The Nation Newspaper

Tag: way out

  • Presidential aspirant lists way out of insecurity

    A 36-year-old presidential aspirant from Ondo State, Mr. Patrick Bamidele Oludare Jnr., has suggested ways out of the lingering insecurity situation in the country.

    The presidential aspirant, who is running on the platform of Youth Democratic Party,  said one of the reasons for the persistence of insecurity in Nigeria was that the Nigerian security system  was designed to be reactive.

    Oludare, who spoke at a public lecture in Akure yesterday, said, “Nigeria is currently running a reactive system of police, while it needs to practise proactive system of police.

    “The Nigeria police force needs to focus on and invest in crime detection, crime preventionan intelligence gathering to be able to combat its various security problems.

    “There are known strategies that can be used to disrupt new crime development and prevent the onslaught of criminal activities in the country.

    “It is necessary that most of the Nigerian policemen should be made to work in the area of crime prevention and intelligence gathering,” he noted.

    He added that it would be ideal if 60 percent of Nigerian policemen was deployed in intelligence gathering, assuring that such would preempt debilitating attacks on unwary communities as being witnessed through the Fulani herdsmen strikes.

    Oludare who also promised to create 500,000 businesses in the first six months if elected president, said his immediate task would be to fix Nigeria’s “broken economy.”

    The young aspirant said he would “geo-fix the economy through improvement in credit status” and “financing solutions with a bank-initiated market, to sustain capital growth in the economy.”

  • The way out: A clarion call for coalition for Nigeria movement

    The way out: A clarion call for coalition for Nigeria movement

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday launched deeper into the political space, calling on Nigerians to form a movement to rescue the country. In a ‘special statement’ entitled: The way out: A clarion call for Coalition for Nigeria (CN) movement, the former leader says neither the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), nor the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has the wherewithal to take Nigerians to the Promised Land. Below is the statement.

    Since we are still in the month of January, it is appropriate to wish all Nigerians Happy 2018.  I am constrained to issue this special statement at this time considering the situation of the country.  Some of you may be asking: “What has brought about this special occasion of Obasanjo issuing a Special Statement?” You will be right to ask such a question.  But there is a Yoruba saying that ‘when lice abound in your clothes, your fingernails will never be dried of blood’.

    When I was in the village, to make sure that lice die, you put them between two fingernails and press hard to ensure they die and they always leave blood stains on the fingernails.  To ensure you do not have blood on your fingernails, you have to ensure that lice are not harboured anywhere within your vicinity.

    The lice of poor performance in government – poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed – if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality – are very much with us today. With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of ‘blood’.

    Four years ago when my PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) card was torn, I made it abundantly clear that I quit partisan politics for aye but my concern and interest in Nigeria, Africa and indeed in humanity, would not wane.  Ever since, I have adhered strictly to that position.  Since that time, I have devoted quality time to the issue of zero hunger as contained in Goal No. 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN).

    We have set the target that Nigeria, with the participating states in the Zero Hunger Forum, should reach Zero Hunger Goal by 2025 – five years earlier than the UN target date.  I am involved in the issue of education in some states and generally in the issue of youth empowerment and employment.  I am involved in all these domestically and altruistically to give hope and future to the seemingly hopeless and those in despair.  I believe strongly that God has endowed Nigeria so adequately that no Nigerian should be either in want or in despair.

    I believe in team work and collaborative efforts.  At the international level, we have worked with other world leaders to domicile the apparatus for monitoring and encouraging socio-economic progress in Africa in our Presidential Library. The purpose of Africa Progress Group, which is the new name assumed by Africa Progress Panel (APP), is to point out where, when and what works need to be done for the progress of Africa separately and collectively by African leaders and their development partners. I have also gladly accepted the invitation of the UN Secretary-General to be a member of his 18-member high-level Board of Advisers on Mediation.  There are other assignments I take up in other fora for Africa and for the international community.

    For Africa to move forward, Nigeria must be one of the anchor countries, if not the leading anchor country.  It means that Nigeria must be good at home to be good outside.  No doubt, our situation in the last decade or so, had shown that we are not good enough at home; hence we are invariably absent at the table that we should be abroad.

    All these led me to take the unusual step of going against my own political party, PDP, in the last general election to support the opposite side.  I saw that action as the best option for Nigeria.

    As it has been revealed in the last three years or so, that decision and the subsequent collective decision of Nigerians to vote for a change was the right decision for the nation.  For me, there was nothing personal, it was all in the best interest of Nigeria and, indeed, in the best interest of Africa and humanity at large.

    Even the horse rider then, with whom I maintain very cordial, happy and social relationship today has come to realise his mistakes and regretted it publicly and I admire his courage and forthrightness in this regard.  He has a role to play on the sideline for the good of Nigeria, Africa and humanity and I will see him as a partner in playing such a role nationally and internationally, but not as a horse rider in Nigeria again.

    The situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get my brother Jonathan off the horse is playing itself out again.  First, I thought I knew the point where President Buhari is weak and I spoke and wrote about it even before Nigerians voted for him and I also did vote for him because at that time it was a matter of “any option but Jonathan” (aobj).  But, my letter to President Jonathan titled: “Before It Is Too Late” was meant for him to act before it was too late.  He ignored it and it was too late for him and those who goaded him into ignoring the voice of caution.

    I know that praise-singers and hired attackers may be raised up against me for verbal or even physical attack, but if I can withstand undeserved imprisonment and was ready to shed my blood by standing for Nigeria, I will consider no sacrifice too great to make for the good of Nigeria at any time.  No human leader is expected to be personally strong or self-sufficient in all aspects of governance.

    I knew President Buhari before he became President and said that he is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy. But I thought that he could make use of good Nigerians in that area that could help.  Although, I know that you cannot give what you don’t have and that economy does not obey military order.  You have to give it what it takes in the short-, medium- and long-term.  Then, it would move. I know his weakness in understanding and playing in the foreign affairs sector and again, there are many Nigerians that could be used in that area as well. They have knowledge and experience that could be deployed for the good of Nigeria.  There were serious allegations of round-tripping against some inner caucus of the Presidency which would seem to have been condoned.  I wonder if such actions do not amount to corruption and financial crime, then what is it? Culture of condonation and turning blind eye will cover up rather than clean up.  And going to justice must be with clean hands.

    I thought President Buhari would fight corruption and insurgency and he must be given some credit for his achievement so far in these two areas although it is not yet uhuru!

    The herdsmen/crop farmers issue is being wittingly or unwittingly allowed to turn sour and messy.  It is no credit to the Federal Government that the herdsmen rampage continues with careless abandon and without finding an effective solution to it.  And it is a sad symptom of insensitivity and callousness that some governors, a day after 73 victims were being buried in a mass grave in Benue State without condolence, were jubilantly endorsing President Buhari for a second term!  The timing was most unfortunate.  The issue of herdsmen/crop farmers dichotomy should not be left on the political platform of blame game; the Federal Government must take the lead in bringing about solution that protects life and properties of herdsmen and crop farmers alike and for them to live amicably in the same community.

    But, there are three other areas where President Buhari has come out more glaringly than most of us thought we knew about him.  One is nepotic deployment bordering on clannishness and inability to bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court.  This has grave consequences on performance of his government to the detriment of the nation.  It would appear that national interest was being sacrificed on the altar of nepotic interest.  What does one make of a case like that of Maina: collusion, condonation, ineptitude, incompetence, dereliction of responsibility or kinship and friendship on the part of those who should have taken visible and deterrent disciplinary action?  How many similar cases are buried, ignored or covered up and not yet in the glare of the media and the public?  The second is his poor understanding of the dynamics of internal politics.  This has led to wittingly or unwittingly making the nation more divided and inequality has widened and become more pronounced.  It also has effect on general national security.  The third is passing the buck.  For instance, blaming the Governor of the Central Bank (CBN) for devaluation of the naira by 70 per cent or so, and blaming past governments for it is to say the least, not accepting one’s own responsibility.  Let nobody deceive us, economy feeds on politics and because our politics is depressing, our economy is even more depressing today.

    If things were good, President Buhari would not need to come in.  He was voted to fix things that were bad and not engage in the blame game.

    Our Constitution is very clear –  one of the cardinal responsibilities of the president is the management of the economy of which the value of the naira forms an integral part. Kinship and friendship that place responsibility for governance in the hands of the unelected can only be deleterious to good government and to the nation.

    President Buhari’s illness called for the sympathy, understanding, prayer and patience from every sane Nigerian.  It is part of our culture.  Most Nigerians prayed for him while he was away sick in London for over hundred days and he gave his deputy sufficient leeway to carry on in his absence.

    We all thanked God for President Buhari for coming back reasonably hale and hearty and progressing well in his recovery.  But, whatever may be the state of President Buhari’s health today, he should neither over-push his luck nor over-tax the patience and tolerance of Nigerians for him, no matter what his self-serving, so-called advisers, who would claim that they love him more than God loves him, and that without him, there would be no Nigeria, say.  President Buhari needs a dignified and honourable dismount from the horse. He needs to have time to reflect, refurbish physically and recoup and after appropriate rest, once again, join the stock of Nigerian leaders whose experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the sideline for the good of the country.  His place in history is already assured.  Without impaired health and strain of age, running the affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not 24/7.    I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at this age.  I continue to wish him robust health to enjoy his retirement from active public service.  President Buhari does not necessarily need to heed my advice.  But, whether or not he heeds it, Nigeria needs to move on and move forward.

    I have had occasion in the past to say that the two main political parties – APC and PDP – were wobbling.  I must reiterate that nothing has happened to convince me otherwise.  If anything, I am reinforced in my conviction.

    The recent show of the PDP must give grave and great concern to lovers of Nigeria.  To claim, as has been credited to the chief kingmaker of the PDP, that for procuring the Supreme Court judgement for his faction of the party, he must dictate the tune all the way and this is indeed fraught with danger.  If neither APC nor PDP is a worthy horse to ride to lead Nigeria at this crucial and critical time, what then do we do?  Remember Farooq Kperogi, an Associate professor at the Kennesaw State University, Georgia, United States (U.S.), calls it “a cruel Hobson’s choice; it’s like a choice between six and half a dozen, between evil and evil. Any selection or deflection would be a distinction without a difference.  We cannot just sit down lamenting and wringing our hands desperately and hopelessly.

