The Nation Newspaper

Tag: realities

  • Evacuation of Nigerians from Libya: The facts, challenges, realities

    Evacuation of Nigerians from Libya: The facts, challenges, realities

    On January 7, the Federal Government’s fact-finding delegation began the evacuation of over 5,000 trapped Nigerians in Libya. NORTHERN OPERATION MANAGING EDITOR YUSUF ALLI, who was in Tripoli, reports the details of the exercise and the countenances of the returnees before their departure.

    For five days, Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama was in Libya. He led a Federal Government’s fact-finding team to the North African country on a rescue mission for the over 40,000 Nigerians who were trapped in the Arab country. The Nigerians were mostly in Tripoli, Sabha (the deadly entry point to Libya and transit track to Europe); Benghazi and Misrata.

    It was a diplomatic shuttle with a difference, being the first time the Federal Government decided to confront the hydra-headed migrant challenge headlong.

    Hitherto, the Federal Government had collaborated with the International Organization for Migrants (IOM) for isolated evacuation of Nigerians from Libya.

    To underscore its seriousness, the government raised a team comprising Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs & the Diaspora,  Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa;  Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mohammed Babadende; Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Maihaja, Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah Donli; Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons,  Hajiya Saddiya Umar Farouq; a representative of the National Security Adviser, Mr. Abba Ibrahim;  Director-General National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

    Besides the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who were on the entourage, a technical team, including the Head of Chancery and staff of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Libya, took part in the arrangement.

    The Onyeama-led delegation, which has NEMA as its coordination centre, had a clear mandate. It was fact-finding and possible negotiation with relevant authorities

    Its primary assignment was to liaise with the IOM for the identification of camps and all the groups needed to negotiate the release of Nigerians and to negotiate with all groups that have in custody Nigerians and ensure their release in safe and dignified manner.

    A knotty shuttle

    On the surface, the mission to Libya looked simple and achievable. But, it has been a marathon, emotional-laden and a knotty technical shuttle for members of the delegation, who have been working round the clock to carry out the mandate given to them by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The teams’ initial hurdles include: the high number of illegal Nigerians in Libya who are not captured under any guise; the deliberate refusal of the migrants to relate with Nigerian Embassy in Tripoli for useful data;  the  existence of many slavery, trafficking and prostitution cartels and  syndicates under the control of Nigerian ringleaders and Libyan accomplices; the unfavourable geography of Libya; the internecine wars in the Arab nation between the central government and some militia/rebels and the huge budget implication.

    Although the Federal Government gave a 37-day deadline to the delegation, the project may take many months to achieve. It is however better late than never for the Federal Government which has laid a foundation for a sustainable migrant policy for the future.

    The NEMA’s director-general was undaunted on the task as he said: “We are working round the clock to ensure the success of the first phase of this exercise. This will serve as a template for the future.

    “We already have a technical team on ground to work with the Nigerian Embassy in Libya on how to identify these Nigerians and the modalities of returning them home. We should be hopeful that this exercise will succeed.”

    Gains of the fact-finding mission

    The mission to Libya is an eye-opener for the Federal Government, which has discovered among others: an incontestable fact that more Nigerians were trapped than estimated; the complicated nature of crimes linked with Nigerians like slavery, prostitution, robbery and so on; the inhuman condition of the stranded Nigerians in detention camps; the difficulty in evacuating the young Nigerians who are mostly illegal migrants and the reality that not all Nigerians in the Arab country can be immediately returned home because they are in inaccessible and rebel-controlled areas.

    Other discoveries are: the need to explore shrewd diplomacy to prevail on Libya to concede to the release of 5,037 trapped Nigerians and the stark reality that legally, Nigerians resident in Libya are not in a hurry to leave because they make much money from the Libyan petroleum sector, Information Technology (IT) and health services.

    The shuttle also gave the Libyan authorities the opportunity to gauge the Federal Government’s readiness to repatriate its citizens who have constituted nuisance to their country.

    It is on record that the Federal Government protested against the maltreatment of Nigerians in various detention centres and prisons in Libya.

    The President’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and the Dispora said: “We got reports of extortion, beating, and outright killing in anger, violation of rights and all forms of inhuman treatment. The delegation protested to the Libyan Government.”

    With the frank talks and the rapprochement between the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Libyan Justice & Foreign Affairs Ministers, a new diplomatic vista has been opened by the two countries.

    For the first time, the Libyan Government allowed Nigerian fact-finding team to have access to four detention camps in Tripoli to meet with the trapped Nigerians.

    The camps are: Tajoura Detention Centre, Trig al Matar Detention Centre, Trig al Seka Detention Centre and Zilten Detention Centre.

    A member of the delegation said: “In one of the centres, our records showed that there were about 367 returnees but we actually met with over 600.”

    Onyeama and members of his team were upset by the appalling conditions of Nigerians in the detention centres.

    The minister said: “We went to Libya; we discussed with the government; we saw all of you young children; young boys and young girls; and we negotiated to ensure you came back.

    “There were a lot of challenges that we faced. But, we were ready to overcome them and bring you here and you are the first batch that has arrived.

    “We saw the very difficult conditions in which you were held, we felt for you for the very traumatic experience you went through and our hearts really went out to you and I must say that each and every one of us on that delegation really felt so proud of you.

    As young children, notwithstanding everything that you went through, you maintained your dignity,  your composure, your respect and you stood up when we came and sang the national Anthem,  the national pledge with pride, we are extremely proud of you; extremely proud of the way you comported yourself notwithstanding the condition, the most inhuman condition that you were found yourself during this stay.

    “We hope that one thing you have learnt is that your lives matter to Nigerians. Your lives matter to Mr. President. There is no other place in this world that can be dearer than being with your brothers, your sisters and your parents here in Nigeria.

