The Nation Newspaper

Tag: STATE

  • Jungle justice and state culpability

    The increased frenzy in media reports of jungle justice on the streets of Nigeria gives serious cause for concern.

    Please note that I said “increased frenzy in media reports” and NOT the jungle justice itself; for that has always been with us like the saying goes, “from time immemorial”! That the media is now merely giving the despicable practice of “jungle justice” more front-page treatment’ is commendable because that is part of the expectations or even obligations of developmental journalism.

    I put the responsibility for the growing incidences of “jungle justice” squarely and unapologetically at the doorstep of the government. You cannot sow wind and not expect to reap whirlwind. The multiplier effects of state-sponsored violence over the decades have not only manifested in jungle justice reminiscent of what obtains in banana republics, but also in violent agitations from different segments of the society such as students’ movement, ethnic militias, religious extremists, hiding under one genuine (or spurious) cause or the other  to unfurl destruction, confusion in many cases. These beastly acts on society lead to fear and uncertainty, while the government hopelessly and helplessly looks elsewhere in unjustifiable abandonment of the people.

    The Nigeria state has demonstrated bewildering tolerance, encouragement and actual involvement and execution of violence in some instances; so much so that it is widely held, though erroneously, among the populace that the ONLY language government understands is VIOLENCE!

    Nigeria’s history, for long, has been dotted by the ugly spectre of unmitigated violence by “unknown soldiers”! Ironically, or appropriately (?), Fela sang in one of his albums on the invasion of his house, “we have unknown soldiers, we have unknown civilians, all equal to unknown government”; a larger percentage of the populace has therefore, turned into “unknown civilians”, executing instant “jungle justice” based entirely and regrettably on the spur of the moment and desperate resort to self-help.

    Another pertinent example is Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian dramatist, playwright, author, poet and environmental activist who had to pay the supreme price with his life. In the strides of activists like Martin Luther King Jr., Indira Ghandi and so on, Ken, as he was popularly called, embarked on non-violent agitation  to draw attention to the environmental degradation of his immediate community and the danger of the Ogoni people, using the instrumentality of arts, including  his peculiar writing prowess, to draw global attention and demand for justice, equity, fairness and other fundamental human rights for his people as enshrined in the UNDHR of 1948, and to which Nigeria was and still, a signatory!

    What happened to Ken? He was murdered by the state via a fait accompli military tribunal without an option of appeal. It must not be lost on us that this same military government seized the reigns of governance in the first place, by violence. In Fela-speak, they will qualify as a sort of “unknown government”

    Another instance of state-sponsored violence is what happened in Lagos and in fact, all over the country, around July 4 –7, 1983. There was a nationwide protest organized by the Campaign for Democracy (CD) over the inexplicable annulment of the June 12, 1983 presidential elections won by Bashorun M.K.O Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), an election which was adjudged as the fairest and freest presidential elections in the annals of Nigeria till date? To quell the protest, the military despot, Sani Abacha, called out the soldiers to repress ‘armless’ protesters. Nearly 200 civilians were killed on the streets of Lagos and hundreds of others across the country!

    Perhaps as a sadistic icing of the cake, Abiola himself was eventually murdered just like his outspoken wife, Alhaja Kudirat Olayinka Abiola, who was shot in broad daylight on a the street of Lagos by a certified sniper who later became an “Unknown” sniper as part of the ploy by the state to cover up the killing!

    As can be deduced from the fore-going, our history is littered with open and clandestine killings, violence and incivility by the state and its agents known for what Fela called “sorrows, tears and blood”.

    So, jungle justice has been planted, continuously nurtured, and has been subconsciously engrained in our national psyche by the state!

    One more example will draw home my point; a worker in a textile factory located in Isolo was unlawfully shot and killed by trigger-happy policemen at a checkpoint, some time, in the early nineties on his way to work. The police authority duly arrested the officer and locked him up. The victim, I found out had eight children. As the then coordinator of Ikotun/Idimu Unit of CDHR, I contacted Barrister Femi Falana, and we visited the family house of the deceased. We held discussions with his elder brother, explained our mission and readiness to prosecute the case free of charge. You know what? The senior brother of the deceased told us not to worry that he will use Psalms (in the Bible) to finish the man! This is to illustrate the lack of trust citizens have in the judicial system.

    But as the religious books’ finishing-up options got somewhat delayed, people are now resorting to immediate self-help via “jungle justice”. Students would rather destroy school properties before seeking audience with the management. Ethnic militias, for example, will rather blow up petroleum pipelines in order to get government attention. Political office holders would rather use armed youths and organizations to settle scores with opponents than to engage in any intellectual debate based on people-oriented manifestos.

    Undoubtedly, we need a total overhaul of the judicial system, massive reorientation of the populace, opening up the democratic space for accelerated and easy access to justice, popular and evidently efficient and effective alternative dispute resolution mechanism, and a government with demonstrated zero tolerance for violence at all levels.

    Until then, the bestial, base and horrific issue of jungle justice will not abate. The populist, flash-in-a-pan scape-goating of erring officers has turned out to be what it is: abysmal failure!

    A community, state, region, or nation engulfed by violence is a levelling respecter of nobody! No one is spared by the consequences of violence, either directly or indirectly in its ugly, negative multipliers.

    With the recent bewildering reports of “jungle justice”, cultism, ritualistic practices, and violence across the nation, the time to seek for alternative ways of social re-engineering is now or NOW!

     

    • Oladunjoye, journalist, sent this from Ijebu-Itele, Ogun State.

  • The state, personality and leadership

    A  State  governor, Samuel Ortom   of  Benue  Satae  is being vilified all  over Nigeria for saying that if the  Nigerian  president is sick  the nation too is sick. Also    two  African  leaders and incumbent presidents are  seeking   reelection  this month based  on their personal merit  as strong leaders  of their  nations  against all  odds at  the beginning of their tenure  of office. On  the global  scene the  US  president  signed  into  law new sanctions against  Russia for  hacking that  nation’ s 2016  presidential  elections and   for  invading Ukraine  during  the Obama  era  characterized  by the personality  clash  between  Obama  and Russian  strong man   and  president, Vladmir  Putin. Without  mincing words  my contention  here  is that the state  of health of a leader matters  in any  field  of human endeavor  more so in politics.   Furthermore   there  is nothing  wrong  in equating that state  with the   health  of the state  as the  incumbent president in  any presidential  system  is the embodiment  of the state and his personal  health affects  that  of the state  over   which    he presides,  for good  or  bad. That  is the premise  of my arguments today  on the leaders and  personalities  I want  to discuss     in tandem  with  the topic  of   the  day.

