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  • State creation/merger: How feasible?

    State creation/merger: How feasible?

    On the surface, the recommendations of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on restructuring, particularly those on the merger of states and the creation of an additional state in the Southeast, sound fine. But many critics across the country say they are not intended to achieve any tangible result. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI reports.

    CRITICS have flayed the report of the Governor Nasir el-Rufai-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on Restructuring, saying the party is giving Nigerians a false hope because it was compelled to abandon its earlier obdurate stand in an apparent volte face.

    It took almost six months for the committee to define the party’s position on restructuring. The Kaduna State Governor said the committee engaged about 8,040 persons during 14 sittings throughout the federation; had 12 public consultations in all the six geo-political zones, while 409 memoranda were received from respondents. He stated further that in the process of their research, Nigerians indicated interest in 24 issues out of which the committee made recommendations on 13 in its four-volume report.

    One of the controversial recommendations of the committee is the merger of existing states. As el-Rufai admitted, majority of Nigerians were against the idea. In the report, the committee said: “The first item that we felt needed legislative action is the merger of states. It is pertinent to note that only 36 per cent of Nigerians wants more states created, while the majority of Nigerians don’t want more states. For us, since the creation of states is already in the constitution, there is no action needed than to implement that.

    “So, the first recommendation for which we have proposed a draft bill for a constitutional amendment is the merger of states. Though there was no consensus’ from stakeholder on the merger of states, we felt that we should propose a bill that allows states to merge and it is left for the National Assembly, the party and the people of Nigeria to decide on that.”

    On creation of states, the APC committee said opposition to creation of new states is strongest among respondents from online and the northern states, particularly the Northwest. It added: “On the other hand, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and online respondents are fairly strong in their advocacy for the creation of more states. Southeast in particular is seeking the creation of an additional state to achieve parity with other geo-political zones.”

    The committee said, overall, 48 per cent of respondents across the country oppose creation of new states and that 36 per cent are in support of the idea. It added that seven per cent are calling for the return to regionalism, while nine per cent are in favour of the maintaining the status quo.

    The el-Rufai-led committee’s recommendation is that creation of more states is not expedient, “because to do so will merely create new sub-national bureaucracies and their attendant costs while reducing the share of federal statutory allocation accruing to existing and proposed new states that are already grappling with high cost of governance, payment of salaries of workers and bringing development to their people”.

    It also declared: “Creation of states could further weaken the federating units and thus run contrary to popular demands for ‘True Federalism’ which the APC stands for. The creation of new states would weaken rather than strengthen true federalism in the sense of denying federating units enough resources and ability to discharge additional responsibilities that would be thrust on them.

    “However, there may be need to attend to the isolated case of the Southeast zone, where there is a demand to balance states to be equal to other geo-political zones. Since there are clear procedures already spelt out in the constitution should the need arise in future, and such demand enjoys widespread support, deserving cases cannot be ruled out. Indeed, the Nigeria constitution should and does leave room for creation of states in future, provided the laid down requirements are met.”

    Respondents who spoke to The Nation were unanimous in their views that the idea of restructuring almost three years after the APC assumed power at the centre does not suggest that the party intends to implement the recommendations of the committee.

     Playing politics

    Former Lagos State Police Commissioner Mr. Abubakar Tsav said the APC is merely playing politics with the idea of merger of states and other issues contained in its Restructuring Committee report. He said: “Merger of states can only be ratified by the National Assembly, because it has the powers to make laws to govern the country.

    “So, if the APC is talking about restructuring at the level of a committee, maybe it is doing it deliberately to win the next general elections. It is only the National Assembly that has the powers to make changes to our laws. Even at that, it is not an easy thing to do, because the move still needs to be approved by the state assemblies. Who will want his state to be merged with another, when people are asking for more states?”

    Tsav said it is only easy for military administrations to create states. He added: “In the First Republic, when the defunct Midwest State was created, it took a long time. If you say the Southeast has only five states, are we not considering the landmass? It is not just about bringing some villages together and calling them a state.  Requirements for creating a state go beyond that. People are just thinking of where they can go and rule and where they would have the opportunity to steal. Otherwise, we cannot fragment this country into minute states that are not viable.

     Merely re-echoed expectations

    Second Republic politician and former Adviser to ex-President Shehu Shagari on National Assembly affairs, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, said 80 per cent of the recommendations of the APC Committee on Restructuring are in the report of the 2014 National Conference convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    He said: “You cannot merge states, because they are already recognised by the constitution. To do so requires a constitutional amendment. So, the committee did not recommend a merger of states; it merely suggested that a provision be made in the constitution to make it possible for states that want to merge in future to be able to do so. That is, the committee has recommended for a provision in the constitution that will provide the framework for two or more states that may want to merge in future.”

    Yakassai added that the committee did not suggest the procedure to actualise the merger. He said: “Rather, it has transferred the burden to the National Assembly and the state assemblies, which have the power to amend the constitution. The committee has merely re-echoed want Nigerians want to hear; it did not bother itself about the details.”

    On creation of states, the former presidential adviser said poverty and unemployment, could be attributed to the number of states in the federation. He explained: “This is because all the money that ought to be channeled towards development is directed towards financing the bureaucracies in the states. We have 38 governments in Nigeria — the 36 states, the Federal Government and the Federal Capital Territory Authority in Abuja. Sooner or later, we have to reduce the number of states.”

     

    Nigerians not fooled

    The Southeast Secretary-General of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Jerry Chukwuokolo, said the time the Southeast canvassed for the creation of an additional state has gone. His words: “With what is happening today, we have seen the country being set ablaze. All the indices of unity and nationhood have been torn by the Buhari administration. Nobody is talking about creation of state now. What is required now are policies that will make our people feel that they are still part of Nigeria. Not that a set of people are loved, the other ones are their slaves. Therefore, the idea of creation of state is no longer attractive to our people.

    “What we are thinking now is that there is need for self-determination. This is a situation where autonomous regions based on their ethnic nationalities can take their destinies in their hands, by controlling their resources, contributing their quota to maintain the centre and by deciding who and who they want to stay with. This is what the people want and not what our people will call wayo.

    “The same Nasir el-Rufai told us that they don’t understand what restructuring means; after using restructuring mantra to ascend to power. The same person is now giving us a solution through restructuring. I read the report they presented and my impression is that they have not stopped lying. They said Nigerians don’t want this; Nigerians don’t want that; who and who did they interview?