    “We know that many if you were trafficked many of you taken against your better judgment, you have come home and you will not be abandoned.  There are provisions in place to provide for an extensive rehabilitation for you to enable you to get education, skills and development to equip you to get jobs.”

    Why government can’t stop illegal migration

    The Federal Government’s major challenge is the inability to check the exodus of Nigerian youths to Libya via Niger Republic. Apart from its porous borders, the ECOWAS Protocol allows free movement of Nigerians all over West Africa, irrespective of their missions. The Immigration chief told The Nation in Tripoli: “I want you to know that regional migration in West Africa is  ECOWAS-based.  The border of Nigeria in reality is in Niger, not in Nigeria. What we are saying is that any Nigerian who wants to go to Niger, do not need a visa. All they need is a cross travel certificate and you have no right to stop them.

    Babandede said: “But cooperation with Niger Republic is fundamental in migration. This we have done in June 2017 when we invited the heads of immigration services of the whole ECOWAS region to stop them and make sure that Niger provides that border control for us.

    “Anybody can take a travel certificate and go to Niger without a visa. As a citizen, you can go to Ghana, Benin Republic.  All we can do is to stop people we suspect and they have the right to protest if they have the right to travel.

    “We have common mobility with Niger. We are working with Niger. In 2017 alone we have returned almost 500 people through the support of Niger Republic. Some, we have stopped because they do not have documents at all. What you see as this large number of Nigerians in Libya is not a cause of today; it is a gradual process and they are trapped in Libya because of the crisis there.

    “Some of them have even joined rebel groups. That is why some take the risk and go through the sea. We need to make our borders effective. We think we can do it with technology. We are committed to that and to reduce the number of people who are travelling because the border is our big challenge.

    “Next month, we are going to launch a border training programme where our officers can work simultaneously with the ones in Niger Republic so that once they see anyone in that kind of position, they can turn him back and we can take action.

    “Our intervention in Libya is not only for illegal migrants. The Minister of Foreign Affairs had the opportunity to chat with some Nigerians who are living legally and doing business.

    “We want to showcase to Libyans that every Nigerian living in Libya is not a bad guy or drug pusher. The minister met them and this is why we sent intervention to review their passport.  There are people who are working in oil companies, factories or running their businesses as citizens of ECOWAS. We need to support them.”

    What next for government, returnees?

    The immediate task of the government is to liberate many Nigerians held hostage in rebel-held areas in Libya.  The 5,037 Nigerians being evacuated at present were mostly those trapped in Tripoli which is under UN-backed government.

    More Nigerians have been stranded in rebel-controlled areas like Misrata, Sirte, Benghazi and Tobruk. These areas are inaccessible to the government delegation.

    Beyond the evacuation, the government has mapped out a reintegration, rehabilitation, and sensitisation programme for the returnees.

    Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa said: “The Federal Government under the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs) in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs & the Diaspora has concluded arrangements to provide skill development programmes for the returnees.

    “The short-term training includes: basic sewing/dress making; baking and confectionery; bag making; bead and fabric stoning; soap making; deodorant; bleach and disinfectant; hair fixing; braiding and weaving; tie & dye and batik; manicure; pedicure and nail fixing; food preparation and small chops; make-up; gele (headgear) tying and event decoration.

    “The skills under the long-term includes: welding; plumbing; aluminum fabrication; hair dressing/barbing; woodwork/carpentry; and catering/hotel management.”

    On sensitization, Onyeama tasked the returnees: “After all you have been through in Libya, we want you to go out there as advocate to tell other young boys and girls in the country your experiences in Libya  so that they will not make the same mistakes; so that they will not be in the same condition to be exploited and be deceived into embarking on this hazardous journey.”

    Will returnees go back to Libya/Italy?

    As the Max Air Boeing Jet was hovering over the airspace of Port Harcourt, there was no sign that all the returnees have learnt their lessons. The federal and the states would have to live up to the promise of given the returnees a new lease of life.

  • Fashola chides estate valuers, seeks valuation synced with economic realities

    Fashola chides estate valuers, seeks valuation synced with economic realities

    Is the current valuation of land and properties across the country reflective of economic realities?

    This was the poser for estate surveyors and valuers at the inauguration of the reconstituted Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON)  in Abuja, last Monday, by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.

    “For me, I think the most important lessons that I like to share at this inauguration is to pose the question to you whether the current land evaluation system and values are consistent with the realities of our economy. Are these values consistent with reality? Why are we not seeing rates and rents and values drop? Why are we having many houses unoccupied where people are looking for accommodation? You, as experts, must answer that question,”  Fashola again asked the professionals at the gathering.

    According to the former Lagos State governor, in a very challenging economy where cash is clearly tight, can it be said that the market value of properties are really responding appropriately?

    The minister noted that since the global economy recessed or slowed, property owners in some other climes are offering  discounts  on their properties to ensure optimum occupancy. He, therefore, wondered why the reverse was the case in Nigeria, whose economy is being greatly challenged by tight capital.

    “It has always been the argument of property owners in the country that the properties were valued higher so they could have an “impact on percentages and commissions”. But I urged you as professionals and practitioners in the domestic property market to take a cue from your counterparts and other property sellers in the United Kingdom, who, because of BREXIT, began to offer discounts on properties to the citizens,” he advised, urging the practitioners to learn from the stock market and how markets react to policies.

    The minister explained that many years ago the domestic Stock Market was immune to policies, but today Nigeria’s Stock Exchange ranks with some of the best in the world because it reflects the realities of the country’s economy in many respects.

    He said one of the areas where Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business ranking could improve was in the area of real estate valuation, “especially how to develop a harmonised code of charges”.

    “We had this problem back at state level where we found out that we were  charging about 10 per cent gross on fees and taxes while other countries close to us were charging one and two per cent. But the truth was that the values were not real,”he said.