    I    start  with  the  state governor who  was  one of  those  lucky  governors  who visited  the president recently and  was talking empirically  on the state  of   the   health  of the  president in absolute  good  faith ,  which was misconstrued as mischievous  by his attackers  when  indeed  these  attackers  were  the culprit  of mischief  on the matter. The   governor  said  the president was sick  and people should pray  for him  to be well  so  that he  can perform  his duties  because if  he is sick  the nation is sick.  But  he  also  said in his absence the Acting President is performing well. That is a statement  of fact and  that   means that the state in terms  of governance is not in shambles  and confusion and  a state in that  condition  cannot  be said  to be sick.  So  what  is wrong in what  the governor has  said? Nothing  in  my  view.  What  I am  saying in effect  is that the good  governor  has been  quoted  out of context  by mischief  makers  now  mocking his genuine  concern  on not only the state of health  of  our president but more  cynically  that of  the Nigerian  state . It  is as if these strange interpreters are now invoking the  historical  phrase of  arrogance of power that permeated  French  history when  the Church  and the state struggled  for power    and  supremacy  and the’ Sun  King ‘ of France  Louis XIV    famously proclaimed –  L’etat, C’ est  moi. Which  means ‘ I,  am the state’. That    arrogance  culminated  in the French  Revolution  of  1789   when  the poor  of France rose in fury  against  the rich  and that was the genesis of the democracy   and human  dignity the world enjoys today. Certainly  the governor  never  meant that in the way  he expressed  his  concern  on the state  of health  of our president and his attackers  on the matter  should  quietly  lay  down their  arms  and go to  sleep  on the matter.

    Let  us now  go to other nations and  climes  whose  presidents are  not sick  but  whose  leadership  is equally  subjected to stranger interpretations and  mischief  than  what we are witnessing at home.  First  is Rwanda  whose  president  Paul  Kigame  is seeking  a  third  term  in this month’s  election  after  he  amended  the constitution  in  2015  to enable him be in power  till  2034. Second is President Uhuru   Kenyatta   of   Kenya  also  seeking re election  after  being cleared  by the International  Criminal  Court  of Justice  for  violence  committed  in the after math of the 2007  elections  for  lack  of evidence. Third  is the unlikely  duo  of the US President Donald  Trump  and Russian President Vladmir  Putin  and  the signing of new  sanctions against Russia  for hacking US elections, which  the Russian  strongman  has called an act of  an impotent leader  by the American  president. In  all  these  three examples we see rare  elements  of strong leadership and  willingness to  claim economic  success as  proof    of performance, although these  can  be criticized  by their  opponents who  see them  as autocrats  and leaders not ready  to  brook  any  opposition  on any  matters  of state  in their nations.

    Starting with  Rwanda  we  know  that globally  Paul  Kigame  is well  known  for bringing stability and  economic  wonders  to his nation after the genocide  that left  millions of Tutsis and  Hutus dead  in  that  nation.  His  strong leadership  has  been  supported  by France and  the EU  but  he  now seems  to see himself   as irreplaceable  in terms of leadership  and whilst  that  can  be debatable  there  is no  doubt that  he is very  much  in control  of events  in his land locked  nation. It  is  easy  to accuse  him of tenacity  of office and call  that  the bane of African  leadership but he  has a reputation  for discipline as a former  military  leader and as long as he keeps  control of his army  base,  elections will  just foregone  conclusions  of his victory  at  such  rituals. That   to me is commendable  and better  than situations  in Nigeria  where  elected representatives  see  themselves  as  elected  to fend for themselves, their  relatives  and cohorts at  the expense  of the larger public  or the general  electorate . Kigame’s  claim  to stability  and economic  progress  in his   tenure  should  see him through his reelection for a third term as  the   horror   and    memory     of the Rwandan  genocide  make it difficult  to  see  him  out of power,  perhaps  to  be replaced  by those  who  are untested  and therefore  untrusted  to sustain  the political  and economic stability  he has put in place in his nation.

    Next  is Kenya’s president, Uhuru  Kenyatta  who  was elected in  2013 and is seeking a second  term which  he  has  not taken  for granted  even though his opponent Raula  Odinga has  lost   the   three  last presidentiall  elections . Kenyatta  has a proud pedigree  being the son  of Kenya’s  first president Jomo  Kenyatta  who led his nation  to independence. The  elder  and dead Kenyatta  was much  loved and left  his family wealthy,  some say  from rampant corruption .He  was  also not well  disposed  to criticism  and once   famously  threatened  Kenyan  Parliamentarians heckling him that  ‘the hawk ‘  was in the skies ready  to swoop  and carry   ‘chickens’  to their  death. The  son  too was to  be in the Hague  for election  violence   but was elected  president  with  his Vice  President wanted  for  the same  offence and it was thought he would not complete  his  tenure  but he has,  and is now  seeking re election. He  has definitely played his card  well  both at home  where  media reports say he is fondly referred  to as the ‘digital  president‘  and abroad  where  he has  led  the  regional   global  war  on terror especially  as Kenya borders Somalia, a failed state   whose  refugees  are in Kenya in large  numbers creating tension  like Boko  Haram  is doing in Nigeria  killing  innocent people with 15  year old girls  as suicide  bombers . Kenyatta  has gotten huge  loans from China for  infrastructure  and benefited  from the fact that Barak  Obama  is from  Kenya  and the US is  not party  to the  ICC  charter  or  else  he would  be facing trial  at the Hague  for election  violence  and  would probably be in  jail  by now. But Providence  has been  kind to him  and he has secured his freedom  by bringing development and growth  to  Kenya and that  seems to  have been  sufficient  insurance  for his first  and pending electability.  Provided, of   course   that   the election is free  and fair  and not marred by violence  as typical  of  Kenya’s elections since  Independence.

    Thirdly,  we     look at  the dicey diplomatic tango  between  the two  most powerful  nations in the world outside China and  the EU  and  the furore  the 2016  US  presidential  elections  have generated in both. These  are the US and  Russia  and the charge by the US media, opposition Democratic  Party  and bi  partisan US  Congress that  Russia  meddled in the 2016 US presidential  election won by Donald Trump. Of  course  Trump  has insisted  that Russia  had nothing to do with his famous and  most unexpected  victory   as that  would question his mandate and legitimacy. He  instead feels it was a case of sour grapes on the Democratic  Party’s loss of the election and insisted  that his Attorney General ,new FBI Director, Special  Counsel, all  appointed by him  should instead   probe the findings of the FBI  that his opponent Hillary  Clinton be  tried   for destroying thousands of e mails as Secretary  of  State, an act described  as reckless by the then FBI  boss.

