The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Revisiting

  • Revisiting the herding challenge

    Revisiting the herding challenge

    Following the President’s public intervention in the precarious situation of herdsmen-farmers conflict, which has resulted in the death of hundreds of Nigerians this year alone, it has become necessary to revisit the matter on which I wrote just a couple of weeks ago. As many informed citizens have confirmed, this has been a perennial national issue, which only just escalated beyond the level of tolerance in the last two or three decades. As it turns out, Mr. President himself had been actively involved in the task of finding a solution to the crisis.

    It may be recalled that at the height of the last presidential campaign, some partisan cliques tried to link then candidate Buhari to the herdsmen-family crisis in OkeOgun.They accused him of calling on Oyo State to stop the harassment of herdsmen by local farmers in the area. Those who raised this as a campaign issue sought to paint the APC standard-bearer in a very bad ethnocentric light. It didn’t work.The reason it didn’t work was that voters were just done with the last administration.

    Now, as the nation’s leader with a huge responsibility for peaceful coexistence among its people, President Buhari has decided that it is time to find a lasting solution to the crisis, which has the potential of tearing the nation apart. He knows that it is not a north-south quarrel. It is also not a Christian-Muslim conflict. It is an economic conflict that pits crop farmers against livestock farmers. Farmers in the northern zones are even hit harder because of their location. There have been scholarly studies of the conflict in Yobe, Borno, Plateau, Benue and other states in the zone. The loss of farm crops to cattle breeders and the loss of cattle to rustlers are just aspects of the incessant conflict.

    It is in the light of the seriousness of the issue that the President’s decision to intervene must be commended. Not that he has an option. After all, he swore to an oath to promote the security of citizens and the unity of the nation. And where the livelihood of citizens is jeopardised, there is potential for violence, which has been demonstrated beyond doubt.

    But what is Mr. President’s solution? Back in his Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) days, there was a study and a report on how to resolve the incessant herdsmen-farmers conflict. That study had recommended the establishment of grazing reserves and stock routes throughout the country. Parcels of land were to be mapped out and taken over by the central government and routes were to be created from north to south. This cannot be left to state or local government because as Mr. Muhammad Bello, the Secretary General of Miyetti Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria revealed in a Premium Times interview, the Nigerian government has a treaty with other countries in the West African region for the facilitation of economic movement across the region. I suspect the reference is to ECOWAS.

    ECOWAS has generated an influx of cattle herdsmen from neighbouring countries traversing the Nigerian landscape for grass and water for their cattle. Because of the treaty, the federal government has responsibility to sister governments to keep their citizens safe and provide for their economic needs. Mr. Bello conceded that in the First Republic, government charged cattle tax but that no one now pays cattle tax. Yet the federal government has responsibility to provide cattle breeders with cattle feed and water for which there is no return to government. In fairness to Mr. Bello, his argument is that cattle breeders do not pay cattle tax because they have not been receiving any service. Therefore, if government were to provide them with grazing fields and veterinary services, they would be sufficiently responsible to reciprocate.

    The PTF study and report to which Mr. President has referred governors and the Minister of Agriculture apparently anticipated Mr. Bello’s position that grazing reserves must be carved out throughout the country.

    Though the story about the ministry’s decision to set up a committee on the matter first broke last July, it did not receive a wide publicity until recently. Various media outlets reported at that time that the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Sonny Ochono, announced that the Federal Government had set aside over N1 billion as compensation for farmers who were affected by recent clashes with herdsmen and that more than N310 million had been disbursed to farmers in Kano, Plateau and Bauchi.

    Mr. Ochono also announced the inauguration of “a Committee on Strategic Action Plan for the Development of Grazing Reserves and Stock Routes Nationwide.” He stated at that time that the ministry was acting on the directive of Mr. President. He also stated that the incessant clashes “necessitated Mr. President to direct the ministry to consider the recommendations of the studies commissioned by the PTF and the Northern Governors Forum on the same subject with a view to developing a pragmatic strategic action plan for the development of grazing reserves and stock routes nationwide.” The ultimate objective was to “develop strategic recommendations that will end the persistent farmers and herdsmen conflicts in the country.” This was reported fully by Nigerian Tribune of July 13, 2015.

    It would appear from the terms of reference of the committee that the establishment of grazing reserves was a fait accompli. The name of the committee reveals this much. It has also been confirmed that a bill on the establishment of grazing reserves was introduced in the 7th National Assembly, but it was rejected by the Senate. No effort has been made to reintroduce it in the current Senate.

    Fast forward to 2016. Mr. President made a case for grazing reserves and stock routes, citing the same PTF study. He even revealed that the PTF Report mapped out areas for grazing reserves and stock routes, but that the rich and powerful politicians took over the various lands for themselves. My reading of the President’s remark is that he is all for grazing reserves. With due respect to him, it is not a good idea and it will not work. The federal government has no authority over land. State governments do and they keep the land in trust for the people and for projects that are of common developmental interests.

    Herding or cattle breeding is NOT a COMMON developmental project. Like crop breeding, cattle breeding is PRIVATE BUSINESS. Crop farmers buy their farmland or lease it from government. This is what cattle breeders must do. Nomadism is not a cultural tradition that must be preserved at the cost of national unity.

    The current Minister of Agriculture, a farmer of immense experience, and his team have also been rubbing mind on this issue. As reported by Premium Times of May 11, the ministry has proposed ranches as opposed to grazing reserves and stock routes. As noted by Mr. Lokpobiri, who represented Minister Audu Ogbeh at the Senate hearing on the matter, “The nomadic nature of cattle rearing in Nigeria make (sic) the cattle less productive. In other countries, the cows do not move; they are kept in ranches and so they are very productive.”

    Continuing, Mr. Lokpobiri wondered aloud: “They used to argue that nomadic cattle rearing is a tradition but we have to ask, as a tradition, is it profitable to the rearers; is it sustainable in the modern realities?” These are excellent questions for proponents of grazing reserves and stock route. But there is at least one very important question: With what rationale and what justification will the federal government acquire land from any state government for grazing reserves and stock route? Pray with what justification other than naked and brutish use of federal might?

    The cattle herded by the poor and wretched are owned by rich and powerful individuals who can afford to buy or lease land for private ranching. They can afford to grow nutritious grass to feed their cattle. Why impose that responsibility on states when the venture is a private one? As a matter of justice and fair-play, in the interest of peace and harmony, private ranching for cattle breeding is the most reasonable policy option.

  • Revisiting the Ekiti debacle

    •In the light of Dr. Tope Aluko’s testimony on how the 2014 Ekiti governorship election was rigged, a full probe should be instituted

    The expose by Dr. Tope Aluko on how the June 21, 2014 Ekiti governorship election was rigged should be critically reviewed by the Federal Government, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security forces. It is a reminder that the reform of the electoral process must be revisited by the legislative and executive authorities at the federal and state levels.

    Dr. Aluko who was at the material time the state secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the victory of Mr. Ayodele Fayose who was the flag-bearer of the party was aided by the presidency, heavily funded from the national treasury. Dr. Aluko who had appeared before the Ekiti, Osun Elections Military Board said he was speaking out of a new-found conviction that the public deserves to know all that happened, since he was privy to it all. He was the chairman of the party’s security and intelligence committee, as well as chief agent for Governor Fayose.

    While we acknowledge that the verdict of the Supreme Court on the matter is final, the electoral commission ought to institute a thorough probe of the role played by its personnel in perverting the course of justice. All those found guilty should be prosecuted.

