The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tales

  • Tales of a capital

    Recently, a foreign aid worker who had been working in the Northeast visited Abuja for the first time. He was taken aback by his experience in the capital city. He expressed how, for him, it was like visiting a different country. Knowing our country so well, one immediately understands what the foreigner meant. The dichotomy between Nigeria’s urban centres and the rural areas is sharp, and the difference cannot be clearer than in the city centre of Abuja, within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

    Compared to other metropolitan areas of Nigeria like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, Abuja maintains a kind of serenity at its heart that attracts high net-worth individuals and the assumed middle class Nigerians who can afford to obtain property within the metropolis. Statistics from the United Nations show that the city grew by 139.7% between 2000 and 2010, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world. With a population currently estimated to be around 2.4 million, available data also shows that more people across all social classes are opting for the relative calm of the city. This influx of people has led to the emergence of satellite towns and shanty communities such as are seen in Lagos.

    In earlier years, Abuja was thought of as a city for civil servants and top government officials that manage the bureaucracy of the federal government. Even today, ‘Abuja money’ is still synonymous with ‘government money’, but there is a growing variation of commercial activities that accompanies the growing population of Abuja. The ‘government money’ in circulation helps sustain a thriving real estate sector and infrastructural development. This in turn enables other associated businesses, like the quarries located in and around the city, to thrive. With thriving commerce, relatively good roads and generally calmer heads, it is not surprising that more people want to relocate to the capital.

    Focusing on the people, there are the government bigwigs and other heavy weights, who can be found in Asokoro and Maitama, and in some parts of Wuse II and Apo. The mansions erected in these areas, especially in Asokoro, rival the homes of the rich anywhere in the world. Curiously, and maybe unsurprising, many of the seizures of property that have been effected by the anti-graft agencies in their fight against corrupt government officials have been made in these areas. The display of wealth is stupendous, and these regularly empty mansions require a large number of support staff who are a significant part of the growing population of the city. Sadly, security agents of the state must be counted as part of these “support staff”.

    In many places in the highbrow areas, like Aso Drive, in Asokoro, one cannot just idle around on the street for more than a minute. Before you know it, an assortment of secret service agents and mobile policemen stationed or patrolling the streets will promptly appear to interrogate, with readiness to make an arrest if the response is unconvincing. The tight security is a far cry from that in the outskirts of the city and in other less prestigious areas, where petty crime, abductions and armed robbery are rife. It is a case of the poor robbing the poor, while the money bags sit in comfort and relative safety in their well-guarded mansions.

    The people considered to be middle class can be found in Wuse, Utako, Garki, Gwarimpa and other parts of Apo. This class of people are either civil servants close to the top or business people who have found a reliable “connection” to the money bags and government functionaries, enough to sustain their family in the pricey capital. They are the proprietors of businesses that cater to the wealthy or contractors that have perfected the fine art of “access”, especially to government projects and clientele. Where they are not civil servants, they are people whose repeated trips from their original locations have realized enough returns to purchase a permanent or second home in Abuja.

    The satellite towns, like Kubwa in the outskirts of the city, are home to a mixture of these “middle class” Nigerians and others below this class who come in from as far as neighbouring Kaduna and Nassarawa or outskirts like Gwagwalada, every day. The Mararaba/Nyanya/Karu residents and people from other satellite towns, outskirts and neighbouring states make up over 60 percent of workers that troop into the city centre every day. The little traffic situations that develop in the city usually occurs during the mass movement from and to these places early in the morning and at close of business. In Mararaba/Nyanya for instance, one may be reminded of the ‘madness’ of Lagos, as the area is densely populated, as one can imagine. Boko Haram’s limited foray into the capital in the past was largely concentrated in just this kind of places, with the considerably lesser security.

    The true nature of Abuja as “no man’s land” is aptly demonstrated at the close of the year, during the Christmas and New Year preparation and festivities. The city experiences a mass exodus of people who leave the capital to join their families elsewhere in Nigeria. The not so choked streets are near empty during this period, and businesses often feel the strain of reduced patronage during this time. Even the usually busy nightlife at weekends is reduced to a few trickles of people who, for one reason or the other, remain in the capital during this period. In this sense, the allure of Abuja is no match for the pull of family ties and kinship which the capital city cannot boast of, even amongst Northerners.

    It is safe to say that the foreign aid worker referred to in the beginning of this piece never ventured outside the city centre, into the shanty towns that dot the capital or the dense outskirts that house over 60% of the workforce. The foreign aid worker also may have not been forced to use the government provided transportation, similar to the BRT buses of Lagos – referred to as “El-Rufai buses – which are insufficient, and are packed like the famous Molues of Lagos. The private Kabu kabu cars and the associated touts they attract, with their unions and self-designed rules, fill the transportation void in most parts of the city. Slowly, the Lagos vibe is coming to Abuja, and if the population continues to increase the way it is, we may have Lagos-style traffic gridlocks in the city in less than two decades. The signs are already there.

    Many drivers now on the roads of Abuja relocated from places like Lagos, and the Lagos mentality is gradually seeping into Abuja roads. Other people, skilled and unskilled labour alike, are also making the move. Abuja is expanding and word is going round. The growth of the city spells opportunity, and opportunity in Nigeria cannot be reserved for the “privileged”. David Mark, former senate president, famously made the remark that “Abuja is not for everybody”, in reference to complaints by the mass of low level workers who grumbled about the cost of living in the city. It seems Nigerians disagree with the senator, with the continuing inflow of people into the capital. The surging population may soon begin to tell on the wealthy few, who are still insulated in their ivory towers in Asokoro, except the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, develops a plan to manage the inevitable population growth.

    The beauty of Abuja is a constant image of what can be, in all 36 states, with the availability of funding and careful management. Even though the capital is not a complete project as yet, it is miles beyond most Nigerian cities and the attempt to close the door of opportunity with high living standards is failing so far, precisely because of that disparity. All Nigerians want to live a better life, and until the rural communities catch up, the rural to urban migration will continue, especially amongst the teeming youth of this country.