    “As far as I am concerned, this is falsehood at the highest level. So, nobody will take them seriously with that kind of recommendations. At least, I don’t think any serious Igbo man is thinking of state creation now. This includes the so-called Igbo presidency they are bandying around. We are no longer interested in those things. What we are interested in is those indices that will create equity, justice and fair play.

    “We should go for true federalism for once. This is the only federal state in the world that has no federating units. What we have is a unitary, all powerful centre. The centre should devolve power to the component units. These people think that Nigerians are fools. For crying out loud, we are in the 21st Century; let them not think we are in the 17th Century.”

    Campaign gimmicks

    Chukwuokolo, who spoke with The Nation on telephone, said the idea of merger of states, as recommended by the committee, is not practicable. He said: “Most of their recommendations are not far-reaching and they know that these things are not possible, but they are deliberately giving it to Nigerians because of the elections that are coming.

    “It is just like a father who has three children. Now, all the children are married and have their separate families. Then, one day, somebody will come with the idea of merging the three families. In the same vein, the states have started enjoying some level of autonomy. So, merging them may not be practicable.

    “What we want is a region where all Igbo people, including those in Anioma and Rivers State, will be together and take their destiny in their hands. Then, every region will contribute 20 per cent, because 50 per cent will still make the centre very rich. The states will have 40 per cent and the regional government will have the remaining 40, so that the people can do whatever they like with their resources. This would be like what was obtainable under the 1963 constitution.”

    The human rights activist said the APC committee is being mischievous. Besides, he added that the document is still a recommendation to the party leadership. He said the party still has the power to set up another committee to review the committee’s recommendations, to decide whether to accept them or not.

    Desirable, but unattainable

    The National Chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP) and the party’s flag bearer in the 2015 presidential election, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said having an additional state in the Southeast is desirable. But, he added that the recommendation of the el-Rufai Committee is suspicious. His words: “The APC-led Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari has no positive attitude towards the Southeast. The President has not hidden his disdain for the Southeast.

    “The fact that the region gave him what he called five per cent of the votes has remained with him nearly three years in office. This is so much so that he told a recent Ohanaeze delegation that Igbo people only gave him a hundred and ninety something thousand votes and he still gave the Southeast four substantive ministers, as if he would have denied them their constitutional entitlement, even if they gave him zero vote.

    “How can a man that has that kind of unforgiving spirit preside over the creation of another state in the Southeast? We know that we are approaching the electioneering campaign period and we know that the APC will do anything possible, to try to tickle the fancy of every section of Nigeria, with another round of promises that it will not keep. If they make effort to keep 50 per cent of the promises they made before coming to power, that would be a better approach. As it is, I doubt if they can fulfill just 10 per cent of the promises they made.”

    Okorie said the APC should be concerned with telling Nigerians how far it has delivered on the promises it made prior to the 2015 general elections. This is, he said, is better than coming up with a new set of promises just to tickle the fancy of Nigerians. He added: “No matter what you say about Igbo people, they are far more sophisticated to buy this sort political 4-1-9. So, we don’t trust that recommendation, because they have not told us how they intend to go about its implementation. The party has no power to submit an Executive Bill to the National Assembly.

    “Besides, the issue of creating an additional state in the Southeast was one of the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, which the President has set aside. Let them go with their Greek gift; we will meet at the polls. Most Nigerians already know that the existing states were created by the military through a fiat.

    “The same military inserted a provision in the 1999 Constitution that will make the creation of a new state as impossible as the proverbial camel passing through the eye of a needle. We know this; that is why everybody is talking about restructuring, true federalism and all that, to allow the federating units to develop at their own pace, so that everyone can move on without having to depend on the centre.

    “They know what to do, if they are serious about restructuring. For instance, if the six geo-political zones are regarded as the federating units, then it would not matter how many states are in one zone. If they did not local governments an issue in revenue allocation, it would not matter that we have 188 local governments in the Northwest and only 95 local governments in the Southeast. That disparity would not mean anything because the geo-political zones are equal and all the states can have as many local governments as they want.”

    Recipe for anarchy

    The UPP Chairman said the recommendation that states who want to merge should do so is sheer political nonsense. His words: “This is because everybody knows what leaders, including those that are now late, put into the creation of their various states. It was almost like a battle without gun. After that, you will now tell them to go and merge it with other states and lose the quasi sense of liberty that they are already enjoying.

    “They should be talking about how each state would be encouraged to develop at its own pace, by exploring and exploiting its own comparative advantage to constitution a veritable economic force. Most African nations are smaller than many states in Nigeria and they exist with all national paraphernalia of a nation, like a president and an army.

    “Talking about merger of states is like a recipe for anarchy. In one breath, they are talking about creation of a state in the Southeast and in another they are talking about mergers. Even if they put that in the constitution — assuming that they have the capacity, which they do not have — nobody will give it a thought. That is not our problem: our problem is that the states that exist are hamstrung. They have been held hostage by an all-powerful central government that has not released them to grow and develop.”

    Immediate implementation

    In spite of the pessimism that has greeted the submission of the panel’s report, some Nigerians have enjoined President Buhari to utilise the limited time on his hands before the expiration of his first term to begin the implementation of the recommendations. The Convener, Nigeria Political Summit Group, Mr. Olawale Okuniyi, is one of such respondents.

    He said: “What I think the President should do with the report is to implement it immediately. Although the report is coming very late in the day, especially at a time when people have lost confidence in the ability of this government to restructure this country, however there is a lot that can be salvaged.

    “This administration should start the implementation of the report without further delay. The Nigerian people are not ready to accept any promise to implement the report after the 2019 elections. Anything short of the implementation of the recommendation of this report beginning from now will further erode the confidence of Nigerians in this government.

    “I believe this report is implementable, because nothing is impossible. If the President decides to carry the National Assembly along in this venture, it is possible, where there’s a will there’s a way. What should be done is for the President to engage the National Assembly in areas of the panel’s recommendations that require constitutional amendment and work with the various state governors and Houses of Assembly to achieve results.

    “The National Assembly and the President alone cannot do it; they require the help of Nigerians. To make this happen, the National Assembly should enact a law to empower Nigerians to give unto themselves a constitution that they can call their own between now and the election. There is nothing like ‘we will do it after the 2019 elections’; this is something that should be done now.

    “This is not about any political party or a section of Nigeria; it is about the future of this country and generations yet unborn. We all owe this nation this service at this point of our history, this is a rare opportunity we cannot allow to pass without taking advantage of this period to right the wrongs of the past, the way to go is to restructure.”