    He, therefore, urged the the new board of ESVARBON to ensure that the disparity between the country’s land evaluation system and the current economic realities are reconciled. Besides, the estate valuers were also advised to develop an open evaluation for different parts of the country as well as evolve means of making estate valuation simple enough and responsive to the man on the street.

    He said other countries have evolved property calculators with which it only takes indexing a property owner’s location and that of his property to have a fair value of what his asset is worth.

    “So I will like to see, therefore, that as you take up the mantle of leadership today after inauguration, these are issues that I think you should put into the front burner agenda in terms of how you regulate the practice and also  the quality of people that you admit to the practice,” Fashola urged regretting that customer is clearly not the king, even with his money, in the domestic real estate transactions.

    He nonetheless extolled the virtues of the profession, saying that they are of significant importance to the economic growth of a nation. This, he said, is because they undertake the business of how land is turned from being a dormant asset into a valuable asset; thereby putting value on land.

    “This is why the Ministry of Power, Works, and Housing employs a number of Estate Valuers, considering that whether we are building new roads and there is a need to acquire Right-of-Way, or sometimes have to pay compensations, estate valuers are needed to value the land and properties involved.

    “For instance, some estate valuers have been incorporated into the Power sector for the development of the Mambila Hydro Power Dam. This is in the area of assessing the land that is needed and ultimately quantifying same for compensation to be paid. Others have also been employed for new Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) where the Ministry has to acquire Right-of-Way for its transmission lines.

    “All of those ,who are involved in one form of enterprise or the other must first of all appreciate the value of land as a major capital formation asset; whether it is for small businesses, large corporations, markets or motor parks. I can’t really think of a business that one wants to undertake where land is not a critical part whether it is just to own a small office or a small kiosk where you can sell very basic things, even to roast corn,” Fashola explained.

  • Nigeria: Time to ponder the realities

    The popular children’s story, “The Blind Men and the Elephant” is soberingly close to the relationship between Nigeria and the various nationalities (or peoples) that make up Nigeria. Each Nigerian people perceived, and proceeded to mould Nigeria, in their own way. The British nation too, the nation that created Nigeria, did the same, with the result that, at independence, they left Nigeria packaged as a troubled country that would be impossible to manage. In short, many nations – the British, the Yoruba, the Igbo, the Hausa-Fulani, and nearly 300 other nationalities – when faced with Nigeria, formed, like the blind men in the story, their different perceptions of Nigeria and have resolutely kept trying to impose those different perceptions. This state of affairs was destined from the very beginning to determine Nigeria’s history. It has determined Nigeria’s convoluted and sad history.

    Of the Nigerian nationalities, the three largest and most influential, and the three most responsible for the making of Nigeria’s direction, are the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba and the Igbo. Another people, the Ijaw of the Niger Delta, are much smaller than each of these three, but because nature packed the Ijaw homeland with petroleum (the most important resource in modern world economy), their stature in Nigerian affairs has been big too. It is therefore the divergent perceptions of Nigeria by the British, the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba, the Igbo and the Ijaw, and their divergent responses to Nigeria, that have shaped Nigeria’s endemic pattern of instability and conflicts – resulting in turning this naturally rich country into a land of frightful and perpetually worsening poverty, corruption, and conflicts, a country that must wage bloody wars to remain one. It is not merely because Nigeria is made up of many nationalities that it has evolved into an unworkable country. It is because these main builders of Nigeria (the British, the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba, the Igbo and the Ijaw – as well as the other nearly 300 Nigerian peoples) have never jointly invested serious and sincere effort in the critically important task of harmonizing Nigeria’s profound differences.

    The differences are not merely ethnic and linguistic. They are also products of deeply divergent histories. Historically, the Hausa people were one of the three largest peoples of tropical Africa – the other two being the Yoruba and the Igbo. Exposed to Islamic influences penetrating from North Africa since as early as the 8th century AD, the Hausa people and their kings were mostly Muslims for centuries before the 19th. In the course of the 18th century, a mostly nomadic people, the Fulani, migrating from the grasslands and Sahel of West Africa, spread out into Hausaland.  In the first years of the 19th century, an Islamic reform movement arose among the immigrant Fulani, and started a Jihad (holy war) against the old Hausa kingdoms. The Fulani were, in comparison with the Hausa, very few. But, by winning large numbers of Hausa folks with the message of Islamic Reform, the Fulani Jihad overthrew the Hausa kings and replaced them with Fulani men, with the title of Emirs.  Hausaland thus became a Fulani Empire, fervently Islamic and seeking to expand its kind of Islam, as well as its Fulani political rule, to the homelands of neighbouring non-Hausa peoples.

    Beyond the eastern borders of Hausaland, the Kanuri and related peoples had long been strongly Islamized peoples. They defeated the Fulani attempts to conquer them, and they thus remained under their own ancient rulers.

    The broad Middle Belt south of Hausaland was inhabited by many small peoples. The Fulani rulers of Hausaland launched intensive attacks to conquer, destabilize, or even to destroy these peoples. Some of the peoples sought peace by accepting Islam, but that hardly stopped the attacks. These fierce attacks were still going on when Christian influence reached these territories. Many of the peoples accepted Christianity. And then, British colonial rule came over the whole large country that was later (in 1914) to become Nigeria.

    South of the Middle Belt, especially in the western parts of the South (the homeland of the Yoruba), Islam had come at about the same time as it had come to Hausaland in about the 8th century but, on the whole, Yoruba conversion to Islam had been relatively small. In the course of the 19th century, internal political developments in Yorubaland resulted in the emergence of a strong Yoruba Islamic centre in the Yoruba city of Ilorin. Attempts by the rulers of Ilorin to spread Islam by force into the rest of their Yoruba homeland was decisively defeated by other Yoruba. Thereafter, Islam peacefully spread, becoming considerably strong in various parts of Yorubaland by the late 19th century. In the territories east of the Lower Niger, (the homelands of the Igbo and neighbouring peoples) the influence of Islam was almost non-existent.