  • Traffic tales

    Hardball has an idea — traffic tales!  Now, what do you think that is?

    Well, it is certainly tales about the traffic.  And if traffic is about vehicles and their drivers, including the ubiquitous Okada riders — traffic laws be damned! — it is certainly about what these drivers do or don’t do on the road.

    But while you probably would take a denotative view of all these road exploits, Hardball is taking a connotative view.  Want to take a sneak into the mind of a nation?  Then rivet your eyes on the behavioural pattern of its traffic.  Got the gist now?

    Imagine, you are driving, a law-abiding citizen; and a fellow road user just zooms at you from the opposite direction, flashing impatiently and totting on his horns.  Well, there is a fuel station which he is trying to enter and your car, on your legit lane, seems a nuisance on the way.  All the flashing and all the totting scream a single message: get the hell out of the way, you scum!

    Now, what do you do?  Scurry out of the way?  Or call his bluff by ignoring him, and seriously praying his brake is okay, so he won’t bash into your car, after a brake failure?  You probably act, according to your mindset, at that exact moment.

    Familiar, isn’t it?  Well, that unruly traffic behaviour just shows a good number of Nigerians — perhaps a majority, though there are not stats from studies to back up that claim — are simply indecorous, hasty and resort to insults, when they could simply have asked nicely.

    Again, look at your terrain, what do you observe?  A serpentine traffic, with a gridlock of truckers and tanker drivers staking their constitutionally given, not to talk of God-divined, right to inflict pains and make your day a hell on earth.

    Before you know it, a container has fallen upon a fellow road user, crushing a whole family.  Other nearby cars only escape by the whiskers.  Pronto, lucky to be alive (its Hobbes’s jungle, after all!), they scurry to the church and give testimonies on their great escape!  Not without reasons though: for far too many have perished in such wilful accidents, and seeming no action was taken, that they simply became statistics.

    Now, from this chaotic traffic, what sort of people are these?

    Peculiar people whose governments make laws but don’t have the guts to enforce their own laws.  And a minority of citizens that commit wilful crimes, yet insist on their right to such fatal wilfulness (fatal to the victims, but morbid trophies to the perpetrators), and go on to inflict even more tragedies.

    That is the sorry tale of Nigeria today.  Right now, Lagos groans under a heavy traffic; and the tormentors-in-chief are trailer drivers who have simply decided to call the bluff of the law.  And what does the government do?  Not exactly looking askance (though that seems what it is).  The last time Hardball heard, the government was trying to “negotiate” with these traffic outlaws.  But while the demonstration goes on, stress has reached a boiling point, with everyone seeming to be trapped and helpless.

    Nigeria’s traffic tales reveal a somewhat sub-human community, where traffic outlaws do as they damn wish and government appears scared to apply its own laws, even if that is what decent climes do!

  • Ellyman, Tboss fuel romance tales

    Ellyman, Tboss fuel romance tales

    Only a week ago, Made Men Music Group artiste, Ellyman and ex-reality TV star Tboss, created a massive buzz when their photos sparked an online debate

    The duo have sprung yet another avalanche of speculations among thousands of fans online with another newly-released photos which were taken at an exquisite location in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

    The adorable pictures recently surfaced online and have been making the rounds across social media – with majority describing the photos as an acknowledgment of love between both stars.

    Reports reveal the photos were taken in another exotic location in Zanzibar; following their previous photos where they were both seen together at a popular beach in the city.

    It’s unclear if the photos were intended for a project or it’s really an assertion to the speculations of romance between the stars.

    Ellyman, who was signed to Made Men Music Group earlier this year and Imo Records in 2016, has since spurred a considerable amount of buzz for himself with a handful of singles officially released under the labels.

     

  • Real sector on the rebound after years of sad tales

    Real sector on the rebound after years of sad tales

    Things are looking up for the real sector after years in which some firms died and others relocated because of what was described as harsh operating environment. It recorded growth between January and March; its capacity utilisation also increased. It is thanks to the Federal Government’s interventions and the sector’s push for a better deal. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports. 

    Last quarter of 2014 to last year would probably go down as the most challenging period for manufacturers. The decline in foreign exchange (forex) flow into the country, caused by the sharp drop in oil prices, left a sour taste in manufacturers’ mouths. Many of them were unable to source forex to import critical raw materials that were not locally available.

    Expectedly, the result was telling. For instance, manufacturing capacities stagnated below average. Many manufacturers recorded huge financial losses. Many of them who could not weather the storm shut down; others relocated to neighbouring West African countries. Consequently, many people lost their jobs. Hopes of riding on the sector’s crest to diversify the economy also receded.

    But there are indications that the sector is gradually bouncing back. For instance, the manufacturing sector recorded positive growth in first quarter of the year, hitting 1.36 per cent, against -2.54 per cent it recorded in fourth quarter of last year. Capacity utilisation also increased to 59.18 per cent in the second half of 2016, from 44.3 per cent recorded in the first quarter of that year.

    As far as manufacturers are concerned, this growth recovery, driven by better policy adjustments particularly in the area of forex management, following MAN’s various meetings and presentations to the Federal Government, portends that the manufacturing sector is out of recession. MAN President Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs who made this known described it as “heart-warming.”

    The President, who was represented by the group’s Director-General, Mr. Ajayi Kadri, stated this at last week’s breakfast meeting for directors/chief executive officers in Lagos. The event themed “Nigerian economic recovery: Strengthening the real sector” was organised by the Ikeja branch of MAN.

    The meeting is a yearly event that provides a platform for effective interactions of more than 300 chief executives, thereby helping them to chat the way forward to overcome the economic challenges/threats facing them.

    Jacobs said that in line with the recovery momentum in the manufacturing sector, any further discussion on the theme will evoke more credible measures that will help sustain and strengthen the sector’s recovery process. He expressed optimism that government’s current policies and guidelines aimed at addressing the challenges facing manufacturers will improve the operating environment in due course.

