Re: Abati: For The Attention Of General Buhari Posted: April 23, 2011 - 19:50 By Ayo Phillips Mr. Abati, to say that leadership failure is the reason for the post-election crisis might not be far from the truth but to omit the awakening of a down trodden people who have long been victims of their faith will make any thesis fail in the court of conscience. Yes, there have been commendations of which I have read that from the US and I am sure I read strong wordings asking INEC to investigate the allegations of irregularities. I have also read some comments from local observers raising several questions about the conduct of the elections. For Dr. Abati to arrive at a resolution that all observers considered the election successful without any conditioning raises questions of objectivity. Yes, I would agree that history beckons on GMB at this moment but in greater measure to Mr. GEJ and co; GEJ being the sitting president and the purported elected president for the next term. It’s really unfortunate that a Dr. Abati would descend into the dictionary of the PDP to find words to characterize the angry youths as being “united by the anger that a Southern Christian, an unbeliever in their reckoning, and a product/promoter of Western education is now president-elect “. Dr. Abati, this is shameful; I am drawn to tears as I write this because you are one public commentator I have held in very high esteem. This is not only a lie in the first instance but a clear indication that you have surrendered your conscience to serve the course of lesser mortals. The youths protesting in the north were the same who protected the election of Shekarau, Yuguda etc from being stolen by PDP in 2007 and are now revolting the same characters for trying to subvert their will in favour of the PDP.  This is the first time in my life time that the North will rise against their so called leaders, even before the elections, Sambo was booed in public as he rightly deserves. Such a leader would get nothing better from any civilized society. It is unfortunate that the protests took a different turn with regrettable results and many commentators have fingered the PDP in that outturn. In my opinion, the outturn is in part a result of the fact that these folks had never known another way to demonstrate their grievance in any situation. The so called leaders (most of them members of the PDP) had over the years sponsored religious and ethnic crisis to seek political ends and now we have a citizenry in the north; men of my generation who do have any idea of better way to express disapproval. This is the failure of leadership that has led to the unfortunate incidents in the North. In the southwest they burn houses; in recent times maybe tires, in the south south, they throw bombs and kidnap children and the elderly, In the north they draw the sword. Nothing in GMB’s history and style of leadership has supported these but since the unfortunate advent of the PDP it been madness and mayhem in the land. To summarily condemn men for carrying out acts to which their facilitated civilization and the castration of their better passions disposes them without a choice is in itself an injustice; not in a country where others get amnesty and government largesse. Dr. Abati is so concerned about the North, but has failed to propose a solution to the unending carnage in Plateau state under Mr. GEJ and the PDP government in the state. Is he really concerned about the people or just trying to put in a word for some sponsors to blackmail GMB into accepting injustice? Dr. Abati appears to be so sure of the validity of the election results as reflecting the wishes of the people that it is worrisome. Why will there be crisis in Kaduna for instance where the PDP purportedly made a decent showing, has the VP and the sitting governor. Where are all the PDP supporters? Dr. Abati rightly alludes to “Section 134 of the Nigerian Constitution to the effect that whoever wants to be President of the country must receive the people’s votes across the country” so if in indeed GEJ received the peoples vote in the north there should be no crisis, but where the votes are stolen and the will of the people subverted we come to the situation where the people revolt. It was clear that the CPC had an uphill task winning at the first ballot but pushing the process into a run-off was surely not off target in the absence of PDP’s trademark rigging. We must not discountenance here how long it took the INEC to register CPC which in itself was a subversion of the process to give undue advantage to the PDP. Dr. Abati, did you listen to the NTA in the days leading to the elections, did you observe how the government used the national broadcaster as a vehicle for brewing the venom of ethnic division in a bid to sell GEJ as the candidate of the Old eastern region? Guess you didn’t; PHCN must have been holding power. NTA has scored very low in the past, but I think this time they scored even lower than the days of Abacha. While GMB made efforts to distance himself from the zoning issue, the government used NTA to wage a war against the strivings of the people for