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Tag: Welcome

Welcome, NASAL

•Now that state legislators have resolved to fight for financial autonomy, we say hurray!

It appears legislators in the state houses of assembly have finally come to terms with the fact that they need financial autonomy. The lawmakers have therefore formed an association known as National Association of State Assembly Legislators (NASAL), to pursue that objective. It is envisaged that the body would also assist in their bid to check growing executive recklessness. The association, which comprises present and past members of the houses of assembly, has Dr Valentine Ayika as its interim national president.

It is interesting that the state legislators are now struggling to have something which they need to function effectively but which they carelessly threw away during a 2009/2010 constitutional amendment that would have settled the matter once and for all. Well, since it is better late than never, the fact that the legislators have recovered from their stupor is still welcome. As Dr Ayika noted, “Our salaries are paid by the executive and he who pays the piper, dictates the tune. What we are seeking is financial autonomy. You cannot be independent if you are not financially autonomous’.

We can only hope, however, that the state legislators’ quest for financial autonomy is propelled by genuine need to make them more effective rather than for personal aggrandisement like the National Assembly members.

We agree with Dr Ayika that the Doctrine of Separation of Powers must be respected, especially in a democratic setting, and that legislators at the state level have suffered undue harassment and intimidation from many governors. Indeed, democracy would amount to nothing in a situation where one arm of the tripod – Executive, Legislature and Judiciary – can lord it over another. As the saying goes, ‘“power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It is in the bid to prevent the latter scenario that checks and balances are ingrained in the democratic process.

Unfortunately, the Legislature, across board, has become more of an extension of the Executive, ever ready to toe the latter’s line after being induced with money or other freebies, after which the legislators can then be made to do anything, from the ignoble to the ridiculous. Perhaps the latest in the abuse that the Legislature could be co-opted to by the Executive was the impeachment of the deputy governor of Enugu State, Sunday Onyebuchi, for running commercial poultry at his official residence, and disobedience to the governor, his principal. Not only have the state legislators been used against others, they had often been used against themselves through frequent changes of their leadership, often at the behest of the governors.

We welcome NASAL and wish it success. However, we hasten to add that the state legislators should not pin all their hope on NASAL, good as the dream is. It is one thing to dream and another to actualise it. The impression is being erroneously created that the first attempt at getting autonomy for the state assemblies failed because, as Dr Ayika noted, “part of the problem we have is individually, the state assembly can be dealt with, but with an organisation such as this, we can also surmount some of the executive recklessness and harassment on the state assemblies”.

Inasmuch as we agree that much more progress can be made in togetherness, the main problem with the state legislators is attitudinal – greed. If this does not change, the governors would continue to have the legislators in their pockets.

So, beyond the formation of an association to pursue their collective interest, the state legislators must resolve to be independent indeed and assert that independence. The people are better off when the assemblies are liberated from strong personalities; we must, instead, build strong institutions. If the state lawmakers pursue their case at the National Assembly with this resolve, they will be able to get their financial independence and other things will be added unto them.

September 25, 2014
‘Boro welcome Sammy Ameobi

Middlesbrough boss Tony Malloway has welcomed Sammy Ameobi on loan from Newcastle till the end of the season.

The 20-year-old Ameobi, who has made 14 appearances for Newcastle this season, is expected to help Middlesbrough secure promotion ticket.

“He gives us a different option. He’s an out and out attacking wide player who can operate on either side, and will be ideal when we want to play with two wingers. He will hopefully give some players a lift and create some competitio,” an excited Malloway told the Shields Gazette.

Ameobi though is cup-tied having played for Newcastle United in the third round at Brighton and so won’t debut against Chelsea today.

Ameobi is contracted to Newcastle till the summer of 2015.

February 27, 2013
Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013

Yesterday, Tuesday, January 1, marked the beginning of yet another year. This event, as usual, was heralded by pomp and ceremony all over the world. The ceremonies were rather spontaneous. This is because regardless of previous or past experiences, people are always nostalgic in welcoming a new year. And so is the joy and optimism that goes with it.