    One of the policies that may have put the sector on the recovery path, The Nation learnt, was the creation of a 60 per cent special forex allocation window for manufacturers by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), following several representations and stakeholders’ engagements by manufacturers.

    The apex bank explained that the gesture was to address an observed imbalance to the sector, as a negligible proportion of forex sales were being channelled towards the manufacturing sector hence, it directed authorised dealers to dedicate at least 60 per cent of their total forex purchases from all sources to end users, for the importation of raw materials, plants and machinery.

    The CBN said the balance of 40 per cent should be used to meet other trade obligations visible and invisible transactions. It also mandated forex dealers to publish weekly sales of foreign exchange to end users in the national newspapers and render statutory returns of sales on same to the CBN promptly.

    Recall that the CBN in June 2015 announced a forex policy that restricted importers of 41 items from accessing its official forex window. Even those who export products that fall under the 41 items listed in the CBN circular were barred from using their export proceeds to fund the importation of raw materials, which were classified as not valid for forex.

    The apex bank had argued that the policy was necessary to promote locally-produced goods, build robust foreign reserves, and also create jobs.  “…We needed to aggressively begin the process of feeding ourselves by ourselves and producing much of what we need in this country.

    “The huge amounts of money the country spends on importing things we can produce locally have become a significant drag on our foreign exchange reserves…,” CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele had said.

    But manufacturers and other members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) kicked, describing the forex restriction variously as “obnoxious, superfluous, and ill-conceived.” Many of them argued that they were not consulted by the CBN and other regulators before the restrictions were placed on the items.

    They also pointed out that the vague nature in which the items in the import prohibition basket were described in the circular impeded the access of several local manufacturers to foreign exchange for procurement of their raw materials.

    They accused the CBN of emasculating manufacturers by failure to properly appraise domestic capacity for production of some of the excluded items, and therefore, called for a review.

    But CBN kicked its heels in, insisting that the policy was in the interest of the economy and Nigerians. The apex bank reiterated that the policy was necessary to re-awaken the consciousness of manufacturers on the need to look inwards and embrace the utilization of local raw materials, conserve foreign exchange and create jobs.

    However, following persistent requests by real sector operators, the CBN directed that a special 60 per cent forex allocation window be set aside for manufacturers. And as it turned out, the policy has infused life into the real sector as the performance of the sector has improved in the first half of the year.

    According to Jacobs, the policy has seen MAN’s membership strength increased by 415 in the last two years. He said that although, the CBN has removed the 60 per cent preferential forex allocation through its forex policy of February 21, 2017, it has promised to continue to accord the manufacturing sector strong priority in forex allocation.

    The MAN boss stated that because of the increases in capacity utilisation and local sourcing of raw-materials, manufacturing production surged to N5.02 trillion in the second half of 2016, from N4.21 trillion in the same period in 2015 and N3.76 trillion recorded in the first half of 2016.

    Ease of Doing Business, MSME clinic, others also

    But the special forex allocation is not the only policy intervention that is gradually changing the manufacturing sector’s narrative. The establishment of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) is also said to have the capability to further boost the performance of the sector.

    PEBEC’s mandate is to improve the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in the country. As Jacobs stated, “The performance score card of PEBEC indicates that its seven points objectives set in line with the World Bank Indices of Ease of Doing Business (EODB) have been achieved.”

    The MAN boss observed, for instance, that there has been visible improvement in the ease of company registration, which is now being facilitated through a web portal. Also, trade facilitation constraints have been removed. He also noted the implementation of some aspects of the single windows ports operations, among others.

    He, however, said MAN will continue to encourage investors to take advantage of these initiatives while imploring government to extend the improvements to other areas that affect the Ease of Doing Business not currently captured in PEBEC framework to improve Nigeria’s competitiveness.

    Other policy interventions that may have signalled a new dawn for the sector include the recently launched Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Clinic, the inauguration of the Nigerian Industrial Policy and Competitive Advisory Council, which has the mandate to drive Nigeria’s industrial agenda of which MAN is a strong member.

    The recent signing of three strategic Executive Orders by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to promote patronage of made in Nigeria products, transparency and ease of doing business as well as the review of CBN’s list of 41 items that led to release of 32 items of raw materials that can now have access to the official forex market are also gradually impacting the manufacturing sector.

    The Lagos State   Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Mr. Rotimi Ogunleye, said that his ministry was at the concluding stage of the industrial policy review where various laws are being promulgated to ensure adequate security, social welfare and economic well-being of the people of the state.

    He pointed out that the state had addressed the issue of multiple taxation and that the work place inspection team had been harmonised under one umbrella to reduce the incidence of multiple agencies carrying out inspections in the same company at different times.

    On her part, the National President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Chief Alaba Lawson, noted that the Federal Government in April this year launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020, which lists 24 programmes made up of 60 strategies and 369 key activities.

    She said the programme is to provide a catalyst through which the economy can be revamped to advance the diversification drive, ensure efficiency in government processes, promote ease of doing business, encourage easier access to capital, and solve the daunting challenge of infrastructure deficit, among others.

    While describing the ERGP as “laudable,” Lawson, however, lamented that the ERGP, just as other government programmes, plans and strategies aimed at strengthening the economy and the real sector, is being hampered by issues around proper guidelines, timelines, proper implementation, monitoring, feedback mechanism and information dissemination.

    She therefore, said that for policies and strategies to truly succeed in revamping the economy, the real sector must track the initiatives of government, offering insightful recommendations, reporting verifiable impact on the real sector and the Nigerian economy at large.

