General’s missing daughter strangled by students .

 by Eniola Akinkuotu.

Cynthia Osokogu, the only daughter of Major General Frank Osokogu (retd), who reportedly went missing on July 22, 2012, was strangled in a hotel by students in FESTAC, Lagos, PUNCH Metro has learnt.

A senior police officer, who craved anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the case, said the deceased was drugged, bound hand and foot and then strangled by her assailants.

Osokogu, who was a postgraduate student in Nasarawa, came to Lagos to purchase goods for her boutique.

The deceased was received at the Murtala Muhammed Airport by the students, who later took her to the hotel.

The deceased’s family is based in Jos but she went to her friend’s place in Abuja, where she parked her car before leaving for Lagos.

But the police source said on getting to the hotel, the students used a powerful drug to paralyse her and robbed her of her valuables, including an undisclosed sum of money.

The   source said, “According to the confession obtained from two of the suspects, they met the deceased on the internet and lured her to Lagos to purchase goods at a cheaper rate.

 “On getting to the airport in Lagos, the suspects took her to a hotel, drugged her, and bound her by hand and foot. They confessed to inflicting pains on her and strangling her before stealing her money, phone and identity card.

“The suspects confessed that their modus operandi is to lure young females to Lagos for such purpose. They said they had done it before.”

Our source said when Osokogu’s corpse was discovered by employees of the hotel, the matter was reported to the police but because her phones and identity card had been stolen, there was no way the police could ascertain her identity so her corpse was moved to Isolo General Hospital.

Our source said there were indications that an employee of the unnamed hotel was complicit and had been arrested.

He added that the pharmacist, who gave the rare drug which was used to paralyse the deceased, had been arrested as well and was suspected to be a member of the syndicate.

The police source said the case was reported at the Area E command a few weeks ago but the police only began to make headway recently when they received CCTV footage of the suspects entering the room with the victim.

The source said the police embarked on an undercover operation which led them to Ogun State to arrest one of the suspects.

“The last suspect was arrested at about 3am on Tuesday and we have almost completed investigations. However, only two of the suspects have confessed,” the source said.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, said she could not comment on the issue.

She said, “The Commissioner of Police for the state Police command, Mr. Umar Manko, will hold a press briefing on Wednesday (today) on the issue.

“The girl was killed but all details will be disclosed during the briefing,” she said

Nigeria: Where is the New Economy?

B y Chukwuma Charles Soludo

In 40 years, Nigeria’s population will be approaching 400 million – if you believe the population figures. Before then (29 - 40 years), Nigeria’s oil would have finished. So far, we have earned over $600 billion from oil since 1973 but cannot guarantee any of the basic necessities to the citizens – food, water, good roads, electricity, education, health, etc. The NBS tells us that 40 per cent of Nigerians were food poor in 2010 meaning that they could not afford the basic nutritional intake. For 50 years since 1962, the central objective of economic policy has been a transformation or diversification of the economy away from dependence on primary commodities. It has not happened, and will probably not happen in the foreseeable future.

So, how is Nigeria preparing for a life without oil? Where is the emerging new economy that will support the burgeoning population? A few months ago, the NBS released the first quarter GDP growth rate for Nigeria, and the public response was uproar. Many, including a major opposition political party, a former president, organised private sector, some professionals and analysts openly questioned the figures. This is not a good sign. Some boldly asked: where did the growth come from? This is a deep question but one without yet an answer.

In the next few weeks, this column intends to challenge the hypothesis that we have correctly diagnosed the problems and the solutions known but the problem is to get ‘good leaders’ that will effectively implement. We shall show that the Nigerian economy is holed up in some structural traps, and if the current constitutional - political - and economic arrangements continue, we will continue to move in circles. Progress will be by fluke, with occasional three steps forward and five backwards.

Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time. The dynamics of the global economy and geopolitics is changing in fundamental ways with huge risks and uncertainties. We are in a world in which the old order is fast disintegrating, and there is a rapid structural rebalancing of economic power away from the Euro-American beltway to the Asia-Pacific and emerging markets. The rebalancing of economic power will inevitably entail a rebalancing of geo-political and perhaps even military power.  I see a world economy in the near future with three dominant reserve currencies (US$, Euro, and Chinese Yuan/Renminbi) with all the instabilities this would entail, and a world economy with increasing turbulence where only those countries which are constantly ahead of the curve will continue to prosper.

Given the new landscape of struggle for geopolitical supremacy, oil and raw materials; pressures to create and preserve jobs for citizens at home while capital is mobile across boundaries; as well as contest for dominance of one currency over another (as the US struggles to maintain the seigniorage and subsidised cheap credit from the rest of the world as issuer of global reserve currency), the global economy will have to brace up for a bumpy ride ahead. Where is Nigeria in all of these? Is Nigeria preparing to cope in the new world of competition or are we running yesterday’s race, and continuously playing a ‘catch-up’ race? Can we win a nuclear war with our bows and arrows? These are issues for another day.

