The Nation Newspaper

Tag: reforms

  • Reforms, Corruption  and Justice

    When  a former  Minister of Nigeria challenges Nigerian legislators  to a public debate over their salaries  and fringe benefits she is saying boldly  and clearly that it cannot  be business as usual on the cost  of governance in  Nigeria. In  Brazil  the President of the nation accepted the challenge of the demonstrators in Brazilian cities who disturbed the matches at the last FIFA Confederation Cup in June   and made proposals to Parliament that certain percentage of Brazilian oil royalties shall be devoted to education and   health. Yet  in Nigeria strikes by Nigerian lecturers  have become a way of life rather than lecturing in the universities because the lecturers claim they must strike to resurrect  the  comatose university system while their students   become victims of the idle mind and hands  with the attendant  socio  economic  consequences. In  Egypt, believe it or not former despot Hosni Mubarak  has been freed by an Egyptian court  and the judge said the judgement is final while the man who succeeded him as the elected  President of Egypt Mohammed Morsi is in detention in  a  place that nobody knows  in the land of the Pharaohs;   and in Zimbabwe  89  years  old President Robert Mugabe has been sworn in to  seventh  presidential term in a ceremony  in Harare  boycotted by the man he defeated Mr Tsivirangai.  Surely, one can say c’est la  vie  or such  is life as the French are wont to say.

    But  then in  all these issues  there  is  struggle  going on and a titanic one at that,  between those  defending the status quo obviously because it  pays them to do so at the expense of the rest of society. Just  as in some cases those fighting for their perceived rights don’t bother if the baby is thrown away with  the bath tub as long as they get what they want or what they think is their right. All  these struggles however take place in an atmosphere that calls for justice and order  as expected in a democracy powered by a rule of law which seem to have gone to sleep  while on duty on its watch. Or  why should Nigerian legislators abuse  Oby Ezekwesili  because she quoted authentic figures from the Federal Ministry of Finance on the salaries  of the legislators?  Why  should Brazilian legislators  now refuse to pass  the reforms proposed by President Dilma Rousseff  into law a month after the riots in Brazilian cities that saw these same legislators diving for cover for dear life at the time of the Confederation Cup? Why  should Mugabe still be grinning like a school boy winning his first prize at his seventh coronation as it were,  as the president of Zimbabwe after a rigged election like the opposition has  done a lot to substantiate?   And  pray, why should   Mohammed Morsi be in detention  in Egypt while Mubarak who was carried to court on a sick bed, in a cage  to face corruption charges , is now  a free  man – while the victor of the elections that strangled  and confiscated  the Mubarak regime to the dustbin of history  is  nowhere to be found in public? Obviously  there is something rotten in all these events that leaves   a sour taste in the mouth  but then we have to face the facts that unpleasant as they may  seem to observers, they are issues that will not go away just by wishing them so, and that is why we have to dissect them here and now today.  At  least to show that we are not totally befuddled by them and can at least  occasionally read between the lines.

    Taking them serially we start with the Ezekwesili revelations  which are not  original because she was quoting  statistics from the Ministry of Finance. What is unique is that she  has the guts to say that these salaries are not fair in a nation bedeviled with the poor welfare conditions of our citizenry and she  should know,  having been at the Mount Olympus of exploitation of the Nigerian masses as a Czarina of the sale of our public enterprises and  as a  Minister of Education. However,  her records while in office are immaterial  here, and should not disqualify her from the salutary task she has set herself in telling our legislators that their salaries are out of this world and make the cost of governance prohibitive. For her   guts and diligence in sourcing for vital statistics on the matter she has my unfettered admiration and l  enjoin our legislators to listen to her soft voice now or find out what happened to the rich and mighty in France  with the storming of the  Bastille during the French Revolution against  the ruling class in  France.