     

     

  • Kachikwu’s tales and DSS shadow-boxing

    Amidst gloomy stories such as ‘$480b stolen from Nigeria between 1960-2004’, (Chatham House report); ‘$182b lost through illicit financial flows between 2005-2014’, and other stories of billions allegedly traced to former chieftains of NNPC or abandoned at airports or Bureau de Change, the tales about NNPC’s giant strides and its achievements by Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources ought to have come as some sort of relief to Nigerians. Speaking as a guest on a BBC Hard Talk in London only this Monday, the minister had assured Nigerians of self-sufficiency in the local refining of petroleum products by 2019. The refineries that were down before they came on stream two years ago, according to him ‘now produce about seven million litres a day’. Besides removing and renegotiating cash call deficit of over $6bn and moving NNPC into a profit-making organization for the first time in our nation’s history, he also announced the ‘signing of an agreement with the international oil giant, Agip, for the firm to build a refinery in Nigeria’.

    Undoubtedly, Kachikwu and the Buhari administration deserve commendation for the successes he claimed they have chalked up in the last two years. Unfortunately this however has been marred by the news of the arrest of Ifeanyi Uba, the chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Limited by DSS over an alleged theft of N11b worth of fuel deposited in his depot by NNPC. For many Nigerians, the development was enough evidence that the battle of NNPC often regarded as the most corrupt institution in Nigeria is yet to be won in spite of Kachikwu’s celebration.

    A statement by the spokesman for the DSS, Tony Opuiyo, claimed the arrest of Ubah was sequel to his alleged engagement in acts of economic sabotage which include stealing, diversion and illegal sale of petroleum products stored in his tank farm by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The DSS spokesman also affirmed that “it has been established that the products stolen amount to over N11bn. However, an unnamed  senior official ‘s of Ubah’s Capital Oil and Gas Ltd was reported to have said  the DSS was being economical with the truth as to the actual transactions between Ubah’s company and NNPC. Unfortunately with the baleful legacies of NNPC, it is doubtful if many Nigerians will swallow the DSS story that Ubah “stole and diverted petroleum products stored by the NNPC in his depots” without the collusion of NNPC officials, if that ever happened.

    But beyond this, what will be of concern to many Nigerians is the prospect that Kachikwu’s advertised successes  and others that will be chalked up  before 2019, may have no effect on the lives of ordinary Nigerians  if the nation is still going to be held hostage by tank farm owners after Buhari’s four years government of change. Nigerians have not forgotten that owners of tank-farms and their friends, the tanker owners were linked to the vandalisation of the over 400 kilometres of pipeline put in place by Obasanjo before he left office in 1979. If NNPC is unable to maintain the massive tank farms government built in Ikorodu or build new ones, undertakings that are much easier to accomplish than managing refineries, Kachikwu’s tales of giants stride made in local refining of petroleum products are not likely going to amuse Nigerians.

    Nigerians also remember what was in place when Obasanjo was sworn in as president in 1999. There was the NNPC Act 1977 which saddled the Minister of Petroleum with the responsibilities of “regulating and fixing petroleum product prices and supervising the MPR/DPR that has sole regulatory authority over technical standards, refining, and logistics in the sector”. There was also  the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, (PPMC) which was set up in 1988 by his predecessor to “profitably and efficiently market refined petroleum products in the domestic as well as export markets, especially in the ECOWAS sub-region, provide marine services and also maintain uninterrupted movement of refined petroleum products from the local refineries.” Then following the swearing in of Obasanjo, artificial fuel queues sprang up overnight in our filling stations. Lawmakers who publicly complained they needed to recoup the expenses incurred in running for elections by selling their personal houses outwitted Obasanjo who was stampeded to set up the PPPRA through a bill, debated and passed within three months. Its mandate which was not markedly different from those of the two existing Acts was to “liberalise the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, privatise the refineries, deregulate and liberalise the imports of petroleum products and, generally, make the products available at reasonable prices”.

    It was obvious PPPRA was set up primarily to serve the interest of the new power wielders in Abuja and as it turned out, the new inheritors of power ensured the first recorded achievement of PPPRA was its fraudulent claim that it spent N2.1 trillion on phantom subsidy in 2011, a figure brought down to less than one trillion in 2012 following protest by Nigerians. Then there was the theft of N1.7 trillion according to House Committee probe report, in 2011 during the tenure of Ahmadu Alli, as chairman of PPPRA. It was perpetrated by politicians and their fronts who according to Audu Ogbe, a former PDP chairman, “never imported a bottle of fuel”. The body also went on to increase the number of fuel importers from less than a dozen to 128 as patronage to politicians and their fronts. We can also add PPPRA’s fraudulent claim that the nation consumed 60.25 million litters in 2011, a figure that also went down to 39.66 litres in 2012 followed intervention by the Lower House.

    Besides the overlapping functions of PPMC and PPPRA, it is obvious from the above that the stakes are very high for so-called beneficiaries of deregulation in the oil sector who in the last 16 years have instead of building refineries, chosen to fall over each other in erecting the largest storage facility in the world and rent same to NNPC. PPPRA which  has demonstrated greater commitments to importation of refined petroleum products as against making our own refineries work depends on the storage facilities of members of Depot Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) (Obat Petroleum is reputed to have the largest and most modern storage facilities in the world). It also patronises Independent Marketers Company (NIPCO) that has invested billions in storage facilities and a jetty in Apapa. It also relies to some degree on the services of Oando and Zenon petroleum companies that jointly control over 200 trucks and a jetty owned by Zenon.

    The stakes are too high for those who have made huge investments on tank farms and live as parasites in the last 17 years. They will remain hostage takers long after the expected Kachikwu’s attainment of self -sufficiency in local production. Since this cannot be wished away, Kachikwu and the government must find the political will to negotiate with these determined and unrepentant hostage-takers. The ongoing shadow boxing between DSS and Ifeanyi Ubah while NNPC behaves like an unconcerned onlooker, is enough evidence that the government has very few choices.