For now, we focus on the deep question of where growth comes from. Output of goods and services (GDP) is determined by the accumulation of factors of production (labour) and (capital – investment in plant, machinery and equipment) and the productivity of these factors (determined mainly by the knowledge and skills embodied in the workers). So, which of these factors- employment of labour, new investment or productivity drive output growth in Nigeria? If you believe the unemployment numbers and what many analysts call ‘jobless growth’, then the announced ‘growth’ can only be explained by rising investment and, or, rising productivity per worker.

On the supply side, the NBS latest figures show that the structure of the Nigerian economy has remained largely the same since the 1970s. The three dominant sectors and their shares of GDP are: agriculture (40%); wholesale and retail trade (20%) and crude petroleum (15%). Solid minerals sector (0.4%) is insignificant. These primary sectors and trading constitute 75 per cent of our national output, and also account for 99 per cent of exports.  The so-called ‘modern sectors’ – manufacturing (4%); telecoms and post (5.7%); finance and insurance (3.5%); building and construction (2%); real estate (2%); and hotel and restaurant (0.5%)—all account for just 18 per cent. These are the sectors in which one would expect innovation and high value-adding jobs to occur.

The NBS says “agriculture in Nigeria is predominantly rain-fed”. It does not explain its growth in terms of increased investment or productivity improvements but in terms of weather. So, once we have clement weather, growth occurs. Irrigation is largely absent; average age of the peasant dominated sector is about 57 years with their hoes and machetes, and productivity per hectare is very low. Curiously, year-in-year out, the ‘growth’ of the sector is pre-set at 6-7 per cent. If it is not new investment and increased productivity or new employments, is it that rainfall improves each year to drive ‘growth’?

The manufacturing sector is largely comatose and declined from a share of 7 per cent of GDP in 1970s to 4 per cent currently. Our manufacturers are fighting a losing battle against the armada of imports from cheaper and more productive locations abroad. Given Nigeria’s membership of WTO, there is little room to manoeuvre. Most of the industries in Nnewi and Aba are closed, and if the data from MAN are correct, then the Lagos-Ibadan industrial axis as well as the textile industries in the North are in trouble.

Nigeria’s export of manufacturing is still less than 1 per cent (after more than 50 years of attempts at industrialisation whereas all our comparator countries such as Indonesia have more than 40%). We have not been able to utilise most of the preferences under the EU-ACP pacts under the Lome Conventions and Cotonou Agreement. The manufacturing sector today cannot compete. Many erroneously believe that once we fix power, industrialisation will automatically happen. It won’t. We have not begun to prepare to industrialise.

On crude petroleum, it is basically an issue of capacity utilisation. Given the installed output capacity of more than 3 million barrels per day, anytime we increase output from say, 2 million barrels per day to, say 2.7 million barrels, we would record a huge ‘growth’.
On the demand side, the components of national expenditure present interesting dynamics. The components and their shares of aggregate expenditure as computed from the NBS 2010 GDP Expenditure Report are: private final consumption (60%); government final consumption (15%); gross fixed capital formation (13%); and net exports (12%). Many imponderables in the said report make me raise serious caveats on the reliability of the figures.

The NBS report makes a very serious statement when it argues that “in Nigeria, national savings has always been greater than investment”. Given the huge idle capacity and potentials of the Nigerian economy, it requires an annual investment rate of at least 35- 40 per cent to jumpstart the road to prosperity. Our gross national saving rate averages 15 per cent, and investment rate is below that. For a country that is grossly undercapitalised to be a net exporter of savings (capital flight) abroad is serious. NBS also gives a clue as to where the bulk of the miniscule investment is going. According to it, “the country’s gross fixed capital formation is largely influenced by acquisitions of machinery and other equipment arising from increased crude oil and natural gas exploration activities as well as investments in transport equipment”. We also know that the foreign direct investment goes mostly to the enclave oil and gas sector.
If it is not employment and investment, is it then productivity that drives growth? I have not seen any empirical study that does not conclude that productivity in Nigeria is either negative or very low.

Yes, we have over 100 universities but the effective labour wage (wage adjusted for productivity) is not cheap. It is a common mistake to think that labour is cheap in Nigeria: it is not. Once you take account of productivity, labour in many respects can become very expensive. The pool of skills per 1000 workers is very low. As a visiting professor in the US in late 1990s, the entire administration of the Department of Economics was effectively run by one grandmother. Enough said for now! What is the quality of labour force produced by our educational system? There is little research and development (R&D) happening. So, what will be our advantages to compete and win in today’s world economy?