    In  Brazil  the President a lady like our  Oby Ezekwesili, Dilmar Roussef responded positively to the demands of the rioters that disrupted the staging of the Confederation Cup by FIFA in Brazil. One could say she did this to forestall a bigger disruption in the 2014  FIFA world Cup to be hosted by Brazil as well as the 2016  Olympics also slated by Brazil and one could be right. No  president will want his or her nation to be disgraced after going to great and very expensive lengths to win such glamorous and prestigious hosting rights. But it is in the nature of the reforms to placate the demonstrators that the Brazilian president has won my heart while I have scant respect for the Brazilian legislators trying to stall her proposals in Parliament. This  is because the demonstrators had complained about  increased transport costs and long hours spent in traffic  in commuting to and from work and the fact that   Brazil’s  riches in sports are not trickling down to the masses. So a responsive president  proposed to Parliament a huge $14bn bill for transportation and another bill that gives a huge percentage of new oil royalties to education and health  so that the masses can benefit from the riches of Brazil before next year’s World Cup and the 2016  Olympics  and the legislators in Brazil are trying to stall on the passage of these public spirited and pragmatic socio economic palliatives. Really l  feel sorry for these legislators as the Brazilian public knows the zeal and sincerity with which their president has pursued their welfare  and should know at the appropriate time what to make of their elected representatives in Parliament.

    In  Nigeria   however the issue of education especially in  the ivory tower is being handled with levity and a rather cruel one at that. Now  our youths spend eight years for a 4- year course and in most cases are not sure of when they are to graduate. Really I am fed up with the strikes and the lecturers as well as the government who is their employer as both have made a mockery of the tenet and objective  of industrial relations which is industrial harmony. For now  the Nigerian university  system is in disequilibrium and shambles  and the ultimate scapegoats  are our Nigerian students who are the   undoubtedly  the future of this nation. However,  the Minister of Finance complicated issues  further  and said the Federal   government could not afford   what  the striking   dons were asking for. She  quoted a figure which the striking dons denied  although they gave a lesser figure all the same . The Minister  obviously missed the fact that the matter  was beyond a budget issue and she should not have used the affordability concept in that context. Obviously people have asked if her children are schooling in any Nigerian university and she deserves the question and should  answer or resign. All  Ministers or legislators should also be asked that question and if   their wards or children are schooling overseas  they should just leave office. This  may sound stern now, but a time will come when it will be a litmus test to know those who have a stake in leading Nigeria now and in the future and especially  out of the present paralyzing strike syndrome. For now, I grieve with the Nigerian undergraduate in Nigerian universities who should be telling both the unyielding government and the strike loving lecturers what Shakespeare put in the mouth of the dying fighter in Romeo  and Juliet – a plague on both your houses, for you have made worms meat of me‘.

    I  take  Egypt and Zimbabwe  together in that in  terms of despotism and tyranny they are birds of the same feather. Indeed  in both nations this week you may say  of the two despots – Mubarak and Mugabe –  as it is usually said of successful  businessmen,  that they were smiling all the way to the bank! Mubarak was flown by helicopter out of prison to a military hospital for house arrest, what ever that means as his generals have Egypt’s democracy very well under their boots and have used even the courts to free their master and leader in the best spirit of spirit de corps you can find any where in the world today . So where is justice in all that?. Yes, the  army in Egypt has  made a bloody ass of the law  and made a mockery of the rule of law in that ancient land. But   then,  I  blame the Muslim Brotherhood which was patient for decades till Providence gave it power to tame  the army,  its ancient enemy in Egypt. But the MU   with  Morsi, frittered its  unique opportunity away in less than two years,  because it forgot an ancient dictum of the law that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands,  especially  in a democracy. So  the Brotherhood’s  high handedness and undue haste in establishing its values estranged it to those with whom it upstaged Mubarak in the first  street  revolution of 2011,  only for  it and Morsi to be consumed by a fiercer   democratic tsunami two years later,  with its elected president nowhere to be found and its spiritual leaders back in the custody  of Egypt’s  power loving and blood thirsty army. As  for Mugabe he has had his swearing in this week and must have sent a message to Mubarak  on his new status of house arrest. Mugabe obviously must have blamed Mubarak for trusting the Americans   in 2011  and  must have assured  him that what happened to Mubarak   in Cairo could never have happened to him in Harare. And he could be right,  as at 89,  there is not much time to spare to enjoy his  seventh coronation or  swearing in  after the ritual of a stage  managed election, as expected of a democracy which he has hijacked again and again  in Zimbabwe.

  • ‘Public Key Infrastructure will enhance banking reforms’

    When the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) initiative of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is implemented, it will add a new fillip to ongoing reforms of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to institutionalise a cashless society, an official of the apex bank, Segun Osunaike, has said.

