HEAL NIGERIA

The Week President Goodluck Jonathan Came to Town

2011-11-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

Our trip to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth was a wonderful experience and an 'eye opener'. I was able to see 'first hand' the sheer incompetence and profligacy of the Nigerian govt. When stories of government profligacy are published on internet blogs, you sometimes think that the likes of SaharaReporters are just being mischievous.

I recall when SR reported during one of Pres. Jonathan’s visit to the US, that he travelled with 140-man delegation. On face value, one would ask, how can this be possible? If you are one of the 'doubting Thomases', then I have a bad news for you. I was reliably informed by a source in the foreign Affairs Ministry, who is also part of the delegation to Australia, that about 400 people were on the Nigerian delegation to Perth, Australia for the 2011 CHOGM.

The truth is, not every time does a citizen have the opportunity to meet and interact with the president, especially if you live in a place like Australia. In a place like Nigeria where meeting political leaders can be likened to a camel trying to pass through a needle, the opportunity to meet public servants during their overseas visit presents a more relaxed atmosphere. In most cases, one will find such atmosphere less intimidating, as it is usually devoid of over-zealous personal aides and security officials who swarm around public servants. It is for this reason that myself and a group of friends embarked on a 4,500km journey from our base in Brisbane, with the anticipation of meeting Mr President.

Prior to leaving Brisbane, we received a correspondence from the Nigerian High Commission that Pres. GEJ will be meeting with members of the Nigerian community on Saturday 29 October at 4pm in Perth. Having confirmed the date, we booked our flights and accommodation. Our plan was to arrive in Perth on Friday 28 and leave on Monday 31. We deliberately scheduled our departure from Perth for Monday 31, to allow us some flexibility just in case the proposed time of the meeting changes, because you can never trust Nigerian officials to keep to time.

And just when we thought all was 'hunky dory', we received another correspondence from the High Commission advising that the meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday 25 October. At this stage, we asked ourselves if we should change our travel plans. After considering the cost implication, we decided not to. My thoughts were, we should travel to Perth on Friday 28 October as planned, and just see how things pane out.

Come Tuesday 25 October, we contacted some friends in Perth to enquire if the meeting took place. Lo and behold, we were told that the meeting has been postponed once again(!). Meaning if we had changed our travel plans, it would have been a total waste of time.

At this time, we were still in Brisbane and no one could confirm the new date of the meeting. Our contacts in Perth could not provide any further updates. Getting information out of the High Commission also became impossible. The officers seem to have closed shop in Canberra and have all flown to Perth in order not to miss out on the presidential jamboree. President Jonathan had since arrived in Perth on Monday 24 October.

So we arrived in Perth at about 12 midnight on Friday 28 without any idea of the time and location of the proposed meeting. In search of information, we decided take a stroll to the venue of the CHOGM, the Perth Convention Centre. We were convinced that we would at least come in contact with a Nigerian delegate who might be able provide us with further information. As expected, we came across a few Nigerian delegates who advised us that the meeting will now be held on Sunday 30 October at 3pm at the Perth City Hall.

Apparently the Nigerian Community in Western Australia were the organisers of the event. The plan of the organisers was to ‘kill two birds with one stone’, by using their annual Nigeria Independence celebration as a reception for Mr President. I learnt that the celebration was postponed to coincide with the arrival of Pres. Jonathan in Australia.

It was while I was in the Perth City Centre on Saturday that I began to see the massive profligacy of the Nigerian government on display. You could smell naira notes everywhere you turn in the shopping mall.

Everyone and anyone you can think of, was in Perth for the CHOGM. From Ministers to businessmen, state governors, Special Advisers, Commissioners, Personal Assistants, Security Guards, houseboys, housegirls, girlfriends, shopping buddies, political jobbers you name it!

I even learnt that one of the state governors travelled with four of his commissioners! You can also be sure that each of these commissioners will travel with at least a personal assistant. To put this in perspective, there were five governors on the presidential delegation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also wasn't left behind. In attendance was the Minister, Permanent-Secretary, Special Adviser to the Minister, a handful of Directors and other junior officers

Some of the Nigerian guys I came across on the streets of Perth were no different from urchins that you see regularly on the streets of Lagos. The only difference was that their pockets were fully loaded with stash of dollars. From my observation, 90% Nigerians who travelled to Perth for the CHOGM had no business been in Australia. For crying out loud, how can anyone justify a 400-man delegation to a Heads of Government meeting. Mind you, this is not a United Nations General Assembly or conference. This is a meeting of only 54 heads of state.

The shop owners in the city must have been praying that the CHOGM shouldn't come to an end. Everywhere you turned, there is a Nigerian either shopping and changing money at the bureau de change. You need not to be Professor of Human Geography to recognise the Nigerian delegates. Their trademark was the 'Louis Vuitton' carrier bag. Whilst Pres. Jonathan was busy in the CHOGM, his personal aides and public servants unleashed their arsenal of dollar notes on the Perth shopping mall.

By the evening of Saturday 29, news started to filter round that Pres. Jonathan wouldn’t be attending the much anticipated reception organised by the Nigerian Association. Different reasons were peddled around. We heard that he had to fly out of Australia by 1pm, because he needed to make a stop over in Mauritius. So the question was how come all of a sudden, the Mauritius trip became so important bearing in mind that it wasn’t on his planned schedule?

There were rumours that, following the grounding of Qantas Airline, Pres. Jonathan decided to offer the President of Mauritius a ‘lift’ back home in his presidential jet. Meaning that Mauritius President is more important that the average Nigerian who have taken their time and spent their money to travel to Perth in the hope of meeting the President.

Some also claimed that the presidential jet needed to arrive in Mauritius at a particular time so that it can be refuelled. You then begin wonder, is Mauritius the only country on the flight path where the presidential jet can be refuelled.

As expected, come Sunday 31 October, the long awaited august visitor did not show up at Perth City Hall. Instead, he was represented by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Gbenga Ashiru. Also present at the event were bureaucrats from Foreign Affairs Ministry.

You could see the disgust on the faces of the guests. I heard a 7yr-old girl asking her Dad at the event, “Daddy, where is the Nigerian President?” Mr President disappointed hundreds of Nigerian men and women, who sacrificed their time and money to put together a fantastic reception. One couldn’t have asked for more. The venue was beautiful and the food was tasty. Even Oga Jonah and Madam Peshe would have been impressed. But anyway they decided to do a ‘no show’. I was reliably informed that the organisers spent over $8,000 in hosting the event.

With this sort of attitude, you can only wonder how much respect Nigerian leaders have for the masses. I still cannot comprehend the fact that Pres. Jonathan travelled over 50,000km across the world to Australia, for almost a week and he couldn’t spare 1 hour in his supposed tight schedule to meet with his fellow nationals. Even if he was that busy, what about the First Lady, Dame Patience? I am sure many wouldn’t have been so disappointed if Mrs Jonathan turned up at the event.

The body language of Foreign Affairs Minister was also not very helpful to say the least. It was like he was doing us a favour by been present at the event. He barely stayed for an hour before he left for the airport.

Anyway, in the absence of Mr President, yours truly and his friends decided to treat themselves to plate of pounded yam and ‘efo egusi’ and spent time interacting with the beautiful people of Perth.

On Monday, we took a drive to the harbour town of Freemantle before heading for the airport to board the flight back to Brisbane. We were fortunate that the grounding of Qantas airline fleet was resolved before our scheduled departure date.

Overall, we had a fantastic time in Perth, and I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who made our weekend in Perth memorable.

2011-07-04T19:48:00.001-07:00

"......in the early 1990s two applications were received and processed for Islamic banking licence: Al Barka Bank and Al Qaeda Bank. However, those two banks could not meet the requirement for the grant of a final licence" - CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi

Do You Support 'Zoning' or Not? Please Read!

2010-10-28T01:56:00.000-07:00

Friends! I bumped into this article, written by Dr Alex Ekwueme, on the internet. It provides an insight into the issue of “zoning”, and what could have been if the 1995 Constitution was passed. Having read this article, I can now understand the spirit behind the zoning clause in the PDP Constitution.

Please read and share your thoughts.

What Nigeria Lost By Abacha's Untimely Death

Well-thought Out Provisions Of The 1995 Constitution

Alex Ekwueme

May 29, 2005

I was an elected member of the 1994-1995 National Constitutional Conference, which sat exactly for one year (June 26 1994 -June 26 1995) and had reasonable time to discuss and ponder over many thorny issues that concerned the Nigerian polity. We were anxious that the military should disengage as soon as possible and hand over to elected civilian governments at all levels. At one time we passed a resolution, later rescinded, setting January 1996 as the date for hand over. The work of the National Constitutional Conference culminated in a two-volume report, Volume 1 of which was report of the constitutional conference containing the draft constitution 1995.

In December 1995 we held a very successful "All politicians summit" At Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos which I had the privilege to chair. I describe the summit as "very successful" notwithstanding its disruption by agents of the government. It was obvious that General Abacha was in no hurry to disengage. We then formed the Institute of Civil Society, which again I had the privilege to chair, one of whose objectives was to sensitize the Nigerian public on the need for an early return to democratic ethos as we considered military rule which is imposed on and not elected by the populace, a vicious form of colonialism. It eventually materialised that Abacha set October 1, 1998 as the date for the transition from military to civilian government. But it was soon clear, judging by the decisions of all the five registered political parties to nominate him as the sole presidential candidate that it was his wish to hand over from Abacha as a military head of state to Abacha as civilian president. Some of us did not think that this was the right thing for

Nigeria

and at a meeting of the "G34" in April 1998, we decided to advise Abacha by a well considered memorandum not to countenance the prompting by sycophants that he should succeed himself. Within two months of the G-34 memorandum, Abacha was dead and so the question of self-succession also died a natural death.

There is no doubt that if it was necessary for anybody to flaunt anti-Abacha credentials, I was in a position so to do. Arguably, there was much that Nigeria gained by Abacha's untimely death, including release of some detainees and prisoners, accelerated transition to elected civilian administration midwifed by his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, recovery of some looted funds etc. Although some of these so-called gains may have turned out in retrospect and with the benefit of hindsight to have been mixed blessings.

However, it is with a consideration of what Nigeria lost by Abacha's untimely death that I am here concerned. Before Abacha's death, "The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1995 (with Amendments)" had been finalised and was to have been promulgated by decree to come into effect on October 1, 1998. This constitution introduced some fundamental changes to Nigeria's previous presidential constitutions (1979 and 1989) based on experience garnered over almost four decades of Nigeria's independence, all calculated to conduce to a stable Nigerian polity within which all Nigerians could truly feel a sense of belonging and which would elicit the collaborative efforts of Nigerians to make the country a great nation.

With the death of Abacha, the 1995 Constitution was not promulgated. The reason for this is found in the report of the Justice Niki Tobi led Constitutional Debate Co-ordinating Committee set up by the General Abdulsalami government to propose a constitution for the incoming 1999 civilian administration. The 1995 Constitution was not adopted because it was suggested that "Nigerians raised compelling reservations" about it, holding forth that it was "a product of disputed legitimacy" and suffered from a "crisis of authenticity in the public consciousness." Significantly, the above-stated reservations emanated mostly from South-Western Nigeria, which had officially boycotted the 1994-1995 National Constitutional Conference and was therefore not prepared to accept that there was anything good that could come out of it. They, more or less, decided to throw away the baby with the bath water so to speak, and therefore preferred to settle with "the 1979 Constitution" (which), according to them, "had been tried and tested and, therefore, provides a better point of departure in the quest for constitutionalism in Nigeria." "Making only minor adjustments to the 1979 document, the Tobi committee recommended adopting the adjusted document as the new (1999) constitution."

Accordingly, Abacha's untimely death on June 1998 robbed Nigeria of the opportunity of having the 1995 Constitution promulgated on October 1, 1998. In order, therefore, to assess "What Nigeria lost by Abacha's untimely death" (the object of this piece) it would be in order to highlight a few of the salient and radical provisions of "the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1995 (with Amendments)," to wit:

1. Recognition of six geopolitical zones

S.229 (4): For the purpose of subsection (1) of this section, the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria shall be as set out in part III of the First Schedule To this Constitution.

1.zone | states

1. North-Central - Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

2. North-Eastern - Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe.

3. North-Western | Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara.

4. South-Eastern | Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.

5. South-South | Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers.

6. South-Western | Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo.

This is the first formal recognition of the six geo-political zones now in common usage politically in a legal or constitutional document.

2. Diffusion of federal executive responsibility

In addition to the offices of President and Vice President and Ministers, the Constitution provides also for the offices of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister:

S. 149(2): "Subject to such reservations or conditions as may be made by him, the President shall assign to the Prime Minister responsibility for the general administration of the Government of the Federation"

S.149(4): "The President shall hold regular meetings with the Vice President, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and all the Ministers of the Government of the Federation for the purposes of -

a) Determining the general direction of domestic and foreign policies of the Government of the Federation (b) Co-ordinating the activities of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Government of the federation in the discharge of their executive responsibilities..."

Single 5 - year term of office for governor coupled with rotation of office of governor etc.

S. 149(4): "Subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section a Governor shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of 5 years commencing from the date when (a) He took the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office..."

S.184(1): "A person shall not be qualified for election to the Office of Governor of... (b) He has been elected to such office at an immediately preceding election..."

S.229(2): "The Office of Governor, Deputy Governor and Speaker of the House of Assembly shall rotate among the three Senatorial districts in the state.

If the above provisions had been incorporated into the 1999 Constitution, two of the three senatorial districts of each state would have already produced governors in every state leaving the third (remaining) senatorial district to produce the Governor at the next election. All the problems currently bedevilling most states in the matter of "power shift" would not have arisen and all parts of every state would have been given a sense of belonging.

Single 5-year term of office for president coupled with rotation of office of President etc.

S. 138(2): "Subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, the president shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of 5 years commencing from the date when (a) He took the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office..."

S. 140(1): A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if ... (b) He has been elected to such office at an immediately preceding election..."

S. 229(1): "The following six principal offices shall rotate among the six geo-political zones created under subsection (4) of this section, namely -

The office of the President;
The office of the Prime Minister
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
The Office of the President of the Senate
The Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives

Had the above provisions been incorporated in the 1999 Constitution, two of the six geopolitical zones would already have produced a President of Nigeria and a third zone would have been looking forward to producing the President in the next dispensation. The present controversy or argument as to which geopolitical zone or group of geopolitical zones or region should present the President in the next dispensation would have been narrowed down to manageable proportions.

30-year transition period for evolving a Nigerian nation as distinct from a country or "mere Geographical expression"

S. 2290(1): "The principle of rotation enshrined in this section shall be strictly adhered to by the political parties during the transition period of 30 years commencing from the date this Constitution comes into force."

During this "transition" period of 30 years, at the state level each senatorial district would have filled the office of Governor two times, the office of Deputy Governor two times, and the office of the Speaker of the House of Assembly two times, each term of office being of 5 years duration. At the national level each of the six geopolitical zones would have filled the offices of President, Vice President, Prime Minister, deputy Prime Minister, President of the Senate and Speaker at the House of Representatives for a term of 5 years each. Thereafter, the cry of "marginalisation" would have been a thing of the past. The 30-year period would have been used to positively and constructively promote state level and national integration at all levels, following which all positions could then be filled on the basis of merit and competence in the true democratic spirit.

Discharge of functions of President

S. 147(1): "Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) of this section, if any vacancy occurs by reason of the death or resignation or the removal of the President from office (impeachment) in accordance with section 144, 145 or 340 of this Constitution, the Vice President shall hold the office of President for the period of not more than 3 months during which there shall be an election of a new President from the same zone, who shall hold office for the unexpired term of office of the last holder of the office."

On the few occasions when President Obasanjo has been threatened with impeachment by the National Assembly, a few members, instead of looking at the grounds canvassed for impeachment on their merits, preferred to consider what would be the necessary result of a successful impeachment process, namely: that the Vice President (currently from the North-Eastern geopolitical zone) would be the beneficiary of the exercise as he would step into the shoes of the impeached President. On one occasion, in the Senate, it was the Alliance for Democracy senators from the South-West, who did not in fact vote for the President in the first place who threatened hell and brimstone should the impeachment exercise proceed further. The 1995 Abacha Constitution anticipated this possibility and provided that the Vice President shall fill the vacancy for 3 months only as a maximum, while INEC would arrange to elect a President from the same zone (in this case, possibly Olu Falae?). With this provision, it would be possible to examine a President's breaches of the constitution and other misconduct objectively to see if they justify or warrant impeachment.

Farewell to "Winner takes all"

S. 148(7) "The majority of the number of ministers appointed pursuant to subsection (3) of the section shall come from the political party or parties on whose platform the President is elected."

S. 148(8): "Any political party which wins not less than 10 per cent of the total number of seats in the National Assembly or of the total number of votes cast at the election, shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (7) of this section be entitled to representation in the Federal Executive Council in proportion to the number of seats won by the party in the National Assembly."

This is a prescription for an all-party government with ministers drawn from all serious political parties (with 10 per cent of the votes cast at the National Assembly election). This is to promote consensus building rather than antagonism among the political parties; and holders of ministerial posts from parties other than the President's party will appreciate that they hold such positions as of right by virtue of the constitution and not as a gift by the President or his party. Certainly not an invitation to "come and chop."

Elimination of incumbency and its abuse to the electoral process

The December 1959 Federal Parliamentary Elections may have had its abuses some of which were highlighted by Harold Smith in his autobiography "Blue Collor Lawman" but the 1964 Federal Parliamentary Elections certainly had many more electoral abuses than the 1959 election.

Similarly, the 1979 Presidential, National Assembly and Gubernatorial elections may have had some abuses but they were, by comparison, much more free and fair than the 1983 elections. In the same way, in spite of any problems associated with the 1999 Presidential and other elections, they were certainly more free and fair than the 2003 edition. So, historically, it would be generally accepted that the incumbency factor does not promote free and fair electoral processes. Based on this historical experience, the Abacha 1995 Constitution provides as follows:

S. 140(1): "A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if

(b) He has been elected to such office at an immediately preceding election..."

An incumbent President and incumbent Governors are therefore disqualified from standing election for the same office during their incumbency. This eliminates the incumbency factor and the abuses arising there from in connection with the electoral process.

In summary, because of Abacha's untimely death in June 1998, "the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1995 (with amendments)" was never promulgated and Nigeria therefore lost the benefit of some of its well-thought out provisions which were intended to promote justice, equity, and national unity in the process of transforming Nigeria from a country of many ethnic nationalities into a modern nation state within a "transition period" of 30 years. This is what Nigeria lost by Abacha's untimely death.

NiGERIA @50: Nigeria & Indonesia, spot the difference!

2010-09-28T16:18:00.001-07:00

History
·         Both Indonesia and Nigeria,  are the giants of their region, home to tens of millions of people.
·         Both were formed as one nation by Europeans around 1900.
·         Both were governed by the colonial system of "indirect rule".
·         Both once made money from palm oil, and later discovered oil and gas.
·         At independence, the standards of living in the two countries were comparable on most measures.
·         And since independence, both have suffered three decades of military misrule and corruption.
·         Their first coups were launched within months of each other - in September 1965 in Indonesia and in January 1966 in Nigeria
·         Military rule came to an end within 12 months, in May 1998 (Indonesia) and 1999 (Nigeria)
Achievements
·         In Indonesia, the life expectancy of a child at birth had risen from 45 to 70 years since independence.
·         In Nigeria, life expectancy remains stuck just above 45; today it is around 47.
·         When Indonesia's second president, Haji Muhammad Suharto, took power in 1967 the number of people living in poverty was the same as in Nigeria; around six out of ten.
·         Three decades later, it had fallen from six to two. In Nigeria it had risen from six to seven.
·         Currently, Indonesia lies almost 50 places above Nigeria on the United Nation's Human Development Index.
·         Adult literacy in Indonesia stands at 92%, 20 points better than Nigeria.
·         Per capita income in Indonesia is close to $4,000, is almost twice that of Nigeria.
·         Basic healthcare is strikingly better in Indonesia, and the same is true for education.
·         Access to clean water and a good balanced diet are better too.
·         GDP: Nigeria $207.12bn, Indonesia $510.73bn
·         Population below poverty line: Nigeria 70%, Indonesia 17.8%
Source, UN, World Bank, BBC, CIA World Fact Book

I think it is time we need to ask ourselves, where exactly did the wheels fall off?

Election 2011 Campaign Finance: A Serious Challenge By Reuben Abati

2010-09-26T17:25:00.001-07:00

THERE are issues beyond the constraint of time that INEC has identified with regard to the 2011 general elections which also need to be addressed, considering the implications for electoral outcomes and the integrity of elections, with consequential effect on governance. The first of these is the cost of elections, from the collection of nomination forms all through the campaigns and eventual election into office. The country experience has been that the monetization of the electoral process has resulted in such a situation whereby every candidate sees election expenses as an investment, and should he or she get elected, the immediate objective in office is to re-coup the investments made, thus providing a curiously self-serving justification for corrupt conduct.

One prominent Senator once publicly confessed, following allegations that he had collected a N50 million bribe to facilitate the passage of a Ministry's budget, that his mission as a lawmaker in Abuja was first and foremost to recover his election investments, and that no one should talk about service. Past testimonies have revealed that many political office aspirants took loans, or sold their property or relied on the sponsorship of Godfathers and corporations to be able to meet the required high financial outlay. In many instances this resulted in embarrassing outcomes with the most celebrated perhaps being the Chris Ngige-Chris Uba crisis in Anambra state, and the Rasheed Ladoja-Lamidi Adedibu face-off in Oyo state, with the Godfathers (Uba and Adedibu) insisting that their clients needed to pay back the investments made by giving them a share of the security vote in addition to other privileges. The refusal of both clients resulted in their summary removal from office. The root of that crisis is the monetization of election processes which makes poor but qualified aspirants utterly vulnerable. This is one problem that electoral reform, now a postponed aspirational objective, could have solved. But now, we are going into another round of general elections, with so much emphasis on money both officially and otherwise.

The genesis is official. What the law stipulates is rather high given the level of poverty in the country. It amounts to saying that only the rich can aspire to political offices. Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2002, Section 93 of the Electoral Act 2006 both deal with election expenses; the same subject is addressed in Section 91 of the Electoral Act 2010. There is a quantum 100% increase in stipulated election expenses between 2006 and 2010 whereas the objective of the law should have been to make elections less expensive. For example, whereas Section 93(2) of the Electoral Act 2006 requires a Presidential candidate to spend no more than N500 million total, Section 91(2) of the 2010 Act stipulates N1 billion for Presidential candidates, and the same quantum percentage increase applies to other offices- Governor (N200 m, up from N100 million in 2006), Senatorial seat (N40m, formerly N20m); House of Representatives (N20m, formerly N10m), House of Assembly (N10m, formerly N5m), Local Council Chairman (N10 m, formerly N5m) and Councillorship (N1m, previously N500,000). Section 91 (9-12) of the 2010 Act which is in pari materia with Section 93 (9-12) of the 2006 Act, outlines penalties for the violation of these regulations.

Both in the past and now, and in utter disregard of Section 95 0f the 2006 Act, and now Sections 92-93 of the 2010 Act, politicians and political parties have routinely abused the rules on campaign finance and deliberately raised the cost of participation. This speaks to the failure of regulation and the reluctance to ensure campaign finance reform. There is no record of anyone being punished for violating the rule on election expenses. The twin issue of donations to political parties and likely undue influence was addressed in Yusufu v. Obasanjo (2003) 16 NWLR pt.847 but generally there is neither a structure nor mechanism in place for tracking campaign finances and enforcing INEC's rules as spelled out in the Electoral Act. INEC officials at the end of their recent retreat in Calabar asked among other things, for an Electoral Offenders Commission, but until that emerges, there are already existing rules and penalties which only need to be enforced. The neglect of the rules on election expenses creates the room for the hijack of the process by moneybags; it results in the exclusion of otherwise capable and well-meaning but poor aspirants, and provides the basis for corruption.
The political parties often do not shy away from demanding the equivalent of ransom from candidates, this forms part of the total expenditure stipulated by the Electoral Act, but almost always, so much money is spent beyond the legal limits. Out of all the 62 political parties vying for offices in the 2010 general elections, the ruling People's Democratic Party was the first to roll out its guidelines and an outline of required fees. What has been done in this regard so far before the suspension of other activities in the light of the imminent review of the election timetable, illustrates the continuing monetization of elections. The PDP National Headquarters in Abuja requires aspirants to pay the following to pick up nomination forms: Presidential (N10 m), Governors (N5m), Senate (N3 m); House of Representatives (N2.5 m); state Houses of Assembly (N1 m). But so much more is spent, that at the end of the day, every aspirant has to look for money by all means or borrow or steal, or pay through the nose.

In the PDP example, the state branches collect the nationally stipulated fees from aspirants, but they also add their own charges. In Anambra state, the request for an additional two per cent nomination and expression of interest fee already caused a row within the party (The Guardian, September 21, at p.5). It is worse in other states. The standard fees, and initial expenses in the PDP say for the position of Senator and what is called "formalization of political intent" is as follows: N0.2m for the expression of interest form, N2m for the nomination to contest primary election form; state chapter administrative charges -N300, 000, another N150, 000 is paid to the state branch for "intent formalization form". Every candidate is also required to present tax certificates for three years: this is about N100, 000 per year (total N0.3m). For the nomination to contest primary election form to be accepted, the aspirant must be sponsored by 30 persons drawn from different wards in all the local councils in the senatorial zone – each of these persons must be a registered member of the party and they all expect to be paid for their services!

The party also requires a lorry load of documents which have to be photocopied thus creating a boom for owners of the ubiquitous business centres in our towns. The sociology of this matter is that the moment an aspirant declares his interest in a particular office, he is immediately surrounded by a group of sycophants who immediately start addressing him or her as "your Excellency", "Distinguished Senator," "Honourable!", this of course includes the usual team of thugs or able-bodied men as they are more respectfully known: all of whom expect to be paid and fed, even if they have more than one client! The aspirant is also required by convention to visit and pay homage to traditional rulers within his constituency, the police chief, the SSS Director and so on, and everywhere he goes, he is required to pay some unstated charges. By the time the aspirant becomes a candidate, he spends even more. In the PDP, female aspirants are allowed to collect nomination forms free, but they also have to pick up all the other additional expenses. Technically, every candidate spends a lot more than the limit prescribed in the enabling law. Adopting a rule of thumb assessment, even a formal, public declaration of political interest could cost more than the total amount prescribed by law for that particular position. But who will enforce the law?

Election finance is an important issue for reform. We cannot afford to run elections on a profit-motive basis: profit for the business centres, thugs, political Godfathers, the party, traditional rulers, market women and others who are given free clothes, the media, rented crowds, printers, sycophants, cash-collecting voters, and the banks; the general assumption that election time is harvest time and boom time turns the whole event into a commercial undertaking rather than an opportunity for nation-building. ThisDay newspaper has reported that within ten days of selling nomination and expression of interest forms, the PDP raked in N3.5 billion (ThisDay, September 25, p.1). It stands to make more. In 2006, the party made N4 billion from the sale of forms alone. The excuse is that the party needed funds for the elections, but in 2007, the party soon announced that it was broke (didn't it?) and yet there was no clear indication that the party complied with the section of the law requiring each political party to submit its audited accounts for vetting by INEC, and of course in the Nigerian context, it is not the parties that fund individual campaigns, the candidate is required to do so. The PDP has also talked about preventing a bandwagon effect whereby every Peter and Janet would express interest in political office because it is easy to obtain a form. This kind of snobbery translates into deplorable politics of exclusion, one that is driven by financial muscle and sheer illiberality. It should be possible for anyone that is interested in political office to gain access to express that interest. The ultimate choice must be made by the people and this must not be a function of cash.

The 1999 Constitution spells out the grounds for qualification for particular offices at Sections 65,66, 106, 107, 131, 137, 177, 182: the key highlights of which include the fact that the person must have attained a particular age, and a particular level of educational qualification, must be of sound mind, must be a citizen of Nigeria, must not be bankrupt and must not have been indicted for corruption by an administrative panel of inquiry, must not have been convicted for an offence, and must not be a member of a secret society. When political parties erect additional barriers, they invariably make the process of leadership recruitment rather exclusive; when their emphasis is on financial muscle, they prepare the grounds for future compromises; they reduce politics to the level of big money fit only for the highest bidder.

The monetization of the nomination process in the PDP is perhaps "good" for the polity, if it would encourage the other political parties to be more liberal and less business-minded, and if that would encourage aspirants who for financial reasons cannot access the PDP to go to the opposition parties and strengthen them. Unfortunately in Nigeria, party politics has not worked that way before now and may not even now. The political aspirant is not driven by ideology or public-spirited beliefs; he is interested in winning by all means and if the PDP is the party that he or she believes can bring him closer to his or her dream, he or she would be prepared to make the investment, knowing that after winning, the treasury is available for looting. This corruption-driven political culture is what must change for Nigeria to raise the integrity of the election campaign process. It is one challenge that INEC should begin to consider even as it struggles to gain the breathing space it so desperately seeks

2011 election timetable: Matters arising By Reuben Abati

2010-09-23T21:09:00.001-07:00

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has requested for an extension of the timetable for the 2011 general elections till April 2011, to enable it prepare better for the elections, its initial advertised timelines having already gone awry leaving no leg-room for adjustments. This proposal which would require consequential legislative action has already been endorsed by the political parties virtually with no exception and even many of the aspirants are so far enthusiastic that more time will be advisable. There can be no doubt that the extension is in the interest of both INEC and the professional politicians, but there are underlying consequences and possibilities which must be examined to ensure that in the long run, it is the people's interest that prevails. The INEC Chairman had consistently drawn attention to the limitation of time, although he kept promising at the same time that he and his team will do their best under the circumstances. A strategic meeting held in Calabar by INEC officials however came up with the resolution that the timing of the election is practically impossible. The schedule is "too tight", they said.