This brings us to the key conclusion. Nigeria’s ‘growth’ story is largely an oil price and consumption story, with occasional jump in capacity utilisation and punctuated with bad data.  Nigeria’s growth is cyclical and somewhat opportunistically tied to the swings in oil prices. When oil price booms, domestic aggregate demand—largely consumption—spurs the rest of the economy. According to NBS 2010, “government final consumption expenditure increased in real terms by 17.84 per cent in 2010 over the level recorded in 2009”. Government expenditure grew at almost three times the growth of the economy! This is the issue. Note that government here refers to aggregate of all governments at federal, state and local governments.

The consumption-based system fuels the ‘booming’ but unrecorded underground, largely criminal and speculative economy. This ‘booming sector’ is different from the informal sector, and involves activities in the speculative and criminal economy as well as briefcase-carrying rent-seeking activities (oil bunkering, corruption, asset price speculation, prostitution, drug trafficking, yahoo scammers or 419; kidnapping, armed robbery; smuggling; dealership in fake and substandard products; etc). The global criminal economy is estimated at over $4 trillion and Nigeria has its share. Today, a large proportion of potentially productive elite are trapped in this rent-driven sector, and it will take more than ‘reforms’ to re-engineer the system.

A collapse in oil prices also translates into catastrophic effects on the macro economy. If the oil price crashes to say $30 tomorrow, the economy and its ‘growth’ will collapse again. We experienced the same ‘growth boom’ during the first and second oil booms of mid 1970s, and 1979 - 81. Bear in mind that Nigeria is currently at about half of its per capita income of $2,300 in 1980.  In so far as oil price continues to remain high and given our existing excess capacity, we will continue to have “one of the highest growth rates in the world”. But we know that it is a fluke: no country has prospered in the long term that way.

In Defence of PDP.

By Akin Osuntokun

It is not fashionable to hold brief for the Peoples Democratic People (PDP). It is a vocation that is guaranteed a hostile reception by a phalanx of active Nigeria public intelligentsia complemented by the impression  that the party itself believes it does not need anybody’s advocacy or does not deserve it or both. It is seemingly perpetually torn between two contradictory tendencies-the arrogance of power undergirded by guilt conscience on one hand and inferiority complex born of intellectual dormancy on the other. Yet I remain a member of the party. One of the lowliest points for me as a party member was the spectacle of the preceding governorship election debate to the Edo state governorship election held on July 14 2012.

Three candidates namely Adams Oshiomole of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Charles Airhiavbere of the PDP and Edebivri of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) took part in the debate. We can quickly dispense with the third candidate as irrelevant-for him the debate was purely an academic exercise. In terms of pedigree, the PDP candidate was no match for Oshiomole-in what amount, essentially, to an exercise in the gift of garb. If anybody needs to be reminded, Oshiomole was forged in the crucible of the rabble rousing oratory tradition of the labour movement and had acquitted himself as such-as deputy president and president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in the past two decades.

Arraigned against such overwhelming odds in an unfamiliar turf, Ariahbere would be better served to have contrived an absence from the debate. He did not and neither did he make the best of the bad situation he found himself. As a soldier, nobody can fairly begrudge him of his modest capacity for policy and political articulateness. Hobbled by this limitation, he failed to take a cue from the many generous leading questions he was availed by the sympathetic panelists. He then did conclusive damage to his candidature with two unpardonable errors. First, Oshiomole called his integrity to question in a very direct and brazen manner and he responded with an acquiescent silence and incriminating docility. And then he capped it all by lavishing Oshiomole with an abject, fawning and ingratiating teddy bear hug as a departure gift-as if to thank his tormentor for making an excellent job of cutting him to size.

And yet it was all so unnecessary. It was perfectly predictable that he was going to get his nose bloodied in this uneven contest and that was precisely the outcome of the encounter-which then begs the question of what value his attendance was meant to add. This inexplicable strategic error and self delegitimation typically plays to the perception of PDP as sloppy and unthinking. Somewhat bucking this trend was the exhortation to the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the PDP by President Goodluck Jonathan the other day.
He said: “It is our duty to continue to resist and tell Nigerians the correct things we are doing and we believe that if we do not have a party as robust as the PDP, probably the present republic would have collapsed, because we witnessed what happened in the First Republic”. The President made the point that the nationally inclusive and unifying quality of the Party, is what sustains the unity and stability of Nigeria. It is a thoughtful and weighty statement and within its expansiveness lies a core of truth and potential. Let us put the proposition to the test of contemporary political history and the durability of the fourth republic.

The PDP started not as political party but as a national rally and it was called the G34. The G34 was the culmination of the struggle for national political reclamation against the destructive course of history set for Nigeria by the late General Sani Abacha. The passage of Abacha, the urgency of military disengagement and the transition to civil democratic rule agenda of the General Abdusalami Abubakar administration dictated the transformation of the G34 to a political party. It presented itself and was recognized as the most viable and inclusive vehicle for birthing the Fourth Republic.