social cohesion but I didn’t see you raising the yellow card at least. All of a sudden even Lagos was divided into association of Igbos leaving in Agege, Ijaws leaving in AJ city and all sorts and that in your opinion was not a pointer to the crisis to come. DOCTOR ABATI…, pls help me here; I am not sure how the Hausa you quoted here “mu ke so, ba muso hanni”   translates literally to “It is Buhari we want, we don’t want an unbeliever”. I do not speak Hausa, but I clearly cannot see “Buhari” in the Hausa text you are translating, taking such liberty in translating quoted text by an intellectual of your calibre is disturbing if one does not take into account malicious intent to defame. In any case, let us thank the people’s General who in spite of all and for love of country rallied himself to make several calls for peace. What about your principal dear Dr and his Vice who speaks the local lingua, how many times has he gone on BBC hausa or VON to speak to the conscience of the people? Does this not suggest to you that these men – left to themselves, do not consider themselves to be the leaders of the people? How do you consider the spirit of section 134 in this light? Dr. Abati, we have heard this lame argument for “national interest” since the advent of the PDP and it’s obvious what it has produced except it seems the veil of ethnic bigotry seems to have beclouded the vision of some. We cannot continue to have leaders that elect themselves and plunder the people and call that peace. Is there peace when women die violently because the funds that should provide health care have been plundered? Is there peace when the young of the nation go to school but return as ignorant illiterate with no future aspiration but to be area boys? Is there peace when every night robbers slaughter hardworking decent citizen to take their widows’ mite? Is there peace when the roads across the nation have become weapons of mass destruction? Dr. Abati claims that the CPC judged the April 9 elections as “free and fair” but I recall watching a live TV programme on Channels just before the presidential (I must emphasize the reason I stopped to watch was that I caught a glimpse of you) where Mr. Odumakin took time to correct that impression in saying some party members might have commented but the CPC had withheld judgement and was studying the situation. Why will Doctor Abati discountenance that and still go on asserting his false position; does he mean to inform or to misinform? Dr. Abati made suggestions on what needed to be done and I thank him for affirming the credibility of the people’s General in placing the burden for direction on him. However, as the good Dr. unavoidably discountenanced the responsibility of the sitting government I will try to set that right. What should be done? 1.    Mr. President (Saint) Jonathan should live up to the spirit of his promises to the nation and sponsor steps to dispel the clouds surrounding the elections as follows (I am assuming as Dr. Abati seems to believe that he won the popular vote in spite of irregularities): a.    INEC to immediately commence investigation into all allegations of malpractices with support from all agencies of government b.    Step should be taken to immediately commence forensic verification of the votes cast in the elections c.    Mr. Jonathan to state unequivocally his commitment to abide by the outcome of the investigations 2.    Mr. Jonathan to address the nation and distance himself from all activities to stir up ethnic divisions in the run-up to the elections, including; a.    Institute independent investigation into the activities of the NTA and Ministers with a commitment to take action against any abuse b.    Mr. Jonathan to come out publicly and distance himself from any illegalities perpetrated by PDP governors or leaders in the north and assure the public of redress 3.    Mr. Jonathan to commit to initiate a TRUTH and RESTITUTION commission if finally declared rightful winner to address the years of misrule with the following terms amongst others: a.    Declare willingness to offer GMB or Dr. TB the chairmanship of such commission with autonomy b.    Commit to submitting himself to the commission c.    To empower the commission to use government agency to ensure restitution with the power to offer forgiveness on behalf for the people. I could say more, but I bet you Mr. Abati, if Mr. Jonathan would take my advice or at least make an honest attempt to, you will see the crisis replaced by jubilation on the street of Nigeria, not only in the north but from coast to coast. It is unfair Mr. Abati, to take the most sacred duty of government away from them and place on a fellow citizen who is suffering the scourge of injustice. Mr. Jonathan is the President and he needs to man-up and be presidential for once at least. In spite of all, history still beckons to GEj and I hope he will rise up and etch his name in the minds of the people. If GEJ stands up for the people, I am sure he will get the vote of GMB and TB. If the President can stop the crisis and usher in a new dawn if he will open his arms, embrace and serve the people.