INEC deserves praise for its new-found honesty, for its earlier resort to ambivalence and double-speak seemed like an exercise in grand deception. Jega, the INEC Chairman must have seen that his so-called perfect alibi would not work after all. The political parties which have quickly endorsed Jega's proposal (they probably pushed him into it, anyway) have also done so for self-serving reasons. The Electoral Act 2010 leaves the political parties very little room for manoeuvre with its very strict deadlines. The parties for example were required to give INEC a 21-day notice of their primaries and conventions, without fail, by September 18, no political party had met that deadline, and there was no clear indication that the various political parties had actually decided on whether to have direct or indirect primaries, or taken a decision on the content of their constitutions, because all of this was still an issue among the various stakeholders.
Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010 on the mode of conducting primaries had also changed the nature of power relations within the political parties with regard to the selection of delegates. In the Peoples Democratic Party, this was meant to free the sitting President from the stranglehold of the Governors who in previous primaries held sway with their army of assistants and political appointees and all-powerful Godfathers, but in reality, the new structure requiring primaries at ward levels in all the 36 states still made the Presidential aspirants utterly vulnerable, and the process more expensive than hitherto.

Some of the parties, notably the PDP and the Presidency, were desperately looking for a way round this. Even the PDP time-table, which places the Gubernatorial primaries before the presidential, made an interested sitting PDP President vulnerable. It is therefore not surprising that although President Jonathan had signed the Electoral Act 2010, he and his aides had at the same time been asking for an amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 before it takes effect. The President's refusal to append his signature to the amended 1999 Constitution now appears deliberate and strategic. If this hypothesis is true, then our earlier argument that there may be a hidden agenda with regard to the 2011 elections may be provable after all.

So, what is likely to follow and what should be our concerns as citizens? If the emerging consensus that the elections be shifted to April holds sway, then there will be need for a review of the enabling legal framework, particularly the Electoral Act with regard to the timing of elections and the amended 1999 Constitution, on which the INEC September-January timetable is based, as well. Contrived as the controversy over the President's signature with regard to the amended 1999 Constitution may be, it is now an issue that also has to be resolved for Nigeria to move forward on the question of elections. Will the Electoral Act 2010 be amended to fit the 1999 Constitution or the amended version? And should the Supreme Court rule one way or the other when it suits it on the matter of the President's signature, what would be the implications? Is there enough time to embark on another round of constitution amendment? Will it not be safer to repeal the 2010 Electoral Act and use the 2006 Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution? If the professional political class manages to resolve this conundrum, the public must be watchful to ensure that the amendments do not end up as an attempt to re-jig the existing framework to favour particular aspirants following a posteriori realizations; for that would amount to a manipulation of the system to deliver pre-determined outcomes.

But in simpler terms, what all this tells us is that Nigeria is not really prepared for the 2011 elections. When John Campbell, a former US Ambassador wrote on September 12 about the possibility of the failure of the 2011 elections in Nigeria, the current Nigerian ambassador to the US, Professor Adebowale Adefuye wrote a rejoinder telling Campbell he is a prophet of doom writing "an offensive… and jaundiced" article (The Guardian, September 13). Campbell and other commentators along the same lines would now appear to know what they were writing about and Ambassador Adefuye, merely pleasing the Nigerian authorities, fails the diplomacy test particularly with his second rejoinder available online in which he says "may the likes of John Campbell never come our way again." No other general election in Nigeria since 1999 has been prefaced with as much confusion, anxiety and uncertainty as the proposed 2011 general elections. In retrospect, the preparations for the 2007 elections considered one of the worst polls in Nigerian history appear comparable, if not better in terms of certainty. Professor Attahiru Jega is certainly setting the stage for the loss of his own credibility, beginning with the current jagajaga (confusing, mixed up, incoherent) arrangements for the 2011 elections.

This is the situation, not because Jega does not mean well, but because in Nigeria there is very little institutional memory and our various institutions are driven not by traditions but circumstances and individual whims. Jega inherited from Maurice Iwu, an existing institution, but he met so much misalignment between mandate, objective and operational capability, he is having to reconfigure the institution afresh; this is something the Ghanaians next door have not had to do from one election to the other in the last decade. And as Jega and his team encounter new demons in the process of that reconstruction, they are compelled to come up with excuses. In a statement justifying the request for a change in timetable, the INEC Chairman has already offered an explanation in that regard, but there are additional questions that remain unanswered.

If what he is asking for is a leg room, more like elbow room, then why April? Why not February since the main challenge is that of the voter's register? Why not March? A two-month window before the inauguration of new government on May 29, 2011, may give the tribunals and courts a little room to treat election petitions expeditiously. But with the elections in April, Nigeria is more or less back to the situation in 2007. It means that practically nothing has changed. The various promises about electoral reform have come to naught. One major element of the electoral reform proposal was to ensure that election-related litigations are disposed of before swearing in to prevent a situation whereby persons enjoy stolen mandates for up to two or three years before they are found out and dismissed by the courts.
With the elections now likely to be held in April 2011, we are back to that old order, and meeting the challenge of ensuring credible elections has been postponed. The INEC budget was based on the plan to prepare the voters' register within two weeks and to run the election process between now and January 2011. If the target is now April 2011, what happens to the INEC budget for the elections? Is it going to prepare a supplementary budget? Or is additional cost already anticipated in the earlier budget? If new costs will be involved, INEC must take the pains to explain that to the public and state exactly how much is required or may be saved from the existing budget.

Professor Jega has affirmed that whatever happens the hand over date of May 29, 2011 will remain sacrosanct. That is important, lest further credence is given to the suspicion that some politicians are bent on extending their tenure in office for selfish reasons. As it were, so much is being said about the importance of time. But this is not even, now in retrospect, the more pressing issue at stake. It is the quality of the Nigerian process and its leadership. The various political parties that are now jumping on the time-extension bandwagon, were they proper political parties would have been ready for the next elections long ago and would not need to behave as if they too are starting afresh. But this is the Nigerian malady. Fifty years after independence, we are again talking about how to begin to plan for the future.
When the various issues are resolved however, Jega must be reminded that he no longer has any reason to offer additional excuses and he must begin to resist the temptation to sound like another prominent public official who comments on everything from the acting styles of Aki and Paw Paw to the eating habits of bank CEOs and much less on his core mandate. For now, our hopes about the 2011 elections are mixed. If the elections are free and fair, fine, but if not, we already know why

Pres. Goodluck Jonathan: After 2011, what next?

2010-08-03T21:31:00.001-07:00

I came across a story in yesterday's edition of Thisday newspaper. It was titled "2015 complicates zoning and PDP plans mini convention".

As we know, the issue of whether to zone or not zone the 2011 presidential ticket seems to have taken over the PDP. And according to the newspaper report, some northern elites in the PDP are now looking beyond 2011. It's been reported that the "north" could concede the 2011 presidential to Pres. Goodluck Jonathan if it can be guaranteed that he wouldn't be seeking a "second term" after 2011.

There is a concern within the party that the region that produces the next president will rule for eight years. A "senior northerner" was quoted in the newspaper as saying "If (President Goodluck) Jonathan can openly declare today that he would do only one term and leave in 2015, the North will support him..….we cannot contemplate power being in the South till 2019, which is what will happen if Jonathan does two terms"

If the above statements are true, then it highlights the level of disregard the political elites have for the average voter. It's only in a country like ours, where the votes of long suffering masses don't count, will a political party assume that it will be in power until 2019. Anyway, that's an issue for another day.

What I find puzzling in the newspaper story however, is the issue of whether Pres. Goodluck Jonathan can actually run for presidency in 2015. I have often asked myself the question if the federal constitution allows him to do so.

Whilst I agree that the focus of our attention should be on the forthcoming 2011 elections, I've just always been curious about possible political permutation post-2011. So newspaper story succeeded in setting my mind thinking on this matter. To inform the discussion I have included the relevant section of the Constitution.

Section 137 of the 1999 Constitution deals with the issue of election into the office of the president. It states,

137. (1) A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of

President if -

(a) subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, he has made a declaration of allegiance to such other country;

(b) he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections;

(d) he is under a sentence of death imposed by any competent court of law or tribunal in Nigeria or a sentence of imprisonment or fine for any offence involving dishonesty or fraud (by whatever name called) or for any other offence, imposed on him by any court or tribunal or substituted by a competent authority for any other sentence imposed on

him by such a court or tribunal;

(e) within a period of less than ten years before the date of the election to the office of President he has been convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty or he has been found guilty of the contravention of the Code of Conduct; or

(f) he is an undischarged bankrupt, having been adjudged or otherwise declared bankrupt under any law in force in Nigeria or any other country;

(g) being a person employed in the civil or public service of the Federation or of any State, he has not resigned, withdrawn or retired from the employment at least thirty days before the date of the election; or

(h) he is a member of any secret society;

(i) he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry or an Administrative Panel of Inquiry or a Tribunal set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, a Tribunals of Inquiry Law or any other law by the Federal or State Government which indictment has been accepted by the Federal or State Government,

respectively;

(j) he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

(2) Where in respect of any person who has been -

(a) adjudged to be a lunatic;

(b) declared to be of unsound mind;

(d) adjudged or declared bankrupt

(e) any appeal against the decision is pending in any court of law in accordance with any law in force in Nigeria, subsection (1) of this section shall not apply during a period beginning from the date when such appeal is lodged and ending on the date when the appeal is finally determined or, as the case may be, the appeal lapses or is abandoned, whichever is earlier.

As we can see Section 137(1)(b) does state explicitly that a person cannot be elected as president, if he has been elected into such office at any two previous elections. The operative word here is "elected".

The constitution is however silent on what happens in the sudden demise of the elected president and the V-P is sworn in as president. GEJ was not elected as president, as he only became a president by default. So strictly speaking, is first election into the office of the president will be in 2011.

I have heard people say that GEJ cannot seek re-election in 2015 because the president cannot take the oath of office more than twice. From my viewpoint, there's nothing in the constitution to support such argument.

Though I'm not a legal expert, my interpretation is that there's nothing in the Constitution that stops GJ from seeking a second term after 2011. Having said that, I may be wrong.

So what are your thoughts? Do you think GEJ can legally seek a "second term" after 2011?

PS- The above post is based on the assumption that GEJ will be contesting the 2011 presidential elections.

Will You Join PDP, If..........?

2010-07-26T02:19:00.000-07:00

Let me start by sharing a recent experience. Few months ago, I received an email from a ‘facebook’ friend, who asked if I was interested in becoming a member of his political group. According to him, the group intends to mobilise interested Nigerians to become members of the PDP, with the aim of hijacking the party machinery. After reading the email, I quickly declined his offer. I declined the offer for three reasons. Firstly, because I’m based overseas and I couldn’t see how I can add value to their cause. Secondly, I have never hidden how much I detest PDP as a political party. Mind you, not that I believe any of the other political parties are better. I’ve just never believed anything good can come out of the party, except by “accident” (as a friend will say). And thirdly, I didn’t know the guy personally, so I wasn’t sure if they were been sponsored by another ‘cabal’.

Ok! That was then, but, what about now?

The PDP Chairman, Dr Nwodo recently noted that, the party will begin registration of its members this week. Prospective members of the party will be expected to pay a mandatory registration fee which will be registered online. According to media reports, the party believes it could raise N10bn annually by levying its members N1,500 each.

The PDP Chairman was also quoted as saying “gone are the days, where a ward chairman will not register a member because he/she doesn’t like the face of the prospective member”. But given the opportunity, how many people are interested in being members of the PDP?

So should the call for membership by PDP be seen by progressives, as an opportunity to get involve? What would it take to mobilise 500,000 “progressives” to register as members of the PDP, with the sole aim of reforming the party?. Why can’t all the political groups on facebook and other online social network work collaboratively, and join the PDP en mass? With 500,000 members (all on the same page), how difficult can it be to take over the party machinery, and force a change?

You may ask, why PDP and not ACN or ANPP? The answer to that is simple. Like it or loathe it, PDP remains the only party in the country with the geographical spread and structure to win an election. If one can mobilise enough numbers, why waste your time joining a party that only appeals to certain ethnic groups.

So I put the question to you, will you join the PDP, if there exist an opportunity to force a change within the party?

Youths Earnestly Ask for Jonathan - By Simon Kolawole

2010-07-20T03:22:00.000-07:00

Nothing ever changes in Nigeria, isn’t it? The more things seem to change, the more they remain the same. The country is currently littered with mushrooms of associations asking President Goodluck Jonathan to run in the 2011 presidential race; all sorts of groups with names so similar you would be forced to suspect that they are being created and co-ordinated from the same source. They are singing the same tune – PDP must dump “zoning” (that is, power rotation) and let Jonathan run. Northern youths. Southern youths. Movement for this. Movement for that. Alliance for this.

Alliance for that. They all claim to be doing us some good and fighting for justice and equity and fairness. The impression being created is that the president does not know anything about it. It is Nigerians who are trying to exercise their freedom of speech. But haven’t we been here before?

Yeah, it looks too familiar. Youths Earnest Ask for Abacha (YEAA). That was in 1998 when the epidemic swept through the country. Gen. Sani Abacha, one of the finest dictators the world has ever produced, had held Nigeria by the throat for nearly five years, killing as many people as he could, looting as much as he could and doing all he could to push Nigeria into the abyss.

Mortuaries and prisons were filled with his victims. He embarked on a transition programme designed to ultimately produce him as the president. The five political parties he created all adopted him as their presidential candidate, even though he was never a member, never picked their nomination forms and never fulfilled any of the requirements for aspirants as prescribed by the law. We were told that Abacha was the best thing. At the million-man march organised by YEAA for him in Abuja, many prominent Nigerians – some of whom you would ordinarily expect to be sane – endorsed the project. Abacha died suddenly, effectively killing YEAA.

We had a similar project in 2002 when over 20 PDP governors stormed Ota, Ogun State, to “beg” President Olusegun Obasanjo to run for second term. Obasanjo, they said, was the only man for Nigeria. A bigger version of the project was launched a few years later. You guessed right: third term. Obasanjo organised a political conference, ostensibly to work for a new constitution, but surreptitiously to extend his second term in office. When it didn’t work, a full-blown third term project was launched. We were told Obasanjo was the only one that could solve all our problems. Indeed, everything seemed set for Obasanjo to get his third term as the constitution was about to be amended to accommodate his ambition. In a flash, the third term project collapsed. Obasanjo would later tell us that he was not interested in third term. As if we were born yesterday.

An amazing fact is that there are characters that have always been on the “tazarce” (“carry on”) scene. I will mention just two names here. Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu was heavily involved in the Abacha project as the publicity secretary of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) – the party of choice then. Mantu, representing the North-central, moved the motion that Abacha should be the presidential candidate of UNCP at its Kaduna convention on April 16, 1998. Others who moved the joint motion were: Ebenezer Babatope, Josiah Odunna, Saminu Turaki (who later became governor of Jigawa State), Sergeant Awuse and Ali Modu Sherif (current governor of Borno State). In 2005-6, Mantu, as Deputy Senate President, organised a similar project for Obasanjo, co-ordinating the failed attempt to amend the constitution to accommodate third term. Dear readers, Mantu is now one of the co-ordinators of the Jonathan 2011 project. “Tazarce” runs in his blood.

There is also this character called Greg Mbadiwe who, unfortunately, hails from an illustrious family. He was neck-deep in the Abacha project. He wrote an interesting article to justify the ill-conceived “tazarce” project. In the article, which was published just around the time Abacha died, he declared: “The UNCP must not renege on the decision to present General Abacha as its flag bearer. For, contrary to the utterances by a few people who have access to the press, the masses of the people are in support of continuity and General Abacha. They are in alignment with his regime’s efforts and are eagerly waiting to give him a stronger mandate come August 1, 1998.” Mbadiwe, it must be recalled, was also the one who moved for the extension of Obasanjo’s second term tenure to six years at the political conference in 2004. He was also well involved in the failed third term project. That’s his stock-in-trade.

I don’t know much about Mbadiwe’s involvement in the Jonathan project, but I recently stumbled on an article he wrote to campaign for the president. He first condemned zoning and power rotation and then began to talk about how God had ordained Jonathan and how the man is the best person for the job. Read him: “Jonathan appears to be the bridge of unity and national integration which has eluded Nigerians for a long time.

We were closer to the attainment of that goal in 1993 when Nigerians overwhelmingly voted a Muslim-Muslim ticket, only for the military through an ill-advised action, to annul that election. The opportunity has presented itself again and history beckons on us to, in the spirit of Nigerian unity to formally elect a man from the minority tribe as our president in 2011. That would not only confirm that we have come of age, we would be giving a practical expression to the letters of the constitution which guarantees us the right to aspire to any position in the country.”

Let me be clear about something: I am not comparing Jonathan’s obvious ambition to the self-perpetuation plans of Abacha and Obasanjo. The two were clearly involved in something illegitimate which could only be achieved by subverting and manipulating the laws of the land. Jonathan, on the other hand, has every right to run for office next year as enshrined in the constitution. The power rotation argument is not about law or constitution – it is about a “gentleman’s agreement” as they call it. It is a PDP problem. ANPP does not have power rotation. AC does not have power rotation. So when I talk about the roles of Mantu, Mbadiwe and their ilk in the Jonathan project and similar projects in the past, I am talking basically about this malignant tumour called AGIP – Any Government in Power. I am also talking about the unseen hands behind the scene, patting the boot-lickers on the back while pretending not to be involved in any way. You know what I mean.

In a way, I do not blame Mantu and co. In Nigeria, real economic productivity yields little gain, so it is political sycophancy that rewards bountifully. Hard work hardly pays. How much would you make working your head off 24/7 in your office compared to what you would make practising AGIP? A fresh university graduate with a decent job would need to work for at least five years before he can afford a new car. If he chooses sycophancy, he can buy a 4WD after just one “contract”. The budget for sycophancy is normally in billions of naira. Furthermore, those who get the biggest appointments in government are not necessarily those who want to contribute to the progress of Nigeria. They are mostly those who play the right politics – those who carry the bags of the right people; those who wash the feet of the right people; those who utter the biggest flattery. You don’t need to do too much research to discover why Nigeria is so backward. Those who have been holding us hostage for decades are the same people holding us hostage today. It’s a brood of vipers. They reproduce themselves. They are from every part of Nigeria. They are ever present in our national life in one form or the other. I am therefore not surprised, at all, that the Jonathan government is turning out to be like the previous ones. This government is proving not to be different from the others. The signs are there for everyone to see. In Nigeria, the more things seem to change, the more they remain the same.

Dreams Can be Crazy!

2010-07-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

Dreams can be crazy, especially when malaria has a hand and a foot in it. Fancy the dream I had last night. It was so scary it made a horror film look like a routine Lagos traffic jam. I woke up sweating and decided it was time to see the doctor.

I dreamt that Senator Ahmed Yerima was elected the President of Nigeria. He settled into Aso Rock and ... See moreintroduced a thirteen year old, Fatima, as his wife and First Lady of Nigeria. That instantly posed a problem for the media which did not know whether Nigeria had a First Child or First Lady. Opinion was divided, but Ray Ekpu of Newswatch stepped in and decided that the media should hold a national conference and take a common position on how to address the President’s teen wife so as not to embarrass the President. The Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka maintained that to be grammatically correct, we should not address a child as a lady and asserted with authority that a “lady” is a term used to address “mature women” not “children.” He argued that she should remain a “First Child until further notice.”

But the People’s Democratic Party maintained that the problem was not grammatical but political. To which famous lawyer, Chief Femi Falana pointed out that the “child” in question was not of voting age and as such should not impose a political burden on the country. He maintained that the nation should assume that the President had no legal wife or in the alternative ask him to produce another wife worthy of being addressed as a First Lady and who was of voting age.

We were still trying to solve the matter when we heard that some civil right groups had taken the matter to the court to annul the marriage and let the child go back to school. We told them to hold on that the child was still in school and will actually be a part time First Child or First Lady and part time student. The case was dropped. We would have rested the matter there but guess what? Along came Prof. Dora Akunyili (I mean Prof Dora Akunyili again!) and said she had it on good authority that Her Excellency was still bed-wetting. She said it would do great damage to her rebranding exercise and wondered “how you could rebrand a country when the First Lady was busy wetting beds abroad.”

The Federal Ministry of Health responded promptly that it had developed drugs which could take care of bed-wetting, but if the drugs were not okay, then the First Lady could use catheter in the night and not wet beds in presidential guest houses abroad. Everyone was relieved but guess what? The Central Bank came charging that such money would not be charged to any budgetary item and would amount to an extra-budgetary expenditure and fraud. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission agreed and said the National Assembly should approve a “Bed-wetting allowance” for the president, before any fund was drawn. They noted that if the man were to travel as much as President Olusegun Obasanjo did, then it would add to the national inflation and would be difficult to justify based on existing financial regulations.

Well the debate was still raging when we heard that President Barrack Obama was coming to Nigeria on a state visit and would be accompanied by his wife, Michele. Civil liberties organizations swung into action and tried to persuade the American Embassy to postpone the trip until the “First Lady” issue was resolved. But the Embassy said the visit was part of a tour of strategic African states and Nigeria was amongst the most important in Africa.

Obama actually came and was met on the tarmac by President Yerima with his wife, Fatima, in tow. Obama thought Her Execllency, Mrs Fatima Yeriama, was the garland girl and bent down to have her hang a garland on his neck. Her Excellency on the other hand thought differently in the innocence of her childlike heart, and thought he was bending down to admire her dress. She giggled and said, “Isn’t this a very wonderful dress? It is the same color with my undies.”

Michele laughed heartily and picked up Her Excellency in her hands, stroking her head. I nearly fainted! She turned to President Yerima and said, “This should be your beautiful daughter, where is her mother -your wife?” To which President Yerima looked at her stunned, not knowing what to say. The American ambassador to Nigeria stepped in and saved the situation, “Mrs. Obama, that is the President’s wife that you are carrying in your hands. You may wish to put her down beside her husband so that the reception will continue.”

The Nigerian First Lady who had been struggling to get out of Michele’s hands, looked up indignantly at the American First Lady, said, “I will not be your friend again. Only my husband carries me up and you dared to carry me up.”

President Obama stroked his tie thoughtfully and said, “Let us not have a diplomatic row over this, I forgot to tell Michele that in Africa you catch them young. It is entirely my fault. My apologies to the First Couple. And now Mr President can we proceed to other reception formalities?”

Soon the airport reception was over and the two First Ladies had to while away time while the Presidents discussed matters of state. Mrs Yerima insisted on showing Mrs Obama her toys and her grades in school. The other women stood idly by as one baby doll after the other was shown to Mrs Obama. “My husband bought this toy for me from China, she can even sing, let me play it for you.” Mrs Obama nodded.

Her Excellency Fatima hit the button and the doll began to sing, “God damn America the great Satan, down with the infidels and down with the west…” Mrs. Obama cringed but the child paid her no heed.

She bounded over to the television and turned it on. Then she moved the dial to Cartoon Network and turned to Mrs Obama, “Do you watch Tom and Jerry?” But by this time Mrs Obama had had enough, she fainted and had to be flown back to America.

I was filing the report to my editor when my wife woke me up and said it was time to take my anti-malaria drug. [Ha HA Ha Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Hat Tip Tobi Sowole

NIGERIA @ 50: JOIN TO SAY NO TO JAMBOREE AND WASTE

2010-06-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

Great /Nigerians and friends of Nigeria

The Federal Government of Nigeria has earmarked N10 billion for the 50th Independence day celebrations. As part of this profligate waste of funds there is currently a 2 day jamboree at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, in Park Lane, London, W1K 7TN. There has been no press release on the purpose of this conference, or why it is being held in one of the most expensive hotels in one of the most expensive cities, 6000km from our nation’s capital

We have already called and confirmed that this conference is taking place but they refuse to divulge further details

To the best of my knowledge there is no reason for 18 state governors, almost 12 ministers, dozens of ‘Special Assistants’ and officials to confer about 50 years of independence in London, whilst Nigerians suffer back home

Great Nigerians and friends of Nigeria please let us scupper this corrupt waste of Nigeria’s funds. Call Grosvenor House Hotel on 0207 499 6363, query whether the conference is ongoing and request the number of their manager/ complaints department. State that you intend to register your protest in writing, try and get as many details as they will give out.

The objective is to overwhelm the hotel’s switch board with calls, although the hotel is a business obviously following the money we need to make the cost of doing business with corrupt, useless officials higher than any benefits. With the resultant loss of business and adverse publicity, hotels will think twice before accepting such conferences

People, this is an easy one to achieve, lets get out and make this happen

An Urgent Need for Police Reform - By Dapo Kolawole

2010-06-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

ATTENTION:

THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE,

THE HONOURABLE MINISTER FOR POLICE AFFAIRS.

Dear Sirs,

As a concerned and tax paying citizen of Nigeria, I am constrained and compelled at this time to offer my opinion on how an efficient ,dynamic and 21st Century Police force should be structured and administered.

This would be itemized under the following points:

1. REMUNERATION AND REWARD SYSTEM FOR OFFICERS AND MEN OF POLICE FORCE

There is no doubt about this that a highly motivated force based on an enhanced remuneration and reward system would carry out their tasks of protecting the lives and properties the citizens of a country without compromising their conscience and values. The police officers salary should be commensurate with their counterparts in the private sector. This would go a long way to prevent corruption, enhance the psyche of the officers, and increase their morale by making sure they are economically empowered to compete in the same market where their fellow well paid citizens also access.

Also the reward system in terms of promotions and preferential postings should be overhauled and strictly based on performance. There must be a set of key performance indexes which may be measured on a quarterly or half year basis.

A good pay and reward system would attract good brains that have character. If am well paid on my job, I will not be looking for bribes or ways of circumventing the law.

2. COMMUNICATION & MOBILITY

For any Police force to be highly effective, they must be equipped with fast moving vehicles that are installed with a nationwide VHF (Very High Frequency) radio system for communication with colleagues and other security agencies, plus a constantly updated database of all registered License plates, and drivers’ license showing history of vehicle ownership. A highly visible police presence on its own can act as deterrence to criminals and all criminal tendencies.

We must ensure fast moving, efficient, durable and highly equipped vehicles must be acquired for the police in order to guarantee their performance. Also unmarked police vehicles should be used to patrol black spots like train and bus terminals, highways, dark areas, expressways prone robberies e.g.Lagos-Ibadan, Lagos-Benin-Ore, the Northern and eastern highways. As a matter of expediency, all police officers on duty should be equipped with walkie talkies (hand held radios).Provision of APCs’ (Armored Personnel carrier) and modern weapons to combat high scale crime is also needed.

For ease of maintenance of the vehicles purchased, arrangement should be made with the suppliers and manufactures of the vehicles to establish maintenance workshops in the different zones of the police commands. This would reduce cost of maintenance, eradicate corruption and prolong the life span of the vehicles. Drivers and users of the vehicles should be lectured on the proper usage of the vehicle.

3. INFRASTRUCTURE: HOUSING, UNIFORM&KITS, STATIONERY, FURNITURE

The police barracks and stations are no go areas in terms of hygiene, portable water supply and electricity supply. A concerted effort should be made to build house for officers in active service. Houses should also be allocated based on ranks and family size to avoid over population.

In the case of urgent need for deployment of officers to troubled spots, a centrally pooled workforce would be easier to deploy.

Adequate supply of uniforms and kits to all personnel in the force should be made on a regular basis. It’s disheartening to see your men in tattered and dirty uniforms. The current uniform been worn by some senior officers would not be ideal for your lower ranks who cannot maintain the black colored uniform. A set of 5 pairs of uniform, plus at least two pairs of boots, belts and berets would not be a bad idea.

Mr IG sir, it is disheartening to get to a police station in order to make a statement and the first thing you are told to do is to buy or pay for an exercise book or plain sheets in other to make a statement. There should be official police stationery printed with police emblem to make statements in order to enhance the ease of documentation and sanctity of police reports and statements. Also, it is an eyesore to see newly relocated officers hanging their clothes and sleeping in their offices.

4. DISCIPLINE AND TRAINING

A highly disciplined and well trained force is essential to delivering set targets and goals of providing security for lives and properties. Discipline must be instilled at all levels of the workforce.

Training and retraining of officers must be carried out on a regular basis with special focus on human rights, weapon handling, communication skills, new interrogation techniques (torture is outdated), exposure to new equipment and technology. Training in information technology should be made compulsory and the entry requirement should be raised in order to attract the best in the country.

Respect for human lives and for colleagues should be entrenched. The MOPOL officers are highly undisciplined even to their superior officers and they harass civilians at the slightest provocation.

Physical training should not end at the Police College, constant physical training should be included the weekly training and reorientation program for all personnel across board.

A complete overhaul of the SARS (Special Anti Robbery Squad) unit especially in the South East should be done immediately as they have become so notorious, complacent and wicked in the handling of suspects. This method has not reduced the rate of crimes of all forms in the south east. Collusion and compromise with criminals is highly suspected. All officers who have overstayed their respective postings should be redeployed as they would have been over familiar with the indigenes and their environment which is not good for efficient service delivery.

You also need to embark on massive recruitment of police officers as the present ratio of police to civil population is grossly inadequate. Resuscitation of your dead finger print units is also essential.

