El-Rufai: I Complied with the BPE Act 25 Nov 2011 Former Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) Mallam Nasir el-Rufai Former Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,  Thursday said he was neither surprised nor shocked by the recommendations of the Senate’s ad hoc committee which recently investigated the privatisation process. He said in a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, that for the purpose of clarification, he as BPE DG, approvals for privatisation issues were sought and received from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), then chaired by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. He also said: “... That was the requirement of the law, and the BPE’s compliance with it during his leadership was total. The Senate Committee is invited to make public any instance-even just one-where he (el-Rufai) breached the sales approval process.” Adekeye further said when el-Rufai appeared before the Senate’s ad-hoc committee on privatisation on August 11, he had no illusions about the results such committees produce, given his previous experience. “Prior to el-Rufai’s presentation, Ahmed Lawan, chair of the committee, said that the public hearing was not a witch-hunt, and el-Rufai retorted that it was up to the committee to demonstrate that. “Anybody who followed that day’s proceedings would recall that the questions asked after el-Rufai’s presentation were mainly seeking his advice on how to improve the privatisation process. “When Senator Lawan assumed that he had found a smoking gun in the matter of monies retained by the BPE to pay transaction costs, el-Rufai candidly explained the mechanisms and processes of the bidding process that necessitated this operational move that was approved by the NCP on 24 June, 2002,” he said. Adekeye said "the strange recommendation that he be reprimanded for an offence he did not commit follows a tradition of shoddy investigation that does no credit to the Senate. Legislation and oversight are serious matters, and it is expected that people charged with such functions would truly apply themselves, avail themselves of cognate expertise and exercise due care so that the reports of such proceedings would be suffused with the kind of integrity that begets respect." He said when his principal gets a complete copy of the widely-quoted report, he would consider whether additional clarifications and other options, including and not limited to seeking judicial review of every sentence that impugns his public service record and reputation, are required.

THE AGONY OF EDO STATE, 3 YEARS AFTER GOVERNOR ADAMS OSHIOMHOLE ASSUMED OFFICE

Text of Press Conference by the Chairman, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Edo  State Chapter, Comrade Godwin Erhahon on Wednesday, November 23, 2011.

Gentlemen of the Press

We are happy to welcome you to this press conference. We are earnestly grateful to you all for honouring our invitation within such a short notice. May the almighty God continue to bless you all. We are aware of the harassment faced by those of you who are practicing journalism objectively, boldly and professionally from the hypocrite ruling our state. We salute the courage of those editors who refused to transfer or sack you after outgoing Governor Adams Oshiomhole who is ashamed of the true image of his administration that you project asked them to do so. Breaking the mirror because you dislike your image as reflected does not change the image. The just shall live by faith. We also acknowledge the roles of those of you who are used by government to sabotage the efforts of the opposition by helping to kill stories from opposition political parties. I wish you are earning enough from the ignoble services so that you don’t sell your honour for peanuts.

The CPC as a patriotic Political Party, invited you for an objective appraisal of the state of affair in Edo State today, three years after the outgoing Governor Adams Oshiomhole assumed office.                                                                                                       

Comrade Oshiomhole’s campaign was based on credibility and integrity. But unfolding events in the past three years have shown that his administration lacks both credibility and integrity obviously because it is a direct product of the failed PDP administration led by Chief Lucky Igbinedion who is now ACN godfather. But for the challenges posed to him by the great performance of the eighteen months administration of Prof Oserheimen Osunbor, Oshiomhole would have toed the line of his mentor, Lucky Igbinedion completely. This is obvious from his choice of key players in the Igbinedion-led failed government as his key officers.                                                                                                                      

Since assuming office, Comrade Oshiomhole has ruled with neither transparency nor decorum, awarding contracts without advertising tenders; the identities of contractors and the contract sums shrouded in secrecy. Hence the failure of such major contracts as Airport Road Construction. He alone knows under what consideration a completely strange company as SERVETEK won the multi-billion Naira over-invoiced Airport Road Construction contract. We have repeatedly challenged the Governor to disclose the identity of the owner of SERVETEK. Which road has SERVETEK constructed before to deserve the award of the Airport Road Construction? How much has SERVETEK refunded to the state treasury after abandoning the project? From Ring Road to Benin Airport is 2km and that is all a Governor achieved in 3 years. Why is the Governor so afraid to reveal how much he has spent on the 2km of road construction? Who is going to compensate the homes and business premises that have been consumed by erosion at the Oko axis of Airport-Ogba Road arising from the shoddy work of an incompetent SERVETEK? Now that a talkative Adams Oshiomhole remains silent on these questions, we put it to him that SERVETEK belongs to him and his godfather.

The money wasted so far on this project and the damages done to lives and properties along Airport Road cannot be wished away by statement of re-award of the contract by the Comrade Governor who had pledged credibility and integrity during the electioneering campaigns. Why does he award contracts without open tender? Why should he allow the contract that he boasted to complete within six months linger for over two and a half years? Why should he obtain loans to expand existing faultless 2km motorable road at the expense of numerous impassable city and rural roads across the state? These loans which governor Oshiomhole has taken for the dualization of 2km roads in 3 years, is no doubt a burden on the social economic lives of the people and a threat to the future development of Edo State.

We condemn the demolition of homes and properties without compensations in Benin City and environs. Now that the Governor himself has abandoned the mindless policy of wanton and sadistic destruction of homes and properties, we would have expected him by now to make a categorical statement on how the victims of his demolition policy would be compensated after he has compensated those in Auchi, his home base. But because of the way elders of Edo South have cheapened the Binis to him, the Governor paid those whose houses were demolished in Edo North and refused to pay their Edo South counterparts.

Erosion has become a serious menace and threat to lives and properties in Benin City, Urhonigbe, Auchi, Ekpoma and many other towns and cities across the state. The Commissioner for Environment said that the State government has spent #4 billion on the study of erosion control. If a government spends #4 billion on mere studies, how much has it spent on the actual control of erosion in Edo State? Yet only the governor and his cronies know the consultant who earns so much!