  • NULGE takes autonomy battle to state assemblies

    NULGE takes autonomy battle to state assemblies

    The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has put in place measures to ensure that state assemblies pass the local government autonomy bill, its National Executive Council (NEC) has said.

    At its meeting in Abuja, NULGE resolved to declare a national day of prayers to make the members of houses of assembly support councils’autonomy.

    The association’s  President, Comrade Ibraheem Khaleel, said the union would sustain its advocacy and ensure that the constitution review was achieved.

    Khaleel pointed out that the statement credited to the Speaker of theHouse of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, that the state assemblies should be held responsible, if the proposal failed was very sensitive.

    Khaleel said apart from organising prayers across all the 774 local governments, the association would sensitise state assemblies and councillors to approve local government autonomy.

    He pointed out that since the National Assembly had approved the proposal and transmitted it to the state assemblies, the union would  ensure that the state legislatures approved it.

    On the mass sack of workers in Kaduna State, Comrade Khaleel said the union had agreed to support the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in organising a mass action against the “anti-workers and people policy” of Governor el-Rufai.

    He pointed out that NULGE would organise its members across the country to converge on Kaduna and participate in the protest.

    He said the anti-people policies of the Kaduna State governor and the activities of a cabal surrounding the president had disconnected President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Nigerians.

    The union, which regretted that President Buhari and the APC came to power on the mantra of change, with promises to create employment for Nigerians, said the major political office holders in the government, especially the Kaduna State governor, had done the opposite.

    Specifically, NULGE said the sack of 22, 000 teachers and 4, 000 local government workers in Kaduna  by el-Rufai lacked merit and was against civil service rules.

  • Between a voodoo and rogue state 

    An official of the department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR) was reported to have lamented how about 10 full loaded trucks of petroleum products left Suleja depot to Bauchi State in the North-east only to vanish along the way. The incidence of diversion of petroleum products is very rife, in the heat of the immense sufferings of Nigerians to access the essential product, especially at this festive period.

    Since the current bout of scarcity of the products, leading to paralysis of economic activities and the massive sufferings it has inflicted on the majority of Nigerians, the common refrain of government officials concerned is that the scarcity is the handiwork of marketers who want to force government’s  hand to hike the price of the product. Other nefarious activities  of the profiteers according to government officials include hoarding of the product to create artificial scarcity for the purpose of reaping bumper profits.

    However, it takes a  combination of a voodoo state and rogue officials for fully loaded trucks of petroleum products to vanish without trace, before it reached its destination and no one is held accountable as if there is no clue as to who authorized the loading and even the identity of the driver. What suffering Nigerians get for explanation is lamentation from those put in charge. For a government that serially and routinely lament the machinations and infractions of some delinquent marketers, ostensibly proving helpless, even to enforce it own laws certainly stands on the perilous infrastructure of a weak and compromised state.

    Since the outbreak of the current petroleum products scarcity, the relevant government agencies and the marketer’s association have openly traded blames. Unable to bring some delinquent marketers to comply with the regulatory framework of the industry, government resorted  to appealing to them to be nice and considerate, as if most human’s natural instinct for greed responds to such platitudes. Only a compromised and captured state appeals to offenders to be nice instead of invoking extant laws to whip them into line and deter prospective future offenders..

    David Mark, former Senate President, Current Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and others, including former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole are all set to challenge in court, government’s recent directive that they vacate official residences they were offered for a fraction of its cost by the previous government. That these men are are pushing back to keep public property that they should never have obtained in the first place, underlines the vacuous character of the Nigerian state and the morbid nature of the government that oversees it.

    An incompetent state, inchoate and dysfunctional, with its nearly only semblance of formal state appurtenance being the fang of organized violence, deployed selectively is destined for elite kicks and knocks, using spurious legal umbrella to shield from the open ridicule of a captured state.

    The toll of inefficient and incompetent state, daily under siege by its predatory elite handlers, who manipulate and undermines it, weighs heavily on the hapless Nigerian people. The election of a political leader, widely adjudged to have personal integrity even in a relatively free and fair election has not mitigated the deepening hollowness of the state, where it looks  and appears like a normal state with all the paraphernalia of one but is actually a caricature and a mediocre of any state.

    Pockets of special and vicious interests emerge routinely, sapping the away the modest vitality of the state, capturing its key organs and rendering it sterile and hollow, and merely masquerading for the powerful clique that have surreptitiously captured it and run it through government proxies in most bizarre way, using ultra legalistic forms.In this condition, the state is mere predatory machine organized to enforce a rudimentary order, conducive to the helplessness of the public to the hedonistic pleasures of the black market operators of the rogue state.

    In this respect, the state is totally unable to enforce the law to which it is constitutionally permitted because the constitution itself, lacking in the legitimate inputs of the people is a decoy meant to hide the deceit of a voodoo state. The political rhetoric of a government leaving off on the vacuous framework of a compromised and captured state should never be taken seriously, otherwise why would government continue to meekly and timidly appeal to renegade petroleum hoarders and other criminal syndicates in the industry to be nice and change their minds? The fact is that the line dividing the so-called marketers and officials of the regulatory and enforcement agencies are narrow and nearly all the felons in the industry are active collaborators with state officials. It is same thing as when the state officials allocating foreign exchange are the same people who own the black market chains for foreign exchange trading. There are many and numerous instances, where officials of the Nigerian state are complicit in the open subversion of the state without any adverse consequences but a huge returns of profit.

    A strong and competent state need not be authoritarian or abusive. Recently, the head of South Korea’s foremost business conglomerate, Samsung went to jail for bribing public officials and seeking to compromise  the integrity of the state. In our clime, the chairman of one of our big manufacturing industries or even other minor players will never ever have the prospects of being brought to book for any infraction, no matter what length they go to compromise and undermine the integrity of the state. The reason the former South Korean leader, Ms Park was removed from office and serving jail term is a joke compared to former President Obasanjo  use of the state apparatus to organize fund raising for his private library. The man still pontificates on issues about public governance and is even taken seriously.

    President Buhari’s famed personal integrity has not and is not likely to disrupt the tragic trajectory of the Nigerian state, simply because he has not or does know how to convert the strategic mass line that ushered him to office to a sufficient revolutionary force to disrupt the old order. The myth that things will simply turn around because he is there, has subsisted sufficiently enough, to no avail for him to discard it. To disavow the rogue state that he inherited  is the cardinal political imperative of his popular mandate. The continuing decay of the state, demands emergency measures which is within the framework of constitutional democracy, where the mechanism of the broadly and popular constituent assembly has been used to re-found the state and re-focus it to the course of political accountability, inclusiveness and social recovery. While the old and compromised state institutions are let to roll on in their usual circus show, a radical measure to re-found the state and revitalize its institutions, by tapping directly on the popular majority through the constitution of peoples’ constituent assembly is the critical antidote to state decay and consequent failure.

