulate commercial agriculture. We gave aged people N5,000 every month but Fayose has cancelled that. Thousands of youths were employed under various programmes and we don’t line people on the streets like beggars in the name of stomach infrastructure. Yet, he has refused to pay salaries of workers for about six months running. To me, the difference is very clear between the APC and the PDP in Ekiti State and I am sure people have compared the two and they have seen that really they need to go back to the APC.

    What is your message to the people of Ekiti, as 2018 approaches?

    My message to our party members is that we should work harder, by reaching out to the people; we should connect more with the people and work together as a team. We are a single family; we should work in love and harmony and we should not allow any seed of discord to germinate in our midst. With that, we are definitely going to take over Ekiti State in 2018. Now, to the people of Ekiti State, I just want to urge them to sustain the courage to confront the menace this time. I just want to tell our people that a new dawn is coming; they should be steadfast and pray for the state and continue to support our party. We have the confidence that under the APC, Ekiti will move forward and our people will get the best from an APC-led government.

  • Progressive govt saved Nigeria, says Aregbesola

    Progressive govt saved Nigeria, says Aregbesola

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola yesterday said the advent of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration saved the country from collapse.

    Aregbesola was speaking at a programme organised by the Christian community of the Government House Chapel, tagged 2016 Democracy Service and Award of honour to some eminent stakeholders in the state.

    Aregbesola and the former Governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, got the Icon of Democracy Award. Deputy Governor Mrs Grace Titilayo-Tomori and Senator Isiaka Adeleke were presented with Hero of Democracy.

    Other Awardees are Senator Jide Omoworare, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, former deputy Governor in the state, Sooko Adewoyin, Dr. Olu Alabi of the People’s Democratic Party”, Chief Tunde Ponle an industrialist ?among others were also honoured at the ceremony.

    Aregbesola said: “In comparison, the type of government President Buhari is running is in many ways similar to what system of government (M.K.O.)Abiola intended to run in Nigeria; a government that targets purely the teeming masses of the country.”

  • Progressive executive, reactionary legislature?

    What Nigeria’s National Assembly has morphed into an anti-people assembly is no news.  What is news is that leading lights in that reaction are now elements of the new progressive ruling party. When reactionaries wear progressive garb, what are they — progressive reactionaries?  Ha!

    Hardball’s Monday morning ire is stoked by The Nation’s story of March 4: “Lawmakers kill Buhari’s N500 billion for the poor”, which they claim is not a true reflection of their thoughts.  Guess the chief ideologue in that story?  Mohammed Danjuma Goje, chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, former PDP governor of Gombe State but now APC senator from Gombe.

    The senator, who in the story assumed the role of Mr. Fiscal Impossible, dismissed the N500 billion voted for the economic succour of most vulnerable Nigerians, in Budget 2016, as un-implementable. He spoke at a joint session of the Senate and House committees on Appropriation, en route to passing the 2016 Appropriation on March 17. At the briefing were Budget and National Planning Minister, Udo Udoma and Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun.

    The “can’t do” senator said the modalities to implement the N500 billion intervention were not clearly stated in the budget; said when it got to the market folk, the budget spoke of “market women” when in his native Gombe, all they had were “market men”.  He also dismissed the Buhari Presidency’s proposed school feeding programme as un-implementable, because most of them studied under trees due to lack of classrooms.

    Well, maybe that was the situation in Gombe when the senator was governor. But pray, how do Osun, under Rauf Aregbesola, which has implemented the scheme for more than four years now; and Kaduna, under Nasir El-Rufai, which has just started implementing it, do the magic — a clear magic, which could have been beyond the ken of the senator as governor?

    When will the Federal Government cease to be the big-for-nothing, dog-in-a-manger bully that cannot do but won’t allow others who can, do?  Never, if the reactionary notion of the National Assembly is allowed to stand.

    Mercifully, Budget Minister Udo Udoma made it clear that the intervention was an inviolate campaign pledge, suggesting deferring implementation was out of question. That is good because the President has a mandate, forged from these promises.  He takes the flak if things go wrong, not some feckless National Assembly.