    Speaking at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, venue of the public presentation of the Draft Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to stakeholders, Osunride, who is an assistant director, Information Technology Department of the financial sector regulator, said the initiative will boost electronic payment platform being promoted by the apex bank. He spoke on The Experience of the CBN on PKI.

    He noted that the apex bank had earlier run a model framework on PKI, which recorded a huge success because it guarded against the perpetration of fraud.

    He said with the initiative, there was safety of transaction data. : “We are talking of fraud here. It will give authorisation and authentication (to transactions and all the data associated with such transactions). If you bypass the security, the abiility to prove that you did it will be there. So it will eliminate fraud,” he said.

    Speaking at the occasion, Director General, NITDA, Prof Cleopas O Angaye, said for the nation to achieve its vision contained in the Vision 20:2020, it must embrace the PKI initiative, which he said will be funded by both the public and private sectors of the economy. Angaye said PKI is the only technology that satisfies the privacy, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation (PAIN) principle of security.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Tilting the scale of judicial reforms

    Tilting the scale of judicial reforms

    SIR: Recent occurrences in the Nigerian judiciary under the current Chief Justice of Nigeria has confirmed in a big way that it may no longer be business as usual. Since the assumption of office as Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Hon. Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, GCON has demonstrated the will to restore public confidence in the judicial arm. The loss of public confidence in the courts has exposed the judicial system to public distrust, thus the tendency to view every judicial decision as a product of some ‘behind the scene’ orchestrations, no matter how legally justifiable such decision may be.

    The height of public distrust in the system was once again manifested a couple of months ago given the public deprecation that greeted the judgment of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory sitting in Abuja in the John Yakubu Yusuf police pension fraud case. This was despite the fact that the decision had a legal basis.

    For a judicial system that is so engrossed in a crisis of integrity, the current reforms being carried out by the NJC under Justice Mukhtar’s chairmanship is to say the least commendable. The suspension of two High Court judges for judicial misconduct has without doubt sent signals to the appropriate quarters that things may not continue to be as they were.

    However, the ends of the reforms would be defeated if the big stick of the NJC is only wielded against those judicial officers that are found wanting in the discharge of their duties. To encourage judicial purity, the NJC must also introduce a means of rewarding judges that have displayed exceptional judicial honesty and bravery. Hunting those who have sinned while losing sight of the saints would only tilt the scale of reformation towards one side than the other.

    High Court judges in this country who have demonstrated a very high sense of judicial gallantry in the discharge of their duties should be rewarded. Such judges should not be allowed to rot on the High Court Bench. The much desired sanity in the judicial system could only be attained when honest and brave judges are allowed to climb the judicial ladder to the peak.

    Specifically, Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole of the High Court of Lagos State is an easy reference. The learned judge who was said to have been tipped for elevation to the Court of Appeal on account of his bravery during the Bode George case had since remained on the High Court bench, nobody seems to talk about that.

    The efforts at sanitising the judiciary are commendable but the war against judicial ungodliness could only be won if judicial courage and honesty is also rewarded. This is the only means by which the scale could be balanced.

     

    • Vincent Adodo, Esq.

    Ilorin, Kwara State

  • Reforming the reforms

    Reforming the reforms

    The education reforms in Rivers State that transformed public primary schools into beautiful environments conducive for teaching and learning have been applauded by many within and outside the state. However, the reforms have also thrown up challenges about sustainability beyond the present administration and drawn attention to other areas of need.

    After five years of reforms targeted at overhauling the education sector of the state, the chief reformer, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi gathered eggheads for an education summit in Port Harcourt Monday and Tuesday last week to discuss ways to consolidate gains, correct errors and evolve policies that would meet the state’s development aspirations.

    Thirteen papers were delivered and debated during the two-day summit which had in attendance the likes of Prof. Wole Soyinka, who chaired the opening ceremony, Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Hon Tele Ikuru, Mrs Sarah Sosan, former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Emeritus Prof. Ayo Banjo, who delivered the keynote address, Emeritus Prof Tekena Nitonye Tamuno, who chaired the plenary sessions, Commissioners of Education from other States of the Federation, Prof Nimi Briggs, and Prof. Otonti Nduka, and Hon. Odein Ajumogobia, among others.