    President Buhari must understand his popular mandate as in consisting essentially, the constitutional overthrow of the rogue state.

    • Onunaiju, is of Center for China Studies, (CCS), Utako, Abuja.
  • ‘Every state is viable, can be competitive’

    ‘Every state is viable, can be competitive’

    The National Competitive Council of Nigeria (NCCN) has launched the maiden edition of its National Competitiveness Report and Sub-National Index, ranking the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in key areas, including human capital, infrastructure, economy and institution. The overall report shows that Lagos came out tops, followed by Delta and Rivers states. Chika Mordi, CEO, NCCN in this interview with FRANCIS AMADI, looks at details of the report and its importance for improved governance.

    Having successfully launched this report after about two years of rigorous work, what is your excitement today?

    Well the excitement is that for the first time ever we have an index that measures the states in terms of how competitive they are. This is a combination of almost 20 months of hard work, sometimes with limited resources and we have got to where we are today and people could see where their states stand, which policies are working and which policies are not working, and this could help governance at the state level. This is particularly important because states play a key role in positive economic outcomes that affect their citizens, particularly in employment generation. Unemployment is connected to poverty and poverty reduction is primarily resolved by job creation and when you have competitive environment businesses prosper and create jobs.

    What will be your expectation from states and other stakeholders now that the result of the report is out?

    What we hope, and to be frank with you, we are not just waiting for reaction; we are going to go all out to engage them positively to improve on areas where they are challenged and to help them consolidate on the areas where they are doing well. It not advisory, it is very much of collaboration. We may see states ranked high being happy with the report and states ranked low being unhappy with it, but I must caution, it is important that they look at the total result, not just the aggregate ranking. They should look at the pillars and sub pillars so that they can be clearer how the ranking came about, so that they could use it as basis for improvement on what they are currently doing.

    Based on the outcome of the report, indicating that Lagos, Delta and some other states have done well, what lessons can be drawn from their performance?

    I have said this before, we have to be careful when we say a particular state has done well aggregate wise. It is important that you understand where they have done well because there is something to learn from every state because we have about more than 26 pillars on which they are measured and within that, there are other micro businesses. But, specifically, Lagos has done very well in terms of internally generated revenue which has helped government financing, brought stability and made the state more robust. They also have had a natural resource advantage of having two sea ports and an International Airport, and the legacy of an industrial base and wealthy large population. Also the state has been deliberate in business interventions, so there are some positives that come from that. Lagos also has the Corporate Affairs Commission office, which makes business registration a lot easier, and not every state is afforded that advantage. However, I can’t remember precisely, but it must be noted that every state in Nigeria is viable because the ultimate resource of wealth creation is the people and they all have them in abundance. If you search very well, there is natural resource in every state that could give them competitive advantage, and it’s just about identifying them, having policies that allow businesses explore those advantages and by so doing create jobs and reduce poverty. These will create revenue for government and help project execution. But if you base your income from allocation at the centre, that is federal allocation, then, competitiveness will not come.

    In most of the rankings, Enugu came around top five and I will be wondering how this has become possible given that Enugu is predominantly a civil service state. Virtually all the industries inherited from the old South Eastern Region being the then capital are all gone. How would you defend this report before critics?

    Look, everyone has his or her opinion and is even better to have an opinion if it’s informed. However, our methodology is very clear and we have stated it clearly for everybody to see. The weight we attach to each of the pillars, our survey on how we got our primary data and secondary data are clear. The way we analysed the results are also very clear, we did a lot of cost valuation, our results are replicable, so people can test our methodology.  Given all that, what should be asked about Enugu is, which pillars did they score high and which pillars did they not score high? And if you look at the pillars you will see that very clearly. So for example, when you talk about transportation, there is an airport in Enugu. It was the capital of the old South Eastern Region, there are legacy connectivities that exist and these are considered when it comes to transportation. Also look at the human capital pillar; here you look at the level of education, number of schools. That is very clear. If you look at the gender representation, which is the number of female participation in state activities, that is clear. If you look at health, in terms of infant mortality rate that is also clear, number of hospitals when compared to other states of the federation. When you also look at their finance, how leveraged they are, how much revenue they generate, fiscal discipline and all that. There are so many other considerations. We are very confident of the report we have for each state. Every state has their own strength, in some areas they did well and in other areas they lagged. And on aggregate for the country, we are not doing well. So if you look at national competitiveness as country, we are weak. Coming first is good, but as a country we have problem with our competitiveness. So this is a relative exercise, it’s not absolute. It’s still challenged.

    This is the first of its kind we are having this report, how often are we going to be seeing it?

    This is going to be an annual report. We expect subsequent actuarial to be even better because you learn from every experience. There are things we would have loved to do that we couldn’t  do, there are some things that were constrained, there are things you simply can’t do. So, in statistics, history matters a lot because you can draw trends. There was nothing to draw from the first exercise because it was the first, but in subsequent ones, we expect that there will be historical data from index and off-index to draw from.

    The National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria and reason behind the  report.

    The National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN), is a public-private sector partnership that aims to boost Nigeria’s business competitiveness and ability to attract local and international investment. This report has become crucial for Nigeria’s government and private sector to engage in developing a clear competitiveness agenda and implementing vibrant competition strategies centered on creating the appropriate business environment with the aim of boosting collective prosperity in Nigeria. Over last 20 months, NCCN working with the World Bank, UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Michael Porter Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness with sponsorship from Ford Foundation and support from Tony Elumelu Foundation have worked hard to develop the report which is expected will spur policy adoption and global best practice. What we did was to set parameters for assessing the competitiveness of the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and based on those parameters that have pillars and sub-pillars around macro-economics, human capital, infrastructure, trade, settlement and enforcement, we came out with these reports.

  • State should be allowed to develop their capacities

    State should be allowed to develop their capacities

    Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu spoke with reporters in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on his achievements, the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), and the agitation for restructuring. Assistant Editor GBADE OGUNWALE was there. 