    Even then, Senator Goje’s remark on the schools feeding scheme shows his basic lack of understanding of the programme. Like many of his over-fed and over-pampered compatriots, the senator focused on the freebie from the state: why should you feed pupils when their parents should do so?  Teach them to fish, they thunder that popular cliché in holy rage, but don’t give them fish!

    But what of the business chain in the process en route to the feeding: the livestock, grain and chicken farmers whose businesses would get a boost?  The food vendor who would recharge his or her economy, and have more disposable income?  And the increased money in people’s pockets, which can be spent to reflate the economy? O no, forget the process, the end result is freebie!

    O yeah? But when did freebies become a crime — when vulnerable Nigerian masses are beneficiaries? Listen to the same National Assembly, on January 4, exactly two months to The Nation report. The news was the N4.7 billion to be shelled on buying Nigeria’s 469 federal lawmakers cushy cars.

    “There is no way,” Senator Sabe Abdullahi exploded, “we can exercise our legislative functions, especially in the area of oversight, using our personal cars.” Progressive rage, isn’t it?

    These legislators should get real and wean themselves from their overarching sense of self-settlement. If the President cannot dictate to them when it concerns their personal comfort, they certainly cannot dictate to the President when it is the collective comfort of Nigerians.

  • Buhari’s govt progressive, says cleric

    Buhari’s govt progressive, says cleric

    Frontline social critic and reformer, Pastor (Dr.) Moses Iloh, has commended the nation’s ruler, President Muhammadu Buhari, on the progressive trend of his administration, since his assumption of office.

    He described the foregoing as a positive development which justifies the confidence of the electorate who had massively voted for him.

    “I particularly commend his ongoing drive at ethico-moral revolution, accountability, equity and social justice, as epitomized in the ongoing investigation of the activities of suspected public office holders and the seizing of their diplomatic passports, aimed at stifling any possible attempt to evade justice,” said the General overseer, Soul Winning Chapel, Ebute-Metta, Lagos.

    He noted that barely hundred days in office, the supply of electricity has witnessed a commendable sign of improvement.

    “This indeed is unprecedented in the annals of governance of this country and for this, the president deserves every applause,” Iloh said.

    He urged the president to pursue the task of uninterrupted power supply to the logical conclusion in view of the fact that effective and efficient electricity holds the ace for industrial revolution, foreign investment and full employment.

    The frontline cleric and founder of the Eclectic Network, a socio-political pressure group, also enjoined the president to bring every effort to bear in ensuring that the local governments across the country work according to the constitution.

    The local government as it is today, is marred in abysmal decay, due to the exploitation by the state, compounded by the brazen high level corruption by local government chairmen and officials.

    He advised the president to put in place an institutional structure to monitor the affairs of the local governments, adding that if the local governments function as they ought to, less pressure would be on the states and the federal government.

  • Wanted: Progressive taxation

    Wanted: Progressive taxation

    The Organised Private Sector (OPS) is worried about the multiple taxes being paid by its members.  It attributes the high cost of doing  business to the taxes, contending that they could discourage investors, if not scrapped. The body is urging the government to streamline its tax policy and create a conducive environment for local production. OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE writes.

    The shift in focus from oil revenue to Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), analysts say, is a positive development. They noted that it will have a long-term effect and foster rapid economic development. They are also of the opinion that it will make the states more resourceful and enhance their entrepreneurial capabilities as they seek avenues to generate more revenue.

    A recent World Bank report stated that reforms such as improvement of tax agencies could lead to much higher tax collection. Kieran Holmes of the Britain’s Department for International Development helped Rwanda to increase its tax revenue by six-and-half-times after automation of the tax collection process.

    Lagos State government was also reported to have made N276.1 billion in 2014 and N384.2billion in 2013 from taxes, because of automation and reform of its tax systems.