From the above, it is obvious that his 3 years in office is marred with deceit, cheating and propaganda. We in CPC believe that Comrade Oshiomhole has taken the people of Edo State for granted believing that his propaganda and deceit will be swallowed by all.

Therefore July 14^, 2012 gubernatorial election is crucial to the objective of repositioning Edo state for responsible leadership. The CPC has accordingly entered into a coalition with the Labour Party, ANPP and the PPP to jointly sponsor a gubernatorial candidate. The platform on which the candidate will contest will be announced later after a formal declaration and selection of the candidate. Membership of the coalition is open to other progressive parties who are ready to abide by our rules.

Comrade Oshiomhole should not expect the support of Progressive Parties after he openly betrayed his ACN Presidential Candidate, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of CPC and the progressive group during the last election when he coerced Edo ACN to vote for PDP.

We will like to end this address with a note of advice to our respected Bini Elders. The way some of them have cheapened their highly exalted positions by intruding in partisan politics of “you chop I chop, all is well” is becoming too embarrassing and demeaning. There is the popular Bini adage that says “the thief is not so much ashamed of himself as his relatives are ashamed of him”. A situation where those who sought to be insulated from partisan politics now choose candidates for political parties by endorsing incumbents for a second term ahead of their party primaries in a manner that prejudices the chances of other aspirants does not speak well of our culture. Meanwhile, these elders continue to betray our people and mortgage our culture. Whereas it is an abomination in Benin land for anyone to destroy other peoples houses, we have witnessed in recent times here in Benin City, wanton and selective destruction of houses of poor citizens by Governor Oshiomhole’s squad without compensation and those who ought to defend the poor victims joining the Governor to mock them because they, the selfish elders, have more to gain from the Governor’s patronage than from the weeping poor citizens. This is a negative re-definition of our native style of leadership. The way the exercise of demolition of houses near the Benin Moat eventually ended abruptly is an indictment on the elders of our land who failed to object to it until outgoing Governor Adams Oshiomhole cowardly reversed himself on the exercise after the demolition of the house of Dr Samuel Ogbemudia’s wife has backfired.

Whereas in Auchi, their elders ensured that government paid compensations for every house demolished irrespective of where such houses were located. A situation where the youths of our land are being turned to toys by government which give some of them jobs as elections approach and sack them after using them to rig elections or where tuition fees in state-owned schools are raised beyond what poor parents can afford and our elders see nothing wrong because the exploiters have made special provisions for their families does not portray the Binis well.

We plead with those Bini Elders who are mortgaging the people’s welfare for selfish government patronage to please stop behaving like the proverbial selfish old man who, on sensing that he was about to die, sold all his properties and squandered his money, disregarding the fact that there is re-incarnation. Our elders who value their titles should steer clear of the muddy political arena so that their sacred white robes and grey hair may not be soiled with the muddy erosion of politics.

It is disturbing, how out-going Governor Adams Oshiomhole has mastered the style of buying over Benin Elders to humiliate Benin people because our elders seem not to care about what happen to the people once their immediate families are satisfied.

It is our opinion that any leader who mortgages his authority for food dies a hungry man even with surplus food in his house. Imagine the shame that awaits these elders-turned political contractors when the people shall have rejected the candidate they have prematurely and unjustly endorsed. We are particularly disappointed seeing those who held an honour reception for Governor Igbinedion on the hallowed Benin Palace Ground in 2002 now saying the Binis have failed because Lucky Igbinedion failed as Governor. Why did they fail to rebuke Lucky Igbinedion then when there was yet time for him to correct himself, instead of honouring him for failure? The same cabal of Benin elders who chose Lucky Igbinedion as PDP governorship candidate late 1998, are the ones now singing Governor Oshiomhole’s praises. Sure! they will disown Comrade Oshiomhole once he is out of power.

CPC rejects the stigma of failure in government stamped on the Binis by these selfish and inconsistent Bini elders. The elders should allow the people choose their candidates for every election and wait to see how well the people-chosen candidate will perform. They should stop gambling with our collective might and honour.

  God bless you all.

