Here Comes another Fuel Crisis

Simon Kolawole Live!

Lucky me. As I stepped out of church last Sunday, reports of a looming fuel crisis started playing on my mind. I gently drove to a filling station, loaded my tank and triumphantly headed home. It was N97 per litre, thank God. The following day, I went out with my wife’s car and decided to fill up the tank to be better prepared for the crisis ahead. Alas, I was told to pay N110 per litre at a filling station along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. “Not so fast,” I mumbled and left the station, not too sure if I was taking a hopeless gamble. It worked. I got petrol for N100 per litre a few metres away. With our cars now fully loaded, I was ready to confront the week ahead like a warrior.

Then, I paused. What’s going on? A few weeks ago, there were fuel queues in Abuja. Now, Lagos has joined the queue. The official line was that because of a broken pipeline at Arepo, Ogun State, supplies were being affected. I decided to dig deeper. There was no broken pipeline in Abuja, yet the city is experiencing shortages. I made a few calls to those who should know the true picture. It became clear to me that there was more to it than meets the eye. Somebody put it more brutally: “The current shortage is a tip of the iceberg. If care is not taken, we are going to be in this till December.” I sighed.

What are the issues? I will try to simplify things as much as possible. Last year, there was this fuel subsidy scam that rocked Nigeria. I call it “the biggest fraud in the history of Nigeria”. Dubious characters were given licences to import fuel. Most of them did not import a drop. But with the connivance of banks and government officials, non-existent vessels offloaded non-existent fuel for onward transmission to non-existence tank farms. The subsidy bill came to about N2.19 trillion for 2011 alone. Private jets (now fondly called “PJ” by the nouveau riche) flooded the tarmacs of our airports, most of them owned by the emergency “subsidy billionaires”.

After seeing the hefty bill, President Goodluck Jonathan decided—in anger, I suppose—to remove fuel subsidy. Many of us cried foul, maintaining that we must first distinguish between “fuel subsidy” and “fake subsidy” before deciding on the way forward. There were massive public protests against the increase in petrol price. Truth be told, Jonathan has not recovered from the damage the protests inflicted on his relationship with ordinary Nigerians. Nevertheless, he sought to address the concerns raised by many well-meaning Nigerians on how to tackle the scam. The new Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr. Reginald Stanley, moved to sanitise the import regime.

To be fair to Stanley, he has set up an effective system to check the fraud. Some of the measures include appointment of independent inspectors of imported products; submission of financing documents by marketers; submission of contractual agreements between marketers/importers and traders/suppliers; a satellite-based monitoring of vessels bringing products to Nigeria; etc. He inherited an unwieldy list of 125 importers. New qualification and verification measures have reduced that to just 39. From a volume of 5 billion litres of petrol imported in the first quarter of 2012, importation is down to 4.20 billion litres in the third quarter. Daily consumption has crashed from the bogus 59 million litres per day to about 30 million litres now.

The Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede Committee did a great job of identifying the suspected subsidy scammers. The names of the indicted marketers/importers, some of them very powerful individuals, were made public. The tighter measures put in place by the PPPRA, along with the Budget Office and the Debt Management Office, were implemented by the Ministry of Finance, which now verifies subsidy claims, unlike before. And we’ve seen good results. For instance, as at June 2011, government had paid N1 trillion as subsidy for the year. But as at August 2012, government had paid only N78.8 billion, although with N43.25 billion still outstanding after the settlement of another N56.75 billion last week. Put together, that is N178.8 billion only for eight months. At this rate, the actual subsidy bill for 2012 could be about N300 billion, compared to N2.19 trillion last year! Not even the increase in pump price from N65 to N97 per litre can explain the huge difference. We were just being ripped off in the past, simple as that.

Now, why should there be fuel shortage now? That takes us to another issue: the Federal Government was obviously trying not to overshoot the subsidy vote in the 2012 budget. With no realistic data from the petroleum industry amidst allegations of fraud, the government had decided to play safe by using consumption figures of 2009. It initially arrived at N1.314 trillion for this year, but revised it to the poetic N888 billion after the increase in petrol price in January. It was a safe thing to do then amidst public anger over the subsidy scam.

But it soon dawned on the government that the figure might be insufficient. The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was the first to raise the alarm. Roughly N450 billion of the N888 billion subsidy vote for 2012 is for 2011 arrears alone! The government inevitably ran into the dilemma over how to pay the genuine importers whose claims have been verified under the new regime, with the products already consumed. With this delay in the payments, many marketers developed cold feet. They drastically scaled down or stopped importation altogether to protect themselves. Put simply, we are not importing enough to meet consumption. That, in a large nutshell, is what is responsible for the latest fuel queues.

Last week, finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, moved to douse the crisis by paying more verified claims for 2012. Hopefully, this will ease the supply crisis. It seems the subsidy bazaar is coming to an end. But the genuine importers and marketers are, without a doubt, justified to ask for their pay. And unless they are paid consistently and on time, the crisis will continue in different episodes.