Lastly, do not ask me where you will get the money to implement this reform as you can easily start with 10 billion naira budgeted for the proposed 50 years celebration of baby Nigeria in October 2010.Otherwise please liaise with Senator David Mark and Honorable Dimeji Bankole to amend the constitution so that the Nigeria Police should be placed on a first line charge like the National Assembly, Judiciary e.t.c. or a cut in the excesses available at all levels of governance will suffice. A public and private sector partnership as seen in the Lagos State model of provision of adequate security will help you too.

I'm available for further clarification and free consultation via email on: kogdapus@yahoo.com

Oladapo Kolawole a Public Opinion analyst wrote from Lagos Nigeria.

..........Still On Power Rotation and PDP

2010-06-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

The leaders of the People’s Democratic Party seems to have reached a consensus that the zoning/power rotation agreement should be dumped. As expected, political jingoists have all jumped on the bandwagon. Anti-power rotation now seems to be flavour of the month in the PDP. Those who told us seven months ago that there’s no vacancy in Aso Rock, have suddenly become the arrowheads of the anti-rotation campaign.

Even members of the cabal who held sway during Yar’Adua’s administration, engaging in all manners of public deception and manipulation in order to hold on to power have also now become Apostles of anti-zoning.

It’s common knowledge that Nigerian masses have been so impoverished to the point that they now care less about the ethnic origin of their leaders. The underdevelopment has reached a point that, if the Constitution permits a foreigner to be President, and the masses can be guaranteed good quality of life, they will be more than happy to have him/her as President. The man on the street just wants to see food on the table. All he wants is decent healthcare, employment, good quality education and infrastructure.

And it’s for these obvious reasons that anti-zoning has become a ‘populist’ idea. Unlike in the past, the political elites have realised that ethnic sentiments seems not to wash with the citizenry. The benefactors of the so-called power rotation even find it difficult to convince that man on the street, because it has offered him no value whatsoever. So the only option available is for them to join the bandwagon and spread the anti-rotation propaganda. They know fully well that , it’s what the public wants to hear.

But in all of this, we need to ask ourselves if all these Apostles and Evangelist of anti-rotation are really acting in the public interest. They may be telling us what we want to hear, but does that mean they have our interest at heart?

Supporters of anti-rotation in the PDP fall broadly into two categories. There are those who want to use Goodluck Jonathan to rule the nation by proxy. They failed with Umaru Yar’Adua, because he wasn’t a stooge they expected him to be. A Goodluck Jonathan presidency therefore presents another opportunity for them to form their own ‘cabal’. These are ‘politically expired’ individuals who see Goodluck Jonathan presidency as the only way to become politically relevant once again. For them, it’s a ‘third term’ by proxy, as they can continue to rule the nation from Otta farm.

The second group are those who have been subconsciously coerced into anti-rotation bandwagon. Left to them alone, they would rather keep rotating power. Members of this group have had their hands soiled in all manners of corrupt activities. They know their case files are still within reach of anti-corruption agencies. And with the return of the likes of Nuhu Ribadu, it’s in their own interest that they ‘fall in line’. Any show of dissent means their files will be dusted up very quickly. A case in point is the ongoing prosecution of the former PDP Chairman, Vincent Ogbulafor.

And it’s only for this reason that the likes of Senator Jubril Aminu, who is currently facing investigation on his alleged role in the Siemens bribery scandal, can support anti-rotation. It is also the reason why ‘criminals’ like, former Attorney-General of the Federation, can say ‘zoning’ is unconstitutional.

Some may argue that power rotation is a PDP policy, so why waste precious time discussing an issue that has no place in our constitution. The truth is, we cannot afford to be oblivious to the fact that PDP remains the only dominant party in Nigeria’s polity. Like it or loathe it, it remains the only political party with a structure to win a presidential election. And whilst we may not all be card carrying members of PDP, any decision made by the party will inevitably have a huge impact on the nation’s political landscape.

It’s now very obvious that Apostles of anti-rotation in the PDP are not doing the masses any favour. They are doing do so only to pave way for a Goodluck Jonathan presidency. They see a Goodluck Jonathan presidency as an opportunity to perpetuate themselves in power and exert their political influence.

I have no issues with PDP’s plan to dump its rotation policy. However, any attempt to jettison the rotation policy must be done properly. As I noted in my last post, the rotation policy is more than a gentleman’s agreement as it is enshrined in the PDP constitution. It’s only when the PDP expunge Section 7(2)C from the party constitution that we will know that it is really serious about dumping power rotation. Until then, any attempt to disregard the policy in order to pave way for a supposed ‘anointed’ candidate come 2011, will only sweep the issue under the carpet.

And unless the nation graduates from its current one-party political system to a level where we have formidable opposition parties, the issue of power rotation will remain with us for a long time. The attempt to sweep the matter under the carpet will only complicate things further in the future.

If the status quo remains, Goodluck Jonathan will more than likely succeed in remaining in power beyond 2011. And unless the opposition gets its acts together, there’s the high likelihood he will rule for two terms until 2019 (except he does a Yar’Adua). But with Section 7(2)C still enshrined in the party constitution, the question is, what will happen after 2019?

On PDP, Power Rotation and Federal Character

2010-05-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

Power rotation or call it ‘zoning’ has become a very topical issue in Nigeria’s polity. The view held by some political elites is it that, ‘rotation’ is the only way to maintain political balance in a nation like Nigeria that is divided along religious and ethnic lines.

This same view was shared by the US Under-secretary of State, Johnnie Carson, when he said recently that “the United States supported the rotation principle as a guarantor of stability in Nigeria, a country of 140 million split between the Muslim north and predominantly Christian south”.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) remains the only party in Nigeria whose party constitution supports power rotation/zoning. Section 7(2)C of the PDP constitution states:

“In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels”.

This confirms that the PDP power rotation policy is more than just a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ as we’ve been made to believe by “AGIP” (Any Government In Power) political sycophants.

But in spite of the PDP constitutional provisions, many within the party believe that the power rotation policy has outlived its usefulness, and that it should be jettisoned altogether. Considering that these calls are coming at a time when a non-Northerner is occupying the seat of power sounds quite suspicious. In the current prevailing circumstances, the sincerity of the anti-rotation supporters within PDP will always remain questionable. I will say that the jury is still out on whether such calls are been made in the public interest or just serve the personal benefit of President Goodluck Jonathan, to remain in power beyond 2011.

It beggars belief that same political jobbers and sycophants calling for the abolition of rotation policy, after they themselves have been a major beneficiary, are same people scouting for the next Party Chairman from a particular region of the country. So why haven’t they declared that anyone can run for the post of PDP Chairmanship instead of ‘zoning’ it to the Southeast. If zoning is bad for the presidency, then why is it good for political party offices?

The hypocrisy in the PDP was further exposed by the recent announcement that Ogun state 2011 Governorship slot has been zoned to Yewa/Awori. This decision according to the party officials is in the spirit of “equity, justice and fairness”. So on one hand, we have some National Party leaders saying the power rotation should be dumped to pave way for Goodluck Jonathan, but on the other hand, we have a state chapter of the party announcing that it has zoned its Governorship slot to a particular ethnic tribe. Again, this begs the question, if zoning is not good enough for the Presidential slot, why must it be forced down the throat of state party supporters?

For how long will these Papas Deceiving Pickin continue? A Yoruba proverb says “eniyan meji ko ni padanu iro”. Which literally means, “two people cannot fall victims of lie or deceit”. Whilst the ‘deceived’ could be genuinely’ ignorant, the ‘deceiver’ definitely knows what he/she is doing.

Social and political commentators argue daily that power rotation is unconstitutional, and should not be taken seriously as it only binds members of the PDP. But that statement is not entirely true. Whilst the constitution may not be explicit on power rotation, it clearly supports the principle of federal character. Section 14(3) of 1999 constitution states

“The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies”.

For me, there’s no fundamental difference between Section 7(2)C of the PDP Constitution and Section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution. Whether you call it power rotation, zoning, federal character principle, are all aimed at the same purpose. The single purpose, as we are made to believe, is to prevent the predominance of a particular ethnic group or tribe in political office.

Whether such a provision/clause is good or bad is a different argument altogether. In my opinion, Section 14(3) is one of the fundamental errors of 1999 constitution. Any legislation or policy that aims to restrict political office to a tribe, religion or sex only breeds mediocrity. There’s enough evidence to show that rotation, zoning, federal character principle or whatever name you call it, has contributed immensely to the paucity of development in the country. No region in Nigeria has benefitted from zoning or federal character principle. For example, Ex-Pres. Obasanjo ruled the nation for almost 10 years both as civilian and military Head of State. But I don’t think Abeokuta is any better developed than Benin.

Yes we hue and cry about how bad power rotation is. We say it’s PDP policy and no one else. We say people should be free to seek elective office irrespective of tribe or religion. But the reality is, the political landscape and machineries of government are guided by medieval and retrogressive constitutional provisions, which in fact transcends individual party policies.

It is such medieval constitutional provision that has given political parties like the PDP, the audacity to adopt a rotational policy. And until we expunge such provisions from our constitution, changes in presidential power base would only mean very little in reality.

PRESS RELEASE

2010-05-28T02:03:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE: Nigerians at home and Diaspora set to Transform Nigeria

Nigerians at home and abroad have come together to create an organisation that is aimed at creating awareness and motivating the people to participate in promoting and ensuring good governance in our country, Nigeria.

They have formed an organisation called the Transform Nigeria Movement

In order to achieve this noble objective, Transform Nigeria will set out to enlighten Nigerians with the sole aim to empower the people to think positively about developing a new type of leadership and followership for Nigeria, thereby creating the leaders of tomorrow and introducing new ways of thinking for Nigerians.

Already the group has more than 2,500 members on facebook, a core leadership of 100 men and women based all over the world including the United States of America, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Italy, Ecuador, and Italy among other countries with a further network of about 12,000 Nigerians connected online around the globe.

STATEMENT:

"Starting now, let's take up in our own lives the work of perfecting our union, let's build a government that is responsible to the people and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable" --- Barack Obama

Transform Nigeria envisions a Nigerian society where there is a positive change in the consciousness, orientation, and world view of all Nigerians.

We believe that a well informed populace will be motivated to positive action. Nigerians have been dormant for a long time; it is our responsibility to awaken them from slumber by informing, educating and enlightening the youths on what truly goes on in Nigeria.

Our goal is to entrench good governance, hold our leaders accountable and rid Nigeria of corruption by getting Nigerians to engage in governance, expose and/or report corrupt practices wherever noticed.

Our Objectives

The drive to transform Nigeria will start in the grassroots across all states of the country and in all Nigerian Diaspora communities abroad. The model of operation of Transform Nigeria Movement will be a combination of a village style town square meeting and a modern day "Tea Party" meeting to;

create a quiet and peaceful but effective revolution that will involve all Nigerians of goodwill - to create the biggest online Movement in Nigeria where Nigerians, especially the youths will come together in one forum to chart the way forward for our country;

create a dynamic Movement using 21st century Solution "the internet, emails, text messaging and hand bills - to tackle our age-long problems;

create software to automatically send news to the emails and phone numbers of registered members;

create Transform Nigeria Groups in the 36 states of the Federation including the FCT, Local Government Areas, Wards and Villages and in all the Universities, Schools and Colleges;

generate publicity in Radio, TV, Newspapers and hand bills to be distributed regularly in Schools and Universities, L.G.A, wards and villages;

Plan activities that will allow all members from all regions and groups around the country to get to know one another and with time travel around the world to observe and learn from other democracies.

Conclusion

Our Manifesto and constitution will be available to every member and prospective members to enlighten them on the aims and objectives of the organization. Every member will be expected to live up to the high standards expected of the future leaders of the country.

This is socio-political, non-partisan, unbiased, neutral organisation. It is not a political party, neither are we affiliated to any political party. Every Nigerian is welcome.

We are calling on every Nigerian; teachers, youths, students, workers, traders and artisans. Indeed every Nigeria with an email address – let us mobilise for the betterment of our country and to reshape our country's polity. Together we will create the Nigeria of our dreams.

This is a very long journey, but today we take the step towards changing the course of the ship of the Nigerian State.

Three places where you can join the Transform Nigeria Movement

1. www.yourgovt.com

2. Facebook

3. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Transform-Nigeria/

Signed:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

1.Nicholas Agbo - Oakland California; 2. Dr. Anthony Afolo - New Jersey;

3.Ezinne Anyanwu - Texas , United States; 4.Emmanuel Ohai - Atlanta

5.Modupe Odunsanya - Illinois , United States; 6.Paul Adujie – New York

7.Noyo Edem– New Jersey; 8.chijioke akunyili - Los Angeles

8. Acho Orabuchi - Texas

UNITED KINGDOM

1.Ikhide Odion - Aberdeen; 2.Adeniyi Adeleke – London

3.Ifeoluwa Adebayo – Reading; 4.Gbenga Shadare – Nottingham;

5. Chinedu V. Akuta – Leicester; 6.Tochi Godwin Ekwuogo - Swansea

7.Chukwunonso Ngwu – Coventry; 8. Jasper Ojiakor - London

NIGERIA

1.Nnenna Iwuanyanwu – Lagos; 2.Acho Orabuchi;

3.Nathan Jonah- Kaduna; 4. Akin Lawanson - Ile Ife

5. Emeka Nwachukwu - Lagos; 6.Oluwatobi D. Adelaja - Lagos

7.Favour Afolabi – Lagos; 8.Abba Anthony - Kaduna

9.Phillip Nwaochei - Asaba; 10.Akeju A. Aike – Warri

11.Akeju Akintomiwa Aike – Warri; 12. Kalu Awa – Port Harcourt

13.Akeju Akintomiwa Aike – Warri; 14.Peter C. Njoku – Enugu

15.Okwenna I. Hons - Kano; 16. Sandra Yakusak – ABU, Zaria

17.John Luka – Kaduna; 18. Julius Dariya – Kafanchan

19.Stephen H. Hassan; 20. Ayuba U. Kalba - Abuja

21.Ronke Doherty - Abuja; 22. Kayode Ajulo - Abuja

23.Lawal Ishaq; 24.Stephen Hassan

24. Kingsley Oye

EUROPE

1.Afolabi Shola – Helsinki, Finland; 2.Isaac S. Oyebola - Treviglio, Italy

3.Ambrose Obimma - Frederiksberg, Denmark; 4.Demilo Grant - Halmstad , Sweden;

5.Rufus Oteniya – Milan , Italy; 6.Cyril Oriafoh

OTHERS

1.Akinyemi Adeseye - Cuenca, Ecuador

2.Razi anka – China;

4.Adigun Mathew - Empangeni, South Africa

5.Nnamdi Ousamane– Burkina Faso

Your Government

Central Bank of Nigeria Bribery Scandal - Documentary

2010-05-26T02:33:00.000-07:00

Click on the link to watch the new documentary titled 'Dirty Money'. The documentary is on allegations of corruption against the Central Bank of Nigeria, under the former leadership of Prof. Charles Soludo, and Australian company Securency International Pty Ltd.

It is alleged that the Australian-owned company, Securency, paid CBN officials millions of dollars in bribe for the Polymer naira note contract. The allegations of bribery is currently under investigation by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

The documentary also includes interview with current CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi and former EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu. The case bears the hallmark of the Halliburton and Siemens bribery scandal.

Hajia Turai Yar'Adua, Where Is Our N10bn?

2010-05-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

It was in July 2009 that the former First Lady used her position to coerce prominent personalities to raise fund for the implementation of her proposed Cancer Centre in Abuja. As expected, the event recorded high turn out of private businessmen and public officers. According to media reports, a total of N10bn was realised at the event. The money raised include donations from state governors private businessmen. I recall that Gov. Babangida Aliyu made a staggering donation of N720million on behalf of the Governors forum. Messrs Aliko Dangote and Aminu Dantata also donated N1bn and N1.2bn respectively.

Fast forward to 2010. Umaru Yar’Adua is dead. Turai is back in her village in Katsina. Also, all seem to have gone quiet on the N10bn donation and proposed Cancer Centre. Up until now, there’s no single evidence to show the project has either commenced or was abandoned. No single block has been laid for the commencement of the project.

There’s also no evidence to suggest that the donors are yet to redeem their pledges. Even if some of the monies are yet to be received, I don’t think it’s too much to ask how much is in the coffers of the proposed Cancer Centre. The last time I checked, the only visible impact of the N10bn was the development of a project website (http://iccanigeria.org/index.htm). In fact the website has not been updated since June 2009.

The need for investment in the Nigerian health sector cannot be over emphasised. Without exaggeration, N10bn is a drop in the ocean, in terms of how much investment is required to turn the ailing health sector around. Millions of Nigerians die daily due to common illnesses. With specific regards to Cancer treatment, it is public knowledge that there are only four active radiotherapy centres in Nigeria, giving a ratio of one machine to about 30 million people, as against the recommended one per quarter million by the World Health Organisation.

The available spectrum of anti-cancer drugs is also very limited and such drugs are not readily available. Imaging facilities for staging patients with cancer, such as computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are difficult to come by, and when available the cost of such studies puts them out of reach of the average citizen.

It is therefore imperative that any proposal to improve and modernise the health sector are made through proper channels. For any public officer or their associates to seek donations (in form of charity) for a project that is bereft of any governance structure, smacks of criminality and it is tantamount to blatant abuse of office.

The proposal to build a Cancer centre in Abuja raises serious questions that are begging for answers. For instance, under whose ownership will the Cancer Centre be? Is it the Yar’Adua household or the Health Ministry? Who will manage the operation of the hospital? As a charity organisation, where is the ‘Board of Trustee’? And who are the members, if there’s one?

Having looked through the website of this sham Cancer Project, all I can see is a list of members of the Planning Committee, which is made up of former Federal Ministers. But now that these Ministers have been sacked, who is now responsible for planning the cancer centre? Has a new planning committee been constituted? Who are the members and how often do they meet?

Truth be told, N10bn is a lot of money in any currency. The coercion of public officers and private individuals by the first Lady for donations towards a supposed charity project itself is the height of corruption. And for her to have collected such monies without any commensurate development to show for it after almost 18 months beggars belief!

Unfortunately, ‘corruption’ has a different meaning in Nigerian context. When you talk of corruption, some folks believe it’s only when you blatantly deep your hands into the public treasury.. But I’m still searching for a jurisdiction outside Nigeria, where a first lady will collect money from donors, under the guise of charity, but refuse to undertake such a project. The question of whether it’s government money or not, is totally irrelevant. It’s any different from the Red Cross asking for donations on behalf of Haiti earthquake victims but siphoning such funds into private pockets.

If Hajia Turai was really serious about improving the health sector, why didn’t she raise funds to develop and improve the cancer units in existing government hospitals? It is my understanding that almost all government hospitals in Nigeria have a cancer unit. So what’s the point of starting afresh in Abuja. And if she wants to be tribalistic, why not develop the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital and make it ‘world-class’?

But of course she wouldn’t do that. These thieving first ladies, who usurp powers not granted to them by the constitution are just rogues. They use their position to enrich their pockets, under the guise of sham charity projects. Rather than build institutions, they take advantage of their position, as wife of head of state to build up their ‘pension’

We are now used to Nbillions donated to various pet projects at federal and state level without any commensurate result. The lifespan of such projects are only as long as the tenure of their promoters. Before, it was Maryam Babangida’s Better Life for Rural Dwellers, then came Mariam Abacha Family Support Programme, and Stella Obasanjo’s Child Care Trust. Despite the amount of donations showered on all these projects, I’m yet to see any infrastructure that has survived beyond the tenure of these women. But this trend must stop!

As for Hajia Turai, I implore her to either refund the donations she has collected or commence the Cancer Centre project without delay. And if not, I make bold to say, the blood of millions of Nigerians who have died as a result of cancer-related illness will FOREVER be on her head.

Serious thoughts on the Nigerian Union – By Jesse Adeniji.

2010-05-14T02:54:00.000-07:00

IBB, recently taunted the much maligned Nigerian youth about his/her inability to grasp the complexities and intricacies of governance. I do believe in order to prove the gap-tooth, self confessed wrong, we, as the youth of Nigeria, need to demonstrate intelligence and keenness of mind in dissecting, analysing and presenting workable options our dear country can explore in the journey to true independence and respect in the comity of nations.

I have two major overarching drives in sitting down to put this little thought of mine together:

(a) To prove to IBB that contrary to his warped sense of judgement, the Nigerian youth is one heck of a miracle. Denied opportunities in his/her own home turf, by unauthorised, dubious and autocratic rulers like IBB, we have found ways to thrive in the nooks and crannies of the world including Nigeria.

(b) To kick-start a revolution in the intellectual sphere of the Nigerian youth. We are actively involved in activism. That’s not enough, we need to propose alternative viewpoints to the existing lies being used to put our nation in bondage by those forces of neo-colonialism, among which IBB is king.

I reckon if we all bring our grey matters to bear on postulating real, credible solutions to the Nigerian debacle, we could somehow come to a convergence from our different perch-points and rise up to make Nigeria better. It is my belief that the revolution that will work will start first as an intellectual revolution. When it grows and prospers on the streets, no form of corruption or bribery would stop its all conquering impact.

Background.

Many scholars and critics have eloquently written about the Why’s of the debacle we face as a nation. Few have ever dug really deep to open our eyes to how things could be.

As a nation, we have practised 2 distinct forms of government. We started with the Parliamentary system. Some school of thought maybe we weren’t getting the right deal from that and nudged us in favour of the American presidential system.

After over 48 years of experiment, it’s mighty clear to us that the problem isn’t with the systems – there have been proven continuous success stories of both systems of government by Britain and America and a few other countries – it’s with us as a people.

It’s obvious to us then that something is either wrong with us as a people, or the basis for our union is mighty faulty. It’s my belief that we’re no less endowed as humans from others and that the problem lies in the union – both the form and the structure.

Excuses & Lies

We have advanced a lot of silly excuses as to why where still languishing in the comity of backward nations of the earth.

The foremost lie we hear is : ‘ Rome wasn’t built in a day’. I quite agree that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Fact. What is also more factual is, Dubai took a fraction of the time it took Rome to be built! And with better infrastructure and precision engineering.

In today’s world, once you develop a blueprint, anyone can copy it and therefore, you do not need to spend as much time as it took for the prototype to be developed. The atomic particle was first identified by Athenian scientists in the ancient world. It took several scientists and an awful lot of resources and 2nd World War urgency to develop the H-bomb after Einstein split the atom.

Nowadays, it takes a couple of months for a nation that has the know-how {blueprint} and materials necessary. No right thinking nation asks her scientists to take as much time as it took the pioneers to develop one for them.

The second excuse is: ‘Oh, Nigeria is much too diverse to have one voice!’. True. We’re diverse just as other nations! America was wrested from the Red Indians by a combination of disillusioned and disenfranchised Europeans of diverse background – Germans, English, Irish, Scots, Netherlanders, Belgians e.t.c

Indonesia has almost the same number of ethnic group as Nigeria, with deep religious fault lines running through, yet, they are a thriving nation.

China is the same. It’s got all sorts of tribes and races and yet has become the manufacturing capital of the world with a strong voice in International politics. There are many other countries to mention if not all the countries of the world! Our situation is not unique and therefore isn’t an excuse for flunking our nation building classes.

The third most prevalent lie is: ‘The British are responsible for our debacle! They joined us together by force.’ Hahahahaha Nigerians! Tell me of a country that hasn’t been nipped and tucked and shifted around like chess pieces by ruling powers from time immemorial?

The Romans have been known to relocate entire tribes and nations to preserve their power. The Mongols did same. The Babylonians, The Ottomans, Napoleonic France, The British, USSR and other European powers. Belgium was under slavery for so many years and has so many tribes smashed together – French, Germans, Flemish + other tribes – yet they have thrived and found a way to be relevant.

A nation that blames her failure on the past isn’t fit for the future.

Structure of Nigeria.

The founding fathers, in retrospect, understood Nigeria better than the likes of IBB and his ilks. In attaining independence from the British, they recognized that we aren’t ‘one’ people. They knew we are aeons away from the ‘one Nigeria’ mantra that has brought us the civil war and become a rallying cry for dictators like IBB and Obasanjo.

As such, they opted for a system that allowed each region to develop at its own pace. At least the Northern region was formed by some political consensus even if later, the Middle Belt felt it needed her own identity.

When we opted for the American Presidential style, the spirit was to maintain some form of autonomy for the constituent units.

It was that spirit of healthy competition, engendered by the pre-independence political arrangement that helped us develop ahead of the likes of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and a few other now very prosperous nations of the world.

The North set its priority as trade. The West was education and commerce. The East was into trade, education and manufacturing. The Northern government paid wages commensurate to the standard of living in the North at £2 a month to the civil servants. The East paid £3 and the West paid £4. It’s the same kind of reward structure obtainable in America. Earning $200,000 in New York might not be as profitable as $140,000 in Wyoming. In UK, it’s called London Weighting.

The West started the University College Ibadan and later OAU, the East had UNN and the North ABU. There was healthy competition.

Even politically, the Mid-West saw themselves as neither West nor East and were able to negotiate their existence.

Enter the Military goons!

The military opportunists made a mess of a minor situation where the North was dangerously meddling in the affairs of the West, something not unexpected in a nascent union.

From that time, they became infested with the power syndrome. The detail is well documented, so i move to the consequences.

Apart from stymieing the political learning process, they imported a deadly poison into the system that has dogged our existence as a country today.

THEY BROUGHT THE IDEA AND PRACTICE OF A FEDERAL STATE DEVOID OF IT’S PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES.

Because they didn’t have the brain and wherewithal to manage the Nigerian national economy, and the emergence of the oil commodity, they centralized the purse and linked all states to the apron strings of the government at the centre – whatever shape or size in which it came or appeared.

Federalism is not one unless it’s FISCAL in nature! The success of the regions at independence was absolutely founded on the ability of those regions to retain 60% of their own income and use it to pursue developmental needs relevant to their region.

It’s the access to income that makes a man! Not the clothes he puts on. Everyone knows that romance without finance is a nuisance. So they killed off the regional economies and made them dependent on handouts from the ‘goon’ in Ribadu Road and later Aso Rock!

As such, it’s the same power monger, or more succinctly, power Mongrel that determines what is spent in 31 states of the Federation and in about 770 local councils spread across the length and breadth of our dear nation.

My friends, that is, in effect is a UNITARY government! At least politically the ruling party is always a winner takes it all and all the national resources is therefore concentrated in their hands.

We’ve been living a lie. And we’ve ended with these fallouts;

(a) Too much power and resources was concentrated at the centre. Therefore, as a natural consequence, ‘capturing’ power at the centre is a DO or DIE affair.

(b) The power of the constituent units to compete healthily through innovation and invention was crippled. It’s far more expedient to sit on your arse as a governor and collect the handout called oil revenue sharing and loot than actively looking for ways to promote the economic empowerment of the people.

(c) Since they also took away the rights of the States to make the local councils under them accountable, and aligned it to the federal government, we’ve made accountability to the Nigerian voter doubly impossible. And yet about a quarter of Nigeria’s income is frittered away through that route. And the local councils have become a crucial ground not only for looting the country blind, but also for gaining power into Aso rock for any political party. Since the whole structure of government in Nigeria is one huge looting machine, people have surrendered their will to siding with a party that has ‘ captured’ the councils and that pattern is replicated on the other levels. {Reason why PDP is boasting of spending then next 50 years. They know whoever has enough loot in hand to bribe at that level will take hold of power}.

(d) Our skills at governing has been reduced to that of passing handout down the line, so we give little thought to research and development and pay more attention to politicking right across all fields of endeavour. Positions therefore exist merely as a ladder from which your knife might get a cut from the national cake.

(e) It ensures that the minority tribes in Nigeria remain that way. Neatly tucked away from the centre of things, unless you get feisty and acquire some Al-Qaida training and begin some Mujahedeen war against the government like the Niger Deltans are doing. And God save you if you’re not protected by a mix of heavy war equipment, African voodoo and labyrinth creeks to find refuge in. Ask those guys from Benue and Borno.

(f) Let’s face it, when there’s too much money at the disposal of the man at the centre, it’d take a miracle to keep his hand from it. Even if all we give the man at the centre to run Naija is just 40% of derivation from each constituent unit, it’s still a lot of money! Too much.

So what do i think we need to do?

My belief.

I do believe that Nigeria can work. I also believe that our togetherness has already made us the biggest market in Africa; we have more potential for growth and prosperity.

But that unity HAS to be negotiated. It must come from the heart based on a set of agreements and rules enforceable by any party in a fair and honest way.

It’s a shame that adults have refused to talk to themselves 50 years after their oppressor left. Yet they want to drag each other along.

That’s exactly what our refusal to come to a conference table means. It means our friendship is based on coercion and deceit. If i have issues with my wife, we both sit down as adults and listen to one another, then we iron out our differences and agree some basic ground rules to help us navigate the future. It doesn’t mean we won’t have issues in the future, but if we refuse to hold a ‘ clear the air’ meeting and follow it up with ‘heartfelt tête-à-tête’, how on earth can we hope that there would be peace in the home?

I do believe that a National Conference or whatever name you want to call it, when held, will actually bring us together rather than alienate us. We will be stronger because we will have ironed out differences and given each other assurances and know where to proceed from and where we’re headed.

Case for Fiscal Federalism.

To my mind, a true fiscal federalism is still the best way to go. One, each region will have the chance to determine its own fate within a strong structure.

Two, each region will truly complement each other in the true sense of it as we’d be forced to engaged in an economic give and take. Imagine if Bayelsa keeps 60% of it’s resources, she will need to hire the best doctors from all over Nigeria, it will need the best teachers who might not be Bayelsans and also might have the best maritime industry that would employ professionals and artisans from all over Nigeria. In reverse, the less endowed states can start to look at people as its natural resources and establish the best training institutes to provide the best people to the super-endowed states.