After the interlocking death of Abacha and Chief Moshood Abiola, the primary duty and responsibility before the corrective regime of Abdusalami Abubakar was the overlapping task of national reconciliation and restoration of civil democratic rule. The task was essentially predicated on the strategy of compensating the South-west through an implicit concession of the Presidency of Nigeria to the zone. In recognition of its national and inclusive potency, the political leadership of the South-west had originally identified the PDP as the rough and ready platform for the realization of this objective. Hence the membership of the late Chief Bola Ige and Chief Olu Falae in the early days of the PDP. Political brinkmanship within the South-west leadership ultimately resulted in the formation of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), as their final destination.

Of the three political parties that were registered, the PDP, in its completeness, was more than the sum of the other two parties put together. Indeed the All Peoples Party (APP) and AD, and their latter day derivatives, were little more than ethnic and regional standard deviations from the golden national mean of the PDP. The APP did not win any election outside of the moslem North and the AD equally did not win election outside of the South West. The PDP won across all the divides. The undisputed quality of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is his towering Nigerian nationalism and he became a perfect fit for the PDP and Nigeria in the search for the best candidate of South-west origin to advance the prior agenda of national reconciliation. As President and Yoruba, he and the PDP became a bulwark against the residual Yoruba alienation and irredentism of the AD. As President and Nigerian nationalist, he and the PDP successfully tamed the ethno- regional truculence of the APP and the allied Sharia casus belli of the Islamic North. In these two regional instances of challenge to the unity and stability of Nigeria, how would the nation have fared without the stabilizing instrumentality of the PDP?.

In the run up to the 2003 general election I did not anticipate and I know nobody who anticipated that the PDP would sweep the South-west. This needs to be said for the benefit of those inclined to attribute the victory of the party to a preconceived electoral foul play. There is no logic to the notion that any rigging conspirator, no matter how crooked, will aim to rig and supplant another party in five of six states, controlled by that party, in one fell swoop! The result came to all PDP stakeholders including President Obasanjo-who did not hope for victory in more than one state, as a pleasant surprise. I was in Ekiti state for the election and I can say with undiminished truthfulness that the election there was won and lost fairly and squarely. Even after making allowance for electoral malpractices-which cuts across all the political parties, the PDP victory was rooted in the principle and reality of substantial compliance.

Those not familiar with the political configuration of Nigeria could be forgiven for assuming that Nigeria is a one party state when the former American ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell wrote his ‘Dancing on the Precipice’ commentary in the antecedence to the Presidential election of 2011. In his peculiar passion to draw attention to a potential source of destabilizing crisis for Nigeria, Campbell was more catholic than the Pope and royalist than the King. Yet the point he sought to make holds validity and was actually a back handed compliment and recognition of the PDP as the personification of Nigeria.

In its mission to force the issue of zoning the Presidential candidature of the PDP to the Northern half of Nigeria, the Northern Consensus Forum was equally operating in tandem with the American diplomat. And there is no running away from the fact that the inadvertent breach of the zoning principle posed and still poses a dilemma for the PDP and Nigeria. This was the point the former National Security Adviser, General Owoye Azazi-at the height of professional indiscretion, laboured to make and ended with the muddle of gifting the Nigeria media the attention catching headline that screams ‘PDP is the problem of Nigeria!

No intervention could have better served the propaganda purposes of the opponents of PDP. But what does this particular test case say of the political utility of the PDP? First it says that when the PDP sneezes, the whole of Nigeria catches cold. In other words, whatever happens within the Party, for good and bad, has immediate and long term consequences for the well being of Nigeria. Second, it reflects well on the crisis management capacity of the PDP that the Northern consensus candidate, Vice President Atiku Abubakar chose to remain in the party to pursue the realization of his Presidential ambition. Third, the Party is, by far, the most realistic platform for seeking the ultimate political prize of winning the Nigerian Presidency, hence its ability to retain the membership of disaffected political office aspirants.

The downside of the PDP is no less conspicuous. Now and again, it exhibits the self destructive streak of being at war with itself. Elected Party members routinely and maliciously gang up with non Party members to undermine and subvert Party positions and other PDP members holding public office. The present Speaker of the House of Representatives, for instance, assumed that position in defiance of his party and in active connivance with opponents. More importantly, it is difficult to look at Nigeria today with any measure of satisfaction at how far we have gone on the ladder of development in relation to the enormous potentials of the country.