    There were 824 participants from within and outside the state who actively participated in discussing issues of improving learning outcomes, addressing poor teacher quality, supply, and training needs, effective management of schools, and repositioning tertiary institutions to focus on areas of strength, among others.

    In line with the theme of the summit tagged: “Enhancing Sustainable Development in Education”, the paper presenters argued for changes in the way education is currently being administered.

    The journey so far

    During the summit, Amaechi said his intervention in the education sector was hinged on the level of involvement of young people in Rivers State in militancy and cult-related activities. He noted he was particularly concerned that many were from underprivileged homes, without access to quality education, which had become the preserve of the rich.

    “When I became governor, 90 per cent of young people were militants. I wanted to achieve an education that makes children have skills for employment. I was concerned that why the poor can’t have access the quality education? Why can’t the rich and poor learn together? There was need for reform,” he said.

    Following his government’s investment running into billions of naira, more than 270 model primary and secondary schools have been constructed; textbooks, uniforms, sandals and sports wears have been distributed under the free education initiative; while he took over the payment of salaries of primary school teachers from local governments among others.

    However, despite the progress made, the governor said people should not think much has been achieved. Beyond beautiful looking schools, he said he is seeking policies that would institutionalise effective school management, check sharp practices by head teachers and teachers, enhance teaching quality and delivery of the curriculum among others.

    “If you ask me, not much has happened since the retreat in Calabar. If you see the impact assessment report, it is a bit appalling. We shouldn’t be deceived by the facade of infrastructural development. We should not politicise education at all to get votes. You go to our primary schools, they look beautiful outside. When you visit they put on the generator for you when you leave they put it off. The head teacher will tell you there is no diesel. This is no longer government because we have provided funds but a management problem,” he said.

    The governor’s pessimism about achievements in the sector following his personal inspection of schools and the unflattering report of an impact and needs assessment of education service delivery by Helen Fadipe, the picture is not so gloomy.

    A paper by Prof Olaseni Akintola-Bello also showed gaps in learning outcomes in numeracy skills. But literacy skills were more impressive. He however noted that performance gaps between urban and rural schools were narrowing.

    In his paper titled: “Access, Quality and Equity in Primary and Secondary Education in Rivers State 2008-2013”, Akintola-Bello said an assessment of Primary Five and JSS2 pupils in two schools each in the 23 local government areas of the state revealed that pupils scored an average of 51 per cent in the literacy tests, 31 in numeracy which was poor generally, and 41 in life skills.

    Despite there being no baseline statistics to compare the result with, he said the assessment showed that rural schools were catching up with their urban counterparts or even overtaking them in some areas.

    He however urged the state to address the poor numeracy skills and re-train mathematics teachers to teach better. He also urged the government to sustain its funding of education which would yield fruit in the long run

    He said: “Continue with current level of expenditure in education. Sustained under-financing is unequivocally bad for efficiency, equity and education quality,” he said.

    In her speech, the Education Commissioner, Mrs Lawrence-Nemi, said the summit was the third in five years organised to reposition the education sector and ensure sustainability of progressive policies.

    She added that the ministry, under her watch had drafted an education policy that would guide how the education sector is managed.

    The document was presented before stakeholders who critiqued it at a forum held mid-March.

    When completed, she said it would sustain the efforts started by the present administration to revamp the sector.

    Teacher quality, development and supply Several papers touched on the problems of teacher education, quality and supply.

    Speaking on the topic, “Agenda for Educational Development,” Keynote speaker, Prof Ayo Banjo pointed out the need to revamp teacher training education, because of the lack of depth of trained teachers in their teaching subjects.

    “If the standard of secondary schools are to be raised teachers should be graduates in their teaching subjects before they train as teachers as was done before,” he said.

    In his paper on “Implementing The New Basic and Secondary School Education Curricula: Strategies and Challenges” the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Prof Godswill Obioma, also urged the government to intervene in the training of teachers at the colleges of education as they lacked requisite skills to deliver the new curricula, especially in the trade subjects.

    “Colleges of Education should revise their teacher training curriculum because their teachers lack the competencies and skills to teach the new curriculum. The current textbooks are also a mismatch with the curriculum,” he said.

    Following a study that showed the state needed 91,000 teachers, Amaechi said he directed that 13,000 passionate teachers be recruited, who would implement the new policies of the state.