But then wait a minute. Let us take a look at 2012 and see whether the year justified all the ceremonies and expectations that heralded it this time last year. We might just look at the good, the bad and the ugly scenes or events that characterized 2012. As I was saying earlier, there is something so special about January 1 of every year. It is a day people give thanks to God for many things. High on the agenda is the gratitude for surviving the previous year. And it does not matter if the previous year was either good or bad. Everybody will be united in looking forward to a pleasant new year.

In Nigeria, January 1, 2012 brought sorrows, tears and even blood. That was the day Nigerians woke up to the reality that the Federal Government had removed ‘subsidy’ on petroleum products. The exercise led to astronomic hike in the cost of fuel. It rose from N68 to N140. Many people who had travelled to their villages and hamlets for the New Year festivities were stranded. Tension enveloped the entire nation.

What followed were huge protests all over the place. In Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Square at Ojota, on the outskirts of Lagos, came alive. For days, protesters trooped there to register their displeasure over the sudden hike.

For some people, it was fun all the way as the organizers of the protests, the Save Nigeria Group, added innovations like bringing musical bands to play, and people volunteered food that was served freely. This kept the protests alive for several days. Every day, the crowd grew in number. The more the crowd grew, the more worrisome it was for the government in Abuja. For a government that had all the time stuck to its gun, by the time it was apparent that things might snowball out of control, the Federal Executive Council scrambled to the negotiating table. By this time, the whole country was in turmoil. Lives were lost.

It was a fidgety President that later addressed the nation, and reduced the price of petrol as well as promised the nation a number of steps to right the wrongs in the oil sector. Had it been that there were no protests or that the protests did not assume the fearful dimension it took, I am not sure the government was prepared to look into the oil sector to actually see what was going on. Though attempts have been made by the government to rubbish the protests by labeling it as the handiwork of the opposition, that protest will go down as the first well-organised civil disobedience in Nigeria.

We are all witnesses to the subsidy probe that followed. That probe opened a can of worms in the oil sector. It was like turning up the underbelly of a bad car. A lot of earth-shaking revelations on the financial malfeasance and sleaze that have bedeviled the oil sector were unearthed. However, what is left is the will by the government to successfully prosecute those involved in the subsidy scandal. The scandal dominated the polity in the first half of 2012. Many of the so-called ‘big boys’ driving around in posh cars were unmasked as thieves.

Take for instance the case involving the oil magnate, Femi Otedola, and Farouk Lawan who headed the subsidy probe instituted by the House of Representatives. Otedola is known to be one of the commercial hangers–on around the president. Therefore, many people believed the bribe between him and Farouk could have been stage-managed or instigated from above to rubbish the exercise. Otedola’s company was one of the companies allegedly indicted. Till date, nothing concrete has been heard over that case. Yet, in Nigeria, it is a crime to offer or receive bribe. In that case, both the giver and the receiver are culpable. Nigerians are still waiting.

In June 2012, a major diversion was the news of the crash of Dana Aircraft on a routine journey from Abuja to Lagos. All the 150 passengers, including the crew, perished. The crash threw the entire country into grief. The Aviation industry came under the binoculars as people asked questions. Anyway, that did not prevent further crashes in the sector.

Danbaba Suntai, the governor of Taraba State, was involved in an air crash in October 2012 while ‘personally’ flying an aircraft from Jalingo to Yola. He, along with some of his aides, were badly injured and they are still receiving medical treatment abroad. If Suntai and his aides were lucky, Sir Patrick Yakowa, former governor of Kaduna State, along with Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi, immediate past National Security Adviser, the pilots and aides, were not so lucky. Six of them perished on December 15 in a helicopter crash in the mangrove forest of Bayelsa State.