How to start.

Based on my preference for a fiscal federalism, we do not necessarily have to start the derivation at 60%. We will of course need to be strategically progressive in achieving that aim. If we set a 10 year moratorium for all the 31 constituent units to revert to keeping 60% of all income generated, we’d give each state the opportunity to prepare for a different life.

In these 10 years each state will have to find where it can apply the law of comparative advantage. I refuse to accept that there are states not endowed in Nigeria! I refused it vehemently. One, if you have humans, you have wealth! Geological wealth {wealth from minerals hidden in the ground} have performed well below the potential of Anthropoid wealth { wealth from inventions and services}. The combined returns Google, Apple, Microsoft and Logitech is far more abundant than what oil has given Nigeria in all of it’s national life.

Two, the mineral mapping done by America through the satellite technology, places Nigeria as the second most wealthy after Democratic Republic of Congo {former Zaire} in Africa. I completed my NYSC program in Gombe State in 1998-1999. I was astonished to find out that the state has Uranium in commercial quantities! Nothing has been done about it because they’re content getting easy money from the centre!

Also, Gombe state happens to have the highest number of cattle per head in the whole of Nigeria. I didn’t see any corned beef manufacturing company there! In Biu, you have a plateau that produces the best tomatoes in the world the Italians would be proud of. There’s no tin-tomato making concern there.

You could replicate that in every state of the nation. Palm Oil has been called the new crude. It’s about the healthiest emulsifier allowed in European food manufacturing. It goes into everything from your soap to your wafers, chocolates, e.t.c What stops a state like Borno from acquiring land in Cross River in conjunction with a company with technical expertise from anywhere to develop such products using local labour while the profits go to the people of their own state?

In negotiating our unity, experts could be brought in to analyse of ascertain the amount of natural resources, human resources, climatic resources and the potential of each state. Any state found to be intrinsically weak will be supported by special funds from the money that goes to the centre by enforceable agreement for up to a period of time necessary for such state to stand on its own feet.

Benefits of freeing up the country by agreement

• The first benefit is an intrinsically humanistic one. We will be recognizing the ability of each constituent unit to devise a survival mechanism that leads to prosperity. After all, before Lugard showed up all the Nigerian regions have produced enduring dynasties and systems of survival!

• We will be encouraging recognition for the right to triumph through the dint of hard work and enterprise. The best will be able to prop up the weak just like the Bill Gates of this world founded companies that made other Americans and nationals millionaires! We are covering up the destinies of so many talented Nigerians up with the current pursuit of ‘chop-i-chop’ ideals.

• We will free Nigeria from the shackles of decadent and despotic leadership. If you realize that the centre involves too much work required of true patriots, and less opportunity for self aggrandizement, less charlatans will sign up for Nigeria2011 or whatever year. Only people with will and vision will put themselves forward.

• We will be able to conquer our fear to do the right thing! Those who’ve hidden behind religious and ethnic banners to loot us blind will be exposed. How? Because each component unit will now be the focus of real political attention, it’d be easy for those component units to enforce their own laws as there will be openness as we know ourselves very well and there’s no covering from the Abuja godfather as we’ve witnessed in Anambra and Oyo. For instance in Ogun state, I’d be able to challenge a sitting governor better because he knows that when runs foul of the law, we know where to get him! You cannot use assassins freely because the monopoly of the law will not be absolute.

• The stranglehold of the neo-colonial forces in Nigeria would be broken. As the constituent units assert their powers and wield it, corruption will be reduced and prosperity freed up. As of now, a sitting governor cannot initiate a rail development scheme without first getting permission from the president through moribund and useless National Railway Commission. A situation that arrogates extensive power to a mere civil servant to rubbish the dreams of the people of a particular state and gives controlling powers to the president in undermining a governor.

• Same thing as above is obtainable with the security apparatus. The constitution gives the power to protect lives and property, and promise of prosperity to the governor of a state. Yet that governor has to rely on the assurance of the Inspector General of Police who’s politically appointed by the President to fulfil a constitutional demand. How does that work? The result is what transpired in Jos when the governor could only run to the military authorities who did nothing. Thousands of people were murdered and it’s not swept under the carpet. Business has continued as usual. We need to follow the spirit of the letter that we agree to! We need to have state police! America has it and the heavens haven’t fallen. The British have it. How can we refuse to do the needful on the basis of our fears?

• We’d be able to make it impossible for business oligarchs to buy Nigeria off. Glo is the second national carrier. It controls the call data and infrastructure plus internet access for about 50% of the whole populace. That is a big security risk. In case we do get into war and it’s infiltrated, we’re doomed. It’s one of the reasons we’ve not exposed the killers in our midst. They give orders over the phone, they access the internet.........the vital monitoring tool isn’t in the hands of govt. Ever wondered why the BT line runs through every home and is linked to the national security centre in Britain?

• We’d be ale to free up civil servants who are concerned with making their councils economically viable. So they’d offer business friendly services, encourage businesses to set up with them and not turn to touts running after Okadas and street traders for registration! They even employ Area Boys nowadays to collect revenue!

What Next?

I have started this debate so that all the more brainy, qualified and brilliant minds than i am, some of whom i have met on Facebook – Kayode Ogundamisi {whom i have discussed the need for the solution focussed activism}, Babatunde Rosanwo, Feyi Fawehinmi, Seyi Osiyemi, Cee Won, Seun Kolade, Phil Smart, Ken Davidson, DJ Abass, Ayo Sonaiya, Wale Adedayo, Franco Francis, Gbola Bowale X, and all others i can’t remember now, who constitute the vital link between the Nigerian teenagers and all less than 45, the true future of Nigeria.

I expect rejoinders and new line of thoughts. We need to start providing our solutions no matter how crude. Once we get talking to each other, we’d add more wisdom. We can also put pressure on the elderly democrats and thinkers like Prof. Sola Adeyeye and the likes to write and support us with experience.

I am offering as many as are interested in this project to let us like AWOLOWO provide some intellectual context that’s so much lacking in our dear country and make it available via a website we’d co-build. I am sure we will come to a convergence and spread the news as much as possible for others to imbibe so we can flag off the true revolution – the one that comes from understanding imbibed in the heart and displayed on the streets if necessary to get Nigeria out of the woods.

It’d be a shame for all these despots to challenge us and not give them good answers.

The race for Aso Rock and the future of Nigerians have begun. None of the candidates yet have any thematic thrust or real manifesto, written that specifies how we can reach the promise land. Most will sell the usual crap – road, water, light, hospital. At 50 years?

We’ve got to wake up!

Jesse Adeniji is a marketing communications specialist. He runs Jessemay Consulting, London.

Jesse.adeniji@jessemayconsulting.com

Adios Umaru Yar’Adua…..Bienvenido “Saint” Goodluck Jonathan

2010-05-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

The shenanigans that engulfed the nation’s political landscape was brought to an abrupt end last week. The death of President Umaru Yar’Adua drew to a close, the political uncertainty that eclipsed the nation for almost six months. Whatever anyone says, one thing is certain, President Umaru Yar’Adua is gone. The questions about him turning up at next Friday’s Jumat service or jogging up and down the stairs are now history. A new chapter has now been opened in the nation’s history book from the 5 May 2010.

Whether Umaru Yar’Adua is a good or bad leader is now totally irrelevant. Engaging in endless discussions dissecting the Yar’Adua administration or personality will not put food on the table of 150 million Nigerians. Writing hypocritical and sycophantic eulogies about Umaru Yar’Adua or portraying him as “least corrupt” Nigerian President will not provide jobs for the 21 million unemployed youths roaming the streets of Lagos, Port Harcourt or Zaria. To describe Umaru Yar’Adua as an “epitome of humility” or Apostle of “Rule of Law” is now redundant statement. It’s not our tradition to speak ill of the dead, however, heaping unnecessary and hypocritical praises on the dead also makes no sense!

Our attention should therefore now be focused on the “new chapter” that is currently being written. We cannot change what is gone. However we do have an opportunity to shape the future.

We need not remind ourselves that the system that produced Umaru Yar’Adua as President is still very much alive and kicking. It’s Umaru that is dead not the “system”. And while the masses hue and cry over Yar’Adua’s death, the system is busy oiling its machinery and gearing up for the next election.

So what has changed? If Nigeria can be described as a car travelling on the highway, one can say that only thing that has changed in the last six months is the car driver. The car is still very much the same. We have a “new” reluctant driver, who seems to have no sense of direction. This new driver is been guided by the same old GPS system. The same system that has been in operation for the past 11 years, without taking us anywhere.

Since Goodluck Jonathan assumed office, praise-singers and adulators have been busy heaping praises on him. The calls for him to contest the 2011 election have been coming from left, right and centre. But, why all these unnecessary praise singing? What has Jonathan done in the last three months that makes him more worthy of the exalted office of the President than Dele Momodu or Omosule? What policy has he implemented that makes him the “messiah” we have been waiting for? Yes he reconstituted the Cabinet and “sacked” the INEC Chairman Maurice Iwu. And so! The decision to sack the Cabinet and Iwu were only coincidental with public agitations. There were not really taken in the public interest. Let’s not be deceived, Jonathan needed to break the backbone of the cabal that held sway during the Yar’Adua administration and consolidate his hold on power. Also, while he thinks about his next move, he needed to make sure that he’s in absolute control of whoever is in charge of INEC.

As I write, any criticisms of Goodluck Jonathan are now perceived by the Pro-Jonathan loyalists as symptoms of “Pull Him Down” syndrome.. When the issue of allegations of corruption against his wife, Patience, are brought to the public forum, the Jonathan apologists are always quick to remind us that “no Nigerian politician is clean”. When we ask that allegations of corruption against Patience be fully investigated, we get told that “he who is without sin should cast the first stone”(!). When we say, Goodluck Jonathan has no moral right to fight corruption, they reply, “nobody is a saint”.

I have no issues with GJ apologists, as everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. However, I find it quite nauseating that those who are not interested in the allegations of corruption against Patience Jonathan are the same people asking that James Ibori should be sentenced to death by firing squad. Those who say “he without sin….”, are the same calling for the probe of Yar’Adua cabal. These are the same people calling for the investigation of allegations of corruption against Gov. Fashola. We cannot say we want leaders with integrity, but turn around to say “no Nigerian politician is clean”. The minimum that can be demanded from any leader is “integrity”.

I heard someone say recently that “Nigerians should now be satisfied because Jonathan is now the President”. Let me say this. The clamour for transfer of power to Goodluck Jonathan was a matter of principle and not personality.. It was not about Goodluck Jonathan becoming President. Just as the June 12 pro-democracy activists will tell you that the June 12 struggle was not just about MKO Abiola. It was about support for rule of law and democratic sustainability. At that time, it was imperative that we adhere strictly to provision of the Constitution. So for anyone to make such a statement is not only patronising but insulting.

Let Goodluck Jonathan run for the office of the President if he chooses to. After all it’s his prerogative. And thank God we are in a democracy. However, one thing is clear, we are watching. Let him not use the power of incumbency as a rigging tool. Any attempt by his administration to fight corruption must be transparent and genuine. The EFCC should not once again be turned into a tool for fighting perceived political enemies. His appointment of the next INEC Chairman should not be for the sole purpose of perpetuating himself in power.

There’s no doubt, one thing Pres. Goodluck Jonathan has in his favour right now is public goodwill. It’s therefore important that it takes advantage of this, positively. There’s enough time between now and next general elections for him to lay good solid foundation for credible elections and infrastructure development. If he provides decent power supply and appoints credible people at INEC, Nigerians – irrespective of tribe and religion – will line up behind him come 2011.

The question on everyone’s lips now is, will this new driver dump the GPS system and take us to a new destination? You will have to agree with me that the new driver himself was a passenger cum co-driver. He had no plan to be in the car in the first place, hence his reluctance to take over when the car was about to crash. So taking an independent decision devoid of interference from the GPS system will be a tall order.

Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Sworn In As 14th President of Nigeria

2010-05-06T03:41:00.000-07:00

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President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is Dead!

2010-05-05T19:13:00.001-07:00

Fifty-eight-year-old Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua died at his presidential villa on Wednesday, state TV has said.

A presidential aide and the information minister confirmed his death. Mr Yar'Adua, who became president in 2007, had been ill for some time.

The government announced seven days of national mourning and said the president would be buried on Thursday.

Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan - who became acting president in February - will be sworn in later, reports say.

The Nigerian Television Authority interrupted its normal programming to announce the news, in a brief statement early on Thursday.

The announcer said: "The president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, died a few hours ago at the presidential villa.

Mr Yar'Adua, a Muslim, will be laid to rest later on Thursday in his home state of Katsina, in the north of the country.

Reports from Nigeria said Mr Yar'Adua died between 2100 (2000 GMT) and 2200 (2100 GMT) on Wednesday in the capital, Abuja.

May his soul rest in peace. Amen!

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Little Practical Steps While We Wait

2010-05-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

It seems highly unlikely that an epidemic of selflessness and patriotism will suddenly break out in the ranks of our political and social elite class. This is partly because we have a culture of passive indifference on the part of the citizenry and a rapacious appetite for filthy lucre on the part of our politicians. The primary purpose of government in Nigeria would appear to be the personal enrichment of politician-contractors and the personal aggrandizement of our infantile political class. And I am not convinced that either prayers or curses alone can provide the magic formula for solving our problems. Prayers obviously didn’t work in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan, North Korea and their utility, as a sole or prominent weapon in the Nigerian context, is highly dubious to put it rather mildly.

Given the foregoing doom-laden scenario and abject prognosis, it is unsurprising that true patriots and even ordinary compatriots have become resigned to their fate, accepted our unattractive ‘destiny’, retreated into mental and physical inertia and adopted a ‘to your tents o Israel’ mentality. If this situation is not reversed, we risk giving up the struggle for our nation’s betterment, emancipation of ourselves and our very survival becomes a chance occurrence subject to the capricious whims of our bandit politicians and crooked rulers.

Methinks we are not totally helpless and I direct my appeal to those Nigerians who have had the good fortune to have an education, are able to earn a living and have the luxury of not worrying about getting the next meal. There are simple things we can do while we wait for good governance in our motherland. Here are some of those things, and this list is by no means exhaustive.

Health education: Inadequate knowledge of health issues is a major factor in generating our dismal health statistics like infant mortality and life expectancy rates. The lack of awareness of elementary health facts and misconceptions even among highly educated Nigerians is truly alarming. For example very few people outside medicine realise that ‘heart failure’ is not a synonym for ‘cardiac arrest’ and ‘food poisoning’ does not mean deliberate contamination of food by chemical poisons or juju powder. Those who know can painlessly share knowledge and can repeatedly ram these nuggets of knowledge down the throats of our family and friends. It is literally a matter of life and death.

Health promotion: Those of us who are healthcare professionals can adopt a more proactive attitude to the health of our families and friends. We can, for example ask hard questions about health and wellbeing and not simply wait until things become desperate. Practically speaking, why not offer a free health check (physical examination, blood pressure, blood sugar, haematological and biochemical profiles etc) annually to most or all members of your extended family. It surely must be cheaper than burying them prematurely later.

We can encourage our people to ask more questions from healthcare professionals when they go to hospital. For example, if your doctor says you suffer from typhoid, ask questions about his diagnosis methods and treatment suggestions. The doctor ought not to mind and I can attest to this longing for even mild curiosity from personal experience as a practising physician in Lagos. We must take control of our health and robustly discourage sloppiness and quackery in medicare.

Education: It is possible to inexpensively augment the efforts of our educational system at all levels and help improve the overall literacy level of our citizenry. One example is to have small mentoring groups consisting of perhaps 3 to 5 individuals each. They can they undertake to ‘adopt’ a few pupils each and closely promote their education by measures such as helping them with sc materials, liaising with their teachers and generally taking an active interest in their academic development. This need not be a high cost option and a few phone calls here and a few purchases here would rapidly amount to a lot of effective attention. This is especially pertinent to those of us who live abroad as, by my reckoning, a paltry monthly outlay of 20 pounds can be put to very effective use. If your ward is able to access the Internet (and there are many cyber cafés around in Nigeria now) you might even be able to keep in touch more frequently and less expensively by email. Just think of how inspiring a pep talk from ‘Uncle Joe’ from Lagos or ‘Aunty Joyce’ from London can be to a young child in the village. We can disseminate information about scholarship schemes, support our alma mata, supply writing and reading materials to schools in our neighbourhoods and set up school competitions (spelling contests, essay competitions, endow end-of-term prizes etc).

Career promotion: We can all actively seek to promote the careers of our younger compatriots and offer useful help based on our life experiences. If you come across one studying Accountancy for example, help them to consider taking ICAN exams or if you meet a youngster studying medicine, try to help consider options for postgraduate training and career development should that be their ambition.

Reduce waste: It is very common for us to fritter our cash on frivolities like big parties and flashy clothes. Some might argue that these parties are deeply entrenched in our culture and arguably play a role in maintaining some social cohesion in a fractious society but this is a largely specious argument. We can have smaller parties less frequently (and have just as much fun), decline to celebrate 80th year remembrance of our late great-grandmother with anything more than token drinks and prayers and ‘spray’ just a little less money (or none at all) at the next Owambe party. Whatever we save this way can be deployed to making the lives of others just that little bit more bearable. It really is that simple.

Little acts of protest: When our absentee governors, legislators and senior special advisers and their retinue of lackeys and political jobbers arrive on their next trip to Europe and USA, those of us who live here can take advantage of the culture of democratic protest in these societies to make their stay most uncomfortable. We can pester them with hostile posters, flood their residences with protest mail, harass them with hostile phone calls on TV phone-ins and generally make their lives miserable. It is a fate richly deserved by our traducers and we are morally justified in doing this. I am open to suggestions in this regard.

It is regrettable that we are unable to mobilise our abundant resources to promote the wellbeing of our people and lift Nigeria into the ranks of advanced societies but that is our lot at present. We can either wring our hands in frustration or do something, no matter how little. The time for action is NOW. Please do something. TORI OLORUN. I BEG UNA.

Femi Adebajo
United Kingdom

BBC Welcome to Lagos Video - Part 3

2010-05-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 2

On State Creation and Constitution Review

2010-04-29T02:32:00.000-07:00

The strongest hint that new states will created before 2011 elections were today dropped by the Deputy Senate President, Usman Nafada.

According to the Deputy Senate President, the National Assembly intends to create 10 additional states as part of the ongoing constitution review. In his words, “The creation of new states is not as rigorous as the amendment of the constitution. The Governors Forum and many powerful interest groups have been inundating us with this demand”. Whilst he refused to confirm the actual proposed number of states, Mr Nafada confirmed that “there is no running from the fact that new states would be created next year”.

The debate on whether new states should be created has been ongoing for quite a while. Many interest groups have made representation to the National Assembly on the need for state creation. However, the civil society is yet to see a “business case” on the economic viability of these proposed states. The process of state creation might not be rigorous, just as the Deputy Senate President pointed out, however, common sense dictates that the rationale for state creation should transcend any procedural rigour. It’s the height of irresponsibility to create a state just because it’s easy to do so, without due consideration of its economic and social implications. I find it quite ridiculous that the National Assembly will just support state creation just because some kleptomaniacs called state governors sees it fit?

The need for additional states should be guided by key fundamental principles. The business case needs to compelling both economically and socially. Are the proposed states economically viable? Also, what has been the economic performance of existing states in terms of internal generated revenue?

To date , there’s no evidence in Nigeria to suggest any correlation between state creation and economic/infrastructure/human capital development. The only evidence available is that of increased looting of the nation’s treasury. With additional states, that means more Governors, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Permanent Secretaries, all feeding fat on the government.

Already, the nation is struggling with an over-bloated democratic structure and bureaucracy. The last time I checked, it was costing the nation N1.1trillion in salaries and allowances to maintain public office holders at all three tiers of government.

According to a 2008 report by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the state with the highest internal generated revenue is Lagos with N139.2 billion, followed in distant second by Sokoto with N34.8billion . In terms of revenue, the IGR by 36 states and FCTA was N441.1 billion representing 1.8 per cent of national gross domestic product (GDP) or total output of goods and services amounting N24 trillion at current basic prices. Fast forward to 2010, it’s unlikely that there would have been much difference.

Minority ethnic groups see state creation as a way of addressing the inequality and injustice in the system. To date I can’t see any evidence to back such claim. For example, will creation of additional states prevent the last ethnic/religious crisis in Jos? Or will it have prevented the Ijaws/Itsekiris from hacking themselves to the death in the 90’s? What about the tribal clashes between the communities of Ife and Modakeke? It really begs the question of how many states we can practically create to appease everyone in a multi-ethnic society as ours. I will assume, we may need to create at least 14o states!

We also have political opportunists who see state creation as an opportunity for easy and quick access to the national cake. Since allocation of political appointment is bereft of any merit-selection process, but instead based on the nonsensical federal character principle, it means the political elites are a step closer to the dining table of the national treasury.

I anxiously look forward to the day when our (s)elected leaders will begin to get their priorities right. The Deputy Senate President from his comments has further confirmed the widely held belief that our political elites are VERY detached from the modern day realities of the average Nigerian. If I may ask, how will creation of new states alleviate the growing unemployment, which at the last count was grossly underestimated as 40%? How will state creation put food on the table of 70% of Nigerians who barely survive on $1 per day? How will creation of additional states ensure probity and accountability? How will it discourage state governments continuous dependency on monthly revenue allocation from the federal government?

For me, the most important amendment that can be made to the Nigerian Constitution is the correction of our pseudo-federalism cum unitary system of government. I even consider this to be more important than any electoral reform. Even if we succeed in having an electoral reform that guarantees free and fair election, that wouldn’t take away anything from the fact that our governance system has failed. Can anything good come out of a failed system?

Honourable members of the national assembly should focus on issues that will help build democratic institutions that will outlast political generations. We run a system of government that grants absolute power to the Executive. We say we are a federation but all powers of the federating units have been usurped by the Federal Government. We claim to be a democracy, yet some states are governed by ‘theocracy’.

What we need is a constitution that will entrench ‘true federalism’ and not creation of “mickey mouse” states or glorified local government.We need legislation that will promote accountability and transparency at all levels of government and not just provide unfettered access to the national treasury

BBC Welcome To Lagos Video - Part 2

2010-04-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter to Honourable Minister of Aviation - Mrs Fidelia Njeze

2010-04-21T03:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Hon Minister,

I want to congratulate you on your recent appointment and assumption of office as the Honorable Minister of Aviation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

There is no doubt that having served the country twice as a Minister of State,your elevation as a full minister in a strategic ministry such as Aviation is well deserved and your former experience in those former capacities should come to play in your efficient management of the Aviation Ministry.

Knowing fully well that you have barely less than a year to hold forth as Minister, I would like to use this medium to advise you on areas of quick wins where you can easily excel in the aviation industry particularly with reference to our airports especially the flagship which is MURTALA MOHAMMED INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT which subsequently in this write up would be referred to as MMIA.I am using this airport as a reference because i live in Lagos and i want to believe its the most used airport in Nigeria.

I had an intention of writing this piece earlier when i heard of your nomination and before you would have embarked on physical inspection of our airports but the demand on my time prevented me. But before i could say jack,i saw video clips of your visit to the MMIA,Lagos.

As with other visits by past aviation ministers,I am not sure the retinue of eye service civil servants who followed you on that trip and particularly those who took you round the airport showed you the key areas of concern which i would mention shortly.

1.DEPARTURE HALL TOILETS/RESTROOM-MALE

It may interest you to know that the present state of this toilet is awful,highly embarrassing and a disgrace to an international airport of the status of MMIA.This was also the case at Calabar airport when i had to borrow a phone with a torch from a fellow passenger in order to use the popular Calabar airports departure halls toilet.Please kind direct whoever is in charge to quickly make sure all the available toilets have functional water closet system with water running 24 hours daily, with the skilled cleaning personnel on ground to make the toilets usable.Also adequate supply of toiletries like tissues,liquid hand wash and hand dryer should be made available at all times.I have know doubt that you are well traveled and must have had cause to use the restrooms in those airports you might have had cause to travel through,you will bare me witness that one could be tempted to even eat in those toilets due to the state of their cleanliness.Provision of bathrooms too might not be a luxury.

2.DEPARTURE HALL PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM.

It may interest you to know that this is barely audible as a potential passenger might have to strain his or her ear in order to hear his or her boarding/arrival announcement.Kindly ensure the PA system of the entire airport is replaced so that one can from a distance hear clearly any announcement made on the PA from any of the interior part of the airport.

3.ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE/BAGGAGE CLAIM HALL AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM.

I guess you might not have noticed this since you most likely use the VIP lounge of the airport whenever you have cause to travel out of the country.Each time i arrive this country,i always end up sweating like a xmas goat because of the non availability of functional AC system.Kindly ensure that the replacement or renovation of the AC system in the above mentioned and other affected areas in the airports in Nigeria are given to competent hands to manage.

4.PROVISION OF MORE SEATS IN THE DEPARTURE HALL.

Kindly ensure the provision of more seats in the departure hall as passengers and their genuine relatives have to stand up and of course Nigerai airport is the only airport i have seen in the few places that i have traveled to where relatives or anyone accompaning you is barred from entering the departure hall.

5.EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE BY AIRPORT PERSONNEL ON DUTY, AIRLINE STAFF AND CONSUMER RIGHTS.

Another area of quick win you might have to work on is in the area of excellent customer service by your various airport personnel.Most of the time,these category of staff are busy looking for one form of gratification or the other instead of carrying out their jobs.An example is the Abdulmutallab case in which non of the personnel on duty could even detect the circumstances surrounding the young boy e.g. no luggage,place and urgency of purchase of ticket,lack of proper security screening as most times security personnel are praising you in order to get some cash from you.All staff at the airports must be trained and retrained on how to provide excellent customer service for passengers and visitors to the airports.A clear example of this is available at Heathtrow T5,UK and Singapore International airports where you staff on ground who are in charge of customer service.

The level of service provided by the various airlines in Nigeria is different from what is available in their different home countries.For example,the quality of service provided by Emirates Airline or British Airways in Nigeria is quite different from what obtains in U.A.E or the United Kingdom.The way customers are treated with impunity calls for concern.Right from ticket purchase,information dissemination and boarding,service to customers is quite poor and most Nigerians are treated in dehumanizing ways that calls for questioning .Please hold a meeting with these airlines telling them to henceforth treat Nigerians well or forget their business in Nigeria.Please also equip your Customer protection unit at the various airports to be able to defend the rights of travelers.A recent example was the case of a first class passenger on a South African Airways flight who was asked to vacate his seat for a white passenger who mustt ravel with his fellow colleagues.He eventually had to leave the said flight in anger after suffering humiliation right on the soil of Nigeria.I heard they have apologized but the deed had already been done and several of this type of cases still abound on a daily basis.

6.CAR PARK

Surfacing/tarring of roads in the car park and provision of functional toilets too are required.

7.AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS TO DO THE ABOVE MENTIONED.

A ready way of not doing all i have mentioned above is for advisers and staff to say there is no fund available or that it was not budgeted for.i would like to advise that you look into the amount of money generated at the Lagos airport toll gate and car park.This amount of money if properly monitored and accounted for would be able to solve most of the problems mentioned above.Please ensure the amount of internally generated fund at the various airports in Nigeria are properly accounted for.

If the MMIA could be this bad,i am afraid of the status of other airports in the country. I'm available for clarification on my email: Kogdapus@yahoo.com

Thanks.

Oladapo Kolawole
Lagos, Nigeria

Q & A with Obiageli 'Oby' Ezekwesili - Understanding the Workings of The Nigerian Government

2010-04-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

Q & A with Obiageli 'Oby' Ezekwesili - Understanding the Workings of The Nigerian Government (By Beer Parlour Activists for Nigeria)

Are there auditors attached to each ministry to ensure that contracts are expeditiously executed? If so are these auditors independent? If not do you feel that they should be completely independent?

Ernest Aziagba, London

Every Ministry, Department and Agency (MDA) has an internal audit department with a responsibility to assist management ensure that all financial transactions are carried out inaccordance with government laid down financial rules and regulation. The internal audit department reports to the permanent secretary who is the accounting officer for any ministry. Their role is given oversight by the office of the auditor general of the federation-which is statutorily established by the constitution to be an independent body that reports to the public accounts committee of the national assembly.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

There are some ministries like Agriculture, Water Resources, commerce and industry etcthat seems to be there for no reason. Is there a reason for these ministries? What are their functions?

Ernest Aziagba, London

For any African country, ministries of agriculture and water resources are important and should exist in any developing country. Food security is sine qua non for Africa and it is through a well-managed agriculture sector that this can be realized. For although a predominantly private sector led activity, it requires significant provision of public good whichonly government through such a ministry can offer. You must understand that with agriculture employing more than 80% of the rural populace and the rural populace being more than 70% of Nigeria’s population, the two ministries must be regarded as key players for any effective poverty reduction agenda in Nigeria.The water ministry is particularly important not just for its water infrastructure that contributes to agriculture but also in their role as facilitator /provider of a basic service that has health implications. The latter role is particularly important for attaining the health MDGs. The problem however is often a lack of capacity of the leadership of these ministries to respectively understand and effectively deliver on their important mandates. The former on enabling access to water both as a social and economic service and the latter onagriculture production and productivity through appropriate polices, investments and institutions.…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Are statistical figures kept and maintained in any of these ministries?