And Four Other Things...

Quiet Qaqa
Last weekend, the joint military task force claimed to have attacked the hideout of Boko Haram militants in Kano and killed key leaders, including “Abu Qaqa”, who regularly issued statements on behalf of the group. Although I would readily concede that the security agencies are trying their best given the serious limitations hampering their operations, I was a bit sceptical about the “Abu Qaqa” matter. But given that the killing is yet to be denied by “Abu Qaqa” himself, maybe there is some truth in it. In which case, we must continue to encourage and support the agencies to keep it going. We shall win the war. It’s winning the peace that I doubt.. 

The N5000 Question
So, President Goodluck Jonathan has suspended the introduction of the N5000 note. While I still can’t understand the sense behind the protests against the new note, I blame the CBN governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for not doing his homework before going to town. I am amazed that, not for the first time, he did not consult or carry along the critical stakeholders in taking certain decisions. All I could see was a fire-brigade approach after the act. Nevertheless, I’m worried that CBN’s duties and functions are now being subjected to political interference. Soon, the National Assembly will ask the CBN to increase lending rate.

Jonathan and His Critics
Who is going to mediate between President Goodluck Jonathan and his critics? The other time, his spokesman, Dr. Rueben Abati, took them on headlong. Then the critics fired back. And now the president himself has come out again, blaming the January protests against removal of petrol subsidy as the handiwork of opposition politicians. Somebody should please help me whisper to the president that globally, it is part of the job description of the opposition to take advantage of any situation that presents itself to criticise the sitting government. Oh yes!

Arik and the Minister
Someone please tell me the spokesman of the Minister of Aviation did not describe Arik as an “ailing airline”! Responding to allegations that the minister, Princess Stella Oduah, was giving the airline hell because of personal interests, the spokesman was reported as saying: “Why will the minister want to have a stake in a business that is not thriving?” I believe such statements shouldn’t come from a representative of the Federal Government, but I worry more about the state of the aviation industry in Nigeria. Aviation oils economic activities everywhere in the world. We are in for a tough time.

ThisDay

True Muslims and Christians must stand together to defeat the menace

Boko Haram:

By Abs Umar, London

The problem with most Muslims is where to draw the line between the peaceful virtues of Islam and Arab cultures. Only in the Western part of Nigeria has it been well and sensibly done in practice, at least, well intertwined within many family units.
Islam is a religion, people who profess Islam are called Muslims and there is Only One God. Islamic doctrines are well documented in the Holy Quran but how many people (read Muslims) actually read it, and truly understood what they were reading? Most would instead accept the wordings and preaching of 'illiterate scholars' that lack not only the honesty but the intelligence to understand it.

Instead of embracing the deeper meaning of Quranic texts, their mundane tribal bigots become the “gospel of truth of Islam” fed on Fridays to ill-mannered youths. Such is the astounding stupidity of religion preachers in all places of worshiping God today, Churches not excluded.

I am still looking for where in the Holy Quran says innocent persons can be killed, but instead, saw that one cannot be a Muslim without believing in Isah A.S (Jesus) (Quran, sura 19 Maryam, ayat 30-33). The belief in Jesus (and all other messengers of God) is required in Islam, and a requirement of being a Muslim.

The Quran mentions Jesus twenty-five times, more often, by name, than Muhammad, (SAW) four times. It states that Jesus was born as the result of a miraculous event which occurred by the decree of God. It states that Islam is for the benefit of mankind and commands Muslims to make no distinction. "...it (the Quran 10:37) is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it, and a fuller explanation of the Book - wherein there is no doubt - from The Lord of the Worlds."

Similarly Quran 46:12 states "...And before this, was the book of Moses, as a guide and a mercy. And this Book confirms (it)...", while the Quran 2:136 commands the believers of Islam to say: "we believe in God and that which is revealed unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered."

(Surrendered to the will of God….and accept Isah A.S (Jesus) and all that He “received from the Lord” so why would Muslims hate Christians; killing and maiming innocent people with bombs, as Boko Haram and other terrorists make us believe, how can anyone justify bombing Churches in the name of Islam?)

And for those who refer to Boko Haram as my people, in my opinion, are only displaying their own self-worth, witlessness and inanity in public. My name should NOT be seen that I share any ideology with terrorist nor did I proclaim to anyone that Abs Umar is a card carrying member of such groups. I have equal rights and equal opportunities, like every good citizen of the world, to see that darkness does not dominate light in any part of the globe. I don’t fight God’s war too, God is mighty enough to do His own battle, the reason He built Hell with Fire, so stop telling me to go and face a senseless group, when you sit on your butts! Everyone would carry their own cross on Judgment Day, and be judged according to their deeds, not by tongue, name or tribe, but by good and evil, sin and innocence.

However, it is well documented in the Holy Book Quran; one must read to understand it all and take in the whole context, not pick and distort what it really means, if one does not want to offend God, the Omnipotent & Omnipresent.