    Tax experts in developed countries also believe that the more tax revenue a country generates, the greater developmental growth it attains. They also agree that for the private sector to be constructively engaged in taxation principles, there is the need to satisfactorily provide basic structures and facilities that support positive economic amenities and performance.

    According to the United States National Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2006, the amenities include water supply and distribution system, wastewater collection and treatment facilities and surface transportation facilities. Others are mass-transit, airports and airway, resource recovery facilities, waterways, flood-control facilities, docks or ports, school buildings and solid-waste disposal facilities.

    President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Remi Bello asked for a review of the tax regime to make the tax system more progressive in character, especially with regard to consumption tax.

    “VAT on luxury items and services should be reviewed, tax administration needs to be strengthened for effectiveness and reduction of leakages in tax revenue. The issue here is not about increased tax rates, but making the system more efficient.” he added.  Bello said the Organised Private Sector (OPS) is in support of efficiency in taxation and the supporting infrastructure to stimulate business operations.

    The LCCI boss outlined some of the challenges faced by the economy especially with regards to self-reliance and poor productivity. He urged government to accelerate investment in infrastructure and build quality institutions for better productivity and competitiveness in the economy. “It is difficult to diversify an economy where there are no infrastructures, where institutions are very weak and where the cost of funds is prohibitive. These are fundamental issues”, he said.

    Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) also said they are not averse to taxation but that their position is that it must be progressive and supportive of the sector. They identified Rivers, Anambra and Lagos states as some of the most unfriendly areas in the country in terms of excessive taxation.

    MAN made this known in a 96-page report it submitted to the National Economic Council, (NEC), on the business environment in some states and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, last year.

    The document was entitled, ‘’MAN Presentation on Multiple Taxation Across the country at various levels and its effects on Manufacturing Sector’s Productivity.’’

    The report, showed that apart from the 19 taxes or levies approved by the Federal Government as contained in the Taxes and Levies (Approved List for collection) Act Cap T2 LFN, 2004, there were multiple taxation on investors or entrepreneurs in 17 states of the country.

    It stated that manufacturers pay 44 additional taxes or levies in Lagos State, just as 59 additional taxes/ levies were paid by them in Anambra State.

    According to MAN, 54 additional taxes or levies were paid in Rivers State while manufacturers paid a total of 97 taxes or levies in the state.

    However, in Edo State, manufacturers pay altogether, 16 taxes and levies while 20 different taxes and levies were paid in Delta State.

    In Kaduna, manufacturers pay altogether, ‘’22 approved and other charges,’’ with the local governments imposing nine additional taxes/ levies.

    In Kogi, the state government collects 18 taxes and levies while the local governments imposed five other multiple taxes or levies on entrepreneurs.

    In some of the unfriendly states identified by MAN, the state governments, local governments and development centres task entrepreneurs same taxes or levies they had paid to the Federal Government, even when the levies or taxes were on the exclusive list.

    ‘’In addition to the taxes paid/payable to the local governments under the Act 2004, a total of 24 additional taxes and levies are collected by the local governments in Lagos State…,’ the report stated.

    Under the harsh tax environment, the federal, state and local governments collect multiple taxes/levies on seven items respectively, while six other forms of taxes were jointly collected by both the federal and Lagos State governments separately. Furthermore, the Lagos State and its local governments collect 32 other multiple taxes from investors apart from those paid to both federal and the state governments.

    Apart from the 19 taxable items in the 2004 Act, 11 other forms of taxes were also said to have been introduced by the Anambra State government, while 39 other forms of double taxation were collected by the local governments in the state.

    ‘’In addition to the taxes paid/ payable to local governments under the Act 2004, a total of 36 other taxes and levies are collected by the local governments in Anambra State,’’ it added stating further that some of the levies included, ‘’ reform and conveyance permit, route identification, unified council emblem, loading and off-loading permit, oil and gas sticker, environmental pollution, mobilization fee; community fee and gate way permit, among others.

    In both Anambra and Lagos States, residents who go to the markets to buy food items pay land taxes before they were allowed to load their food items into vehicles in the motor parks.