    It  was well known  during and after  2016   presidential  the election  that Putin  and Trump  had a soft  spot for each other.  Just as it   was  also quite clear  that there  was no love lost  between Trump’s predecessor Barak   Obama   and      Putin      throughout    Obama’s  8 year   tenure. The      reason   for this was   presumed      to  be   the US  ‘intervention in  ‘Putin’s reelection of 2011  when  Hillary  Clinton  was  Secretary  of  State   and   the present   furore  on Russian  hacking      germinated  from  that.  Obama  retaliated  for the hacking on  his departure   from  office and  the  US  Congress has approved another set of sanctions  as the Russian Hacking charge has gathered  momentum  after  election  to the chagrin  of the  new US  president  who claimed that he and  his campaign  team  never  colluded  with the Russians . He  has signed the sanctions deal  obviously  against  his ‘ personal  wishes  and desire ‘ like our former military ruler on assuming power,   but  really it   was   to avert  the humiliation  of   having his veto  overridden  by Congress if he refused  to sign the bill. His  friend  Putin  has branded  him impotent for that. It  remains to be seen how long the two  strong men  can  remain  chummy  diplomatically  given  the obsession  of the US media  to nail Trump  on the Russian  hacking and impeach  him at the same time. Yet  the same  Trump  antagonists  admit  that those who  elected Trump  are  still  in love with him in spite  of his present administrative  and political  blunders.   However  time  will  tell,  sooner  than later, what  the result will   be and how that will  affect the political  health  and stability  of the US polity, which  has  always  been taken for granted  as   vibrant  and never  sick, at  any time  compared  with other  global  democracies . Once again, long  live the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • That Oyo State may prosper

    When the 80-year-old mother of Ramdulari Devi first heard that her son had been elected the Prime Minister of India, her reaction was: “I expect Lal Bahadur to ensure that the country prospers even if he has to sacrifice his life for it” (J. Maurus, 2004).

    Similarly, the Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajumobi, has said repeatedly that when he was contesting for the governorship of the state, he told God to make his election to the post possible only if he would do well by the people of the state. If God knew he was not going do well in the post, Ajimobi said he told God not to allow him clinch the coveted seat.

    During Ajimobi’s first coming, his focus was security and infrastructure. The first task as he saw it was to restore peace and security to the state, particularly to Ibadan, the state capital, which had acquired the notoriety of a garrison town where life was not only unsafe, but short and brutish with the daily deadly battles between the various factions of the transport unions for supremacy.

    In less than six months of taking office, Governor Ajimobi was able to restore peace by sending strong signals to trouble makers that they would no longer find a safe haven in Oyo State, and this enabled government to proceed with its infrastructural development plan which included the construction of roads along Eleyele-Magazine Road-Dugbe axis, Jericho-Aleshinloye, Eleyele-Sabo etc. But the road infrastructural development was not confined only to Ibadan Metropolis; for the first time in the history of the state, simultaneous construction and expansion of some roads to four and six lanes commenced in Iseyin, Oyo and Ogbomoso townships.

    One of the challenges faced by the Ajimobi-led administration when it came on board in 2011 was the issue of flooding, especially within Ibadan metropolis. The torrential rains of that year flooded many neighbourhoods and swept away many roads and bridges cutting off many communities. The government promptly went into action by reconstructing the bridges and building alternative roads. A clear case in point was the Apete Bridge in Ido Local Government of the state capital which was washed away by the floods, thus cutting off a large swathe of communities up to Akufo.

    Because the government was bent on building not only a better bridge in Apete, but also upgrading the road leading to Apete from Ijokodo, it constructed another road from Ajibode to Apete within months to alleviate the problems of the people of the area, a road which serves them well even after the completion of the Apete main bridge and road.

    The 2011 experience with floods in Ibadan led the government to device an early warning system and flood control methods that have minimized floods to the barest minimum in the state. Thus during the last rainy season when floods swept through other cities in the country, Ibadan was spared because at the approach of the rains, all the water ways were dredged and solid bridges provided for communities prone to floods. Construction of roads and bridges is still going on in flood prone areas.

    Since the beginning of this year, the Oyo State government has embarked yet again on the massive construction of roads across the state which when combined with past efforts will truly change the face of Ibadan to the status of a mega city and modernize other cities in the state. Some of these roads reconstruction for which contracts have been awarded since January and for which the contractors have mobilized to site include Idi-Ape-Iwo Road Interchange which would be expanded from the present four lanes to six lanes, Bus Stop-Old Ife Road-Alakia Road, Eleyele-Ologuneru Road up to Ido junction, Beere-OritaMerin, Agbeni-Ogunpa and The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic-Ibaruba Road in Saki. All these roads are to be expanded into four lanes to enhance not only the aesthetics of the towns and ease transportation, but to also enhance commercial viability of the areas.

    Perhaps, the most far reaching reform of Governor Ajimobi’s government is in the education sector where he has taken on the herculean task improving the standards of education in the state. In the last few years, the state, which was renowned for its academic excellence, hosting the very first university in Nigeria and the largest concentration of research institutes in Africa, has been lagging behind in the Senior School Certificate and the National Examination Council examinations sometimes taking the 34th position out of 36 states. This situation, the governor found unacceptable, and in his words had said: “We must improve education in the state”.

    Some people, he said, had wondered why he was putting himself to so much trouble about education in the state, especially considering the crisis the reform generated initially. Ajimobi’s answer to that was that posterity would not judge us well if we were in a position to do something and we refused to do so. Lack of proper supervision has been identified as one the banes of education in the state, and to enhance close monitoring of each school, the government has introduced a Governing Board for each school made up members from the communities where the schools are situated. The rationale for this is that each community is to take ownership of the schools in their area. The government would still continue to pay teachers’ salaries, provide infrastructure and other teaching aids, but members of the community and old boys whose children attend these schools must supervise the running of these schools for effectiveness. We are already seeing results as the state came second in the last NECO exams whose results were released earlier this year.