    I believe the situation we are in today, is akin to what and where we were in at the beginning of this democratic dispensation in 1999.  The nation was tottering.  People became hopeless and saw no bright future in the horizon.  It was all a dark cloud politically, economically and socially.

    The price of oil at that time was nine dollars per barrel and we had a debt overhang of about $35 billion. Most people were confused with lack of direction in the country.  One of the factors that saved the situation was a near-government of national unity that was put in place to navigate us through the dark cloud.  We had almost all hands on deck.  We used people at home and from the diaspora and we navigated through the dark cloud of those days.

    At that time, most people were hopelessly groping in the dark.  They saw no choice, neither in the left nor in the right, and yet, we were not bereft of people at home and from the diaspora that could come together to make Nigeria truly a land flowing with milk and honey.

    Where we are is a matter of choice but we can choose differently to make a necessary and desirable change, once again.

    Wherever I go, I hear Nigerians complaining, murmuring in anguish and anger.  But our anger should not be like the anger of the cripple.  We can collectively save ourselves from the position we find ourselves.  It will not come through self-pity, fruitless complaint or protest, but through constructive and positive engagement and collective action for the good of our nation and ourselves and our children and their children.

    We need moral re-armament and engaging togetherness of people of like-mind and goodwill to come solidly together to lift Nigeria up.

    This is no time for trading blames, or embarking on futile argument, and neither should we accept untenable excuses for non-performance.

    Let us accept that the present administration has done what it can do to the limit of its ability, aptitude and understanding. Let the administration and its political party platform agree with the rest of us that what they have done and what they are capable of doing is not good enough for us.

    They have given as best as they have and as best as they can give.  Nigeria deserves and urgently needs better than what they have given or what we know they are capable of giving.

    To ask them to give more will be unrealistic and will only sentence Nigeria to a prison term of four years, if not destroy it beyond the possibility of an early recovery and substantial growth.

    Einstein made it clear to us that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the height of folly.

    Already, Nigerians are committing suicide for the unbearable socio-economic situation they find themselves in. And yet, Nigerians love life.  We must not continue to reinforce failure and hope that all will be well.  It is self-deceit and self-defeat and another aspect of folly.

    What has emerged from the opposition has shown no better promise from their antecedents.  As the leader of that party for eight years as President of Nigeria, I can categorically say there is nothing to write home about in their new team.

    We have only one choice left to take us out of Egypt to the Promised Land.  And that is the coalition of the concerned and the willing – ready for positive and drastic change, progress and involvement.  Change that will give hope and future to all our youth and dignity and full participation to all our women.

    Our youth should be empowered to deploy their ability to learn, innovate and work energetically at ideas and concepts in which they can make their own original inputs.

    Youth must be part of the action today and not relegated to leadership of tomorrow which may never come.  Change that will mean enhancement of living standard and progress for all.  A situation where the elected will accountably govern and every Nigerian will have equal opportunity not based on kinship and friendship but based on free citizenship.

    Democracy is sustained and measured not by leaders doing extra-ordinary things, (invariably, leaders fail to do ordinary things very well), but by citizens rising up to do ordinary things extra-ordinarily well.

    Our democracy, development and progress at this juncture require ordinary citizens of Nigeria to do the extra-ordinary things of changing the course and direction of our lackluster performance and development.

    If leadership fails, citizens must not fail and there lies the beauty and importance of democracy.  We are challenged by the current situation; we must neither adopt spirit of cowardice nor timidity let alone impotence, but must be sustained by courage, determination and commitment to say and do and to persist until we achieve upliftment for Nigeria.

    Nothing ventured, nothing gained and we believe that our venturing will not be in vain.  God of Nigeria has endowed this country adequately and our non-performance cannot be blamed on God but on leadership.  God, who has given us what we need and which is potentially there, will give us leadership enablement to actualise our potentiality.

    The development and modernisation of our country and society must be anchored and sustained on dynamic Nigerian culture, enduring values and an enchanting Nigerian dream.

    We must have abiding faith in our country and its role and place within the comity of nations.  Today, Nigeria needs all hands on deck.  All hands of men and women of goodwill must be on deck.  We need all hands to move our country forward.

    We need a Coalition for Nigeria (CN). Such a movement  at this juncture needs not be a political party but one to which all well-meaning Nigerians can belong.  That Movement must be a coalition for democracy, good governance, social and economic well-being and progress.  Coalition to salvage and redeem our country. You can count me with such a movement.

    Last time, we asked, prayed and worked for change and God granted our request.  This time, we must ask, pray and work for change with unity, security and progress. And God will again grant us.  Of course, nothing should stop such a movement from satisfying conditions for fielding candidates for elections.  But, if at any stage the movement wishes to metamorphose into candidate-sponsoring movement for elections, I will bow out of the movement because I will continue to maintain my non-partisan position.  CNmust have its headquarters in Abuja.

    This CN will be a movement that will drive Nigeria up and forward.  It must have a pride of place for all Nigerians, particularly for our youths and our women.  It is a coalition of hope for all Nigerians for speedy, quality and equal development, security, unity, prosperity and progress.  It is a coalition to banish poverty, insecurity and despair.

    Our country must not be oblivious to concomitant danger around, outside and ahead.  CN must be a movement to break new ground in building a united country, a socially-cohesive and moderately prosperous society with equity, equality of opportunity, justice and a dynamic and progressive economy that is self-reliant and takes active part in global division of labour and international decision-making.

    The movement must work out the path of development and the trajectory of development in speed, quality and equality in the short- medium- and long-term for Nigeria on the basis of sustainability, stability, predictability, credibility, security, cooperation and prosperity with diminishing inequality. What is called for is love, commitment and interest in our country, not in self, friends and kinship alone but particularly love, compassion and interest in the poor, underprivileged and downtrodden.  It is our human duty and responsibility so to do.  Failure to do this will amount to a sin against God and a crime against humanity.

    Some may ask, what does Obasanjo want again?  Obasanjo has wanted nothing other than the best for Nigeria and Nigerians and he will continue to want nothing less.  And if we have the best, we will be contented whether where we live is described as palaces or huts by others and we will always give thanks to God.

    I, therefore, will gladly join such a movement when one is established as CN taking Nigeria to the height God has created it to be.

    From now on, the Nigeria eagle must continue to soar and fly high.  CN, as a movement, will be new, green, transparent and must remain clean and always active, selflessly so.  Members must be ready to make sacrifice for the nation and pay the price of being pioneers and good Nigerians for our country to play the God-assigned role for itself, for its neighbours, for its sub-region of West Africa, for its continent and for humanity in general.

    For me, the strength and sustainable success of CN will derive largely from the strong commitment of a population that is constantly mobilised to the rallying platform of the fact that going forward together is our best option for building a nation that will occupy its deserved place in the global community.  May God continue to lead, guide and protect us.  Amen.

     

  • Way out of herdsmen attacks, by NBA, others

    Way out of herdsmen attacks, by NBA, others

    Farmers and herdsmen have cohabited for ages. Then something snapped and they turned against themselves. Benue State is still reeling from the shock of the killing of 73 people by herdsmen on January 1. The killings were said to have been sparked by protests against the anti-open grazing law. Now, the Federal Government has dumped ranching for cattle colonies. Will this stop incessant killings? asks ADEBISI ONANUGA

    It was a grim task, but one that had to be done. The people of Benue State filed out last Thursday to bury the 73 people killed by herdsmen on January 1 at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida Square (IBB) Square in Markudi, the capital.

    The herdsmen invaded villages in Guma and Logo local government areas, killing people on their farms and in their homes. Many bodies were not found until a week later.

    The killings sparked outrage.

    Tor Tiv and paramount ruler of Tiv land, Prof James Ayatse, said the attack was the 47th  in five years by Fulani herdsmen. He likened the killings to genocide.

    He said: “I, therefore, call on the Federal Government to act swiftly by putting an end to these killings; this act of impunity must stop.”

    A former Katsina State Military Governor, Gen. Lawrence Onoja, who also described the killings as genocidal conspiracy against Benue people, said it must stop.

    Onoja said: “Some of us in 1966 fought in the Nigeria civil war. Benue has contributed to the unity of this country. Therefore if the Federal Government refuses to address the killings, we will decide to raise our army as advocated by our elders to defend ourselves, l will not mind to command that army, despite my age.”

    He appealed to the Federal Government to replicate “Operation Python Dance” or “Fulani dance” in Benue as being done in other states. He urged Benue indigenes to support Ortom for the successful enforcement of the anti-open-grazing law.

    A former lawmaker from Benue Northwest, Senator Joseph Waku, said: “It is unfortunate that someone would oppose a law that is legally enacted and begin to kill and the Federal Government would refuse to make arrest in a quest to end the carnage. This is enough provocation; nobody has the monopoly of killing. Therefore, enough is enough”.

    A representative of the United Nations (UN), Dr. Mathins Ejibike, who attended the funeral, condoled with the government and people. He said the situation demanded international attention.

    “We want an enlightened approach to this matter. We should continue to pray. This kind of killings should be the last in the Benue State.”

    How it all started

    On Monday, May 22, 2017, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, signed into law, the Open Grazing Prohibition and Establishment of Ranches Law 2017. The law, which came into operation on November 1, was seen by many as the best solution to the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the state.

    The law specifically permits grazing of livestock only within ranches and prohibits the movement of animals from one destination to another within the state except by rail, trucks and other vehicles. The law spells out punishment for offenders ranging from imprisonment to payment of fines on conviction by a law court.

    And to demonstrate his commitment to the implementation of the law, Ortom set in motion the machinery to provide land for pilot ranches to assist livestock owners who may find the establishment of private ranches challenging.

    He inaugurated the livestock guards and advisory committee charged with enforcement of the act across the State.

    With the promulgation of the law, relative peace returned to the communities while farming and other socio-economic activities resumed.

    But one interesting aspect of the law was that it also protects livestock and ranches as it stipulates severe punishment for any person convicted of cattle rustling or any other animals kept in ranches.

    Miyetti Allah kicks

    However, a group, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a Fulani socio-cultural association, faulted the Anti-Open Grazing Law, describing it as obnoxious and a recipe for anarchy.