  • Tantalising tales of a Nursing Father (2)

    In addition to the illustrious Ben Tomoloju’s breezy and captivating foreword titled ‘A Celebration of Humanism’, a major delight of Dr. Sylvester Akhaine’s book, ‘The Case of a Nursing Father’, for me is Dr Tunde Fatunde’s prefatory ‘Open Letter to the Author’. This is in itself a titillating and fascinating review of the book made even more interesting by Fatunde’s explication of Akahine’s essays using the methodological and philosophical framework of the late Professor Billy Dudley who was his teacher at the University of Ibadan. In doing this, Fatunde gives us rare insights into the aspects of the life, style and mind of one of Nigeria’s greatest political scientists.  The eminent scholar had died about a year before I gained admission into the Department of Political Science at Ibadan in the early eighties although he had taken leave of the institution much earlier but his influence still loomed large in the department and indeed the entire Faculty of Social Sciences. Some of our brightest and best teachers were his students and they spoke fondly of him. A Professor of Sociology once spoke admiringly of Dudley in one of his classes saying the political scientist was in a class of his own with an uncanny ability to “sustain discourse at a high level of abstraction for prolonged periods without contradicting reality”. Phew!

    Any encounter with some of Billy Dudley’s books such as ‘Instability and Political Order: Politics and Crisis in Nigeria’, ‘An Introduction to Nigerian Government and Politics’ or his seminal inaugural lecture, ‘Scepticism as Political Virtue’, for instance, would agree that they are permanent and enduring legacies to students of politics. The scope of his knowledge was truly encyclopedic. In Fatunde’s words to Akhaine, “I want to conceptualize your collection of essays by borrowing a term called faction, a concept popularized by Odia Ofeimun with whom I studied a course Political Philosophy, under late Professor Billy Dudley, a distinguished scholar at the University of Ibadan…In Billy Dudley’s class, we were only six students, other colleagues deliberately avoided his courses like Ebola Fever, because if you are not willing to accept the fact that all disciplines are more or less interrelated in what is known as body of knowledge, then you have to quickly go and register for courses like history of local governments in Nigeria”.

    Fatunde recalls that Professor Dudley in teaching a course, ‘Ethnicity in Nigeria’ made use of physics, mathematics, anthropology, political economy, sociology and political theory to explicate his subject matter. But what is the relationship between these observations on Dudley by Fatunde and Dr Akhaine’s collection of essays? In the former’s words, “I see a similar model from the first essay ‘The case of a Nursing Father” to the last one, “Beyond Whispers, Baba goes Home”. Between these two chapters are essays which reflect your complex experiences and the way your globalized visions interact with other human beings from your village, Emaudo, old Bendel State, now Edo State in Esan land to cities and towns in Nigeria and abroad. To put it succinctly, you are a permanent student of life on this earth and your experiences are your permanent teachers! This paradigm applies to all of us”.

    In reading Dr Akhaine’s collection of essays in this book, however, I find him philosophically and ideologically nearer to another great titan of Nigerian and African political science, the late Professor Claude Ake. This is perhaps because as a scholar he is firmly situated within the radical political economy tradition, which was Ake’s forte as best exemplified by his magnum opus – ‘A Political Economy of Africa’. Professor Julius Ihonvbere, in his edited collection of a selection of Claude Ake’s previously unpublished works titled, ‘A Political Economy of Crisis and Underdevelopment in Africa’, notes that Ake’s writings “have tried to respond to the need for a dialectical and holistic approach to the study of the African crisis. Though they have all been written at different times and for different occasions, a single belief, commitment and concern run through the chapters: the need to organize, work and struggle for peace, change, growth, development and progress against the odds of capitalism, exploitation, repression, marginalization and dehumanization”. It appears to me that these are also the central concerns of Dr Akhaine both as an academic and a popular writer and particularly in this book.

    Indeed this the author clearly brings out in the last chapter of the book titled, ‘Beyond Whispers, Baba Goes Home’, which is a moving tribute to the late Marxist economist, radical political theorist, socialist thinker and organizational genius, the late Baba Oluwide Omojola, who was Akhaine’s ideological and intellectual mentor as well as moral exemplar. According to Dr Akhaine, “I was one of Baba’s many adopted children, from the point of view of the fatherly role he played in my tutelage as a revolutionary Marxist. I became class conscious in 1983 with my induction into a Marxist cell built by Blessed Isi Momodu at Ekpoma…On coming to Lagos in the mid-eighties, Baba and many other comrades opened up opportunities for me to excel and achieve greater ideological clarity”. He is even more explicit in this regard when he writes that “The love of my life, political economy, not bourgeois political economy, which focuses on the relation of things but the Marxist variant, whose method is the method of abstraction and interrogates the material conditions of society which underpins my scholarly endeavour, was a course I had intended to deepen through my association with Baba”.

    The works of Billy Dudley and Claude Ake no doubt evince the highest standards of logical and analytic rigour despite their divergent ideological and philosophical orientations. Dudley was less overtly ideological than Ake and perhaps even a little disdainful of Marxian analysis. In his 1974 presidential address to the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Dudley makes a remarkably prescient case for the period for open, competitive liberal democracy much against the conventional ideological wisdom of the time.  As he put it “There are some of us, who unfortunately think we can do without politics. In the ultimate Marxian millennium when “administration” replaces politics, that may very well be. But we are nowhere near Marx’s millennium…The politics of the closed society, and by definition any society which is not open and competitive is closed, is the politics of deceit and sycophancy. It is the politics which dehumanizes the individual person and enslaves the intellect. For a Nigeria which is self-avowedly committed to change and development, the politics of the closed society would hardly be an option”. This collection of essays by Dr Sylvester Odion Akhaine, just as his other works and indeed his life, demonstrates as much commitment to the cause of liberty and democracy as it does to that of social justice and equity. None of these goals as experience teaches can be meaningfully and realistically pursued at the expense of the other.

  • St. Andrews and other tales

    There is a counter paradise, where reversed values hold sway; and skewed conduct is the cream of the court, the court of the street, where the mighty prey on the weak and the weak, hitherto victims, are now merry champions, of their own abject abuse.

