The Nation Newspaper

Tag: regime

  • Angola, student activists and the Murtala Muhammed regime: a convergence forgotten, as if it never happened

    Angola, student activists and the Murtala Muhammed regime: a convergence forgotten, as if it never happened

    Only days, not hours, after I had finished writing the piece published in this column last week did the memory of it come back to me: the closest and most intense engagement that I and other members of the Nigerian socialist movement, specifically academic Leftists, ever had, as a collective body, with collaboration with a military regime in this country. At first, my recollection of the episode was vague and hazy; for this reason, I quickly put it out if my mind. But somehow, it refused to go away and with the persistence of the memory came greater and more detailed recollection of the event, complete with all the personalities, all the debates and exchanges that took place. And when, finally, this almost automatic, self-generating act of recollection had achieved its clearest and fullest profile in my mind, I wondered why, all these decades, I had almost completely forgotten about it. Not to keep the reader mystified any longer about what this is all about, let me briefly give an account of what exactly it is that I am writing about here.

    It was sometime in late January 1976. I was then teaching at UI, not at the University of Ife, the institution at which I would eventually experience perhaps the most fulfilling period of my life as a professional academic. I was a member of the Anti-Poverty Movement of Nigeria (APMON), serving both as a member of its central committee and Editor of its journal, “The People’s Cause”, with Eddie Madunagu as the General Secretary of the organization. Almost incontrovertibly, January 1976 was Nigeria’s finest hour to date as “the giant of Africa”, a country greatly admired on the African country and given considerable respect in the international comity of nations. The cause of this was mostly but not exclusively due to the famous “Africa Has Come of Age” speech given by Murtala Ramat Muhammad at an OAU Extraordinary Summit on January 11, 1976. As the historical records have it, that was the speech in which Muhammad threw Nigeria’s weight and backing behind Agostino Neto’s MPLA among the three Angolan anti-colonial movements. Moreover, Mohammad did this with an open and devastating attack on American efforts to arm-twist African countries to indirectly back the puppet anti-colonial group, Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA, by remaining “neutral” while America and the racist, apartheid regime in South Africa armed, funded and promoted the cause of Savimbi and UNITA. The waves of excitement and inspiration caused by that uncompromising anti-imperialist speech washed over the shores of all the continents, most especially on our continent.

    Back home from that OAU meeting, Muhammad was overwhelmed by the hero’s welcome that he received, especially from hundreds of thousands of workers and students. Of course, before the OAU speech, he had already achieved a “living legend” status by his anti-corruption crusade, especially in light of the fact that he started the crusade by attacking two institutional bastions of corruption that up till then had seemed invincible to any and all anti-corruption struggles – the leadership, respectively, of the military and the civil service. The enemies of Muhammad and the regime chafed under the assault, at first silently but ultimately volubly and openly, more or less coming close to insinuations that the regime was ripe for overthrow. But the massive popular support of workers and students shielded the regime from the counter-revolutionary plots of the military and civil service scions – at least for some time. All the same, as important as Muhammad’s anti-corruption assaults on the military and the civil service were, it was his fiery and uncompromising anti-imperialism that converted students, in their hundreds of thousands, to a veneration of Muhammad himself and massive militant support for his regime. And it was on the cusp of this diehard student support, indeed students’ hero worshipping of Mohammed, that the event about which I am writing in this piece took place.

    It was early in February 1976 that word came to us from Supreme Headquarters that the regime was planning to send the most developed and reliable leaders of student organizations to Angola for ideological orientation. By “us” here I am referring to the most active and well known radical lecturers and their organizations. In effect, we were told: send about 20 among the most developed, mature and reliable of your student activists to us and we will send them to Angola for training and orientation as the first batch of many subsequent contingents. Even with the distance of time and circumstances from those heady days of the brief rule of Murtala Muhammad, I still recall the tremendous excitement, the quickening of radical temper and nerve, that this caused among the majority of those of us to whom the message was sent. No administration in Nigeria, civil or military, had ever come close to this embrace of radical, anti-imperialist organizations of students and we were simply stunned by the proposal. To many among us, this was the ultimate proof of the revolutionary intentions and credentials of the Murtala Muhammad regime and we had no choice but to cooperate with the regime in the actualization of the proposal.

    But some of us, clearly in the minority, called for caution, if not outright rejection of the proposal. APMON, the organization to which Eddie Madunagu and myself belonged, was the most vocal of these critical or cautionary interlocutors in the deep, wide and fractious debates among campus socialists and their organizations that ensued. I have remarked earlier that at the time, I was still teaching at UI prior to leaving Ibadan for Ife in late 1977. The relevance of this observation lies in the fact that the late Comrade Ola Oni and his group, also based in UI, were the most enthusiastic supporters of this Angolan-Nigerian student project proposed by the regime. I am not sure of this now, but I think it may have been Ola Oni and his group that in fact suggested the project to the Muhammad regime in the first place, though when the message came to us, it was presented as a long-term, long-range ideological objective of the Murtala Muhammad regime. For those who are curious about the intricacies of the debate that the proposal generated among us, let me explain that we in APMON based our position of caution on the reasoning that it was tactically unwise and perhaps even dangerous, to expose the most developed, reliable and mature activists leaders among our students to a military regime that we knew to be deeply divided internally and ideologically, a regime some of whose key members were known to be virulent anti-socialists and reactionaries.