    In fulfilling the government’s request for 13,000 teachers, Mr Charles Magbe of Price Water House Coopers said only 47 per cent (three per cent outstanding, 44 per cent good and very good) of the 18,000 candidates that applied to be teachers were qualified. He underscored the need for proper induction and continuous training for the new recruits.

    On his part, Emeritus Professor Joshua said it is possible to improve the quality of the new recruits through proper induction, training, monitoring and mentoring.

    To this end in his paper on “Quality Professional Development in Rivers State”, he counseled the government to establish a resource centre which would provide adequately for the in-service training of new teachers. He also advocated for a re-certification programme for teachers every three years to keep them update the knowledge of their subject matter and sharpen their pedagogical skills.

    He said: “We need teacher-training system based on competence. We should focus on how to teach teachers to teach well and equip them with pedagogical skills. Before they enter the classroom, the new teachers should be given a quick induction. This should be followed by monitoring, further training and mentoring. The state should put in place a comprehensive programme for training teachers.”

     

    Communiqué

    After extensive deliberations, the communiqué signed by the Education Commissioner adopted many of the recommendations made by the speakers.

    Part of the recommendations reads:

    •Curriculum implementation for the revised Basic Education Curriculum will be in phases as prescribed by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Commission (NERDC).

    •There is need to review the programmes of Rivers State University Science and Technology/ University of Education to be in tandem with demands of the new curriculum.

    •Textbooks should also be restructured in line with the revised Basic Education Curriculum

    •Science and Technology education should receive a boost.

    •Management and teacher capacity should be built through refresher courses and re-certification programmes, i.e Countinous Teacher Development.

    •All new teachers soon to be injected into the school system will be inducted to be able to grapple with demands of classroom teaching.

    •Quality Assurance shall be given the expected impetus through the activities of the Quality assurance Agency of the State.

     

  • Bureaucracy stalls finance houses’ reforms

    Bureaucracy stalls finance houses’ reforms

    The implementation of reforms in finance houses is being hindered by bureaucracy, among which is the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor’s assent, The Nation has learnt.

    An insider at the Finance Houses Association of Nigeria (FHAN) said stakeholders’approvals have been secured in critical areas, especially in raising the sector’s capital base from N20 million to N100 million.

    This, he said, would ensure that only serious-minded operators were allowed to do business.

    The source also said stakeholders were expecting the new reforms, which are expected to be unfolded by the CBN before the end of second quarter of the year. It is also expected that the reforms would expand the funding structure of the subsector to allow new investors to come in.

    Findings showed that the CBN Board of Governors would release new prudential guidelines for the subsector that includes raising the capital base. Also, other policy issues, such as the appointment of helmsmen would form part of the reforms.

    He said the apex bank might develop a framework that would govern finance lease practice, institutionalise a “funding pool” to stimulate lending and structured programme to address the reputation and poor visibility challenges of the sub-sector.

    He said other pending issues, such as withdrawal of licences of 47 finance houses whose liquidity were called to question last May and funding for the subsector are also being looked into. He said progress was being made at the moment, unlike before.

    President of the association, Samuel Durojaye, said the reforms would reposition the sub-sector to enable it to play more important roles.

    He acknowledged the apex bank’s support to the project. He called on FHAN members to support the bank’s efforts at strengthening the regulatory environment by timely rendering of statutory returns and reports, as well as the renewal of their licences yearly.

    Durojaye enjoined operators to note that the apex bank is taking the issue of corporate governance practices seriously and, therefore, counselled members to identify structural weaknesses in their organisations and take steps to rectify them.

    Unlike banks, finance firms are not allowed to accept deposits. Shareholders, private equity firms, development finance institutions and other institutional investors are some of the sources from which they could raise funds.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Hope rises for educational reforms in Ekiti

    Hope rises for educational reforms in Ekiti

    SIR: Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, may have finally struck the right chord to soothe the nerves of teachers with the recent reconstitution of the state’s executive council, which brought on board a respected, renowned teacher Kehinde Ojo, as Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology.

    Bringing in Ojo, a one-time Best Teacher of the Year in the state who retired as a permanent secretary in the education ministry could have been the governor’s most innovative way of emphasizing ‘education’ as the centre of his government’s developmental strategy.