    That is the world of St. Andrews.  In this time that US President Donald Trump talks of “alternative facts, the land of St. Andrews remorselessly boasts “alternative morals”, where there is absolutely no difference, between good and bad.

    And to push this neo-philosophy, St. Andrews made hay.  He so loved much the dollar, loving soul, that he created his own customised bank, in the seediest part of town!

    The folks there may be dirt poor, he reckoned.  But why should they be averse to proudly hosting millions of American dollar notes, chilling in steel safes, as much as they, the people, grill in the dust of grinding penury, virtually just outside the barred doors of this customised banks?

    Perhaps if he had parted with a naira here and a kobo there, a cent now and a pound sterling then, the people would have hailed and praised — the excellent mark of a returned native made good.

    But alas!  He was in love with his dollars that he didn’t share. That was the fatal mistake.  They now say St. Andrews “chopped” alone.  So, he is dying alone!

    But from there, in that same land of St. Andrews, another native, returned from overseas disgrace, came calling to rapturous welcome.

    Disgrace?  Those Brits are crazy and criminally outdated!  How can you accuse and gaol such a goodly man, such a kind man, such a caring man,  such a symbolic Moses, Job, Jesus the Christ and even Elijah rolled into one?  And for what — for developing his people and making them happy?  Wallahi, these Brits were deluded!

    Anyway, that’s their headache.  Here, in our midst, you remain our authentic hero, let them say anything they like!

    You are the quintessential native made good.  You have gone to achieve.  Now, you’re back to receive — receive honour, your desert, as the quintessential citizen.  Welcome, great native!

    Not far away, but yet in another segment of the land of St. Andrews, those in charge of training the youth, in the straight-and-narrow way, both in learning and in character, are unfazed masters in the wide-and -merry, that leads to destruction!

    Well, the land is even in a furious debate.  You must change the name, not a few bristle, from Vice Chancellor to Chancellor of Vice!  That would conform to the new regnant wisdom of alternative morality, wouldn’t it?

    That is how this land rolls.  Things seem to have fallen apart and the centre is not holding.  The falcon, as the famous poet says, can no longer hear the falconer.   It is the real moral Armageddon, signifying the end times.

    Still, in the land of St. Andrew, it’s morning yet on decadence day.  Well, you call it decadence.  We call it alternative morality.

    That is how the land rolls, this lovely land of St. Andrews!

  • Tales of Boko Haram defeat

    Shortly before the end of last year, we were treated to the cheering news of the final defeat of the Boko Haram insurgency. The nation’s leadership had announced with much fanfare, it had impregnated the much dreaded Sambisa forest and dislodged the last stronghold of the insurgency group.

    It said the last bastion of defence of Boko Haram had been overrun with the capture of what it termed “Camp zero”. By the calculations of the military, with the dislodgement of “Camp zero”, the war has been won.

    A highly elated President Buhari did not waste time to commend “the determination, courage and resilience of troops of Operation Lafiya Dole at finally entering and crushing the remnants of the Boko Haram insurgents which is located deep into the heart of the Sambisa forest”. He said he was told that the terrorists were on the run and had no place to hide.

    This came precisely a year after the initial deadline to smoke out the insurgents, degrade and destroy their ability for mischief. Then, President Buhari had in an interview with the BBC said Boko Haram has been “technically defeated” and that “Nigeria has technically won the war against Boko Haram”.

    When prodded further given renewed attacks by the same terror group shortly after, he said “my own description is that they can no longer mobilize to attack police and army barracks and destroy aircrafts as they used to do. But they can regroup and go after soft targets”.

    Since then however, we have seen different fierce engagements between the seemingly degraded Boko Haram group and the Nigerian military. There have been series of high scale attacks from both sides with serious casualties. The casualty figure and the high profile military officers who have unfortunately paid the supreme sacrifice on account of the resurging confrontation raised doubts about initial claims by the government on the progress of the war.

    That has been the situation until the same government at the end of last year came up to say again that it has destroyed the last remnants of the insurgents with the capture of the last bastion of their defence deep in the heart of the Sambisa forest. Before then, the government had secured the release of 21 of the abducted Chibok girls, raising hopes that an understanding which would permanently end the war had been struck. One had thought everything was going on well for the government.

    When last week, the government advertised its intention to ferry some leaders of the Bring Back Chibok Girls group and journalists to the Sambisa forest to see things for themselves, it was generally viewed as an indication of the final end of the insurgency. But behold, as the trip was about to go on, the terrorists struck within the University of Maiduguri mosque leaving in its toll sorrow and awe.

    As the nation was still contending with that loss, came the chilling incident of the bombing of a camp for Internally Displaced Persons IDP’s in Rann in the same Borno State killing more than 100 people including officials of the Red Cross and other humanitarian workers. Reports said the pilot mistook them for Boko Haram insurgents who were regrouping.

    Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole Major General Lucky Irabor said he coordinated the air component of the operation following information that Boko Haram terrorists were gathering around the Kala Balge area of Maiduguri. He said when the operation was conducted, it turned that some locals were affected including soldiers.

    The government sympathized with families affected by this colossal disaster, attributing it to what it called “regrettable operational mistake”. Condolence messages in their torrents have been coming in from far and wide with many harping on the need for thorough investigation into the matter. The House of Representatives, apparently not satisfied with the rationalization of the bombing, has resolved to probe into the matter.

    Many are unable to come to terms with the excuse adduced for this colossal disaster especially given the very casual manner the presidency and Gen. Irabor addressed the matter. Operational mistake resulting in the killing of scores of those still suffering from the pangs of displacement from their homes by the war, is too costly for this nation to bear.

    Apart from casting doubt on the conduct of the war all along, it seemed to have put to question some of the claims we have been treated to by this regime regarding the overall progress of the war. How come the same military mistook an IDP camp it set up for a gathering of the terrorist group?  How did the information come about and was there due diligence before the air force plane was cleared to roll out the lethal weapons?