People may begin to stone govt officials if…- Zakari Mohammed
On November 27, 2011 ·

INTERVIEW IN BRIEF

Hon. Zakari Mohammed, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity, says the morally correct thing government should do is to check the activities of those diverting subsidy and not pass the burden to Nigerians.  On Boko Haram, he says we can not stop them by mounting road blocks. Excerpts

The impression many Nigerians have is that the House of Representatives has not carried on as it is expected to because of the circumstances of the emergence of its presiding officers. What has been your experience in the last five months or so?

I will actually say that the experience has been heart-warming. We believe that we are covering a new realm especially in the process of law making. We believe that the legislature, which is an arm of government, has the basic responsibility of making laws for the good governance of the people of Nigeria.

That is exactly what we are doing. People are wont to say that what are those things that make us different from the last House? I believe that even the emergence of the presiding officers of the House was through a process that was seen as the resolve of the seventh session of the House of Representatives, to break away from the trend of the past, to assert the independence of members in terms of their thinking and contribution to project Nigeria.

The question people ask is: What have we achieved?

Zakari Mohammed: There is so much area to cover in this security challenge

I want to say that in terms of motions and bills, in the last six months, we have passed about 87 motions on issues that are key to our healthy living.

People have argued that the very nature of the emergence of the presiding officers of the House has weakened the House because of the tendency of the presiding officers to be over cautious to issues that they should have tackled more aggressively; and to be over courteous to the leadership of their party?

I disagree with this assertion.

The leadership derives its powers from the members.

The leadership is the creation of the members.

You will find out that the turnover from the sixth assembly was high in terms of new members.

Six months is too short to be able to determine how far we have fared.

But we are on course.

What we do in the National Assembly is no other than making laws and carrying out our oversight functions. Why we are different from the other House is that when we came in, we said we needed to be guided. That explains why we came out with the Legislative Agenda. We are strictly adhering to this Agenda as our guiding principles for the next four years. Steadily, we will get there.

The presiding officers emerged through a democratic process and they are very wary of the pitfalls of the past. The presiding officers cannot just carry on without feeling the pulse of those they are leading. To that extent, the speaker and the deputy speaker have fared well in the last six months. They have tried to carry members along in all aspects. That is why even when Standing Committees were constituted; the usual hue and cry that follows such exercise was not heard. This is why, for the first time, the House remained united after the constitution of the committees.  The leadership has tried as much as possible to be plain and just. We may have our own moments of disagreement on a few issues, but we have always found a way to resolve our problems. Because we do not attack ourselves physically, some people think we are not working. But I want to assure you that we are all committed to making a difference by writing our names on the sands of times.

To what extent have the problems inherited from the sixth assembly (especially the N10billion borrowed by the last House) affected the running of the present assembly?

The sixth assembly had its challenges and it found ways that may not look conventional in solving them. However, we are learning from the past and that is why the seventh assembly is quite different. We believe that if we have problems, we have to face such problems holistically rather than using short term measures.

We have learnt from the mistakes of the sixth assembly in terms of managing the affairs of the House and its finances. That is why it appears as if the leadership is very cautious. Yes, it is cautious so that they will learn to do things in a more transparent, just and equitable manner.

Some people have said that because of the repayment of loans, the committees of the House of Representatives are cash strapped such that their oversight functions are being affected.

I disagree.. When we came in, we said we were cutting down our running costs by 64%. We have prioritised our activities in such a way that we’re operating according to our areas of needs. That is why some people are interpreting that to mean that we are having financial difficulties.

As I talk to you now, most committees have their running costs that can run basic committee activities. The issue is that there is just no money that you can continue to blow for the sake of blowing. We said in our Legislative Agenda that we want to ensure fiscal conservatism.

We want to cut down on the cost of governance. That is exactly what we are doing. What we are asking for now is for the other arms of government to do so, so that the excess can be deployed to other useful areas.

Zakari Mohammed

We cannot continue with the trend whereby the recurrent expenditure will blow our budget year in year out.

Despite the persuasion of the president on the need for the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, members of the House of Representatives have remained adamant in their opposition to its removal. Is it not curious that majority of members who are from the president’s party would oppose one of his key policies?