The reality of competitive ethnicity in Nigeria

Tonnie Iredia One obvious subject that has continued to elude the Nigerian nation is integration. Neither the political structure nor the law of the land is sufficiently positioned to redress the situation. The state of origin of every Nigerian has remained the most important ticket for getting anything. At youth level, many Nigerians are favoured or deprived by the quota system of admission to schools- a system which accepts a scenario where two pupils of the same school write the same examination for admission into the same college and it is the pupil with the lower score that gets admitted because of his state of origin! At adult level, the situation is no less inexplicable. The other day, I read the story of an engineer in one organization complaining that his assistant was lifted to become his head of section. In the past, that could only happen where the position concerned was political. To have an example of it now at a technocrat and purely professional position of senior engineer shows that there is cause for worry. In the larger environment, ethnic groups in Nigeria cohabit under a cover of mutual distrust and suspicion with each scheming to undo the other. The majority groups naturally have the upper hand and they tell the rest us that Nigerians are Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba. In fact, once one of them gets a position, the next consideration is what goes to the other two. Among the minorities, the bigger groups hold tight to whatever is available in their areas. For this reason, ethnic groups like Igede, Etulo, Abakwa and the Idoma may as well forget ever occupying the office of governor of Benue State. It appears reserved for the Tiv because they are the majority. My Idoma in-law always wished that his ethnic group was located in my own Edo State where according to him the majority sometimes concedes power to the minorities. At this point, I had to straighten the records by summarizing for him a lecture I delivered in Benin the previous week titled, “Benin: Time to sow the seeds of resurgence”. I recalled that although the Benins are the majority in Edo State, neither the incumbent state governor nor the minister representing the state in the federal cabinet is one of theirs. On its face value, one may be misled into seeing the Benins as liberal-minded and accommodating. The truth however is that at this point in history; the Benins are just a sleeping majority. The last time one of them got into the federal cabinet, he was made a junior minister when some other states had two full ministers. Till date, no one knows or asked who negotiated that for the Benins. The story is the same even outside of politics. For example, although the Catholic faith came to Benin over one hundred years ago, no Benin man has been able to become the Catholic Archbishop of Benin. To say such matters are ordained and directed by God is to be unfair to the Almighty because everything is ordained by Him and because He is all fairness, He would not disapprove of members of only one tribe moving up towards the apex of their occupation. Why can’t a Benin man be the Bishop in other peoples’ homelands? In the area of education, a Benin man has at last become the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin after 40 years of its existence. The puerile argument for long that heading a university was not an ethnic thing is a language of deceit as only one group can head my own revered University of Ibadan. What then is the problem of the Benins? I can see disunity, lack of courage and selfishness among others. Yes, the Benin political class has lately been engaged in atomistic politics, a term which aptly describes a class that is at war with itself and thus unable to negotiate aright. Once some wealthy individuals among the minority groups can spread some resources around, the Benins collapse and begin to doggedly project their benefactors. If one listens carefully, one would hear things like that there are non-Benins with Benin interest as if other people can love somebody more than himself. Under the circumstance, it would not be difficult for a minority to win an election in Edo State. When compared to what our forbearers did, the fall of the famous Benin Empire of old shows clearly. If the late Chief Omo-Osagie was self-serving, he would not have declined to be Premier of the new Midwest region in 1963, so that Benin City could be the capital of the region. The warrior Obas of Benin built an expansive wall as long as 20,000km around the empire. The defensive edifice is the world’s longest self-protective complex which according to the Guinness Book of Records is the greatest earth work ever constructed by man. Today, the Benins have only one town-Benin City-all their other areas remain villages. No one else except the Benins can take responsibility for their poor state of affairs. They must thus rise now and take their destiny in their own hands because it will be unacceptable to posterity that the Benins were marginalized as a minority tribe in Nigeria and at the same time allowed themselves to also be marginalized in a state where they are in majority. To worry that some people would describe this argument as parochial is to overlook the imperatives of competitive ethnicity in a multi-ethnic society like ours . Some people may not like it but the truth is that ethnicity is one of the ‘settled’ issues of our federalism. If not, we would not have had an arrangement where our President had to go to his ‘place’ to register and to vote during the last general elections. But for the same over-all importance of ethnicity, zoning would not have assumed its important status in our political structure. Abia State would not have disengaged from its public service more than 1,800 workers of Anambra State origin. The indigene-settler imbroglio in Jos, Plateau State would not have been as fatal as it has become. These and many more examples of inter-ethnic problems in Nigeria confirm that ethnicity is still the decider of all matters in the country as it was in those days when the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo who has been aptly described as the best President Nigeria never had, could not win either the General election of 1959 or the Presidential elections of 1979 and 1983.The United States which like Nigeria is heterogeneous does not have our type of problem because ethnicity is not worshipped there. An American citizen born and bred in a place does not go in search of his ancestry to identify with a group so as to participate in any event. Until we take the issue of integration seriously, our ethnic groups would justifiably be engaged in cut-throat competition.  Those who avoid it through self-centered rationalizations would naturally decline because every other ethnic category has its own agenda.