    The police and Department of State Security (DSS) whose personnel have also been indicted should follow the step taken by the army. The General Adeniyi Oyebade-led board has shown that the military had no interest in shielding anyone from the blind eyes of the justice system. We commend Capt. Sagir Koli whose evidence went a long way in ensuring that the guilty were exposed. But, the end should not just be punishing the guilty. All loopholes identified by the findings of the military board should aid the National Assembly in amending and strengthening provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act. This should be done well ahead of the 2019 elections.

    Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who has been accused of authorising the release of 37 million dollars for the Ekiti poll should speak up now. What does he know of the alleged perfidy? What role did former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke play and how well did the finance minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, play her part in all the transactions.  Nigerians want to know all of these and probably more.

    The order by a chief magistrate’s court in Ado-Ekiti for  the arrest and prosecution of Dr. Aluko for alleged perjury is not unexpected, especially as he had testified before the election petition tribunal in the state that the PDP won the election fair and square. Why is he singing a new tune now? Similarly, all those he mentioned as participating in the political corruption that the perversion of the people’s will in an election amounts to should be prosecuted, if only to deter others.

    The electoral commission’s dereliction of its political parties’ finance monitoring duty is unfortunate. Had the commission been alive to its responsibility, the monumental fraud in funding of political campaigns would have been checked. There are laws guiding how much a party may expend during campaigns, how much a candidate is allowed to expend, preparation and audit of parties’ accounts and limits to the contributions that individuals could make to a political party. All these have been willfully flouted without sanction.

    Professor Mahmud Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  should realise that there is no time to waste in preparing for the 2019 General Elections. He should meet with the critical stakeholders now and take firm decision with regards to making proposals to the National Assembly and the federal attorney general on grey areas in the electoral laws. The weak points should be addressed now, personnel trained on their effective use and the electorate adequately sensitised so that never again would we have a repeat of the Ekiti scenario.

  • Revisiting Tinubu-nomics

    Revisiting Tinubu-nomics

    An economist, Tope Fasua, in this piece reviews the state of the economy and declares that it is high time President Muhammadu Buhari embraced the solutions proffered  by All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a letter written to former President Goodluck Jonathan on November 18, last year.

    As things stand, except we see something new soon, it doesn’t seem that this government will run the economy any differently from what Jonathan did. We will likely have a bunch of people who will take us aborrowing, who will subtly push for naira devaluation in spite of Buhari’s extant stoic approach on that front.

    On November 18, 2014, about three months to the initially scheduled dates for the last presidential election, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) had cause to write to the then President Goodluck  Jonathan on some ways forward for the economy which had showed signs of going into a tailspin as a result of the crash in crude oil prices.

    The widely-publicised open letter was necessitated by the quest by that government and its economic manager, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to ‘rebrand’ the good old austerity bogeyman and foist it on the people. They actually succeeded to a large extent. The argument was that since the crude oil prices had depressed, government had little money for anything at all. And so, the people had to suffer the consequences. In Nigeria, it is far too easy to make the people bear the brunt of corruption, visionlessness and mismanagement. As can be seen after the departure of that government, corruption like never before seen was happening while all this was going on – if we are to believe the kind of figures making it out of the grapevines these days.

     Callousness of politicians second to none.

    But, I am afraid; afraid that the same hopeless, baseless and dangerous economic philosophies always float to the top; afraid that our economic managers are always sent here, on recommendation from World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and of late, Goldman Sachs. Whereas we may be lucky to have people from their stable who haven’t imbibed the one-track-minded approaches which have kept our economy down till date. Still, it is important to sound the alarm on time. Asides from that, it is very interesting, the kind of thoughts and approaches that came from the pens of the great BAT – love him or hate him – such that it will be a great irony if his party departs from them. I have read and reread Tinubu’s treatise, to be sure that I didn’t miss any trick. It is a study, not only in economic philosophy, but in erudition; the choice of language is sophisticated, modern, sterling and advanced. Humour was subtly deployed but the seriousness of the message couldn’t be mistaken. And I found out that this man may not be who they say he is. But, let us find out what I mean.

    The letter starts with an admonition

    “No matter who is in power, we must do whatever is in our capacity to do to steer the nation away from economic woe. The people have suffered too much hardship already”.

    The economic statistics which are regularly peddled by these kinds of economists I mentioned were equally questioned. Senator Tinubu believes, as some of us have averred time and again, that indeed, Nigeria has almost always shown signs of ‘depression’. Those who think like us are concerned that all the symptoms of depression are here – huge poverty, high unemploymen rate, social dysfunction, crime, filth, racketeering, mindless religiosity and the incursion of fraudulent ‘men of God’ who fleece people, dissonant governments and even corruption. Think about the United States of America (U.S.A.) in the 1930s, and you have Nigeria. Yet, our ‘highly educated’ economists prefer to speak about Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, (a figure obtained largely by conjecture), and of ‘market forces’, when they know that markets here are terribly rigged.

    But Tinubu said: “…After viewing these statistics, most objective economists would conclude Nigeria is mired in a long-term, secular depression. Forget the rosy GDP numbers. They signify a great economic and financial segregation between those who have and others who have not. If we continue with the policy preferences of the current administration, the haves shall become the ‘have–mores’ and the ‘have-nots’ shall become the ‘have even less….’.

    “  The vast majority of the claimed GDP growth has fallen into the laps of those already enjoying obvious luxury. The rest of the people are left to gaze at the enormity of the income and wealth chasm separating them from the cabal orchestrating the discordant political economy. While a small group flourishes, the rest of the nation subsidises their economic bounty. A tight confederacy rides an economic skyrocket while the bulk of the people languish in the swamp. For one group, the economy is effervescent. For the other, it is catatonic. Nigeria is one nation with two economies.”

    I can almost see many readers sniggering at the fact that these words were written by Tinubu, a multi-billionaire if ever there was one. But sometimes, we must be ready to accept that something good comes forth from Nazareth. Jesus Christ teaches us not to summarily condemn the tax-collector (no pun intended), the Pharisee, the heathen, and not to assume a puritanical position. I don’t mean to pontificate; this is serious business. As things stand, except we see something new soon, it doesn’t seem that this government will run the economy any differently from what Jonathan did.

    We will likely have a bunch of people who will take us aborrowing, who will subtly push for Naira devaluation in spite of Buhari’s extant stoic approach on that front.

    But, we have to take BAT serious. This is the person who discovered guys like Tunde Fashola and many more. He certainly has a redeeming feature. The thoughts are also profound. And what do we expect? Are we better off with elite who continue to deceive us, and milk us dry to the bones, or with elite who sometimes – however rarely – speak some truth to our situation? I prefer the latter. Asides from these, reading the letter my thoughts were ‘what is sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander’. In other words, good advice to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should also be good advice to the All Progressives Congress (APC).  Apparently, no one is emphasising these lessons to the new kids on the block.

    The great big argument around our economics is whether to use a ‘commonsense’ approach, which requires that we think for ourselves because we know our society, our social psychology, our strengths and weaknesses better, or whether to continue along the ‘plastic path’; the path of the traducers of our people, who have seized control since at least Obasanjo’s first coming in 1977. Those who sell this approach had a field day in the Babangida days, and became more sophisticated when civilian rule returned in 1999.

    They have only gotten stronger since then. The result! As quoted above, has been a one-way traffic to poverty and hopelessness for the majority, while a tiny minority (a ‘tight confederacy’)– mostly politically-connected – live in an ‘effervescent economic skyrocket’. Is it any wonder? No matter how much Nigerians are complaining and businesses are going belly-up, Nigeria became a country where billions are spent daily on champagnes in nightclubs. The ostentation here cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Huge buildings spring up under months, all paid in cash. In any western country most of them are financed.