We need to get it right.

As elected representatives of the people, we are on oath to make laws that would ensure good governance and ameliorate the sufferings of the Nigerian people. The legislature is the most vulnerable arm of government. Judges move around with armed police escort; ministers move around with armed security escort but we don’t. We are closest to the people. We know what the people are facing. Our position is that, if you are not subsidizing oil, what other thing are you subsidizing? World over, oil producing countries subsidize the prices of oil products.

Last year, we spent close to N500billion in subsidizing petroleum products. This year, we have spent close to N1.2trillion. By the end of this year, we may have spent N1.5trillion in subsidizing fuel.

The question is: where is the money going to? This is one of the questions that we want answer to. We believe that money spent on subsidy is sustainable. If it is sustainable, government should do it. If they are saying there is a cartel anywhere, the president has all the powers to go after the cartel. Every Nigerian is under the command of the Commander-in-Chief. Let him go after members of the cartel and label them economic saboteurs.

They cannot be greater than Nigeria. We believe that the president and the security agencies can go after them so that we can put this behind us once and for all. We cannot because of failure of institutions transfer the consequences on Nigerians. If you remove subsidy and a litre of fuel goes for N150, there are some parts of Nigeria that the litre would go for N250. It will affect food, medical delivery and all aspects of our living. The question is, what role are we playing as a government?

We don’t want the situation in the country to deteriorate to the point that when you are identified as a government official, people will stone you on the street. That is why we are saying the president should address the issue of saboteurs and those stealing huge sums of money because of their not being transparent in dealing with government. We believe that if these issues are looked into, it will be discovered that the figures being paraded as petroleum subsidy are bloated. Although majority of members of the House are from the same political party, we are talking about the Nigerian people.  Posterity will hold us responsible if we see this and we refuse to comment. We need to handle the issue of subsidy fairly and with the interest of Nigerian masses at heart.

What is your view about the planned re-introduction of toll gates on Nigerian roads?

My reaction is two-folds. In some parts of the world, roads are concessioned. The Federal Government can say we will leave two lanes for instance to the public while concessioning other lanes to a company that can collect tax to maintain the road. If the toll gates are managed via concessions and done in such a way that our roads are better, then no problems.

For instance, from Abuja to Lokoja, if you concession it to a private concern and allows him to collect tolls while maintaining the road, I think it will afford government the opportunity to use money that would have ordinarily been used to maintain this road to be deployed to other areas. If it is going to be done via concession, then I am for it.

We should move from the era of government spending so heavily on infrastructure that will end up as a private concern. There is no way a private investor will put his money and allow it to waste.

Do you think that the security challenge in the country is being handled appropriately by government?

One of the issues the president briefed us about when we met with him was how the security challenges in the country are being handled.

To some of us, we believe that there is so much more to be done. On the face of it, with the explanation he gave to us, we believe they are the right steps in the right direction. There is so much area to cover in this security challenge. My advice is that more money should be spent on intelligence gathering and our intelligence officers should be able to melt into the society so that they can have more credible information. If that happens, we would be able to know their sponsors and government would be able to check this challenge.

We cannot achieve this by mounting road blocks. Not by stop and search. Our security agencies should change their intelligence gathering technique. If they know that their ring leaders are being caught, they would change.

The president should declare a state of emergency on security in the country and task all our service chiefs to order. They must get cracking. A government that cannot provide security has no business being in power.