    The National President of the organisation, Alhaji Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, said the Land Grazing law of 1960 is what they know and is subsisting. He advised Governor Ortom to learn from former Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau, who, according to Bodejo, tried to decimate the Fulani for eight years but failed. He expressed worries that their human right to free movement was being violated as a result of the restriction placed on their animals by the law. He accused the governor of committing illegalities by trying to deny them their means of livelihood. Bodejo noted that pastoralists have same legal rights like every Benue State indigene. He said: “Governor Samuel Ortom is asking pastoralists to leave Benue State; that cannot happen. How can a Nigerian ask other Nigerians to leave a place they are constitutionally entitled to be?”

    However, the orgy of violence and killings by suspected herdsmen have not been limited to Benue. In Taraba State, about 27 people were also killed.

    Other states’ experience

    Over the past decades, the nation has witnessed increased violence between farmers and herdsmen leading to the death of innocent souls. Open grazing has been seen by some as an outdated form of cattle rearing and a source of anarchy and confusion in various parts of the country.

    To curtail the clashes, many states have had to enact anti-open grazing bill to protect themselves and to arrest the situation threatening peaceful and mutual co-existence in many communities.

    Taraba

    For instance Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State, on May 7, 2017, proposed an executive bill to the state House of Assembly to prohibit open grazing. The bill is entitled, “Anti-Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Bill 2017”.

    The bill prohibits open rearing and grazing of livestock and provides for the establishment of ranches and the Taraba State livestock and ranches administration and control committee and for others connected thereto.  Like in Benue, the bill was intended to bring lasting solutions to the killings and destruction of property in the state as a result of herdsmen and farmers’ clashes.  Weeks after, precisely June 12, the Maiyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association protested against the bill. Its members beseiged the state House of Assembly to stop it from being passed into law.

    Maiyetti Allah, Taraba State Chapter Chairman, Alhaji Sahabi Mahmud Tukur, said the bill was “inimical, ill-intended, discriminatory and a misplaced priority”, adding that the association rejected the bill. To them, “grazing, like any other occupation, is cultural.”

    However, while many states are battling with killings and wanton destruction of properties by alleged herdsmen, Plateau, Bayelsa and Anambra are some of the few states that are free from such attacks.

    Plateau

    Although a youth group in Plateau State presented a bill seeking to ban open grazing, a majority of herdsmen in the state opposed the bill as they saw it as an attempt to run them out of the state. Instead of an anti-open grazing law, Plateau State has been implementing a ranching policy. Last Thursday, Governor Simon Lalong told State House correspondents, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that one of the things that sustained peace in Plateau was his consultations with the people on the ranching policy. He said the majority of Plateau citizens have bought into the idea and voluntarily donated land for the pilot scheme to take off. He said consultations allowed the people to understand and buy into the concepts.

    Bayelsa

    In Bayelsa, the relative peace enjoyed in the state is due to the decision of Governor Seriake Dickson to make available the state-owned Palm Estate, Elebele, spanning about 1,200 hectares of land, for grazing. Since the government came up with the policy of restricting the herdsmen and their cattle to this area, the state has not recorded any violent clash between herdsmen and local farmers to date.

    Anambra

    There is no anti-grazing law in Anambra State. However, Governor Willie Obiano adopted a policy for peaceful coexistence between the people of the state and cattle rearers. He set up a joint task force comprising security operatives, herdsmen, host communities and state officials in all areas where herdsmen operate. However, in the early stage of the formation of the task force, a few clashes were recorded. It was reported that the herdsmen violated the policy 11 times, but following the quick intervention of the state government, the issues were resolved.

    Ekiti

    On August 29, 2016, Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose signed an anti-grazing bill into law to curb herdsmen’s activities.

    He threatened to charge any cattle rearer found  carrying arms while grazing with terrorism.

    The Ekiti State Anti-grazing Law has six main features:

    Grazing must be from 7am to 600pm daily.

    Anyone caught grazing on portions of land or any farmland not allotted by the government shall be apprehended and made to face the law.

    Any herdsman caught with firearms and any weapons during grazing shall be charged with terrorism.

    Any cattle confiscated shall be taken to the government cattle ranch at Erifun and Iworoko Ekiti community in the state.

    Any farm crop destroyed by any apprehended herdsman shall be estimated by agricultural officers and the expenses shall be borne by the culprit.

    Any herdsman who violates any of these rules shall be imprisoned for six months without fine.

    To further enforce the law, the governor on October 26, 2016, inaugurated the Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshals, with the warning that cattle found grazing after 6pm would be confiscated by the state government.

    He also said the state government would collaborate with the police and other security agencies to tackle armed herdsmen, saying marshals are not to carry arms and, therefore, would rely on agencies empowered by law to carry arms to tackle armed cattle rearers.

    To demonstrate that he meant business, two herdsmen Momodu Rebo (19) and Isiaka Idris (22), arraigned before a magistrate court, were remanded in prison custody on August 29, 2017 for violating the state’s anti grazing law.

    The defendants were ordered to be put in prison for destroying a farm land at Apoto Farm Settlement in Eporo, Emure Local Government Area on January 11, last year.  The court was told they unlawfully allowed their cattle to graze on farmland not designated as ranches, but belonging to Akinwale Bisi, Agbelegbe Dare and Paul Salami, damaging their crops worth N850,000, he said.

    Last Wednesday, Fayose also met with hunters in the state and urged them not to allow herdsmen to kill the people of Ekiti. He raised an alarm that some Fulani herdsmen have started a surreptitious move into the outskirts of Ekiti to kill and maim people.

    Fayose said the move was targeted at rubbishing his anti-grazing law, but assured that the invaders would be met with stiff resistance from the people. He charged the hunters from the 16 local governments areas, during a meeting, to secure the state against the herdsmen.

    However, an association of Fulani herdsmen from Ilorin, who live in Ekiti faulted the state’s anti-grazing law.

    The herdsmen, under the aegis of Jamu Nate Fulbe Association of Nigeria, said the law contradicted the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011.

    Speaking through their Legal Adviser, Mr. Umar Imam, they argued that herdsmen who carried light weapons , such as cutlasses, knives, catapult and arrows within the time stipulated by the new law, could not be charged with terrorism.

    Fed Govt’s response

    Last Tuesday, President  Muhammadu Buhari gave clarifications on why the Federal Government never challenged anti-open grazing bill signed into law by the Benue State government.

    According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the government is to hold a stakeholders’ conference on infrastructural and agricultural development to give the state government an opportunity to halt the senseless killings by the herdsmen. He said the move was to proffer short and long-term solutions to the frequent clashes between farmers and cattle rearers. The conference, Shehu said, is to draw up a 20-30 year development plan that takes cognisance of environmental impact. It said Buhari had been concerned about these conflicts.

    The statement reads in part: “He is equally worried about some public pronouncements and finger-pointing that are, in most cases, very unhelpful to peaceful coexistence of our people.

    “The President is conscious of his duty to Nigerians, not the least because he is accountable to everything that goes wrong. He deeply sympathises with the families and all the other direct and indirect victims of this violence. He is determined to bring it to a permanent end.

    “While there are many Nigerians who see the conflict between the nomadic herdsmen and peasant farmers as an ethnic problem, others point to religious differences and agenda. The President does not subscribe to such simplistic reductionism.

    “President Buhari holds the view, as do many experts, that these conflicts are more often than not, as a result of major demographic changes in Nigeria.”

    His explanation, however, was received with criticisms, that he was slow in responding to the killings in Benue State and for reducing the dastardly act of the herdsmen to “ethnic problems”, “religious differences and agenda” and “demographic changes”.

    How to handle the killings

    The Federal Government has announced the ban of open grazing to stem the growing anger sparked by the killings in Benue and other states. But beyond the policy statement, how can such threats to peace and public safety be checked? Is a national anti-open grazing law needed? Should states be mandated by law to provide land for cattle colonies and ranches? Most importantly, what are the legal steps that should be taken to prevent a recurrence of the recent killings?

    A Nigerian Working Group on Peace Building and Governance in a paper released on January 7 took a cursory look at the crisis of the herdsmen and recommended solutions that ranged from the creation of new grazing resolves and deployment of modern technology like an electronic chip to track animals.

    The signatories to the report include public policy experts, academics and diplomats: Ibrahim Gambari, Martin Luther-Agwai, Jibrin Ibrahim, Attahiru Jega, Chris Kwaja, Fatima Balla, Nguyan Fesse, Aisha Muhammed–Oyebode and Y. Z. Ya’u.

    The group, according to Premium Times, suggested that experts should be assembled to map out the duration, strategy and timelines for the transition plan. As there is no miracle model for solving the problems, the plan should simultaneously pursue a number of models .

    The group noted there are discordant laws and regulations on legislate livestock production and pastoralism at the regional, national and state levels. It noted that some of the newly emerging laws such as the “anti-grazing” state laws appear to contradict the principle of free movement enshrined in the Constitution.

    It, therefore, recommended the harmonisation of relevant laws and policies that governs grazing reserves. It specifically said the 1965 Grazing Reserve Law could be revived based on Section 315 of the 1999 Constitution in the 19 northern states and complemented with a national review and protection of traditional stock routes; it advised that regional instruments governing pastoralism should be protected and above all domesticated. It said in addition to the laws, consultative process between farming and pastoral communities are required to review the effect of statutes and regulations on routine practices of animal husbandry.

    According to Premium Times, the group, among others, recommended ranching  as one of the possible models in areas with lower population densities in the Northeast (Sambisa Game Reserve in Borno State) and Northwest (Gidan Jaja Grazing Reserve in Zamfara State);

    Semi-intensive systems of animal husbandry,  accompanied with requisite investment in infrastructure, training, extension, marketing and animal health service delivery in conjuncture with the private sector;  the traditional form of pastoralism should continue for a period to be agreed upon with some improvements (in the form of coordinated mobility between wet and dry season grazing areas and effective management of farmers and pastoralists relations) among others.

    The group also suggested the establishment of grazing reserves provides the opportunity for practicing a more limited form of pastoralism and is therefore a pathway towards a more settled form of animal husbandry. It noted that Nigeria has a total of 417 grazing reserves out of which only about 113 have been gazetted.