A Delusion Called Transformation 03 Dec 2011 Dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com “Wisdom is in constant questioning of where you are…”                – Billy Connolly Fellow Nigerians, my latest advice is that we must never get tired of asking serious questions from our leaders. Even if we seem very powerless at this moment, our agitation alone will make them very uncomfortable. I now have enough evidence of what it does to their psyche each time we give them the sucker punch on the pages of newspapers. The louder most of us can raise up our voices against the recklessness of those who have ruined, and continue to ruin, our nation, the closer we’ll be to our salvation. We must therefore continue to attack them with brutal facts. We must reject their lies, and call them what they truly are, wasteful spenders. I got some mixed reactions to my weekly epistle last week, which was to be expected. There are those who lift a few words, out of nearly 2,000 that we write, and base their conclusions on just that. There are also those who would support any government no matter how useless as long as their kinsman is in charge. It matters not if they are the worst sufferers of the backward policies of that particular government. It is also incredible how some of our friends play politics with serious issues.  The fact that I said President Jonathan should not have used forces of coercion against the Governor of his own home state meant I was supporting or working for a man they want to sack from office at all costs. But it was very fine when some of us took to the streets to rally support for the same Jonathan who has become the newest oppressor in town. I never requested a thank you from him not to talk of personal gratification. Some of us act on the principle of fair-play and nothing more. As soon as my column hit the streets a week ago, I received some frantic and strident calls from those close to the corridors of power in Abuja. Any time I got such calls, the reason was always obvious. When you write what the powers-that-be consider positive, no one remembers to say thank you but when you write a few lines of what they find offensive, you have instantly become an enemy.  Truth is I really don’t worry my head if they develop insomnia because of what and how I write. They have given most Nigerians enough migraine to last us many lifetimes. They have turned us all into a laughing stock all over the world. It is worse for those Nigerians who operate in smaller African countries and can feel the impact of true transformational governments as opposed to the illusory ones we are saddled with at home. There was this particular friend who asked why I had gone all out to attack the President in the controversial article, and my answer was simply that I did not attack him personally but on the same principle that made me to demonstrate in his favour only last year. I’m of the opinion, and I will forever stand proudly on this, that the very foundation of democracy is the rule of law. A truly democratic nation must make the same laws for Saints and sinners alike. And the laws must not be suddenly exhumed for political retaliation. It was for that reason that I wrote weeks back against the supposed intimidation of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by dragging him to the Code of Conduct Bureau. It was not because I belied Tinubu was above the laws of Nigeria. Those who spoke up then have now been vindicated. Our government operatives must rise above the pettiness of setting a whole village on fire to catch bush-meats! If we visit an armed robber with jungle justice today, the same jungle justice would be used by unscrupulous people to punish an innocent man tomorrow. A man like President Jonathan who was a victim of apparent oppression, as recent as last year, should never be the one harassing fellow citizens today, even if those being harassed are as evil as some Jonathan people are claiming. Who knows, when tomorrow comes, if Jonathan himself would be a victim of intimidation and harassment outside power? Who would have foretold what President Olusegun Obasanjo is experiencing today? He is being asked to be prosecuted for serious abuse of office and privilege in the same hallowed chamber of the National Assembly where he almost realised his dream of having a third term tenure. Such is the sad reality of life. A particular friend was really vociferous in his appeal that Jonathan deserves our unqualified loyalty. There is a certain paranoia, and veiled blackmail, in their argument. Every criticism, in their view, is a validation of the Northern agenda against Jonathan. I beg to disagree. Why not prove the North wrong by doing a few things right? He said what Nigerians should do is to embrace and support President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan warts and all to succeed. I could not help but chuckle at such wishful thinking. I replied bluntly that a man who wanted to succeed would have started showing signs of such tall ambition long ago and would have worked assiduously for it. Unfortunately, I’m yet to see evidence of such requisite seriousness in the Jonathan administration. If I did I would have been charitable enough to say so. What I see, without being a prophet of doom, is a man who has been too lucky to find himself where he least expected and is too comfortable to take any risk that would destabilise the status quo. The same enemies who did not want him in power are now his best friends in power. There is nothing wrong with telling ourselves some home truth sometimes. We are all stakeholders in the country called Nigeria and we should not abdicate our individual responsibilities. I’m angry not because I want Jonathan to fail but because he’s proving the cynics right. The internet has made the world very tiny today. A leader who seriously plans to succeed does not even have to travel. Everything is provided for him at the touch of a button. In about ten minutes you can read up the story of the Chinese Revolution, The United Arab Emirate miracle, the transformation of Singapore from a third world country to a first, the audacity of Malaysia, the rise of Ghana from a crushing poverty, the amazing resilience of Rwanda, and so on. All human beings were created alike and endowed with similar as well as different attributes. But some things are procedural and basic. What I find is our leaders hate to obey that procedure and yet think they can perform a miracle. That is impossible. What is commonest to all great nations and the leaders that brought about changes was the willingness to do things differently. A leader who wants to change Nigeria must develop some hatred and impatience for doing things the same old way. He must assemble a new crop of intellectuals to think through our difficulties. No nation has ever prospered by assembling a band of thieves and handing over the nation to them. No revolution has ever occurred by pandering to the wishes and dictates of members of the privilegentsia. The interests of the poor must always override that of the wealthy class. The rich themselves must always show mercy for the poor in other to enjoy their riches in peace. There is nothing wrong with making money but it must not be made at the peril of ordinary people. In developed countries, wealth is not measured by how much you are able to make. It is determined by how much you are able to give out to those who have not. Bill Gates makes more money than he would ever be able to spend in several lifetimes but to maintain certain equilibrium, he would have to give away the money at equal velocity. That is what would differentiate every soul from an animal. Government policies must also follow the same pattern. Unfortunately, the Jonathan presidency is obviously for the rich. His policies are too elitist. At the end of his voyage, this would most likely be his waterloo! It is a big shame that he has not been able to learn from the mistakes of the past. He’s content to warm his presidential seat and risk the ignominy that will surely haunt him forever when it is all over, sooner than he thinks, because time flies at the speed of light. President Jonathan’s biggest risk in life is the gamble he’s determined to take on the oil subsidy matter. I have no doubt that he will regret that decision. It won’t be because we can’t remove the subsidy, it would be because nothing would change. A few PDP legislators are shocking us with their intelligence by asking the most pertinent questions. Is Jonathan absolutely convinced that he knows the true worth of the subsidies being signed off regularly to few members of the oil cartel? What makes it impossible to maintain existing refineries while building new ones? And the news just came that Niger Republic has built a modern wonder of a refinery before our very eyes! The argument that the poor don’t buy petrol is as puerile as it is callous. How can the poor who could not survive on his present salary cope when transport fares go skyrocket as it is bound to happen? Also if our citizens are not benefitting anything from being Nigerians, is it not fair that we are able to have our token sense of belonging by enjoying the so-called subsidy. There is nothing new in the argument of the Jonathan administration that we have not heard before. The Obasanjo government rehashed the same lines repeatedly and increased fuel prices severally without any commensurate compensation to the people. There is always a major snag when a government policy becomes a religion. We are being told that there is no alternative to the oil subsidy removal. And that Nigeria will perish if we fail to remove the subsidy. I predict that a bigger heaven will descend on all of us when it is eventually removed by the obstinate men and women of power who want the poor to pay the price for the profligacy of the rich. I will support the government when we are told that they will not renovate the official home of the President again till he quits power; that our money would not be wasted on building a new residence for the Vice President; that our President would drastically reduce his foreign travels to the most essential engagements; that he would only fly Presidential jet for domestic use and fly Arik to international engagements when absolutely necessary; that our money would not be wasted on the purchase of new aircrafts; that all public officers would agree to pay cuts to their salaries and emoluments by half; that government would put a permanent stop to wasteful display of affluence by an impoverished nation, and so on. That is the minimum demand that must be met. The era of “monkey dey work, baboon dey chop” must end.    If President Jonathan takes us on another jolly ride like his predecessors, it would be a multiple tragedy for Nigerians. He would have demystified the myth that a younger leader is what Nigeria needs to move the nation forward. He would have shattered our hopes in the capabilities of a well-educated leader. He would have disenfranchised those who believed that the child of poor parents, who advertised how he wore no shoes to school, would always champion the cause of proletariats like himself. What would be worse is that the people of the Niger Delta who used to complain about marginalisation in matters of national significance would have succeeded in presenting a failed candidate to a nation in dire need of a Messiah. This would be the most abominable of all the tragedies because it would be understandable if outsiders waste your resources, but unpardonable if you fritter away your own glorious heritage.