    The ‘confederacy’ only gets tighter. You have to be expressly invited to ‘come and eat’. It gets more difficult to make it into the clique. Even recent appointments by Buhari are of those who are tightly connected one way or another – silver spoons, sons and daughters of age-old politicians. The advent of private schools is ensuring that blue blood remains separated from others not so pure. And that the money is kept within the ‘family’. Rich folks pair their children in marriage; even if they sometimes fail. All good!

    This call is imperative because Senator Tinubu, among Nigeria’s elite, is the only one who has made this kind of call. The meat of the story is not about the printing of naira, but the need to invert our economic development paradigm, to be honest and to start from scratch. It is about reinventing the Nigerian economy, and in my view, is the only available option we have. Nigeria has wasted much time and resources and we must stop listening to non-patriots who have put us in much trouble for selfish reasons, up till now.

    Yet, the runners of the economy preached belt-tightening, austerity for the hoi polloi. This is why this amplification of Bola Tinubu’s letter is important.

    All we have heard since the APC government rode in is…austerity. The people have been asked to be ‘patient’. We have been regaled with the fact that PDP damaged the economy over several years. ‘Baba’ has asked – albeit sternly on a few occasions – why Nigerians want him to perform magic. The underpinning ideology points to the need for the people to suffer some more in the hope that they, ‘in the long-run’, will enjoy. Maynard Keynes said we are all dead in the long-run. I think Tinubu also subscribes to Keynes.

    He said: “…As with the Euro zone, the past five years since the global financial crisis, austerity has not solved the dire economic weakness of the nations that employed this sickening remedy. All austerity has done is to tighten the grip of the wealthy on the economy while weakening the position of the middle class and the poor…

    “Austerity weakens aggregate demand, deflating an economy already fatigued and against the ropes. Those with hefty portfolios, profit as the value of their holdings appreciates by the very dynamics of deflation. Those who don’t have, find money even dearer to come by. Jobs and commerce disappear. Debt climbs. Deflation turns a noble but poor household into a committee of beggars and street urchins….

    “The austerity that the current administration offers is an insensitive, myopic policy that lends primacy of favour to meaningless accounting figures instead of to the material wellbeing of the people. Austerity undermines our economic pillars and breaks the spirit of the people. Austerity is the merchant of pessimism and hopeless futility. If you desire a nation of thralls, by all means continue this bleak path. If we want a nation of prosperity and economic justice, a different course is our due”.

    Very importantly, a major kernel of Tinubu-nomics is that there is an alternative. He weighed in against the idea of alluding to the crash in crude oil prices as a basis for the total slowdown of the economy (especially for the poor majority). He advocates that where necessary, the government may print and spend, and dislink this economy from the current “dollar standard”. This will be radical, and may incur the wrath of those crazy financial market guys who are known as ‘masters of the universe’, but if we play our cards smartly, we can get away with it.

    However, this needs to be sold to the present government. The problem is that those of us who think like Tinubu don’t have the ears of the government. But he does. I am writing this so that he ditches political considerations and does the needful; for his own good and the entire Nigeria.

    Tinubu said the following on the anomaly of linking our economy to a ‘dollar standard’, akin to the ‘Gold Standard’ which the world abandoned in 1971, courtesy of President Nixon: “…The dollar intake is basically irrelevant to determining the amount of Naira the government commands and places into the political economy. …The last I looked, Nigeria operates a Naira-based economy not a dollar-based one. There is no legal or moral restriction strictly limiting the amount of Naira in the system to match the amount of dollars collected via oil sales. More importantly, there is no economic justification for the close linkage implied by the government…. If we take its position at face value, the Jonathan administration is advocating that we effectively place the naira and thus our fiscal policy on a ‘dollar standard.’

    “The world jettisoned the gold standard in 1971 because it proved unworkable, reducing the policy space in which governments could pursue fiscal programmes promoting full employment and social welfare. We should likewise reject this government’s imposition of a dollar standard on our nation’s fiscal operations…. Because we operate a sovereign fiat currency the federal government issues at its sole discretion, the federal government can never be rendered insolvent in naira. This means it can run naira fiscal deficits indefinitely. The only outer bound is to ensure the fiscal expansion does not incur damaging inflation rates…. There is no logical reason to peg the flow of naira into the economy to the flow of dollars received. The correct perspective is not to mechanistically restrict naira expenditure to dollar intake. This would be tantamount to those crippled with economic blinders forcefully leading those who can see we are heading for disaster. It points to deflation, recession and worse.

    “The better methodology is to ascertain, then achieve, the level of naira expenditure needed to expand the economy and create jobs without causing inflation to rise to dangerous levels. This is how broadly-shared prosperity is generated in a sustainable manner.”

    Perfect! Tinubu says the worst we will suffer is some inflation if we print to spend, but that we must target the spending. I disagree slightly from him in the areas he advocated, but I have developed an alternative which I have tested on a different forum (story for another day). The bottom line is that if we spend for the youth, and for low-paying labour, the money stays home. However, our successive governments seem more interested in large spending. We speak of power sector, manufacturing, infrastructure and so on being the next ways forward.

    But, this economy must be focused on the little things. I pray and hope this government will not be captured by the ‘heavy-spenders’ and the ‘mega-thinkers’, who, together with their foreign friends, will siphon all the money that Buhari is trying to collect back and save. The emancipation of this country lies with the youth. And there is much work for them to do, only that the government has not been able to see this for whatever reason.

    Senator Tinubu went

    on for emphasis

    “…In this way, the nation’s economic engineers should focus primarily on allocating value and opportunity to our under-utilised labour force and our idle, yet potentially productive capital in a way that promotes wealth creation and expansion of aggregate demand. It is this sustainment of aggregate demand that empowers the nation to rescue itself from the whirlpool of economic contraction. This avenue is more benign than the one the federal administration now advocates…. In the face of recessionary headwinds, government should run counter-cyclical fiscal policy by using its naira sovereignty to fund fiscal deficits. The deficit is not simply for the sake of running a deficit; the funds cannot be spent on non-productive matters. It must be used to fuel infrastructural and other projects that not only employ great numbers of people but enhance the overall productivity of the economy… Inflation is the major risk of running budget deficits to spur growth. We can contain inflation to acceptable levels by ensuring additional government expenditures are for items that can be supplied domestically, particularly labour. Naira paid to poor and working class people mostly circulates in the domestic economy, spurring additional local commerce and production…This is because their consumption patterns do not approach the level of import expenditures associated with their wealthier compatriots. Related to this, we must decrease our level of superfluous imports.

    In other words, if we have to devalue, but have targeted spending towards the youth, the effects will be cushioned. Bola Tinubu concluded his treatise by stating:

    “…Regardless of our partisan affiliations, let us consecrate this land by dedicating ourselves to the betterment of the poor, weak, and needy members of our national family. Let this moment not pass like so many others where we have demanded that the most vulnerable among us bear the greatest weight of the national burden. Let us give them the hope, change and dignity they deserve and human decency demands. This is how we make the nation great. When I speak of a common sense revolution, this is what I mean”.

    In the final analysis, all the arguments about the economy should be about the PEOPLE. Nothing else matters. However, what we have seen so far, is that government is easily swept off its feet by money-mongers, who convince us easily that what is most important is to ‘raise money’. If we focus on money and ignore the people, we’d be repeating the same mistakes. We’d be inviting shylocks from all over the world. They will lend to us. We will sign up to conditions that will enslave generations unborn.

    This is a great place for me to draw the curtains on this write-up. I have quoted copiously from Senator Bola Tinubu’s earlier missive, because of the sheer relevance of the writer to Nigeria’s politics. I don’t know a lot about the politics, and some may say he is being edged out. A lot happens underground in politics. I don’t think he can be sidelined very cheaply. But I also don’t want him to stand aside and feign unconcern lest we lose this golden opportunity. Also, this letter was written to Jonathan, at a point when neither Tinubu nor Buhari were sure of victory, so I believe it mirrors, the truth, the only truth, and nothing but the truth. Our nation is not reputed to be a truthful nation, so I hold on to this.