    For the rest of what remains to be narrated of that event in this retrospective account, it suffices for me to state that those of us who advised caution, being so hopelessly in the minority, lost to the majority of keen and ardent supporters of the proposal. In time, a group of about 20 student leaders from diverse university campuses in the country were selected and were dispatched to Lagos, en route to Luanda, Angola. And then something “mysterious” happened: the chosen ones arrived in Lagos; they were lodged in cheap, dingy two-star hotels; thereafter an endless wait began during which they were periodically met by officials from Dodan Barracks who implored the student leaders to be patient, assuring them that everything was on course and they would soon be on their way to Angola. By now the reader should have guessed the end of the story: the journey to Angola for the student leaders never took place. One by one, the students eventually went to their various campuses, the Angolan trip a mirage that in time disappeared into a forgotten footnote on the history of the regime and the period. Well, forget Angola: no project of ideological orientation for activist student leaders within Nigeria itself ever took place either.

    This was of course due in part to the fact that within four months of this event, Mohammed was assassinated, the first political and ideological consequence of this tragic event being the accession to power of Olusegun Obasanjo, an instinctual but also a calculating reactionary to the core. On assuming power, Obasanjo embarked on a systematic reversal and/or dismantling of all the radical, anti-imperialist projects and policies of Murtala Mohammed. Indeed by 1978 at the time of the infamous “Ali Must Go” demonstrations on our campuses, Obasanjo had strayed so far from Mohammad’s project of revolutionary ideological orientation for our students that he had given orders for security agents to infiltrate organizations of students with the purpose of spying on them so as to break them up and expel those he considered the most “dangerous”; and he had shown a readiness, if and when necessary, to send solders in battle gear to invade the campuses and shoot to kill. But the problem, the essential contradiction, went far beyond Obasanjo’s opportunism and right-wing megalomania. The Angolan project of ideological orientation for Nigerian student activists was itself the most telling expression of this fact. How so?

    We will never know if Muhammad would have evolved away from his admittedly left-leaning but indisputable Bonapartism had he not been assassinated less than one year in office as military ruler. Succinctly explained, Bonapartism is authoritarian rule with a very broad popular appeal or even mandate, usually by a strongman with ties to the military. Long before he became Head of State after the overthrow of the regime of Yakubu Gowon, Muhammad had given every indication that he was waiting in the wings for the right and opportune moment to take the reins of power. He was immensely confident of the power of his personal charisma and boldness. True, when he became Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he shared power with Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma with both of whom he constituted something of a triumvirate, not something usually associated with Bonapartism. But there was not the slightest doubt that within that putative triumvirate, Muhammad had near absolute power, the power of a Bonapartist who knew quite well that neither Obasanjo nor Danjuma had the grip on the popular imagination that he had. Indeed, it was his Bonapartist tendencies that his enemies seized upon, magnified and began to deploy in their plots for his downfall after his summary dismissal – allegedly without “due process” – of over 10,000 civil servants for corruption. Moreover, beyond the undoubted genuineness and fervor of his anti-imperialist ideas and policies, he had no consistent and coherent anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist program to speak of and popularize. Indeed, at the same time that he was sowing fear and dread among the Western powers and multinational corporations, he was cementing a move toward wholesale privatization of public enterprises and assets. The Angolan-Nigerian ideological orientation proposal was part and parcel of this confusing and confused mix of Muhammad’s Bonapartism and populism.

    A forgotten and perhaps also forgettable chapter in the history of military rule in our country? No! Forgotten but not forgettable!

     

    • Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

     

  • ‘Establish uniform royalty, single fiscal regime in mining sector’

    ‘Establish uniform royalty, single fiscal regime in mining sector’

    Solid Minerals, Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Assistant Director, Dieter Bassi, has called for a uniform royalty to be paid by mining companies operating in an area, and single fiscal regime for the sector.

    He said such uniformity would create the enabling environment for foreign and local investors in the sector. “There is the issue of multiple taxations based on the constitution as some states and agencies collect royalty on some minerals that are on the exclusive list.”

    Bassi, who spoke with The Nation at a forum in Lagos, said the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development was supposed to collect royalties, but that, in some states, the local government areas and certain agencies of government collect  royalties in one form or the other.

    He also said changing royalty’s  name into what he described as production tax or development levy would not encourage investment in the sector.

    President, Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Musa Shehu, also called on the Federal Ministry of Mines to give adequate protection to miners, who have paid their taxes, noting that licensed companies had been prevented from mining even when they had brought in foreign investors to site. He added that this development, among other factors, encouraged illegal mining.

    He, however, advocated a synergy between the Ministry of the Environment and its state counterparts.

    Also, Director, Planning, Research & Statistics, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Pade Davies, supported the approval for setting up the National Council of Mines and Mineral Resources by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). This, he noted, would create a forum for states and local government councils to come together and address issues relating to multiple taxation, community agreements and how to resolve them.

    Meanwhile, an expert in the mining sector and pioneer lecturer in the Department of Geology and Mining, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, K’tsoNghargbu, has stressed the need to involve Sociologists and Psychologists in the public relations departments of mining companies in the country.