    From the 1840s, European Christian missions of various denominations began to bring the message of the gospel to these Southern and Middle Belt lands. Penetrating from the coast, they gradually expanded into the interior. With Christian churches came schools and Western education.

    Churches and schools immediately became most widespread in the South-west (the homeland of the Yoruba people). The cause of this is that Yorubaland was the most urbanized country in all of tropical Africa. For nearly a thousand years before the 19th century, the Yoruba people had evolved a rich urban civilization, with sizeable towns flourishing at short distances from one another all over Youbaland. Churches and schools quickly mushroomed in the Yoruba towns. By the 1860s, Yoruba families were already beginning to send their children to institutions of higher education in Europe, and a literate Yoruba elite and professional class (of doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, writers, surveyors, etc) was emerging. Yorubaland’s first newspaper was born in 1859 in the city of Abeokuta, and others soon followed in other towns. When the British created Nigeria in 1914, the Yoruba part of Nigeria was considerably ahead of the rest of the new country in modern transformations. For instance, no other Nigerian people produced a university graduate until the mid-1930s. Islam and Christianity were strong in Yorubaland by 1900. But the Yoruba people have a unique ancient tradition of religious tolerance and accommodation, and, as a result, Christianity, Islam and the traditional Yoruba religion co-existed harmoniously in Yorubaland (even in Yoruba families). Yoruba people of all religions embraced Western education, thereby turning their country into the most literate part of, not just Nigeria, but tropical Africa. In the 1950s, the last years of British rule, under the system of limited self-government preceding independence, the Yoruba established free education in their part of Nigeria – the first African people to take such a step.

    Furthermore, in the traditional government of Yoruba kingdoms, in the context of Yoruba urban civilization, there had long existed many democratic institutions and tendencies – such as selection of kings and chiefs by their subjects, provisions for the peaceful removal of unpopular rulers,  institutions commanding the power to moderate the conduct of rulers and influential citizens and to penalize any of them that was guilty of errant conduct, citizens’ associations with institutionalized influence on the processes of governance, the right of all to voice their opinions (to “contribute their wisdom”) freely, the practice of forming factions and of lobbying rulers,  the right of peaceful protests, etc. In contrast, the large Igbo nation traditionally lived differently from the Yoruba, without a widespread urban culture, or centralized political systems.

    In the course of the first three decades of the 20th century, Western education grew fast in the rest of Southern Nigeria too, especially in the homelands of the Igbo and the Ibibio peoples. By the mid-1930s, the Ibibio and Igbo, and some other Southern Nigerian peoples, began to produce literate elites.

    In contrast to these educational and occupational transformations going on in the South and, to a lesser extent, in the Middle Belt, the strongly Islamic Hausa-Fulani North rejected Christian influence and showed apathy to Western education as well as to modern occupations. Furthermore, the system of rule which the Fulani Jihad had created here was one in which the Fulani, though much fewer than the Hausa, were simply the aristocratic ruling elements over the large mass of Hausa people – a system which the Fulani feel duty-bound to spread over all the peoples of Nigeria.

    Did a vast country so ethnically, linguistically, culturally, religiously, politically, and historically divided and divergent, with so many scattered traditions of conflict possess the elements and prospects for one country? Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first Prime Minister from 1952, said more than once that Nigeria’s unity was merely British intention for us, and that the factors for such unity simply did not exist. Now that we have tried Nigeria for over a whole century, what do we think of Balewa’s words? Isn’t it instructive that we still have not found how to live harmoniously together, respecting one another, sincerely wishing one another well, and providing for the happiness of all? Isn’t it important that we are still fighting, and still threatening to fight and destroy, one another? It is worth thinking about.

  • Housing ‘hit by economic realities’

    The real estate sector has been badly hit by current economic realities as several houses have been built without tenants to rent them. Tenants, who were meeting their rental obligations have resorted to either moving out of their apartments or defaulting in payment.

    Two experts, who spoke in Lagos at the weekend lamented that the downturn in the economy has taken its toll on the sector.

    A former President of the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors & Valuers (NIESV), Mr. Bode Adediji and Vice Chairman, NIESV Lagos Branch, Mr. Orimalade Olurogba said the sector is facing hard times. They are, however, optimistic that the real estate market would witness a rebound.

    Mr. Adediji stressed the need to imbibe change in all aspects of governance to achieve inclusive growth.

    He said: “Landlords have exotic houses, but with no effective demand from tenants; with the series of retrenchments in the banking, oil and information technology (IT) sectors, which were the toast of landlords as tenants, landlords have become the first casualties with high rental defaults.”

    The former NIESV chief criticised the nation’s housing policy model, maintaining that it is unsustainable.

    He urged the government to embrace backward integration in such a way that local raw materials are used to produce made-in-Nigeria houses. He frowned at a situation where houses are built with little or no local content thereby growing other economies at the detriment of the local economy.

    He said government should take a second look at the numerous researches made by research institutions which could improve the housing sector.

    According to him, as a result of lack of patronage of locally available building materials, the number of housing gap, which at the last count was 17 million units, increased at the detriment of the low and  middle class. He sought a policy that will encourage government to patronise locally fabricated building materials to serve as example for the public. He noted that it would be hypocritical for the government to preach “buy made-in -Nigeria goods’ when it is not showing the way.

    Mr. Olurogba said 80 per cent of all properties under his management now had defaulting tenants who were previously meeting their obligations. He lamented that some sectors, including oil and gas that were hitherto known to offer job security has been the worst hit by the downturn.

    He said: “What is most worrisome about it is that the sectors, which were termed to be secure, such as the oil and gas industry, are now the jobs that are most insecure.