Ernest Aziagba, London

Each ministry had a department called “planning research and statistics. Regrettably, it wasconverted into the department in charge of contract activities and that completely dwarfedthe incentive of officials that worked in those departments for important work of planning, research and statistical capacity building. I was so vexed about the condition of those departments in the two ministries that I headed and had them scrapped, moved out thecontracting role from them and reinvented them completely with core mandates of policyformulation, planning and evaluation. I also had to change the skill sets and competencies of public officials in those departments in my then two ministries.My focus on having the fundamental structure and organization of each of the ministries i ledreflect their core mandate and mission meant that such reform was sine qua non and so despite the resistance, I had it done. It was not popular with the then head of service but Ihad the backing of the president who saw the move as a model for the entire civil service and recommended it should be part of the public service reform agenda. The rest as they say is history!……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Are there criteria for anyone receiving a contract from a federal ministry? If so what are they?

Ernest Aziagba, London

Yes. There existed some rules even before the “due process” reform that i championed. It was however a broken down set of financial guidelines that were only complied with in thebreach. For example, the rules governing “exceptional circumstances in contracting” had become the rules for ALL circumstances and so the nation became a victim of poorgovernance of public resources with no consequences for such flagrant violation of financialrules in the public sector.As one of the co-founders of transparency international globally, i had taken serious research interest in how the syndrome of leaking public treasury in most of Africa was the primary reason for ease and pervasiveness of public sector corruption. Other than the public sector salaries and administrative costs, the most critical activity that the treasury funds is capital expenditure through procurement of government works, goods and service, i concluded that if any country wants to govern its public resources effectively, it needed to establish the right systems, processes, procedures, structures and institutions for handling its public procurement.I was therefore glad to return home from the Kennedy school of government, Harvard University to serve in the government with a singularity of purpose. My sole mission was to work to plug the holes that haemorrhaged our public treasury over several decades. The paradox of being a country that had earned hundreds of billions of dollars in oil export andyet had such pernicious poverty indicators as a result of mismanagement and corruption hadbeen a source of deep anger within me over the years that i was both in the private sectorand doubled also as an activist in civil society. Infact, when Nigeria first requested for debt relief, it was mainly rejected by creditors because of its legendary record for poormanagement of its public treasury as evidenced in widely known contract inflation, poorly -delivered -or -not –at- all -delivered - but fully- paid -for -public -contracts, award of contracts for patronage etc.With the strong support of the then president, i worked with him at the state houseInitially through the office his principal secretary to set up the budget monitoring and price intelligence unit (BMPIU also known as the due process unit). So, i led the work to reform the truly archaic and leaking arrangement for public contracting at the federal level. The BMPIU under my leadership with an incredible team of professionals went on to define new standards and rules of the game for the award of public contracts. Those standards and rules became the 2002 Nigeria treasury circular issued by the office of the accountant general of the federation which has the constitutional mandate to issue financial guidelines on thetreasury. It is crucial to note that the BMPIU was not responsible for the process of contract award. It was the responsibility of MDAs to follow the process and award their contracts. The unit’s role was to review the process and outcome for compliance and to publish and provideits findings to the participants in the process and the cabinet. By monitoring theimplementation of the federal contracting process to ensure compliance with the due process rules of the contracting activities, the BMPIU saved the nation over $2billion dollars in contract over-pricing that would have been assumed had the inflated cost been allowed as was the case in the past, recommended overturning of awards of contracts to wrong winners in any process that negated the transparency, fairness and competition rules that MDAs were supposed to comply with, greater transparency in public contracts when it caused the opening up to the public the contracting program of the federal government throughcollaboration with the ministry of information to launch the public tenders journal, a publication that advertises all federal government contracts above the N50million threshold. One element we began to implement shortly before i was reassigned was the involvement of civil society contract watch groups in monitoring the contracting process across the MDAs.

Finally, during my leadership of the BMPIU, we worked on and submitted the bureau for public procurement bill which upon passage by the national assembly led to the establishment of the bureau for public procurement which is now headed by a director general. Below, I have an extract on the BMPIU as was published on the nigeria first website to provide you more information on the early beginnings.

“The present Administration is determined to offset the widespread notion that Nigeria is a corrupt nation, and to overcome the practice of embarking on development projects that arenot properly monitored. For this reason it has set up the Budget Monitoring and PriceIntelligence Unit (BMPIU, also known as the Due Process Office.The BMPIU was formally established under the Office of the Principal Secretary to thePresident in June 2003. It is run as an operationally independent body under the leadership of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Unit, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili. Its staff comprises experts with a bias for project management, construction and procurement.The Unit was designed to act as the clearing-house for all Government contracts and procurement of goods and services, and functions under three major strategies:

Goal, Objectives and implementation.

Goal of BMPIU.

The goal of BMPIU is to ensure full compliance with laid down guidelines and procedures for the procurement of capital and minor capital projects as well as associated goods and services.

Objectives of BMPIU

The objectives of BMPIU are:

1. To harmonize existing government policies/practices and update same on publicprocurement
2. To determine whether or not Due Process has been observed in the procurement of services and contracts
3. To introduce more honesty, accountability and transparency into the procurement process
4. To establish and update pricing standards and benchmarks for all supplies to Government
5. To monitor the implementation of projects during execution with a view to providinginformation on performance, output and compliance with specifications and targets 6. To ensure that only projects which have been budgeted for are admitted for execution.

Implementation Strategies.

The BMPIU operates under the following guidelines: Regulatory Functions, CertificationFunctions, Monitoring Functions and Training and Advisory Functions.

A. Regulatory Functions
1. To regulate and set standards, including the enforcement of harmonized bidding and tender documents
2. To formulate the general policies and guidelines related to public sector procurement
3. To develop, update and maintain a related system wide database and technology
4. To undertake procurement research and survey in order to determine information needs and project costing
5. To enforce professional ethics and sanction erring officers and professionals

B. Certification Functions
The Unit will certify all federal-wide procurements under the following guidelines:
1. Resident Due Process Team Certification for projects below N50million
2. Full Due Process Certification for projects above N50million at various stages such as “contract award certificate” and “payment certificate”.

C. Monitoring Functions
1. To supervise the implementation of established procurement policies
2. To monitor the prices of tendered items
3. To perform procurement audits
4. To undertake the monitoring of capital projects that have exceeded 50% of contract sumbefore release of further funds
5. To document all projects at award and completion stages, and publish same in designated journals

D. Training and Advisory Functions
1. To co-ordinate relevant training programs so as to build institutional capacity
2. To embark on regular public enlightenment programs so as to sensitize various stakeholders involved in procurement
3. To interact with Government and parastatal officials, National Assembly members, consultants and relevant professional bodies so as to educate them on all aspects of the work of BMPIU.

Organization of Due Process Certification
The Nigeria Treasury Circular of 5 July 2002, “Guidelines for Implementation of Due Process Certification of Contract”, provides a plan for the implementation of the Capital Budget.
Major sections of the Circular include:

A. Approval of Contracts
1. Contracts below N1.0million- The Permanent Secretary/Chief Executive of parastatals shall approve these.
2. Contracts over N1.0million but below N50.0 million - A Resident Due Process Team (RDPT) shall approve these.
3. Contracts above N50.0million -These shall be processed in accordance with Government guidelines and approved by the Ministerial Tender Board before being forwarded to BMPIU to obtain a Due Process Certificate. When certification is obtained from BMPIU, the project would be forwarded to Federal Executive Council for approval before an award can be made.
4. Due Process Review ProcedureThe procedures for Due Process Review are as follows:
a. Requirements for Due Process Review
i. The Project Policy file
ii. Tender Returns
iii. Tender Evaluation Reportiv. Contract Award Letter and Agreement
v. Original Contract Bills of Quantities (if any)
vi. Contract Drawings (if any)
vii. Other Contract Documents
viii. Financial Summary and Statementsix. Progress Reports
x. Variation Requests and Variation Orders arising
xi. Interim Valuation and Certificates

b. Preliminary Discussion (BMPIU and Beneficiary Ministries)
There may be a need to schedule meetings between BMPIU and beneficiary ministries/parastatals to clear issues connected with the report for certification. Such meetings may take place at pre-review and during the review exercise. BMPIU may call for additional information from the ministries to facilitate the issuance of certification.

c. Preparation of Draft Report The Due Process Certification will require an assessment to ensure that:
i. The appropriation is available for the funding requirements of the project upon award
ii. The contract awarded by the spending unit/ministry shows that the process complies with open competitive bid standards and that the cost is comparable with national, regional andinternational standards.

d. Transmission of Draft Report
The Draft Report from BMPIU shall be transmitted to the beneficiary confirming certification. If certification is not granted, attention of the beneficiaries is drawn to the findings andrecommendations in the report.

e. Organization of “Right of Reply” Meeting
For a project where certification is denied, BMPIU has made provisions for a “Right of Reply” meeting aimed at clarifying issues leading to the denial of certification. Such a meeting may either lead to reconciling differences or confirming the position of BMPIU.

f. Final ReportThe outcome of a “Right of Reply” meeting will assist in fine-tuning the report and facilitatingthe issuance of a final report.g. Granting or Denying Due Process Certification.

The final report may either lead to the project being granted certification or being deniedcertification. Whatever the outcome, it will be transmitted to the beneficiaries.The granting of certification may lead to the project being recommended for approval by the Federal Executive Council. In cases where projects are denied certification, the beneficiariesmay be advised to repackage the project for fresh procurement.

Conclusion
In general, the following suggestions should be adhered to for the successful implementation of Due Process policies:
1. Ministries/parastatals should not embark on new projects when there is a problem offunding existing ones
2. Efforts should be made to stock-take the capital project portfolio of all ministries
3. Procurement planning should be carried out
4. Project feasibility and design should be completed before embarking on procurement andaward
5. Technically competent and integrity conscious officials in the ministry should be identifiedand assigned procurement planning
6. Only projects for which funds are appropriated or available should be forward to BMPIU for Due Process Certification
7. Unadvertised projects will not be accepted by the Unit for review
8. No selective tendering arrangements qualify for Due Process Review
9. Only the Ministry of Defence has a special procurement arrangement
10. A focal point or anchorperson in each ministry should function as the liaison between the BMPIU and the ministry.

The BMPIU expects extensive support for the policy of Due Process Certification. With such support, Due Process will ensure that the present Administration is able to put Nigeria’s natural and human resources to good use through efficient planning, proper management, and fraud-free governance.
© Copyright 2006

Shouldn’t it be mandatory for all contractors to have an insurance policy on the contractbefore they are given a contract to execute?

Ernest Aziagba, London

Of course, as part of the provisions of the BPP Act and also originally under the due processguideline, every contractor submits a performance bond as part of the requirements forprequalification to bid for public contracts. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Do ministries work hand in hand with the National Bureau of Statistics? If so how?

Ernest Aziagba, London

They should ordinarily work hand in hand but as i stated earlier, the incentives in the public service over the many decades of anomie in our country became warped. Rather than prioritize those important issues of policy formulation, research, planning, evaluation and statistical capability, most of the effort of both the political leadership and the public servants are directed to transaction activities like contracts, travels, banking and financial services and such other mundane and asinine activities.Please read my speech to the Anambra civil servants last December on this subject. You willfind it as a note on my Facebook page.The economic team which i belonged to, during our time in government sought and secured the support of the World Bank to reform the statistical function in the Federal Government,leading to the reorganization of the Federal office of statistics which used to be with the ministry of national planning. It became the national bureau of statistics and received a fresh mandate under the leadership of a competent statistician and academic with a team of equally capable hands. The World Bank and other donors continue to support their capacity building agenda which includes strengthening the statistical capacity of line ministries and departments.

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What is effect/purpose of a supplementarybudget to Nigerians, when the actual one is hardly utilized?

Eyitayo Anshewo

When sparingly utilized as the instrument for addressing emergent spending needs, thesupplementary budget can be a good instrument that allows for the necessary flexibility to adapt to changes in circumstance (e.g. the impact of the food crisis or the financial crisis lastyear).Every country’s budget is the most important policy tool for driving economic and social development. However, the dialogue needed for it is always through a political process of consensus building for agreement of the priorities that a budget will fund. Regrettably, thescale tilts overwhelmingly in favour of political considerations to the detriment of important economic considerations that enable effectiveness of public investment in those priorities that will generate growth and result in poverty reduction. One way that citizens of other nations have worked to influence the right balance has been to advocate the involvement of the civil society and the private sector in the budget process at every stage- both in preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages with theexecutive branch and in the parliamentary debates before appropriation by the legislature. Those of you on Facebook can form a federal government or any state government or even local government, budget watch groups
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How does the Nigerian Govt keep track of Budget allocation for the States? That is, what mechanism is in place to monitor how the funds are used and how are the Governors held accountable?

Arotuore Odiri, USA

As a federation, the constitution is founded on the principle of fiscal federalism- meaning that the federal government, the thirty six state governments including the federal capital territory and the 741 local governments are all autonomous fiscal entities. Therefore, itprecludes the federal government from dictating to the states and local governments how to conduct their fiscal activities. That responsibility belongs to the legislatures of each state orlocal government and of course their indigenes and residents. Whenever citizens are mobilized to demand for accountability , we have found that to be even more effective than the merely having the supply side governance solutions that put the premium on establishingmore and more agencies to fight corruption without the involvement of the citizens andsociety at large.One of the reforms that the economic team embarked on was the fiscal responsibility bill that led to the fiscal responsibility act and the commission that has been established to implement the act. Through it, the three levels of government are bound to clauses that form a set of fiscal rules and conduct for spending public resources and for borrowing and such like. The act actually has provisions for prosecution of public officials whose conduct or decision violate any of the sanctionable provisions.
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What branch of Govt, with regard to the electoral commission, is in charge of vetting the health of presidential candidates? I ask this because I am curious as to how then candidateYar'Adua was allowed to run for President despite his health problems which have now come to light.

Arotuore Odiri, USA

Frankly, I have no insight on this. I know however that for ministerial position, we were required to submit our medical records as part of the vetting process.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Can you please explain or shed light on how' Federal' funds are distributed and how a state like Kaduna can be defined as an oil producing state because it has a refinery?

Lolu Akingbe, Nigeria

THE 1999 CONSTITITION HAS PROVISIONS ON REVENUE SHARING FORMULAE WHICH IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE REVENUE MOBILIZATION ALLOCATION AND FISCAL COMMISSION TODIRECT AND IMPLEMENT. I HAVE NOT FOLLOWED THE LATEST ON THE ISSUE OF THE FORMULAE BUT PLEASE FIND THE HISTORICAL TREND UNTIL 2001 BELOW.

2010 Oil revenue sharing formula
Year Federal State*Local Special Projects Derivation Formula**
1958 40% 60% 0% 0% 50%
1968 80% 20% 0% 0% 10%
1977 75% 22% 3% 0% 10%
1982 55% 32.5% 10% 2.5% 10%
1989 50% 24% 15% 11% 10%
1995 48.5% 24% 20% 7.5% 13%
2001 48.5% 24% 20% 7.5% 13%
* State allocations are based on 5 criteria: equality (equal shares per state), population, social development, land mass, and revenue generation.
**The derivation formula refers to the percentage of the revenue oil producing states retain from taxes on oil and other natural resources produced in the state. World Bank Report.

I have below an extract on the commission.

REVENUE COMMISSION: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In a federal system, there are different levels of government, each with its own set ofconstitutional responsibilities.Because the corresponding expenditure obligations are often different from the allocation of tax, powers and revenue sources, a system of revenueallocation is required as a mechanism for redressing the consequent mismatch betweenexpenditure, obligations and revenue sources. The overall objective of such a system or revenue allocation would be to enhance economic development while simultaneously minimizing intergovernmental conflicts.

The granting of internal autonomy to the regions under the Richards Constitution of 1946 andthe subsequent sharing of responsibilities between the federal and regional governments provided the starting point for what has continued to be a persistent and often controversial national debate on revenue allocation. The need for new searchlight on revenue enhancement and mobilization, overtime and space, also provides another sound justification for theestablishment of a permanent commission.In the course of time and in view of policy instruments for the achievement of national objectives, there were periodic reviews, on ad hoc basis, on the fiscal jurisdiction of the varioustiers of governments and the assignment of revenue allocation. These reviews were carriedout by eight ad hoc revenue allocation commissions, viz: Philipson Commission (1946), Chick’s Commission (1953), Raisman Commission (1958), Binns Commission (1964), Dina commission(1966), Aboyade Committee (1977), and Okigbo Commission (1980).

All these Commissions, excluding the Aboyade and Okigbo Commissions, were able to ensure the establishment of region/state government autonomy over certain revenue sources (e.g. personal income tax) and the establishment of federal government’s exclusive control of some revenue sources (e.g.Armed forces income tax). Also, they were able to ensure the creation of a Distributable Pool Account into which other revenue (including import & export taxes, mining rents and royalties, etc) were paid and which was subsequently distributed between the federal andregional/state governments and the development of revenue allocation principles, such asderivation, population, even development, etc on the basis of which fund in the Distributable Pool Account were shared among regions/states.

The Aboyade and Okigbo Commission on the other hand fine-tuned the works of the previous Commissions toward equitable justification.The government of General Ibrahim B. Babangida, guided by the desire to depart from thenarrow and transient objective of devising populist revenue sharing formulae, inaugurated the then National Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, on September 6th, 1988, which was statutorily established by Decree No 49 of 1989.

Equally, the 1999Constitution Section 153-subsection (1) provides for the establishment of the RevenueMobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission. President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated thenew Commission on September 20th, 1999 with 37 Commissioners representing each State andAbuja.The establishment of a permanent body, going by the issue in Nigeria’s fiscal finance which have generated heated public debate, which intensity has been a manifestation of the complexity of the issues involved, and the demand by Nigerians for an equitable revenuesharing formula, is invariably a novel attempt by Government towards ensuring prudent,efficient and stable revenue sharing formula and fiscal policy for the nation.

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Why do ministers not resign when confronted with circumstances that handicap them orimpede their ability to perform?

Temitayo Fabunmi, London

This is a matter of individual choice. Everyone has the power to determine their threshold of tolerance of such circumstances. In some way, you could determine those thresholds based on track records of ministers and their motives for accepting public responsibility in the first instance. For me, being in government was infact a cost and not a benefit and so i was absolutely unwilling to compromise my value construct and proposition which were to push the boundaries of good governance and results in every aspect of my assignments. I was well known for my extremely independent views on good governance within the government and yet i mostly always received the strong support of the then president in handling my responsibilities. There were one or two instances where i had to firmly demand the resolution of issues on grounds of principles, views, issues or decisions that i was unwilling to negotiate away and once that was done in the public interest, i held my peace. It is important to note though that not every resignation is necessarily motivated by altruism.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

As a product of a Federal Government College, I am interested in knowing why the Ministry of Education did not stem the rot which has pervaded the system of unity schools, and which in turn has created a vacuum in the Education Sector that is being filled in an unstructured manner by private schools.

Temitayo Fabunmi, London

The incentive to stem the rot as you rightly called it was absent and there were no consequences for anyone that led the ministry over the many decades of the failure of theeducation sector and system for failing to address it. I however dared to take on both the rot and the predatory vested interests within and outside the ministry who benefitted from itthat wished the status quo to remain. By commencing the reform of the governance and financing of the unity schools to institute the culture of accountability, I stirred the hornets’nest and they fought back by blatantly lying to the public that the reform was meant to “sell” unity schools to the private sector! Some of the members of the public were gullible enough to fall for the lies but many more (including the unity school alumni associations) got the message of the reform but i was already on my way out of government at that time. Since the story of the problems i saw in the sector is a very long one, i will attach the power point of the education sector reform to this note so you can read in details the depth of the rot in the education sector at the time i was deployed to the ministry.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

To the best of my knowledge, a national curriculum for the early stages of education (primary and secondary) does not exist in Nigeria, or is not generally available to parentsand students. I would like to know why this is the case and what measures the Ministry of Education took towards establishing one (if it was not in existence) and more importantly, enforcing the adoption of this curriculum?

Temitayo Fabunmi, London

This is not correct. We do have national curriculum for every level of education. The responsibility for this is with the education research and development council which is a parastatal of the federal ministry of education. At the time i was minister, we were re-working comprehensively to revamp the curricular for basic education (primary and juniorsecondary levels) and secondary education in order to bring them up to speed with thedemands of the new (global) economy and the ICT revolution and to address the moral decadence in our society by bringing back moral instructions and civics. Please visit thewebsite of the ministry of education which we set up and made an important tool for publicparticipation in the reform agenda when i was there for more information on curriculum development.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Quite apart from the Public Accounts Committee, what is your opinion regarding the setting up or maintaining an internal audit (IA) function within your Ministry specifically with a brief to monitoring and reporting on financial compliance and propriety within your ministry; particularly where such IA unit would report directly to you? If you think this is an appropriate idea, why was it not implemented when you were a Minister.

Temitayo Fabunmi, London

According to our constitution, the permanent secretary is the chief accounting officer of every ministry and so she/he and the directors have the responsibility to ensure that the financial activities of their ministry are being conducted according to the relevant civil service guideline. The role of the minister as I have always maintained is to be the visionary, the leader of strategy and policy for the sector that the ministry exists to govern. The IAD is the link through which the minister can periodically know how well the financial system of theministry is functioning.Being a chartered accountant by training, i did always reiterate the importance of the role of the IAD to the ministry leadership team. Periodically the IAD is required to issue a report ofstate of financial activities in any ministry or department. I recall meeting to discuss one such report in education and immediately instructing the permanent secretary and the directors to ensure full management response to findings of the audit process and to launch a work planfor remediation of systemic weaknesses revealed through the process. This is no differentfrom what happens in the private sector where the external auditors provide their findings to both the management and the board of any company they audit. My previous responsibility for FGN procurement reform made me aware of the limitations and weaknesses of financialadministration in the ministries and departments and the education ministry was no different in the broken state of its financial system. Thus, one of the areas of our reform was to rebuildthe physical and human infrastructure of our finance and administration department,including the role of the IAD. The first step was contracting one of the leading audit firms todo a systems review and to commence implementation of their findings. This was supposed to continue at the time i left for my current assignment.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In your honest and personal opinion; to what extent is the Federal Character Requirement a nuisance [or brilliant idea] in the working of the Nigerian Govt? Given that it appears to bemore important to maintain this Federal Character in Ministerial appointments as opposed to a straight forward 'best man for the job' approach, do you think Nigeria has been able to harness its best talents in spite of this requirement?

Feyi Fawehinmi, London

In very diverse countries, societies, communities or even firms, it is always important to bemindful of the need for diversity and inclusion in order not to marginalize some segments of the population or community- hence you have affirmative action principles like the Nigerian federal character requirement. Not a bad idea but its implementation can be. The problemoften is where inclusion rules are misinterpreted during implementation to mean thecompromise of critical parameters that will safeguard quality and standards like competency, capacity and character in the recruitment processes.…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Under your watch, Nigeria transitioned from the 6-3-3-4 system of education to the 9-3-4 system of education. What was the rationale for this considering the investment put into the 6-3-3-4 system? Do you think that the new 9-3-4 system can support Nigeria's manufacturing sector goals where the 6-3-3-4 system failed as a result of the policy-implementation gap? If yes, why and can you point to studies that back up the success projections of the 9-3-4 system?

Debo Adetula, New York

Good question! With the turn of the new millennium and the more complex national and global environment in which citizens function, simply having six years of primary education is both cognitively and socially considered no longer adequate as a minimum level of certifiable learning in any society. All nations have recognized this and changed accordingly to raise theirminimum certification of learning to enable citizens’ function well as cognitive, social andeconomic actors up to a minimum of nine years of uninterrupted learning. The first schoolleaving certificate which was our minimum for many decades had outlived its “sell-by-date”and was therefore scrapped and replaced with the basic school leaving certificate to be issued only after six years of primary plus uninterruptedly three years of junior secondary education. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Why has it always been difficult for the Nigerian civil service to attract the best brains from the private sector? Why is recruitment at the top hierarchy of the civil service not open to technocrats outside the civil service? I noted that most, if not all the PermanentSecretaries/Director-General of MDGs (with the exception of Steve Orasanye and a fewothers) are civil servants who have been promoted through the ranks. Whilst this in itself is not bad, it stops short of promoting innovation.

Seyi Osiyemi, Australia

The recruitment is open to all but only at the entry level since the promotion to higher levels happens only through in-service processes. The problem is really one of incentives andprofessional satisfaction. Many of today’s best brains would rather work in environments that value their skills set, support their self-actualization and adequately price their worth. Inmost of Africa, this is more often found within the private sector rather than the publicsector. But even more important for those we call technocrats is the job satisfaction theyderive in knowing that they will have the right conditions to work, innovate, perform and when they excel to be recognized and rewarded without any recourse to political intrigues. The public service reform had this on the top of its agenda during our time in government but I have no sense of where it stands at the moment.…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Why do government ministers become inaccessible to people who knew them before theywere appointed and why is it that most cannot be reached on the phone by the very peoplewho they are supposed to be working for even if it is just a text only number? Funny enough they seem to only reappear in the public spectrum after they leave government. Is this something that can be attributed to the pressures of office?

Anthony Kuti, Nigeria

This is part of the lasting vestige of the many decades of military rule in our country. Public office is shrouded in a dysfunctional aura of mystery and secrecy that prevent accountability of public officials to the society.But please do not generalize. There were a couple of us in the administration i served in who were very much in tune with the need of the citizens to have access to their public officials through emails, telephone or town hall meetings. I used all of those methods. However one very systematic and structured way i applied in changing the institutional tendency to beinaccessible was to involve civil society in my four areas of responsibility during my six and a half years in government. Whether it was in the due process unit, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the ministry of solid minerals and the ministry of education, all our reforms had the participation of civil society groups. I was only this week reading a guardian news report of the Community Accountability and Transparency Initiative(CATI) which we established with NGOs when I was minister of education. I have below the extract of the article. By the way, i still receive emails from both school children and university students all over the country who were provided my email address as their ministers much as i still receive letters or emails from citizens that interacted with me in the other capacities i served. A systems approach to changing such orientation is through the passage of a freedom of information act and also the president can set the tone by requesting members of his cabinet to periodically report on their interactions with the civil society andthe media.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I believe that the lack of core ideology and principles among politicians is the root cause of our corruption. In developed democracies, we know what Democrats and Republicans stand for, Liberals and Conservatives etc. However in Nigeria, there is no core set of ideological principles among politicians and parties that provide a yardstick/ benchmark for evaluating their approach to governance. Hence politicians do and undo when elected.Nobody knows what PDP stands for or ANPP etc. No one knows if a politician is aprogressive or a conservative. Why is this? Why the lack of core ideology in our political system?

Kingsley Ewetuya, USA

That’s exactly where the citizens hold the ace. You can lead the process of mobilizing the society to demand for the reforms that will usher in issue-based politics in the nation. Who are you waiting for? You are the change we are waiting for! Just go for it!!…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

On the issue of energy; that Nigeria with its resources hasn't launched into the alternative energy sector is mind boggling. By being involved in alternative energy solutions, we canwith one bold masterstroke mitigate lack of employment by creating a whole new industry while tackling climate change (since African countries will be disproportionately affected if global warming isn't solved). Why are we putting all our eggs in the crude oil basket?

Kingsley Ewetuya, USA

Africa is energy deficit with the entire generation capacity of all of sub Saharan Africa minusSouth Africa being equivalent to that of Spain! Only one out of every four Africans has access to electricity and the deficit cost the continent 2% of GDP and 40% of productivity. For energy security and economic growth, and viewed within the context of the current pitiful levels of energy access today, nations in Africa will need the entire comprehensive energy mix. As itembraces the imperatives of adaptation to climate change, the combination of fossil energy exploited with the cleanest technology available and renewables like concentrated solar, wind and geothermal will be required to lift the continent out of poverty. All of these would need to be funded with additional resources that many countries cannot afford with theircurrent resource levels and hence the critical role of private sector and donors in financingthe infrastructure gap on the continent. For Africa to move up the no or low carbon growth trajectory toward a green economy but this requires that each country immediately embarks on the sector, policy and investment reforms in the energy sector that are fundamental forchanging the dismal situation.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Yet on the issue of energy, the situation now is that since we do not have refineries at full efficiency, refined crude oil is imported to Nigeria after being drilled on our soil. This refined oil is then sold to as at a premium. This is a penny wise pound foolish strategy. Why can't our refineries be fully privatized yet under governmental oversight? The telecommunications sector is enough proof that it is not the government's strong suit to run businesses.

Kingsley Ewetuya, USA

I REST MY CASE, KINGSLEY!……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What purpose does NYSC still serve and is it the most efficient way of serving that purpose?

Ladipo Oye-Somefun, London

It is a victim of the disease known as “mission creep”. It however can be reinvented and modernised to reflect today’s realities in citizens and youth volunteerism and participation in the development process.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In your department, how does government policy get formed, delivered and its effectiveness assessed?

Ladipo Oye-Somefun, London

First drawing from the core mandate and mission of the ministry, you should assess theadequacy of the departmental organizations, structures and staffing competencies. Next is to do a diagnostic of how well the current performance of the ministry mirrors the effectivedelivery of the services required by the citizens by virtue of its mandate. Once the diagnostic point stops underperformance, you must have the courage as a minister to lead your team toward reforms. This would mean an assemblage of the right sets of people for all aspects of the ministry’s mandate to think through policy options, weighting the merits of each optionagainst relevance, cost- benefit, risks and constraints to implementation, sustainability and impact. The process would also identify the internal and external stakeholders needed to build a strong coalition for the policy’s success especially if it would require a legislation tounderpin it. One sad discovery for me in government was how depleted the civil service was of the quality of expertise that could offer the intellectual rigour required for policy analysis, articulation/formulation, implementation, measurement and evaluation. Perhaps, given your interest, you should join the civil service!……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

How important is the civil service to your ministry, and why?