    This, he said, would reduce the hostilities companies and individuals that have mining titles suffer in accessing their sites in the country. He said their services would help to sensitise host communities on happenings around them as well as inform them on what they stand to benefit from the mining operations around them in the short and long terms.

    Such experts, he suggested, needed to be drafted into the communities and make them to settle to work before the arrival of equipment and personnel into such communities, insisting that it will help to eliminate resentment and misgivings.

    Nghargbu agreed that there were issues hindering the success of mining operations in the country, but  advised mining firms to have community relations units and first deploy their members of staff in such units in communities before moving in their equipment.

    Mining companies, he said, should not end up with geologists and engineers, adding that they needed sociologists as well as psychologists. If that is done, nobody should protest for want of knowledge of what is happening around him or her and would not attack the company in the area.

  • How to survive low oil price regime, by Shell chief

    How to survive low oil price regime, by Shell chief

    •Oil, gas still largely needed in future energy mix 

    In challenging periods in the oil gas industry such as currently being witnessed with prices remaining low for about three consecutive years, operators have to either find ways to substantially cut cost of operation to remain in business or sink.

    This was the advice given by the President /Director General & Country Chair, Shell Gabon, Osa Igiehon, to oil and gas industry operators. He spoke at one of the panel sessions at the just concluded 2017 annual conference of Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Nigeria Council held in Lagos.

    Igiehon in his presentation entitled: Riding the waves of boom and bust: Common objectives, diverse perspectives, which is SPE’s 2017 theme, said the global oil industry has seen several booms and busts but noted that winners in such situations will be “those who can evolve and maintain structurally lower cost operations and projects.

    He said: “Historical oil price from inception, has shown a recurring cycle of boom and busts, which were driven by geopolitics, demand and supply balance and technological innovation. From 1980-2000s, we have seen boom and bust largely driven by geopolitics, demand/supply balance and technology.

    “Winners will be those who can evolve and maintain structurally lower cost operations and asset management, develop and invest in competitive capital investment and projects, supply chain improvements and process decomplexification and provide policies, operating environment and agreements to enable structurally lower costs,” he said.

    He also stated that there is need for increase in-country processing and value add, whilst driving for domestic energy security, therefore, industry stakeholders should “begin thinking energy, not just oil.””

    According to him, periods of high oil price regime record increased revenue and lead to more investments and new projects but noted that higher prices curb demand growth. Therefore, due to excess supply by producers that want to  optimise higher price benefits, prices crash and industry contracts, he added.

    During lower prices regime, although there is under-investment with major projects deferred or cancelled, it stimulates demand, he said.

    Igiehon, however, stated that global energy demand will likely be almost 60 per cent higher in 2060 than today, with two billion vehicles on the road as against 800 million today. Renewable energy, he said, could triple by 2050, but we will still need large amounts of oil and gas to provide the full range of energy products we need due to growing population.

    To him, there is more demand for energy globally as the world’s population and living standards increase, adding that global population will increase from around 7.4 billion today to nearly 10 billion by 2050, with 67 per cent living in cities.

    On environment, Igiehon said mitigating climate change through net-zero emissions is a potentially achievable societal ambition.

  • A new subsidy regime?

    A return to the corruption-sodden subsidy on petroleum products is frightening

    Are plans afoot to surreptitiously reintroduce the iniquitous fuel subsidy regime? This is a question urgently begging for answer from the Federal Government and its relevant agencies. Experts and public analysts have suggested that the rise in price of crude oil in the open market from which Nigeria is benefitting at the moment, and the unimpeded depreciation of the Naira against the major currencies tend to suggest that some moves may soon be made to effect changes in the fixed price of  Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), a frightening prospect, and, in the alternative, a reintroduction of subsidy that was so abused by independent marketers under the Jonathan administration.

    We note that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denied any imminent increase in the price of petrol. But, we equally note that the corporation said nothing about the return of subsidy. We call on the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources who is also the chairman of the NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to make full disclosure. It is not enough to declare that the country has in stock products that could last 38 days.

    Simple economic calculation suggests that a lot has changed in the market since the current price regime was fixed in May 2016. At the time, crude sold for below $45 per barrel, while government explained that it based the new price on an exchange ratio of N285 to the dollar. Today, the dollar is officially pegged at N305 and the price of crude oil has climbed to $55. The immediate consequence of the development is that the independent marketers have withdrawn their participation. The NNPC, therefore, is now the sole importer of the products. On previous occasions, the arrangement had led to shortfalls in the market.

    It is unhelpful that government seems to have ignored the outcry of the marketers that its unwillingness or inability to meet its commitment to them in terms of money already expended in importing the product is crippling their business.

    Government should realise that there are two sides to every mathematical equation. The fact that the country’s foreign reserve is receiving a boost owing to favourable market conditions suggests that the lid on price may have to be removed. The only antidote to this is to get the local refineries working optimally. We therefore call on the minister to make full disclosure on the state of the refineries and what has become of the plan to co-locate private refineries within their premises.

    Nigerians have suffered a lot and had looked forward to better life when President Muhammadu Buhari came into office in May 2015. However, pleading unanticipated economic downward spiral, the president and his team said things would slowly improve. Nigerians are crying over inflation, unemployment and socio-political instability.