    In the State Executive Council meetings, Governor Ajimobi charged members to come up with iconic projects that would improve things in the state for the better and return the state to the leadership position for which the state has been destined. One of such iconic projects is the Polaris-Pacesetter Free Trade Zone. Polaris is a multi-billion dollar Chinese conglomerate which wants to set up manufacturing companies in conjunction with Oyo State in the free trade zone. More than 100 companies are expected to be set up on the 1000 hectares of land for the project to provide employment and business opportunities to our teeming population not only in the state, but all over the country as people migrate to places where there are jobs.

    Ajimobi has often been dubbed by critics as tyrannical, unbending, dictatorial and undiplomatic. Some even said he is not a listening governor. The critics may have a point, but as John Emerich Edward Dalberg, the 1st Baron of Acton said: “Great men are almost always bad men… There is no worse heresy than that the office sacrifices the holder of it” (Geddes and Grosset, 1994). Why did the Baron say great men were almost always bad men? Because in the pursuit of great deeds like Ajimobi is doing, a lot of changes would have to be wrought as it could no longer be business as usual. And people would resist change as human beings are naturally averse to change.

    Though Ajimobi demands excellence from those who work with him and does not compromise standards, though he is a slave driver as he himself is a workaholic, oftentimes working into the wee hours of the morning tirelessly, yet he is a man full of the milk of human kindness and a man who listens to criticism as can be seen in his recent moves wherein he went to town on different occasions to brief the ordinary man on the street about his various projects, especially the new road projects, appealing to them for understanding and apologizing to them for the inconveniences the construction projects would cause them. His only desire is to see that Oyo State prospers.

     

    • Ganiyu is Oyo State Commissioner for Special Duties.
  • State Decomposition in Tropical Africa

    State Decomposition in Tropical Africa

    With their mordant wit and understated sense of humour and irony, the British are past masters of the classic summation of a historical event.  At the end of Things Fall Apart with Okonkwo’s body dangling from a tree in an act of ritual suicide and proud defiance, Winterbottom, the colonial District Officer, wondered aloud about how he would title the epic tragedy just enacted were he to be a writer.  “The Pacification of a Tribe of the Lower Niger”, he promptly noted in his diary.

    It was a moment of subversive irony and supreme artistic genius on the part of Chinua Achebe. At least on the literary plane, the colonial fox has been outfoxed by the colonial subject or chicken if you like. It was not the district colonial officer who was speaking. It was the subdued African subaltern rifling through the psychological stronghold of the colonial master and exposing its inner fortifications and the dubious nature of the entire civilizing mission for the world to see and judge.

    Several centuries later, rather than being completely pacified, the people of the lower Niger are still up in arms, proudly resistant and defiantly rebellious against the Nigerian relic of the old colonial state. The funeral pyre is strangely aglow in Nigeria in a manner reminiscent of people watching their own funeral. There are echoes and hints of state seppuku and tribal suicide all rolled into an outlandish fiasco. The endgame of the Lugardian state architecture seems to be with us in Nigeria.

    Two years into the Buhari administration, the crisis of the post-colonial state in Nigeria deepens and the contradictions of the polity multiply with aplomb. The confusion surrounding an ailing president is compounded by the crisis of an infirm ruling party. This is not the time for any spurious mid-term assessment or semantic cavil about how well the administration has fared at a prohibitive cost to national cohesion and unity and under prohibiting circumstances. There are far more urgent issues at stake.

    To be fair, the pressures on this government and the ailing federating units are tremendous. Some of them are not of the making of the Buhari government. But a few of them are of its making, directly attributable to unpardonable lapses of minimum concentration and unforced errors of judgement.

    For the first time in the history of democracy and civilian administration in Nigeria, we have a ruling party openly repudiating a vital segment its own manifesto on which it has campaigned and won the heart of at least a section of the country thus daring an influential faction of the party leadership to go and jump under the train if they like. It was a historic rebuff. But it also presages a terminal fracturing of the ruling party and hegemonic coalition of contraries along regional and ideological lines.

    There is no way the APC can now go back to the Nigerian electorate without a substantial “reinvention” of its old ethos and ideals. Malami’s arguments against wholesale restructuring are well-marshalled, well-researched and full of candid and cogent facts. But they have put the South West segment of the APC in a tight spot.

    Judging from the discordant notes and murmurs of dissent emanating from its leaders, the South West wing of the ruling APC will from now on have to fight for their political life in a politically alert and sophisticated society known to punish political perfidy with exemplary retribution. The question is why put restructuring on the top agenda if you do not understand what it means or if you are not prepared for its undaunted challenges?

    To compound the woes of the ruling party, you now have an Eighth Senate dominated by its own nominal members behaving very much like a hostile opposition party bent on bringing down the executive as it continues to amend and re-amend state statutes all in a futile gesture of getting even with the executive. Judging from the public reaction to its frantic inanities, the Nigerian public are not in the least impressed.

    The Eighth Senate is feudal perfidy personified and its leadership a classic example of reprobate realpolitik. Unless the executive muster the will and the creative engineering to bring it to heel, something tells this writer that at the end of the day they would have succeeded in destroying the APC from within before staging a mass walk out to return to base.

    The omens are quite dire. So what to do? Unfortunately the options are few and far between. In all probability, the normative and ethical free-fall will play itself out probably leading to the unravelling of the Fourth Republic and with very great portents for the continued survival of the country as a corporate entity. The odour of state decomposition is thick in the air.

    We say this every sense of responsibility. The Nigerian state as currently constituted cannot fight a multi-dimensional and multi-sector war of attrition without being overwhelmed by adversity. With so many sections of the country resorting to structural self-medication in order to stave off extermination by ISIS herdsmen or societal collapse from the menace of kidnappers, terrorists and sundry violent extortionists, we are facing state implosion or the total meltdown of its security organogram.

    As it was in the beginning, so also it is proving to be at this endgame of the post-colonial state in Nigeria. Fifty years ago, the Nigerian political firmament echoed to the din and clamour of secession from the then Eastern Nigeria. The threat of disintegration provoked a precipitate restructuring of the nation into a twelve-state administrative unit by the Gowon administration ostensibly to buy peace but in reality a strategic ploy to surgically excise the minority arteries of the nascent rebellion.

    But it was a proverbial case of too little too late. The ensuing civil war caused unparalleled suffering and a conservatively estimated two million soul. This week exactly fifty years after this epic tragedy and in a classic re-enactment of Karl Marx’s famous dictum , the spirit of rebellion and a people’s quest for self-determination rose like a sphinx from the east again.