    The group noted that pastoralism has developed into a national crisis that is leading to increased violence and that a legal approach alone cannot resolve the issue. It said it is therefore important to negotiate a national policy framework that would protect the interests of both farmers and herders. The group emphasised that the federal government should take the initiative of negotiating a consensual policy framework that would address the issues.

    It suggested a comprehensive approach to address the growing crisis associated with violence affecting pastoralism and farmers in Nigeria. It advised that the federal government should commission a large-scale research endeavour to carry out in-depth study to understand the reasons for the escalation of violence, key actors, motivations and agency fuelling the crisis among others.

    According to the group, cattle routes should be restored and significant investment made in restoring traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. As massive corruption has accompanied the increased presence of the police and courts in matters affecting farmers and herders, there should be advocacy and administrative guidance to return to traditional methods of conflict resolution. There should be capacity development of farmers and herders associations so that they play a more positive role in the process.

    Lawyers’ views

    In a statement, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) through its General Secretary Aare Isiaka Abiola Olagunju, urged the Federal Government to activate all constitutional measures to urgently douse mounting tension in affected areas.

    “The NBA also calls on all parties in the crisis to desist from further use of negative languages that might escalate the already tensed situation in the country.

    “No nation under the rule of law would stand by and allow mindless criminalities and wanton destruction of lives and property to go on unchecked as this would be an open invitation to anarchy.

    “The  President of the NBA shall within the shortest possible time lead a high powered delegation of the NBA on a fact finding mission to Benue, Taraba and other states affected by similar crisis in order to further parley with the affected communities in finding a common solution to the invasion and or clashes and prevent future occurrences.

    “The NBA urges the media to show restraint in their reportage of the clashes in order to prevent further escalation to other areas,” the association added.

    An Abuja-based lawyer, Mr Ocholi O. Okutepa, said herdsmen attack does not require the drafting or passing of more laws.

    “It does not also speak of the weakness of existing legislation. The issue is one we have decided not to address. It is the failure of the government to give effect to extant provisions of existing laws.

    “Having faced grave danger and unfortunate killings, Benue State enacted and passed to law its anti-grazing law in 2017. However, as already noted, law in itself is dead without the political will and relevant structure to give effect to it. So the ban on open grazing itself is no solution,” he argued.

    Okutepa suggested that each state should make relevant laws for the protection of its citizens as regards the issue of grazing. This will enable each state make laws on their perculiar circumstances.

    He however disagreed on the issue of cattle colonies, stressing that it would only further the crisis in that those aggrieved by the loss of loved ones would see this as rewarding the accused. “Constitutionally and in our penal and criminal codes, arrests and criminal  prosecution ought to be the immediate response of the government. The government must, therefore, act in the most guided way to forestall the possible worst case scenario.

    “Unfortunately, we must also admit that the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria intelligence agency, DSS and SSS, have sadly failed to live up to their responsibilities on the issue. A lot of comentators focus on prosecution but you cannot prosecute without proper intelligence and or investigation.

    “In my view therefore, policy statements and directives are, unfortunately, insufficient to deal with the issue as the mass killings resulting from herdsmen attack in Benue and other states will only go on and become worse until there is the political will to confront the issue and apply extant laws,” he contended.

    A former member of the Ogun State Judiciary Commission, Abayomi Omoyinmi, described as deplorable, the killings in Benue State and other part of the country involving the Fulani herdsmen and its communities. “I believed it is very important for government at both the federal and state to seriously engaged all stakeholders in urgent discourse, to allow tension to cool off. By engaging the stakeholders, peaceful atmosphere will return to the states and communities affected,” he said.

    According to him, a national anti-open grazing law, if enacted, may not solve the problem as recently observed by the incident in Benue State. Modifying of the law as requested by the Miyeti Alla is not necessary since the same law is a subject of litigation before the court of law and my advice in that respect is that they should wait for the outcome of the pronouncement from the court.

    He however pointed out that the Criminal Act occasioned by anyone or group should not go unpunished. He said there are laws in our statute books that provide for severe punishment for anyone found guilty murder. The security agencies must be receptive to their duties by making sure that the criminals that are alleged to have carried out these mayhem be brought to book, and any one culpable is punished as such punishment will send signal of warning to other criminals involved. He reasoned that once there is awareness that the days of impunity are over, people will desist from taken laws into their hands.

    Omoyinmi advised that the provision of land for cattle colonies and ranches should be considered but I don’t think states should be mandated by law. “Perhaps a memo of understanding to be agreed among all stakeholders, including the government, will be a better option which may also vary from state to state,” he added.

    A former Welfare Secretary of NBA, Ikeja Branch, Samson Omodara, said if the reports of threat for modification of anti-open grazing law by Mayetti is true, then, it is not only wrong but highly reprehensible.

    He argued that the Land Use Act vests the land in each state on the governors in trust for the people and the grundnorm also empowers the  Houses of Assembly to make laws for the good governance of the states. He said it was  irresponsible of any group to threaten that a law be amended for its sake without following due process.

    “The full weight of the law be brought against such group to nip in the bud a situation of utter lawlessness. The policy statement of the Federal Government is not enough but a proactive executive and legislative intervention at this critical period. International best practice of animal husbandry should also be considered by the states and the Federal Government,” he advised.

  • The way out

    The way out

    •Re-training of riders is a panacea for joblessness in a post-okada era

    Last week was one of okada-driven rhetorical flourish by ministers, senators, and leaders of okada riders. A conference on “Role of Tricycles and Motorcycles in Transport Development” yielded facile theories on the inevitability of okada as a means of employment for 30 million Nigerians.

    Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who described himself as okada rider when he was Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly and under whose governorship okada was restricted in most parts of Port Harcourt, extolled contribution of okada to the country: “Majority of people are happy that you take them from one point to the other; the only problem is that people believe you are reckless.”

    In Amaechi’s support, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, Senator Gbenga Ashafa from Lagos State said that the administration of Babatunde Fashola banned okada in many areas of Lagos metropolis, urged the association to draft a bill that would protect its members and their interest and forward such bill to the National Assembly for consideration.

    In addition, the President of Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria, (ACOMORAN), warned of the danger in banning okada:”It is unfortunate the way government agencies treat us …They just woke up one day and said commercial motorcycles should be banned, forgetting that in the process 30 million Nigerians will be jobless.”Despite the articulateness of both groups pleading for acceptance of inevitability of okada in the country’s transport sector, they all succeeded in asking wrong questions and proffering wrong solutions.

    Although the president of ACOMORAN acts in line with his role as union leader,  it is worrisome that ministers and senators are unable to see the dark side of a two-stroke-engine vehicle functioning as a substitute for mass transportation. Equally reactionary is policymakers’ refusal to acknowledge the risks okada poses for public health and safety. More alarming is that top policymakers are ignoring that okada had been banned in parts of Abuja, Edo, Ondo, Delta, Rivers, Kaduna, Lagos and Akwa Ibom states and even in countries that manufactured and promoted okada across the third world: India, Thailand, the Philippines, etc., after finding out that one two-stroke engine produces as much emission as 50 cars.

    It is also hypocritical that leaders from states which have restricted operation of okada still find it necessary to glorify okada business, despite the obvious danger it poses for the health of millions of people and for the environment. It will do the country a lot of good for ministers of transportation, health, and the environment to compare notes on the value of transporting Nigerians with okada. In most countries, no policy recommendation will be made before such consultation.

    Another myopic thinking is the belief that banning okada invariably means throwing those currently making a living as riders on the unemployment market. Such defeatism is not expected under a government of change. Regardless of the number of okada riders, such workers can be retrained or empowered for safer and more fulfilling occupations, if the governments are serious about modernising the economy and society. Fear mongering is not an acceptable solution to the damage okada poses to the nation’s health. Thinking out of the box in line with principle of creative destruction — incessant product and process innovation mechanism by which new production units replace outdated ones— is the way out of the festering Asian Dilemma in Nigeria.

    The danger okada poses is too huge to be ignored even by those making a living from it. Research has amply demonstrated worldwide that particulates produced by emission from okada is a major cause of various forms of respiratory diseases, including asthma. Just as former Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, once observed before he restricted okada in his state: I believe that okada is a response to certain deficit in our intra-urban transportation system,” the real challenge facing governments at all levels is to address the deficit in planning provision of right environment for modern transit system for about 200 million people.

    A time when advances in artificial intelligence and technology are poised to change the nature of work and transportation globally is not the right time for Nigeria to gleefully lose the ‘30 million workers’ to an anachronistic transport business which causes more harm than good.