    It is unclear the distance between Rann and Kala Balge where the terrorists were said to be regrouping. But even if they are very close, we are yet to hear what action the military took thereafter having discovered that they hit off target. Did those regrouping at the Kala Balge disappear thereafter or were they now allowed to fortify themselves?

    These issues underscore the fact that it was too early for the government to have swallowed the excuse that the killings emanated from operational mistake. First, if the air force could bomb an IDP camp at the dying moments of the war, what guarantee is there that the rules of engagement had all along been adhered to? What of its implications on human rights abuses?

    Secondly, to accept that will throw into serious doubt, the proficiency of our military without prejudice to the enormous sacrifices and personal risks to their life in the prosecution of that war. Again, for a war that has been touted won, accepting the excuse of operational mistake coveys the miserable impression of exaggerated claims regarding its overall progress. We do not expect a war that has been won to produce complex situations that confused our military to the extent of bombing a camp it set up and privy to.

    What signals did the pilot see on ground to confirm these were terrorists? And if terrorists could still gather in such large numbers requiring an air force plane to be dispatched to bomb them, what remains of the claim of the defeat of the insurgency group?

    Overall, it would appear there is more to the circumstances leading to the disaster than ordinarily meets the eyes. In the face of recent disclosures that some soldiers sympathetic to the cause of the insurgents would face trial for cattle rustling to fund the terrorists, the presence of moles even with the progress made in the war can no longer be discounted.

    These are some of the possibilities to be looked into instead of the offhand dismissal of the fatal onslaught as a mere mistake. It could as well turn out a mistake. But that can only be determined through a thorough and unbiased investigation. Nigerian Air Force cannot investigate itself on this matter and expect an impartial report.

    It would appear the nation is not being fed the right information on the overall progress of that war. And the reason is not farfetched. It hovers around the urge to take quick credit for having defeated the insurgents in keeping with campaign promises. Having failed to meet the first deadline, the government seems in a hurry to announce a conclusion of the war a year after.

    Ironically, as it goes about this, issues arise casting serious doubt to the claim. That was the position a year ago when it announced a technical defeat of the insurgents. The same trend re-enacted last week with the fatalities recorded in the IDP camp. The problem is with the negative politics we had played with the war against Boko Haram. We seem caught up by the monsters we created.

  • Dogara, Jubrin and other tales

    “I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I gave you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.” – John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America (1935-1826)

    In penning these words to his wife, Abigail and their five children, Adams was obviously under the clear understanding that the legislature was the anvil upon which every hammer of public discontent descended. Aged only 39 at the time, Adams had just been elected to the USA’s first Continental Congress, as delegate from Massachusetts, in 1774.

    Although Adams, a top-notch Federalist and deep-rooted political philosopher went on to become the first Vice President, and later second President of the USA, succeeding the immortal George Washington, the ‘burden’ which comes with serving in the legislature as against the executive branch was not lost on him throughout his distinguished career.

    Back home in Nigeria, the fear which Adams nursed about public office, especially as it concerns the legislature, continues to titillate the public almost 200 years after the U.S congressman’s demise. Between the Senate and the House of Representatives, there is apparently no shortage of theatrics in-between sessions, with the state assemblies offering occasional side-shows to compliment the orchestra of spectacular comic relief. Remarkably, these brickbats, besides providing the citizenry the elixir needed  to vent pent-up anger and frustration with life itself, invariably end up with few useful lessons which, going forward, aid the institution of public service to imbibe new moral ethics – thus making living more tolerable.

    Yet, to be able to synthesize the positives embedded in any public spat for the general good, society ought to be able to discern between fact and fiction, as well as decipher truth from propaganda. After all, as native wisdom counsels, it is from the black pot that cometh the white pap!

    Sadly, in Nigeria, upon the dawn of a fresh ‘scandal’, the goal is often to applaud the accuser and hasten to convict the accused in the court of public opinion. Just name and shame the fellow(s) concerned, until they are able to prove their innocence, in an inverse application of the standard law which presumes an accused as innocent, until proven otherwise. It does not matter if the pursued, most often in front of the chasing mob, is the one now chanting, ‘thief, thief, thief’ in order to secure a get-away.

    It is against this backdrop that the Nigerian tribe of analysts, commentators and indeed, public opinion influencers ought to, unlike the Roman plebeians, seek an intense understanding of the real issues involved in the Yakubu Dogara/Abdulmumin Jubrin face-off.

    Colunmist, Niyi Akinnaso, writing in the back page of The Punch of Tuesday, August 2, captures this mind-set succinctly when he asserted thus: “Whatever the outcome of the investigation, however, the alleged culprits have fallen short of the honour and respect due to their ranks, at least in the court of public opinion”. Really?

    Although Akinnaso concedes that “to be frank with ourselves, the National Assembly is constitutionally empowered to modify the budgetary proposals submitted by the President, by deleting or adding particular items to the budget”, such realization was sadly not potent enough to dissuade him from dismissing the concerned institution as “House of Representative Thieves?”

    It is such quick-to-convict disposition and blanket condemnation that usually pitch the public against the legislature. Often, such conclusions arise out of the claim – and sometimes correct charge – that some legislators derive personal monetary and other benefits from their positions and projects which they influence into the Appropriation Act.

    Remarkably, the current attempt to rail-road the House of Representatives into committing a kind of class suicide, in pursuit of the avenging mission of a distraught member is a familiar path often trudged by legislators who held the short end of a stick after every internal struggle for power and recognition.

    If recent memory is anything to go by, an Etteh ascends the throne and a Farouk misses the all-important Appropriation Committee chair as a reward for his part in the enterprise, and all hell is let loose.  Enter a Dimeji Bankole, and a Dino (and friends) don’t get the recognition they crave, and the House snowballs into a huge mat for wrestlemania.