    Your government has taken the made-in-Aba campaign abroad, although Aba itself is yet to assume the status of an industrial city or a business hub…

    I don’t think the issue is to make Aba a business hub. Aba is a business hub naturally and nobody can dispute that. The only thing we are saddled with is to enhance the business environment, open up access, do something about security and ensure that there is steady electricity supply. One has to think about strategy. When I became governor two years ago, the greatest challenge by my analysis, was putting made-in- Japan, made-in-Taiwan, made -in-Dubai on the articles they produced locally and I felt that it was a fallout of some complex, inferiority complex. So you see along the spectrum of economic development, industrialization, promotion of small and medium scale enterprises, you have issues with the manufacturers themselves and you also have issues of infrastructure. But the most difficult is the social issue which is the psyche of the manufacturer. It doesn’t matter what you do, if somebody is not motivated, if somebody feels he is inferior, the person will hardly be able to market his article. So we decided, strategically, to begin to carry development from two fronts: one, do something about the basic infrastructure in Aba. We have completed 23 roads in Aba as I speak today. We are doing the first ever interchange or what they call flyover in Aba today and as I speak, fallout of our efforts in terms of the campaign of the made-in-Aba thing has attracted direct sales of about 1.3billion Naira. Remember the 50,000 pairs of shoes for the military, remember our campaign to the Customs, NYSC and all that; the direct impact from the Aba economy is that those shoe makers, those leather makers, those bag makers have seen an inflow of about 1.3billion Naira direct to them. Beyond that, we are building an industrial cluster which is purposely built for leather and garments. The perception about Aba today is no longer a no-go area. People are better known today for their creativity and what they can do with their hands and that is what I crave for when it comes to our youths. I don’t want people to see our youths as criminals and bandits. I want people to see them and begin to think about creativity.

    You have not answered the question on why you decided to take the Made-in-Aba campaign outside the country.

    Now if I want to answer your question directly on why we decided to take this Made-in-Aba thing to New York; first of all we started in Abuja. The first made in Aba fashion show was held in Abuja and on that day, I remembered vividly the American Embassy sent 30 delegates to come and see the kind of leather works, the kind of garments, the kind of bags that Abia people have produced and had on exhibition and it was very successful. Some people asked me also that day, why not hold made in Aba fashion show in Abia State. And I said if you have a good product and you are proud of your product; if you recall from the first day I assumed office, I said all my dresses would be made in Aba and if you want to advertise that product, the best thing for you to do is to find the highest point on the plateau. If you have a mountain, climb. If you have a 10 storey building, climb and on top of that building, begin to talk about that article or merchandise that you are proud of. Abuja is the melting point that brings both the licensing agencies, the controlling agencies, the funding agencies, government, the diplomatic family and everybody together. So rather wait for them to move to Abia as they say, let Mohammed go to the mountain and that announcement led to our seizing the opportunity of the Abia family meeting in New York where the entire Abia people in New York come together annually for a convention and we decided to begin to also make that statement there.

    A few weeks before this Made-in-Aba fashion show, I was in North Carolina and I met the governor and the governor agreed and approved that his chief of staff, an American lady married to a Yoruba man would grace that occasion and other things happened. And then, there was an international agency that markets arts from Africa. So we said, well, I need to begin to do something about the psyche and the confidence of these shoe makers in Aba. If you recall, I have taken them to Turkey, to China and today, their New York experience has redefined how they perceived what they produce. Because my frustration was that a young man will spend 18 hours on a machine, producing something with his bare hands, wakes up in the morning and gives credit to somebody in Taiwan who was sleeping, who did not do anything and we have redefined all that now. So, they have come to realise that even the thing in America is not as beautiful as what we are producing in Nigeria. Even the one produced by Turkey is not as beautiful as what we are producing in Nigeria. As far as I am concerned, it is as important to build the confidence of the primary artisans as it is important also to provide basic infrastructure. If you provide basic infrastructure and you have not done anything about the psyche and the confidence of the average producer, what you have done is just to produce a timid child and send that timid child to Harvard.. So, this is why we chose to begin to showcase what we do even outside Nigeria.

    But, how are you tackling critical infrastructure deficit like power, which is very key to the growth and survival of the industry?

    Yes, we take it quite seriously. When I came in, I inherited the geometric project which is a private sector driven project to provide light for the Abia university area and I took up to speak with Emeka Ofor who is the EEDC boss and the Enugu DISCO which has the licence and franchise for distribution. The idea is that you have generated electricity but you cannot distribute because somebody else is holding that end of the stick. And then we brought them together and we encouraged the Federal Government and they reached an agreement. They are at a point where money needs to change hands now and one of them will take charge and Aba will begin to enjoy uninterrupted power supply. But beyond that, the problem was to raise the money that would change hands ultimately. So I had to be also part of a team that included Pascal Dozie, Prof. Nnaji, Gen. Omayi (rtd) to Afrixim Bank where we met the President of Afrixim bank in Cairo and the elements of our discussions was also to see how they could provide the resources to fund geometrix. I did not rest there, I also visited the Hon. Minister for Power and his own solution is the one we are test running now. He got us together with the rural agencies in charge of rural electrification and today they are unbundling. What I mean is that if you have an industry or a cluster of industries, they will do some survey and then begin to provide electricity specific for that area.

    What is your reaction to the classification of IPOB as a terrorist group by the Federal Government. What role did the South East governors play in that controversy?

    Fundamentally speaking, I think that if the questions we ask in this country today are whether there are inequalities, there are gaps, there are people who don’t feel that they have been fairly treated either as an individual or as a family or as a geopolitical zone, the answer is yes. There is agitation in the Northeast, there is a agitation in the Southwest, of course there is agitation in the Southeast. But I dare say that there is no other ethnic group in this country that has as much faith in Nigeria as a country, one united country than the people of the Southeast. That is why they are in Sambisa. You can count how many big businesses belonging to the south westerners that are in Aba. You can count how many big businesses belonging to the people from the Northeast, Northwest, North central that you can find in Owerri. You cannot find a four storey building belonging to somebody from the Northeast anywhere in the Southeast.