Nigerians had thought that that helicopter crash would complete the unfortunate events of 2012. Another tragedy, this time, on the road, occurred when the vehicle bearing Idris Wada, the governor of Kogi State, was involved in a fatal accident on Friday, December 28, 2012. The crash occurred when the governor’s Lexus Jeep suffered a tyre burst on the Ajaokuta-Lokoja Road while returning to the state capital after attending an official function. Though Wada sustained a leg fracture and other minor bruises, Idris Mohammed, his Aide-De Camp, an Assistant Superintendant of Police, died in the crash. He has since been buried in Kaduna.

I will not want to bother my readers with the numerous terror attacks in the northern part of the country in 2012. As it seems, that has come to be a permanent feature in that part of the country with an apparently helpless government blowing hot and cold each time the terrorists strike. It is a big relief that 2012 is gone with the loads of highs and lows that confronted the nation.

If our recent experience is anything to go by, Nigerians welcomed 2013 with mixed feelings. We surely need a new beginning this year. It is obvious that issues of the economy, security, employment, fighting, corruption and official cover-ups, to name a few, will dominate 2013 in Nigeria.

On the political turf, though the president has confessed that his government is “slow”, Nigerians will want to see a more invigorated government that will alleviate the sufferings of the people. The first way to ensure this is for the President to tinker with his cabinet and his aides. Some of them are dead woods who have nothing to offer than to sing praises and tell the President what will make him happy at all times. When you look at the performance indices of some of the ministers and aides, you could see that they are not worth to be councillors in their local governments. They are simply bereft of ideas and the wherewithal to move this country forward at the pace it deserves.

It is obvious that many of them have become fronts for fortune seekers and profiteers. Majority of them have become too stupendously rich to continue in their present positions. It is for this reason that the president must take a second look at those around him and his cabinet. Nigerians don’t want a slow government. What is at stake in this country today cannot be handled slowly anymore. Afterall, the resources – human, natural and capital – are there. The president only needs to see beyond the present narrow prism and confront the challenges facing the nation headlong. To do this, he must act like a tiger and not a snail!

January 2, 2013
Goodbye 2012, welcome 2013!

Every year comes with its own challenge. The outgoing year, was, without doubt, a very challenging one not only for us in Nigeria but in the world as a whole. It was a year that challenged and confounded the much touted technological conquest of the earth by man. From America to Australia, from Egypt to South Africa and from Canada to China, the world confronted diverse threats that defied technological explanations. As the Americans prepared for the 2012 national elections, it was hit by Hurricane Sandy which had devastating effects on the country. Nigerians were indeed, astounded to see Americans queuing for fuel with jerry cans at filling stations in addition to having to endure power outage for days.

In major parts of the world, the year 2012 would be remembered as a year of unprecedented and uncontrollable flooding. From China, America, Australia, Europe, to mention just a few, came horrible sights of submerged houses, cars and dislocated men who scampered for safety from the explosive fury of a menacing flooding. Here in Nigeria, we had our own share of the flooding palaver as states such as Edo, Delta, Anambra, Rivers, Kogi, Oyo, to mention just a few, groaned under the monstrous flooding that brought all activities to a standstill. People travelling on roads through Lokoja to Abuja were worse hit as most of them were stranded on the road for days. In Lagos, we were luckier as the good jobs that the government has been doing over the years in the area of environmental regeneration eventually yielded good dividends and the residents were spared the agony of another flooding experience.

In the northern part of the country, the deadly Boko Haram group continued in its murderous and dastardly acts, holding the North-East in particular to ransom through wanton destruction of lives and properties. Till date, government is yet to find a lasting solution to the threat of this deadly gang. Indeed, 2012 was a year when the Boko Haram elevated terrorism to another height in the country. The rate of insecurity in the country, particularly in the northern part, was a major source of concern throughout 2012. Aside from the murderous activities of Boko Haram, recent upsurge in kidnappings across the country have become a new source of worry. States such as Osun, Oyo, Ogun among others, which were hitherto no hunting grounds for kidnappers, suddenly became ‘catchment areas’ for them.