    But while these two instances could be regarded as internal affairs of the House, the externalisation of similar disagreement, reached a new high in the 7th Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, which I was a proud part of.

    Two quick instances, using the 7th Assembly’s two Presiding Officers, Tambuwal and his deputy, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, would suffice. First, on January 6, 2014, preparatory to resumption from Christmas/New Year break, some interest groups went to town to canvass the possible removal of Ihedioha, citing the new-found-majority of the burgeoning All Progressives Congress (APC), following the defection of 37 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House members. As deputy chairman, Media and Public Affairs, I have to counter such move, citing, among others, Section 50(1) (b) of the 1999 Nigeria Constitution, as amended, to wit: “There shall be a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.”

    The same constitutional provision was to come in handy, when on October 28, 2014 Speaker Tambuwal announced his switch to the APC, and the full weight of the state power was deployed in an undisguised attempt to unseat him.

    Instructively, in spite of the clear provisions of the constitution, as stated above, many cheerleaders masquerading as analysts had, in deference to public hysteria, cried themselves hoarse on the propriety of a Tambuwal resignation.

    Sadly, under another dispensation, we are yet to see a change in attitude – one in which an arm of government is allowed to self-regulate. Speaker Dogara, and indeed, his leadership, serve only at the behest of their honourable colleagues. And the House Rules and the Nigerian constitution clearly spell out how any of them can exit their privileged position(s). I have searched through both documents and I could not find where hounding one out of office is cited as a route towards dethroning any of them.

    Though Jubrin denounces the word “padding”, he seeks to make heavy weather over claims that Speaker Dogara inserted projects into an Appropriation Bill which he authored. Oftentimes, the tendency is to play the ostrich in such matters, when in actual fact, it is generally acknowledged that primus inter pares anywhere in the world, from class monitors, to student representatives, labour leaders and even Presidents get a little more.

    Pray, who in his right senses would expect a state governor or President, who ran on the same ticket as their deputies, to wield the same amount of influence?

    I do need to point out, however, that the essence of my intervention today is neither to denigrate Jubrin nor question his integrity (members of the 7th and 8th Assembly are free to draw up their own conclusions); rather my concern centres around how to preserve the sacred institution of the legislature, rather than have its disgruntled members lie through the teeth, in a classic rehash of the ‘You Tarka me, I Daboh you’ episode.

    It would seem, regrettably, that Jubrin is perhaps too far gone in his open display of hate for Speaker Dogara, that he could gloss over the timeless warning of his presumptive hero, Goebbels, who himself asserted, “there will come a day when all the lies will collapse under their own weight, and the truth will triumph again.”

    To Jubrin and his co-travellers, that time is nigh, in September, when the honourable members of the House of Representatives will resume for plenary. Until then, he may do well to take a deserve vacation, away from the path of propaganda and the denigration of an institution which he ought to help fortify.

     

    • Hon. Ogene, a journalist, was deputy chairman, Media & Public Affairs in the House of Representatives (2011-2015).

  • Terrible tales from IDP camps

    SIR: Since Boko Haram insurgency became blustery, communities in the North-east have repeatedly experienced loss of lives, livelihood and homes.

    For all that, in what appears to be a swift move to cater for these citizens, the government introduced Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camps in what is supposed to be a temporary safe haven for feeding and housing. As a result of this move, donations flooded in from individuals and organizations, both locally and internationally.

    Recently, report of severely malnourished IDPs at immediate risk of death in Borno State camps was released to the media by Doctors Without Borders.

    In their report, the international humanitarian-aid and non-governmental organization stated that “Since May 23, at least 188 people have died in the camp—almost six people per day—mainly from diarrhoea and malnutrition.”

    There were also unconfirmed reports that trucks filled with rice supposedly meant for Adamawa state IDP camps have been diverted.

    At a time when our people need sympathy and support one is forced to ask: Where is the place of empathy and true fear of God we often learn from our religious houses? Did all our leaders not swear by the Bible and Quran to be fair and honest in their discharge duties?

    Aporous system and lack of positive values are some of the many maladies eroding the ethical base of socio-economic development in our society.

    For a second, let’s consider this fact: As at today, no official or comprehensive national data, or policy framework exists on IDPs in the country.

    Two things are clear: These acts are the product of an unholy coterie of people trusted with the resources and such people are deep into venal ways such as stealing from the IDPs’ aid system to take care of their pervasive needs.

    Without doubt, many feel justified in concluding that the undertaking of handling donations from individuals and organizations by those entrusted with the task of running the IDP scheme is on a steep trajectory for failure.

    The inability of just ousted government to curtail Boko Haram carnage, among many reasons, paved way for the new order with the change mantra. Likewise, it is on record that people in the IDP camps stood in lines in the midst of lack and pain to vote in the government of the day.

    Without a doubt, the government is making extensive efforts in tackling corruption and steady military progress against Boko Haram insurgents. Nonetheless, taking care of these people, amongst others, should be a priority.Security concerns, inadequate access to basic services and dolorous state of livelihood, and of recent, malnutrition isconstantly plaguing these people.

    In all seriousness, it will be inappropriate for the administration at state and federal level to remain tongue-tied while brigands with moral turpitude grow fat on largesse from IDPs.

    Moreover, the public is offended by these acts of apathy and the society is nowgrowing intolerant of cover-up. Therefore, to avoid losing the trust of the people a broad approach is needed on how to demystify this conundrum of rumoured diversion, malnutrition and deaths.

    The government should rethink the long-standing practices of sweeping news of such inhuman acts under the carpet considering social media has since taken its place as alternative to mainstream media exposing corrupt acts with audio visual confirmation.

    Finally, it is important to emphasize that it takes high moral rectitude to exercise the moral strength required to serve. Dutiful people of integrity with broad outlook for common good above their narrow group interests should be sorted and empowered and monitored. The status quo is not acceptable. The system designed to aid IDPs should not leave them out of the scheme.

     

    • David Dimas

    Laurel, Maryland, U.S.A