The trouble with presidential remarks

Judging from his prefatory remarks on the subsidy removal issue to the 17th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES 17) holding in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan seems to think he is on the verge of an historic right. Because he often confuses the office of the president with the destiny of the country, like virtually all his predecessors, he also gave the impression at the summit that if we failed to support the timely measure, the country would be doomed sometime in the future to depending on poorer nations like Chad and Ghana for its fuel needs. However, in contradistinction to his lofty projections, many of us think Jonathan is actually not poised on the verge of an historic right, but on the verge of an historic wrong.

The president was unsparing in his criticisms, particularly during the Presidential Dialogue with Global CEOs, scoffing when he had superior argument, or misrepresenting when his mind wandered obligingly towards his old nemesis, Gen Muhammadu Buhari. For most parts, however, the president simply gave an incredibly optimistic portrayal of the Nigerian economy and how it runs. He has been accustomed to painting fanciful pictures of the interrelationships between leadership and followers since he became a visible politician, but on this day with the CEOs he soared higher with great abandonment about the economy till we were no longer sure whether he was talking economics, politics or psychology.

There was the little coruscant about foreign investors regretting their failure to invest in Nigeria on account of terrorism, but otherwise, Jonathan’s remarks were indeed blasé. Perhaps we spied a wit here and there struggling for space in his talk; and some fury and hyperbole ventilated like molten magma in other parts. Beyond these, there was nothing really extraordinary. As usual, there was no philosophical or ideological stirring, and no nugget or pearl to warm the cockles of the heart.

The occasion was magnificently present alright, what with global leaders in business as his audience, and the panjandra of economics in attendance from all nooks and corners in Nigeria. They needed a peculiar message, one suited for the cortex, not the midriff; one that was grand, not middling. But they got a message meant for a different occasion. Jonathan was not only resolute in removing subsidy, which he was ready to swear would usher in the Nigeria of his utopian dream, he described his critics as Janus-faced. In summary, his opinion that critics of fuel subsidy removal were hypocritical and subversive offered us a disconcerting window into his worldview, particularly what he thought of democracy.

This column will resist the temptation to take on Jonathan’s ideas on politics and law today. I suspect that by now he is already wearied by our criticisms, most of which he puts down to the antics of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a party he and his fawning aides claim suborns many of us columnists into its partisan plans against the state. If he is wearied by our criticisms, he is not alone. We are also wearied by his relentless offer of errant public policies, policies that apparently always shunned rigorous thinking and debate, or even research, reflection and discipline. As I said in this place shortly before Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala assumed office as the czarina of the government’s economic management, Jonathan is at liberty to surrender the economy to the World Bank guru and alumnus, but he is definitely not at liberty to foreclose discussions on a subject that makes him uneasy.

Some of Jonathan’s statements at NES 17 were truly shocking. It is not clear where he got the precedent, but he even attempted to draw a line between economics and politics by denouncing what he interpreted as the politicisation of the subsidy issue. Notwithstanding Jonathan’s rather unresponsive approach to governance, particularly his attempt to make Okonjo-Iweala primus inter pares among his ministers, I am not sure we can find any analyst anywhere who would argue for the separation of politics from economics. Before the president claims we misunderstood him, we must let him know that we understood the two senses in which he looked at the opposition to subsidy removal.

In one breath, it is possible the president thinks the opposition is informed by the desire to bring his government to grief. Said he: “Unfortunately, here, people play politics with all things. Now even those who were arguing for the removal of subsidy before are now speaking from both sides of the mouth. Now they want to bring the government down.” This conclusion is of course both far-fetched and embarrassing, but it did not deter the president from reaching for his enemies, for often when his passion is inflamed, he speaks with idiosyncratic boyishness.

But it is also possible that the president believes subsidy removal critics merely want to score cheap political points, to callously destroy a policy designed to lift Nigeria to great heights. Whether he sees crass politicking or subversion in his opponents’ criticisms or not, the president is still wrong on both counts to feel incommoded by the vehemence of the opposition. Was he not rather naïve to think a policy as far-reaching as subsidy removal would be passed by lawmakers or accepted without debate or opposition, no matter how rancorous? Even if he has made up his mind to drink hemlock, it is embarrassing that the president was not expecting passionate opposition. Sometimes, I suspect that Jonathan has a romantic or military or even monarchical view of government, all views that welcome the beguiling benefits of office without a corresponding acceptance of all its onerous responsibilities, views that allow all forms of enjoyments unmitigated by the gravity and complexity of ruling 167 million people.

Not only is there nothing like economics without politics, even the most incompetent president anywhere must expect that his opponents will attempt to trash his good policies, let alone the abhorrent policy of removing a subsidy no one has yet convinced us truly exists. Rather than offer us convincing facts and figures, government propaganda on the subsidy issue has relied on sentiments, name-calling and scaremongering resting on leprous, contrived statistics. At a point, Jonathan tried to confer dubious honours on Gen Muhammadu Buhari as a proponent of subsidy removal. The laconic general has denounced the effort and dismissed subsidy as a phantom.

But whether the president appreciates the politics and economics of fuel subsidy or not, he no longer seems enthusiastic about removing the so-called subsidy by January. The reason is not that he has changed his mind, or that he is suddenly persuaded to love it. The reason is that when the president compartmentalised the issue of subsidy into economics and politics, it was easier to handle. Now that Nigerians have shown the two to be intertwined, the president has lost a bit of his appetite. Worse, given the sordid revelations coming from the fuel subsidy probes in both chambers of the National Assembly, particularly the obvious fact that a few ‘fat cats’ had conspired to suck inordinate amount of money from the national treasury on account of the subsidy, everyone is beginning to see that Buhari and Professor Tam David-West might be right after all that the so-called subsidy is nothing but fantasy. Who will set Jonathan free from mistaken belief?