It was also a year that witnessed unprecedented rate of death in the air in Nigeria. Though air transportation is seen as the fastest and safest of the three forms of transportation; (water, land and air), but it is not short of its disasters. Just before Sunday, June 3, when the nation was thrown into mourning again as a Dana Airlines Flight 9J 992 carrying 153 passengers on board crashed into Iju-Ishaga, a densely populated residential area of Lagos, killing all passengers on board, a Nigerian cargo plane, attempting to take off from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, crashed few hours earlier on Saturday night, killing 10 people and injuring an unspecified number of others. The plane smashed through the airport’s fence before slamming into cars and a bus loaded with passengers on a nearby street.

Four months after, on October 25, the Governor of Taraba State, Danbaba Suntai and five of his aides narrowly escaped death when a Cessna 208 aircraft marked 5N-BMJ that Suntai piloted, reportedly lost contact with the Yola Control Tower 38 miles to landing, after leaving Jalingo, the state capital and crashed into a hill in Adamawa. Just when Nigerians thought they had seen an end to air crashes for 2012, the nation was jolted with the news of four persons, including Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and former National Security Adviser to the president, General Owoeye Azazi, who were reportedly burnt in a helicopter crash that occurred in the forest of Okoroba community in Nembe Local Government of Bayelsa State.

However, 2012 was not all about gloom and distress. In particular, for us in Lagos, the year was another in the success story of the Fashola administration. It witnessed the inauguration of several new projects across the state. As usual, the Fashola administration has continued in its trailblazing fashion in the provision of social infrastructure for the good of Lagosians.

In the area of public law and order, the recently promulgated Lagos Road Traffic law is already impacting on road safety and security of lives and property in the state. Recent statistics from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), reveal that casualties figure have drastically reduced particularly in commercial motorcycles related accidents since the beginning of the traffic law.

The months of September to December are a critical period when higher accidents are recorded due to atmospheric condition of the time. The months of September and October recorded a total of 183 road crashes, a bit higher than 2011 rate. In the same vein, commercial motorcycle accidents, since the implementation of the traffic law, was 11 for the combined months of October and November compared to 33 in 2011. The number of persons killed in Okada accident in 2012 was three for the month of September and one for October. This was much lower when compared to 14 deaths recorded in September and October 2011.

Similarly, it was in 2012 that Lagos hosted EKO 2012, a sports festival that has come to be regarded as the best organized in the history of the festival in the country. The event, which afforded youths across the country a platform to display their potentials in diverse sporting areas, would continue to be a benchmark for future games in the country.

As we savour the prospect of 2013, I enjoin everyone to take advantage of the unlimited possibilities that come with the New Year. If we could work harder and prepare ourselves ahead for the challenges of the New Year, I am convinced that we won’t miss any opportunity in the New Year. As a government, we will continue to work hard to make Lagos a better place for all to live. Nevertheless, in as much as we will continue to be relentless in our commitment to the Lagos project, we implore all Lagosians to work in partnership with us to collectively achieve the Lagos of our dream.

It is only in doing this that we can all fully tap the limitless potentials buried in the womb of the New Year. May 2013 bring unto us good fortunes and glad tidings. May it be a year of peace, joy and happiness for everybody. Happy new year to you all!

• Ibirogba is Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lagos State

December 31, 2012
Welcome qualification

•But Super Eagles road to 2013 AFCON is still long and rough

Super Eagles qualified for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, in South Africa, by walloping Liberia 6-1; 8-3 on goals difference, having played a 2-2 draw away in Monrovia. This spectacular performance has redeemed the team’s image, since they failed to qualify for the 2012 edition, despite playing the last qualifying match against Guinea, also on home soil.

Still, many observers remain unconvinced: what if they had played against the likes of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana or Egypt, African soccer super powers? This doubt is not unfounded. Despite qualifying, Nigeria has lost its seeding privilege. Four countries: South Africa (hosts), Zambia (title holders), Ghana (semi-finalists) and Cote d’Ivoire (losing finalists) at the 2012 edition, had been seeded. What this means is that Nigeria, at the group stages, will contend with any of the four, particularly Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, eternal West African rivals. Are the Eagles prepared for this stiff test?