    A sit-down at home order issued by MASSOB/ IPOB achieved a near total compliance in the core east leaving the so called elected leadership looking very much like sitting ducks before a shooting festival. Unfortunately, unlike the first time around when the Igbo people were led by the politically refined and impeccably credentialed Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, this time around in an act of internal rebellion against established hierarchy, the separatist platform is powered by educationally challenged stalwarts and agrarian mountebanks. This is what happens when a political elite surrender to mob psychology and the hysterics of internet neurotics.

    It is a situation which makes structured negotiations and elite pacting— a sine qua non for national crisis management—- virtually impossible. In moments of grave national crisis, you can only negotiate with people implicated in the same discursive formation however mutually antagonistic this may appear since all elite struggles for the allocation of resources ultimately coexist in a web of paradoxical complicity. In post-colonial Africa, the more economically under-developed the nation is the more politically over-developed the elite are.

    Yet the truth of the matter is that it is the federal government that has turned Kanu into a folk hero and helped to beatify him in the process. While the initial security concern cannot be faulted, the government allowed arbitrariness and impunity to take over. But as Kanu himself will find out in the coming months, hatemongering and prejudice suffused hysteria are no substitute for statesmanlike wisdom and rectitude in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation.

    Blessed are the habitual peace-makers of the elite-formations best historically placed and sociologically advantaged to appreciate the fundamental cultural , economic and political contradictions that have turned Nigeria into an impossible nation. Even when they were derided as “Pakis” by their political antagonists, their leadership has been advocating for a tactical and structural loosening up of the rigid unitarist contraption as the best antidote against inevitable architectural collapse of the nation for the past seventy years.

    Ominously this time around and unlike what happened fifty years ago when a substantial segment of the Yoruba political elite appeared to be die-hard pan-Nigerian romantics averse to the disintegration of the nation despite their tribulations in the hands of rival elite formations, there is an increasing buy-in among sections of the Yoruba political elite for the exit clause or radical restructuring of the nation as the minimum condition for staying together.

    Once and if the increasing clamour congeals into a pan-Yoruba consensus, it simply means that as a corporate entity Nigeria is beyond radical surgery. This time around, nobody is going to stop any group wanting out of Nigeria or accept any plea for a stay of execution when shrill platform positions for the negotiation of a better deal after losing out in a power play mutate into the real thing as a result of sheer crisis fatigue.

    In order to conclude, we must go back to where the rains started beating us. Exactly fifty five years ago this week, the Balewa administration in an illegal and unconstitutional exercise of its oversight function and acting in concert with the usual ethnic collaborators from the South, took over the old Western Region by declaring a state of emergency during a crisis it helped to foment all in a bid to find a final solution to the Awolowo Question.

    But it was the beginning of the end and of Nigeria as a continental exemplar of working federalism and a dynamic developmental model for the rest of the continent. The resulting commotion and political insurrection in the west led directly to a military coup and civil war. An attempt to load the dice against the classical canons and ethos of federalism led to the collapse of the whole architecture. Fifty five years on, Nigeria is still operating what can only be described as unitary federalism and is yet to re-enact the magic of the early years of the First Republic.

    Last week at a symposium in Abuja, the contradictions of hobbled federalism stared the nation in the face again. Fifty five years after functioning federalism was aborted in Nigeria by forces of feudal retrogression acting in concert with Southern collaborators, Malami was busy lecturing the nation about the virtual impossibility of wholesale structural reform of the nation’s architecture owing to the sheer heft of the impedimenta put in place against restructuring by the military constitution of 1999.

    Without any sense of irony a section of the audience, as if on spooky cue, was applauding while others, including professors who have been on sabbatical after being compromised by General Babangida’s  legendary subversive generosity, were insisting that there was nothing like real or false federalism.

    While this may be technically true, it has not occurred to these fellows that one of the cardinal canons of federalism as enunciated by the father of modern federalism scholarship is that no single federating unit must be in a position to exercise oversight or veto power over the rest of the federating units. There is no federation anywhere in the contemporary world which practises the kind of lopsided federalism that obtains in Nigeria. It is a modern slave plantation.

    Since Balewa’s fateful intervention in Western region fifty five years ago this week this has been the reality of governance in Nigeria no matter the hue or provenance of the administration. Whether military despotism or civilian tyranny, it has always been the case of a meddlesome and obstructionist central government acting to stifle and suffocate the local genius of the Nigerian people.

    The war-cry as it echoed again from Abuja last week is that if it ain’t completely broke don’t even bother to fix it. It does not seem to occur to those holding the nation and the entire Black race to ransom that one hundred and eighty million people groaning under the historic yoke of this retrograde torture wrack are broke and broken.

    The pain and collective trauma of most Nigerians notwithstanding, it should now be obvious that restructuring the nation is not going to be a tea party .Those who benefit from the current anomalous structure of Nigeria will not let go without a titanic contention which will shake the continent to its foundation. Their vision is steeped in the empire-state with only grudging concession to the dictates of the modern nation-state.

    But if they care to look beyond their nose, it should be obvious that an endgame of some sorts is here with us. With the entire country convulsed by social, political, economic and spiritual commotion, it should be obvious that the current arrangement can no longer be sustained. What we are witnessing may well be the last tango in Nigeria.

     

  • ‘Ekiti can be a viable state’

    ‘Ekiti can be a viable state’

    A lawyer, Mr Ishola Fapounda, believes Ekiti State has the economic potential that can make it self-sufficient and less dependent on the federal allocation. The governorship aspirant says the Fountain of Knowledge can bounce back, if the people elect a good leader in next year’s election. In this interview with Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN, he unfolds his plan for the state.

    governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State, Mr Ishola Fapounda, is not disturbed by the crowd of aspirants jostling for the party’s ticket. To him, what matters most is the neutrality of the umpire. According to him, once the party can create a level playing ground and the process is transparent, whoever wins the primary among the 49 aspirants that have shown interest so far will be accepted by the losers.

    Fapounda believes the programmes presented by the contestants will determine the winner. He is confident that he would come out victorious at the primary because “I am very much accepted by the party and the people. I have worked with them and have been able to buy their confidence over the years. I am working very hard for the APC ticket. Very soon, we shall separate the wheat from chaffs.

    Despite the fact that the South Senatorial District where he comes has not produced governor since Ekiti State was created, the Oke-Mesi born lawyer does not support reserving the APC ticket for a particular zone. He said it should be thrown open so that the best person that will take Ekiti to the next level will emerge.