Ladipo Oye-Somefun, London

It is extremely important but only if the civil servants are competent, honest and capable. They unlike political appointees or elected officials have sustained tenure of office and are the only ones who largely remain in government continuously while political players, whether elected or appointed are subject to constant change. Every developed nation and those other nations like Singapore that have gone ahead of Nigeria all have one thing in common in their journey to greatness- a competent and capable civil service with professionals with character and integrity. Read my note on the civil service that is published on my Facebook page.

Civil society coalition set to monitor budget utilization on basic education
By Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi

ONE of the laudable things put in place by former Education Minister, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili in March, 2007 was the Community Accountability and Transparency Initiative (CATI). Designed by both the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) and the Universal Basic EducationCommission (UBEC) at that time, the initiative was intended to inform Nigerians about how much money the government was spending on the education sector in the various communities. Besides keeping Nigerians informed about the policies and actions of government, the ideawas also to encourage them to be part of the policy design, monitoring and implementation. More importantly, the initiative empowers Nigerians to ask intelligent financial transactionquestions and hold government officials, States Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), School Management Boards (SMBs), vice chancellors, rectors, and provosts accountable for all funds put in their care for public education purposes. Memories of the launch of CATI in Abuja remain evergreen. The entire audience could not believe their eyes, on that day, when Ezekwesili broke down in tears as the slides of theappalling conditions of public schools across the country were displayed via a projector. Theimages had been collated during the famous Operation Reach All School (ORAS), organised by the FME in 2006.

For instance, some of the slides showed children sitting on the floor to receive lessons, teachers talking to students under trees and overcrowded classrooms. Ezekwesili's emotional voice, which affirmed that corruption had been responsible for most of the miseries that hadbefallen the education sector, elicited murmurings among the crowd. She declared at theoccasion that some highly placed individuals, entrusted with public funds had, over the years, made a habit of siphoning a large part of it into their private pockets. The introduction of CATI, she explained, was to arrest that. Quite intelligently, the FME involved the civil society inthe initiative. Specifically, the Civil Society Action Coalition for Education for All (CSACEFA) was designated to anchor itOn that day too, to the delight of all those who were present, a booklet which contained thedisbursements (for education sector) to all states between July 2005 and July 2006 by theFederal Government were distributed. The sad thing, however, was that immediately Ezekwesili stepped out of office, familiar forces, with their collaborators strangled the CATI and consigned it to the dustbin. All efforts by Mrs. Felicia Onibon, the immediate past coordinator of CSACEFA to resuscitate it proved abortive. Luckily, all hope is not lost. CSACEFA is about to take advantage of the Civil Society EducationFund (CSEF), which will enable it track budgets for basic education. The CSEF is a grant supported by the Education Programme Development Fund (EPDF), of the World Bank's Education for All (EFA) Fast Track Initiative. The Commonwealth Education Fund's 2007 report actually recommended the establishment of the CSEF. The core objective of the CSEF is tosupport national education coalitions to effectively engage governments and donors for theachievements of the EFA goals. The CSEF intervention will tackle the increasing number of out of school children, address the problem of the growing number of illiterate adults amongwomen, tackle misappropriation, and facilitate a proper monitoring mechanism.Part of the funds will be utilized to train the civil society to monitor spending on education. But this will be a very huge task and CSACEFA will not find it easy to achieve its objectives. For instance, stiff opposition should be expected as CSACEFA sets out to examine documents onthe guidelines for the disbursement of funds from SUBEBS and Local Government EducationAuthorities (LGEA); showing expenditure by activities in each of the components of the UBE programme; examine financial and programme reports, as well as documents definingmisuse, misapplication and diversion. Besides, it will not be easy for the civil society to monitor the availability of the states' counterpart funds once the Federal Government's matching grants are released; ensurecompliance with guidelines on fund utilisation and identify the challenges faced by theimplementing bodies in the utilisation of the basic education funds.

Part of the assignment before CSACEFA will also be to monitor the outcomes of fundutilisation in terms of infrastructure (classrooms, laboratories, sanitation facilities); pre-serviceteacher training and professional development, and purchases of instructional materials. At a stakeholders' meeting summoned by CSACEFA in Abuja recently, various suggestions were proffered on how the organisation could go about achieving its objectives. For instance, stakeholders noted that there was the need to ascertain when the SUBEB was established inthe states; what challenges are being faced in the domestication of the UBE Act, and how frequently the various SUBEBs had accessed the UBE fund.

"WELCOME TO LAGOS" VIDEO

2010-04-17T02:49:00.000-07:00

Click here to watch the BBC "Welcome to Lagos" Video

Welcome To Lagos on Howcast

How Goodluck Jonathan Can Fix Electricity (1) - By Ijeoma Nwogwugwu

2010-04-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered what it means to declare a “state of emergency” in the power sector. No one has been able to explain what it means. Would it involve the sack of PHCN workers and replacing them with other hands to run and manage our power infrastructure? Would it amount to an astronomical increase in electricity tariffs? Does it mean that private companies given licenses three or four years ago to invest in power stations will be given marching orders to complete them, failing which their licenses will be withdrawn? Or does is simply mean that an accelerated programme will be deployed to expand and upgrade power infrastructure to meet the yearnings of Nigerians? Quite frankly, no one really knows.

Since no clarity has ever been provided by this administration on what its emergency programme for the power sector entails, I can safely dismiss it as a sloganeering campaign devised by this government to give some semblance of seriousness about meeting our power needs. If we must be honest, resolving our power issues is not as difficult as it seems. With the right commitment, a phased approach, and adherence to the power sector reform programme that was given fillip with the enactment of the Electric Power Sector Reform law five years ago (yes, it’s been five year since the law was passed), appreciable results can be achieved.

But before the Acting President and Minister of Power, Goodluck Jonathan, proceeds; first, he must jettison the slogans. They are needless and a distraction from the issues at hand. Instead, a comprehensive programme with clearly defined timelines should be drawn up and specific groups/bodies/organisations given the tasks to meet them.

The programme should be made public so that it can be monitored and the society knows who to hold responsible for falling behind at their assignments.

A guide on how this can achieved is given below. It may not be comprehensive, but it will attempt to capture a lot of the salient issues deterring us from achieving energy sufficiency and how to resolve them.

Electricity Blueprint

In the next week, the power ministry must urgently invite all the stakeholders and groups to a meeting to fashion out a comprehensive blueprint for the power sector. The stakeholders must include PHCN and its distribution, generation and transmission companies, the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministries of Finance, Petroleum Resources, Water Resources, Defence and Steel and Solid Minerals Development, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary Nigerian Gas Company, international oil companies or their representative(s) from the Oil Producers Trade Section of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representatives of independent power producers, representatives of commercial banks, and labour unions.

Already, a committee along those lines has been established. It only needs to be expanded so as not exclude other relevant stakeholders whose input will be required for the blueprint. This committee should within two weeks develop and publish a comprehensive programme (the “Blueprint”) that comprises three phases, takes into cognisance the challenges mitigating against stable electricity supply in the country, and how these can be tackled head on.

At this stage, the information made available by stakeholders such as PHCN and its business units, the oil companies and NNPC on the status of power and gas infrastructure must be accurate or close to accurate. If it is inaccurate, resolving a lot of the issues in the power sector would run into troubled waters from the get-go.

In drawing up the blueprint, its drafters must also adopt a phased approach and include expected deliverables defining who should be held responsible for what. With this, a lot of pressure would be brought to bear on a body/organisation to meet its target(s). Where there are impediments or challenges to delivering its set goal, the government should name, shame and sanction those responsible for dragging us back.

Phase I

The first phase of the power programme requires PHCN to accurately diagnose the state of its infrastructure and identify quick fix solutions to rehabilitate and upgrade systems and equipment that can be integrated into the electricity grid within months. I understand that between PHCN power plants and the IPPs, the nation has the capacity to generate up to 5,000MW of electricity. However, it remains uncertain if the transmission and distribution infrastructure has been reinforced to transmit this much electricity to consumers. Availability of gas in the immediate term also remains an impediment to the attainment of 5,000MW.

Accordingly, the first phase of the blueprint should focus on short term solutions that can be adopted to ensure that natural gas is made available to the Geregu, Afam, Sapale, Olurunsogo and other power stations starved of gas within three to six months. This can be achieved if negotiations are commenced and concluded in a month with NGC and oil companies on the pricing regime for gas. If need be, let gas be benchmarked at the same price the oil companies currently sell natural gas to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company, which I believe is $1 per million standard cubic feet. That will serve as an incentive to compel them to repair and upgrade their gas infrastructure to make natural gas readily available for electricity generation.

Simultaneously, the power generation companies (gencos) would have to enter into gas purchase agreements with gas suppliers that set the terms for gas delivery and the penalties that would arise if the terms are not met. The gencos would also have to enter into agreements with the transmission and distribution companies on electricity transmission; while distribution companies would have to be prepared to raise electricity tariffs under the multi-year tariff order.

Raising tariffs would ensure that the oil companies and NGC have an incentive to see to the steady supply of gas to the gencos and save the government costly power guarantees. On the part of electricity consumers, it would be cheaper for them to pay more for electricity than to run their homes and businesses on fuel (diesel or petrol) powered by generators.

The input of the Ministry of Defence, NGC and communities where gas pipelines and infrastructure are situated will be very critical to the success of the programme. The ministry would have to deploy soldiers who will work with the communities to set up joint security task forces whose responsibility it will be to secure and safeguard the infrastructure.

Such task forces employing youths to secure the pipelines and infrastructure would come at a cost. Electricity tariffs would therefore have to be structured in a manner that factors this as an added cost – quite similar to the petroleum products cost structure that factors all elements in the fuel supply chain. Meanwhile, the pricing structure for electricity should be superintended by NERC.

NNPC and NGC, which in my opinion are the weakest links in the chain, must evolve a process that ensures that condensates are not allowed to build up in the pipelines conveying gas to the power stations. They must draw up and implement periodic clean up timetables to evacuate the condensates and move it to the refineries. If the refineries have no use of the oil condensates, it should be exported and the proceeds paid into the account of the federation.

It must be recognised that the evolution of a market structure between gas suppliers, gencos, discos and the transmission company may not be perfect at this stage of the power programme, but it must be encouraged and fine tuned along the way until it matures. Again, it will be the responsibility of NERC, with some assistance from the BPE, to set it up.

It should be noted that the trading arrangements between the business units or operators in the electricity sector will make them more attractive to prospective investors that may be interested in acquiring them under the privatisation programme that will be superintended by the BPE (definitive transfers to the private sector would fall under the second and third phases of the blueprint). It would be necessary to also give some serious thought to concessioning the pipeline infrastructure to the private sector for enhanced gas supply.

In the area of transmission and distribution, considerable resources have been pumped into National Integrated Power Project without discernable results. It is unclear if there is a project monitoring team whose responsibility it is to verify on going work. If there is none, one ought to be set up immediately to go after contractors responsible for the upgrade and expansion of the distribution and transmission network to ensure that they deliver. Defaulting contractors should be made to refund funds disbursed to them, and their companies blacklisted and barred from undertaking future power projects.

Under the first phase, the BPE has to kick start the privastisation programme for the power sector. Starting it off in the next few months does not in anyway suggest that it can be fully executed under the first phase of the blueprint. It is expected that the privatisation process will spill over into the second and third phases of the programme.

However, the BPE must start by recognizing that the privatisation process would have to be modified in line with current realities. When reforms for the power sector was started eight to nine years ago, delineation of existing infrastructure at the time led to the creation of 11 distribution companies and 6 generation companies. Quite a number of new power stations have been built by the federal government ever since. Distribution has also been expanded.

This means that the BPE would have to work with advisers to re-delineate the power network by creating new companies or business units that would also have to be sold outright or concessioned. It is only when this is done that it can start inviting investors to express interest in the companies.

To be continued...
ijeomanwogwugwu@thisdayonline.com

IBB, PDP and 2011 Elections

2010-04-07T03:04:00.000-07:00

If we are to believe recent media report, it seems the ‘evil genius’ is contemplating throwing his hat into the ring. Whilst speaking to journalist during his last visit to Abeokuta, Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida was quoted as saying “he would be favourably disposed to the presidency of the country if it was the yearning of Nigerians”. When asked if he will be interested in running for the Presidency, his reply was "I am still doing some consultation and honestly I will hint you on that when I have finished. I will give you a feedback very soon”.

For IBB to have noted that he’s consulting means two things. It’s either he’s interested in himself, and currently taking his time to sound out his followers and apologists. Or it could be that, he’s under pressure from his sychophants to contest the 2011 presidential elections.

This will not be surprising as quite a number of people both within the political elites and civil society believe that IBB is the only person that can move the nation forward.What informed such thinking I don't know! You may say that such people are deluded. But the fact is, one of the principles of democratic governance is freedom of speech and opinion.

Gen. Babangida’s comments however seem to have ignited a flurry of angry remarks. Interestingly, social commentators have been quick to tell us why IBB is not suitable as President, however they have all failed to tell us how to STOP him from being President.

But who’s afraid of Babangida? Is Babangida the most hated Nigerian leader? If so, why? Is Babangida the worst leader in Nigeria’s history?

Some have argued that the Retired General has no “moral right” to run for any political office in Nigeria. To an average Nigerian, the two biggest sins of IBB are the annulment of June 12 election and corruption.

In my opinion, the recent attacks on IBB candidacy underscores the deep hypocrisy that exists within the civil society. If one could ask, why should IBB alone carry the can of June 12 election annulment? Is it not ironic that some of the major actors involved in the annulment of the June 12 elections are the same people ruling the nation? Has anyone queried the role of the current Senate President, David Mark during the last days of Babangida regime? Did anyone query Arthur Nzeribe’s nomination and subsequent election as a Senator in 1999? Did anyone question Senator Uche Chukwumerijie election into the Upper House, despite been spokesperson for the Shonekan-led Interim National Government? If Babangida does not have a moral right, then what moral right does David Mark have to be No.3 citizen? What moral rights do all past military leaders and civilians that served under the Babangida administration have, to seek public office?

The point of my argument is General Babangida is not any worse than most of our present and past political leaders. There’s no scale for immorality or bad governance. Whilst he might have taken corruption to a new level, he did not introduce corruption into the system. Corruption in Nigeria is not just about individuals, it’s “systemic”. Most of the politicians condemning IBB’s political ambition, will probably do far worse things if they had same opportunity.

If the provisional election timetable released by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission is anything to go by, it means we have barely 12 months before the 2011 general elections. However, we are yet to see any serious contender come out to declare his/her Presidential ambition. The only person to have declared his ambition did so in the US (!). I cannot understand how someone will leave the shores of the country he wishes to govern, only to go and declare his political ambition in a foreign land. As I write we are yet to see his manifesto.

Another of the “supposed” Presidential aspirants is also busy conducting opinion poll on a social networking website. He’s been propping up other people’s name apart from himself. How can such people be considered serious? Yet, they tell us everyday why IBB shouldn’t be the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So who should be? When will such a person declare his political ambition? For me, if by now such a person is undecided, then he/she is a time waster.

With an unorganised opposition, flawed electoral system, a civil society that has exhausted most of its energy looking for a “missing president”, I can’t see how IBB wouldn’t win the 2011 polls - if he succeeds in picking up a nomination ticket under the PDP. Like it or loathe it, PDP remains the only party in Nigeria with a structure to win a presidential election, within the current timeframe.

My message is simple. Let’s begin to direct our energy to the right causes. There’s no point wasting our time attacking individuals. Everyone is free to seek political position, except those found guilty of criminal offence. What we need is a fair and transparent electoral system that ensures that our votes count. It’s then up to the electorates to decide. As they say, a nation gets a leader it deserves.

Still On Lekki-Epe Expressway PPP Contract........

2010-03-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

Just over a year ago, I wrote a piece on the Lekki-Epe Expressway Public-Private Partnership contract between Lagos State Government and Lekki Concession Company. My criticism at the time was informed by the decision of LCC to install three toll booths on the 44km arterial road. I couldn’t understand the concessionaire (LCC) tolling strategy. Why for example would a local resident making a short trip between Sangotedo and Ajah be subjected to a toll. I asked the question if the toll is targeted towards local traffic or long distance travellers?

Fast forward to 2010, only 2km of the proposed 44km road widening project has been completed, even though we were told in 2006 that the project will be completed within three years. The concessionaire, LCC put the construction cost of the 2km upgrade at N5billion. However, some of the tolling booths have been constructed, and there are “unconfirmed” reports that LCC intends to start charging commuters for using a road that is technically, “still under construction”.

The concept of Public-Private Partnership is not “Nigerian”. It’s a concept that was developed in the western world. However, it’s become common practice for governments in Nigeria to borrow a foreign concept and turn it on its head.

As PPP has now become a “buzz word” in government quarters, it is important that the government realise that concessions can sometimes create a private monopoly or extreme dominance, with consequent market power, which is prone to be abused. This makes the design of the concession agreement important so that adequate protection is given to consumers.

The Lekki-Epe contract defies the basic principles and world’s best practice on Public-Private Partnerships. From my experience in the transport industry, I’m yet to come across a PPP contract that involves the tolling of a road without an alternative. As we know, there is no alternative “passable” road along the Lekki-Epe axis. Therefore, handing this road over to a private company to upgrade under a 30-yr concession is contrary to principles of social equity. The concessionaire, LCC, has basically become a private monopoly by default.

.It’s been noted that there are plans by the LASG to build an alternative road along the Lekki shoreline. So why was LCC not encouraged to build the alternative road under a PPP agreement? And what’s the timeframe for the completion of this alternative road? Ideally, toll roads in major urban areas are aimed at making available a priced ‘premium’ service as an alternative to competing congested roads on the unpriced network, while covering full costs, including a target rate of return on capital.

The allegations by a local community group that, LCC is planning to commence road user charging soon on a road that is still under construction is also quite disheartening. It calls into question, the openness and transparency of the project procurement process.

The key questions we need to ask LASG are, was the project subject to competitive bidding? What was the agreement between LASG and LCC in terms of toll charges and commencement of tolling? As we know, the project was meant to be completed in 2009, however, only 2km of road has been completed(!). So what does the contract say about completion date? Are they are clauses in the contract that imposes penalty on LCC for failure to complete the project in time?

One of the key benefits of Public-Private Partnerships is speedy, efficient and cost-effective delivery of projects through integration and cross-transfer of public and private sector skills, knowledge and expertise. But if the private sector can’t deliver within the specified timeframe, as it’s currently the case, then what’s the purpose of the agreement and to whose benefit? It is ludicrous to subject commuters to endless months of road works without any form of compensation from the concessionaire.

Some have argued that the global financial crisis may have affected LCC’s ability to secure loan, hence delay in the project. And perhaps, the reason for early introduction of toll charges. Whilst I agree that the global economic crisis might have had an impact, one would have expected LCC to have undertaken a “due diligence”.

The reason why PPP have long concessions periods and different from traditional contract, is because there is a broad range of uncertainties and risks associated with PPP. The concessionaire assumes far more responsibilities and much more and deeper risks than a traditional contractor. And that’s why in most cases, the project delivery cost in PPP projects can be quite expensive.

And also, what if the concessionaire goes ‘burst’ before the completion of the project? Does the state government have any mechanism in place to make sure that the road is completed? This is not an unlikely scenario, considering that LCC seems to be struggling financially. Or will it become an ‘abandoned’ project?

There’s no doubt that LASG and LCC are in for a hard time from local residents on this project. The local community initially complained about the need for LCC to have three toll booths on the road – which I totally agree with! Following that, they are allegations of fraud against LASG/LCC because of alleged plans by LCC to start charging tolls on the yet to be completed road. All these allegations only point to the fact that the local community and key stakeholders have not been duly consulted on the project.

This has been the common practice with most of the PPP contracts. The operator of MMA II, Bi-Courtney Airservices Ltd, was also recently fighting labour union over the take over of the General Aviation Terminal.

Proponents of PPP projects need to understand that extensive consultation and open communication with all stakeholders is necessary to ensure success. Stakeholders include employees and their trade unions, the public, the people who will use the assets and services provided, local community groups and sector interest groups. It is also important that the economic, social and environmental concerns of those directly affected at local level should be taken into account along with the statutory rights and legitimate economic interests.

Whilst the plan by Lagos State Government to upgrade Lekki-Epe Expressway is laudable, the way and manner in which this project is executed remains controversial.

There’s no doubt that private sector participation is necessary, if a sustainable infrastructure development is to be achieved - especially in a country like Nigeria with massive infrastructure deficit. It is however important that it is done in a fair and transparent manner.

On Muammar Ghadaffi and Nigeria Ethno-Religious Violence

2010-03-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

The recent comments by the Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi on Nigeria’s ethno-religious crisis seems to have sparked off a bitter diplomatic row between the two countries. Following the recent ethno-religious killings in Jos, Muammar Gadaffi was quoted to have said that Nigeria should be partitioned into two nations (Muslim-North and Christian-South) to prevent further bloodshed. According the Libyan press Gaddaffi said splitting Nigeria “would stop the bloodshed and burning of places of worship”. In Gaddafi’s opinion, the Jos violence is a religious crisis caused the “federal state, which was made and imposed by the British, in spite of people’s resistance to it”.

Considering Col. Gadaffi’s penchant for making outrageous and offensive statements, one will expect that such statement will be taken with a pinch of salt. This was the same person who once said the nation of Switzerland should be divided between Germany, Italy and France (!). There’s no gainsaying that Gaddafi has a reputation for eccentricity, bloody-mindedness..However, it seems our moronic leaders have seen this has a perfect opportunity to flex their muscles.

When attention was drawn to Gadaffi’s comments on the floor of the Senate, the Senate President, David Mark replied "Why do you want to give a mad man that level of publicity”. And yes, I quite agree with Senator Mark. The likes of Gadaffi are fond of spewing controversial and, sometimes inflammatory statements, just for the sake of gaining cheap popularity. And he’s not alone. The Robert Mugabe, Hugo Chavez, and Mohammed Ahmedinejad of this world, all fall in same category. These are leaders, who are stuck in their local political wilderness, and thus have lost international relevance.

What I cannot seem to understand however, is the rationale behind Nigeria’s foreign ministry decision to recall its Ambassador to Libya because of what it described as “irresponsible utterances of Col. Gadaffi”. I also find the decision to summon the Libyan Ambassador by the House of Reps quite laughable. How I wish the National Security Adviser or the Director-General of SSS was summoned with same urgency after the Jos killing. But alas, our (dis)Honourable members were busy debating a bill, seeking to immortalise dead members(!).

There are no doubt that Col Gadaffi’s statement smacks of utter ignorance. It’s quite clear from the statement, that Col. Gadaffi has no understanding of Nigeria’s religious and tribal complexities. When he said Nigeria should be divided into north and south, the question I’ll like to ask him is, where will the line be drawn? Or do we take River Niger/Benue has the north/south divide? As a foreigner, I don’t expect Col. Gadaffi to appreciate the difference between Nigeria’s geographic north/south, ethno-religious north/south.

But in all of these, I think its high-time we need to start telling ourselves some home truths. We need to start engaging in serious discussions that are devoid of religious and ethnic sentiments. Whether we like it or not, the fact remains that the entity called Nigeria, in its current form is not working. What’s the point in deceiving ourselves and pretending to be living in harmony? The nation’s ethnic and religious disunity cannot be over-emphasized! So if that’s the case, what exactly has Gadaffi said that is new? Has he told us anything we haven’t heard before? So what’s all fuss about?

Therefore, what’s the point of the current diplomatic stand-off with Col. Gadaffi, when there are urgent issues we need to deal with? Why do our leaders love chasing shadows? When the CIA issued a report few years ago that Nigeria will disintegrate by 2015, why didn’t we recall the Nigerian Ambassador to the US? Why didn’t the National Assembly summon the US Ambassador? For me, the US prediction if anything is far worse than Gadaffi’s comments. I wouldn’t at be surprised if we are told that a House of Reps delegation will embark on an “all expenses paid” trip to Libya for “high level diplomatic talks” with the Libyan govt.

As the Yorubas say, “a fi ete le a npa lapapa”. Barely over a week ago, more than 500 people were slaughtered in Jos, however the National Assembly did not see it a matter of urgency to summon the head of the nation’s security agencies. The only action taken so far by the govt was the sacking of the National Security Adviser, and only to be replaced by a recycled retired Army General. So what about D-G of SSS? What about Inspector-General of Police? What about the Army GOC, who is responsible for enforcing the imposed curfew? What about the state commissioner of police? What about the state “chief security officer, Gov. Jang?

You need not to study political history to understand the deep-rooted ethnic and religious prejudice in Nigeria. And instead of addressing these fundamental issues, our leaders either engage in diversionary tactics or play the proverbial ostrich. Truth be told, Col. Gadaffi is not our problem; neither will the recall of Nigeria diplomat provide the solution to our ethno-religious crisis. The question now is, how can we forestall another ethno-religious killing?

Our leaders need to start focussing their energy on acts of nation building. The national assembly and executive should stop playing to the gallery. It was the same way they issued the US govt a 2-week ultimatum, when Nigeria was included in the US list of terrorist nations. Enough of all these comedy!

And if they like, let them continue to hue and cry over Gadaffi’s statement, it will be Robert Mugabe next, who will be advising us on how to manage our economy.

50 Things About Sub-Sahara Africa

2010-03-16T03:46:00.000-07:00

From the recently released World Bank Development Indicator Report, facts about Sub Sahara Africa (excludes North Africa)

1. The largest population in SSA is 151.3 million in Nigeria; the smallest is 0.1 million in Seychelles.

2. The highest connection charge for a business phone is $366.6 in Benin; the lowest is in Ghana at $0.7.

3. South Africa's and Nigeria's GDP in nominal prices comprised over fifty percent (51.4 percent) of total SSA's GDP.

4. South Africa has 924 mobile phones per 1000 people; Eritrea has 22 per 1000 people.

5. SSA GDP growth was 5.1 percent. Angola had the largest growth at 14.8 percent while the lowest was Botswana with a negative growth (-1.0 percent). 28

6. South Africa has the longest rail lines of 24,487 km and Uganda has the shortest of 259 km.

7. South Africa has SSA's largest real GDP ($183 billion); the smallest is Guinea Bissau ($202 million).

8. In 2010, starting a business in Guinea requires 213 days for each procedure; it takes 3 days in Rwanda.

9. Equatorial Guinea has SSA's highest GNI per capita ($14,980); Burundi has the lowest ($140).

10. In 2010, Sudan has the highest number of procedures to enforce contracts of 53; Rwanda has the lowest of 24.

11. The total GDP per capita of the richest 10 African countries was 25.2 times of the poorest 10.

12. It takes 16.6 days average time to clear customs on direct exports in Cote d'Ivoire and 3.8 days in Gabon; conversely for imports it takes 31.4 days in the Republic of Congo and 4.4 days in Lesotho.

13. Between 1990 and 1999 PPP GDP per capita growth was 15 percent ($1,158.9 to $1,327.8) for Sub-Saharan Africa; in between 2000 and 2008 it was 54 percent ($1,372.9 to $2,113.9).

14. Firms indentifying corruption as a major constraint was highest in Côte d'Ivoire at 75.0 percent, whilst the lowest is Ghana 9.9 percent

15. Exports rose from $319.0 billion in 2007 to $413.7 billion in 2008, a 29.7 percent rise; conversely, imports rose less than exports, from $305.3 billion in 2007 to $372.1 billion in 2008, a 21.8 percent rise.

16. The percentage of firms expected to give gifts to secure a government contract is highest in Congo Republic are 75.2 percent and lowest for Mauricia at 8.8 percent.

17. Total trade as percentage of GDP is the highest in Seychelles, 283.4 percent and lowest in Central Africa Republic, 37.5 percent.

18. Djibouti has the most urbanized population (84.6 percent); Burundi the least (10.4 percent).

19. In two thirds of SSA countries, one or two products are responsible for at least 75 percent of the country's total exports.

20. For the period 2000-07, the share of poorest 20 percent in national consumption or income was lowest in Angola at 2 percent; in Ethiopia it was 9.3 percent. (MDG 1)

21. On average, the merchandise export within trade blocs is 8.4 percent of total bloc exports.

22. In Burundi, 38.9 percent of children under the age of five are underweight. In Gabon they are 8.8 percent. (MDG 1)

23. Cape Verde receives the highest net ODA per capita ($438.2); Nigeria receives the lowest ($9.5).

24. On average, between 2004 and 2006, South Africa and Gabon had less than 5 percent of population below the minimum dietary energy consumption; conversely Democratic Republic of Congo had the highest at 75 percent. (MDG1)

25. The highest private sector fixed capital formation as share of GDP is Cape Verde at 33.7 percent; the lowest is Angola at 1.8 percent.

26. Thirty seven percent of children who start first grade reach grade five in Chad, while in Mauritius 99 percent reach fifth grade. (MDG 2).

27. In Guinea-Bissau, the agriculture value-added as percentage of GDP is 51.5 percent; in Botswana it is 1.6 percent.

28. The lowest net primary enrolment ratio is found in Liberia (30.9 percent); the highest is in Sao Tome and Principe (97.1 per cent). (MDG 2).

29. South Africa uses the most electric power per person (4,809.0kW/h); Ethiopia uses the least (38.4 kW/h).

30. Youth literacy (ages 15-24) is highest in Gabon at 97 percent and lowest Burkina Faso at 39.3 percent. (MDG 2)

31. In 2007, Burundi has the highest proportion of women in its labor force (90.2 percent); Sudan has the lowest (32.8 percent).