    However, in Enugu State, where manufacturers pay 23 additional taxes and levies, the manufacturers identified only six forms of multiple taxations by both the state and local governments. They include property rent/ground rent tax, environmental levy/ Effluent tax and Sanitation rate/ refuse disposal levy.

    Members of the Cocoa Produce Merchants Association of Nigeria in Ondo State also raised an alarm over the effect of multiple taxes on their businesses.

    The Chairman of the association, Abiodun Jacob, and the Secretary, Oyelere Adebayo, said the various taxes levied on members of the association has created a great burden for them and the general public.

    The association had in a statement said Cocoa merchants in Ondo state are being levied heavily by the state government through its produce department, claiming that they pay nothing less than N500, 000 for the warehouse where they operate and at the same time made to pay another levy on same title in the name of another heading as business premises fees.

    The association said the measures by the produce department would affect the poor farmers and the economy of the state drastically, appealing to the state government to quickly redress the issue.

  • ‘I seek clear-eyed, yet progressive capitalism’

    I stand before you today not as the national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) or a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). I am not here as Asiwaju, a former Senator, or a former governor. Today, I rest these titles.

    Thus, I stand before you simply as Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Nigerian, who has dedicated most of his adult life to the progress of this nation. For this, I offer no apology. Come hell, come high water, I am a Nigerian. Come torrential rain or sunshine; drought or flood; increase or decrease; help or hindrance; I shall remain what I am; a Nigerian. Because of this, you are my people.

    Whether from North, Southeast or West; we are all branches of the same tree. Whether in the same or different political parties, we are members of the same national family. Whether from the same or a different religion, you are of me and I am of you.

    For the love for Nigeria, for the love of Africa and for the best future of our nation, I co-authored this book with our African-American brother, Brian Browne.

    Now permit me to tell you a bit about this intellectual journey upon which we embarked.

    The most significant economic event of the past seventy years was the 2008 financial downturn.

    Assessing the vast wreckage caused by this Great Recession, we concluded the downslide was not the normal churning of the business cycle. Something more sinister that posed a grave danger to Nigeria’s political economy was afoot. If we allow things to continue as they are, that political economy will become a distorted, top-heavy edifice incapable of maintaining its balance.

    Increasingly, few elite will grow wealthy and powerful beyond decent measure. The middle class will atrophy into non-existence while the vast pool of our citizens will be shackled to a lifetime of misery and sour destitution.

    Gone will be the chance of broad prosperity and economic justice. Fleeing with it will be the hope of political democracy. As long as I live, I will not walk silently beside her as Nigeria steers this bleak path. I will talk, shout, and even set myself down to write a book or a library of books if that is what it takes to awaken our people to the economic dangers that we have so assumed mindlessly.

    The global economy had become unbalanced and it has unbalanced our national economic architecture. We are told that we live in an age of capitalism. If only that were true, things would not be so bad. We live in a time where capitalism has been consumed by a more virulent ideology. That ideology we deem as “Financialism.”

    Certainly, capitalism has many blemishes. Its historic imperfections have caused misery and pain across the globe. An inadequately regulated free market has on too many occasions, ground poor and weak individuals as well as nations into dust.

    Without appropriate government intervention, capitalism can become a predator devouring those it purports to enrich. Yet, capitalism must be credited as a medium that produced unprecedented, albeit unequal, levels of global wealth and prosperity. The task before us should be how to make the positive reality overcome the more negative aspects of this complex system.

    However, the current challenge is far more acute and dramatic. We are compelled to do more than brighten capitalism’s image. We are left to save it from the intent of its offspring- financialism to burying it.

    What is now practiced is not capitalism. It is something meaner but less productive; something that widens the gap between the rich and the poor. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Even in Britain, inequality has reverted to the level of 1920 before the advent of the welfare state. The situation must even be more precarious in Nigeria. Capitalism is now something that unduly rewards those who earn their keep through the shuffling of financial papers yet unduly punishes those who make their way through the sweat and travails of true and honest labour.