    But, if you go to Kano, you don’t count three hotels before you count that of somebody from the Southeast. What it means is that we are the people that have demonstrated faith in a united Nigeria. Post war experience is that everybody started receding and then we started moving everywhere. And then at the end of the day, our people are beginning to feel that we are not being trusted enough with certain strategic positions despite the fact that we have demonstrated in particular times that we love Nigeria more than anybody else. We have faith in this country more than anybody else. That coupled with the fact that there is huge potential energy within the youth community in Nigeria that is unused because the problem of unemployment in Nigeria. For me as a biochemist, I look at it as mismanagement of energy; people have too much energy they can’t use it anywhere. So the idea is that all these agitations bottled up and all that created what you call IPOB. And then, the federal government over time started watching from the sideline because IPOB was getting money from elsewhere, setting up radio stations, indoctrinating people, all that went on. But while that was going on, at a point, the leadership of the Southeast through Ohanaeze, through the governors started engaging Nnamdi Kanu to say, we know that there are issues. Can we find alternative channels to discuss them? Can we make a studied and intellectual presentations and confront the federal government with these arguments. But Kanu felt that his own strategy was better and all that. So, I think it got to a point when the Federal Government began to feel that the red line was threatened. Unfortunately, some of us as governors were not taken into confidence as to the details and plans and intentions of the federal government and it is the irony of this thing they call governors as chief security officers. A chief security officer but you are not controlling the Commissioner of Police, the soldiers around you, the Navy around you, you cannot tell them to stop, you cannot tell them where to go and all that.. So that clash came up on us in Abia State and I was confronted as a leader to make a choice between the oath I swore to, what was politically expedient and what was right. And I think what was right was for me to do everything to protect the lives and properties of Abians and those that are doing business in Abia. So all that I did, the press releases, my actions, all that I did was geared towards fulfilling my mandate which was to protect lives and properties of not only Abians but of everybody that was within Abia doing business. I did not wish for one soul to die, whether IPOB or a Fulani man or a Kogi man. I didn’t want anybody to lose his life or for us to begin to spill blood in my state. Like I told some people, my mother told me that everybody should do everything to make sure that war does not ensue in his mother’s kitchen because the pots will break, the plates will break and after the war, with what are you going to eat? So, I do not want a war in my kitchen. If there must be war, let the war go elsewhere not in my kitchen. And then I thank God and I give him all the glory that he gave us the wisdom to take the steps we took.

    So, where is Nnamdi Kanu?

    I don’t think that is a fair question. I don’t have capacity to determine where Kanu is. I have never visited him. I have never called him on phone and he has never taken me into confidence as to what he does and where he goes. So, those who are close to him would answer. I don’t have capacity to monitor him and know where he is. May beJournalists, through investigative journalism will know.

    What are you doing to ensure that prospective investors are not discouraged?

    Well, before now, we have marketed Abia quite well. We are proposing three industrial clusters in Abia according to senatorial districts. The flagship industrial cluster for us is the one we call Eyimba Industrial City. It is sitting on a 9,000 hectares of land between Port Harcourt and Aba and on that land it has railway reticulation, it has oil and it has gas and is less than one hour from two airports. It is less than one hour also from two seaports. So, it is a manufacturer’s delight to come there. There is no other industrial city proposed that is as beautiful. So, these are the credentials and we have had relative peace in terms of security. Even during that IPOB thing, I had eleven Chinese investors who were in Abia and they were there and they weathered the storm with me and they are still there trying to begin one thing or the other. My message to them was that that thing was a one off thing and I give God the glory. What people thought would happened did not happen and in 24 hours, we were in firm control of the situation. It tells a story about the resilience of our people, the resilience of Aba. It is not a city that can snap and break down. So resilience is a very good quality for any investor.

    What is your take on restructuring?

    I believe in restructuring for several reasons. My definition of restructuring is that every state as a sub national government should be given the opportunity to fly not at half capacity, not at compromised capacity but at full capacity. In the first place, the greatest asset that Abia has today is human capital. Under a restructured framework, the first assignment of government would be to bring every critical stakeholder to the table, whatever you want to contribute, where are our engineers, our doctors, our fabricators, our artisans, everybody to the table and decide what they can do. If I find caolin beneath the soil in Abia and very early in the morning the following day and I see somebody digging and I confront the person and he brandishes an authority from the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in Abuja which I don’t know about. And there is an electric pole standing beside with which I reticulated electricity to a village nearby, I cannot give the man quit notice. Will I watch him collapse my electricity project? This is the best graphic picture to paint this restructuring issue.

    Every state has something to bring to the table; if I cannot produce millet and I want to enjoy millet or I want to bake bread, I will have to go to my brother in Yobe State that is producing it. If today we restructure, I am not going to think about refinery for the oil we have at Ukwa. I will look for a petrochemical industry. Why am I selling crude. What is the man I am giving crude going to do with it? Anybody coming to ask me to sell crude oil would be insulting me. What are you going to do with crude oil that I cannot do? When the United Nations decided to sanction Iraq, what Iraq did was that you won’t buy our crude, okay. But you will buy our insecticides and all kinds of by-products. So they were selling for twice the amount of money they sold crude. So if the world says they don’t want crude again, yes, it is good but for me. Restructure  today and no drop of crude oil will leave the shores of Abia. If I cannot do something with it let it stay there.

     

  • Osun APC hails state’s growth

    Osun APC hails state’s growth

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has hailed the economic and human growth of Rauf Aregbesola’s administration in the last seven years.

    Describing Aregbesola as unstoppable, the party advised Osun residents to show determination in sustaining the tempo of growth.

    In a statement yesterday by its spokesperson, Kunle Oyatomi, the party said Osun had come a long way in engineering change from a “poverty-stricken and backward community to a significantly developing society of hard-working and progressive-minded people”.

    The party advised the people to improve their lives, adding that as “citizens of this state, we must not allow those who are backward-looking and selfish, especially political vultures, negatively disposed to progress, to mislead them into being careless about keeping pace with the developments and progress thus far achieved in Osun”.

    The APC, which called for vigilance, noted that “to understand the magnitude of what has happened in Osun under the leadership of Aregbesola, the people have to take a serious look at what this state was some eight years ago, to appreciate what it is now.

  • ‘Bayelsa not a leading salary defaulting state’

    The Bayelsa State government has faulted the claim by President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, that it is one of the biggest defaulting states in salary payment.

    Commissioner for Information and Orientation Daniel Iworiso-Markson said yesterday that Wabba’s assertion is misleading and mischievous.

    According to him, the report was done in bad faith because it lacked substance, as it did not reflect the true position of things in the state.

    Iworiso-Markson added that the government had been most concerned, and had over time, taken salary payment seriously, and did not owe workers till date.

    “Those who authored the story failed to cross check their facts before going to press,” he said.

    The Commissioner explained that the Dickson-led Restoration government had always fulfilled its salary obligations until recently, occasioned by the free fall in the state’s monthly allocation from the Federal Government.

    He said government borrowed to make up for the shortfall to ensure that salaries were paid, adding that while borrowing to pay salaries was not sustainable, the government decided to look inwards by taking steps to strengthen the internal revenue board to improve on the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile.