    He argued that in the last governorship primary, aspirants from Ekiti South contested. “If governorship is being rotated among the towns and communities in Ekiti, it would take a long time for Isan where former Governor Kayode Fayemi comes from to produce a governor. Fayemi won the primary because he was a grass root politician. I appeal to aspirants from all senatorial districts to come out and take part in the primary. We want a person that will take Ekiti to the next level as governor in 2019.

    Fapounda premised his programme on three planks: diversification of the economy, partnering with private sector and building efficient institutions. He said if he wins the shadow election and eventually elected governor, he would turn around the economy of the state and broaden its revenue base and make the state less dependent on the monthly federal allocation. According to him, “you can’t create economic activities when you rely on Abuja to pay staff salaries”.

    The aspirant added: “What Ekiti needs is diversification of its economy. The state is endowed with mineral resources. We will pick one or two of them and see how we can turn them into revenue generation venture. For instance, Ekiti has raw materials for production of tiles. We will create enabling environment for entrepreneurs to come and invest in tiles industry. It is good to partner with larger states just as Lagos is doing with Kebbi State in the production of rice”.

    He said his administration will engage tax consultants on how to increase the state revenue base through tax collection. “Proper taxation will make Ekiti to be self-sufficient.We have seen how the Fayemi administration spent money to bring back moribund industries in the state; we will follow this path and create new industries to expand the economy. We will encourage Ekiti people to come and invest in their state because we believe economic development should come from within”.

    Fapounda promised to develop agricultural potentials of Ekiti as the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo did in the old Western Region when agriculture was the mainstay of the region’s economy. “What we have in Ekiti now is subsistence farming. The farming method is not attractive to the army of unemployed youths who could have taken to farming. If elected, my government will create enabling environment and make farming attractive not to only the youths but every individual that are willing to go into farming”.

    He promised to strengthen institutions. To him, the political and economic institutions in the state are very weak. He said: “Ekiti is part of Nigeria. There is need to re-set Ekiti  in order to re-set Nigeria. Ekiti can lead Lagos if we get it right. Ekiti is a state that has produced more professors than any other state in the country. If it is a state known for knowledge why are the professors struggling with inefficiency.”

    He observed that thousands of Ekiti children write West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examnation Council (NECO) exams every year but very few of them gain admission to universities. It will be difficult to replenish the depleting number of professors. He believes “Ekiti can become leadership training centre for the country like California that is the breeding pool for the United States. He said Ekiti can perform the same role if we build confidence in our children by making learning environment conducive. Just like the new President of France, Mr Emmanuel Macron has promised to put the system in place, I will over haul the educational system in the state for better performance. I know if you give Ekiti children little opportunity they will excel beyond expectation”

    On the chances of the APC in 2018, with the array of aspirants, Fapounda’s immediate response is that “APC will beat PDP in the next election”. He added: “I don’t see PDP winning election in Ekiti come 2019. The era of incompetence can’t continue. Fayemi’s achievements are unequalled. You can fool people for some time you can’t fool them all the time.”

    Fapounda’s interest in politics started as far back as 1979. He was 11 years old then. He monitored and analysed the 1979 presidential election to the elders in Oshodi, Lagos State, where he grew up. He did all these because of the love he had for the late ChiefAwolowo, who was the presidential candidate of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). But his proper participation in politics started in 1999 when he joined the Alliance for Democracy (AD). He has never deviated from the path of AD even when the party metamorphosed to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now APC.

    He contested for Ekiti West House of Assembly seat in 2003 on the platform of the AD and lost.  Despite losing the election, Fapounda has not looked back since then. To him, politics is not a vocation. Anyone in politics without a profession is a political jobber. He said he’s in politics to serve and make positive impact on the living standard of the people. That explains his penchant for political office through which he would actualise his dream.

  • Ebonyi remains a PDP state, says Onwe

    Ebonyi remains a PDP state, says Onwe

    Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Senator Emmanuel Onwe, spoke with OGOCHUKWU ANIOKE on the performance of the Umahi administration so far, as well as security in the Southeast and the factional crisis in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

    The governor hardly talks to the press. Is it that he is shy, has nothing to talk about, or that he has a disdain for the press?

    Nothing could be farther from the truth. Just a few weeks ago, he gave an extensive interview which touched on all aspects of our political economy – and I do not mean just about Ebonyi State, but a panoramic view of the political, economic, security, religious and moral challenges facing the entire federation. It was a tour de force. I challenge you to give me an example of one single governor, amongst the 36 that has spoken directly to the press or granted more press interviews than the governor of Ebonyi State. Such epithets as ‘shy’, “disdain’ and ‘has nothing to talk about’ are completely alien to Governor Umahi. On the contrary, I find him to be bold, confident and assertive; he is also welcoming, accommodating, friendly and respectful; and he most definitely has plenty to talk about – and he talks down a roof! He has redefined the history of Ebonyi State through physical, psychological, developmental and social transformation. There are elements of these adjectives that only the people of Ebonyi can truly understand and appreciate. But the rest are open for the world to see. For the very first time in the history of the state, Ebonyi has become assertive as a national player, anchored on stupendous progress on the home front.

    The five Southeast governors, including Umahi, were accused of not supporting the Biafran struggle, thereby leading to the incarceration of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu?

    I can speak for Ebonyi State to the extent that it is my official duty to do so. If such an accusation exists, it is not only ridiculous, but can only be peddled by those who are perhaps ignorant of the facts and the varied nature of the solutions that were and are still being evolved and pursued.  The governor of Ebonyi State is the Chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum and I am a witness to some of the open and discreet efforts he and his brother governors made and continue to make in respect of the IPOB/MASSOB agitations and the intense pressure to secure the release of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu. I can assure you that the governors of the Southeast are alert to the demands and aspirations of their people. Anyone who thinks that the rascality, wild opportunism and crude excesses of some chief executives are the most civilised approach to meet the exigencies often thrown up by the boneheaded politics at the centre is as much a fool. We deal with sublunary events as they are, and others may seek their utopia whichever way they choose. But no one should pretend that public administration is anything but a complex business that demands the discipline of serious-minded people.