    I have amplified Tinubu’s thoughts and ideas, because we have lost ample time already, having promised ‘Change’ for the people. Some of us who supported the candidacy of Buhari/Osinbajo were not happy at some of the dilly-dallying. We were not happy when an attempt was made to deny party promises, or when there was a long delay in open declaration of assets. We were also not happy, when from Day 1 of this government, we started to hear appeals for patience, for time, and the same buck-passing and shifting of responsibilities, for which Jonathan was hated and eventually booted out. Tinubu has been largely silent. But we will not let him go until he weighs in with these truthful ideas and ideologies. These ideologies espoused in his letter are based on commonsense, and only require, that those who offer to lead this country, open their eyes to the reality, rather than kowtow to textbook-thumping economists brought from foreign lands, and their  hawkish backers who have always cynically put Africa – especially Nigeria – in economic trouble, only to laugh at us later.

    The team put together by Buhari is a bit encouraging. Fashola, Kachikwu, Fayemi, Amina Mohammed. These guys sound and look like they are ready for business. Relating to the economy, Okey Enelamah may have worked with Goldman Sachs a long time ago, but I doubt if he is ingrained in their ways. He is more a venture capitalist who has seen many indigenous transactions while running African Capital Alliance – a company which a friend tells me may be the most successful indigenous company in Nigeria ever! His knowledge of our local business is an advantage. At least he is not coming with textbook ideas, or from the ‘prima donna’ mentality which working at the World Bank or IMF confers on people. Kemi Adeosun made a lot of sound-bites during her interview at the Senate. She may fall into the trap of ‘trickle-down’, ‘entrepreneurship is the only way forward’, ‘market forces will sort everything out’, except she gets help.

    This call is imperative because Senator Tinubu, among Nigeria’s elites, is the only one who has made this kind of call. The meat of the story is not about the printing of Naira, but the need to invert our economic development paradigm, to be honest and to start from scratch. It is about reinventing the Nigerian economy, and in my view, is the only available option we have. Nigeria has wasted much time and resources and we must stop listening to non-patriots who have put us in much trouble for selfish reasons, up till now. I echo my brother Simbo Olorunfemi, whose article – “Lest We Forget We Won And Why We Won” – is still making the rounds. Our greatest war will be against soulless economists who regurgitate theories that won’t work. For many of them, their allegiance is not to Nigeria, but elsewhere. Indeed, economics is not rocket science. It is about sincerity, human nature, leadership. Complicated quadratic equations cannot solve our  problem in a country where our data is dodgy and tainted with emotion and corruption.

    In the final analysis, all the arguments about the economy should be about the PEOPLE. Nothing else matters. However, what we have seen so far, is that government is easily swept off its feet by money-mongers, who convince us easily that what is most important is to ‘raise money’. If we focus on money and ignore the people, we’d be repeating the same mistakes. We’d be inviting shylocks from all over the world. They will lend to us. We will sign up to conditions that will enslave generations unborn. They will focus us on GDP growth, and when we are left carrying a bigger can, they will snigger and mock us, and theorise about our failure. It’s always been this way.

    So, Dear Senator Tinubu – whom I’ve never met before – over to you sir. This regime must not fail.

     

    Fasua, an economist, wrote this piece for .Premium TIMES

  • Revisiting the labours of our heroes past

    Revisiting the labours of our heroes past

    At least once a year, during the time we remember the outcome of their struggle for the liberation of our dear country from colonial imposition, we have an obligation to revisit the labours of our heroes past. And since we do not always give them credit for unanimity of views on the question of structure, which is central to our political discourse these days, it is imperative to revisit our history before it condemns us.

    In the thick of the recent struggle against military rule and the warped state that it has since bequeathed to us, the question “what do these people want?” was a common refrain, because of the relentless demand for a true federal democracy.

    What the questioners failed to appreciate was that those demanding a true federal structure were simply being true to the intent of the founding fathers and mothers of the nation. It was therefore a struggle for the full realiasation of the dream of independence for all Nigerians, a dream which could only be realised with a political framework that gives adequate recognition to the multinational character of the country.

    Even though it cannot be denied that the Southwest leaders had consistently led the charge, it is also true that all nationalities eventually recognised the wisdom in a federal structure for the nation. If only for the need to be true to the faith of all our fathers, we must all commit to the struggle for the achievement of their dream under the mantle of restructuring and true federalism.

    What was the position of each of the founding regions on the question of political structure?

    Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the most vocal in his insistence on a Nigerian state, which respects its multinational character through a federal system that gives adequate recognition to the inviolability of its federating nationalities, no matter how small or big. He wanted a state that promotes equal justice for all its citizens and makes a sacred commitment to the secularity of its character.

    There was a good reason for Awolowo’s position.  For as far back as 1920, even the British did not expect Nigeria to survive as a unitary state. That was Governor Hugh Clifford’s assessment:

    “Assuming the impossible were feasible that this collection of self-contained and mutually-independent native States, separated from one another—by great distances, by differences of history and tradition and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political and religious barriers, were indeed capable of being wielded into a single homogeneous nation—a deadly blow would thereby be struck at the root of national self-government in Nigeria, which secures to each separate people the right to maintain its identity, its individuality and its own chosen form of government and nationality, the peculiar political and social institutions which have evolved for it by the wisdom and accumulated experience of generations of its forebears.”

    Notice that Clifford recognised the founding nationalities as “mutually independent native states.”

    Every nationality was adversely impacted. It is not easy now to conjecture where each would be. The nationalists knew this and accepted their fate but wanted to make it as effective as possible. Hence the attraction of a federal system of government that still permits each nationality to move at its own speed and promote its culture as best it could. This was the point that Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa made before the Legislative Council in 1948:

    “I am beginning to think, Sir, that Nigeria’s political future may only lie in federalism, because so far as the rate of regional progress is concerned, some of the regions appear to be more developed than others, and I think that no region should be denied self-government because the others are not ready for it…”

    This fear was shared by all the regions. Therefore that was the beginning of the movement towards regionalism which the Richards Constitution had captured only partially, “to enable the various groups to develop distinctive authority in their own spheres” as a means of strengthening the unity of Nigeria.

    The struggle of our founding fathers for constitutional improvement led to the McPherson Constitution, the distinctive contribution of which may not have been so much in what it achieved, namely the strengthening of federalism, but in the process that it adopted to achieve it with elaborate consultations with the people.

    Constitutional conferences were held at village, district, provincial, regional and central levels, with the Select Committee of the Legislative Council saddled with some of the most serious questions that we are still grappling with today.  Prominent among these questions are the following, which should strike one as quite similar to the issues confronting us today. What is shameful today is that after almost 70 years of the posing of these questions, we still do not have a resolution:

    1. Do we wish to see a fully centralised system with all legislative and executive power concentrated at the centre or do we wish to develop a federal system under which each different region of the country would exercise a measure of internal autonomy?
    2. If we favour a federal system, should we retain the existing regions with some modification of existing regional boundaries or should we form regions on some new basis such as the many linguistic groups which exist in Nigeria?
    3. Should Regional Legislatures be granted legislative and financial powers instead of being advisory?
    4. What functions and powers should be reserved to the Central Legislative Council in order to achieve the overriding objective of maintaining and strengthening the unity of Nigeria?
    5. Should the system to be introduced in all these matters necessarily be the same in each region or should each region be given freedom to decide on modifications to suit its own peculiar circumstances and needs?