32. Women in national parliament total seats are the highest with 56.3 percent in Rwanda and the lowest with 1.8 percent in Sao Tome and Principe. (MDG 3)

33. Equatorial Guinea has the highest proportion of men in its labor force (93.8 percent); Namibia has the lowest (60.3 percent).

34. In Sierra Leone 155 out of 1,000 children die before the age of one; in Seychelles the rate is 12 per 1,000. (MDG 4)

35. In 2007, almost one in every three 15-49 year olds in Swaziland has contracted HIV (26.1 percent); the rate is one in every thousand in Mauritania.

36. In Sierra Leone 272 children per 1,000 die before the age of five; in Seychelles, the rate is 13 per 1,000. (MDG 4, IDA 2)

37. For the period 2007-08, Seychelles has the highest life expectancy (73 years); Mozambique has the lowest (42 years).

38. Skilled personnel attend 5.7 percent of births in Ethiopia; they attend 98.4 percent of births in Mauritius. (MDG 5, IDA 4)

39. In the decade (1997-2007) Rwanda and Sierra Leone have made the greatest gains in life expectancy: 11 and 8 years respectively. Conversely, life expectancy has decreased 13 years in Lesotho, and 10 years in South Africa and Swaziland.

40. Contraceptive use (any method) is highest in Mauritius at 75.8 percent; lowest is Chad at 2.8 per cent. (MDG 6)

41. For the period 2007, Zimbabwe has the highest adult literacy rate (91.2 percent); Mali and Burkina Faso have the lowest (28.7 percent).

42. In Chad, 9 percent of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities; in Mauritius 94 percent have such access. (MDG 7)

43. In Seychelles, 92 percent of women are literate; the figure is 13 percent for Chad and 15 percent for Niger. 47

44. In Somalia, 29 percent of the population has access to a safe source of water. In Mauritius, it is 100 percent. (MDG 7)

45. Cape Verde has the highest gross enrolment rate in secondary education (90 percent); Niger has the lowest (11 percent).

46. Gabon has the highest forest area as a percentage of total land area at 84.4 percent, whilst Djibouti has the lowest at 0.2 percent. (MDG7)

47. In Mauritius there are 22 children per primary school teacher; there are 91 in Central African Republic.

48. South Africa has the highest carbon dioxide emissions of 414,649 metric tons, whilst Comoros has the lowest of 88 metric tons. (MDG 7)

49. In Burundi, 63.1 percent of children under the age of 5 are short for their age; in Senegal it is 20.1 percent. Same fact than below – to be removed

50. In Sierra Leone 3 persons per 1,000 are Internet users; there are 371 in every 1,000 people in Seychelles, which also had 212 computers per 1,000 people for the period 2005-07. (MDG 8).

Jos on my mind.......

2010-03-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

The web has been inundated with comments in the last few days over the recent killings in Jos. The issue has been analysed from different viewpoints. Social commentators have even offered suggestions on the way forward.

Although opinion seems divided on the real cause of the Jos crisis, one fact remains, we have a big CHALLENGE going forward - be it religious or ethnic. It is also clear from all discussions that this ‘contraption’ (or call it whatever you like) is not working or has stopped working – at least in the last 25yrs or so.

I do not intend to regurgitate all that’s been said, however I will like to pose a few questions, based on my observations in the last few days.

1. In light of the recent genocide in Jos, does it still make sense for us to be calling for the resignation of President Umaru Yar’Adua? I’m sure some will be wondering what’s this guy talking about. For me the sickness of President Yar’Adua has somewhat become a secondary issue. The current threat to our national existence is more than President Umaru Yar’Adua’s sickness.

2. Also, why the deafening silence from religious leaders? It seems most of our religious leaders have decided to adopt a ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ strategy. If the Catholic Pope can call for restraint in ethnic/religious violence in Jos from far away Rome, then where is the Sultan of Sokoto? Where is the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA)? Where is the Pentecostal Federation of Nigeria? Where is the Christian Association of Nigeria?

3. I also find the lackadaisical attitude of the civil society to Jos crisis appalling. When Farouk AbdulMuttalab was arrested in Detroit last December for trying to blow up a US airliner, we were all quick to shout “WE ARE NOT TERRORISTS!”. In fact a group on a social networking site, had about 250,000 members within three days of been created. So what about Jos? What are we doing about the innocent boys and girls been butchered in the middle of the night? So which is a greater act of terrorism between a boy trying to blow an airplane, and marauders slaughtering fellow human under the guise of religion? President Barack Obama must now be convinced that we are indeed NOT terrorist.

4. Which is more important, electoral reform or sovereign national conference? If nothing, the events of the last few days, as once again brought to fore, the deepening religious and ethnic intolerance in Nigeria. And unfortunately, the legacy of intolerance has been passed from one generation to the next. The last civil war has left indelible marks on our parents and created some much distrust among various ethnic communities. It is suffice to say that some children of my generation have been deliberately encouraged by their parents to be intolerant towards people of other ethnic groups.

There’s no doubt that the foundation is very faulty. We claim to be a federal state, but all our legislation and administrative elements run contrary. We have metamorphosed from a unitary nation (under Military) into pseudo- federalism. We claim to be secular, yet we are members of Organisation of Islamic Conference. We state government with theocratic administration within a democracy. We have no state religion, but every year billions of naira is wasted on sending people on holy pilgrimage.

Even if we able to implement the best electoral reform in the history of world democracy, I very much doubt if it will make any difference. I doubt if it will remove the threat to our national existence. I doubt if it will heal the wounds of ethnic marginalisation. I doubt if it will make us a more tolerant society.

This is in indeed a time for sober reflection. It also provides a renewed opportunity for us to redefine our terms of engagement. If my brothers in the north want to be chopping off the hands a pick pocket, whilst celebrating pen robbers, let them feel free to do so. If my brothers in the south want to legalise nude/strip clubs, so be it. However, none of these should be forced down the throat of anyone. We must sit down and discuss it in the open.

This entity called ‘Nigeria’ must be redefined!

1948 - A Doctor in Nigeria

2010-03-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

Political Symbiosis of President Umaru Yar'Adua's Illness

2010-03-04T01:53:00.000-08:00

I started writing this piece sometime last week, but abandoned it half way. My view was that the political impasse may take a different dimension following Wednesday’s Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) meeting,

With the changing political landscape, there’s always the risk of your post/article been obsolete even before you press the ‘save’ button on your computer keyboard. However, the events of the last 48hrs reinforced my thinking.

The huge expectation that Cabinet Ministers and the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan will go for the “kill” at Wednesday’s EXCOF meeting did not come as a surprise. Following the international support the Acting President has garnered over the last few days, many expected him to consolidate his hold on power and move the nation forward. It was clear that the only way he could do this would have been seek the support the EXCOF members in declaring Pres. Yar’Adua incapacitated and thus, invoke s144 of the Constitution.

Prior to the EXCOF meeting, we heard the comments of the Gov Bukola Saraki-led Governors Forum and Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, PDP Chairman. Whilst the Governors Forum concluded that ‘impeachment’ of Pres. Yar’Adua is not an option, the PDP Chairman stated categorically that the Acting President should forget about nursing any ‘presidential’ ambition in 2011, as the presidential ticket has been conceded to the North, to maintain PDP’s power rotation agreement!

So, reading between the lines, any “proposal or memo” (if it exists) calling for the declaration of President Yar’Adua as incapacitated was “dead on arrival”. In fact there was no incentive for the Acting President or any member of the Cabinet to raise the issue. Let’s not forget, most of the Ministers were nominated by their State governors. So we can only expect that they tow the line of their benefactor, by remaining loyal to President Yar’Adua and burying their heads in the sand.

The sudden return of the President Yar’Adua, like a contraband item, was a clear demonstration of the cabal’s intent to hold to power by all means. And by noting “cabal”, I’m not just referring to President Yar’Adua’s “kitchen cabinet”.

So what is a cabal? a “cabal” is a number of people greater than two together in some close design, usually to promote their private views and interests in a church, state, or other community, often by intrigue. The term can also be used to refer to the designs of such persons or to the practical consequences of their emergent behavior, and also holds a general meaning of intrigue and conspiracy. (Wikipedia)

In the current political climate, the word “cabal” has somewhat become synonymous with the first lady Turai, former AGF Aondoakaa, Sayyad Ruma, Tanimu Yakubu and other Pro-Yar’Adua members in the federal cabinet. But the fact is, the cabal steering the ship of the nation extends beyond the Pres. Yar’Adua’s kitchen cabinet and his loyal wife Hajia Turai..

What we are currently witnessing is a grand conspiracy between three key groups.,. Although these groups have different personal interests (money, power etc), they are working in unison to achieve a common objective.

The common objective shared by these groups, encourages a symbiotic relationship that only helps further their selfish interests. It’s clear that none of these groups can work in isolation. They both need one another to stay on top of the current political game. These groups are the “kitchen cabinet”, with Turai Yar’Adua as its matron, the “People’s Democratic Party (PDP)” and the “Northern elites”. Interestingly, there are few members whose share the same interests with more than group.

Their actions could be described as three Captains on the same ship, with different sailing skills but aiming for the same destination. The argument that that you cannot have more than one Captain on a ship does not hold in this instance.

These Captains all have a stake in this “sinking” ship (albeit self), and it’s in their interest to work collectively to save the ship from sinking. So the least they can do is to offer their different skills set and talents to save the ship from sinking. There is no ambiguity in their mandate. It is crystal clear – save the ship from sinking and sail it to its final destination..

Now back to the Nigerian political cabal, the common objective of the three power groups is to make sure that Umaru Yar’Adua remains in power until at least 2011. It doesn’t matter how this is achieved, even if it means locking him up in a mobile ambulance or being plugged to a life support machine. As a result of their desperation, they have effectively turned the gravely sick President. Umaru Yar’Adua into a “collateral”.

So what are the interests of these power groups?

As for the Hajia Turai and her cohorts in the kitchen cabinet, their personal interest is just to use the mandate of Umaru Yar’Adua to amass personal wealth. These are people that have been shot into fame by virtue of been close friends of Umaru Yar’Adua. As they have nothing to lose, they might as well exploit the political impasse for as long as they can. After which they can all retire to their farms in Katsina and Kano.

As for the PDP, it’s in the interest of the party to maintain some form of stability before the 2011 elections. With 2011 elections around the corner, the last thing the ruling party wants is a division at the national level. So for now, the centre must hold.. And it’s for this simple reason that the PDP Chairman Vincent Ogbulafor has come out openly to foreclose any chance of Goodluck Jonathan seeking nomination in 2011.

The Northern elites are also keen to make sure that “unconstitutional” power rotation agreement is maintained. Already some of these elites are feeling shortchanged by the decision of former President. Obasanjo to impose an ailing president on them. So they will do anything it takes to sustain their grip on power.

A Goodluck Jonathan presidency is more than likely to disrupt the current power rotation agreement. And again, how can the northern elites be sure that Goodluck Jonathan will not seek to contest the presidential elections in 2011 if he’s appointed “substantive” President. With executive power at his disposal, he can never be trusted. With the “absolute” power enjoyed by the Nigerian president I for one will not hold my breath.

The uneventful outcome of Wednesday’s EXCOF meeting lends credence to the symbiotic relationship between these power groups. These power groups have successfully scuttled any plan to change the status quo. And as along as the Acting President carries on with his mandate of being a ‘social prefect’, we can expect more presidential instructions from the mobile ambulance.

The question now is, for how long we will continue to fold our hands and allow this dangerous symbiotic relationship to flourish among the cabals? Our destiny is now decided by a handful of political jobbers sitting in a beer parlour. They have continued to subvert democratic principles through unconstitutional zoning system.

Without any doubt, the Nigerian masses are the biggest losers of this conspiracy. This conspiracy also portends doom for 2011. We need to remember that the man at the centre of the machinations, Goodluck Jonathan still remains part and parcel of the ruling party. Whether he likes it or not, he has an obligation to make sure the ruling perpetuates itself in power. It’s therefore bad news for my friends clamouring for electoral reforms, anti-corruption etc. As long as Goodluck Jonathan remains under the tutelage of Vincent Ogbulafor and co, nothing ‘good’ can come out of his leadership.

From all indication, it seems we are stuck with the contraband presidency until 2011. Anyway God dey sha!.

Beer Parlour 1: Understanding How The Nigerian Govt Works

2010-02-27T15:23:00.000-08:00

Ask The Minister!

The Beer Parlour has it's first customer!

One of the aims of Beer Parlour Activism is to fight ignorance and misinformation among Nigerians. A BPA should normally have more knowledge to share than the average man on the street.

Personally I have often wondered how govt in Nigeria works. Yes we know in 'theory' how it's supposed to work but how does it actually work? How do decisions get made? How can one get ideas passed across to the highest levels of the Nigerian govt to the point where we as BPAs can influence change?

These questions are perhaps best answered by someone who has [or still is] been a part of the Nigerian govt at the highest level.

Our first customer is such a person.

Know Your Customer [KYC]

The person was one of Nigeria's most high profile ministers during President Obasanjo's second term. Very widely educated with qualifications in Law and Accounting.

Our customer held two different ministerial portfolios during President Obasanjo's second term and is today widely respected both in Nigeria and in the western world.

So as to not prejudice the questions, I will not reveal the customer's name until after all questions have been submitted. Hopefully this will help keep things objective.

The Questions

The Customer has offered to answer questions from Beer Parlour Activists on the workings of the Nigerian govt based on the person's experience in govt as a minister.

We are looking for questions from BPAs based around the following

What can a Nigerian minster do and not do?

How do contracts get approved? What is the process like?

How do budgets get allocated and what's the budget setting process like?

What's a typical FEC meeting like?

The above is by no means an exhaustive list [I have clearly run out of ideas] so please feel free to widen the terms of reference.

The whole purpose of this Beer Parlour session is to better understand the workings of the Nigerian govt and why it never seems to meet the aspirations of Nigerians.

Where possible, The Customer will try to use personal examples to answer the questions.

Please keep the questions as objective as possible. No long greetings and/or prayers necessary. Let your question go straight to the point.

Please include your name and country you currently reside in. If you are sending the questions from America, please include the state as well.

The last day for submission of questions is Friday 5th March 2010. 9pm UK Time. The Customer's name will be revealed immediately after the deadline has passed.

The best questions will be picked and submitted to The Customer to be answered. The answers will then be published on Facebook in a note form.

Please send your questions to naijabeerparlour@gmail.com before the deadline above, A team of 3 Barmen [editors] will choose the best questions to be forwarded to The Customer. Please do not be offended if your question does not make the final list...if we get a lot of questions we will be forced to cut out a few of them.

You are however allowed to send in more than one question.

Please not that this is not a PR exercise for the Nigerian government. The whole point is to gain an insight into how our government works because we are all shareholders in Nigeria Plc.

The honest truth is that a lot of us probably dont really understand how our government works and how decisions are made.

Please use your imagination and objectivity when sending your questions. Remember that as a BPA you are speaking on behalf of millions of Nigerians who cannot read, write, have no telephones, have no education and have no access to the internet or any means by which to speak to their representatives in government.

Hopefully some knowledge and insight will be gained from this process.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

FF

Barman.

Contraband Presidency - Security Alert!!!!

2010-02-25T01:07:00.000-08:00

The attention of Association of Nigerian Online Militants has been drawn to the smuggling of a contraband item into the country from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The package was flown into the country on a white unregistered aircraft. It arrived at presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport on early hours of Wednesday morning, at about 1.30am.

According to sources, the unregistered aircraft carrier landed at the Abuja airport in the company of the presidential jet. It is unknown at this stage if there were other passengers on board both aircrafts.

It is believed that the contraband package was smuggled into the country with the aid of “unknown” soldiers. From our preliminary investigations, these unknown soldiers are alleged to have been deployed from the Nigerian Army 22nd Battalion Brigade. The soldiers took charge of the airport, while the staff were given marching orders.

As we know, President Umaru Yar’Adua is currently comatose; it is therefore unclear on whose orders the soldiers were acting. The Acting President has also denied any knowledge of any troops deployment.

The contraband package was alleged to have been transferred from the White unregistered aircraft to a White Ford E-250 bullion van. The last sighting of this bullion van was around the Presidential Villa at Aso Rock.

It is clear from all indication that, this is a well orchestrated crime. The perpetrators of this heinous crime are likely to be highly placed influential Nigerians. The audacity with which the smuggling was carried out is unprecedented in the history of our country.

Up until now, the location and content the contraband package remains unknown. The Nigerian online militants considers smuggling as a threat to the national security. In view of this, all security agencies across the nation have been notified. The nation’s borders have also been put on high alert.

The Nigerian Online Militants are particularly interested in the location of the White bullion van and its content. If anyone has any information on its whereabouts please contact your nearest internet militant via Facebook or Twitter.

We urge members of the public to remain calm. In your own interest, please do not approach the driver of this vehicle as he may be carrying dangerous weapon.

Signed

Association of Nigerian Online Militants (ANOM)

Blogosphere

Senator Udo Udoma and Securities & Exchange Commission: Matters Arising

2010-02-16T01:45:00.000-08:00

There’s an ongoing debate on whether the recent appointment of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Senator Udo Udoma, as chairman UACN Plc is a ‘conflict of interest”

As expected, Senator Udoma dismissed the allegation of conflict of interest. He disclosed that the Senate Committee on Capital Markets was aware that he (Udoma) was serving on the boards public quoted companies during his screening by his committee for SEC chairmanship.

Prior to his previous appointment as SEC chairman and subsequent appointment as UACN Plc chairman, Senator Udoma has had personal interests in public-quoted companies. He is the vice-chairman of Linkage Assurance Plc, and Director of Unilever Plc. He has also sat on the board of UACN Plc for several years.

Interestingly, Senator Udoma sees nothing wrong with being chairman of SEC and sitting on the board of public quoted companies. From his point of view, Section 11 of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) only requires him to declare any perceived conflict of interest. In his words

“Having carefully examined the provisions of the Investment and Securities Act, it was clear to me that the appointment was not inconsistent with my existing board appointments. What Section 11 of the Act required me to do was to declare them and not participate in any decision involving any of them”

To further justify his position, he noted that it’s not unusual for the chairman of the SEC to sit on the board of public quoted companies, as it was the case with his predecessor (!).

But the question now been asked is, does Senator Udo Udoma’s interest in public quoted companies conflict with his role as the SEC chairman?

Senator Udoma may have done nothing wrong, as section 11 of ISA only requires him to disclose any perceived conflict, which he did. The onus is however on the government to determine if this conflict could hinder him from performing his duty with impartiality.

By definition, a conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other. There’s no doubt that such a situation has the potential to undermine the person’s impartiality because of the possibility of a clash between the person's self-interest and professional-interest or public-interest.

As we know, the SEC is the government agency mandated to regulate and develop the Nigerian capital market. Overall, the commission is expected to protect investors, market operators and ensure that market integrity is maintained.

Regardless of Senator Udoma’s recent appointment as chairman UACN Plc, it is irresponsible of the government to have appointed him as SEC chairman, in spite of his known business interest. I consider his appointment as SEC chairman as a flagrant disregard of corporate governance principles.

The appointment is also clearly at odds with Section 13 of ISA, which stipulates that the office of the director-general, chairman, the commissioners and staff of SEC ought to be free from any relationship that would tie them to any of the company that SEC regulates. But why has it taken the Senate Committee to discover this discrepancy?

The fact that Senator Udoma’s predecessor was in the same boat doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do. If the legislature had been performing its oversight function effectively, then it wouldn’t have found itself in the current situation. The appointment is also an indictment of the legislature, and it reflects the incompetence of those who we have entrusted with the responsibility of holding the government accountable.

Our political elites disregard for the probity, accountability and transparency cannot be overemphasised. These key democratic principles seem not to exist in their dictionaries. I recall Ex-President Obasanjo been accused of having vested interest in a company that was a major beneficiary of government privatisation programme. He even had the audacity to trade in company shares while in office.

It was the same former president that chaired the meeting of the Federal Executive Council and granted a university licence to himself and his deputy. And if we think that is bad, what about the NSE Director-General who is also the Director of a public quoted company (!).

The nation’s financial regulators don’t seem to have learnt from the role played by former Cadbury Nigeria Plc CEO, Bunmi Oni. In 2006, Cadbury Nigeria Plc dismissed Bunmi Oni on allegations of false accounting/book cooking, stocks buy back, trade loading, tax default, false stock certificate and undisclosed interest in the company. The SEC also banned Mr Oni for life from corporate service and from serving as a director in any public quoted company.

Can we imagine what would have happened if Mr Oni was sitting on the board of the SEC. How will the SEC have carried out its investigation effectively without been undermined?

There’s no doubt that the best way of dealing with conflict of interest is to avoid them entirely. And one will assume that’s the intent of Section 13 of ISA. A simple disclosure of interest or non-participation in decision making process is not good enough. Senator Udoma’s involvement in public listed companies and the SEC, gives these companies an unfair advantage over other market operators. And it’s not just about non-participation in decision making, What about inside knowledge of the activities of the SEC that he could pass to his companies.

The current situation where the chairman of the apex financial market regulator is also a chairman and director of public quoted companies cannot be right. The government needs to resolve this issue as a matter of urgency, so that public confidence will not be eroded from an already fragile market.

Beyond the Grandstanding: an Open Letter to Professor Dora Akunyili - By Osita Mba

2010-02-15T01:52:00.000-08:00

Dear Professor Akunyili

Like most Nigerians, I have followed the very public spat between your good self and your ministerial colleague, the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice and incumbent Minister for Special Duties, Mr Michael Aondoakaa, with considerable interest. As someone that called for the removal of Mr Aondoakaa as Attorney-General as far back as November 2008 because of my belief that he lacked “the requisite integrity, ability, experience and maturity required of the person holding that high and important office,” I consider whatever embarrassment you cause him in relation to his alleged libellous statement as part of his thoroughly deserved comeuppance.

However, although there is no reason to suggest that you will not pursue a libel case against him to its logical conclusion should he fail to provide the clear apology you have requested, it remains the case that our politicians are notorious for threatening and indeed instituting defamation suits with fanfare in the full glare of the public only to abandon them quietly and in private subsequently. A case in point is the five billion naira libel suit instituted in 2004 by Chief Anthony Anenih against Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. Incidentally, that suit was filed on Chief Anenih’s behalf by Mr Aondoakaa’s successor as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mr Adetokunbo Kayode.

Moreover, the decision to make the letters written to Mr Aondoakaa by your lawyers widely available to the public and the contents of the letters themselves appear to evince an intention to prove your incorruptibility in the court of public opinion, over and above the resolution of your private dispute with Mr Aondoakaa in the court of law. For example, the letter of February 11, 2010 refers to your “integrity” that “has been unimpeachable”; reveals that you have “been inundated with telephone calls and personal enquiries from numerous people ... concerning the implication that [you] did something wrong while [you were] the Director General of NAFDAC”; and concludes that you find it “totally unacceptable that [your] peers and generality of Nigerians have begun to question [your] integrity and now consider [you] a disreputable person”, all on account of the statement credited to Mr Aondoakaa.

Given the relegation of integrity and accountability to the background in our public life, your principled stance on the matter deserves the support of all right-thinking members of the Nigerian society. However, going by various comments in the media, there appears to be a consensus among the chattering classes that neither an apology from the discredited Mr Aondoakaa nor a successful libel suit against him in our increasingly unreliable courts will be sufficient to establish your unimpeachable integrity to the satisfaction of the Nigerian public. I note that this view is to a large extent supported by the law – it is a basic principle of the law of defamation that an alleged defamatory statement is presumed to be false unless the defendant can prove its veracity. Since there is no concomitant obligation on the claimant to prove the falsity of the alleged defamatory statement, a successful libel suit, while reflecting favourably on the character of the person defamed, does not necessarily prove his or her unimpeachable integrity either in the matter at hand or generally.

Fortunately, there are other more credible means available to principled public officers in your enviable position to establish their unimpeachable integrity in the court of public opinion.

1. Publication of Assets Declaration Forms

Paragraph 11(1) of Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution provides that every public officer shall (a) immediately after taking office and (b) thereafter at the end of every four years and (c) at the end of his/her her term of office, submit to the Code of Conduct Bureau a written declaration of all his/her properties, assets, and liabilities and those of his/her unmarried children under the age of eighteen years. Furthermore, section 149 of the Constitution requires a Minister of the Government of the Federation to declare his/her assets and liabilities as prescribed in the Constitution before commencing the duties of his/ her office.

Therefore, you would have submitted an Assets Declaration Form to the Code of Conduct Bureau on at least three occasions: (i) when you assumed office as the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on April 12, 2001; (ii) on the fourth anniversary of your assumption of office as the Director General of NAFDAC in April 2005; and (iii) on December 17, 2008, when you left NAFDAC to take up your current position as Minister of Information and Communications.

Paragraph 3 of Part I of the Third Schedule to the Constitution authorises the Code of Conduct Bureau to retain custody of these assets declarations and to make them available for inspection by any citizen of Nigeria on such terms and conditions as the National Assembly may prescribe. Although the National Assembly have failed to prescribe the terms and conditions for such compulsory public inspection, nothing stops any public officer that wishes to demonstrate his/her integrity from disclosing voluntarily the details of his/her Assets Declaration form. Indeed, President Umaru Yar‘Adua provided a copy of his Assets Declaration Form to the public after a few weeks in office, and after some dogged resistance the Acting (then Vice) President Jonathan followed suit shortly after.

I would respectfully suggest that, without prejudice to any libel suit against Mr Aondoakaa, the voluntary publication of your relevant Assets Declaration Forms will provide a more transparent and credible means of establishing your unimpeachable integrity during your tenure as the Director General of NAFDAC and beyond.

2. Section 44 of the ICPC Act 2000

Section 44(1)(a) and (b) of The Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 2000 (“the ICPC Act”) empower the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (“ICPC”), if in the course of an ongoing investigation he has reasonable grounds to believe that any offence under the Act has been committed, to require any person suspected of having committed such offence or any relative or associate of the person or any other person whom the Chairman has reasonable grounds to believe is able to assist in the investigation to furnish a statement in writing on oath or affirmation in order to:

(i) identify every property, whether movable or immovable, whether within or outside Nigeria, belonging to him/her or in his/her possession, or in which he/she has any interest, whether legal or equitable, and specifying the date on which each of the properties so identified was acquired and the manner in which it was acquired, whether by way of any dealing, bequest, devise, inheritance, or any other manner;

(ii) identify every property sent out of Nigeria by him/her during such period as may be specified in the notice;

(iii) set out the estimated value and location of each of the properties identified ... and if any of such properties cannot be located, the reason therefore;

(iv) state in respect of each of the properties identified ... whether the property is held by him/her or by any other person on his/her behalf or whether it has diminished in value since its acquisition by him/her or and whether it has been commingled with other property which cannot be separated or divided without difficulty;

(v) set out all other information relating to his/her properties, business, travel or other activities as may be specified in the notice; and

(vi) set out all his/her sources of income, including earnings and gifts or other assets for such period.

Section 44(1)(c) authorises the Chairman to require any officer of any bank or financial institution, or any person who is in any manner or to any extent responsible for the management and control of the affairs of any bank or any financial institution to furnish copies of any or all accounts, documents and records relating to any person to whom the above notice has been issued.

Furthermore, section 44(2) provides that where the Chairman has reasonable grounds to believe that any public officer who has been served with the written notice owns, possesses, controls or holds any interest in any property which is excessive, having regard to his/her present or past emoluments and all other relevant circumstances, the Chairman may by written direction require him/her to furnish a statement on oath or affirmation explaining how he/she was able to own, possess, control or hold such excess and if he/she fails to explain satisfactorily such excess, he/she shall be presumed to have used his/her office to corruptly enrich or gratify himself/herself and charged accordingly.

You will agree that a comprehensive statement on oath or affirmation provided by you to the Chairman of the ICPC under section 44 of the ICPC Act and satisfactorily verified as complete and accurate by him will provide the ultimate confirmation of unimpeachable integrity that your teeming fans will be proud to associate you with. Therefore, I have no doubt that if you prove yourself unable to disclose voluntarily your relevant Assets Declaration Forms as suggested above, appropriate steps will be taken to invoke the procedure under section 44 of the ICPC Act with a view to securing your place in history as the paragon of integrity in public life.

Yours sincerely

Osita Mba

Unnecessary "Necessity"

2010-02-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

After weeks of dilly dallying, the Senate decided to act on the nation’s political impasse. A resolution was passed by the Upper House to recognise the Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan as the nation’s ‘Acting President’. It’s right to say that the Senate action has not been short of controversies. While some consider the action of the Senate unconstitutional, the Senate itself and some other public observers believe the action was ‘expedient’. The Senate has tried to justify its action on the basis of political expediency and “doctrine of necessity”.

So what is “doctrine of necessity”?

According to the Senate President,

"The doctrine of necessity requires that we do what is necessary when faced with a situation that was not contemplated by the Constitution….Viewed from an ordinary reading of Section 145, we came to the conclusion that the President, through his declaration transmitted on the BBC, has furnished this parliament with irrefutable proof that he is on medical vacation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and has therefore complied with the provisions of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution. For avoidance of doubt, let me re-emphasise the import of prayer two of our resolution. The President will automatically resume office as President and Commander-in-Chief once he is well enough and returns to the country and informs us accordingly, pursuant to Section 145".