    No, this is not capitalism. It is a cannibalistic offspring ever-ready and willing to devour its parents.

    Under capitalism, the financial sector was adjunct to the real sector. The financial sector served as the circulatory system, efficiently allocating funds to the most productive agents within the real or manufacturing sector in order to keep that sector vibrant.

    Such vibrancy generates employment for the bulk of the people. High levels of employment lead to stability and make the standard of living more conducive to democratic aspirations.

    This complementary scenario no longer exists. The financial sector is no longer satisfied with being the branch. To a large extent, it has assumed the role of the tree and its trunk. The financial sector no longer complements the real sector. It has grown too large in comparison. Its appetite is ceaseless and grows with each meal. Instead of funding the real sector, it now chokes it, leaving many hitherto productive people and companies struggling to draw water from an empty well.

    Under capitalism, the financial sector invested in production of tangible goods. Today, the financial sector specialises in financial investment. Having become insatiable, it rather invests in itself and not in other sectors of the economy so that other sectors prosper with it. Financial speculation used to be the province of a small set of risk takers. Today, it is the fad.

    Cautious and prudent bankers were once sentinels of the financial sector. Things are different under financialism. Caution has been tossed to the four winds as the economy was tossed to the wolves. The banker who keeps his wits to function in the best traditions of banking is the exception.

    I salute those men and women who honour their professional tenets while others turned esteemed financial houses into lax casinos. However, their demonstrations of individual propriety proved insufficient to halt the systemic distortion that occurred. Today, we have a big problem.

    Making money not tangible goods that improve our standard of living has become the overriding economic objective. Funds should be used to fuel industrial production and generate employment, thus leading to shared prosperity.

    Instead, funds are incessantly recycled within the financial sector, creating huge nominal profits for a select few. The great nominal wealth is unconnected to economic fundamentals and has little bearing on the welfare of the average person.

    The more attractive this nominal wealth, the more money flows to and remains within the financial sector which has produced this entrapping mirage. The mirage of nominal wealth thus expands and deceives many of us while the real economy staggers about like a hungry man searching for crumbs on the floor of an empty banquet hall.

    In Nigeria today, with our lack of vital infrastructure, the absence of a concrete industrial policy and with the paucity of long-term funding to fuel the real sector, we ask the economy to do the impossible. It is like attempting to draw water from an empty well.

    These points are not just topics of abstract observation. They are our real world problems. Financialism has crippled the developed economies so much that they remain deep in serial financial crises.

    If a financialist modeling of the economy turns developed economies into hollow images of themselves, what shall it wrought in our economy that has never been developed or industrialised?

    As such, this book is an honest warning against the impending dangers of the encroaching financialism.

    Yet, the book does more than warn. We sought to identify a few safety exits from the burning building. It offers important recommendations on how to reclaim our economic destiny.

    For instance, the accumulation of money by the Federal Government is a misplaced objective for these times. We have about $46 billion in foreign reserves earning about one or two per cent while we have about $42 billion in domestic debt on which the government is paying up to 16 per cent. This makes no sense and it crowds out the private sector borrowers and investors. Our driving purpose must be to channel idle human and material capacity into productive streams that furnish jobs and manufacture tangible goods bettering the living conditions of every citizen.

    I believe in the national government saving money if it is for a purpose more than saving sake. For a government that prints its own currency, to save that currency for merely for saving’s sake is to accumulate worthless paper. Instead, our money must jumpstart development to enrich the broadest spectrum of the people. To say we are saving money for a rainy day while everyone is already drenched and wading through flood waters makes little sense to me.

    We must shun the philosophy that says “better to save money and spend the people.” I say better to spend money and save people.

    We must reform our economy. To do this, we must first reform our philosophy about the economic development. What I advocate is not starry-eyed socialism. I seek clear-eyed, yet, progressive capitalism.