  • This present darkness …. and a way out

    This present darkness …. and a way out

    The political economy of kleptocracy in Nigeria

    Kleptocracy- a rule of thieves- has afflicted human society since the beginning of recorded history. No formulation can capture our plight better in contemporary Nigeria. It is a morbid society where successful thieves are celebrated and lionized by aspiring thieves. Those who have not been caught simply cannot make hay, or are merely waiting for their own interdiction. Under the spreading kola nut tree of national larceny, you steal and I steal, no wahala.
    Yet even though this is not a sunny or rosy picture, one must still marvel at the banality of evil in this land. Who would have thought that the meek-looking and patrician Andrew Yakubu was indeed a burrowing billionaire; an unmoved and unmoving Bureau sans Change! And we are not talking of small change. As a Yoruba proverb caustically puts it, everybody is a thief minus opportunity. A bon mot from Chinua Achebe is even more to the point in its poignancy and pragmatism: Only a blockhead will spit out a juicy morsel of meat placed in his mouth.
    Yet despite the apparent cynicism, there is an unstated moral clause in both proverbs. It speaks to the need for powerful restraining codes and their harsh enforcement—since human-beings are no angels. As Ayi Kwei Armah, the gifted Ghanaian novelist, would put it: In a society where everybody has gone mad, it is a form of insanity to stay sane and sober.
    As this column noted a few months back, darkness of a spiritual, economic and political nature envelopes Nigeria like a nasty fog. When and whether this millennial eclipse will lift is a matter for conjecture. But its harsh and deleterious effects can be felt in every aspect of our contemporary national life.
    Or how else can one explain the fact that some of our youths and delinquent elders, in their misguided anger and misdirected frustration, would publicly wish for the death of an afflicted head of state, no matter the circumstances or the severity of his shortcomings? This psychotic and malevolent ill-will, openly and often gleefully expressed, is a sign of how things have steadily regressed in this country, and General Buhari will do well to take note. The nation is gripped by social cannibalism in every material particular.
    It has been long in coming. As this column cautioned President Buhari on the occasion of his return to power, you cannot step into the same river twice. Since General Buhari’s first advent, the National Question has taken a nasty turn, exacerbated by the failure of leadership and the virtual collapse of the structural edification of the nation in all its faulty architecture. With several nationalities in open revolt and others rumbling in quiet discontent even as some engage in covert economic sabotage and destabilization of the nation, Nigeria has never been in a worse shape.
    The death of the incumbent will not alter or reverse this relentless retrogression. Far worse than presidential affliction is the ailment of comprehensive corruption which has now become a mortal threat to the continued existence of the country. The contest between light and darkness in this country has now reached a critical stage. Should General Buhari fatally succumb, and given the way the forces in contention are organized, an even more drastic exemplar would have to be in order to rescue the country from the jaws of calamity.
    This collision of economic and ethical fundaments in the nation can no longer be postponed. Kleptocracy is an ancient affliction, going back to the very origins of state and political society. In its modern incarnation, kleptocracy is the organisation of a society along the principles of mindless looting of the national patrimony in a manner that recalls the Stone Age of hunter-gatherer existence.
    The hunter-gatherer is an economic primitive who lives for the moment and has no concept of the valorization of natural resources. He roams the pristine jungle hunting wild animals and gathering wild fruits for immediate consumption. What he cannot finish he drags back to his cave until the hunger pangs beckon again. This is his marginal refinement over the more brutal peripatetic wanderings of his animal cousin. Like his primitive ancestor, the modern Nigerian hunter-gatherer has also taken to dragging his economic “kill” to caves, safes, burrows, underground tanks, septic sewages and other labyrinthine warrens.
    This economic re-cannibalization of a people and the de-civilizing of many who are proud heirs of some lofty civilizations gave enough warning. Ironically, it began immediately after formal independence and our match towards what was supposed to be authentic nationhood. Yet when compared to subsequent political developments, particularly the advent of military rule, the Second Republic and the current Fourth Republic, The First Republic was a paradise of moral puritanism.
    It will be recalled that Major Nzeogwu’s war-cry was a passionate and soul-stirring political harangue against economic profiteers and other ten-percenters. By the fall of the Second Republic, a new political coinage or what is known as a lootocracy came into existence to accommodate new realities and the unbridled plundering of national resources. In a famous intervention, a general and civil war hero lamented that corruption in Nigeria has assumed a “transnational efficiency”.
    But all this was actually a child’s play compared to what was to come in the Fourth Republic. In the interim and the martial interlude, General Sani Abacha gave a new dimension to the meaning of executive burglary of the national exchequer. Implacable and impatient with the ponderous and plodding procedure of kickback, the Kano-born general simply kicked the treasury open with his military boots.
    In the total football and complete economic meltdown of the Fourth Republic, ten-percentage has been replaced by maximum percentage. There is no further need for kickbacks. Contracts are awarded and contract money is collected, the awarding being also the awardee. The football flows freely and seamlessly because the goalkeeper is also the goal-poacher.
    Meanwhile, telling phrases litter the road to economic infamy as momentous milestones: Misapplication of funds, settlement of the unsettled, anticipatory approval and now budget-padding. Corruption has become so thoroughly corrosive that it has eaten into the soul of the nation. For the nation to survive its flesh-dissolving potency, it is going to be a tough battle indeed.
    In an engrossing chronicle of the pilgrim’s progress to perdition, the late Stephen Ellis, a distinguished Africanist and former editor of the authoritative and influential newsletter, Africa Confidential, offers compelling insights about how corruption became the single major national industry in Nigeria. Titled, This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime, it is a compelling but depressing read.
    It is instructive to note that it was in 1920 that the first properly documented case of “419” in Nigeria came to public purview. The culprit was a Ghanaian, Mr P. Crentsil, who called himself a professor of wonder. He was promptly prosecuted under section 419 of Nigeria’s criminal code .In fact such was the relative public sanity and rectitude in colonial Nigeria that in 1944, a colonial official, according to Ellis, noted that “ crime as a career has so far made little appeal to the young Nigerian.”
    Yet between then and this moment, organised crime has spiralled to astronomical proportions in the nation with Nigerians youths making a strong showing as captains of global syndicates of criminal extortion and international gangsterism even as their parents perfect the science of corruption to become a unique Nigerian brand.
    Among many culprits fingered by Ellis, the dubious rule of law and penance code foisted on a recalcitrant local culture by colonial authorities, the huge appetite for illegal accumulation and the natural venality of African big men and of course the advent of military gangster barons occupy pride of place. Yet what is often left unappreciated is the sociology of resource allocation particularly in a demographically volatile nation as well as the political economy of corruption itself.
    Sociologically speaking, there must be a nexus between the increasing resort of dynamic and resourceful Nigerian youth to crime and the dwindling opportunities compounded by diminishing national resources and state larceny. Equally, there must be a connection between the primitive accumulation and privatization of political power and the primitive accumulation of economic power and resources. Both are symbiotically related and mutually reinforcing.
    There is an organic connection between the power of corruption and the corruption of power in Nigeria. If the truth must be told, political corruption is the fountain head from which economic corruption flows. Ever since the advent of the Fourth Republic, a few men of political power and economic means have maintained an oligarchic stranglehold on the fate of the nation, determining who gets what and at what time. Their poor choices have returned to haunt and hurt the nation economically and politically.
    It will amount to a startling historical irony if General Buhari fails to recognize how his own efforts to fight economic corruption have been hobbled by political corruption and how the same political corruption checkmated his attempt to reclaim his lost throne until the power masters made sure that he was well past his radically reformist prime and could hardly pass muster.
    It will also be a great paradox if the general fails to see why his economic sanitization of the nation cannot succeed without commensurate sanitization of the extant political order. When you run a country as if it is a war booty, economic pillage must follow the political pillage as a reward for living in an occupied territory.
    President Buhari should urgently constitute a National Restitution Commission which will take a holistic, systemic and structural look at the foundational problems of the nation. But his instincts for economic confrontation, if not his political will and appetite for structural reform, are in the right place. We must start from something even it means rough-hewn justice for some. One sure thing about reforms is that they will also undergo further reforming.
    As Milton Friedman, the great American economist, argued recently any society faced with a fundamental existential quandary such as ours will have to choose which freedom —economic, political, social—to forfeit temporarily in order to catch up with the forces of modernity. From different sides of the ideological spectrum, this is what has made modernization possible for China and Cuba on the one hand and Singapore and South Korea on the other. General Buhari’s ailment may well be providential. It may be time for divine soul-searching and introspection.

  • Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: The way out

    That the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been so mired in controversy of high magnitude, attracting so many interests, is because of its significance to the socio-economic life of the country. Incidentally, it is the only major artery to Lagos, handling more than 90 per cent of the entire human and vehicular traffic to the commercial capital of Nigeria. It is the only road accommodating the large number of articulated vehicles, among thousands of other vehicles, lifting fuel and other goods out of the port city of Lagos, even as almost all attempts made to revive the railway system of the colonial era have been frustrated. This explains the interests always generated when the 115-kilometre expressway is being debated.

    In fact, the ante was upped in recent months because of the excruciating suffering of commuters and the sudden emergence of a company, Motorway Assets Limited (MAL), which claimed to be the new concessionaire, seeking N150billion to complete it – even when we were told by the past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan that it had awarded the contract for its reconstruction to Julius Berger and Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) at the cost of N167billion.

    Meanwhile, the Ogun State government also claimed that it carried out palliative measures to fix portions of the same road that had been purportedly concessioned to MAL. It is now abundantly clear that the shenanigans concerning the road were caused by the Jonathan administration, for political gains and selfish interest. It is also clear that the process of re-concessioning the road to Motorway after the termination of the concession to Bi-Courtney Highways Services Limited (BHSL), was far from transparent, as Nigerians were not aware of any calls for competitive bidding from competent companies for the road. It is obvious that it was an under-the-table deal, because Nigerians were also not aware when the purported contract to Julius Berger and RCC suddenly turned to a concession to Motorway, whose antecedents in PPP were also not known. Moreover, not a few are confused over the role played by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC). The ICRC, as we know, is saddled with the responsibility of regulating PPP.

    Therefore, for the road to become a world-class one on which travellers can have safe and smooth rides, there is the need for Federal Government to revisit the concession earlier granted Bi-Courtney. Simply put, Federal Government can escape the legal and moral cobweb in which it has entrapped itself, by allowing Bi-Courtney to complete the reconstruction on account of the company’s antecedents.

    No one can deny that Bi-Courtney, having spent three years maintaining the road with over $300million down the drain while its concession lasted, having acquired billions of naira worth ofequipment in preparation for the work to begin, and having the technical manpower and the financial muscle to execute the project, has the wherewithal to execute the concession excellently. Bi-Courtney’s performance at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal II (MMA2) attests to its capability to handle projects of such magnitude anywhere in the world.

    Recall that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had attempted to expand and improve the Lagos-Ibadan road by concessioning it to BHSL under a Design, Build, Operate and Transfer (DBOT) arrangement under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mantra of his administration. However, the brilliant idea did not yield the desired result before Obasanjo left in 2007. The succeeding administration could also not do much, despite its good disposition to the project, before the unfortunate demise of President Yar’Adua. It is noteworthy to recollect that officials in the Ministry of Works played an ignoble role by sabotaging Obasanjo’s concession idea with snail speed bureaucracy, vested interests, unbridled politicking and ignorance about how PPP works, all of which led to the final surreptitious termination of the concession by the Jonathan administration.

    While Nigerians waited with bated breath for the commencement of reconstruction of the expressway by Bi-Courtney, which waited for about two years for the approval of its design by the Federal Ministry of Works, we witnessed routine maintenance of several portions by the company, as a way of minimizing the incessant crashes and traffic gridlocks on the road, which the current concessionaire has refused to do because they lack the financial muscle and the technical capability to handle a project of this magnitude.

