Politics as Nigeria’s Major Economic Problem 17 May 2011 Nigeria cannot be said to lack resources. No. It is one of the richly endowed countries in the world. It cannot be said to be poor at development planning. Certainly not! There are enough of that, old and new, in files of various ages in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). And for economists, there is no need to ask because it has some of the best and the brightest. Nigeria boasts of some strong economic indicators, with prospects of a complete turn-around. The economy has been growing at an average annual rate of 8 per cent, just as the IMF and World Bank have declared it as one of eleven economies to watch in the next decade. But high poverty and unemployment levels mean that the average quality of life is poor. On the 2010 United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), Nigeria is ranked 159 of 178 countries - lower than Togo, Ghana, Senegal and Gambia. People tend to take this measure seriously because it is a comparative measure of standards of living for countries worldwide and a means of measuring the impact of economic policies on the quality of life. Natural economic expectation is that with her rich resource base and the quality of human capital, Nigeria would be high on the HDI, but there lies the Giant of Africa among the poor. Former President Babangida was spot on when he observed that the economy had defied all economic theory and logic. He had the services of erudite economists like the late Professors Ojetunji Aboyade and Adebayo Adediji at his disposal. This paradox is one of the many reasons why a school, to which I belong, is persuaded to believe that the greatest of Nigeria’s economic problems is rooted in Aso Rock. Let’s start with this example. Whatever anyone feels about President Goodluck Jonathan, it will be unfair not to acknowledge the improvement in electricity power supply in the country. Without looking at the numbers, there has been a noticeable increase in the hours of electricity supply to homes and offices. At the moment, power generation stands at 4,000 megawatts, the highest the country has recorded in recent times. Now, ask the welder, the vulcaniser, the factory hand, and the child at home: you don’t have to study economics to appreciate the importance of electricity to their well-being and national economic development. Yet for years the supply of electricity deteriorated so consistently that it became a privilege to have it for a few moments. Various governments didn’t have a handle on it. Let’s fast-forward to the second coming of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo embraced a full-blown reform regime with the enactment of the Electricity Sector Act in 2005 and the subsequent establishment of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. Consequently, the public monopoly PHCN was unbundled into a single transmission company, six generating companies and 11 distribution companies. Despite its imperfections, the programme was on course to improving power supply. And when the Yar’Adua administration came on, it was expected that it would run even faster with the baton, but the process was suddenly halted and the baton hurled away. With all the investment and commitment to the process frozen by the stalled reform process, hope was lost again. But what happened? Interest and lobby groups needed the status quo to remain to keep them in business. The national interest didn’t matter much to them. The official reason for stalling the process was that the PHCN needed to be stabilised and made economically attractive to investors. A cock and bull story! President Jonathan jump-started the process, after years of waste, loss of investment and loss of momentum. And now there is hope again. The point I am making is that, as the Jonathan power- supply example shows, Aso Rock’s commitment is a key success factor of economic programmes. Aso Rock established the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and grew it to $20 billion against all odds. Now, also against the opposition of other stakeholders, Aso Rock is on course to establish the Sovereign Wealth Fund. Any doubts about the Fund’s usefulness have been erased by the importance of the ECA. There are many more examples of Aso Rock’s overwhelming influence on the economy. It was an Aso Rock decision that killed the Presidential Initiative on Cassava, which had a laudable objective of promoting cassava as a foreign exchange earner for the country and boosting self-sufficiency in food production. Farmers and the processors who embraced the initiative with hopes to benefit from its numerous advantages are now left in the cold to count their losses. The dream of a N10 billion a year cassava tuber industry is dead. Even where government policies are implemented without flip-flops, leakages through large vents of corruption means that projects are not completed or they are not completed on time and budget. Considering the urgency of electricity projects, it was shocking to hear reports of an alleged N5.2 billion fraud in the Rural Electrification Agency. Corruption is a hemorrhage of resources meant for economic growth. There is another on-going case that validates the view that corruption remains a major impediment to growth. Dr. Hassan Muhammad Lawal was appointed Minister of Works and Housing on December 17, 2008 in a cabinet reshuffle by the late President Yar’Adua. He left office in March 2010, when then Acting President Jonathan dissolved the cabinet. During his tenure, some major roads, including Apapa roads that serve the ports in Lagos, got so bad that one morning, most newspapers attacked government for negligence of vital roads. That was only when the Apapa roads, through which nearly all imported petroleum products pass to the rest of the country, got some attention. Now, with allegations of fraud and money laundering to the tune of some N75.5 billion, over which Lawal and 15 others have been arraigned, one wonders about the opportunity cost of that amount – kilometres of road which could have been rehabilitated. If ministers and other government officials bleed the economy in a way that stalls programme implementation and economic development, the blame goes to the President. Political