If the PDP is the clear dominant political player, then it will have to take commensurate responsibility for the failings of Nigeria. If it desires that Nigerians share the sentiments of President Jonathan on the positive perception of the PDP, the Party will have to challenge itself to go beyond the accomplishment of the irreducible minimum of keeping Nigeria together and take Nigeria to the higher ground of transparency and accountability in government; bridging the infrastructural gap that has widened and deepened to a chasm; respond effectively to the grinding poverty afflicting the majority of Nigerians…….the wish list is necessarily long, too long. As the scripture says, the harvest is plenty but the labourers are few.

Destruction of Northern Nigeria.

Simon Kolawole Live!: Email: simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com

So here we are. I was discussing with a friend recently. She said something that bothered me and, I hope, should bother you too. She went to a Lagos market to buy foodstuff. She, being an economist, started comparing year-on-year price differences. The trend has been upward. She asked the seller why this is so. The market woman had her own explanation: the unrest in Northern Nigeria has been taking its toll on food prices. “No be today the thing start,” the woman told her. As my friend told me the story, an alarm went off in my head: with the unrelenting bombings and shootings, we may be heading for a food supply crisis as insecurity drives farmers out of business.

I have noticed a tendency among Southerners to disdainfully describe the terrorism challenge facing us today as purely “a problem of the North”. It may not be that simple. Last year, in the heat of the tomato crisis that hit Lagos markets, I did a snap survey among my colleagues at THISDAY. I asked a one-line question: “Did your wife make stew last weekend?” or “Did you make stew last weekend?” The instinctive response was laughter, followed by “Simon, you’ve started again o!” Then, a pause. A quick rethink. And then a different answer: “Wait, my wife said there was no tomato in the market, so she couldn’t make stew.” Some would say: “We used tin tomato. We don’t know what’s happening. They said it’s because of the crisis in Jos.”

My research motive was simple: to point out the important role of the North in the food supply chain. We normally take this for granted. If the crisis in the North gets out of hand, it is the whole of Nigeria that will suffer the consequences. But I can imagine someone snap at me: “Don’t worry, we’ll use petrodollars to import food when we break up.” Yes, anyone who has money can import, but any country that survives on importation of its staple food is doomed. We also seem to easily forget that the economic lives of ordinary people are being ruined by these terrorist activities. Cattle sellers were massacred the other day. When people can no longer go to their farms because of insecurity, how do they sustain their families? How do they send their children to school? How do they provide for their medical needs?

What are the implications for the North in particular and Nigeria in general?
Some Nigerians are so shallow-minded that they cannot even see the bigger picture of how interconnected and interrelated we human beings are. All they see is tribal marks. They only think in terms of North and South, Christian and Muslim, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo (and now Ijaw). The only thing that ever excites them is whipping up ethnic and religious sentiments. The solution to every problem, including husband and wife quarrels, is the balkanisation of Nigeria. On the other hand, you also have some opinion leaders up North who are playing the ostrich while the region is gradually being destroyed by terrorists. The only sense they can make out of this bloodbath is that it is Christians that are bombing churches and killing Christians. The only explanation they have to offer is that it is President Goodluck Jonathan that is behind the terrorist attacks. Some have even gone to the ridiculous extent of saying there is no Boko Haram.

How does this kind of mentality help? The North has been set back by decades. Livelihoods are being destroyed. Businesses are being crippled. This is a region that desperately needs massive investment to be able to keep its head above water. By many development indicators, the North is behind: access to safe water, school enrolment, access to basic healthcare and general infrastructure. These areas require constant and concentrated injection of cash. Can you imagine then that the budgets are now being channelled into security because of terrorist activities? Meanwhile, how many investors would like to go to the North today? How many contractors would be eager to construct roads there? How many donors would feel safe to continue working in the region?

To those Northerners who are gloating that the terrorist attacks “serve Jonathan right”, I have a message for them: it is their land that is being ruined. Therefore, the rational thing to do now is work out how to stop this carnage, no matter who is behind it. I care little about the conspiracy theories. I care more about the solutions to the problem. Boko Haram leaders have come out time and again that they are behind these attacks. They released their mission statement the other day, saying: “In our struggle, we only kill government functionaries, security agents, Christians and anyone who pretends to be a Muslim but engage in assisting security agents to arrest us.” The pattern of attacks is consistent. Those who call themselves Northern elders must step in and stem this slide. Enough of politicking and grandstanding. The North is dying a slow death. The North is bleeding. Wise Northerners who have access to the Boko Haram hierarchy should do everything possible to stop this haemorrhage. It makes sense to preserve the North first and ask questions later. It is not about Jonathan.

And to those Southerners who harbour nothing but hate for the North and continue to gloat at this monumental misfortune ravaging the region, I have a message for them: if one part of the country is in turmoil, there cannot be stability in the system. Everybody is affected. Even a problem in a neighbouring country is a threat to us, much less on our territory. In fact, there are millions of Southerners up North whose livelihoods are being destroyed too. They are not doing the North any favour by living and working there; they went there for their own economic end. The Yoruba, Igbo and other Southern nationalities buying and selling and operating businesses in the North are not doing the North any favour.