    Although when Jonathan announced the termination of the concession in November 2012, it was celebration galore by a section of the populace simply because they did not understand what concession is all about, events in the last few months and the attendant confusion have shown that it is not yet Uhuru for the Lagos-Ibadan Road.

    All over the world, concession is a major way of financing big projects, as various countries have embraced the PPP idea. But, such concessions are done transparently in other climes, while they are done deceitfully in Nigeria. From the Americas to Europe, Asia and other continents of the world, the idea of PPP has come to stay and Nigeria cannot be an exception in a global village. However, our country must do it right and with sincerity of purpose. Many companies are already involved in concessions, encouraged by their governments to provide jobs for their people and take the pressure of infrastructure provision off the government, but their concessions go to companies with the technical competence and financial muscle to execute such projects.

    In fact, Ferrovial Subsidiary Cintra, as one of the world’s leading private sector developers of transportation infrastructure in terms of the number of projects and the volume of investment, manages 28 concessions extending more than 2,232 kilometres of roads in Canada, the United States (US), Spain, the United Kingdom (UK), Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Colombia and Australia. The firm is one of the soundest multinationals in the sector, with investments totalling over 21.5 billion euro.

    Also, South Africa has an important experience in PPP, involving about 300 projects on the national and provincial levels since 1994. Indeed, the South African National Treasury, the body that deals with PPP projects, developed a PPP Manual. The manual defines “a PPP to be a contract between a public sector institution and a private party, in which the private party assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risks in the design, financing, building and operation of a project.” The guidelines discuss various procurement possibilities varying between public procurement and full privatisation. The South African National Roads Agency began tolling part of the major national roads in the mid-1990s and developed concessionary structures to overcome budgetary constraints.

    This is the beauty of PPP because it allows government to channel its resources to other means for the benefit of the citizens, and Nigeria with its current financial straits cannot be an exception.

     

    • Olagokun is an Ibadan-based company executive.

  • Nigeria: Way out

    Almost exactly two years ago, while a National Assembly was meeting in Lagos, I did a general survey of my country’s affairs and, in utter dismay, wrote my article for that day – under an earlier name for this column. Early this morning, I read that article again, and I am shocked that it is still a good statement about my country’s life – that essentially, nothing has changed or is changing. Yes, President Buhari is hitting at public corruption, but no real success is being reported from that fight, and most other things remain unchanged. This past week, a Nigerian wrote a widely publicised article under the ominous title “Buhari might be the Last President of Nigeria”. Yes, a lot of us Nigerians are worrying, and I am therefore reproducing today that article of mine of two years ago. I particularly want President Buhari to see it. Here it goes:

    “These days, I am often profoundly puzzled whenever I look at Nigeria. From all significant indications, Nigeria is gradually deconstructing. Commonly, what held together fairly well only yesterday is today markedly disintegrating.

    And the most troubling part of it all is that nobody – no Nigerian of note – seems to be aware or care. The politicians go about their nebulous games of politics with their usual crookedness and vicious manipulations while the country they lead or hope to lead crumbles inexorably.

    Nigeria is disintegrating. Our very best ploys at self-deception have become too fragile to hide that fact. This past Monday, July 14, TV stations worldwide carried scenes in which Boko Haram hoodlums mocked the “Bring Back Our Girls” demonstrations. Watching that sickening satyr, no self-respecting person would wish to be counted among Nigerians. A friend who watched the news in faraway California grabbed his telephone and called me and asked, “Listen, is there no government left in your country?”

    No, there is nothing substantial left in Nigeria. Except of course the royalties and rents from the oil of the Niger Delta. Those fees are now the totality of what we call Nigeria. If they were to disappear, or even seriously diminish, Nigeria would vanish almost immediately. Participation in politics, all of governance, service on the judiciary, the police, the other regulatory agencies, and most of what we call business  – all are underpinned and motivated by the sharing of bounties and grafts from the oil revenues. A real country no longer exists here.

    About three months ago, we were elated when our president inaugurated a National Conference. Many of us hoped that a National Conference would sort out many of our deadlocks and tangles. It is not happening. Nothing so constructive is possible in Nigeria. After bruising its path through some decisions that seemed fairly valuable, the conference has now capped everything with an overwhelmingly disastrous decision – namely, the decision to increase the number of states in the Nigerian federation from 36 to 54. Yes, 54 states!

    For years now, there has been no doubt that having as many as 36 states has been hurting our country. It resulted in small weak states that the federal establishment has easily been able to roll over and subdue states incapable of developing their resources or resisting poverty among their citizens. This has distorted our federation, increased poverty among our people, and generated widening insecurity and conflicts. In spite of these experiences, our National Conference has now decided to increase the number of states. And we all know why. Most of the persons gathered in the conference are politicians or aspiring politicians whose only serious desire is to create more opportunities for themselves to become state governors, deputy governors, commissioners, advisers, contractors, etc. It is about creating more outlets for sharing the oil money. Nigeria’s well-being is not a consideration – because, of course, Nigeria and the citizens of Nigeria do not exist as far as most of our politicians are concerned.

    Naturally, a lot of informed Nigerians are speaking out – and most of them are proposing that the mirage called Nigeria be terminated, in the interest of all concerned. Among such statements by prominent Nigerians, I am looking at a few right now.

    Some days ago, one of our most prominent citizens, former vice-chancellor of one of our leading universities, Professor Ango Abdullahi, granted a public interview. From his chosen angle in Nigeria’s political life, Professor Abdullahi has been undoubtedly one of our most successful politicians. But, in the bruising tensions and conflicts of the politics of a Nigeria that has no core of values, no generally accepted game rules, and no commonly shared goal, he is becoming exasperated. It is therefore not surprising that even he is now saying that he would gladly accept the breaking up of Nigeria – in fact, that the Hausa-Fulani leadership of the Arewa North would gladly subscribe to the dissolution of Nigeria, if that is what others wish.

    As things stand today, there is not much doubt about what Nigerians wish. If Nigerians were asked  today about their wish concerning Nigeria’s future, most are likely to agree that the failed experiment of Nigeria should now be given up peacefully, and that the brutalized and suffering peoples of Nigeria should be given a chance to re-discover hope for themselves in smaller countries of their own. We have come that far.

    I also have before me a piece written by another Nigerian intellectual who writes: “It is high time we dissolved this big beast called a country”.  He adds that Chief Awolowo and his contemporaries in the 1950s “believed a big, strong and prosperous Nigeria like the emerging United States would take its rightful place on the world stage and be the pride of Africa and the black world. Instead, ever since, Nigeria has stubbornly refused to be anything other than a global disgrace. Now is the time to split the country…We want a good-bye-to-all referendum now.  And the National Conference sitting in Abuja should make itself useful by setting a date for one.  Enough is enough”.

    However, there are two big questions that people keep asking about our parting. One concerns the sharing of the huge oil revenues; and the other concerns the fact that large numbers of citizens now live beyond their ethnic homelands. Professor Abdullahi touches upon the first, and his position is that the oil does not belong to any one section of Nigeria, but to Nigeria as a whole. Significant Northern leaders have said repeatedly that it was Nigerian money that developed the Delta oil industry, and that they will go to war rather than lose the oil.

    The bottom line being suggested to the oil situation, therefore, is that if we are to be able to part peacefully, we must find a generally acceptable solution to the sharing of the oil revenues. Two years ago, a Nigerian scientist resident in the United States offered a constructive solution to this problem. His proposal is that Nigeria’s parting settlement should include a clause providing for continued sharing of the oil revenues among the new countries for an agreed number of years (five or 10 years) after the parting. Each new country would thus have an assured amount of oil revenue for a number of years as it strives to take off. For the implementation of this, an international commission, participated in by the United Nations, will be charged with the revenue receiving and sharing, for the agreed number of years. Among the pluses of this arrangement, it will bring peace to the Niger Delta oil industry – peace that it has lacked for decades.

    For the second question, the solution would have to be a cast-iron agreement and guarantee for the protection of non-indigene folks where they choose to remain in any new countries.  According to countless intellectuals who have explored this subject, no non-Yoruba folks have any reason to fear in a new Yoruba country. That is at least one plus for the future. Hopefully, other new countries will follow suit.

  • Economy: Way out

    There is a cacophony of voices asking President Muhammadu Buhari to convoke a summit on the economy presumably to find a solution to the foreign exchange scarcity and the impecunious state of several of the federating states of the Nigerian Union. It seems the president is predisposed to just doing that. But exactly what will those invited be talking about that the averagely educated Nigerian cannot guess.

    Economics is not rocket science. We know what is wrong. Because of the collapse of the price of hydrocarbons, the export of which our economy depends on, our country is not earning as much as it used to earn. The fact is that our income has gone down by about 70 percent. To complicate matters our export of agricultural produce has also been affected by the fall in global price for them. China which was the driving force behind the global economy has slowed down and India another demographic and possible economic juggernaut is a story for the future. We import virtually everything including things that we do not need. Apart from spare parts, automobiles, medical equipment, drugs chemicals and educational materials, we can shut down our ports and force ourselves to produce what we need while whatever foreign exchange we have is devoted to providing necessary infrastructure for our present and future development.

    Mazi Mbonu Ojike, one of our early nationalists used to say we should boycott the boycottable and use whatever we produce. Whether we harken to this call now or in the future is a moot point. At the end we have to look inward to move our country forward. If we had saved well against a rainy day, we would not have found ourselves in this pitiable situation. The mindless looting of the public treasury in recent times has made things worse.

    The kind of looting we are being told happened is enough to depress any sane and patriotic Nigerian. The level of looting poses existential threat to this republic.  In China some of what happened in the recent past would have attracted ultimate punishment .There is no doubt about it. Some of the stories sound like stories from Arabian night and Alibaba and the 40 thieves. People walk into the office of the National Security Adviser, sign a piece of paper, and walk out with a mandate to go to the CBN or banks where government has money to go and collect billions for some spurious work for government or the ruling party or for no work at all!