appointees are not elected by the people. Corruption is wasteful to the national economy and only exemplary leadership and robust anti-corruption drive can curtail it. There are other forms of waste, which only Aso Rock can curtail. It cannot be said that Aso Rock is unaware of the implication of the huge yearly recurrent expenditure of the budget. And for sure, there has to be a way to address the waste in the National Assembly. These are huge holes successive occupants of Aso Rock have failed to plug becuase of politics. This is yet another: for goodness sake, should a major oil exporter continue to import petroleum products, while local refineries operate epileptically? Nigerians seem to delight in the absence of queues at the fuel station, without bothering about the billions of naira spent every quarter to import petroleum products. They also seem to be unconcerned about racketeers who corner much of the supposed government subsidy. Of course, they bother less about the opportunity cost of the billions of naira wasted. But it lies in the infrastructure and social amenities such monies could have provided. So much is wasted or stolen in a country with huge developmental needs. It is commonsense, not necessarily economics, that without a functional infrastructure, the economy cannot grow desirably. President Jonathan has made a good choice with the decision to improve electricity supply, but I believe he can add critical roads and rail transportation. These are likely to cut the high cost of production in the country by some 45 per cent. Without requisite infrastructure, the economy has become inefficient. Economic efficiency refers to the use of resources so as to maximise the production of goods and service. Getting the largely idle real sector to work again will be a major boost to economic growth and also reduce the worsening culture of idleness and over-dependence on the national cake. Complacency over oil revenue has caused the neglect of other sectors of the economy, but this has to stop to enable the country achieve an all-round growth. Doubtlessly, President Jonathan’s success in the next four years will be a direct function of his economic achievements. Improve living conditions, get people productively engaged for economic empowerment and they will not be bothered about the politics of Abuja. Predictably, this will even reduce the insecurity in the land – less idle hands. But to achieve the desired economic success, he needs an empowered economic team. There shouldn’t be any problem working with the nucleus of current National Economic Management Team (NEMT). Going by the articulation of key members of the team, there is no doubt that they have a grasp of the challenges of the economy and a blueprint for an all-inclusive economic growth, which is already being implemented. As I have said before, in growing an economy, a President’s support for his economic team, in a polity invested with hawks, is very essential. Former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has confirmed my point in a recent Financial Times interview. She said of the economic team she led, “…we were a team and we had a committed president (President Olusegun Obasanjo) at that time.”

Religion, Politics and April 2011 Elections 15 Feb 2011 Tolling Bells, By Bisi Daniels. Email: bisidaniels@thisdayonline.com, I pray that April does not lead Nigeria in a decent into a crisis even close to the political impasse in Cote d'Ivoire. And I pray that one day soon, Nigerians will first see themselves as Nigerians before their origin becomes of any relevance at all. I think former President Olusegun Obasanjo was right to have expressed concern for the unity of Nigeria last week. Over that, he no laugh o! One would have thought that at this time and age religious and ethnic differences in countries had lost their potency for crisis. But not in Africa!  The North-South divide is as old as the longest civil war in the world that has birthed the newest country – Southern Sudan; and it is as fresh as the ugly Gbagbo – Ouattara impasse in Cote d'Ivoire. In Nigeria it would appear that there are always people at work, digging deep into the North-South divide. And until the end of the superiority complex of some sections of the country or a set of people over others, there will always be strife. So I pray because politicians will go to any length to get power even if in the end there are no more people to govern. I also pray that by April, the Independent National Electoral Commission would have matured enough to conduct a visibly credible and convincing presidential election, which will leave no one in doubt about the victory of the winner. For the Commission, unlike in its request for funding and timelines for the voters registration exercise, there will be no second chance. Mistakes made during the elections may be difficult to change. Loopholes will easily be exploited by politicians, who are already trooping to the courts for injunctions. Months after the world moved against President Laurent Gbagbo for stealing Alassane Ouattara’s mandate as President of Cote d'Ivoire, he is still holding on. And he seems to have popular support from his part of the country – the South, while Ouattara is rooted firmly in the support of the North, and the international community. However the story of the two is not as straightforward as it looks. In 1992 when Ouattara was prime minister under the late President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Gbagbo, then an opposition pro-democracy leader, was jailed for organising a student protest.   