Why Are Nigerian Leaders So Mean? 26 Nov 2011 DeleMomodu@thisdaylive.com Fellow Nigerians, I often wonder why our leaders always copy bad manners, and fail to learn from the pitfalls of their predecessors. Every Nigerian leader, at the beginning, often looks meeker than a priest until you give him political power. As soon as he begins to settle into office, he starts to exhibit the symptoms of schizophrenia, and we are forced to ask if this was the same taciturn fellow we used to know before attaining high office. Within a twinkle of an eye, the transfiguration is absolute and irreversible. I will illustrate my thesis with a few straight-forward examples. Once upon a time, the then Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, was the Governor of Governors. His influence was so awesome that he was awarded the special appellation of the Governor-General. His tentacles, as varied as that of an octopus, stretched beyond Bayelsa. And everyone courted his friendship. His most visible mentor was the then President Olusegun Obasanjo. The rambunctious President never shied away from praising the Governor-General to high-heavens at every opportunity. It was as if Alams, as his admirers liked to shorten his name, could do no wrong. Everything appeared rosy-rosy between them in their first term in office (from 1999 to 2003). But the chicken would come home to roost as soon as a once mutual friend, the then Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who incidentally celebrated his 65th birthday yesterday, began to show more than a cursory interest in the presidential office. Abubakar had failed to check the political radar. If he did, he would have realised that his boss was not yet ready to quit the powerful office ensconced within the rocks of Abuja. The implacable man was already afflicted with what would popularly be known as the third term agenda. And if Abubakar knew this reality, he pretended not to know, or just decided to do things his own way. That was a fatal error that would haunt him for the rest of his political career, in a country where an incumbent President is next to God. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar instantly became a marked man. And so was anyone remotely connected to him. Everyone who was suspected to be closely linked would, sooner than later, suffer some collateral damages! This would include genuine, and innocent, entrepreneurs who tended their business and had nothing to do with politics. The ruthless fangs of the law would soon be unleashed on them through the well-oiled machinery of a government agency that was apparently assembled to punish any recalcitrant rebel. Alams did not realise his name was already in the black book. Or if he knew, he must have considered himself untouchable. That was going to be a very expensive mistake. Unknown to him, all was fair in war, a truism he should have memorised when he was in the Nigerian Air force. His vindictive enemies knew it was impossible for a sitting Governor to be arrested under the laws of Nigeria except on a foreign soil where he could easily be disowned and turned into an orphan. And that was exactly what happened. Since the vulture is always a patient bird, the birds waited quietly for him. They knew his propensity for frequent foreign travels, and perched without hurry. Alams would soon walk into their trap as he flew out to Europe to keep a cosmetic surgery appointment. The fresh blood from the delicate operation had not dried up when he returned to London, and he was apprehended, the way monkeys are captured in Brazil. It must have been a bad dream for Alams who before then was a powerful generalissimo. Every novice knew the British authorities were acting on a tip-off from an impeccable source in Nigeria. Curiously, the powers-that-be promptly stripped him of his immunity despite flying abroad on a diplomatic passport. Our laws could always be manipulated to suit any weather and atmospheric condition. Some of us cried foul that we should not set fire to a whole village in order to catch a few rats, but we were in the minority. Our fellow citizens, most of who had endured untold hardship in the hands of these politicians, were willing and ready accomplices in the kangaroo justice being deployed, as long as the government of the day could pretend, grandstand, and dramatize its pretentious resolve to fight corruption. In a country with a population of over 150 million people, minimum of 36 Governors at any given time, equal number of Deputy Governors, Secretaries to Federal and State governments, Permanent Secretaries at Federal and State levels, Heads of Service, dozens of ministers, countless legislators at Federal and State levels, thousands of super civil servants, several service chiefs, heads and members of juicy parastatals, Ambassadors and diplomatic staff, Vice Chancellors, Pro-Chancellors, Chancellors, Judges and Magistrates, Captains of Industries, and so on, ad infinitum, it was most unlikely that jailing Alams, Joshua Dariye, James Ibori, Peter Fayose, and Saminu Turaki, Olabode George, and a few bad guys, would drive the fear of God into a rabidly corrupt society. To cut a long story short, the Governor-General had fallen from grace to disgrace. He was touted as a corrupt man who had bled his state dry. All manner of salacious tales began to fly, spreading marathonly like bush fire in harmattan.  The Governor-General was now a general Governor who was being kicked in the dust, not because of what he did but because of what he did not do. Such is the way of our people. They spin all manner all tales against you on your bad day.  