    Things are happening in the area of infrastructural development, yet little or nothing is being said about them…

    First of all, I totally agree that a lot of development is taking place in Ebonyi State. Our capital city, Abakaliki, is experiencing transformation; major road networks are not only being constructed but are being constructed in such a manner as to endure for half a century. Health, educational and human empowerment sectors are top priority. The revival of Nigercem is gaining ascendency through the administration’s impetus. To suggest, as you do, that ‘little or nothing is being said about it’, is a false and ignorant indictment and you know it. Apart from the ‘money-bag’ states such as Lagos and Rivers, point out any other state that receives more national coverage in terms of government initiatives and actions than Ebonyi State?

    What is the unique selling point of Ebonyi Rice, which is one of your achievements?

    In the last seven months or so, I have granted interviews to more than 15 national newspapers and to television and radio news networks on the revolutionary agricultural agenda of Ebonyi State, focusing particularly on rice production. The biggest source of confidence for what the Umahi administration is doing in the area of rice production is the unwavering encouragement from the Federal Government and from Mr. President directly. President Buhari takes the success of the Ebonyi Rice Programme personally. The unique selling point of Ebonyi Rice is that although our landmass is relatively small, only about 5.5 thousand square kilometres compared to, say, Kebbi, which is nearly 37 thousand square kilometres or Nasarawa which is over 27 thousand square kilometres – I mention these states because if rice production in Nigeria is a competitive business, then they are our direct competitors – we have a much longer period of rainfall which feeds our extremely fertile swampy fields and thus sustains the production of prime quality rice. In other words, this allows us to produce rice that tastes better and far more nutritious. The Ebonyi Rice is also healthier because the quantum of synthetic fertilizer deployed by our farmers are so negligible that you get as close to organic rice as you are ever likely to get in Nigeria with the Ebonyi produce. The benefits of consuming non-chemically produced foods speak for themselves, especially in an age of the cancer epidemic. We have also modernised our rice processing techniques and mechanisms, so that the Abakaliki Rice which used to be called ‘stone-fest’ is now celebrated. Our ambition is to produce just 10 per cent of the total annual rice consumption of five to six million metric tons by Nigerians; a bulk of which is, disgracefully, imported. That translates to between 500,000 to 600,000 metric tons annually. Last year, we achieved 200,000 metric tons in circumstances where we were confined to wet season production only. Going forward, we are laying the foundations for irrigation infrastructure that will allow us cultivate in multiple cycles within any given year. Once this is achieved, we will be in a position by 2019 to double or even triple our self-assigned quota.

    Your party, the PDP, is in the eye of the storm. There are two factions presently. What faction does your principal belong to; the Makarfi or the Sheriff faction?

    Ebonyi State is a PDP state by a margin that is far too huge to bother about factions. Faction exists in Abuja. If other people are struggling to belong to this or that faction, Ebonyi should, in fact, be wooed by the so-called Sheriff or Makarfi faction. I know that this is a bold statement, but I make it with total confidence because I know it to be the entire truth. At the end of the ongoing voter registration exercise, which INEC commenced recently, the quantum of our figures will stun observers. Ebonyi has a population that can comfortably produce over 2.5 million eligible voters. That is the joker that matters. PDP leaders in their various domains and constituencies should see this as the priority, rather than the bickering over factions. If the 11 PDP states can show the discipline and application of mind to register, mobilize and sufficiently motivate 30 million voters across the nation, which is more than possible as far as I am concerned, then factional rancour will wither in the shadow of superior franchise. He who commands the votes commands the levers of power. Partisanship is only important to the extent that you have the voting population to cross the finishing line and advance your agenda. Those who place raw partisan brinkmanship over and above the voting population are numbskulls. They don’t get it. The sterile sentimentality and shortsightedness of those slitting throats and bleeding out over a party office or working committee or such nonsense are nauseating, and, quite frankly, offensive to the sensibilities of many thinking but silent men and women in the PDP. Let the serious-minded ones use this singular opportunity to mobilize and register 30 million voters and indoctrinate them and set carefully marshalled strategies in place to turn them out on any given election day, then you can very well lead them to Zebedee Party and still attain your electoral objectives. But, of course, no one will pay heed to this line of thinking until 2019 delivers another knockout punch to the party – and still these portfolio powerbrokers will remain heedless. It’s utterly mindboggling how people make deliberate and willful choices against their own best interests.

    Of course, I cannot fail to mention that the legal authority of the PDP today rests with Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff. As a lawyer, it would be stupid of me not to make that incontrovertible declaration until the Supreme Court of Nigeria declares otherwise.

    Your support base is believed to be waning, because other parties, including the APC, are making inroads into Ebonyi State…

    I refer you to my submissions in the previous question. As for APC having a foothold in Ebonyi State, well, the last time I checked, Nigeria was still a multi-party democracy. The easiest thing to do now is for me to be lured by your question into launching a ferocious attack on the APC. But I have a bigger fish to fry than bother about the foothold or handhold of opposition parties in my state. My time is better preoccupied by mobilisation campaign to persuade citizens to go and register to vote in 2019. Once we have our 2.5 million or more registered voters, then we can assess who has a foothold or political certificate of occupancy in Ebonyi State.

  • Lagos schools to resume April 18

    Lagos schools to resume April 18

    The Lagos State Ministry of Education, on Thursday, announced that public and private primary and secondary schools operating in the state would resume on April 18.

    Dr Idiat Adebule, the Deputy Governor of the state, who is also  the Commissioner for Education, made this announcement in a statement in Lagos.

    Mr Adesegun Ogundeji, Assistant Director, Public Affairs Unit in the ministry signed the statement.

    In the statement, Adebule said that private and public schools must adhere strictly to the 2016/2017 academic calendar.

    The deputy governor sent a goodwill message to all pupils and parents, wishing them Happy Easter, following the successful completion of the lent.

    She said that the 2016/2017 academic calendar was jointly agreed upon at the state education stakeholders’ meeting before the commencement of the academic year.

    According to her, the adoption of a uniform calendar will enable proper planning and ensure that pupils and students attend school for the number of days required per term.

  • El-Rufai and State of the Union

    El-Rufai and State of the Union

    By virtue of his relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari, Kaduna State Governor  Nasir El-Rufai has unfettered access to the seat of power in Aso Rock. So, barring any problems, he can see the president at anytime for discussion on national and other issues. Also, being a governor, there are other avenues for him to meet the president for talks. The El-Rufai we  know may have explored all these avenues at one time or the other. Did he utilise them? Did he explore these avenues beforesending a memo to the president on September 22, 2016.