Perhaps the high point of Jonathan’s discussions with the CEOs is his conviction that the menace of Boko Haram is a temporary setback. I forgive the president’s starry-eyed view of economics, knowing full well that right from his acting presidency days he has never been enamoured of economics. It is a subject that makes him squirm. But to say Boko Haram is a temporary setback stretches credulity to the limit. Boko Haram is in fact a major problem, not a setback or a temporary phenomenon.

Religious extremism in Nigeria is a logical progression from decades of treating religious violence with kid gloves. Years of rampage and killings by fanatics, especially in the northern parts of the country, rarely led to prosecution, not to talk of punishment. There was little official deterrence; indeed, there appeared to be only official connivance. When religion was fully introduced into politics in Zamfara State, the Olusegun Obasanjo government described it as a temporary fad that would soon go away. Most Nigerian governments have been remarkably and irresponsibly insouciant about religious violence, the Jonathan government not excluded. Do we not recall Jonathan’s handwringing over Boko Haram, whether to fight or negotiate with it? And where has that disgraceful hesitation led us?

Jonathan may enjoy taking refuge behind the porous walls of global terrorism, but in the name of God, all right-thinking Nigerians must recognise that if our governments had not been negligent over the years in doing what is right, we would probably be immune from the deadly impact of the bloodletting we are witnessing today. That others are suffering does not mean we must suffer.

Subsidy removal subsidises unworkable 36-state structure

T is peculiarly Nigerian that with global economy teetering on the verge of deeper recession, and much stronger economies collapsing under debts, lobbyists here are still pressing on with their campaign for additional states. Recall, for instance, how our large and incongruous delegation to the last Commonwealth meeting in Australia produced great mirth for some newspapers in that country, and how they snickered behind closed doors at our egregious habits that defied economic realities. But now the same astonished world will be even more amused that the campaign for new states, with all its cost implications, seems to be receiving sympathetic hearing in high places, including our National Assembly.

I know that the seriousness of running a large, poor and unstable country escapes us. This probably explains why federal and state governments irresponsibly decided that rather than review the structure of our country, the best option is to look for more money to run the clumsy, clay-footed giant. To them, the solution is to remove what they identify as subsidy on petroleum products. Surely, there must be a limit to imprudence.

Apart from calculating the subsidy to be over a trillion naira, officials irresponsibly concluded that if that money went into government coffers rather than the pockets of nameless fat cats, we would move closer to utopia. The ongoing probes in the National Assembly, however, show that while consumption of fuel has stagnated, the cost of subsidy has more than quadrupled, far in excess of budgetary provisions. Worse, they are also discovering that in the labyrinth that is public accounts, some of our oil receipts were converted at a rate below approved Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rates before being paid into the federation account. The disclosures are so disturbing that an embarrassed federal government has eased up on its campaign for subsidy removal and pushed back the date of implementing the obnoxious policy.

If we had leaders who think deep, they would explore other options of raising money to run the country. The first question they would ask is whether we were running the country as efficiently as possible, even in this age of disingenuous outsourcing. The second step would be to look at the economies of countries selling petrol at higher prices and compare our economy with their standard of living, minimum wage, and the protection they afford citizens left in the cold?

It is annoying that at a time when the world is in the throes of revolutions, when the world is in ferment and is primed for upheavals, Nigeria’s bungling rulers have chosen the moment to sail near the wind. Why is it so difficult for them to recognise that all they need is the political will to restructure the country away from this unworkable and deceptively federal arrangement? What we need are compact regions run by premiers, and a truly federal and secular arrangement that does not disregard cultural and regional differences.

Jonathan may have been legitimately elected, but he must see his victory more as a rejection of other candidates or what they stood for than an endorsement of his competence or what he stands for. By refusing to summon the will to restructure the country, he makes his supporters and neutrals look foolish. Worse, he is now even pushing the country to the precipice and blaming the problem on his enemies

Boko Haram sponsors: SSS detains senator

By Yusuf Alli and Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja 13 hours 26 minutes ago