    “A lot of people are being retrenched; the high end or the upper middle class people working in oil companies and who live Victoria Garden City and Lekki Phase 1 and other areas whose rentals are up to N4million and above are struggling.

    “Some are even moving to cheaper accommodation; the ‘ideal and choice tenants’ that most landlords look forward to occupying their properties are currently defaulting because of the uncertainties in the economy.”

  • Aregbesola and Osun’s financial realities

    Aregbesola and Osun’s financial realities

    It is generally agreed that a worker is truly deserving of his wage. This is functioned on the singular fact that it is the worker’s efforts and contributions in the production process that creates the wealth which the socio-economy depends on for survival. A worker’s wage is therefore not charity but truly just a fraction of his total creation and contributions to the Gross National Product (GNP). It is his share of his contribution to the bottom-line of any organisation; be it public or private, which is often infinitesimal compared to the quantum of his total contribution to the national effort.

    When it is realised that workers depend on their salaries for sustenance and for taking care of their extended families and discharging their obligations to the larger society, one begins to understand the crisis which the withholding of these from the worker portends not only directly for the worker and his immediate dependants but for the society at large. A worker’s salary is his lifeline. As a lifeline, it ought not to be treated with carelessness or any form of irresponsibility as that would amount to either suspending the lives of some people or actually destroying them outright.

    I hold the opinion that when a worker is denied his salary, he becomes stripped of his humanity as he becomes castrated of the capacity to discharge his social obligations and carry out responsible and dignified activities within the society. This is traumatic and humans ought not to be allowed to go through this experience in a modern society especially in a democracy.

    We hold therefore that any organisation or employer for that matter, which includes various governments at different levels, that intentionally withholds salaries from her workers stands condemnable for subjecting fellow human beings to sub-normal conditions. The persons or group involved ought to be held in contempt of all civilised societies and ostracised from public discourses and conversations. It is truly criminal. The Holy Books say so, our Laws and conventions reject it and our social morals seriously frown at it.

    However, in reaching these conclusions, it becomes imperative that we make further inquiries as to why a sane employer could subject her employees to such harrowing conditions. Is it out of sheer wickedness; out of inexplicable carelessness and irresponsibility; out of a degradation of our moral values; out of a loss of focus for the central place the worker occupies in our production chain; out of greed and avarice or perhaps are their objective conditions such as the unavailability of funds or paucity of capacity to meet the salary demands?

    This plank forms the basis for our intervention in this recent national conversation around the huge and accumulating salary arrears which is almost turning into an outrage amongst the citizenry and the various interest groups. Truly, most of these cases in some of the states of the federation cannot be excused under any circumstances especially when we look at the cheeky manner some of the state governors are going about trying to explain this comeuppance against Nigerian workers and Nigeria. And, when we factor in the financial buoyancy of such state governments at the backdrop of the small comparative recurrent expenditure we cannot but question the nature of the conscience of such leaders.

    The case of Osun State under the leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola immediately comes to mind and seems to stand at a cursory look in contrast with the very well-known and publicly stated beliefs of the governor who has always maintained that the welfare of the workers in the state remains top most priority. When you however peel the veneer, one will objectively observe why the salary of workers in the state became unfortunately delayed over these past months.

    His was truly not one of those borne out of irresponsibility, greed and utter neglect of the welfare of others based on the feeling that they are not part of the people in leadership in the state. It was not because public funds were criminally diverted or misapplied for other selfish purposes. It was purely borne out of conditions that are extraneous to his sphere of control and thus the econometrics will call it the intrusion of the X variables or the stochastic variables which as we know cannot be easily handled no matter how clever we are in our planning effort.

    State Osun at creation had peculiar circumstances and we would therefore attribute part of the present salary overhang to a historically generated phenomenon which was unavoidably thrust unto the state at birth. Can we then call it a genealogical defect? No! But one that truly poses a deep challenge and has continued posing challenges to those who have had the opportunity of leading the state and are presently leading it.

    When Osun State was created, a very large percentage of the workforce of the old Oyo State moved with the new State Osun to Osogbo. We would therefore say that while Osun inherited heavy recurrent expenses from the Old Oyo state, it however came away being a new state with smaller portion of the internal capacity for wealth generation. In essence, it had a heavy recurrent expenditure confronting it right at birth with inverse capacity for wealth generation needed to satisfy the inherent expenditure profile. This put the state at birth to a negative balance in its financial standings. This it has struggled with since then and which receipts from the Federation Account has helped in meeting all these while.

    It was the realisation of this financial gap that propelled the present leadership into making a case for accelerated development of the state and to build internal capacities within in order to create multiple streams of revenue for the state and wean it from dependence on the Federation Account for survival. That explains the myriads of projects that dot the major cities of the state which are all geared towards solving this natal challenge.

    These have however created two major challenges. While the financial imbalance makes it imperative that it has to look for externals to augment its position to fund its activities, the drop in its receipts from the Federation Account, of which the state is one of the lowest in Nigeria as a result of the huge drop in international oil prices, further exacerbated the situation and made its finances very precarious, thus unable to meet the expectations of its major stakeholders, especially the workforce.

    His quest to make the state independent of the Federation Account was the second challenge. It meant that huge funds were quickly allocated to capital projects and most of these projects have not been realised when suddenly the national financial crunch struck. While the expenses persisted, the source of augmentation has dried up and the projects that was hoped would catapult the state into a commercially viable destination have not come on stream yet to contribute to the state’s effort; this seems to be the present quagmire which the state seem to have found itself.

    The unpaid salaries was not therefore a creation of the state government but a product of unexpected national financial crisis as a result of not just international price adjustments in crude oil but also deep and systemic corruption that pervaded governance at the federal level under the PDP-led administration of Nigeria for the past 16 years. Osun State’s case must therefore be seen for what it is; a historical and structural problem. It was not internal but externally induced.