    It could have been the governor’s trick at securing the cooperation of the bulk of Ekiti teachers who had hitherto suspected every move at improving their lot; perhaps until the state’s secondary schools were being standardized via impressive renovation and appreciable supply of teaching equipments.

    The governor’s motive could have been anything positive but we wouldn’t have desired to know if the NUT (Ekiti State chapter) had not practically jumped for joy with booked slots of welcome adverts on radio in which they described Ojo as “one of our own” and “a round peg in a round hole” to thus, unwittingly, attract attention to Ekiti teachers again.

    It has been a pleasant surprise to hear the teachers appreciate the appointment of the Commissioner for Education, for there had been no such acknowledgement by teachers before. Not even the renovation of schools or the supply of teaching and sports equipments were applauded by the teachers.

    When computers were supplied to secondary schools in Ekiti-State, the teachers didn’t appreciate it but rather went about whispering that the computers were being put to deplorable use by students while teachers, impliedly, folded their arms and looked the other side.

    From all indications, the main headache of the Ekiti teachers has been the Teachers Development Needs Assessment (TDNA) which the state government had proposed to the chagrin of the teachers, a proposal which the teachers challenged and the political opposition took for ‘weeding test’ in a state where teaching had already been abandoned for institutionalized exam mal-practices with its attendant loss of professionalism in the system.

    It is noteworthy that there has been no known moment of truce between the teachers and the state government since the controversy was thrown up. It has only reduced in intensity to a state of quietude with time, perhaps because the well-meaning governor decided to shift his attention to developing school structures and supplying teaching equipments.

    With Ojo, a model of professional teaching by all standards, coming in to mount the saddle at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ekiti State governor might just have simply intended to make a show of him, for teachers to see him as the standard to aim at, as the model to emulate, as an example of the gains or benefits of professionalism to professional teachers, an attestation to the saying that “the reward for hard work is more work”.

    As he is returning to work, this time to reform education in a higher capacity, we have cause to heave a sigh of relief and expect things to happen more positively, more smoothly, more rapidly.

    We hope that the warm embrace that the Ekiti State NUT has given him means that the man the teachers would work with has arrived and that Ekiti is likely to witness actions and a good rapport with the teachers in achieving desired results of educational reforms.

    • Jide Oguntoye

    Oye Ekiti

  • ‘Reforms will impact long-term finance’

    The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has said key global financial system reforms including Basel III, OTC derivatives market reforms, and changes affecting the regulatory and accounting framework for institutional investors would reinforce confidence in the financial system and enhance the availability of long-term finance.

    In an update presented to the G20 Ministers and Central Bank Governors, FSB noted that while there may be some short-term adjustment effects, the most important contribution of the financial reform programme to long-term investment finance is to rebuild confidence and resilience in the global financial system.

    According to the FSB, these reforms should substantially enhance the financial system’s capacity to intermediate investment flows through the cycle at all investment horizons.

     

     

     

  • Industrialists condemn ports reforms

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said some port reforms ports are affecting their operations.

    The Chairman of MAN for Kwara and Kogi states, Mrs Omolola Olabayo, said in Ilorin: “The reforms at the port are giving us problems. Our raw materials are not cleared on time and we pay more money on import duties,’’ Olabayo said.

    She said the reforms were being implemented unannounced, adding that the association had lodged its complaints about them.

    “I don’t think from the government policies that are being implemented, they really understand what manufacturing companies stand for,’’ she added.

    Mrs Olabayo urged Nigeria to borrow a leaf from China where manufacturers were granted tax waiver for five years.

    “We can’t remain giants as long as we depend on other countries for our needs, especially on manufactured goods.’’

    Meanwhile, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has said only five per cent of locally manufactured goods do not meet the required standards and specifications.

    Its Director-General, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, said at a forum that the few instances of non-compliance were traced to mistakes and not necessarily deliberate attempts to shortchange consumers.

    He said: “When we did a survey on the quality of products in Nigeria, we found out that only five per cent of products made in Nigeria did not meet specifications.

    “Most of the statistics of sub-standard products were contributed by imported products. We discovered that the five per cent mark was not a result of deliberate adulteration. Some of them were as a result of mistakes in the manufacturing process, which you can control over time.”

    Explaining why despite the degree of compliance with standards, indigeneous goods do not command patronage abroad, the SON boss said made-in-Nigeria goods lack accreditation, which is a major requirement in many countries.