That explains why Adegboye Onigbinde, eminent coach and FIFA technical instructor and Nigeria’s most decorated ex-international, Kanu Nwankwo, have warned that the Eagles need to work harder. This is despite their hailing Coach Stephen Keshi’s adoption of wing play which, incidentally, Clemence Westerhoff used in 1994, when Keshi was captain of the Super Eagles, to win the Nations Cup in Tunisia, en route to a glorious debut World Cup campaign at USA ‘94.

Keshi should put his pride in his pocket if he wants to perform at this tournament. Samson Siasia had an ego problem, which led to his sidelining of important stars like Osaze Odewingwe and a few others under the pretext of discipline. His stubborn refusal to allow such key players cost him qualification – and later his job.

On this score, Keshi is hardly better. We remember the problem he had with Togolese star, Emmanuel Adebayor, whom he refused to field as one of Togolese players during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. In the end, Keshi failed at the first round and he was sacked. The same thing happened when he took up the coaching job at Mali. He ignored the best players in Mali, like Frederick Kanoute and Sheydou Keita. By the time he swallowed his pride and allowed Kanoute and Keita to play, however, it was too late as Mali was kicked out of the 2008 Cup of Nations tournament. Once again, he was sacked.

But soccer hubris, coaches’ ego, is not limited to Nigeria. In fact, it is a global problem. But the late Enzo Bearzot, Italy coach to the 1982 World Cup in Spain, somewhat proved a golden exception. And the result: he won the World Cup, dumping in the quarterfinal perhaps the best Brazil team ever, which nevertheless failed to win the World Cup.

Bearzot brought in Paulo Rossi, who though just came out of a two-year illicit betting suspension sentence, the coach knew was key to his World Cup ambition. He literally came from gaol to play; and his hat trick wrecked the free-flowing Tele Santana-managed Brazil team of Socrates, Falcao, Cerezo Junior, Eder and others, which nevertheless suffered a suspect Valdir Perez in goal. Rossi’s hat-trick did the damage, as Italy threw out Cinderella Brazil in the quarters, before going on to win the cup against West Germany in the final.

The moral? Keshi should by all means enforce discipline in the team. An undisciplined team is a heart ache to all. But he must also learn how to get the best from his star players, despite their character flaws.

Other things being equal, superstars step in on the big stage to win laurels for their clubs and countries. This has been amply demonstrated by the likes of Lionel Messi (Argentina), Christiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Robin Van Persie (Holland).

Nigeria has her own share of stars. It is Keshi’s job to harness their talents to the glory of motherland. We wish him well as he attempts to relive the golden era of the national team as coach; after captaining that same team during that golden era.

October 24, 2012
Welcome, dual society

In a society where dastardly occurences have virtually become daily menu, it is safe to bet that the current rage over the bestial killings of the four undegraduates of University of Port Harcourt in Omuokere-Aluu Community, Rivers State would fizzle out in no time. In other words, the rage would endure – only for as long as it takes the next cycle of horror of greater scale or dimension to occur – after which citizens so minded would again resort to taking stock of how far down the slope we have sunk on the human regression index.

After all, it was not even nearly 14 days after the nation endured a similar horror of gruesome murder of 40 students at Mubi Polytechnic, in Adamawa State. On that particular occassion, the names of victims were said to have been called out from a register only to be shot at point blank! It can hardly get more macabre. Coincidentally, the gory incident happened on a day regarded as sacred on the nation’s calendar – the 52nd Independence Anniversary!

Three weeks on, all manners of theories have popped up on the possible suspects and motives; the missing link is the suggestion that a breakthrough is near the corner. The police have neither found helpful clues nor the communities been helpful in tracking the killers. They may well have come from any of those mountainous tribes close to the Afghan border!