    Another example of this debacle is the presence in the state of two state Polytechnics and two Colleges of Education including the State University each making humongous demands on the treasury of the state. I still do not know of how many States in Nigeria with such number of state educational institutions. I also do not think that outside Lagos state in the whole of the South West of Nigeria, there is any other state with the size of workforce which Osun state has. The import of this is dizzying within the context of the revenue capacity of all these states comparatively.

    There is however, a good side to all these for despite these disadvantages, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been able to empower the people reducing absolute poverty in the process to the minimum and making the state one of the best states in terms of poverty index in Nigeria. The recent report of the study of all the states in Nigeria as compiled under the MPI shows that while Lagos State has the lowest poverty rate, Osun stands next in rank while Anambra State follows. This is commendable and shows that it is always better to invest in the people as the governor has been able to do in Osun. His good works in the state are beginning to show in diverse areas especially in the psyche of the average Osun citizen. This is truly commendable.

    –Honourable Jimoh, who represents Apapa Constituency II, is the Deputy Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly.

  • Enugu: Of dreams and realities of power

    SIR: Ask yourself, granted you have the ambition, why would I invest in pursuit of power? By extension why do men, and women, seek power? Power to do what, show what, or just for the fun?

    There are various directions to these questions arising from fancies and a question requesting answer may get answer that may be akin to a man who fancies his looks: to show how far he can conquer.

    But that is what many power-seekers unconsciously focus their gaze.  Of course, a conqueror has unlimited access to the booty of conquest. And this is the root of sleaze in government.

    Very few employ business strategy to achieve optimum result; to make profit and do good. The business philosophy or policy, Management by Objective – MBO – can make government business more rewarding to do good for the government stakeholders – the electorate.

    Soon after his nomination as the All Progressive Congress gubernatorial candidate for Enugu State, Okey Ezea, in close-house dinner conversation with some friends who occasionally held him by the collar demanding why he should get into dirty Nigerian politics rather than face his successful business outfits quipped: “the pursuit for power is to do good just as presiding over business empire is to earn profit, redistribute it and engender peace and harmony among those who have no access to factors of production…”

    He told his guests that he was not seeking the people’s mandate “for the fun of it or a show of telling anybody that I am Okey Ezea, a lawyer and businessman, but to find solution to the poverty in our land…’ He would add that “the situation calls for men of character, with ideas and solutions to recreate the Enugu State of Wawa dream.”

    I am reliving the dinner dialogue, almost a monologue, because the climate is ripe now that contenders to Governor Sullivan Chime’s seat are on the prowl seeking support and endorsement at election.  More importantly, there have been no known manifestos from his opponents detailing what the Enugu people should hold them accountable in default or in assessment.

    He declared: “hold me accountable in pursuit of the change I seek in Enugu… we advocate true democratic governance where government is for the people, by the people and of the people where my social contract with the people is anchored in wealth creation and poverty reduction, improvement of the health sector and health system, infrastructure development, security of life and property, and accountability and good governance.”

    It seems Enugu may get solid and independent helmsman after Senator Chimaroke Nnamani who held sway between 1999 and May 2007, as the governor.

    “I am my own boss, nobody’s godson or lackey… my pedigree is my business sense which I will use to change Enugu state of our dream… I will create wealth, provide jobs and reduce poverty, develop infrastructure and show that government is a continuum… it is indecent for a succeeding government to abandon a project embarked upon with the people’s money simply because there is irritation between the departed governor and the sitting governor… and mark you the project was duly authorized by the state legislature by way of budget approval…”

    Knocking off after the 45 minutes buffet, he was philosophical “… in social engineering, an effective follower-ship is as important as a visionary and dynamic leadership…getting the people to identify with government and its programmes goes beyond propaganda…it flows from providing leadership by example…projecting open, accessible, transparent and accountable government to earn trust… I will restore the Wawa virtues and values by implementing a mixed grill of ethical reorientation programmes built on known pillars of trust…”

    Will this change come? He quipped; “Certainly for the first time in the east, and Enugu in particular, APC government will show the difference and introduce free education up to Senior Secondary School level…  I cross my crest.. “

    •Obieze Ozoagu,

    Enugu

  • Nigeria: The unavoidable realities

    Many Nigerians underrate the differences between the various nationalities that make up Nigeria. They think that those differences as fragile and can easily be eliminated to build a “united Nigeria”.

    Such people mean well, but they are wrong – very wrong. How seriously wrong they are can be shown from three perspectives: the virtually permanent differences in nations’ cultures; the permanence of each nation in its own homeland, and the certainty that each nation will someday choose a status for itself in the world.

    Countries made up of different nations are many in our world. Nigeria is one. Each Nigerian nation had lived in its own homeland for thousands of years before the British came and included all of us together as Nigeria. Let us take two examples of such countries in Europe. Britain, (the United Kingdom) has contained four different nations, each living in its own homeland, for about 500 years. The four are the English nation of England, the Scottish nation of Scotland, the Irish nation of Ireland, and the Welsh nation of Wales. Because all these nations have been living in one country, under one government, their citizens have been mixing and intermixing for centuries. Yet, today, their different cultures are still different and distinct. The same is true of the cultures of the Spaniards, Basques and Catalonians of Spain who have lived together in Spain for about 600 years. It is true in every old country that contains different nations. What this means for Nigeria is that, even if Nigeria is lucky to live for the next hundreds of years, there will still be distinctly a Yoruba people with their own culture, an Igbo people with their own culture, a Hausa people with their own culture, etc. Anybody who thinks that these peoples and cultures will melt away or melt together in Nigeria is not reading the history of the world correctly.