    “As at now, the government does not owe salaries, as we have kept faith with payment since the beginning of the year till date,” he added.

    “All council workers should resume a full strike if the government fails to reverse the directive within the three days, since the last strike was only suspended.

    “Accordingly, all branch executives of NULGE and MHWUN, in the eight councils and 32 Rural Development Authorities, are directed to fully shut down all health facilities, markets and secretariats of the councils beginning from November 9.

    “NULGE and MHWUN will no longer allow any external and fake report to infringe on the autonomy of the councils as a third tier of government in the country.”

  • How safe is Anambra State?

    To walk successfully from Bridge Head, Onitsha, to Upper Iweka, in the same Onitsha, any time in the night is to achieve a feat. This is especially so if the person is carrying personal belongings or money. Not many are able to achieve that these days, no thanks to the marauding gangs of criminals, both petty and big time, who have rendered the once safe axis very unsafe for everybody.

    Two weeks ago, a business man and his apprentice had just come down from a vehicle around 10 pm at the Bridge Head area. There were four young men huddled together a little distance from where the business man got down from the bus. Ordinarily, the scenario would not have raised eyebrows as the young men might just have been cooling off and savouring the cool night air. But no sooner than the business man and his boy got down from the bus than the four young men surrounded them with guns.

    The incident I just related is just one of many that have become the lot of those residing or doing business in Anambra State’s biggest commercial enclave. Crime has simply overtaken the city, while the police and other security agencies keep quiet, either as a result of incapability to deal with the situation, or because of complicity (who knows?)

    Besides the incident, the entire city of Onitsha has been ravaged by crime. From Bridge Head to Okpoko and to Fegge, men of the underworld appear to have overwhelmed the security agencies. This has resulted in the killing of five police men in the city within the past one year. There was even this story of a policeman whose gun was snatched from him as he got down to eat.

    To use the pedestrian bridges at night is equally dangerous as the bad boys are usually on the prowl there. A reporter with a newspaper in Awka, lost her phone thrice in Onitsha to these hoodlums. The third occasion was in front of her house when two men on a bike pulled up in front of her and her daughter in broad day light and brandished a gun before taking their phones.

    There are notorious areas in the Onitsha metropolis. They include Okpoko, Fegge and Obosi. Obosi’s case beats imagination as this has been a known dangerous area for many years now, yet the police have allowed things to continue to degenerate there. It was in that place that popular presenter with the Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS, and deejay, Magic Fingers, was shot late one evening. He managed to escape with his life and ran straight to the Borromeo Hospital where he was promptly admitted.

    And then penultimate Monday, the circulation manager of the Sun newspapers, Fabian Obi, was murdered in cold blood after a gunman entered his office at Old Market Road and pumped him with bullets three times before taking his money. The killer then got down and entered a waiting tricycle or okada.

    Reacting to this, the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, South-east Zone, led by Comrade Chris Isiguzo, Vice President, and Ken Ofoma, Secretary, had this to say: ‘We received with shock the news of the killing of a Sun newspaper agent in Onitsha, Fabian Obi, by unknown gunmen. This is indeed very tragic. For such to happen at a time the military operation code-named “Python Dance 11”, aimed at checking the rising wave of armed robberies, kidnapping and other forms of crimes, is still on, with soldiers virtually at every nook and cranny of the five South-east states, made it more troubling.

    ‘We also want to remind the Anambra State government that the primary responsibility of a responsible government is the protection of life and property. Abandoning this responsibility, especially at this critical time when the state is preparing for a major election, resulting in the rising wave of insecurity in the state, indeed speaks volumes of the government’s commitment to security of life. Let the needful be done as quickly as possible because a stitch in time saves nine.’

    Indeed, we join the NUJ in calling on the appropriate authorities, including the security agencies and the Anambra State government, to sit up and tackle the security situation, not just in Onitsha, but in other places, including Awka.

    In Awka, the state capital, criminality in the Okpuno area is well documented. One dares not walk the streets in the night with personal effects. To do that is to invite a slashed arm or a broken head as a member of staff of this writer experienced. She was returning home around after seven in the evening with her camera when she was attacked on a lonely stretch near her house. Her camera was taken while she was hit on the head with a bottle and one of her wrists slashed with a bottle.

    I recall that when I had a session with the immediate past police commissioner in Anambra State on the menace of criminals in these areas, he had taken offence at the question. But this is not an issue to be parried by feigned annoyance. The danger to citizens of the state in these areas is real and needs to be tackled.

    Onitsha is central to Anambra’s economy and allowing hoodlums to overrun the place will hurt the state economically. The failure of government and the security agencies to check the spate of crimes in Onitsha may be counter-productive and this is why everything should be done to check the trend.

    The Anambra State government has done well by investing heavily in security. The police and other agencies should reciprocate by living up to their responsibilities.

    Anambra may be among the safest states in the country, but Onitsha is turning out to be the unsafest city. And if the crime indices in this city continue to rise unabated, the safest state may not be very safe after all.

     

    • Atupulazi, a journalist writes from Awka, Anambra State.
  • Hate speech and the liberal state

    Hate speech and the liberal state

    The perennial question of how a liberal state ought to deal with speech it considers inimical to its interest, including its unity and progress, has been a challenge from the inception of liberalism as a governing philosophy. There does not appear to be a consensus on the solution, not for lack of trying, but for the fact that many self-described liberal political systems feature conflicting interests which yield different emphasis.

    Some states, reeling from past atrocities in the exercise of freedom, choose the legal route to preserve the unity and dignity of the state and prevent a repeat of history. This is the case of Germany and its clampdown on seditious and defamatory speech. Others, not minding a fallout from hurtful expressions, choose fidelity to the liberal ideal which protects free speech even if it is at the expense of national unity. The United States is a leading example.

    Writing for four Justices in the Matal versus Tam case in June, Justice Alito of the U. S. Supreme Court observed that ‘the idea that the government may restrict speech expressing ideas that offend…strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful, but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”’

    For many, the opinion is too liberal. However, a state that gives no credence to freedom of expression but chooses the weapon of the law to regulate all speech is by no means an exemplar of liberalism. That is the road to totalitarianism, which is now generally discredited as a legitimate political practice even by those who exemplify it.

    The question may be raised “what is so unique about liberalism that its principles which prioritize individual freedom must trump competing ones which prioritize state or national interest?” There is no better answer to this question than the one provided by its foremost apostle, John Stuart Mill.