    Nigerian oil was sold without the treasury being credited with the proceeds. People have come out to say their accounts were credited with huge amount of money without their knowledge or without having performed any assignments for government. Billions if not trillions were shared among party bigwigs  as if people were playing the game of monopoly with the nation’s money.Government ‘s decision to bring the guilty parties to book had better been hastened  and speeded up before people lose their patience. Money taken from these economic saboteurs had better be deployed to pay the millions of Nigerian miserably awaiting the payment of their salaries  and pensions. The TSA must not be used to delay payment of salaries and pensions . The present situation of scarcity not only of foreign exchange but also scarcity of the Naira must not be allowed to drag on indefinitely. Instead of succumbing to the call for an economic summit, government must continuously engage the public to apprise it of the situation. The president should broadcast to the nation about the dire state of the economy and what he is going to do about it. Nigerians are not fools. They know the president did not cause the present economic collapse and paralysis. People need to be told this to blunt the ridiculous allegation of the opposition that they did better while in office.

    What I expect government to do is to declare economic emergency and austerity by radically reducing the cost of governance. I know that there may be constitutional impediments to doing this but we just can not continue to do nothing. This will involve drastic cut in executive and legislative expenditure and even reduction of diplomatic missions abroad and merging of parastatals and universities and polytechnics at home. We may have to merge local governments and make parliament across board part-time instead of the wasteful practice of the present Naira-guzzling legislative houses at the centre, states and local governments. If we do this, it will send a message to all and sundry that these are unusual times requiring unusual measures and solutions. All these can be achieved through a declaration of economic emergency and economic siege.

    There must exist in the law books legal devices to make this happen. Some may argue that this can still be done through the economic pow-wow being suggested. Then it behoves government to put before the summit a well-crafted agenda  instead of allowing the Nigerian mania of a useless talkfest to go on.

    This reminds me of the Bismarckian approach on national issues of not leaving the fate of the nation to verbal display and debates. What we need to do is clear. Cut down all the jargon,cut down all frivolous importation of luxury goods, wines, champagne, rice, wheat and all kinds of imported confectionaries. Let us eat for starters the much ballyhooed cassava bread. There is also nothing wrong in eating yams and other local staples. While doing this we can then begin to produce all we need at home. Necessity is the mother of invention. The Chinese that we all admire today went through the same trajectory. For the sake of all black peoples at home and in diaspora, let us try and prove that the black man is not all talk and no action. Let us prove to the world that we can endure some pain in order to get the gain of sustainable development. A philosophy of providing what we need rather than what we want ought to be our new credo from this time onwards. If we do not take this route least travelled, we will all end in the broad way leading to national ruin.

    We must remind ourselves that our situation is not the worst of all possible worlds. We are neither Venezuela nor Libya! There is no need to panic. The problem we have is a global problem. We mustn’t  lose sight of that fact. Thank God we still have a second chance to get things right. Indeed  in adversity we must have hope. This is not the hope of religious sermon but the hope that we can come out of the economic woods in which through our past action we have put ourselves. If we are determined and if we are prepared to work hard, we can get out of this economic doldrums. Perhaps we can begin by looking at the 2020 economic plan put together as a blueprint to make Nigeria one of the biggest 20 economies in the world. We can also look at other economic blueprints put together by previous governments instead of reinventing the wheel. If the civil servants cannot do this, then government must look for willing and competent people in industry and the universities.  We must go back to agriculture as well as mechanize our mode of production. We need not put all hope on solid or hard minerals alone as some are wont to suggest. Of course we must diversify our economy to tap all sources of revenue. But our priority must be agriculture and industrialization. All this can go pari passu  with the  current economic diplomacy embarked upon by the president. But in all this, charity must begin at home.

  • Kogi crisis: What’s the way out?

    Kogi crisis: What’s the way out?

    New twists are creeping into the crisis triggered by the “inconclusive” governorship poll of November 21 in Kogi State and the death of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, Prince Abubakar Audu.   BUNMI OGUNMODEDE and EMMANUEL OLADESU write on political developments in the Confluence State and the way out of the logjam.  

    HOW MATTERS STAND

    APC NWC

    • Picked Yahaya Bello as late Audu’s replacement.

     

    • Retained Jame Faleke as Bello’s running mate.

     

    Faleke

    • Has rejected the offer of running mate to Bello

     

    • Insists he is the custodian of the peoples mandate

     

    • Picked Mohammed, Audu’s first son as running mate.

     

    INEC

    • Getting set to run a supplementary election in 91 polling units across the state.

     

    • Observers insist the supplementary election is unnecessary since the results cannot alter the position

     

    • The Audu/Faleke ticket has won with the results so far declared

     

    PDP

     

    • Wada has gone to court to seek a declaration that he should get the prize after Audu’s death.

     

    • He wants a Certificate of Return for INEC.

    CAN the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) hold Saturday’s supplementary governorship election in Kogi State? The climate is cloudy. Aggrieved youths are protesting. According to the Chief Returning Officer, Prof. Emmanuel Kucha, the residual election became necessary because the November 21 poll did not take place in 91 units. He described Kogi as a volatile place, stressing that some politicians have a do-or-die attitude to election.

    Little did he know that a monumental crisis was in the offing. All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer Prince Abubakar Audu while coasting home to victory, Governor Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cashed in  on the development to claim victory. He said INEC should declare him following the death  of Audu, who was leading  him with over 41,000 votes.  He threatened legal action, accusing INEC of bias. APC got a crisis of substitution as it sidelined the late Audu’s running mate, Abiodun Faleke. The party gave its ticket to Yahaya Bello, a former governorship aspirant, who scored only two votes at the primary.

    Last weekend, aggrieved youths went on the prowl in Kogi. They protested the move to sideline Faleke, who had intimated stakeholders with his plan to pick the late Audu’s son, Mohammed, as his running mate, if he becomes the stndard bearer. All hell was let loose in Okene, with the youths venting their annoyance on commuters. The youths have resolved to disrupt the supplementary poll, if APC insists on Bello’s candidature.  Faleke, sources said, is not excited about the poll. His argument is that the Audu/Faleke ticket had won the election, with or without the supplementary poll.

    In the November 21 poll, Kogi was united behind Audu/Faleke, but it  seems the APC has lost that goodwill. While Igala and Yoruba are now backing the proposed Faleke/Mohammed’s ticket, the Ebira are rooting for Bello. The embers of religious strife are also being fanned by some chauvinists, who are claiming that, since Kogi is predominantly a Muslim state, Faleke’s candidature may not fly because the politician, who is from the West Senatorial District, is a Christian.

    The crisis may have begun to take its toll on APC at the state and federal level. For now, the party leadership has not lived up to expectation.  Since some cardinal decisions have been taken on the substitution without  carrying the running mate along, critics argued that APC has regressed into politics of seclusion and marginalisation.  They warned that the party may be weakened by the self-inflicted crisis.

    As far as democratisation is concerned, the main issue today is the Kogi transition. Politically, the state is in distress. Eyes are on the institutions of democracy as they attempt to resolve the logjam. Stakeholders are debating the options. Out of the solutions proffered by observers, five stand out. These are: interpretation by the Supreme Court; the prospects of Bello/Faleke ticket; Faleke/Mohammed ticket; retention of the status quo; and fresh elections.

    Judicial interpretation

    The law exists for the regulation of political conduct and relationships. According to analysts, the best solution to the crisis is judicial interpretation. This is because there is no constitutional provision on the fate of a party about to win an election when its candidate dies. The 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act are not silent on the substitution of candidates. But the provisions only cover the death of candidates before and after elections. They are silent on the party’s fate when the candidate dies during election or when the election is inconclusive. The impasse shows a gap in the constitution and the electoral law. But, the solutions are not too far to seek. The first is for the disputing parties to go to court. The court will either interpret the constitution or give a verdict that will become the law. This is a short-term approach. The second, which is a long-term approach, is an ammendment of the Constitution  and the Electoral Act to provide for what should be done, if a candidate dies when the election is inconclusive.

    The onus is on the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) to approach the apex court for the judicial interpretation as a matter of urgent public interest. Rather, he has offered a legal opinion, which may have been wrongly implemented by the APC can leadership. In Malami’s view, the APC can substitute Audu with another candidate. But, he did not elaborate on the process. Following his advice, APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun declared that the party would hold a fresh primary. After that political summersault, he confirmed that Bello’s name has been forwarded to INEC. The troubled Kogi chapter is now in turmoil. Faleke, whose name has been forwarded to INEC as Bello’s running mate, has rejected the offer. The path avoided by Malami may now be throdden by Faleke, if he goes to court with two prayers – declaration of the poll as conclusive and substitution of his name as the rightful candidate.

    Bello/Faleke ticket

    Expectedly, Bello has welcomed the new offer. He had coveted it at the primary, but he lost. His ambition crumbled because he was no match for the late Audu, the pathfinder of modern Kogi. He got two votes during the historic shadow poll.  The young politician did not concede defeat. He threatened to sue the party, saying the primary was flawed. But, when it was evident that litigation would be counter-productive, he withdrew his case. Some even alleged that he worked against the party during the election. During the campaigns, when the late Audu, Faleke and other party chieftains went round Kogi, Bello was absent. Besides, he allegedly shunned the reconciliation brokered by the party. But, like a Phoenix, his ambition rose from the ashes when Odigie-Oyegun was instigated by some powerful forces in the APC-led Federal Government to forward his name to INEC. Bello is said to have a deep pocket. But, some party members have asked: is Bello the philosopher-king? Can he weld the party together in the post-Audu era? Can he become the symbol of unity? Does he have the experience? Is this substitution not a systematic imposition? Can he and Faleke work together, in view of how he  emerged?

    Analysts are of the view that the forced marriage may collapse, because of likely acrimonious relationship between the potential governor and his deputy. Bello and Faleke, according to them, are strange bedfellows. Faleke is 56. Bello is 40. Faleke is an experienced politician, having served as a council chairman. He is a second term member of the House of Representatives. Bello is just learning the ropes. In a multi-ethnic and religious state, the two politicians may clash due to differences. The future of Kogi APC is thus uncertain. There is mistrust. There is no mutual confidence. According to observers, the Ajasin/Omoboriowo, Ige/Afolabi, Akande/Omisore and Tinubu/ Bucknor-Akerele scenario may be re-enacted in Kogi. The clash of ambitions may not forster cordial relations between the emergency candidate and the original running mate. If Faleke agrees to become the deputy governor, the acrimony may be carried over to the government. The governor may feel threatened because of the desire for second term. According to an APC chieftain, “if Faleke agrees to become the deputy governor, he may be threatened by impeachment on flimsy excuse.”