    Each of the regions—North, West and East—presented responses from their conferences to these questions and all the responses confirmed the federal structure. Indeed the Northern position in 1948 had favoured a con-federal arrangement, which would have vested sovereignty with the regions.

    The West favoured the classic form of federalism with boundaries adjusted such that each region/state should be ethnically or linguistically homogeneous to protect the cultural heritage of each state and allow for varying rates of development.

    The East, on the other hand, wanted a federal structure but “the regional legislatures would exercise a measure of autonomy only on certain specified matters to be delegated to the regional legislatures by the central legislatures.”

    Thus the 1951 constitutional conference affirmed Nigeria as a federation and the constitution was in operation until 1953 when another constitutional review Conference was announced. The aim was “to provide for greater autonomy and for the removal of powers of intervention by the centre.”

    The NPC, prior to the London Conference, stated through its leaders, that it would ask for greater regional autonomy at the Conference “if the two major southern parties were prepared to have one Nigeria.”

    Significantly, the Conference agreed to more regional autonomy and to residual powers remaining with the regional governments rather than the central governments, where it had been vested in the 1951 constitution. The centre was to deal with defence, external relations, foreign trade, water control, central Court of Justice. The Concurrent List in which both the central and the regional governments would be competent included higher education, industrial development, power, insurance, regulation of labour, etc.

    With respect to revenue allocation, the emphasis of the 1954 Constitution was on the principle of derivation. Thus the Lyttleton Constitution gave more power and autonomy to the regions than the McPherson Constitution, thereby perfecting the practice of federalism.

    A pertinent question is this: if it was thus perfected in 1954, what is responsible for its perversion in 1999? This is the question that all zones, states and local governments have to address and find a suitable resolution for the sake of the labours of our heroes past.

     

    HAPPY INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY!

     

  • Kogi 2015: Revisiting Wada’s second coming

    As the governorship election in Kogi State draws close, possible permutations on chances of respective contestants have started emerging from an assortment of quarters. Even conjectures regarding the likely party standard-bearers are unfolding while party primaries are yet to be conducted. In as much as these efforts may just be regarded as speculations, there exist some pointers that convey probable truths and worries about the forthcoming elections. Emphatically, the echoes of imposition of candidates are beginning to sound very loud especially in the camp of the present ruling party, the PDP, where the incumbent Governor, Captain Idris Wada, has indicated interest for re-election.

    Presently, the gossip being peddled is on Governor Idris Wada’s endorsement by his party’s national leadership.  This purported approval though best assumed as mere hearsay, has in a style reminiscent of rumours, sent a message that has been promoted by its beneficiaries to rapidly travel round the political spectrum of Kogi State.  Well, for many analysts, if at all this is anything to go by, it simply means that the PDP which Governor Idris Wada belongs to, is entangled in a risky  issue of skewed political disposition that may expose a  serious jeopardy resulting from political party impunity as witnessed in the 2011 PDP elections.

    Right now, even though Governor Idris Wada bills himself as the best candidate from the PDP for the forthcoming elections, nevertheless, his public rating has hit rock bottom as the suffering of Kogi people has become increasingly obvious with escalating unemployment and gross dilapidation of public infrastructure under his leadership. These compelling facts about Kogi State in Governor Idris Wada’s present tenure, no doubt, suggest the existence of an avalanche of intolerable and unprogressive actions of a leader.  Already, Governor Wada’s government has been tagged with many derogatory labels as regularly expressed in the media, thus making his tenure an embarrassment to the PDP. Consequently, the belief by many Kogi citizens is that there is no testimony to Governor Wada’s claim on strong credentials in governance aside from commissioned articles in the newspapers and paid advertorials. Indeed, these negative indices have signaled that Governor

    Wada’s ambition to contest for a second tenure can only find sustenance and victory in a flawed electoral process. Realistically, any party with such a candidate should be deeply troubled.

    Now that Governor Wada’s underperformance has become a major concern for the Kogi electorate, the likelihood that he would be made the PDP candidate in the forthcoming election will further distance the party from politics of consolidation and stability.  Simply put, the conclusion by the majority of Kogi voters is that Governor Idris Wada’s second coming is offensive to their sensibilities.  Thus, it is evident that any party that presents him would find it extremely difficult to win the votes of the majority. The point herein is uncomplicated because, barring a divine intervention or an act of God or sudden intervention of the national leadership of PDP for a fresh candidate, the opposing APC party will defeat the PDP with landslide victory in the coming elections.  Thus, any endorsement extended by the PDP leadership to Idris Wada for a second term in office will obviously expose the quality of its leadership and to a large extent, the party’s intentions for the Kogi citizenry.

    Presently, many observers of the Kogi politics believe that for progress to be witnessed in the state there would be a strong need to bring about leadership adjustments that will overhaul its governance. Unfortunately, Governor Idris Wada seems to be at variance with such a concrete reality because his recent remarks while speaking on how he would easily defeat the opposing APC party at the polls do not reflect an understanding of the complex political situation in Kogi.  In fact, Governor Wada’s  comments on his anticipated victory are not only shocking but they invite suspicion because instead of focusing on the major hurdle of party  primaries, he rather chose to delve into matters relating to the major electoral contest, thus, indirectly confirming that the party primaries is already a done deal for him. How he arrived at this, may not be very far from allegations that he has planned to manipulate the party primaries.

    Nevertheless, given Governor Wada’s poor track record and lack of evidence on fresh initiatives, it is hard for any objective mind to feel optimistic about his assumptions of electoral triumph. Indeed, for a large section of the Kogi electorate, the popular public opinion has shifted unfavourably against Idris Wada. Thus, his rumoured choice as the PDP candidate will not only make Kogi election unexciting and uncompetitive but will be PDP’s gravest error since it exited the status of national ruling party in Nigeria. Indeed, if Governor Wada eventually emerges by hook or by crook as the PDP candidate in the forthcoming elections, the picture that will be portrayed is that the PDP has advanced a failure strategy and has again repeated the unpopular approach of party imposition. On this, some analysts predict that such may not only guarantee the PDP an early loss at the Kogi polls but might make the PDP unfit to be victorious in any of the twenty one local government councils in the state.  If this happens, it is unlikely that the PDP would get any moral consolation when it gets defeated at the elections.

    Besides the fact that Wada’s purported party endorsement is already feeding the APC propaganda mills, it is important to state that the main political battle for the PDP right now is not necessarily the struggle between its candidates or even between intra political camps but rather between Idris Wada and the majority of Kogi citizens.

    The simple reality about Kogi politics is that the incumbent Governor, Idris Wada has fallen far short of the people’s expectations and does not seem to have the faintest idea of how to make Kogi work. Consequently, his second coming must be tamed by his party leadership, especially now that it has been reported that some high-minded appeals have already been made by PDP party faithful to Governor Wada to step down for another PDP member in the coming election.  It will be most honourable for him to accept such soft landing because Lord Lugard’s House certainly deserves a new occupant and the PDP will do well in giving the Kogi electorate a candidate that will enable them make a good choice. On the other hand, a refusal by Governor Wada to step down, might not only lead to the sinking of his party’s ship in the forthcoming elections but expose his selfish politics of defiance that will only end up watering the seeds of victory for APC opposition party.

     

    • Onyegbule wrote in  from Ogori Magongo

  • Revisiting the literacy question

    Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a basic tool for daily life in modern society. It is a wall against poverty, and a building block of development. Literacy is a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity.” Dr. Kofi Anan, former Secretary General, United Nations.

    The 1985 Christian classic movie, the “Fourth Wise Man” is quite instructive. The movie is an adaptation of the “Other Wise Man,” a short novel written by Henry van Dyke in 1895. The story is an expansion and adaptation of the account of the Biblical Magi in the Gospel of Matthew chapter two in the New Testament of the Bible. In the Biblical narrative we were familiar with the three wise men or magi, but the movie tells of a “fourth” wise man.