    “One, there is the issue of lack of accreditation in Nigeria, but, more importantly, also there is the issue of infrastructure in Nigeria. The issue of power, roads and others. Nigeria, at the last count is about 40 per cent at a disadvantage. I’m actually quoting the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria’s numbers, which says that if you want to manufacture a product in Nigeria and manufacture the same products in place, such as India, the cost in Nigeria will be about 50 per cent higher. So, how are you going to compete in international market when you have, one, a higher cost structure, and at the end of the day, those people also enjoy export incentives?

    “This is what gave rise to dumping and it is an issue from country to country and at the end of the day, how can a Nigerian manufacturer compete in international market? That’s where the dilemma is and that is why we are working hard to ensure things are done well. Even the president is focusing on power and by the end of this year, we are looking at 10,000 megawatts that clearly will ensure that industry develops,” he said.

     

  • Preconditions for meaningful reforms

    Preconditions for meaningful reforms

    In spite of her honest admission that the process of reforms still has a long way to go in Nigeria, there is still the prevalent optimism that runs through the new book by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that considerable progress was made towards ‘Reforming’ a hitherto ‘Unreformable’ Nigeria during the Obasanjo presidency. This column disagreed with this view last week contending that the country remains as ‘unreformable’ as ever today despite Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s best efforts between 2003 and 2007. Of course, the economic team under her leadership made valiant efforts to launch reforms in several sectors –the budgetary process, public procurement, fiscal transparency, re-invention of the customs and ports, revitalisation of the civil service, privatisation of unprofitable state enterprises and tackling the country’s debilitating debt crisis among others. But today, the country is again heavily indebted. The civil service remains as lethargic and unproductive as ever. The budgetary process is still grossly inefficient and lacking in efficacy. Nigeria remains a cesspit of abominable corruption. Privatisation has become another profitable mechanism for criminal enrichment. The oil sector remains as opaque as ever while an abundantly blessed country remains unfathomably under the spell of oil dependency.

    As I argued last week, the fundamental problem was that the reform process between 2003 and 2007 was undertaken as an essentially technocratic and elitist enterprise. As Dr. Okonjo-Iweala writes on page 124 of her book, “It was clear to me from the outset of the reform process and the formation of the Economic Team that President Obasanjo saw the team as technocratic and wanted to keep it that way. He also had political advisers, and he was politically adroit himself. He wished for this team to focus on economic issues. Initially, we also clearly saw ourselves in this light. We would keep away from politics since in any case most of the politicians left a lot to be desired”. This gulf between politicians and the reform technocrats is well documented in the book. Nowhere, for instance, does Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala makes any reference to the manifesto of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In fact, she mentions the PDP only once in a book that runs into nearly 200 pages. What this tells us is that the PDP was and remains essentially an election winning machine. It is not guided by any grand policy goals or vision. Since the PDP was philosophically, programmatically and ideologically famished, it had to surrender policy direction and leadership to a group of technocrats who held the party in utter disdain and saw their loyalty as being first and last to the President personally.

    The Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala-led technocrats therefore crafted the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) entirely on their own and later vigorously marketed the programme to the political class! But the politicians were supposed to have won elections based on a social contract with the electorate as regards a policy platform to be implemented. However, there was hardly any nexus between NEEDS and the PDP manifesto with the result that many leading members of the ruling partywere not only lukewarm but openly subversive of the reform agenda. Reforms in a democracy cannot be ends in themselves. Efficient budgetary processes, transparency in public procurement or a more effective civil service are means to the qualitative delivery of specific promises to the electorate by a political party. A political party can only be meaningfully judged by the electorate on the basis of its success in fulfilling its pre-election promises. The PDP can confidently assert that it will win future elections emphatically partly because, despite the dismal state of the country under its watch, it is difficult to pin the party down to any specific policy platform. The party has no doubt been a huge success in holding down the Nigerian cow for the various factions of its ravenous elite to continue milking the dying animal to their heart’s content.