They are there as economic beings. They too are adversely affected. If all the opportunities were in the South, no Southerner would go up North. It is therefore crass narrow-mindedness for anyone to gloat over this catastrophe rocking the North.
As I would forever argue, Boko Haram is a threat to all—Muslims, Christians, atheists, Northerners, Southerners, foreigners, all! To reduce this huge problem to a regional or political issue is to miss the point entirely. We are all in this together. The earlier we realised this, the better.

And Four Other Things...

THIS OIC THING AGAIN
And while we were at it, the Minister of State II for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed, reportedly told NTA at the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Mecca that “Nigeria is an Islamic country with the largest population of Christians”. The interview was said to have aired Thursday night on 9pm Network News (I didn’t watch it). When did Nigeria become an Islamic country? Is this the kind of statement we need at this critical juncture of our troubled nationhood? I hope at the end of the day, we would begin to treat religion as a personal, and not a national, choice.  

STATE POLICE
Our wobbly federalism is on trial again, with the North/South divide over the state police issue. Although I am not particularly sold on this state police thing, the fact is that in a federation, states and councils need to be empowered to maintain law and order within their territories. That was how we operated before the military seized power in 1966. Today, states practically run the police. They kit them, provide them with vehicles, arms and equipment and pay them extra allowances. What else is left but to officially declare them state police and allow the states more access to funds from the federation account?

DRIVING US MAD
The Lagos State government has come up with some very tough traffic laws that will make driving in Lagos either an enjoyable experience or a nightmare. I have read through the laws—they are not entirely fresh. It is the punishments that are new. Enforcement officials will be salivating now as they will certainly enjoy “settlements” from offenders. That is what you are guaranteed to get when the punishment is more than the crime. Beyond enforcing duties on motorists, however, the government must also live up to its responsibilities: good roads, good road signs and good traffic management. Eko oni baje o!

BRING IT ON!
My mood just got brightened up with the commencement of the 2012/13 English Premier League season yesterday. My weekends had been dull for weeks but now I have something to look forward to! I expect this to be one of the most thrilling seasons ever, better than the drama of last season. In my opinion, the Manchester clubs as well as Chelsea and Arsenal are going to fight for the title, while Spurs, Liverpool, Newcastle and Everton will give us unending entertainment and value for money all season. Who will wear the crown? I don’t care. All I want is good football and sweet weekends!

Playing the ostrich.

Written by Mahmoon Baba-Ahmed.

inSharMany Nigerians can expectantly heave a sigh of relief with the indication that the Boko Haram sect is now engaged in dialogue with the federal government in a bid to end the protracted unrest that is bedevilling some parts of northern states. Malam Habu Mohammed, purportedly speaking on behalf of the sect’s leader, told a Voice of America correspondent in far away Saudi Arabia that talks are ongoing to bring respite to the northern states already overwhelmed by hostilities.

That was not the first time Nigerians are treated to such seemingly heart warming information only for their hopes to be dashed, making them depressed, dejected and discouraged. However, majority of Nigerians are optimistic about the possibility of a dialogue and are having a hopeful view of its positive outcome in future. This is more so because they are extremely worried over how the lingering catastrophe caused serious social upheavals and disrupted economic activities in major northern cities and other urban centres that had been turned into the theatres of the conflict.

Some sympathetic and concerned southerners are living with their hearts in their mouths fearing that the escalation of uncertainty and the insecurity in the land may extend to their areas. Everybody was weary, disenchanted and disillusioned until that infrequent news broadcast from America came to uplift the souls of the miserable people and put a smile on their dispirited faces.

Whatever joy that piece of news had elicited was short-lived, for as soon as that broadcast was made, Mr Labaran Maku, the voluble Information Minister, subtly and diplomatically dismissed the sect’s claim that talks were going on between Boko Haram warriors and federal government’s ubiquitous security forces. He posited that his government was aware of that development and that its doors are always open for dialogue so as to bring that orgy of unmitigated violence to an end.

Nevertheless the two statements were contradictory as they were perplexing, making people doubt the genuineness of the Boko Haram claim or the sincerity of the government in engaging members of the sect in any meaningful dialogue now or in the nearest future. The sect contends that dialogue has commenced while the government is renouncing that assertion, insisting that if that gesture was an invitation from the sect it will be eagerly and delightedly accepted. In that case it can be said there is more to it than meets the eye.