Of course, the case of 16 innocent worshipers mowed down by gunmen during their service on August 6 is still fresh. True, arrests were made; beyond that, nothing has been heard about whether those held are the real killers of the worshippers or not.

A lot has been said about the failing Nigerian state. But the murder of the lads stands apart in its savagery even in the worst of times. Last weekend, I finally summoned the courage to watch the video on You Tube. Let me confes: I regretted the experience. Of course, I detected something eerily disturbing – suggesting perhaps a new phase, if you like, in the nation’s descent into the abyss. Although the virus of impunity has been with us for some time now, what I saw “live” in the lynching of Messrs Biringa Chiadika Lordson, Ugonna Kelechi Obuzor, Mike Lloyd Toku and Tekena Erikena – the so-called Uniport Four – is a completely new malignancy, a madness that speaks to the final internmnent of the community as a normative order.

To begin with, how could I, for the life of me, imagine that a human being actually held that camera to record the gory spectacles of those young men being marched through the community after being stripped naked for alleged stealing a phone and laptop? All in the course of a job? Good heavens! Or, for the pleasure of filming an event for the world to see?

What about the emergency jury of young men, women and even children, conscripted in the course of the the rite of summary trial and death? Did anyone notice how they cheered the jury on, perhaps from the love of the spectacle of watching those young boys die a most agonising death in instalments? I could imagine among the mob – fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, aunties, nephews and nieces; did they get “high” watching their victims suffer pains?

And the final act: the roasting of those bodies after pulverising and reducing them to vegetative states? It is a measure of how sick a people, nay a nation can get.

There were reports that a detachment of the Nigeria Police actually stood by while the gory events lasted. True or false; it changes nothing. The Nigerian state failed the youths; it failed itself most shamefully. Neither the DPO covering the area or his men have any business remaining in the police force. They have earned their place among the vigilantes!

True, Aluu may well represent the final testament, the internment of the notion of the orderly society to which we pretend to aspire, the seal of our descent to the Hobbesian state of nature, it did not chance upon us. Our march to that jungle may have been slow and halting, it has been incremental and steady. It began a long time ago.

Today, the talk is that the Nigerian state is failing. It seems so given that we do not even pretend anymore about that. At least, not with evidences in the countless militias ruling our lives, the laws that have been rendered inoperable and unworkable; the impunity writ large that is now the order of the day; the public sphere that daily spew hate; a hopelesly inept government and a pathetic citizenry plus of course the thieving mob now running some government houses in the country.

Welcome to the dual society – a society of we versus them; indigene versus outsider (or settler); the rich versus the commoner; the faithful versus the unbelieving, etc.

Whereas the rich can afford to mock the law; the poor insists on his version of law. The rich can afford a battery of lawyers to twist and bend the process to save his skin; the poor has his therapy in summary justice. The rich has the police; the poor has the vigilante. Whereas the rich has the temperament to indulge in all manners of theatrics in the courtroom, the poor has a ready-made solution: instance justice.

Where do these lead? Your guess is as good as mine.

Feedback

I take interest in reading your Policy column every Tuesday. I’m happy that someone like you takes time to analyse the lip service paid to economic and social development by both the executive and those with oversight responsibility. We are over-governed in this country. The federating units in terms of the number of states are too many. Unless we can return to not more than six geo-political zones with each having control of the resources within her domain and contributing to the centre as in the First Republic, the groundwork for real economic development will not be laid.

Right now, the states are weak; rather than look inwards for internal revenue generation, they all look towards Abuja for monthly allocation that is largely shared or spent on recurrent expenditure. This leaves little or nothing for capital expenditure. Until we reduce the number of states that will become competitive again, development will continue to elude this country. Please find time to point attention to this. Sincerely, we need to move from Presidential to parliamentary where the ministers will be responsible both to their constituency and to parliament. We shall then have true federalism. Thank you.

Chief M.A. Olorunfemi

October 16, 2012