By definition, the “Doctrine of Necessity” is a common law rule, which allows judges to do justice in situations not envisaged by specific provisions of the law. It is also regarded as a legal principle that justifies a person’s action in an emergency that he or she did not create. Although it is generally agreed that the doctrine of necessity in itself is not ‘illegal’ in law, its application by the legislative assembly remains controversial.

I’m not convinced by the statement of the senate president, claiming that the current situation wasn’t contemplated by the constitution. If that’s the case, then what’s the purpose of Section 145 of the 1999 constitution? To say that Section 145 is imprecise is probably a better argument than saying, "situation wasn’t contemplated by the constitution”.

In my opinion, the action of the legislative assembly raises more questions than answers. Why did it take the Senate, 79 days to come up with a solution – albeit controversial? This is the same legislative assembly that told 140 million Nigerians just few weeks ago that its hands were tied. So have their hands suddenly been let loose? Or have they only just realised that it would be politically expedient for them to take an action?

The question also needs to be asked about why the Senate resolution was passed just before the Federal Executive Council had the opportunity to discuss the much publicised memo by the Minister for Information, Dora Akunyili.

For now, it seems everyone is happy. And as they say, “the end justifies the means”. But whilst the Senate might have successfully plugged the power vacuum in the interim, their action has not in anyway addressed the key issues around the health status of President Yar’Adua. Unfortunately, the nation is now carried away by the euphoria of power transfer to Goodluck Jonathan.

I will like to draw everyone’s attention to the loophole in the Senate resolution. The Senate noted that “President Yar’Adua will automatically resume office as President and C-in-C, once he is well enough and returns to the country and informs us accordingly, pursuant to Section 145”. So what exactly is the Senate definition of “well enough”? If they do not have a full understanding of the president’s health status, how can they determine if he is well enough to return to work? It’s like trying to determine how fast a car can travel without any test drive.

Also, let’s assume President Yar’Adua returns to Nigeria next week, who will certify his fitness? Will the Senate set up a panel to determine his fitness? We should also bear in mind that the constitution does not stipulate the minimum health requirement of the president.

For me, the Senate resolution makes mockery of the relevant provisions in the nation’s constitution. Instead of rushing to pass the controversial resolution, the Senate should have exerted pressure on the FEC to investigate the president’s health status. The memo presented by the Minister for Information should have been allowed to be debated. Failing this, the Senate can then pass the resolution. And then we can talk about ‘doctrine of necessity’.

Anambra State, Electoral Reform and 2011 Elections

2010-02-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

Without any doubt, the Anambra state election wasn’t without its own drama. And considering INEC track record in organising credible elections – especially under the leadership of Prof. Maurice Iwu – anything different would probably have been seen as a “variance”.

Just two days prior to Election Day, the Federal High Court in Lagos ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission lacks the merit to conduct elections in the country. As we may know, there are only four commissioners sitting on the INEC board, instead of 13 as stipulated in the INEC Act. As a result, Justice Liman ruled that the board lacks the quorum required to conduct elections. As I write, what this ruling portends for the just concluded election is still unknown.

There were also reports of delays in the delivery of election materials across the state. It was reported that many polling stations remained closed for hours after the election was scheduled to have started because of non-availability of voting materials. Some people even reported ballot boxes stolen in some parts of the state.

Going by the scene of jubilation on the streets of Awka on Sunday, one can assume that the victory of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) gubernatorial candidate Peter Obi, is in line with desire and expectation of Anambrarians.

The jubilation on the streets of Awka is in total contrast to what we saw in Ado-Ekiti, following the re-run of Ekiti gubernatorial elections last April. The tragedy of the Ekiti elections is still very fresh in our memory. We can all remember the famous Madam Ayoka, who decided to call it quit in the mid-way into the election, and only to be threatened by her Abuja masters. The story of Ekiti election re-run cannot be complete without mentioning the naked women protests on the streets of Ado-Ekiti.

But as residents of Anambra celebrate, the question I asked some of my friends was, did Peter Obi win the election on genuine votes? Or was he just successful in “out rigging” his opponents?

Whilst there’s been no confirmation of rigging on the part of the Peter Obi, who is also the incumbent governor, I still believe it is a reasonable question to ask, considering our clamour and agitation for genuine electoral reform.

If anything, the public reaction to the APGA victory –or perhaps, PDP loss – further underlines the growing hatred for the PDP. The hatred now seems to have hit a crescendo that most people don’t really care how PDP is removed from power or prevented from seizing office. In the desperate attempt to kick PDP out by all force, anything and everything seems acceptable.

There seems to be a general consensus that the Anambra election was not “free and fair”. In fact, Peter Obi was very vocal in condemning the way and manner INEC has organised the election. However, I found that most Nigerians were willing to accept these anomalies as “inconsequential” only because PDP lost. I then wondered what would have been the case if the election was won by PDP, what the reaction of such people would have been to the election process aa a whole.

In “normal” circumstances there would have been calls for the head of Prof. Iwu. But following the loss of PDP last Saturday, no one seems to be interested. Most people seem to have taken the Anambra result as a victory over PDP. So does that mean Prof. Iwu has regained public confidence?

We cannot be ignorant of the menace and decadence suffered under the 10 year rule of PDP. However, the fact remains that most of the leaders of the opposition are one time or the other members of the PDP. I don’t know of any party in Nigeria that was created based on any set of ideology or principles. These parties were borne out of self-preservation and actualisation of personal agendas.

The obnoxious belief that PDP is the biggest problem facing our democracy will create more harm than good. The problem in our electoral system is more than just PDP, AC, or ANPP. What we need is a genuine electoral reform that will guarantee free and fair election, and deter electoral malpractices. It is not rocket science to have a free and fair election. We have had it before. The annulled June 12 election is a perfect example. It is therefore nonsensical for anyone to say no election can ever be perfect. Are they saying we should accept electoral fraud as part of our democracy, just as we’ve accepted that corruption comes with leadership?

When you talk about electoral reform, some assume it’s just about lining up to vote. Voting is just one part of the electoral process. Although, we hear about allegations of fraud in western democracies, but you can be sure that if anyone is caught engaging in electoral malpractices he/she is likely to end up in prison. It is only in Nigeria where machines for printing ballot papers are found in people’s house, and it is regarded as a joke!

As 2011 draws nearer, it is important that the electorate keep their eyes wide open when electing their leaders. The last thing we want is to replace one evil with another just because it presents itself in a different colour.

We need to forestall a repeat of what happened in 1999, when crooks and criminals rode on the back of the pro-democracy group-cum-political party Alliance for Democracy (AD) into public office.

And just before I go, I will like to say BIG thank you to Mr Egghead Odewale for his regular twitter and facebook updates on the Anambra election. It was citizen journalism at its best!

The Dora Akunyili Memo

2010-02-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

STATE OF THE NATION

1. I want to start my humble submission by stating that I am a 100 per cent loyalist of President Yar’Adua. He appointed all of us because he trusts us and wants us to help him to run government effectively and efficiently. Mr. President has given all of us seated in this chamber the opportunity to serve our nation as members of this council.

I believe that in the choice of all of us, as individuals and group, Mr. President must have considered our ability to guide him aright to serve our people better, promote and protect the constitution in line with the oath of office taken before him in this chamber by each and every one of us. President Yar’Adua is very dear to me just as he is to all of you.

2. We are all aware of what has been happening in Nigeria, especially as it concerns the issue of making the Vice President an acting President. There have been debates for and against.

3. Some have argued that there is no vacuum and that it is okay for the Vice President to function as Vice President, not as Acting President pending the return and recovery of Mr. President. For the proponents of this theory, I want to remind them that Permanent Secretaries had been waiting to be sworn in for over two months now. Consequently, many ministries are without Permanent Secretaries including my ministry.

As it is today, the Vice President cannot take any document to National Assembly. In a very desperate situation like the recent Jos crisis, the Vice President deployed troops to Plateau, but many have openly said that he does not have the right because there cannot be two Commanders-in-Chief at a time.

4. Just recently, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, has opted out of the amnesty and resumed hostility. They argued that they have been kept in limbo since the President took ill and they appeared to have been abandoned since nobody could talk to them or keep the promise made to them. Our economy is once more being threatened.

5. The past Chief Justice of the Federation swore in his successor for the first time in the history of our nation. The power vacuum at that level has also compounded our ‘poor image’ at the international level because of our failure to rise to international expectations, commitments and engagements that require the presence of our President.

Many of those opportunities have existed in the past 70 days that I do not need to recount. I do not need to repeat the uncomplimentary statements made by United States, United Kingdom and EU concerning the current state of affairs in Nigeria .

6. There has been persistent agitation by the public for members of the Federal Executive Council to do something. Nigerians expect us to rise to this challenge on behalf of our President as the leader of this administration. Some eminent citizens have spoken. They include former Heads of State and others who have served our nation in various capacities.

The Senate has also taken a position of which we are all aware. The looming crisis in the system is over boiling. Our hard earned democracy is being threatened by the day.

Threat to democracy

7. What went wrong? We love our President but we should remember that he is not infallible. Before he left Nigeria he had a moral and constitutional obligation to officially inform the Senate and hand over the mantle of leadership to the Vice President pending his return and recovery. That did not happen. Yes, the mistake has been made by our Boss and our brother.

Mr. President is ill and did not choose to be sick. But while we continue to pray for his recovery, we should try to right the wrong.

8. Some have argued that he left the country in a hurry. This argument has been punctured by the fact that he signed the Appropriation Bill for National Assembly. If he could sign the Bill, why did he not sign a letter for Vice President to act on his behalf until he is well enough?

9. We have a local proverb that says that "A goat does not get strangulated by the rope used in tying it when an adult is present." We are all in a better position to know that the polity is overheated to a frightening level. Posterity will judge us harshly if we do not positively intervene to resolve this logjam.

10. I wish to call on the Federal Executive Council to act now in the best interest of our dear President and our dear Nation.

We also need to save ourselves from shame because our stand is becoming very embarrassing. He has been away for about 70 days now, even if he returns tomorrow, is it not better for him to rest and recover before taking over from the Vice President?

11. We need to do what is morally right and constitutional for the President to officially hand over to the Vice President to function as Acting President. If he does not, we can evoke whichever aspect of the constitution that should make the Vice President an Acting President.

On the other hand we can take advantage of the 14 days ultimatum by the court which will expire on Friday. When the President resumes duty as soon as he recovers, by the grace of God, he takes over his position.

12. I am not saying that President Yar’Adua should resign or condemn him for being sick. He did not choose to be sick. We will continue to pray for him, but all I am saying is, let us encourage him do the right thing so that our hard earned democracy will not be truncated. Anybody who feels otherwise is unfair to our President (who has been preaching the rule of law), and utterly unfair to our country.

13. The name of our President and all his achievements are being rubbished by this unfortunate debacle. The President and his family are also being put under undue pressure which will not help his recovery.

14. If we fail to act now, history will not forgive us. I rest my case.

Professor Dora Akunyili

Lagos State, Gov. Raji Fashola and "work-chop-cracy"

2010-02-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

As we know, a group of individuals known as the ‘Face of Lagos’ recently, through paid newspaper advertorial, accused Gov. Babatunde Fashola of financial recklessness and impropriety. Following these allegations, the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA) in a swift response constituted a panel to investigate these allegations.

As I write, the motive of the investigation panel is still been queried by members of the public. Some have described it as the proverbial “hand of Esau and voice of Jacob”. Some consider the investigation as the first step in the plot to impeach the state governor. There are insinuations that the disagreement between the godson and godfather is because the former has not allowed the latter to have an unfettered access to the state vault. There have even been comments about why the LSHA has not probed the 8-year rule of the supposed godfather.

For me, I’m not interested in delving into the motive behind the panel investigation. As I’m not privy to the facts behind the disagreement of these individuals, I don’t think its right for me to add to the current speculations.

What I find baffling however, are the comments that Gov. Fashola should not be investigated because he is a “performing” governor (!). For such commentators, they would rather have the “Fashola type” alleged corruption, because he built new roads, implemented new public transport initiatives, cleared Oshodi and planted flowers.

The view of such people is that systemic looting of the state treasury can be justified, if the alleged culprit has performed beyond their expectations. Performance to them is a justification for treasury looting? Na Wah! You may want to ask, what their expectations are. Such individuals lack basic understanding of what is required of people they have elected into office. It’s like an employer who engaged a staff without a job description or key performance indicators. So it would be very easy for such an employee and his employer to develop a false sense of achievement. Anyway, that’s an aside issue.

Interestingly, it seems deepening rift between the Lagos State Governor Fashola and his estranged godfather Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has created a new type of governance model, which I will describe as “Work-chop-cracy”.

So what is “Work-chop-cracy”? This is a type of government that allows a leader, that is perceived to be performing well, to also engage in looting of the treasury – albeit at a lesser scale when compared to the “do nothing” leaders.

In the Work-chop-cratic government, the masses accept corruption as a way life. And as a friend noted recently, corruption in governance is regarded as second to the air we breathe under the model. The principle is, everyone elected into public office must “chop”, however the public officer must justify his chopping through “hard work and performance”. Hmmm….!

The acceptance of work-chop-cracy as a style of governance further highlights the delusion among the Nigeria masses. In the past, I’ve always been critical of the nation’s leadership and their role in encouraging corruption at levels of government. However, following some of the public comments on the alleged feud between Gov. Fashola and his predecessor, I’ve come to realise that we the masses are the biggest problem affecting Nigeria.

The question I asked the promoters of “work-chop-cracy” is, if the same allegations were raised against Gov. Alao-Akala or Gbenga Daniel, what would have been their response? Obviously, because these Governors have no track record of performance, they are always easy targets. We shout to high heavens when we hear of allegations of corruptions against those we consider as non-performing.

We are happy to see James Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Orji Kalu go to jail, but we are not interested in investigating allegations of corruption levelled against Fashola because we think he his performing. Such attitude smacks of hypocrisy.

If we decide not to take the allegations of corruption against Gov. Fashola seriously, what moral standing do we have to take the allegations against Gbenga Daniel seriously? Where is it written that an administrator can mismanage taxpayers’ money simply because he has implemented people-oriented projects? Is that what we define as dividends of democracy?

So what exactly is the big deal about investigating a sitting Governor? Is it not taxpayers’ money that he is been accused of misappropriating? Or may be I’m mistaking. Instead of whipping unnecessary sentiments, why not let’s focus our attention on the panel itself. Our energy should instead be directed towards urging the LSHA to conduct the investigation in a fair and transparent manner. And if they don’t, we can start making noises.

Probity, accountability and transparency are the key tenets of democratic governance. The taxpayer has the right to demand for information on how his taxes are been spent. No matter how good a governor performs, he still needs to be held accountable. After all, it’s not that he has invested his personal wealth in the development of the state.

And don’t get me wrong. I’ve not said that Gov. Fashola is guilty of the allegations. Until proven guilty, the Governor remains innocent. However, I do not support the argument that he should not be investigated because of his performance in office. Irrespective of the motive, I consider the allegations raised by the Face of Lagos group to be very serious, hence need for ‘thorough’ investigation. These allegations cannot just be swept under the carpet.

Eko o ni ba je o.......!

The Politics of "Substitution by Elimination"

2010-01-27T02:27:00.000-08:00

Early hours of Tuesday morning, the news broke that the 2007 Action Congress Ogun state gubernatorial candidate, Chief Dipo Dina has been murdered. ‘DD-Direct’, as he’s fondly called by his political admirers, was shot through the windshield of his car near Covenant University in Otta.

Just as the nation battles to wriggle its way out of the current constitutional quagmire, created by the indiscretion of an indolently selfish president, we witnessed yet another ‘political-motivated’ killing of a humble and distinguished politician.

The gruesome murder of Dipo Dina is not the first of its kind. We have an endless list of politicians that have been sacrificed on the altar of political machinations. Sadly all of these cases remain unresolved. I recall the killing of the former Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige. Up till now, no one has been found guilty of his murder. In fact, one of the suspects, who is a serving Senator, won his Senatorial elections while undergoing investigation in Police detention.

I would say that political-motivated killing is one of the legacies of past repressive military regimes. But unfortunately, the current political leaders have claimed this legacy as an inheritance – albeit with greater zeal! Whilst past military regimes were notorious for killing people with dissenting political views in order to strengthen their grip on power, the current politicians are now engaged in what is known as do-or-die politics. But if the sole aim of public office is to serve, why does anyone need to go the extreme of killing his/her political opponent? Why the need for this sort of desperation? Why can’t we practice politics without bitterness? What is it about this ‘do or die’ politics?

The students of the ‘do or die’ school of politics can be broadly divided into two main classes. The fundamental principle of the school remains the same, however the modus operandi of the students differ. The first class is made up of students who subscribe to the theory of ‘substitution by elimination’, as seen in the case of Dipo Dina. Their target is to substitute their opponent by eliminating him from the face of the earth. The second class consists of students who believe in doing all it takes to perpetuate themselves in power. Such people see political office as a family/birth right, even if it means they need to be permanently plugged to a ‘life support machine’ to remain in office.

But can anyone plant cassava and expect to reap cocoyam? What can we expect from an electoral system that is bereft of transparency or fair play? A system designed to reward thuggery, rigging and all forms of violence. A system designed to ensure that the incumbent perpetuates himself in office. A system that ensures that the winner take all. A system designed to disenfranchise its citizens.

As usual, the vice-president has given an order to the Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, and other security agencies in the country to fish out those behind the hideous murder of Dipo Dina. But as my friends will say, na today? We are sick and tired of the lip service the govt pays to security of lives and properties. The govt’s record in investigating this type of cases is appalling. And it’s not just political-motivated killings. Every year, hundreds of lives are lost to religious violence. However, none of the security agencies can categorically tell us who the perpetrators of these crimes are. So how will Dipo Dina’s case be any different? How can the VP convince Nigerians that Dipo Dina will not just be another statistical figure?

Everyday, the Nigerian media is awash with bad news. The nation has now become an extension of Hollywood box office. It is suffice to say that the suffering masses are now film watchers, waiting for the next box office hit. The media, who should be at the forefront of informing and sensitising the public, have become armchair “movie critics”. We now have newspaper editors who are paid ‘script writers’ – thanks to brown envelopes. And with the likes of Ojo Maduekwe, Michael Aondoakaa, and Dora Akunyili, the movie producers can never be short of actors/actresses.

I refer to the famous biblical verse “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:45-46). Most of my non-Christian friends may not be familiar with the quoted bible verse; however this nine-word sentence aptly describes my feeling about the current trend of political events in Nigeria.

So if I may ask, can anything good come out of Nigeria?

Crisis in Education Sector!

2010-01-20T01:30:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a caption on a friend’s Facebook page. It was titled “Two percent passed WAEC (West African Examinations Council) Exam in Oyo State”. After reading the caption, the questions I asked the poster were, how many of supposed successful candidates ‘bought’ questions prior to sitting for the exams. How many wrote the exams by proxy? How many colluded with examiners to have their results manipulated? For me these are reasonable questions to ask considering how desperate Nigerian students have become recently. Anyway, that’s not the issue here.

From east to west, north to south, evidence of the deplorable state of our education system are very glaring. Just like other sectors, the nation’s education system has been on a steady decline in the 20 years. Both the quality of teaching and infrastructure have been severely impacted by the comatose state of the education system. As we know, incessant school closures due to strike action have been the norm of the day. In fact, it will be considered unusual not to have schools shut down in any given academic year.

Also, most of the classrooms in Nigerian schools are dilapidated, sub-standard and unfit for human habitation. There have been cases of school buildings that have collapsed killing children in some parts of Nigeria.

Whilst the performance of Oyo state candidates looks very depressing to say the least, the fact remains that no state of the federation holds the monopoly of poor education performance. Lagos state is also not left behind in the race towards educational failure.

According to recent statistics released by the Lagos Ministry of Education, there’s been a decline of about 43 per cent in the enrolment figure between public primary and senior secondary school students, while there is about 31 per cent drop in the enrolment figure of primary school pupils by the time they move to junior secondary schools. The question one will ask is, where do these pupils go when they drop out of secondary school?

Only few weeks ago, WAEC noted Nigeria's performance in the 2009 SSCE as only 25 per cent(!). However, Head of WAEC National Office, Iyi Uwadiae was quick to point out that, we can take consolation in the fact that, Nigeria’s performance is the best among member countries, which include Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. According to Iyi Uwadiae, "In our excellence award, Nigeria dominated. Nigerian candidates are doing very well,"

With 25 percent performance, it’s very disappointing to hear the Head of WAEC saying “Nigerian candidates are doing well”. So what exactly is the benchmark for measuring examination success? Why are we so fond of celebrating mediocrity? I consider Mr Uwadiea’s statement ludicrous.

Mr Uwadiae can say whatever he likes. As one will expect, he has chosen to be ‘patriotic’ rather than been objective in his comments. His statement however does not take anything away from the fact that our education system is comatose. Can his statement be accepted as evidence that our education system is better than that of Ghana? For me, the answer is No! If we do indeed outperform our neighbours, then why are Nigerians sending their wards to Ghana for secondary school education? Why have places like Benin and Togo, all of sudden become a destination for Nigerian students?

The result is a strong indictment of our education system. It exemplifies the rot in the education system. Is it not pathetic that our standards have now fallen so low, that the nation’s foremost assessing authority now considers 25 percent performance as “success”.

With the current state of education system, it doesn’t come as a surprise that 23million Nigerian youths are unemployable. As they say, “knowledge is power”. No nation can excel without investment in quality education aimed at economic growth. The lack of investment in quality education is putting our youths at a huge disadvantage. The world is now a global village. Nigeria is not just competing with, Gambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

But with the continuous decline in our education system, how can Nigerian youths compete with their counterparts from other parts of the globe?

"Missing President" - A Case for Constitution Review

2010-01-14T03:12:00.000-08:00

The Abuja Federal High Court, yesterday declared that Vice President Jonathan Goodluck is “empowered by the 1999 Constitution to exercise, in the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua, all the powers vested in him, including signing of sensitive documents, so far such powers are delegated to him”.

Justice Dan Abutu made the pronouncement while interpreting sections 5(1) and 148 (1) of the 1999 constitution in a suit brought by a lawyer, Mr. Christopher Onwuekwe. Mr Onwuekwe had asked the high court to declare that “in absence of the President Umaru Yar’Adua, the Vice President, by virtue of the provisions of Section 5(1) and 148 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, could exercise all the powers vested in the President in the interest of peace, order and good governance pending when his boss, Yar’Adua, would resume office.

In his judgement, Justice Abutu noted that both sections 5(1) and 148 (1) are clear about how the president can transfer to the Vice President or any of the cabinet member. However it did not specify the manner or the procedure through which Mr. President could delegate any of the presidential powers.

So in simple terms, the Vice President could be instructed via a simple phone call from Saudi Arabia to sign the 2010 Budget Appropriation Bill. In fact the Judge went further that it’s no one’s prerogative to query the mode of transfer of power to the Vice President (!). In the current situation where it is rumoured that the president is comatose, how can anyone be sure that the president is actually passing instructions. Another implication of the judgement is that it indirectly legitimises the “unofficial” role of the First Lady as a conduit between president and cabinet members, since no one can challenge the ‘mode of power transfer’.

Whether good or bad, the current political impasse has helped underline the ambiguity in the nation’s constitution. And from the events of the last few weeks, I have come to a conclusion that when you are dealing with Nigerian issues, matters of legal importance need to be spelt out in ‘black and white’. You cannot afford to have grey areas, because if you do, it will be exploited to its maximum as we are currently experiencing.

The truth is, as things currently stand, President Umaru Yar’Adua has not breached any provisions in the 1999 constitution. I’m sure some would ask, what’s this guy talking about?. Whilst it might sound harsh, that is the blunt truth.

There is nothing in the constitution about how much time the president can spend overseas, just as the Deputy Senate President said recently. So as far as the constitution goes, President Yar’Adua can stay in Saudi Arabia as long as he likes. Also, just as the Attorney-General once said, the constitution does not state that the president has to be physically present in Nigeria to rule the country. This means, President. Yar’Adua can continue to rule Nigeria from Saudi Arabia until kingdom come. In fact there is nothing stopping us from voting for an offshore president, if we so decide, in 2011. If people can contest and win elections while in prison, how much more having a ‘President in Diaspora’.

Also, we have been told many times by the Yar’Adua apologists that there is nowhere in the constitution where it is mandated that the President has to handover to his deputy. Whilst some might not agree, it is the fact. The president is not obliged by the constitution to do so. This could easily be interpreted as been discretionary.

Even on the issue of incapacitation of the president, the constitution does not clearly articulate what it means to be incapacitated. And like I wrote in one of my previous articles, does lying on a hospital bed mean been incapacitated? Or is it being brain-damaged? Or is it when you are in coma? Some might say these are trivial questions of which you can apply common sense. But as we all know, ‘common sense is not always common’. When an individual is allowed too much discretion, you cannot expect him/her not to exercise the discretion in his/her favour.

So the question is, how do we prevent a repetition of the current political crisis? You need not to be a Professor of constitutional law or political science to know that the nation’s constitution needs wholesale review. And when I say constitution review, I’m not talking about opportunity for state creation or tenure elongation. The loopholes currently being exploited needs to be plugged, as a matter of urgency. Legislative provisions need to be set in black and white, since it has become apparent that our political leaders cannot be trusted with the use of discretion. If it takes having clauses that limit the duration of the president’s absence, so be it!

The power to investigate the health status of the President should not rest solely on the Executive. The national assembly should be given powers to initiate such investigation. For me, vesting such powers on the Executive represents a major conflict of interest. Most, if not all, members of the federal executive council are the loyalists to the president. So how can anyone expect them to launch an investigation that could ultimately result I them losing their jobs.

Don’t get me wrong, there is no perfect constitution. You must be living in utopia to want to have a perfect constitution. Like every legal document, it can never be fool-proof. But at the same time, there is no point having a constitution that is not ‘fit for purpose’. Irrespective of how the current crisis is resolved, there is a growing urgent need for a wholesale review of the constitution. We cannot afford a repetition of the current political impasse. A situation where a nation’s president will go missing for 50 days is totally unacceptable in any jurisdiction. Nigeria is not a banana republic.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

2010-01-13T04:47:00.000-08:00

Abuja High Court has ordered Vice-President Jonathan Goodluck to be sworn in as Acting President.

More to come....!!!!!

A Shameful Act - NEXT Editorial

2010-01-12T23:57:00.000-08:00

And on the 50th day, they did nothing.

Our national legislators met yesterday in our benighted capital, and promptly decided they needed not pronounce on the fact that our president has vanished from our shores for 50 straight days.

It is rapidly becoming a kind of macabre joke, or at least a rich subject for sarcasm, were the fate of 150 million people not directly tied to it.
It is 50 days. Do you know where/how/what your president is?
As thousands of citizens filled the streets of Abuja yesterday, demanding action on an absentee president, the expensively maintained members of our National Assembly met in their first session, after a prolonged holiday, to declare that it was unimportant to even discuss what to do about a president who is no longer able to perform his duties. Other than to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia, all the while making clear that they will leave any real action to a cabinet that has so far shown no inclination to live up to its constitutional duties.

Instead, they wanted to divert themselves with something called "anti-terrorism" measures. Or where to find your lost dog Bingo. Or whatever.

Anything, it appeared, but the most urgent matter at hand-a dangerous leadership vacuum created by the indefinite absence of a critically ill and incapable president, who is believed to be suffering multiple organ failures, brain damage, cognitive dissonance, and is alarmingly emaciated.

Let us be very clear: Umaru Yar'Adua, decent man though he is, and sympathetic though we are to him personally and to his family, is no longer able to discharge the functions of the presidency. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar and should produce the president for the world to see.
We at NEXT take no pride at all in the personal travails of the president. If anything, we would love nothing more than for him to somehow magically be restored to full health so that he can function effectively as president. He seems to be a decent enough man, at least compared to most in our political leadership. And it may not have been entirely his fault that his exit from Abuja in late November has created such a mess. After all, he is critically ill, and perhaps we could not have expected that he had the time, or the wits, to have prepared a formal letter to the Senate President announcing his absence and the appointment of his deputy to act during his absence.

But that having happened, we are left in the hands of a sinister cabal hell-bent on ruling the country from the shadows, for no other discernible purpose than self gain. This cabal,led by First Lady Turai Yar'Adua, has successfully kept the president from public view, curtailed any meaningful access to him by responsible officers of state, and chosen to dole out instructions supposedly emanating from the president. The last time this happened anywhere in the world, the Soviet Union was still in existence. We are worse that a banana republic; we are a butt of jokes in any part of our civilised world.

But instead of responsible organs of state and those that lead them standing up to clean up the mess left by Mr. Yar'Adua, we have had a failure of courage from virtually all sectors of our national political leadership.

The first and most obvious has been Mr. Yar'Adua's cabinet,which the constitution presumes will be populated largely by women and men of some character and patriotism, and therefore could be trusted to declare the president medically incapacitated so that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan could take over with some measure of orderliness until the next election.

Fat chance.

Then yesterday we faced the farce in the National Assembly,

presided over by the spineless and unpatriotic duo of David Mark, the Senate president,and Dimeji Bankole, the Speaker of the House. Both arms of the national legislature effectively said it was not important enough even to debate the issue. The political opposition, of course, is largely mealy-mouthed and has so far provided no concrete example of leadership around which the nation could rally.

Finally, we have political leaders, former President Olusegun Obasanjo prominent among them, who have proved most cowardly and unworthy.

What we have left are citizens, on whom we now call to express their justifiable outrage and disgust by saying, enough. Please sign our electronic petition on our web site, 234NEXT.com. Let a million voices be heard.

Article culled from NEXT Newspaper.
Cartoon culled from Vanguard Newspaper