    Ahead of a possible re-jig of the Federal Executive Council, we call on the president to take another look at his economic team. We agree with those who have pointed out that there are no hard–nosed economists in the team. Many of those handling and superintending key economic institutions are lawyers or accountants. This should change in the months ahead as we approach the mid-term mark of the administration. Nigerians would appreciate, too, timelines for key promises of the government. Following a very slow take-off, the government is yet to gain full momentum. There is no time to waste.

    One sector that is considered key to any recovery plan is the petroleum sector, both the upstream and the downstream. This is no time to play games. We note that in the same way that the officials are insisting now, they had given the people fake assurance in May last year, only to suddenly spring a new price regime. Nigerians have shown understanding and would be willing to make sacrifices if only they are fully briefed and shown a credible economic plan, complete with timelines and appropriate cushion. Their resilience, however, should not be taken for granted.

  • Towards a better waste management regime in Lagos

    Towards a better waste management regime in Lagos

    Waste management or waste disposal has been a challenge for the Lagos State government for decades.

    The government has adopted several strategies to manage the whopping 15,000 tonnes of garbage generated daily in the over-crowded city-state that receives immigrants almost on a daily basis from other parts of the country and beyond.

    Thorough the responsible agency, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), government had in the past explored several measures such as the use of private sector players (PSP), which are facing stiff competition from the infamous but somewhat preferred cart pushers.

    In a bid to achieve better results, LAWMA has also attempted managing waste through characterisation, improved technology and partnering with other nations.

    However, only limited success has been achieved. Indeed, health hazards due to the activities of the PSPs, the ageing equipment they deploy, sharp practices by cart pushers, and the sorry state of the waste dump sites have all colluded to put the situation in a state of desperation.

    The need for an urgent action to turn around the conditions cannot be over-emphasised.

    In fact, there is the need for an elaborate and standardised regulation of the environment of Lagos State, in line with international best practices, while taking cue from locations such as the United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, and New York City in the United States.

    Lagos and New York City, for instance, are two mega cities that mean the same in terms of entertainment, commerce and global trends. While Lagos has a population of 21 million with an estimated population density of 13,405/sq.km, New York City has a population of 23 million with a population density of 10,833/sq.km.

    In fact, while New York with its huge population has been able to successfully handle the massive amount of waste generated daily, Lagos, on the other hand, is struggling with storage, collection and disposal of her waste.

    New York has about 120 landfills sites while Lagos has only six landfills, with only three of the six functioning. This is grossly inadequate for the Lagos metropolis, considering that she generates approximately the same amount of waste as New York does, even so, a huge percentage of this is solid waste.

    Aside struggling with disposal of the enormous amount of waste generated daily, Lagos has not been able to effectively collect her waste. This is exemplified as waste littering roadsides, waste being disposed into drainages, and overflowing public bins, among several others. There is a huge gap in collection and the PSP operators obviously struggle with the huge amount of waste they have to collect.

    New York has successfully been able to collect her waste through several methods including government-regulated commercial waste systems in which they have over 250 commercial waste haulers, as well as dispose effectively through recycling methods and landfills. In that part of the world, waste is wealth. In Nigeria, and Lagos to be precise, waste is a curse rather than a blessing – it’s simply a disaster waiting to happen.

    It has been shown that only 60% of the daily wastes collected in New York go to the landfills compared to about 95% in Lagos.

    Lagos must, as a matter of urgency, start recycling as an alternative to landfilling. It has been seen that the heavy reliance on landfills has brought about environmental pollution and several health hazards to residents around the sites as seen in the Olusosun landfill, which today remains the largest landfill site in the country.

    The Olusosun dump site is nothing but as a disaster waiting to happen and the need for a quick action from government is long overdue. The dump site at Isolo also requires an urgent intervention from the authorities.

    There is likewise the need to allow for a coordinated and effective private sector participation in the management of the environment, as well as the provision for an organised judicial framework for the administration of environmental laws in Lagos State in other to make this happen.

    Similarly, there is the need to explore newer methods of collection to help effectively handle the waste generated. Other collection agencies need to be employed as it is obvious that the PSP operators alone can’t handle the massive amount of waste.

    The Akinwunmi Ambode administration should tackle this hydra-headed problem without minding whose ox is gored. The speed and enthusiasm with which the present administration tackled the Light-up Lagos initiative should be deployed to combat this age long problem that has now grown to become a monster.

    The recent clean up exercise embarked upon in highbrow areas of Lagos like Victoria Island, Lekki and Ikoyi should be extended to the waste management sector.

    Government must, as a matter of urgency, seek help from those who have managed waste in mega cities around the world, while bearing in mind the nation’s – and the state’s – peculiar solid waste generation status.

     

    • Samuel, an Environmental rights activist sent this piece from Lagos.
  • My tax regime ‘ll be pocket-friendly, says Obaseki

    My tax regime ‘ll be pocket-friendly, says Obaseki

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has assured the people that his administration will introduce a tax regime that is pocket-friendly.

    He allayed fears of over-taxation, since, according to him, he was determined to run a people-oriented administration.

    In a press statement by the Godwin Obaseki Campaign Organisation (GOCO) in Benin City,  the state capital yesterday, the flag bearer said although it is important to enhance the internally generated revenue base, he vowed not to do so at the expense of the lean purse of the people.