    Here are just a handful of key things we must do. They include:

    •that we must reform the financial sector so that it becomes an effective artery that sends funds to the heart of the real sector once again;

    •that the Federal Government must formulate a national industrial policy focusing on developing labour intensive industries. This is not textbook capitalism because we do not live in a textbook. This is how the United States (US) developed under Alexander Hamilton’s “American System” and how modern China reached spectacular growth;

    •that we must restructure our educational system to prepare our youth for the present challenges of this economy and not educate them in a manner more appropriate for another land;

    •that we need to overhaul our agricultural system and put in place a price support mechanism so that those who till the land to feed us do not go continuously poorer the more they toil;

    •that we must establish commodity exchange boards exclusively for farmers. This will go a long way to support them and provide agricultural pricing support mechanisms and consequently enhance food security;

    The challenge before our nation today is how to protect millions who till the land and how to ensure they make reasonable returns and boost agricultural production. Instead of stealing from our children and stealing the pension fund of the retiree, this government must answer the moral call of providing one meal per day for our school children up to high school level. Feeding our children will improve nutritional intake and work better for their educational development. Ultimately, it will eliminate child abuse and take the children off our streets.

    The demand for farm products to feed the pupils will be a catalyst to generate demand, create wealth, promote production of agricultural goods and fuel associated industrial growth. The establishment of these activity and small scale agro-industries will generate significant employment in our rural areas; and

    •that we need to provide primary healthcare by taking it upon ourselves to fight malaria so that our children can develop properly and our labour force becomes more productive as it grows healthier.

    In the final analysis, our development rests with us. Foreign investment is welcome but will not lead us to prosperity. Foreign investment may repair a room or two, but it can never build the mansion we seek.

    We cannot blindly follow the advice of others. In thoughtless adherence to their own economic myths, the developed economies have led themselves astray in some instances. Their present counsel can do no better for us than it has done for them. Should we continue to listen to their false counsel, we will gain nothing of it because it would nothing more than attempting to draw water from the empty well.

    We have the ability and knowledge to forge our own way. We must base our approach on empirical fact not subjective theory. We must examine what has worked in other places then adjust these truths to the situation at hand. We needn’t reinvent the wheel but we must be mindful not to be fooled when a stranger tells us that a round stone is the wheel we need.

    Let us give our productive sector drive, purpose and vitality so that it puts the vast army of idle people and material assets to work.

    In this way, we safeguard internal security because a prosperous nation is no longer a danger unto itself. In this way, we safeguard democracy because a productive workforce and strong middle-class are better guarantors of democracy than any military can ever be. On the other hand, a poor and idle population is a factory of inequality. In the throes of such inequality, despotism finds ample harvest.

    In this manner, we give to every Nigerian whether from North or South; whether the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP0 or APC; progressive or conservative, a chance for a better life. In this way, I can stand before you or anywhere else on this planet as a Nigerian without recourse to my title or position. Yet, stand duly proud of what we have achieved and of the life we have forged for ourselves. For this solemn reason, I helped in writing this book. For this solemn reason, I urge that you take it upon yourselves to read it.

  • All Progressive Congress: Where are the Igbos?

    All Progressive Congress: Where are the Igbos?

    SIR: A historic event took place at Lagos House Marina on Tuesday February 5. Committed men and women gathered to strategize on how to move Nigeria forward after almost 16 years of harrowing hardship in the midst of plenty. It was an assemblage of people with known antecedents, people that can be trusted and people with character.

    After almost two years of search to end tales of misery, anguish and pain in Nigeria, a new baby, (child of necessity) was born in Lagos. Welcome, All Progressives Congress (APC)!

    Before this time, the PDP, desperate to cling to power at all costs, has been scoffing and boasting that the other parties cannot find a common ground to challenge its cosmetic hold on power. That must have informed the way and manner the enablers of this merger worked; keeping the PDP and its acolytes guessing for the most parts of the period the merger talks lasted till February 5 when, unannounced, 10 governors met in Lagos and proclaimed the birth of APC!