    In the second republic, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), despite its nebulous ‘One Nation, One Destiny’ mantra, concretely committed itself to reviving agriculture (Green Revolution) and the mass provision of shelter. On its part the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) had its four cardinal programmes: Free education, free health care, full employment and rural integration. Alhaji Aminu Kano’s People’s Redemption Party (PRP) had far reaching radical policies to liberate the talakawas of the North from the chains of feudal tyranny. The nearest we have to these policy-oriented parties in this dispensation is the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) with its emphasis on the provision of affordable education, health care, massive job creation and radical modernisation and expansion of infrastructure. Meaningful reforms are thus possible only when a disciplined, visionary, focussed and purposeful political party is at the vanguard of the process.

    A second precondition for meaningful reforms is a visionary, committed, decisive yet restrained presidency. Under our current constitution, the presidency is the centre of gravity of the governance process. The wellbeing of the polity depends largely on the energy and dynamism of the presidency.

    The Nigerian presidency, I have said before, is perhaps the most powerful political office in the world. It has been deliberately granted such enormous powers to be able to hold the country together and be a positive force for development. But the fierce contest by contending social groups for this plum position has had fractious implications for the polity. Moreover, only a saint would have the enormous powers of the Nigerian presidency and not misuse it. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is an unalterable law of politics from which the Nigerian presidency cannot be exempt. Since the commencement of this dispensation in 1999, we have seen the capacity of the president to castrate his own party, destabilise the opposition, ignore the National Assembly, muzzle the judiciary and utilize his vast powers of patronage for purposes subversive of democracy and development. As Sam Omatseye graphically put it, the presidency is an albatross on the neck of the nation. Taming its excessive powers is a necessary condition for meaningful reforms and modernisation. And this is also true of the expansive powers of the executive at the lower levels of government at state and local government levels.

    The third precondition for meaningful reforms and transformation is the radical decentralisation of powers, resources and responsibilities from an overbearing and unproductive centre to the lower levels as I argued last week. The current so-called federal structure is abnormal and deformed. Unfortunately, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala appears to believe that the current system is not even centralised enough. In her words on page 125 of her book “Another problem was that in Nigeria’s very decentralised governance set-up the governors of states controlled almost half of the country’s revenues and, according to the constitution, enjoyed considerable autonomy in the use of those resources. They also enjoyed immunity from prosecution, courtesy of the same constitution, and they had very little accountability to anyone”. In reality, the Federal Government controls more resources than all the states combined. Yes, there is monumental corruption at the state and local government levels, but this pales into insignificance compared with the rampant criminality at the centre. The solution to the problem is not more centralisation as Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s analysis indirectly suggests, it is to enhance the institutional autonomy of the police, judiciary and anti-corruption agencies to deal decisively with corrupt elements at all levels. Right now, corruption cases are prosecuted at the behest of the presidency and mainly against its perceived adversaries. That is surely no path to the much desired reforms and transformation. I enjoin opposition leaders and their strategists to read Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s book. There are useful lessons there to guide future action.

  • ‘Ekiti council reforms laudable’

    A chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ekiti State, Mr. Olufemi Awe, has hailed the local government reforms of the Governor Kayode Fayemi administration.

    Awe, who is the Caretaker Chairman of Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area, said the restructuring is the solution to the problems of the councils.

    He said: “It is timely. The way the Local Government System was being run before had sentenced the grassroots people to perpetual underdevelopment.”

    Awe spoke yesterday in Iyin Ekiti while presenting four vehicles, six motorcycles and other items valued at nearly N4.5 million to some indigenes of the town.

    Lamenting the level of poverty at the grassroots, the council boss said: “The empowerment drive, which has been eloquently and consistently championed by the governor through the monthly gift of N5,000 to 20,000 senior citizens and other programmes in health, is sufficient lesson for other political office holders on responsible governance.”

    On the audit of council workers, Awe said “no one, who has not faulted in any way, would be sacked or retired”.

    He said: “Transparency has brought Ekiti to this unparalleled level of development in just two years. No one says the opposition should not criticise this administration, but to condemn a brilliant and sincere move, such as the staff audit, is to attempt to put the myopic interest of a partisan bigot above general interest.

    “The ousted Segun Oni administration started the audit but, lacking the political will to drive it through, dropped the idea. This administration saw the need to implement it and went ahead to do so.

    “The Fayemi administration cannot continue to endure redundancy and other miscellaneous ills in councils. Moves are ongoing to transfer redundant workers to places where they can be gainfully engaged for better productivity.”