    He said: “Bearing in mind our economic development initiatives, which we will commence immediately upon assuming office and recognising the role of taxation in development, we will implement a pocket-friendly regime to grow the tax base.”

    Obaseki said no one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom, adding that, as a financial expert with international recognition, he was best suited to rule Edo State. He promised that genuine investors will also be encouraged.

    Obaseki added: “I have been a private sector businessman paying taxes to government and helping with taxation management, I know the pains of taxation and the benefits that comes with responsible management of tax proceeds.

    “Our government shall commit itself to a transparent management of tax payers’ resources at all times in line with the Adams Oshiomole’s administration that has emerged as one of the very few states in Nigeria that are not owing workers salaries”.

  • The new forex regime

    The new forex regime

    •This alone won’t do, there’s still a lot to do to grow the economy

    On June 20, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) formally replaced the 16-month fixed regime with a floating exchange regime. For the most part of last week, the naira hitherto pegged at N197 to the United States dollar, averaged N283 at the interbank market. And just as was predicted, the development came with the narrowing of the gulf between the official and the black market with the latter – which had hit an all-time high of N370 – coming down to N325 to the dollar.

    For the operators in the finance and the real sector who had argued all along that the naira should be left to float, it was therefore victory of sorts.

    Sixteen months after, we must admit that the tribe of those who argue that the operation of the fixed regime deserved a second look has continued to grow. First, it was the Organised Private Sector that initially complained that the gap between the official and parallel markets would encourage round tripping; that fixing the exchange rate administratively will encourage corruption. The list would later grow to include nearly every actor of note in the economy in the event of the failure of the apex bank to live up to its oft-stated assurances that the needs of all genuine importers would be met. We refer here to the manufacturers, small and medium scale operators, airline operators and players in the services industry – all of whom access to forex through the official window became almost impossible.

    Just as well are the statistics that can no longer be ignored. Again, we refer to the backlog of forex demand which had reportedly hit $4 billion; the contraction of the economy by minus four percent in the first quarter, and the projection by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of a grimmer outlook for the rest of the year. This is aside the nefarious activities of black market operators over whom the regulator has been utterly helpless. Surely, all of these called for a rethinking of the forex regime.

    Inevitable as it may seem, what the floatation of the naira bodes for the economy in the long run is certainly open to debate. Indeed, to the extent that the debate has tended to focus more on how best to manage the limited forex, we find it rather misplaced. Clearly, we know all that is wrong with the economy. It is the absence of any serious manufacturing activity that has meant our huge reliance on forex to import everything – from raw materials, to machineries and spares, to finished products. This is what the slump in oil prices and latest cycle of disruptions of oil production in the Niger Delta has brought out in bold relief.

    Barring a possible rebound in oil price (unlikely in the short term); a dramatic ramping of production (also highly unlikely, particularly as production is set by OPEC quota); the only enduring option to get the nation out of the woods is to boost non-oil exports. Whereas the former fixed forex regime may not have helped the cause of the manufacturers and other operators in the real sector any bit; it would be overtly over-optimistic to expect a dramatic turnaround only because access to forex has been liberalised. With power and other infrastructure still missing in the equation, it is clearly a long way ahead to competitiveness.

    Three more things that the new forex regime will not do: first, it will not curb Nigerians’ unbridled appetite for foreign items; second, it offers no guarantee that players will play by the rules – in this case, there is no guarantee that the forex obtained through the interbank window will not be used to import any of the 41 items precluded from the official window. Finally, it would not make the black market to disappear either now or in the future.

    The summary:  growing the economy calls for a lot of hard work.

  • New price regime will create additional 200,000 jobs – FG

    New price regime will create additional 200,000 jobs – FG

    New price regime will create additional 200,000 jobs – FG

    The Federal Government believes  the new price regime for the downstream petroleum sector will go a long way in  tackling  the hardship faced by Nigerians and create additional 200,000 jobs in the country,the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported yesterday quoting  from a bulletin issued by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

    It said that the new price template would potentially create jobs through the envisaged new investments in refineries and retailing of crude oil products.

    It stated that the new pricing template would also prevent potential loss of nearly 400,000 jobs in existing investments in the sector.

    The bulletin explained that new framework would on the long run solve the recurrent fuel scarcity crisis by ensuring the availability of the products at all locations of the country.

    It said the measure would also ensure the total elimination of hoarding, smuggling and diversion of the product while also stabilising price at the actual product price.

    It stated that government, through the new price regime, would monitor the new price to ensure that citizens got a fair value for the products they purchased.

    It said the new price would enable marketers to source their foreign exchange independent of the Central Bank of Nigeria and ensure adequate product supply in all locations of the country.

    It explained that the measure would enable government to deliver on its statutory functions of power generation, security, provision of education and health.

    The document explained that the new price regime would permanently eliminate subsidy payments and ensure the availability of funds for the full payment of monthly Federal Accounts Allocation Committee.

    It will also provide additional funds for other palliatives and help in stabilising the economy by creating access to development loans.

  • As we finally enter the regime of change

    As we finally enter the regime of change

     In the manifesto that Buhari and his party waved as contract with the electorate last March, the section on Reform states unequivocally the commitment of Buhari and his party to bring fundamental changes to the way governance is organised in the country.