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sen Ndume

Suspect names ex-Governor Sheriff, ex-envoy as backers

SECURITY agents last night arrested a Senator who a suspect named as a Boko Haram sponsor.
Senator Ali Ndume (Borno), who is being held by the State Security Services (SSS), is likely to face trial today in Abuja.
The Nation learnt also that 13 suspects have been arrested by the Joint Task Force in connection with the recent bombings in Damaturu, Yobe State. 
Ndume will be arraigned in court with some members of the sect already in SSS custody, sources said.
A source, who pleaded not to be named for security reasons, broke to The Nation news of the senator’s arrest at about 10.20pm.
He said: “He is presently being detained in SSS custody, pending his arraignment in court.
“Based on the confession of some Boko Haram suspects in custody, we have interrogated Ndume and he has made a statement accordingly. We are going to charge him to court on Tuesday (today) with some of the suspects in our custody.
“With this development, we hope that Nigerians will appreciate that security agencies are doing our best to tackle terrorism.”
Attempts by some Senators to see Ndume last night failed.
A suspect named Ndume, former Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe, the late Saidu Pindar, as financial backers of Boko Haram.
The suspect, Ali Sauda Umar Konduga (a.k.a Usman al-Zawahiri) spoke at the State Security Service (SSS) office in Abuja during a session with reporters in the presence of SSS officials.
It was a repetition of the confessional statement he allegedly made to the SSS.
Besides its activities in the Northeast, which have caused hundreds of deaths, the group extended its operations to Abuja when its suicide bomber attacked the police headquarters.
The group also killed more than 60 people during its co-ordinated strikes in Damaturu and Potiskum in Yobe State and Maiduguri, Borno State, early this month.
Boko Haram took its operations to the international arena by attacking the United Nations (UN) building in Abuja in August, killing 24 people.
Konduga said he was trained by the late Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, who was summarily executed in police custody in 2009. 
Konduga confessed to being a member of “ECOMOG”, political outfit allegedly sponsored by Sheriff. 
According to him, the relationship between the sect and the ex-governor flourished when Sheriff appointed one of Boko Haram’s leaders, Fuji Foi, as commissioner. But the relationship went sour after Foi was sacked and eventually killed in circumstances the sect believed were officially instigated.
The suspect, who spoke through an interpreter, said it was at this point that the late Pindar stepped in as a major backer of the sect. According to him, Pindar promised the sect N10 million and was on his way to deliver N5 million to the sect when he was killed in a road crash about two months ago.
Konduga said: “Senator Ali Ndume filled the vacuum left by Pindar. He composed threat text messages that we forwarded to prominent individuals, including Governor Sule Lamido (Jigawa State), Babangida Aliyu (Niger State), Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dalhatu Tafida and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.”
“Before his death, Pindar encouraged us to send threat messages to the chairman of the Borno State Election Petition Tribunal, Justice Sambo Adamu, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke.” 
The Borno Election Petition Tribunal was forced to relocate from Maiduguri to Abuja by the frightening contents of the text messages.
According to the suspect, the relationship between the sect and Ndume grew tepid when the senator was named  as a member of the Galtimari Committee on Security in the Northeast.
“We questioned Ndume’s membership of the committee, but he explained to us that he had no link with ex-Governor Sheriff and that he would supply us the telephone numbers of members of the Galtimari committee. He could not fulfil the promise before I was arrested.”
The Galtimari committee has submitted its report which President Goodluck Jonathan promised to implement, saying: “perpetrators would be dealt with and that the heavens would not fall”.
Giving reasons for sending threat messages to the prominent individuals, Konduga said Ndume told them that Obasanjo was a strong backer of Sheriff and the message was meant to get the ex-President to withdraw his support for him.
The message to the tribunal chairman was to threaten him to rule in favour of the PDP in the Borno State governorship election petition. The election was won by the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
The message to the Attorney General was to make him prevail on the tribunal to rule in favour of the PDP. The message to Governors Lamido and Aliyu was to check their relentless verbal attacks on the sect.
One of the threat messages was also sent to former Senator and ex-Works Minister Sanusi Daggash. According to the suspect, Ndume told the sect that Daggash was working against the interest of the PDP in Borno State.
According to Konduga, all the messages were scripted by Ndume and forwarded to him for onward transmission to the various individuals. He also provided the telephone numbers of the individuals.
The suspect expressed the sect’s dissatisfaction with the various political figures they had contact with because, according to him, they always failed to keep their promises when the sect members needed them most.
SSS spokesperson Marilyn Ogar who addressed the press conference where the suspect was paraded before reporters, said the revelation had confirmed the position of the SSS that Boko Haram members enjoy political patronage and sponsorship.
She said the suspect was arrested on November 3 by a joint security operation at Gwange, Maiduguri. According to Ogar, Konduga claimed to be one of the spokesmen of the sect.
The SSS spokesperson said the suspect confessed that following the compulsory registration of SIM cards, he was asked to steal a SIM which he used in sending the threat messages.
Ogar revealed that the suspect had been using a pseudo name, Usman Al-Zawahiri, to conceal his identity. She confirmed that analysis of the suspect’s phone confirmed constant communication between him and the legislator (preferring not to mention his name).
She said: “Meanwhile, analysis of Al-Zawahiri’s phone has confirmed constant communication between him and the legislator”.
The SSS reiterated its commitment to addressing the security threat posed by Boko Haram and other fundamentalist groups, including the dimensions of political patronage and sponsorship of extremist and violent groups.
Ndume was the Minority Leader of the sixth House of Representatives. He was elected on the platform of the ANPP. He defected to the PDP shortly before the April elections, apparently having fallen out with ex- Governor Sheriff who is in absolute control of the ANPP in Borno State.