    The reason behind this is that each people and culture have taken thousands of years to evolve their own particular characteristics. As a result, the differences are not superficial, they are very deep. And each culture determines how its people respond to situations. For instance, politically, the Yoruba people, living in kingdoms and towns, evolved a political culture in which the ordinary people took part in the selection of their kings and chiefs, and had a lot of say in the affairs of their towns. That is why the Yoruba are so freedom-loving, so confident, and so hostile to election rigging, dictatorial or arbitrary leadership, and corruption, today. Throughout their history, also, they have been used to respecting the religious right of everybody, and that is why they are the most religiously tolerant and accommodating people in Nigeria today. On the surface, one might say that the Yoruba and the Hausa lived under kings (Obas in one case and Emirs in the other). But the Obas were selected by their subjects, could only rule through councils of chiefs, and must respect the families, priests and various organizations, whereas the Emirs, being leaders of a foreign conquering people, ruled at a level far above their Hausa subjects. The differences that these facts created in the political behavior of these two peoples are not likely to disappear in hundreds of years. And the Hausa and Yoruba are very different from the Igbo who, for the most part, never developed states and rulers but lived mostly in rudimentary village and clan settings. The Igbo are proud of the fact that they never lived under rulers, and they are entitled to their pride. However, making these different peoples, with these different cultures, to live in one country is proving very problematic indeed.

    In spite of the mixing and intermixing of peoples in Nigeria also, the various homelands will always be distinct. Yorubaland will always be Yorubaland, Igboland, Igboland, Hausaland, Hausaland, and even small Biromland will be Biromland, etc. In Britain, the English, Scotts, Irish and Welsh have for centuries been intensely intermixing, and yet their homelands remain distinct. Because England experienced the heaviest industrialization in recent centuries, people came in enormous numbers from Scotland, Ireland and Wales to work and settle in England; even so, England is still England, the homeland of the English people. The homeland of even the smallest nation, the Welsh, remains distinct also. Whoever thinks that anything different from this picture will happen in Nigeria is deceiving himself. Nothing different is happening in any country consisting of different nations. Because Yorubaland is the most developed, most prosperous, and most free of inter-ethnic and religious conflicts in Nigeria, large numbers of Igbo, Hausa, and other Nigerian nationals are streaming into Yorubaland today. But, in spite of that, Yorubaland will always be the homeland of the Yoruba nation, even if Nigeria is lucky to exist for much longer. The differences between the various homelands of the various nations of Nigeria are very real indeed, and are virtually impossible to eliminate.

    Finally, nobody can dictate what each of today’s nations of Nigeria will ultimately choose to become in the world. How long will they remain together as one country? And how soon will some become separate countries in the world? One thing seems certain – that some parting of ways will come, one way or other, sooner or later. Worldwide, most nations that are parts of larger countries are breaking off today and becoming separate countries. In Britain, the Irish, Welsh, and Scotts began to agitate for separate countries of their own many decades ago. The Irish were allowed to go and create their own Republic of Ireland. Scotland is planning to hold a referendum in 2014 to become the separate Republic of Scotland. And the Welsh are following close behind the Scotts. That is the trend in the world in our times. The trend has resulted in the breaking up of the Soviet Union into 15 countries, Yugoslavia into five countries, Czechoslovakia into two, India into three soon after independence, Indonesia into three (with more on the way), Sudan into two, etc. It is threatening to break Spain into three, Belgium into two, Sri Lanka into two, Canada into two, etc. The United States, though comprising many nationalities, is different: none of its immigrant nationalities is settled in a separate homeland in the country. The United Nations has bowed to reality and passed a resolution affirming the right of every nation, large or small, to determine its own status in the world. The African Union has done the same.

    Some people think that it is because Nigeria is poorly governed and poverty-ridden that it may break into separate countries. But that is not so. Poor governance and poverty may speed up the break; orderly governance and prosperity may delay it for some time but cannot prevent it. Countries like Britain, Spain or Canada that are breaking up are not poorly governed or poor. It is just that breaking up seems to be, in our times, the destiny of countries that are made up of different nations with different homelands. Nigeria cannot avoid it. The only question is: how, and how soon, will it come to Nigeria? However, while we are still together, we Nigerians should strive to make our country a land of harmony and opportunity.

  • Nigeria @52: Myths and realities of leadership, development and pluralism

    Nigeria @52: Myths and realities of leadership, development and pluralism

    It is pertinent to remind ourselves at the outset that Nigeria is the prime product of British colonial adventure in Africa. It was constituted to abstract natural resources for the benefit of the British economy. As Sir Olanihun Ajayi has reminded us

    “As at 7 January 1897 there was no place or area or country called Nigeria. The country known and called Nigeria came into being in 1897 as a result of an article in the Times of 8 January 1897 by Flora Shaw pressing that the aggregate of all the towns and villages or the protectorate consisting of many ethnic nationalities should be called Nigeria. That aggregation of several empires, kingdoms, various nations and tribes constituted what is now known as Nigeria….”

    That the seeds of economic disabilities and structural deformities between the regions carried over from the colonial to the present have proved a major constraint to the efforts at building a modern nation-state can be illustrated from different episodes of our national history. This is not to say that the evident imbalances could not be redressed, given a patriotic, visionary and national leadership. But this has been lacking. In any case given over 50 years of co-evolution and co-existence of the nationalities new centres of equilibrium could have emerged to mould and drive new social forces in the direction of integration and harmonious coexistence. That this has not happened is the modern day dilemma that Nigerians and their friends must face.

    Contemporary Nigeria is poised on a knife-edge. On the one hand are arrayed the forces of retrogression such as Boko Haram ready to drive the nation into the abyss never to rise again-sectarian conflicts with their attendant violence, divisiveness propelled by ethnic, religious or social inequalities and inequities. On the other hand are progressive forces pushing for economic and desirable social reforms. Indeed, the progressive institutionalisation of some of these reforms has led many outside observers such as Goldmann Sachs and the rating agencies to regard Nigeria as one of the emerging economic forces of the age of globalisation. If all goes well and Nigeria holds out, it has been said that the country may be unrecognisable in 5-7 years when compared with her dismal present. How can these contradictory visions of the Nigerian future emerge and co-exist from the same reality?