    Our change slogan is not a campaign gimmick but a promise that must be kept. We are determined to bring about tangible changes in the lives of our people.—President Buhari

    With a new budget that is fully Buhari’s and his ministers already in the saddle, Nigeria appears finally poised for change that is expected to bring the country’s dark past to an end. And with clarity of evidence of serious efforts of the Buhari presidency to fight Boko Haram and to recover stolen funds from corrupt public officers, other areas of Buhari’s manifesto that are yet to be given attention deserve to be highlighted by citizens. Today’s piece is an effort in that direction.

    As this column had observed several times in the past, it is not Jonathan’s regime that created the culture of corruption, despite the reality that Jonathan’s administration worked to become the poster child for venality in governance across the globe. While it may be a waste of resources—financial and emotional—to go and probe every government that had ruled the country since 1960, it is proper for those holding the levers of power to address political and social behaviours that have brought Nigeria to its current state of anomie.

    But as the Buhari regime sets out to reconfigure our institutions in a way to make corruption unattractive, this column seeks permission of its readers to bring back a recurrent theme that has been discussed almost ad nauseam in the column: re-designing the architecture of governance in a way that will bring more input from citizens into the way they are governed. Using the end of 2015 to repeat or re-open the discourse of re-federalisation may not be out of place at a time that the country’s Change Regime is poised to be at full throttle.

    It is entertaining and also depressing to learn about Dasukigate and Rice-gate that capture nuances of how big men charged with the responsibility of securing the country as members of executive or legislative branch of government wantonly rape the country. Citizens seem to be enjoying the naming and shaming drama of Dasukigate in particular while some are salivating ahead of what is likely to come out of the new revelation about a new crisis: promoting rice farming through rice smuggling. It is one thing for citizens to take joy in the naming, shaming, and even jailing of those who have been caught for sabotaging the country in various ways in the last four years. But it is another thing for citizens to be encouraged to worry about how our country came about this mess and how to get out of it.

    Surely, citizens in large numbers are already expressing support for no holds-barred attack on corruption and corrupt individuals. There is no day that citizens and groups do not express support for the efforts of Buhari’s government to fight corruption. Such support may be in a way a reflection of citizens’ anger and desire to get back at those they have perceived to have functioned more as enemies than leaders of state and its citizens. Just as it is with circuses, citizens are also likely to get tired of watching the video of corruption or of trial for corruption before long. They are likely to get more ‘long-termist’ in their search for solution to a problem that has been an abiding aspect of the political culture of the country for about half a century. Indeed, citizens are already asking why they are ruled under a political system that is centralised to the point of robbing the average citizen of the space to participate in how they are governed, especially at the grassroots level. They are worrying about a political system that has taken the opportunity of easy revenue from petroleum to alienate them from governance at both local and state levels.

    It is instructive at this point in Buhari’s administration to recall sections of his manifesto that are designed to make the country better governed than before. In the manifesto that Buhari and his party waved as contract with the electorate last March, the section on Reform states unequivocally the commitment of Buhari and his party to bring fundamental changes to the way governance is organised in the country. The section on Reform includes several visionary statements: We will not only clean up our government, we will reshape it—reforming and strengthening the law enforcement agencies…. We cannot achieve these reforms without strengthening our public institutions away from the “Strong Man” model, which has devastated our economy and institutions. In another statement, the manifesto says: We will devolve more revenue and powers…We pledge to bring the government closer to the people through fiscal and political decentralization, including local policing. And with special reference to the constitution, the manifesto adds: APC government at the federal level will initiate action to amend our constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit (My emphases).

    Quoting copiously from Buhari’s contract with the electorate is to demonstrate that President Buhari in his manifesto gives as much attention to the structure of governance as he places on national security, corruption, and national development.  The recent decision of the 8th Senate to establish a special committee on constitutional amendment signals that the legislature is also ready to move to the governance component and constitutional aspect of the APC manifesto. It is instructive that the Senate’s decision to re-open the issue of constitutional amendment was made on the day that the federal government announced its success in ending the territorial thrust of Boko Haram’s terrorism. This move by the Senate appears indicative of the APC government’s readiness to focus on the Good Governance component of the Buhari/APC manifesto. As the Senate moves in the direction of amending the constitution, it is necessary to invoke the call by Buhari in his manifesto on the need for “all Nigerians to collectively chart our future as a people and our destiny as a nation,” by providing a space for participation by citizens in creating a constitution that citizens will feel happy with across the length and breadth of the country.

    The process of amending the constitution under the federal government of APC must be different from what obtained under the PDP regime. Citizens were not sufficiently included in having input in the process when the two houses were dominated by PDP members. There was a public hearing in six regional centres for half-day interaction between lawmakers and citizens who could afford to travel to and pay for accommodation at such centres. Even when President Jonathan convened a national dialogue, the PDP-dominated legislature was not able to provide any covering legislation for the national conference before and after. In fact, Jonathan’s party did not openly endorse the conference, delegates to which were handpicked by Jonathan and his supporters who were largely not openly affiliated with the PDP. In addition, the PDP refrained from making any formal reference to the 2014 national conference during and after the exit of Jonathan from power. If anything, it was groups and individuals that were not in the PDP that have been promoting recommendations of the Jonathan conference since the last election.