    In the memo, he raised salient national issues bordering on governance, the running of their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the alleged stifling of ministers by a cabal in the Presidency. What the self-styled ‘’Accidental Public Servant’’ said in his memo is not new. It is what we hear everyday from people complaining that the Buhari administration has not done anything to soothe their pains almost two years after coming into office. Since the president lives among us, he has on two or so occasions,  acknowledged that the people are not happy with his administration and appealed to them for understanding.

    Though not his first memo to the president, this has generated a lot of heat because of the believed that he leaked it.  El-Rufai may not have lived up to the pedestal he expects of the president, but then he cannot be held responsible for the country’s problems because he leads a microcosm of it. But because he is not a saint (who is?) does not mean that he should not speak out when things are going wrong.

    As a member of the same party with the president, they should join hands together to find solutions to the country’s problems. He should not heap all the blames on the president. If Buhari fails, it is APC that fails and that failure will be that of all members of the party. Through his memo, El-Rufai pointed out what he considered the problematic areas for the president to work on. His memo shows that he is pained that nearly two years after their party came to power, Nigerians have yet to feel the impact of the ‘’change’’ it promised them.

    ‘’Mr President, there is an emerging view in the media that you are neither leading the party nor the administration and those neither elected nor accountable appear to be in charge, and therefore the country is adrift. We are facing an unprecedented national economic crisis, but our administration has failed to roll out a coherent response and action plan, or even appeal to our patriotism with a rallying cry to unite and sacrifice in the face of adversity’’, he said. The governor was blunt in his critique of the Buhari administration. If you ask me, I will say that is how it should be if we wish to make a headway as a nation. We need those who are insiders in government to speak the truth to themselves  for the sake of our country.

    Really, it would not have cost El-Rufai anything to keep silent as if all is well. We all know that things are not as they should be because of the mismanagement of the past. But for how long will we continue to dwell in the past? The electorate voted the APC because of their believe that the party will wipe away their tears and return the country to the path of greatness. The Buhari administration has started well, but it needs to do more for it to continue to have the people’s trust. Blaming past administrations, as El-Rufai pointed out in his memo, will not solve the problems. What will do the trick is for the Buhari administration to pull itself up by the bootstrap and tackle the problems frontally.

    Hear El-Rufai : ‘’You have inherited serious political, economic and governance problems that you had no hand in creating, but now have a duty to solve. These inherited problems were aggravated by the continuing slide in crude oil prices and the renewed insurgency in the Niger Delta that reduced oil production by more than 50 percent! In my honest opinion, we have made this situation worse by failing to be proactive in taking some political, economic and governance decisions in a timely manner.

    ‘’In very blunt terms, Mr President, our APC administration has not only failed to manage the expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance outside of our successes in fighting Boko Haram insurgency and corruption. Overall, the feeling even among our supporters today is that the APC government is not doing well’’.

    His summation is not farther from the truth. El-Rufai may have been impolitic in his approach, but should we always reduce matters of governance to politics all because we are in the ruling party? We need jolts like this from those within the system to hasten our growth as a nation. May El-Rufai’s wake up call ginger the president and his party to greater action.

  • Benue State: Unpaid salaries

    SIR: Benue State civil servants are prematurely dying of hunger, especially those with complicated health issues, as a result of unpaid salaries.

    According to a reliable source from Benue State Teaching Services Board, the state owes about nine months for the local government workers and four months for the state workers.  Also, a retired civil servant at the local government level said since her retirement in 2009, she has not received a dime as part of her gratuity and she finds it difficult to solve most of her problems, including health problems, and cannot boast of a decent accommodation after serving the government for a good number of years.

    It is worthy of note that governors are sworn in using either the Bible or Kura ‘an. But with the apathetic attitude, it’s a subject of speculation as to whether the leaders in question who starve civil servants of their wages for months are aware of this particular portion of the Bible that says: “Do not take advantage of anyone or rob him. Do not hold back the wages of someone you have hired, not even for a night.” (Leviticus 19:11-13).

     

    • Thomas Terungwa-Kumba,

    Makurdi

  • Bello: no godfather to spend state resources on

    Bello: no godfather to spend state resources on

    The Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has said the state resources will be used for the benefit of the people because he has no political godfather to service with the fund.

    Bello addressed reporters in Lokoja as part of activities to mark his one year in office.

    According to him, his administration sought God’s intervention for good governance upon assumption of office and, having thought of the way forward, applied common sense which is now making the state better.

    He reiterated that in as much as the state is not corrupt, resources from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) will always be available for services.

    His words: “Like I said, we were somewhere watching and observing our dear state. But since we came in, we sought God to assist us, and He did. We wore our thinking caps and applied common sense, and we’re getting better.

    “It’s common sense that if there’s no corruption, resources will be available. It’s common sense that when you tap into your internally generated revenue, there will be resources and, as such, all we need to do is to apply it to get things done.

    “If you don’t have godfathers that you service periodically through the coffers of the state, the resources will be available for the state. I can assure you I don’t have any, so why won’t I use the resources for the people?”

    Bello hinted that the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide electricity, noting that before his tenure ends, Kogi would have sufficient power to attract investors.

    “We have the land and we have designated certain places as industrial areas. The land is fertile, and we’ll prepare it for investors to come.

    “I’m sure before the end of the first quarter of this year, a lot of them would have sprung up because they are more or less falling onto each other now to come and invest.”

    Governor Bello added that the state is taking advantage of its waters to develop agriculture in order to create jobs and wealth for its citizenry, which prompted his trip to Omi dam.

    He saidthe state declared a state of emergency on agriculture, which is expected to yield positive results in the next one year.

    On accusations that he bought vehicles for his aides without paying workers, Bello explained that he inherited a state where the last administration collected about five months federal allocation, with the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), without paying workers and contractors.

    He vowed that the state “shall recover every single dime”.

    “We came on board and cleared the minimum of that five months arrears. Because of the screening, as they cleared, we paid. Apart from a few cases, Kogi paid workers both current and arrears before December 20, so we’re up to date. Let me set the record straight.

    “We purchased vehicles aspart of security infrastructure. That is why Kogites can go to bed with their eyes closed; that is why both northerners and southerners that traverse Kogi will not travel with the fear of molestation by robbers or kidnappers.

    “It is evident and everybody is seeing it. In any case, we applied our ingenuity and common sense, and I can tell you from that particular transaction, we saved over N1.5 billion.

    “In other climes, they will claim that N1.5 billion and share it among themselves, but I said zero tolerance to corruption. We won’t allow that to happen,” the governor added.