Clashes between the two continued when in 2000, Gbagbo, believed to be the real winner in a presidential election, was proclaimed president. Opposition leader Ouattara, was excluded from running in the poll and he called for a fresh election. Soon fighting erupted between Gbagbo's mainly southern supporters and followers of Ouattara, who were mostly from the north. Repeatedly Ouattara had been barred from presidential elections over doubts concerning his nationality, but a key component of repeated peace deals with the rebels, who remained in control of the north, allowed him to run during the last elections. Ouattara, polled more than 95 per cent of the electorate in many parts of the north in the first round, while getting less than five percent in certain parts of the mostly west. Overall, he finished second with 32 percent of the vote, to Gbagbo's 38 percent, which included dominating percentages in southern, eastern and western regions. In the subsequent run-off ballot, the Election Commission announced that Ouattara won with 54.1 per cent of the vote compared with 45.9 percent for Gbagbo. But the Constitutional Council rejected the results as rigged and Gbagbo was declared winner. Another scene: Sudan gained independence in 1956 and six years later, a civil war broke out in the southern parts of the country. Under the Jaafar Numeiri administration, southern Sudan achieved partly self-governance in 1972 in a peace agreement signed in Addis Ababa. But in 1978, large findings of oil in Bentiu, southern Sudan refueled the strife between North and South. It was worsened five years later, when Numieri introduced the Islamic Sharia law to Sudan, leading to a new breakout of the civil war in the south. The forces there were led by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) under command of John Garang. Fast forward: a referendum took place in Southern Sudan  last month on whether the region should remain a part of Sudan or become independent.  The referendum was one of the consequences of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M). The final results published by the referendum commission show a 98.83 per cent voting in favour of independence, and the predetermined date for the creation of an independent state is July 9, 2011. I deliberately removed the religion factor from this narrative. In all instances, the north is described as the Muslim North, and the south, Christian South. Many countries in Africa, south of the Sahara, are so partitioned. Although elaborate efforts are made by their governments to paper over the wide cracks, the fact sticks out like the sore thumb. Successive Nigerian governments have adduced the Jos crisis to anything but religion. Not even after last December bombings in Jos and other parts of the country. But an interesting scene played out at a press conference by the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC). The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar, said in his comments after NIREC’s official statement, “I have said this before and I stand by it: the Jos crisis is political, with religious undertones, and that is because those fighting are predominantly Christians and Muslims. Politicians are behind it and the leaders in the state should be blamed….That is the truth." The NIREC had described the crises as political and CAN President Ayo Oritsejafor’s anxiety was obvious as he took his turn to speak. “I agree that the killings are political, but with a very, very strong dose of religion….” A careful look at most of these crises across Africa shows politicians at work. But it is true that the trigger they pull is religion. The politicians know the weaknesses of their foot soldiers and how to manipulate them to achieve their beliefs. Religion thus becomes the red flag to get the bull charging. It is a sad irony that people would kill for the Almighty God, who has absolute power over life and death; sad indeed that people love religion more than they love God. A broadcast on an American television network the other day set me thinking. It accused President Barack Obama of rising too quickly in support of Ouattara without a careful consideration of prevailing issues. To the network, which also showed a long interview with Gbagbo, he is being robbed in a conspiracy to give power to the Muslim north. Oh, the North-South card!  Of course, I know it. In Nigeria, it is the politician’s favourite weapon.  As we prepare for the April elections, signs abound of people playing the religious and ethnic cards.  However, there are some genuine cases of discontent and people who control the power levers in the political parties should not take these cases for granted. They should move quickly to resolve them. For INEC, the umpire, the challenges are equally enormous. As the voters registration exercise has hinted, the celebrated integrity of INEC Chairman Jega alone is not enough to guarantee free and fair elections. Not even President Goodluck Jonathan’s repeated promise is. There are very many loose variables to control, such as logistics, honesty of electoral officials and security personnel, and desperation of politicians, to ensure that people can vote freely and for all votes to count. Sadly, we do not seem to have outgrown the mentality of do-or-die politics. God has blessed Nigeria to be a beautiful country and people who aspire to lead it should not destroy it with inordinate ambition. He’s Gone. Who Next? Presidents are not forever, so Hosni Mubarak, after a reckless display of stubbornness is gone. Thirty years in power. Phew! But make no mistake, the 6,000 year-old Egypt is difficult to rule because of the boisterous nature of pressure groups there. Hosni, did well stabilizing the country after the assassination of his predecessor, he himself was lucky to escape. But that was no licence for him to overstay. Reports that he is worth $70 billion are still rumours, but the various sources are comfortable with a conservative estimate of $35 billion. It is also said that  his son, Gamal, once next in line for the throne, owns a £8.5 million Georgian terrace in Wilton Place, Belgravia, London - a stone’s throw from Harrods. What eroded my sympathy during Hosni’s last days was when he told Christiane Amanpour that he was fed up with being president and would like to leave office now, but couldn’t, for fear that the country would sink into chaos. Of course, with him holed in the opulent presidential palace, the country was already burning. One thing is clear about life. People tend to play God when they stay too long in a position. I don’t think anybody is indispensable! So who next after Hosni? Algeria and Yemen have caught the bug. And experts have identified other countries that have similar mix of circumstances for a revolution. They include Iran, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Vietnam, Venezuela, and Pakistan. It may not be soonest, but I know that one day, it will cross the Sahara desert.