    It tells the story of a Magi named Artaban, who like the others saw the signs in the heavens proclaiming that a King had been born among the Jews. Carrying three precious jewels to give to the baby Messiah, Artaban and his reluctant servant Orontes set off to join the caravan of the three other wise men. They miss the caravan, but Artaban continues the search for his King, always one step behind. He later spent much of his remaining wealth and all of his energy helping the poor and unfortunate people he meets.

    Since he missed the caravan, and he couldn’t cross the desert with only a horse, he is forced to sell one of his treasures in order to buy the camels and supplies necessary for the trip. He then commences his journey but arrives in Bethlehem too late to see the child, whose parents have fled to Egypt. As the movie progresses, he saves the life of a child at the price of another of his treasures. He then travels to Egypt and to many other countries, searching for Jesus for many years and performing acts of charity along the way. After thirty-three years, Artaban is still a pilgrim and a seeker after light. He arrives in Jerusalem in time for the crucifixion of Jesus. He spends his last treasure, the pearl, to ransom a young woman from being sold into slavery.

    At a point in the movie, he ended up in a leper colony assisting the outcasts. He was so frustrated by the fact that they could not lift their fingers to help themselves and vented his frustration on the spokesperson of the colony. “Can’t you people do anything,” he blurted. “Who will teach us?” was the reply he got. He ended up teaching the lepers how to farm in order to be self-sufficient, which they later became.

    The moral of that aspect of the movie is that we need dedicated and committed teachers in Nigeria. A recently released report put the population of illiterate adults at over 64 million! It tells a sad and frightening story of a country that places little or no premium on education. It is a depressing story of a potentially great country, a country with a blurred vision, and leadership who fail to see the immediate/long term implications of so large a number of illiterates. It is a classic story of ineptitude, self-centeredness and leadership failure.

    This figure is slightly different from that released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which put adult illiteracy rate in Nigeria at 56.9%. The implication of this is that about 70% of Nigerians are illiterates. The global illiteracy rate is approximately 20%.

    Is it that our policy makers cannot see that education has a big role to play in today’s continually changing and competitive world? The current scenario can only portend one thing: a very bleak future.

    I struggle to understand how a country with an estimated population of 170 million people could be at ease with itself with 64 million uneducated adults; to me, this is not only alarming and disastrous, but downright embarrassing. It is even more embarrassing that little is being done to change the status quo. If anything, the situation is getting worse, especially in parts of the country where Boko Haram has been working tirelessly to ensure that people – whose attitude towards formal education is, at best, lukewarm – abandon it altogether.

    About three weeks ago, Esther Uduehi, the Chairman, Governing Board of the National Mass Education Commission who spoke at an event marking this year’s International Literacy Day in Awka, Anambra State, described the situation as shameful. “We all know that an illiterate is a danger not only to himself (or herself), but to the society at large.” She said.

    Let’s get down to the basics; what is literacy? UNESCO describes it as “one of the key elements needed to promote sustainable development, as it empowers people so that they can make the right decisions in the areas of economic growth, social development and environmental integration.” Literacy, the United Nations agency continues, is “a basis for lifelong learning and plays a crucial role in the creation of sustainable, prosperous and peaceful societies.”

    Sounds very simple right? No; there’s more than meets the eye because it is doubtful if the government – especially at the state and local levels – whose duty it is to promote basic education, share this view. Billions of naira of the various States Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) funds is locked up somewhere because some states deliberately refuse to fulfill their part of counterpart funding arrangement with the board which is expected to unlock the vaults and improve education in their states.

    It is disheartening to note that despite the numerous programmes and existing laws geared towards promoting basic education, very little is being done to actualise it. I’ll like to point out the Universal Basic Education, launched by the Olusegun Obasanjo Administration in 1999. The programme makes access to formal education free and compulsory for the first nine years of a child’s education. Besides, the Child’s Rights Act also takes care of this, while prohibiting the unwholesome practice of forcing teenage girls out of school for early marriage.

    But rather than take advantage of these programmes, many states only pay lip service to them. In a nutshell, many of our states lack the discipline needed to fulfil the requirements for accessing available funds. This makes it difficult to bridge the huge funding gap in education, while the funds that should have taken care of that keep piling up. In some instances, they even refuse to domesticate the law.

    So how did we get to this inglorious place? The answer is not farfetched. Years of negligence and apathy has seen the near total collapse of public education system in Nigeria. Yes, we’ve had a proliferation of private varsities and schools, but these don’t come cheap and only a privileged few can assess them. This leaves a vast number of the poor making do with a comatose public education system.

    While other countries are striving to reverse their educational challenges, Nigeria seems to be wallowing more in the “comfort zone” of illiteracy. China, for instance, with a population of over 1.3 billion people, was able to more than halve its number of illiterate population from 142 million to 67 million between 2000 and 2010. Even India, which has the global record of 287 million illiterate adults, was also able to reduce the number of adult illiterates by 15 per cent between 1991 and 2006.

    Not only has Nigeria failed her citizens in this area, the country, according to UNESCO’s figures, also has the largest number of out-of-school children in the world. This number, put at 10.5 million, only portends danger ahead. With this number, the foundation has already been laid for a future of adult illiterates to “take over” from the present generation.

    As a development scholar, I’m aware that this high number of illiterates is the fundamental reason the country’s development has remained stunted and the reason we always rank low in human development indices.

    This gloomy picture does not mean we should just lift our hands in defeat and give up. No, we shouldn’t.  If China could reduce its huge population of illiterates by 75 million in 10 years, there is no reason why Nigeria cannot wipe out the 64 million within the next decade. All that is needed is a reordering of priorities. There is the need for serious mobilization and awareness on the importance of education; we have no other option.

  • Revisiting the Photo-chromically rigged Ekiti election

    Revisiting the Photo-chromically rigged Ekiti election

    Jaws will drop when Nigerians get to know the details of the rigged Ekiti election

    I am always  beside myself  when I see the uninitiated continue to insult, indeed, completely rip apart, a doughty, decent  and extremely  respectable  Ekiti people, unfortunate victims  of PDP’s  unprecedented, in Nigeria, though happened in Zimbabwe’s 2013 Presidential election,  photo-chromically  rigged election of 21, June 2014,  being described in  very nauseating ways. There is hardly any insulting  epithet  under the sun Ekiti has not been painted  with arising from PDP’s irreverent rationalizations for its earth shaking ‘victory’ in that election: an election in which the thief foolishly stole more than the owner, with the sitting, performing governor  (Fayemi  has outperformed  all Ekiti governors, dead or alive) not winning a single Local Government area and the vote of  the ‘winner’, Ayodele Fayose, warts and all, almost doubling  the governor’s in the mistaken belief that the lie becomes  more believable if the margin of  victory is humongous.

    So successful were they that my friend, a world reputed intellectual and proud Ekiti  icon , was pained enough to do a  poem,  rather a dirge,  for Motherland’s fabled love of stomach. Fortunately, now that the APC has headed to the tribunal, the world will soon come to know the details of  this latest ‘Watergate’.  The PDP  and ts government have so negatively impacted the country that they  would do just about anything to hold on to power or steal it. Dr Jide Oluwajuyitan recently  reminded us that Nigeria  now  generates about 4500MW of electricity as against 4200 MW it had  a whole  twelve years ago when the late Dr Olusegun Agagu was  Minister of Power and Energy  and that was after injecting between $24 -$50 billion while another writer regaled his readers as follows:  ‘Former President Olusegun Obasanjo condemned GEJ’s government. Muhammadu Buhari criticized GEJ’s government. Maitama Sule expressed worries over GEJ’s leadership style. Mrs Hilary Clinton described GEJ’s government as corrupt. Senator John McCain said there is no government in Nigeria. Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni mocked GEJ on Boko Haram. Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe described Nigeria as a corrupt nation. The question is: Are all these people ignorant of what good governance is? And all that was long before we sank into this Watergate, this photochromically rigged Ekiti election.