    Since amending the constitution “to entrench true Federalism and Federalist spirit” is a noticeable part of the Buhari/APC manifesto, it stands to reason for citizens to expect that the party of change will take the opportunity of being in power to encourage an inclusive process for constitutional amendment or review. Citizens at the level of federal constituencies should be mobilised by the ruling party to get involved in making suggestions to their legislators on what type of federalism they desire. It is up to citizens to choose the method they prefer for preparing suggestions for their representatives before constitutional amendments are forwarded to state assemblies by the federal legislature. Similarly, state assemblies should give their constituents opportunities to think along with them before ratifying such amendments.

    Unlike the former ruling party, APC came to power with a clear manifesto to devolve power to the states and local governments and in the process enhance the process of citizen participation in governance at the grassroots. Consequently, APC has no reason to be afraid of adding options of referendum on critical matters to the new constitution, as it is done in advanced democracies.

  • HIV&AIDS: Infected Nigerians raise voice against new payment regime

    HIV&AIDS: Infected Nigerians raise voice against new payment regime

    Working with the theme ‘Getting to Zero,’ the world penultimate week commemorated this year’s World  AIDS Day with a lot of fanfare. The weeklong event however leaves a sour taste in the mouth of people living with the virus in Nigeria, as they continue to battle the newly introduced charges. Gboyega Alaka x-rays the situation.

    No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.” – George Jean Nathan

    The above quote by the late George Jean Nathan, one-time leading American critic and publisher, best describes Tina Nnamdi (not real name), a Nigerian HIV positive patient’s recent resolve to go haywire and grant as many men as ask her for sex, free express sex without recourse to condom. Put more directly, Tina has resolved to spread the deadly virus in her bloodstream to as many men as make overtures to her, and her reason is frustration; basic animal frustration. Tina can no longer access her regular dosage of anti-retroviral drugs (ARV), with which she keeps the virus at bay, and by implication she is staring death in the face. Her frustration has grown increasingly since October 2014, when the Nigerian health authorities unilaterally took the damning decision to compel HIV positive patients to pay a certain amount of money for their regular bi-annual tests, known among patients as ‘bleeding’.

    Patients say the test is crucial to accessing the drugs, which they admit are still free, but conditioned upon paying for and first going through the test. Tina’s situation is further aggravated by the fact that she has no helper – no husband, no job, and she literally survives on society’s benevolence. Meeting up with the compulsory pittance fee of N12,000 a year is therefore an uphill task, the concession that she can pay twice notwithstanding.

    Hers is a typical case of an angry being, desperate to survive, who has lost all sense of clear reasoning. In her angst, she can be likened to a boko haram suicide bomber, willing to take as many people as cross her way down the abyss with her.

    Threat to the Zero target.

    The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day commemoration, which was observed globally, penultimate week, was: Getting to Zero. It was marked with all seriousness and fervour by the relevant government agencies, various networking associations of people living with HIV and civil society organisations in Nigeria. With all intents and purposes, this target may not be an impossible one afterall, considering the level of success recorded against the virus across the world in recent years. The reality of attaining the zero target is further underlined by the declaration by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) last week, that Nigeria has been able to reduce the spread of the virus by up to 35 per cent. Even as many stakeholders have disputed this statistics long before it came out as a deception, the truth is that people like Tina, who probably run into tens of thousands, if not millions, stand as a threat to this target, and to any level of progress being recorded against the spread of the virus.

    For a country sincere and willing to tackle the spread of the virus head-long, many have argued that rather than introduce any kind of fees whatsoever, the government should have endeavoured to get rid of other existing encumbrances in the way of the patients and their drugs. For years, most HIV-positive patients accessed the ARV drugs free of any kind of charge, and this was responsible for stemming the astronomical rise in the number of infections and a seeming demystification of the virus, as it seems to have taken off its toga of a death sentence in the eye of the people.

    Grimmer than NACA

    In July 2015, the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) declared in a report that the global spread of HIV/AIDS has reduced. The report coincided with the organisation’s Nigerian Country Director, Bilali Camara’s statement that Nigeria is amongst the countries that have been able to reverse their HIV trend. Exactly a year before, the organisation had painted a grim picture of the state of affairs in the country, sending jitters through the spine. That report presented Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda as the countries with the highest rate of infection/spread in sub-Saharan Africa, with cumulative growth rate put at about 48%. That report also showed Nigeria as the country with the highest HIV/AIDS mortality rate, as well as the country with the unenviable burden of one third of all new infections amongst children in the 20 worst hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

    While it may also appear that Nigeria does not lead from the rear, since South Africa is the unwilling occupant of that unenviable saddle, with a whopping 12.2% portion of its population to Nigeria’s 3.2 percent, the huge difference in population strength (S.A is 52.98 million, while Nigeria is over 170 million), means that Nigeria and not South Africa, has more to worry about.

    The big question activist, Steve Borishade therefore asked in his essay, ‘A Tale Of Anguish: The True Story Of The HIV/AIDS Situation In Nigeria’ is, “what measures (that) were put in place that could and had ensured that Nigeria is able to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS in just one year like Bilali asserted? And when Nigerian officials go to town claiming that the country has met some MDG goals, especially pointing at successes in HIV/AIDS, should we not ask how and what those are?”