And move on effortlessly to worship at the altar of the new gods. In our clime, the man who’s caught is the only thief. The free-roaming robbers have nothing to fear, as long as they remain in the good books of he who must be obeyed. In a Mafia country, the godfathers can never be in short demand. And the godsons understand the game better than Mario Puzo. The tales of how Alams left London and found his way back into Nigeria would remain in the realm of fables, or even magic, for a long time to come. Reality was the man landed in Yenogoa, perhaps on the wings of a rarefied African spacecraft, and attempted to force his way back to power. His jittery deputy then was a man called Dr Goodluck Jonathan who seemed not to be interested in his boss’ job. Not many Nigerians knew his name at that time. His spin doctors would later smuggle Ebele and Azikiwe into his names for political gains, especially, in a country where the citizens love to hug primordial sentiments. That would be another story for another day. At first Dr Jonathan portrayed a man who was not power hungry. It is a strategy that is as old as mankind. That, in fact, made him a perfect candidate for the godfathers. They love those who can keep butter in the mouth without melting. That was how Dr Jonathan secured his first plum job on a platter of gold. The luckiest man in Nigeria completed his assignment and, before you could say Don Jazzy again, a bigger job was waiting for him, from those who wanted a weak President and a weaker Vice President. The over-all interests of ordinary Nigerians were never considered. What was important was their own hold on power by proxy. The duo of Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and Dr Goodluck Jonathan was thus fostered on us. It is unfortunate that ill-health did not allow us witness full-time the drama of the Yar’Adua Presidency. In his last days on earth, his government was hijacked by a few people known then as the cabal. Again, Dr Jonathan kept mute while some of us risked our lives on the streets of Abuja to ask that he be allowed to take over power in the permanent absence of his boss. I’m re-emphasising this fact to make a valid point; that those who come to power by divine intervention often end up as demi-gods. Our dear President has done two things in the past week to shock Nigerians out of their wits. The first was the invasion of his home state of Bayelsa with an army of occupation ostensibly to get rid of his supposed enemy in the Bayelsa State House and to forcibly enthrone his anointed crony. This has brought Bayelsa into big news again. Decency should have dictated that every interested candidate should have been allowed to run the race. A country where a Ben Bruce, for example, cannot be allowed to contest for political office, on account of holding dual nationalities, is a doomed nation. A country where an incumbent Governor can be flagrantly terrorised and restricted by the use of brutal force, by some agents of the Federal Government, is very prone to disaster. An educated man like Jonathan should have known the tragic implications of this executive recklessness. History would record that he climbed down from the Olympian heights where God has placed him to cause mayhem in his home state. He should have allowed the people of Bayelsa to voluntarily sack their Governor if that indeed is their wish. He could even have borrowed a leaf from the Obasanjo era when a few legislators were forced to impeach Governors in hotel rooms. What haven’t we seen before in this land? I will encourage the Governor and the other disqualified aspirants to fight all the way for their rights. I have been to Bayelsa State a couple of times, and I’m yet to see what Jonathan has done for that State since he has held all the important offices in the past 12 years. Forcing a candidate on that under-developed State would never improve the living conditions of the people. The second surprise is the manner President Jonathan sacked Mrs Farida Waziri ignominiously from the Chairmanship of the EFCC without due process. If the woman had betrayed the trust of her office, she should have been made to face the music without walking away freely as if nothing serious ever happened. And if the President found no evidence of wrong-doing against her, he should have allowed her to go into retirement without this subtle and indecent blackmail that is building around her. I pray that Mrs Farida Waziri would fight to clear her name, or she should be ready to rot in jail. There are speculations that she had stepped on powerful toes that never really cared about fighting corruption. She has the chance to speak up today and damn it all. Those who are telling her to go away quietly are the enemies of Nigeria. None of us expected her to be a Saint but the era where some people are sacked to shore up the image of an incompetent government should be over. Nigerians really want to know what happened. In case she doesn’t know, her enemies are very busy spreading ugly tales of her shady deals across the newsrooms. And the regular haters are lapping it all up. She owes it to posterity to respond in kind against the cheap blackmailers that litter our political terrain. If she behaves like chicken, she would only end up in a pot of pepper-soup. The choice is hers. They did it to Nuhu Ribadu. He had to run away like a common criminal. Now, it is Mrs Waziri’s turn. Who’s next?

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.