    There is among the youth a sense of alienation, anomie and a brooding angst at what they regard as their betrayal by the post-independence generation of leaders particularly the military when they held sway in governance. Nasir el Rufai has given a graphic account of this leadership and its failures. Given the unacceptably high unemployment rates, the sense of deprivation amongst the youth is to be expected but this comes at a time that there is a total collapse of our values. High rate of corruption in both the public and private sectors as recently sign-posted by both the pension and petroleum subsidy scams are prevalent. The 419 scam is, as they would say, old hat. The collapse of the educational system has been facilitated by the high rates of examination malpractices often encouraged and facilitated by parents, teachers and those who would normally have passed off as role models. The total discount of merit and scant regard for excellence are emblems of the new order. The worship of money and materialism is in contradistinction to the apparently high level of religious zealotry and showmanship. We are now in the era of wealth without work. Hypocrisy, insincerity and pretentious display of phoney values is the order of the day. So where will national redemption come from and how did we get here?

    It has often been said by some of our leaders that there are settled issues in the Nigerian political economy. The truth is that there are no such settled issues for we have not sincerely and dispassionately looked at the problems of Nigerian nationhood except from the vantage point of how we can take advantage of one another to advance our personal or sectional interests. Nevertheless, it is fair to state that given the state of the global environment, breaking up Nigeria into whatever number of constituent sovereignties is not an option. Globalisation enforces mutual interaction in an interlinked matrix of economic entities. Nations separate only to cooperate in new economic formations. That is the reality of our new world. Moving forward into the harmonious peaceful and united nation of our dreams enforces on us the duty to get rid of some shibboleths from the past that have dogged our every step in the journey to nationhood.

    First and foremost we must re-establish and embrace the values of truth and justice as the unchanging foundations in the management of human affairs. There are some historical untruths that we as a nation must confront if we are to move forward together. In the documents British Documents at the End of Empire (BDEE) (ed. Martin Lynn) that I referred to earlier, there is irrefutable evidence that both the pre-independence census and elections were manipulated to produce a pre-determined result favourable to a section. The demands of truth enforce on us the obligation to rectify these anomalies. Justice, however, enforces on us a corollary obligation – we owe the duty of care and fairness to all Nigerians. No part of Nigeria can be allowed to wallow in poverty even as some revel in affluence. It is the obligation of the Nigerian state to ensure fairness in the management and distribution of the resources of the nation to all parts and to all citizens. It is also the obligation of the nation to ensure fair rewards and incentives to honest labour, enterprise innovation and creativity and to create the environment that promotes these conditions. These are necessary conditions for peace and unity.

    Secondly, we must re-admit merit and the pursuit of excellence as part of our national objectives. In a merit-driven national endeavour ideally recruitment to national leadership cannot be on the basis of a roster or quota but on the basis of knowledge, competence and overall national interest. In societies that embrace these values, the recruitment of leadership and training of leaders in a common environment where they can compete even as they share visions of the future.

    In Nigeria, there is the anomalous presumption that Nigerian leadership must emerge from particular sections of the country. This position discounts the position that localised leadership can only project a local rather that a national vision of leadership. Nigeria, and particularly the North, has paid a heavy price for this anomaly. In the 52 years of Nigeria’s independent existence, the North has produced nine of the 13 leaders and they have been in charge of the government for nearly 40 years. In much of that time development in the North has markedly regressed. Indeed, the post-election violence of 2011 had indications that it was an uprising against the leadership. Thus, the dominance of the north in the politics of Nigeria has contributed markedly to the under-development of the North and by extension of Nigeria. In other words sectionally-driven leadership recruitment has not enhanced Nigerian development, has conferred no obvious advantage to the section of the leader except to individual benefactors.

    In the effort to rebuild Nigeria, there is a need for drastic restructuring and redesign of the architecture of the nation. We also need to reorganise the priorities of the nation such that the eradication of poverty and the creation of wealth will be pursued as necessary conditions for the rebuilding of the nation in an atmosphere of peace and unity. Towards this objective we need to focus on the immediate and/or expeditious solution of four problems-

    • reconstituting leadership with a Pan-Nigerian vision

    • reconciling and managing our diversities

    • guaranteeing citizenship and citizen rights and

    • restoring and realigning our value system

    In the pursuit of these goals it is evident that we will need to cultivate a new mind set in tackling our problems. The challenge to put Nigeria on a fast track development needs priority attention being given to the hardware of infrastructure (power, transportation etc.) but also the software of our vanishing value system anchored on integrity, hard-work, entrepreneurship, thrift and sincerity. We must do away with the culture of impunity in governance and the entitlement complex that has put a wedge between different segments of our people. We must return compassion to one another and passion with vision to our leadership. The c-word corruption must be extirpated from our body politics.

    We must not forget the challenge of our youth and women – by far the vast majority of our people. We must remember that over 60% of our population is under 30 while the gender parity between male and females suggest that releasing this explosive pent-up energy of our youths and women can guarantee us a quantum leap in our development trajectory. But the key is education. Given the release of this vast human capital, trained and skilled, the Chinese miracle that took precisely eleven short years can be upstaged. The missing link is leadership – a leadership that is well-educated, passionate and visionary. We must as a people pursue

    wealth with equity

    truth with compassion

    justice with fairness

    reconciliation with empathy

     

    • Excerpts of a paper delivered by Professor Anya, FAS, OFR, NNOM at the Cosmopolitan Women’s Club at 52 Independence lecture in Lagos.