    For us to appreciate the thinking behind the prioritization of individual freedom, we must come to terms with the conceptual understanding that instructs it. And in doing so, we may also come to appreciate the gulf between that understanding and the reality of our own society.

    For Mill, individuality is to be appreciated, valued, and respected because individual human beings are endowed with great potentials for outstanding moral choices. When society enables those potentials to be freely realized, the consequence is a community of great human beings who care for one another and for the community. On the other hand, when those potentials are wrecked by an overbearing social control, whether in the form of public opinion or legal imposition, the consequence for society is social dysfunction, including alienation and anomie.

    Thus, beside his view that individual freedom is an end in itself, Mill offered its promotion as instrumental to the end of social cohesion and social progress. This was why he decried the “likings and dislikings of society” as the determinants of the rules that individuals are supposed to follow. For, such likings and dislikings could be idiosyncratic at best, or at worst, inimical to social progress. Case in point: social dress codes. Mill offers a “very simple principle”:

    “The sole principle for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection…the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” Mill specifically ruled out the personal good of individuals as a legitimate reason for subjecting them to social control.

    We may rightly respond: but this is not the point of the regulation of speech, which may well conform with Mill’s principle because unregulated speech can harm other individuals as well as an entire society. Therefore, regulation of speech is not anti-liberal. A clear example is the case of declaring a false fire alarm in a crowded movie theater. Certainly, that kind of speech is subject to control because of its potential for catastrophe.

    The liberal contention, as stipulated by Mill, is that the example we just cited is an isolated one and not all opinions that have been subjected to social control belong to that category. What is decried is the coercion of opinion based on “the likings and dislikings” of society. Silencing the opinion expressed by individuals, no matter how noxious it is, is an illiberal device. “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

    Based on the belief that the clash of opinions in the market-place of ideas promotes the truth, liberals oppose regulation of speech which could negate the benefits of such exchange. Still, doesn’t it depend on the content of the opinions? If you insist that the world is round and I insist that it is flat, we have a clash of opinions. With an open public debate, backed up with evidence on both sides, the truth will come out. No harm is done to society by the free exchange.

    What about hate speech, of which there are several variants, including political campaign jabs at individuals, ethnic stereotypes, religious diatribe, clannish rhetoric within the same ethnic nation, etc.? At the expense of analytical clarity, we could group all together and pronounce an edict of prohibition on them. But it may do more harm than good. While some expressions in these various groups may be considered hateful, not all are.

    Indeed, many such expressions are considered as merely funny expressions even by the parties presumably targeted. Consider the following: Oyo dobale inu e loso (An Oyo man prostrates, but really his innermost part is standing erect). This is a remark about the alleged duplicity of an Oyo indigene, which covers the entire old Oyo province. This has become such a common parlance that presumably no Oyo man would reasonably consider it necessary to take offence. It is in the same category as Ibadan le mo e o mo layipo, which refers to the potential of an Ibadan indigene as a skillful social dribbler.

    What then is the major target of the government’s offensive against hate speech, which in the words of the Vice President is identical with terrorism?

    Minister Lai Mohammed combined hate speech, disinformation, and fake news in his well-publicized remarks on the matter, on the ground that they all have the same motive of causing disaffection among the populace and discrediting the government. If we abstract from the hard to fathom potential motivation, however, there appears to be a difference. Disinformation and fake news are easily debunked as the Minister did on several occasions that he referenced in his Jos address.

    Further, while purveyors of disinformation may have no motive of hate or disaffection because they may genuinely believe that what they convey is true; hate speech is, by definition, an expression of hate with a view to incite a group or groups to violence. If you pronounce that a group or an individual is nothing more than vermin or maggot, you are declaring that they are fitting creatures for elimination from the human race to which you do not believe they belong.

    George Lakoff, a Cognitive Scientist and Linguist at the University of Berkeley has argued that language can change brains for the better and the worse. “Hate speech changes the brains of those hated for the worse, creating toxic stress, fear and distrust—all physical.” He also observed that this internal harm can even be more “severe than an attack with a fist.”

    Hate speech is speech-act, fighting words, which directly harm their targets. As such, consistent with Mill’s principle of liberty, they are subject to public control. Therefore, the provisions of our legal system which criminalize such speech-acts are defensible by appeal to Mill’s liberal principle.

     

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  • Pains of a failed state

    SIR: If corruption does not kill your spirit in Nigeria, it will be because you hope to survive to see the corrupt perish.  Leaders have sold their conscience to the devil just so they can amass public wealth for themselves.  Projects that enhance social well-being of the citizens are abandoned because officials compromise their responsibilities for personal gain.

    People suffer and die because their fellow beings have stolen the wealth that should be sufficient to provide a decent living standard for all. Travelling on the highways is like living a nightmare.  Broken down roads have turned drivers into redeemers.  They stay alert while driving like cats dodging and jumping potholes.  Meanwhile, their eyes are beaming the distance watching for armed robbers.

    Stressed out citizens antagonize each other for the misery of their lives.  They engage in useless cursing and fighting.  The devils that mastermind their destitution mask themselves in white kaftan and jolly faces preaching the gospel of restructuring and indissolubility of the nation.  They distance themselves from the anguish of the masses by providing maximum comfort for them and their families at society expense.

    Thunder and lightning will fire with vengeance while the hypocrites are obsessed and mired in their complacency.  The people are suffering from high price of food items in the market and the rogues are failing to realize that a hungry man is an angry man.  It will flash in their eyes when the mob goes on rampage. The sky will be burning with disgust.

    Sweet talk of the wicked will not appease the appetite for disaster by the resurrected cannibals they created from their mischief making. When talking to the ear and it turns deaf when the head is chopped off, the ear goes with it. The despondent populace has given up faith in their leaderships to protect their interest. Officials at every level are viewed through the murky lens of corruption.  Anarchy incubates in rumbling quarters.

    The hammer will fall to shatter to pieces the glass wall.  Despair in society cannot be contained when the oppressors are dancing naked in gaudy mansions.  It is an indisputable fact that the brew of frustration will boil over.  When in every direction one look hopelessness abounds, spirit of judiciousness will grow wings and fly into the wild.

    The bottom has fallen out of the system and the rot must be allowed to empty into the ocean. The mind-set of corruption has pervaded the national landscape. Torrential rainfall with catastrophic flooding of a hurricane will sweep through the land to cleanse the nation.

    Doom looms like fear of danger from climate change. Devastation of the structures of government by the privileged does not give recourse to intellectual redeeming of the system. Where is hope for the ordinary Nigerian?

     

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.