    Sadly, I saw poor Igbo representation in the historic event. Only Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and few other Igbo leaders were there. A day after, some all-weather Igbo politicians began to struggle to pull the rug from Governor Okorocha’s feet. I was taken aback that our people through timid and backyard politics are not keying in into this monumental political development in Nigeria. The era of “the president is our neighbour” should be thrown into the dustbin of history. How to retrieve Nigeria from soulless and stone age men and women should be the big picture. During the June 12, 1993 struggle, a greater percentage of Igbo leaders lined up behind IBB and Abacha. We know the consequences thereafter. An attempt to change the cause of political events in 1999 failed also because Igbo insisted on playing PDP politics. In 2011 again Igbo timidly played the “Jonathan Azikiwe” politics. And Nigeria continued to go under.

    Now, the big question is this: what have Ndigbo benefited from PDP since 1999? Can we see the benefits in Igboland?

    What have we benefited from ‘Jonathan Azikiwe’s politics since 2011? Which of the promises he made to Ndigbo have been fulfilled as the politics of 2015 is about to kick start? Second Niger Bridge? International Airport? Good federal roads, security? Refineries? Power stations? Additional state(s)? Our people must open their eyes now.

    In 1995, in my book, Igbos: 25 years After Biafra, I challenged Ndigbo to do away with the politics of the stomach and play politics of growth, and survival. It is this politics that has worsened our fate in Nigeria and from a major leg of the tripod that is the Nigerian project, we have been relegated to no leg at all and the elite crop of Igbo politicians continue to grope about without direction. A serious alliance is being built with the coming of APC but Igbo are stranded on the very crossroad of indecision and lack of political vision and foresight.

    There is no alternative to serious politics if you want to change your fortune for the better. I support the likes of Governor Rochas Okorocha, Chief George Moghalu, Senator Annie Okonkwo, Dr Chris Ngige, former Governor Achike Udenwa, and former Governor Ogbonnaya Onu etc who joined the great movement to salvage Nigeria. I urge them to work harder to develop a new and visionary genre of politicians that will be able to articulate Igbo politics and issues to the next level and work to achieve the noble goals that will benefit Ndigbo.

    • Joe Igbokwe

    Lagos

  • The Ekiti State progressive welfare programme

    The Ekiti State progressive welfare programme

    On Tuesday, 25th October, 2011 at Ise-Ekiti, the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi formally flagged off the State Social Security Scheme for the Elderly with the commencement of the payment of the monthly stipends to the beneficiaries. The governor had prior to that day announced this policy direction during the celebration marking the anniversary of Nigeria’s 51st Independence and 15th Anniversary of the creation of Ekiti State on the 1st October 2011.

    Dr. Fayemi had then said the scheme was conceived to improve the living condition of the senior citizens and serve as a poverty reduction strategy in favour of the deserving poor through the provision of regular income and free health care; adding that this was a fulfilment of his electioneering campaigns.

    In his words: “It is painful to note that across the length and breadth of Africa, poverty visibly walks on the street with impunity. Of the many identifiable strands of poverty that is confronting the developing world is the one associated with old age when one’s strength and vitality is lost and the bones are irredeemably weakened. Not too long ago, those who fall in this vulnerable category, the aged, are taken care of by a social system that is effective in making life more enjoyable though with little to share.

    “Today, civilization has eroded the system; it is now everyone to himself and God for us all. In the process, people lived the latter part of their lives in abject poverty with attendant diseases, emotional breakdown and frustrating social disaffections”.

    He said on another occasion: “We embarked on this programme not only to make the state stand shoulders higher than other states but also to ensure that life becomes more abundant for our aged ones.”

    Thus, the state became a pioneer for the initiative in the country which the Federal Government and other states are now taking a cue from. The programme is the first in West Africa. The novel approach has continued to receive accolades across political, ethnic, social and economic divides.

    For the programme to take off, more than 52,000 elderly indigenes aged 65 years and above in the 16 local government areas of the state were enumerated. The enumerators who were well trained were charged to ascertain the profession and economic status of the children of the proposed beneficiaries of the scheme towards ensuring that elderly people from poor homes benefit more.