Undoubtedly the onus of convening the dialogue rests squarely on the shoulders of the government and it should therefore rise to the occasion. On its part, the sect has always been forthcoming about initiatives that will lead to either truce or complete resolution of the conflict. Similarly notable statesmen have risked their lives and staked their reputation in trying new ideas that will pave way to a peaceful, workable solution without any tangible result. In the end the government was indicted of being responsible for the failure of various peace initiatives, or for scuttling efforts aimed at bringing the feuding Boko Haram to negotiating table.

Could there be anything that deterred the government from initiating a move that would have prescribed a lasting solution to Boko Haram menace? The government had in the past set a precedent in that direction when it dispatched a presidential jet to convey leaders of the Niger Delta insurgency to Aso Rock to negotiate terms for their surrender and the ultimate amnesty. Why is the government always apathetic in considering suggestions for peaceful settlement with Boko Haram? It ought to do more to convince everyone that it is indeed interested in ending that embarrassing situation.

It is hard to convince Nigerians that their government is incapable of dealing with terrorism and insurgency in whatever guise despite extensive deployment of its security personnel in all the troubled areas. It is argued that the government was being deliberately immobilised as a ploy to enlist the support of foreign countries in quelling the unrest it had woefully failed to contain.

Despite the fact that Western countries, including the United States, are complicit in the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan in the April 2011 elections, though by many to have been rigged, they refused to be dragged into the Boko Haram crises which some say has roots in the social and economic deprivations caused largely by misguided policies, therefore only the Federal Government can proffer solution to them. Thus, there is a growing sense that the government takes responsibility for allowing the Boko Haram problem to fester and assume alarming dimension.

If indeed there is religious nuances to the insurgency saga the Americans, known to be extremely intolerant with the rising profile of Islam, would have intervened to nip the uprising in the bud as it had been doing across the world. As the opposite is the case, the Americans are not worried by Nigeria’s intractable insurgency even though there are some wicked people who are bent on besmearing Nigeria’s integrity by calling for its inclusion into infamous American register of terrorist nations. Even as Hillary Clinton, the U.S.  Secretary of State, came calling awhile ago, she avoided any reference to Boko Haram insurgency and deliberately cited corruption and social injustice as the bane of Jonathan’s administration. She advised him to take remedial measures so as to bring to an end the malevolent regime of instability propelled by corruption and maladministration.

It is obvious that persistent instability in the country is caused, not by the menace of the Boko Haram alone, but also by the perverse values that reared their heads since the inception of the Jonathan administration in the name of democracy. It is now an open secret that the Federal Government is not interested in dialogue and is opting for the prolongation of the crisis for the advancement of its warped political ideals. That explains why it is playing ostrich, believing that nobody really knows how it is approaching the Boko Haram calamity.

FG to go after Boko Haram financiers, strategists.

By SONI DANIEL
ABUJA— There were indications yesterday that the Federal Government may go after the strategists and financiers of the Boko Haram sect as a way of ending the spate of bombings in the country. Also being targeted by security agencies are those believed to be inciting the sect into violence through the spread of hate messages in certain parts of the country.
A reliable government source told Vanguard that security agents had decided to look beyond those who merely throw bombs in their bid to find a lasting solution to the cycle of violence in parts of the North.
About 1,000 Nigerians have so far been killed in various parts of the country since the sect began its bombing activities in 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.

The source said the administration decided to take on other elements of the sect, who have decided to make life unbearable for other Nigerians.
The source said: “The focus of the search is gradually shifting from the sect’s foot soldiers, who merely go on suicide missions to the financiers, intelligence class and those who indoctrinate the bomb-throwers”.
Asked if indeed the sect was involved in any form of dialogue with the government, the source admitted that some form of discussion was going on with the administration but declined to give further details.
The source said the recent listing of three Boko Haram leaders as terrorists by the United States had made some members of the group to seek dialogue, apparently to avoid being designated as a foreign terrorist organisation.
“The sect has come to realise that the government is fully aware of what it is doing and that is why they have soft-pedaled. The heat is more than what the sect can take,” the source said.
Last week, a prominent northern leader, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, warned people to stop associating the sect with any religion, as its activities did not have anything to do with any of the religious groups in the country.
Mohammed said: “As far as I am concerned, Boko Haram is a terrorist group; it has nothing to do with Islam or Christianity. Let those who are ignorant stop associating it with any religion and face the reality on the ground.

The First Ladies - By Mahmoon Baba-Ahmed .

Written at the height of the Turai-Patience imbroglio.....read and enjoy it belatedly.......

The concept of First Ladyship, imported from Western democracies, is awfully abused in this country, and from all indications it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good. Its practice is making everyone ill at ease. Initially the idea was to enable the wife of a President or governor accompany him to any state function where her presence will add colour and glamour, but in Nigeria First Ladies have redefined that role by usurping the authority of their hubbies, performing executive functions, making unbudgeted expenditure and expropriating public property for their personal aggrandisement.