Style and the man: Jonathan’s speech and homily

By Idowu Akinlotan 02/10/2011 00:00:00

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Goodluck Jonathan

Two instincts are always at war in President Goodluck Jonathan’s mind. One side of him yearns to be an effective and transformational leader. This is the side he sells to us, the side we are still gingerly examining. The other side of him ensconces itself in the geniality and simplicity of his youth, an uncomplicated earthiness he grew up knowing and loving, one he is sometimes loth to disown especially when he is confronted by the complexities of ruling modern Nigeria. Judging from his sojourn in power so far, and the oscillations between firmness one day and galling hesitations another, he seems quite unenthusiastic about resolving the dilemma his personality and presidency confront daily. If my reading of him is realistic, it is unlikely the dilemma would be resolved soon or even before the expiration of his tenure.
More perplexing, in my opinion, is his refusal to determine, by books, what his understanding of leadership should be or the kind of leadership he should give his country, or even the sort of leadership his country requires at this time. Jonathan was given some moments to declaim on a topic of his interest during the 51st
 Independence Anniversary service in Abuja last Sunday. There he shocked us with an improper grasp of the topic of leadership, though he still managed to say what kind of leadership we should not expect from him, the kind he thought, by the examples he assembled from the Bible, was unacceptable to him and probably to any nation. At least now we are no longer in the dark as to what sort of leadership he detests. But, as we found out from Jonathan’s homily last Sunday, he finds it much more difficult to say what kind of leader he aspires to be.
This is not surprising. Most people face identity crisis at one point or another, and sometimes for an entire lifespan. Those who define who they are early in life may have been lucky to face what historians call defining moments, in which circumstances compel them to stand courageously for truth or principles, or to yield supinely to or accommodate the forces of the moment. Jonathan has faced political trials that offered him great moments to define himself and his presidency, a few of them during the interregnum, and others after he won the presidency. When it came to politics, he has found it quite distressing to summon the great character with which notable world leaders tackled the exigencies of the day, or to summon the great principles that ennobled the policy options of great leaders in defiance of the flatteries of their loyalists and supporters.
Jonathan has been heavily disparaged for asserting he would not gratify the wishes of Nigerian critics who he claimed wanted him to rule like a medieval king – like Egypt’s Pharaohs, like an army general, like Nebuchadnezzar, or like a lion. Perhaps because the time he was given was short, he did not tell us whether he thought all the Pharaohs who ever ruled Egypt were bad, or what part of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign he objected to. And if he were to rule like a lion, he did not also say what reservations he had about being likened to the king of the jungle. Two days after, however, he gave us an insight into what he really meant. At a lecture to mark the 51
st
 Independence Anniversary, Jonathan gave a definitive prescription for Nigeria’s greatness. Rather than leadership style or the strong personality of the leader, what a nation aspiring to greatness needed, the president said, were strong institutions.
So, if any of us expected Jonathan to offer strong Pharaoh-like leadership, we would instead, as he put it inelegantly, receive nothing from him but strong institutions, which he was erecting through the process of transformational leadership. I have written on the subject of leadership on more than four or five occasions in this place. I am tired of repeating myself to people who hardly take the pain to peruse critical views about themselves. Let Jonathan and his aides, if they are so minded, call for those articles in order to inform the president on the subject. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he needs both style and substance as a leader. His presidency is as much about his personality and style as it is about strong institutions, whether the institutions are created through transformational programmes or improved upon. Strong institutions can always be weakened and subverted by weak or strong leaders; but strong leaders always tend to create or improve strong institutions. Our colonial and post-colonial history proves this.
I fear that Jonathan’s ambition does not exceed leaving the country much the same way he met it – a united and fairly stable country. His talk of transformation looks undoubtedly at variance with what his ambition seems to evoke. I have an enjoyable habit of annoying some of my readers by my sometimes trenchant dismissal of their pretensions and sham intellectualism. They can rail at me all they wish; I am not deterred by their menaces, uncouthness, uncultured, not to say uninformed and unprincipled, vituperations. However, I must assert with all the energies in me that Jonathan’s disavowal of style and personality is nothing but escapism. All he is doing is attempting to hide his inability to boldly confront the major problems of the day behind the advocacy of strong institutions.
Many commentators have advised Jonathan to just give effective leadership instead of generating polemics on leadership style. The issue, I believe, goes beyond that. Jonathan, thankfully, does not appear to have uncultured and abusive aides, partly, I think, because he understands that whatever they say naturally and unavoidably reflect on his presidency. Let him keep that fine attitude. But except he confronts the issues of style and personality, his presidency will disappear unremarkably at the end of his tenure as a mere footnote in the annals of our nation. The problems we face today are the worst since independence, far in excess of the disagreements that led to the civil war. The Nigerian structure is not working; Nigerians have lost faith in their country; there is a chasm between our peoples, a chasm that cannot be bridged by fair words and homilies; and we have no sense of nationhood. Against these problems, strong institutions, as desirable as they are in a polity that works, are mere palliatives.
If it is not too late, I would like to remind Jonathan once again to seek refuge in books written by great leaders, some of whom he carelessly and almost recklessly dismissed.; for surely, among the welter of egotistic drivel of the Pharaohs, he will find pearls and nuggets worth both the sleuthing and his presidency. Let him burn the midnight oil on other great biographies, against which if he measured his presidency he would discover his inadequacies. As he is configured, and with his one-dimensional appreciation of leadership, if Jonathan were in Lincoln’s shoes before the American Civil War, he would endure slavery, reconcile with the South in mistaken abhorrence of fratricidal conflict, and take a dim view of history.
Given his present attitude to the current Nigerian constitution, if Jonathan were de Gaulle, confronted in 1958 by the problematic constitution of the Fourth Republic, he would make his peace with the constitution by amending it rather than replacing it. Richard Nixon, a former United States president ascribed the stability of the French Fifth Republic to the replacement of the Fourth Republic constitution by de Gaulle, even as he put the post-war instability of Italy down to the lack of similar leadership vision and strong personality as France mustered.
If Jonathan were Churchill before World War II, he would have made peace with Hitler in order to avoid war and escape the inconveniences of sacrificing millions of lives and possibly a political career in the defence of noble and lofty principles. After all, was Jonathan not disposed to negotiating with Boko Haram until the sect proved annoyingly intransigent? Are strong institutions enough to curb the crises engendered by unstable and weak political structures? Did strong institutions produce Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus the Great, Genghis Khan, etc or the other way round? They were strong leaders for their eras. We are at new and historic junctures in human history; and our era, and Nigeria in particular, still needs strong leaders. Strong leadership is, of course, not the same as dictatorship.
Jonathan needs to do more than attack terrorism with platitudes, as he did bemusedly in his Independence Day speech. We have reconciled ourselves to the sombre reality of his uninspiring speeches. But he exceeds even his own monotony when he called on politicians to eschew partisanship while he himself yields to his ruling party. It is surprising he has not placed his finger on the real factors that discourage business in Nigeria and make insecurity to flourish. However, his speech this time gave editors catchy headlines, but there was nothing said about the issues he raised that support those brave headlines.

If Jonathan is to reposition his presidency, he will need the firmness of Obasanjo without the latter’s bucolic rage, sanctimoniousness and obscurantism. He will need Gowon’s fairness and humanism pepped up by a fiery crusade against national and intellectual slothfulness. He will need Murtala Mohammed’s impatient activism circumscribed by a deeply intellectual and reflective understanding of both narrow and national issues. But at the core of the recommended eclecticism must be a powerful self-conviction that only great books can unearth, a self-discovery that will quieten his warring instincts and smother the tendency for escapism that has dodged his every step since he was unleashed upon the nation by the scheming Obasanjo.