    Fayemi himself exempted his aged mother from the scheme to underscore his point that the elderly indigenes that have well-to-do children should not be part of the scheme.

    He said if the jobs of the children of the would-be beneficiaries were disclosed, it would be easier for the committee to decide whether a beneficiary was indigent or not deserving elderly citizens.

    At the end, 10,084 beneficiaries were selected. The beneficiaries were invariably grateful for the government’s gesture. Thanking the Governor for the stipend, one of the beneficiaries, Madam Abigael Oyedele, commended the Fayemi-led administration for remembering the elderly citizens. Madam also Oyedele prayed for the success of the Fayemi-led administration.

    To give a strong legal backing to the initiative to ensure its sustainability, the government put in motion the process of drafting legislation which was sent to the state House of Assembly. A public hearing was organised on the bill, where participants that consisted of mainly elderly people expressed joy at the introduction of the programme by the Fayemi administration, the participants canvassed for the expansion of the programme for more people to benefit.

    The House Majority Leader, Hon. Churchill Adedipe, who moved the motion for the acceptance and consideration of the report of the committee that deliberated on the bill observed that the programme was in line with the policy enshrined in chapter 11 of the 1999 constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria as amended with particular reference to section 14(2) and 17 of the constitution. The bill was unanimously approved by all the lawmakers.

    The governor eventually signed the bill into law. While signing the bill, the governor said: “To some skeptics at the time, this was just a vote-catching gimmick of a typical opportunistic and desperate politician. Even to genuine admirers, the realisation of this dream was unfathomable given the limited resources available to our state. Now that the goal is realised, it is the beginning of the fulfillment of our campaign promise to provide for our elderly in their old age.”

    In response to the call for the expansion of the programme, a comprehensive review was carried out after the first six months of the programme. The implementing ministry was directed by the government to conduct another enumeration of the elderly citizens in February 2012. The exercise brought out over 34,000 elderly citizens from whom another batch of 9,186 elderly citizens in Ekiti State, were selected to join the beneficiaries of the scheme.

    Speaking at the flag-off of the payment for the Batch B beneficiaries of the scheme at Ekiti East Council,  Governor Fayemi said the scheme which was employed by his administration to address adult poverty challenges was already hitting at the target as more elderly citizens who had once thought the programme was a mirage are now subscribing.

    The Governor said the emergence of the second batch of the beneficiaries became necessary so as to capture as many qualified elderly citizens as possible who did not participate in the first enumeration exercise partly due to skepticism arising from the weariness of failed promises by politicians.

    Payment of the stipend is made regularly on the 25th of the month when all workers are being paid. The scheme costs the government a sum of N1 million monthly. On how the state government has coped despite its meagre resources, Fayemi said the scheme was not conceived because the government has abundant resources but due to “the will to positively affect the lives of the toiling masses for whom this government is in authority” He stated that the administration was always propelled by the need to make life meaningful and comfortable for the elderly.

    The welfare of the senior citizens in the state is a cardinal point in the eight-point agenda of the Governor Kayode Fayemi administration. The scheme has been made to be free from political or gender bias.

    The governor once stated that even if it is impossible to re-enact, in absolute terms, the good old days of fending for our elderly through our extended family system, it is the determination of this government to reduce old age poverty significantly.

    The scheme, according to the government, was not aimed at undermining the ultimate responsibility of families to care for their aged ones but should see it as a reward for the past contributions of the beneficiaries.

    A spokesperson of the Ekiti State government, Mrs Richie-Adewusi stated that “since our culture does not encourage the setting up of old people’s home, the state government has to fashion out a way of continuously identifying with people 65 years and above in a programme. She added that people would foster social solidarity through a regained sense of citizenship that will enable them contribute to the society and enhance citizens-government relations, even as government is acknowledging its own roles and moral commitment to the welfare of citizens regardless of party affiliation.

     

    •Adewusi writes from Ekiti