    If the country recorded marginal success when all People Living with HIV/AIDs (PLWHAs) had access to free treatment in all government facilities in the country, does it not then defeat logic that it would record significant success in just one year after fees were introduced?

    Evelyn, one of the attendants at a press conference organised by the Lagos Network Forum on HIV And AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to intimate the public about the predicament of people living with HIV said the whole 35% reduction success rate being bandied is a ploy to douse the noise the networks have been making and make mincemeat of their complaints.

    Others have also argued that it is to justify the huge funds and investment that the government have expended on the project till date.

    A long way to go

    Fred Adegboye, a journalist with The Nation newspaper, argued that as insignificant as the amount being charged may seem, the reality is that many of the people living with HIV are not able to afford the fees. “In my centre at the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, they say the drugs remain free, but we have to pay N6,000 for each chemistry test before we get them. We do two chemistry tests per year, so the fee amounts to N12,000; but the reality is that many people cannot afford it and that is our agitation. To make matters worse, some people always have to travel long distance to access their drugs, because they fear that they could be stigmatised if they chose a dispensing centre near their homes. So we have lots of people who travel from Lagos to University College Hospital UCH, Ibadan, where I access my drugs on a regular basis to collect their drugs; and by the time you add their transport fare to it, you find that it becomes way too high for most of us. I for one can afford it because I have a job, but many do not have a job and rely on goodwill of people around them, which is not guaranteed. In fact the last time I went for my bleeding, even I could not afford the N6,000 but I went anyway and gave them the N5,000 that I had on me. To tell the truth, I was ready to raise all hell should they reject it, but thankfully they collected it. So, if I who has a job could run into such difficulty, then you may begin to understand the problem other people are facing.

    Azeez Aladeyelu, an HIV/AIDS activist, state co-ordinator of CISHAN (Civil Society Consultative Network on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (CiSHAN) said although the authorities have explained that the fees is a running cost, he said the networks have been protesting the decision, going as far as South Africa to embarrass the then health minister last year, in order to force the government to rescind the decision. He said the donor agencies are still supplying the drugs and have only pulled out partly in the area of funding of running costs, and wondered why the Nigerian government cannot shoulder that responsibility for her people. He said those having problems accessing their drugs should endeavour to reach-out to their support groups, so they could know their problems and how to help them.

    He carpeted a situation whereby the private sector is standing aloof, while things are going wrong, forgetting that when the population is depleted the labour force that it depends on will also be affected. “Even if these corporations pull their meagre donations together or commit a part of their CSR budget to the service of our people, it would go a long way. But if you approach them, their excuses have always been ‘we have our workplace policy; we can only attend to people in our organization.’ They may even tell you that you should have approached them before and that they have mapped out their spending for the year. Meanwhile, when Ebola came, nobody prepared for it yet, we saw how everybody, the government and private sectors, pulled their resources together. Nobody made excuses.”

    Aladeyelu however said the network has resolved to continue crying out about their predicament until somebody listens. He also expressed optimism that the new government would be a listening one that would help ameliorate their problem.

    A spurning government

    One of the panellists at the press conference and a representative of NEPHWAN said it is amazing that the government is no longer serious about HIV/AIDS issues, suggesting that the networks look the way of the private organizations. He said NEPHWAN has taken it upon itself to encourage strict adherence to the drug, adding that sometimes, the organization goes as far as raising money for those who cannot afford the charges. He said the organization and other networks are not relenting in their efforts to draw attention to their situation and that they’ve organised rallies and demonstrations at major city centres and offices to draw government and public attention to the new problem. He said it is just unfortunate that the government doesn’t seem to want to hear anything about HIV/AIDS anymore.

    He said, “There was a place we went to last year to create awareness on the newly introduced fee; but while we were at it, somebody from the government office came out and started shouting us down and asking, ‘Is HIV the only disease we have in the country? What about tuberculosis? What about malaria? Why are they not coming out to make so much noise?’ She said there are thousands of people who suffer from cancer and who are not making as much noise as we’re making. But we replied her that that may be because they don’t have organisations articulating and channelling their case like ours. Now that we have come out, we need help, please help us.”

    He said former President Obasanjo helped people living with HIV/AIDS by providing free treatment for them, but the current situation spells danger as the country may be retrogressing to the pre-Obasanjo years.

    Evelyn said it is a shame that Nigeria still records high rate of infection and AIDS-related deaths. Citing how Kenya was able to turn around a precarious situation, she said it is a sign of unseriousness on the part of the nation’s policymakers. “The authorities there realised that the infection rate was rising because their men were not using condoms at brothels, so they made a law that any man who goes to a brothel and refuses to use a condom should be penalised. From that moment, they started adhering to the new rule and the rate dropped from 12% to 4%.

    Victoria Mba also echoed the efforts being put in to impress on the government to take off the new charges and said there has been no positive response yet.  But when asked if indeed casualties are being recorded in the case of people who are not able to afford the charges and access the drugs, she said, “Though we have always had AIDS-related deaths, we have not been able to gather information to that effect in Lagos, although we hear of such cases outside Lagos.