    And I ask, is there a level to which this government will not degenerate?

    Many, incidentally and surprisingly including the U.S embassy in Nigeria, have commended INEC for conducting what they call a transparent election in Ekiti. I  can forgive the U.S having been accustomed to  Nigeria’s shambolic elections of ballot box snatching, murder and mayhem which were patently absent this time around, but I  feel certain America will by now be chuckling to itself saying: we were had!

    Which election did PDP not rig?  Is it the election which Olu Falae contested at the tribunal, or the one  Buhari took to the tribunal  and  in which, to save President Jonathan an Appeal Court President had to be hurriedly sacrificed? Back to Ekiti, is it the 2007 governorship election and the rerun  which the Appeal Court  held were both egregiously stolen by the PDP? It is obvious PDP did not overtly rig  the Ekiti election because it has long  ensured ‘victory’ when Obanikoro flew into the Akure Airport with his  strange ‘luggage’, later allegedly ferried to Ekiti in a bullion van.  To dispute this, Obanikoro, Jelili Adesiyan and the Anambra perpetual gubernatorial wannabe, none of them Ekiti, should tell the world what their mission was in Ekiti during the election. Obvously the vehicle arrested a few days to the Ekiti election conveying items from INEC’s Ado-Ekiti office was most probably ferrying the batch of  vanishing ink to be used in  Osun  which must have accounted for Omisore’s insistence, and INEC’s subsequent acquiescence, in the  transfer of the state’s Resident Commissioner. This is one reason APC must insist on the use of indelible ink in the Osun election as  specifically stipulated by the Electoral Law.  Otherwise, the party must make such available at all the polling booths if INEC  decides to continue to act  illegally by  providing vanishing ink as it did in Ekiti.

    I  paraphrase below, the argument of Hon Bimbo Daramola, MHR,  Director General of the Kayode Fayemi campaign, which should put the final nail on the coffin of this baloney called stomach infrastructure and the more asinine one that a governor who put in place the first ever welfare scheme for the elderly in Nigeria, giving 25,000  Ekiti  elders a N5000 monthly  stipend ,who employed about 10,000 youths through such schemes as the highly acclaimed Youth Commercial Agriculture (YCAD) which has seen a trained Medical Doctor turn a farmer, and one whose annual budgets are made bottom up by going to every Ekiti community to ascertain their critical needs, and much more, was aloof and disconnected from the citizenry:

    ‘I dare say 95 percent of those who are so confident in their oracular postulation  neither  have the hard facts  about the Fayemi years in Ekiti nor the numerous initiatives that were aimed at restoring  Ekiti back  from its ruins.

    It is obviously unknown to many that no administration treated Ekiti teachers better than Fayemi’s regardless of the competency test which was badly misunderstood.  Critics  should  therefore go and compare the various administrations since the creation of the state. Today they say teachers are against Fayemi despite their  regular  promotions,  payment of rural location allowance, core subjects allowance, 27.5% pecuniary allowance and both local and foreign training.  I am sure the election was not won because of stomach infrastructure or rice, he says, certainly not! Otherwise it would mean that all of a sudden, 25000 senior citizens  suddenly became  memory fatigued or brain dead  and  forgot  the man who made  government  have such impact on their lives,10000 volunteers  who have been on monthly financial support  for the past 36 months’ lost their minds’ and the people of Ikogosi who play  host to local  and international tourists in their thousands  equally temporarily forgot the man who made the  Ikogosi Tourist Resort  what it is.

    Continuing he said, the increased state revenue,  jobs created from  investment in road reconstruction, the Ire Ekiti Burnt Bricks  factory left prostrate for 23years, the various  job creating schemes, all must have suddenly counted for nothing because somebody brought in some bags of 2.5kg of expired Thai rice?

    Hon Daramola goes on: When latter day analysts begin to ascribe interpretations to what they do not know, I expect rational  people  to step back and attempt a  much more dispassionate  evaluation before jumping  to conclusions. For instance, when  one Segun Ayobolu  who confessed  he has not  visited Ekiti  since  Fayemi  became governor  goes on to rely on hearsays,  reasonable  people would expect him to demonstrate  circumspection.  Although he tried to tuck away his sloppiness by claiming journalists are not intellectuals,  one would still expect much more than his cocktail of lies and conjectures.  And then Akin Osuntokun goes on to mutilate facts on the altar  of the  expediency of  an urgent, even, dire need to enter into political reckoning which this “victory”  suggests to him: time to graduate from sitting perpetually on the  President’s  Chief of Staff.

    Come to think of it,  he continues, was that election all about the governor alone? Did it matter anything  that  the APC  has 3 Senators,  5 members of the House of Representatives,  25 state house assembly members in the state, besides political appointees?  All these people suddenly froze into political nothingness?  And it no longer mattered that 10  of those who  vied for  the PDP gubernatorial ticket had decamped to the APC;  Asiwaju Segun Oni  no longer  has any  political  relevance  in his home town; ditto erstwhile PDP top shots like Hon Olatubosun , Hon Babade, Chief Ojo Falegan and  many more?

    Our people must learn to think much more beyond the veneer and  take these empty postulations with more than a pinch of salt. They must see the PDP for what exactly it is :  an ensemble of political desperados  and power mongers who would stop at nothing to win elections.

    And as this writer has never shied  away from saying, jaws will drop when Nigerians get to know the details of the rigged Ekiti election.

  • Revisiting Ekiti’s penkelemesi

    It was not my intention to comment on the processes that led to the June 21 election in Ekiti State. Even when I got some reactions to the write-up, I chose to keep my vow to review my position only when there are new facts.

    However, I had to vary that decision when Oloye Lekan Alabi chose to “set the record straight”. He wrote in to complain that the late Chief Adegoke Adelabu had been misrepresented in my column under reference. He presented Adelabu as a polished and urbane public-spirited man.

    It was impossible to ignore the weight of Oloye’s submissions. It had passion and, as he indicated, he has cause to take on anyone who might choose to present the late Ibadan politician as grandfather of debased politics. With due respect to Oloye Alabi, nowhere in my submission did I suggest that Adelabu was an illiterate. It was not part of my concern. I know enough of the man- his biographical work and the comments on his person and politics by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the late Chief Bola Ige. Even the factional account by Professor Kole Omotoso.

    All I said, and would repeat any time, is that he was the original writer of the script that the likes of Chief Busari Adelakun, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu,in Ibadan and more recently, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti acted and are acting. It has caught on so much that Chief Iyiola Omisore would not be caught anywhere without roasted corn or yam which he believes to illustrate his commitment to the cause of the poor.

    I appreciate Oloye Alabi’s presentation. Except for his conclusion that I may not be conversant with the subject, he did nothing to impugn my integrity. All I will therefore do is reproduce the relevant section of that piece since Oloye’s rejoinder is published today in this newspaper.

    I leave the Ekiti field, at least for now, for those who want to recant and are trying out a competition on who could abuse the most, whether founded on facts or falsehood.

    What matters to me is what could have instructed such a shift, given the choice available. Fayemi versus Fayose; APC versus PDP. Fayemi- urbane, polished, an achiever and principled. There was also Fayose- background still shrouded in mystery, not known to be a policy man and quite abrasive. Yet, as the people told Pilate when he asked who to set free between Jesus and Barabbas, the people said they wanted the Christ crucified and the criminal Barabbas set free. It was their choice. The Ekiti, too, asked for Fayose.