They have systematically liberated themselves from the control of their spouses, exerting themselves as independent partners that could do and undo. They emerged overnight as larger than life consorts, dwarfing the political stature of their men. They do not have anybody’s mandate to act as they wish, but are more powerful than their so-called elected mates. That was an unfortunate development that terribly negates the notion of governance and which also projects our leaders as totally hopeless in curbing their wives’ extravagant immoderation in the affairs of the state.
God in his infinite wisdom has cautioned us about showing excessive love for women and children who could be harmful to our security and welfare. However, our leaders remained heedless, always trusting their women and over pampering their children. Needless to say, such actions have now brought reproach upon them. Although Nigerians love and respect the basic rights of their womenfolk, they do not sanction their indulgence in activities that go beyond what is morally or socially acceptable that may pour scorn on their status and bring shame to the community. Although most Nigerian women are vociferous and unconstrained, always at liberty to pursue their legitimate interests, they are still firmly placed under the guidance and supervision of their male partners for effective control.

Nowadays such vital control is terribly relaxed and women are on the loose, ensnaring men into their devious designs. Consequently Nigeria’s elected leaders are the worst victims having lost their bearing with their women, unwittingly endorsing their involvement in all aspects of governance. By so doing they are causing great confusion by meddling into the affairs of the civil service by hook or by crook, pushing officers around and issuing orders that counteract the objectives of the establishment.

Their selfish and weird wishes are always deemed by their complacent husbands as directives which could not be contravened. To all intent and purpose they had succeeded in setting up a parallel authority comparable to that of their husbands. The era of first ladyship was thus established in all the three tiers of governance in the country. Its influence has subsequently permeated into the security institutions where the wives of service chiefs are ardent adherents. A personality cult is built around them with immense power and influence to direct, shape or manoeuvre men and materials to gain advantage.

Maryam Babangida was the forerunner of First Ladyship and her daring escapades made her Better Life Programme a focus of attention. It was later tacitly endorsed by the bureaucrats. Maryam Abacha consolidated it with her own version, The Family Support, which was a complete departure from the aims and objectives of the pioneering scheme. Subsequently each first lady came with her own agenda, different in content and meaning from that of her predecessors.

The sad aspect of the whole affair was that it produced risky and daring enterprises with no guarantee of success. They were therefore abandoned midway to become white elephants projects. Worst still, there was discontinuity in their implementation, with each lady commencing on fresh projects that may have little or no benefit to the welfare of masses. That clearly brought to the fore the insensitivity of the First ladies about the judicious use of public funds, an indication of their recklessness which fuelled the corruption their husbands failed to curtail.

Dame Patience Jonathan has stretched that concept too far by taking the demands of the office of a First Lady and that of a permanent secretary, in a state civil service, in a single stride. She is now crowning it up with the position of the Chairperson of the African First Ladies Peace Mission AFLPM which earned her the sobriquet of the First Lady of Africa. The apogee of Dame Patience’s reign as Africa’s foremost dame came recently with a parley and lavish banquet for all Africa’s first ladies hosted at a staggering cost which almost drained the nation’s purse. That was indeed an ironical misadventure undertaken to promote peace on the continent when a substantial portion of Nigeria is gripped by a reign of terror. Somebody should please tell Mrs Jonathan that charity begins at home. She should counsel her husband on the need to be more practical in repressing the insurgency that could destabilise his administration and render his Dame a damsel in distress.

While the first ladies are basking in the warmth and comfort of their offices, deriving great satisfaction and pleasure by savouring their spoils, there is a growing disquiet about their integrity and the legality of their actions. It has been argued that the actions of the first ladies are not backed by any authority and consequently any money expended for that purpose is acquired through illegitimate means. It therefore goes without saying that the first ladies and their other halves are partners in illegal acts, perpetrating immorality and corruption. While a governor or a president is immune to interrogation and subsequent litigation while in office, his wife is not and could be liable to grilling to account for the money improperly entrusted to her for the pursuit of her pet project and pleasure-seeking exploits
Despite all these, the primus inter pares of Africa’s most flamboyant ladies, Dame Patience Jonathan, is completely dissatisfied with her role as Nigeria’s matriarch.

She is now toying with the idea of legalising the offices of first ladies in the current effort to amend the statute book. That may be a plausible contention, but how could that be done without involving the electorates whose mandate is vital for the crystallisation of that idea? In that case it is suggested that the constitution be amended to allow a triumvirate arrangement involving the president, his vice and the first lady as the second vice president, all to run on a single ticket. In that way the three of them could share some responsibility, authority or power. The same should also apply to state governors.
By so doing deputy governors, and to a large extend the vice president, will be allotted a degree of responsibility to make them more effective and relevant in governance. Anything short of that will amount to an infringement of constitutional provisions, making the office of first ladies redundant, superfluous, unessential and unnecessary.