How Do We Address this Decadence? 30 Nov 2011  Bukola.Olatunji@thisdaylive.com I should take a break from ‘Contemporary Challenges in Higher Education’ to draw attention to the ‘contemporary decadence in our education as a whole’. It is not as if we do not know already, but maybe we do not know just how bad it is. A friend posted the comment below on facebook. I think it is most instructive in studying the level of decadence in our education. Let those who want to, continue to argue that “our standard of education has not fallen; it is the scholars that are unable to measure up to the standard.”  The fact is that the competence of those to take over from the present generation of leaders in all spheres of our national life is seriously in doubt. The comment: I watched with dismay and sadness some of the auditions of Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) 2011. We have to declare a state of emergency in our educational sector. It is sad to note that most contestants or aspiring beauty queens were asked the capital of Kebbi State, and 5 out of 7 did not know. One said, the capital of Kebbi State is KOGI, her friend said Douala. One was asked to name the largest city in West Africa, she confidently said NIGERIA. One said her expectation is that she is beautiful, fair, and jovial...the other was asked what is her opinion on foreign aids to Nigeria and Africa. She said "there are many testing clinics now in Nigeria, so foreign aids will not kill Nigerians again"...one was asked to mention and talk about one current female minister. She said Mrs Okonjo Iweala, is the current Prime Minister heading Finance matters. And another was asked who is the governor of CBN, she said "INEC is yet to conduct elections in that state!!! *covering ma face* Some of those who reacted to the above turned out to be birds of a feather. One said:  “dis is no suprise. 70-80% walking d street wit gud cloths, jeweries, cars, fones etc etc. Are not exempted. Take a survey and u ll be suprise. But wat can we do? We nid 2 help, de re mothers, gud wives etc.
 Another one said: “Plz is there anywhere I can get a clips of that video,I really must watch it.” Yet, another howler:  “I'm sure some pple who've commented on this gist doesn't even know the answers...” God help us! Apparently gone are the days when, as a Commonwealth country, we were proud of our heritage of the English Language and some of us were reputed to speak it even better than the owners of the language. Then people sought knowledge, not the vocabulary of the language, but as people read far and wide, they acquired mastery of the language. Today, the ship of education seems to have capsized; grammar has since given way to slang such that our youth suffer from grave grammatical disability; students no longer read to acquire knowledge, but strictly to pass examinations. It is not uncommon these days, in our tertiary institutions, to find so-called students who have not read anything outside their handouts. Not even a novel! Our teachers and lecturers have a lot of blame in this too. For example, an overweight final year student who was rebuked for paying too much attention to her body and looks and little or none to her studies and project, once asked why did she had to trouble herself studying when she knew she could never pass without parting with money. She said to be awarded good marks for project was N5,000, to be awarded good marks in the examinations such that she could gross a second class lower, was N10,000. As expected, all admonition to study for her sake of acquiring knowledge fell on deaf ears. This is the natural consequence of our overemphasis on paper qualification over and above demonstrable ability. I do not know how much of these dry bones can rise again, but I do know we can make a fresh start. Whatever happened to lexis and structure, comprehension and summary, essay writing, current affairs, mental arithmetic and mathematics, and so on? Our youths have stopped learning and assimilating knowledge and until they are forced to come back to doing so, as those before them did, we can only expect, at best, quackery in place of expertise and we might just as well kiss our developmental objectives goodbye. If the foundation is faulty, there is little that one can do subsequently. Do we need again to start the talk about the urgent need to rescue our education, to in fact, declare a state of emergency in that sector? Perhaps if government would adequately furnish public and school libraries with books and fund research, students could, as of recent years gone by, be encouraged to pay regular visits knowing they will find current knowledge and research findings to study.

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.