    The setting is similar to the situation when the late Adegoke Adelabu took on the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Adelabu was an incomparable orator. He was devastating on the soap box and chose to sway the people against progress. He had the appropriate word for every occasion. He knew what to say to each crowd to send the audience to frenzy. He could say one thing in Ogbomoso and another to people in Ijebu.

    Adelabu made waves in the cities across the Western Region. When he surmised that the campaign crowd was made up largely of illiterates, he threw in his clincher: what a peculiar mess. And the drummers showed their dexterity. The people took the word to town:penkelemesi. It was a proof that Adelabu could defeat a native speaker of the English language at any competition. It stuck. The stunt worked

    In Ekiti, contrary to the contention that the people are highly principled and educated and would easily see through cheap gimmicks, they decided to see Fayose as a modern-day Adelabu. Although Fayose was incapable of pulling stunts on the soap box, the theatrics on the road was not lost on the artisans, the youth, the teachers and civil servants. They accepted the PDP candidate and warmed up to him. He did not have to sell a programme; that would have been unlike the party.

    His tactics were simple. He made to sell himself as a friend of the common man. At every point, he identified with him. From one campaign station to another, he elected to jump on any available motorcycle and reward the okadaman handsomely. He became an instant friend of every garri seller. All he needed to prove to them that he would patronize them was branch once at a stall, buy some and soak it there. The news spread that he would continue to patronize them if only he got elected governor.

    The youth had their grouse against the incumbent. They had expected that, as reward for supporting him in the epic battle to reclaim his stolen mandate in 2010, Fayemi would open the till and pour out Naira. It did not matter to them that a modern economy could not be run in such manner. Fayose promised he would provide the much needed “stomach infrastructure”.

    I have utmost respect for Oloye and his accomplishment, but needed, too, to set the records straight in the interest of the readers.

  • Revisiting the Ilorin Sallah tragedy

    There is no doubt that the recent Sallah stampede in Charity House, Ilorin, Kwara State, is an unfortunate and sad incident by all parameters. While not ruling out the truism that lives belong to God, who alone decides where and how everyone departs, there are minimum best practices for safety of lives and property which may have been inadvertently neglected by somebody. It is hoped that lessons have been learnt following this incident, which should never be allowed to reoccur.

    Ordinarily, it would have sufficed not to continue to constantly refresh the memories of the families and friends of the dead by bringing the issue persistently to the front burner, but reading Comrade Issa Aremu and Kawu Modibbo (both indigenes of Ilorin), particularly their jaundiced comments on the unfortunate incident, my mind quickly raced to Labour Party MP, Gerald Kaufman’s famous description of his party’s 1983 manifesto as the longest suicide note in history. Indeed, Aremu and Modibbo’s comments, in my thinking, could yet turn out to be one of the shortest suicide notes in media history.

    Tendentiously, both made very spurious allegations that Senator Bukola Saraki was using government funds to oil his philanthropy. What could be so below-the-line for pundits, who are supposed to know that to make unsubstantiated allegations, reduces one’s integrity? Rather than question the propriety of gathering such a crowd in such a place without making adequate provisions for their exit in case of emergency, or query why they could not understudy how the late Saraki did it for almost 40 years without a single incident or suggesting how such should be done in the future or maybe, agitating for compensation for the dead, Modibbo, pugnaciously embarked on his new devotion of calling his quondam boss names. Come to think of it, how else could a man operating at such a high level of politics in Nigeria be a leader? If leadership is not about influencing others to accomplish an objective and directing in a cohesive and coherent way, what then is leadership?

    Only the likes of Modibbo question the destiny of such a young, resourceful, detribalized and philanthropic man, forgetting that only God installs who He wills as leader, regardless of age or tribe. Modibbo shockingly took his handshake beyond the elbow by accusing the Emir of Ilorin of misdemeanor for sending the Vice Chairman of Traditional Council of Chiefs to commiserate with the state government on the sad event. What a freedom carried too far?

    In his case, Aremu, who only recently declared Governor Ahmed the Best Teacher-friendly Governor, described the same government as insensitive. What a paradox!

    Indeed, as a principle, I ignore such grotesque and ungainly write-ups, knowing it would not connect with the thoughts and feelings of those who know, but for the gullible few at the risk of being taken in by these obvious clever by half embellishment of lies.

    Here was an unfortunate incident that shook the entire state and the Saraki family to its foundations; and which many would rather leave in the past than make politics out of, knowing that only God, the creator and all knowing, can explain how and why such had to happen.

    Curiously, while the buzz continued, Aremu and his co-traveller in mischief, forgot that for more than four decades, the Sarakis, who have also paid the way for a number of persons through school at home and abroad, rehabilitated a number of schools across the state, provided jobs and empowerment to quite a number of persons, have been hosting the people during Sallah celebrations. This is unlikely to be the last having become a tradition of the Sarakis to appreciate the people, who have shown them love and sustained their support through the years.

    Needless repeating the fact that Allah commanded those who have to share with those who do not have. But more than anything else, as a devout Moslem, the Sallah season for Saraki as with many other Moslems, provides an opportunity to meet and share Allah’s provision with the people, knowing of a truth that no one ever advances when many people are left behind.

    Interestingly, no matter how cynical anyone might be, truth remains that the Sarakis know that the people are everything. They know that nothing is too small to appreciate a people, who also appreciate their positive contributions to their lives and the development of Kwara State, with or without Sallah. This, perhaps, is the simple philosophy that has defined the yearly Sallah celebration by the Sarakis and underscores the bond between the family and the people.

    Unfortunate, as it were, one would have thought that it was high time the dead had a deserved rest than become the subject of mischievous ogling through warped and highly jaundiced media commentaries. This, for the right thinking, particularly, where there are obvious political tan to the whole incident, is tantamount to killing and burying the dead the second time. And, only the conscienceless can do this. Even if Comrade Aremu is not a Moslem, he would still have known that as common in Islam, such handouts form part of Sallah celebrations, except he has a new find to the contrary.

    Still, while this seeming grisly smear campaigns against the person of Saraki, a former governor of the state, have been sustained in very ridiculous manners without regard that the state and the affected families are still in mourning, those fuelling this unspeakable filth have since assumed a watchdog role over what the current administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has done or is doing or not even done since assumption of office.

    How would the likes of Comrade Aremu have known that so far the Governor Ahmed’s administration has provided no fewer than 5,000 jobs through KWABES and another 10,000 through the SURE-P programme? Or, how would they know without asking, about 5000 youths were recently trained on ICT use and opportunities, not withstanding that the Kwara State government has disbursed more than N350 million to entrepreneurs in line with the state’s Small Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) projects?  Talking about a road map out of poverty to prosperity, has anyone taken a trip to Ajase-Ipo International Vocational Centre, intended to undertake training of Kwara youths in fields such as automobile engineering, carpentry, metal works, hair-dressing, tailoring and so on and provided soft loans to prospective graduates of the centre to establish and manage own businesses across the state?

    Also in line with government’s shared prosperity programme, the administration has approved a N3 billion car loan for civil servants despite its meagre resources. Only recently, the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City & Guild of London (C&G), to design a curriculum for a training programme that would turn Kwara youths into job creators than job seekers. Already, there are youth empowerment coordinators in all the 16 local government councils of the state, to ensure beneficiaries spread across the councils, just as the state has equally started creating a data base for the youths whether or not they are Kwarans. The exercise has already attracted a number of youths. Rather than query destiny by their sustained attack on the Sarakis, let the Aremus and the Modibbos contribute their quota to the new move to transform our state to commercial nerve centre of the middle belt.

    • Adebayo writes from Ilorin.