    But, some top party leaders perceived the crisis differently. They raised some puzzles: Why should Faleke rebel against the party decision? Is the party not greater than individual ambition? Is his rebellion not an act of party disloyalty?

    Faleke/Mohammed ticket:

    The most popular and viable solution appears to be the Faleke/Mohammed ticket. Majority of the party members are rooting for it. Faleke and Mohammed have agreed to work together. This is a tribute to the memory of Audu. The ticket, if sanctioned by APC, would avert internal succession hurdle.  The majorty would not raise eyebrow. Faleke, the loyal running mate, toiled with the late Audu during the electioneering. The House of Representatives member also worked hard to deliver his senatorial district to APC. The results so far declared by INEC in favour of  APC underscore the team work. Faleke was Audu’s dependable ally. Both were set for victory before Audu died. It appears logical that he should assume the driver’s seat, following his principal’s death.

    Mohammed, was also a co-labourer in the Kogi APC vineyard during the campaigns and elections. He was a confidant of his illustrious father; diligent, hardworking and dynamic. Full of princely tenderness, Mohammed is a disciplined person. Although he was born with a silver spoon,  he is perceived as a courageous and well behaved prince.

    Party chieftains rooting for the Faleke/Mohammed ticket believe that, instead of allowing Bello to reap where he did not sow, the duo Faleke and Mohammed, who weathered the storm with the late Audu during a  challenging period should be allowed to complete the race.  Besides, Mohammed’s identification with the ticket will wipe away the tears of Igala , who are yet to recover from the shock of Audu’s death. Faleke’s ascendancy will fulfil the Kogi West’s agitation for power shift and sense of belonging.

    Maintaining the status quo

    If Wada has his ways, he would not hand over at the expiration of his four-year tenure in January.

    The governor, who polled 199, 514 to the late Prince Abubakar Audu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 240, 867 votes, is latching on to arguments by lawyers to continue in office despite his  loss.

    He is also encouraged by his party’s leadership that has asked INEC to declare its candidate winner of the election following Audu’s demise.

    Some lawyers have argued that  the late Audu’s vote were not transferable and therefore could not be inherited by Faleke.

    The late Audu got two-third of the votes cast in 16 of the 21 local government areas of the state.

    Faleke and Wada have rejected the supplementary poll billed for Saturday.

    Faleke rejected the late Audu’s replacement with Bello for the supplementary election, claiming that the APC’s Audu/Faleke ticket had clearly won the November 21 election. According to him, as a co-owner of the votes, he remains the automatic custodian of the mandate.

    He moved yesterday to defend the mandate as he named the first some of his late principal, Mohammed, Audu’s first son, as his running mate.  He took that decisionafter rejecting his nomination by his party as Bello’s running mate.

    Wada, whose case cannot be helped by the supplementary poll, is exploring the possibility of holding on to office for trailing the late APC standard bearer in the November 21 election. He has accused INEC of doing a hatchet man’s job by going ahead with plans for the supplementary election.

    According to him, whatever votes Audu secured in the election with him. His Chief Communications Manager, Frank Shuaibu, urged INEC to declare Wada winner and issue him a Certificate of Return (CoR).

    He is praying the court to compel INEC to do the needful, arguing that he is the only surviving candidate with majority votes.

    But, a Lagos lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, who is for a fresh election, has faulted Wada’s claim to victory, saying the governor is seeking what he lost at the poll through the back door.

    Fresh election

    Some lawyers have argued that a fresh election should be held as, according to them, the transition process involving Audu had collapsed with his death.

    According to them, since INEC had declared the election inconclusive and one of the leading candidates died in the process, INEC should discontinue with the supplementary election.

    But, analysts wonder the motive behind the clamour, especially when local and international monitors have adjudged the November 21 poll fair and peaceful.

    A political analyst said: “One indisputable fact is that nobody has faulted the governorship election of November 21. With the facts on ground, a clear winner had emerged through the process.

    “If the Returning Officer had consulted widely, he probably wouldn’t have declared the election inconclusive. It is a wrong assumption that all the 49,353 registered voters said to have been disenfranchised, have Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

    “It is in public domain that only 25, 000 of the outstanding 49, 353 registered voters could participate in the supplementary election. INEC has not disputed this fact. So, if this is the case, going ahead with the supplementary election is unnecessary.

    “Calling for a fresh election is even out of the way as doing so would not serve anybody’s interest. If it is true that only 25,000 voters have PVCs, then the election of November 21 had been won and lost and therefore INEC should declare the winner as it would have done before the demise of the APC standard bearer.”

    But another analyst said the PDP was deliberately plotting to remain in the Government House at all costs. He said the atmosphere might be inclement for INEC to hold the scheduled supplementary poll in the face of ensuing confusion

    He said: “The PDP knows there is no basis for a fresh election. The governor also knows he cannot be returned to office. But, if the supplementary election could not hold, the election remains inconclusive in the face of the law.

    “And there cannot be a vacuum. The governor must quit at the expiration of his tenure in January. Constitutionally, the Speaker of the House of Assembly takes over in the absence of the governor and his deputy. So, by extension, the PDP stays in office.”

     

     

     

     

  • Way out of legal debacle

    Way out of legal debacle

    In the piece below, activist-lawyer FEMI FALANA proffers solutions to the legal logjam created by the death of Prince Abubakar Audu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Kogi State governorship election. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) offered the suggestions before INEC fixed the supplemetary election for December 5 and asked the APC to fill the vacuum created by Audu’s demise.

    Last Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Communication (INEC) conducted the governorship election in Kogi State. At the end of the polls the Returning Officer, Prof. Emmanuel Kucha, Vice chancellor, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, declared that Mr. Abubakar Audu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) scored 240, 867 votes while Governor Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)polled 199, 514 votes. Although the APC led the PDP by 41, 300 votes in about 90 per cent of the areas where the election held, INEC decided that a supplementary election would be held for 49,953 voters in areas where votes were cancelled.

    The controversy surrounding the announcement of the INEC that the governorship election was inconclusive was compounded by the political crisis thrown up as a result of the sudden death of the governorship candidate of the APC, Prince Abubakar Audu as the death of a candidate during election was neither envisaged by the Constitution, nor the Electoral Act.

    However, the provisions of the relevant laws and decided cases on assumption of office by co-owner of joint tickets as well as the experience of the United States (U.S) with respect to the death of candidates during elections should guide the INEC in resolving the legal quagmire.

    While Section 36 of the electoral Act allows the INEC to countermand and postpone an election if a validly nominated candidate dies before the commencement of poll, Section 181 of the Constitution allows a deputy governor-elect to become governor if the governor-elect dies before inauguration. In PDP v INEC, the Supreme Court held that although the governor-elect, Alhaji Atku Abubakar who had resigned to become the vice presidential candidate of the PDP had not clinically died; he was deemed to have died in law. The apex court therefore directed that deputy-governor elect, Mr. Boni Haruna, be sworn as the governor of Adamawa state. In that instant, the conclusion remains inconclusive.

    Notwithstanding that there is no provision in the law for the death of a candidate in the middle of an election; the INEC is not totally helpless in the circumstance. Having declared the election inconclusive, the INEC is duty bound to conclude the election within seven days in line with Section 179 of the Constitution. It is submitted that once the results of an election have been declared, whether conclusive or not, the INEC has no power to cancel same as the power to cancel any result so declared is vested exclusively in the governorship election petition tribunal. As the APC cannot be allowed to substitute or replace the nomination of Mr. Audu at this stage of the electoral process, the INEC is legally bound to conclude the exercise. The question of falling back on the results of the primary election conducted by the APC does not arise as it conflicts with section 179 of the Constitution.

    The 20th amendment to the United States’ Constitution is in pari materia with Section 181 of the Nigerian Constitution as it allows a vice president-elect to become President if the president-elect dies before inauguration. Before the amendment was effected in 1933, the names of the two candidates who died during elections were not removed from the ballot. Firstly, in the presidential-election of 1872, Horace Greeley was the Democratic nominee for President while Ulysses Grant was the presidential candidate of the Republican Party.  After the popular vote, but before the Electoral College vote, Greeley died. The election went ahead and Grant of the Republican Party won the election. Secondly, in 1912, James Sherman, the Republican candidate for Vice-President (and the incumbent Vice-President under William Howard Taft) died on October 30 of kidney disease, a few days before the general election on November 5. There was no replacement as Sherman’s name remained on the ticket for the general election. The Republicans lost the election to the Democratic ticket of Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Marshall.

    In  relying  on the  experience US the INEC is urged to base its decision of the Supreme Court in the case of  Amaechi v INEC (2008) 10 W.R.N. 1, where it was held that elections are won by political parties which sponsored  candidates . Since the APC which sponsored the late Prince Audu  is deemed to have led the PDP by 41,300 votes there is no legal basis for cancelling the results of the election as both the party and the PDP are competent to take part in the supplementary  election to be conducted by the INEC. In other words, the INEC is not legally disabled from concluding the governorship election notwithstanding the unfortunate death of the APC governorship candidate.

    Since, the governorship and deputy-governorship candidates of the the APC jointly contested the election pursuant to section 187 of the Constitution, the votes scored by the party in the inconclusive election remain intact and untainted.

    Those who have called for the cancellation of the results of the inconclusive election as a result of the death of Prince Audu   have failed to realise that the rights of other candidates who participated in the democratic exercise, including the deputy governorship candidate of the APC, have accrued. Such vested interests cannot be extinguished due to no fault of such candidates. Therefore, if the results of the inconclusive elections are cancelled, the other political parties and their candidates are perfectly entitled to approach the court to challenge the validity of the cancellation and seek to restrain the INEC from conducting fresh governorship elections in Kogi state.

    In the light of the foregoing, the INEC has to review its position in the light of the claim that the number of disenfranchised voters in the state who have Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and are qualified to vote is less than 41,300. If the claim is confirmed, then INEC should not hesitate to declare the APC the winner of the election. In that case, the Boni Haruna’s case will apply. However, if the number of the disenfranchised voters is higher than 41,300 the INEC should proceed and conclude the election which may be won by either of the two parties. If the APC wins the election the deputy governor-elect will become the governor while a new deputy governor will be nominated by him and approved by the Kogi State House of Assembly.