Christians, in my humble opinion have done themselves a disservice to world peace for their lack of understanding of the true meaning of Islam. How many actually want to, as much as, hear a word from the Holy Quran, at least for the sake of knowledge, after all, there are many English versions in the market today. I often laugh at many improbable quotations out of context to justify deeds done by some ungodly humans in the name of Islam.

However, violence in that manner, in the name of Islam is synonymous to abominations done in the name of Christianity too, only an ignorant person would argue the opposite. We absolutely have to understand the philosophy of the superficial. It is however, absurd to divide people into good or bad by the religion they follow. It is an emotion that is unbecoming of Nigerians to make unnecessary things our necessities today.

We have good and bad people in all walks of life, but the mask that each one of us wears, when it comes to religion, reflects our own habits and acquired bigoted vile behaviors; devaluing ourselves rather than being above it, resting on true reality that lies behind the mask; that, one to one, we all get along as good human beings; the more one analyzes people, the more all reasons and doubts for analysis disappear.

It is quite demoralizing that Boko Haram, a terrorist group of no importance, whose ideology is grotesque and contradictory to Islam, has become the acceptable face for Islam, by ignorant dogmatists. An organization that disdains education in all forms, whereas the world owes a great debt to Islamic scholars for preserving and transmitting to posterity the classics of Greek mathematics. Their work was chiefly that of transmission; they developed considerable ingenuity in algebra and showed some genius in their work in trigonometry. (Simplifying its practical application to calculate the phases of the moon), advances in optics, and advances in astronomy.

In Medicine, Islamic scholars translated their voluminous writings from Greek into Arabic and then produced new medical knowledge based on those texts; making the Greek tradition more accessible, understandable, and teachable. Islamic scholars ordered and made more systematic the vast and sometimes inconsistent Greco-Roman medical knowledge by writing encyclopedias and summaries; and many contributions in many other fields for the advancement of humanity, while Boko Haram avowedly despises knowledge in all forms.

The Boko Haram as a group, is cocksure and the intelligent among us all are full of doubts. Today the terrorist merely requires a certain amount of repugnant terrorism and that triggers our own certain lack of imaginative thoughts, and a certain low passion for unity of our country.

We, forgetting that evil people always look for alliance and the opportunity to divide sound minds, instead throw all our dignities, our respectability, values and standards out of the window and become vulgar, common and vicious in our own views. We have degenerated to a low sense of moral responsibility of the terrorist, instead of us to be steadfast in our values and join hands as good people to condemn darkness and havoc raining on us all as a people of light and integrity.

Religion and respect for others is always unjustly handled by the few among us. It is like throwing petrol on fire just to enrage everyone else, and then hide under the umbrella of freedom of speech. Doesn’t freedom of speech involve respect for others too? The uncultured elements in this world do not understand the virtues of religion, all they do is destroy everything the human race has ever built; releasing uncontrollable resentment and bitterness in the society, while innocents who had nothing whatsoever to do with it pay with their lives in the crossfire.

Those who take pleasure according to the vulgar standard of hurting and insulting others' religion just to provoke us all must not be encouraged. Sad that we live in the age where the least intelligent among us wants to be noticed; a world full of criminals-with-noble-faces, poor odd types of humanity in hideous masks, who feed people lies and shock them to fame as a writer - that is all. But our values and standards must console us always rather than become so gullible and absolutely imprudent with our comments.
What should be interesting about people in a good society is optimism for a better life and good future NOT religious war!

Nigerian youths Set to Endorse Buhari

BY COMRADE AREMU
I HEREBY announce my support of General Muhammadu  Buhari as Nigeria’s next  President. He is credible, and capable of changing Nigeria for the better. Is GMB an angel? No. Indeed, I have criticized him in the past. I have expressed my disappointment that PDP and their background act as if they are all that Nigerians has got by looting our Money! Which is not good for our country.
Come2015 elections, however, he will be the best that Nigeria has got. Everyone will see that 2015 election will be the most free and faire in Nigeria’s history.
It will show whether we have learned anything from our own history or not, and therefore whether we are determined to move forward or not. Of the lessons we have learned from the ruling party, the elections will show, most of all, whether we have learned what I call the David Hill lesson. As editor of the London Weekend, Mr. Hill wrote a column in which he considered the question as to why people would do the same thing over and over again but expect different results.
He wondered why a man who struck his own thumb with a hammer twice would expect not to experience the same excruciating pain the second time. That is the same question Nigerians must answer in less than three years from now. My answer is: Yes, if you clobber your thumb with that hammer, you are going to feel the same screaming and searing pain all over again. Actually, the pain will feel worse the second time because—unless you are of considerably languid intelligence— your brain would have informed you ahead of time about just how much of a fool you are and how bad the agony is going to be.
Demographically. General Muhammedu Buhari can stretch out one of his long hands and arrest the drift. At this time in our history, his candidature is the wisest, the most promising, and the most logical. He has honour, discipline and strength of character: attributes every great leader must have.
Furthermore, GMB knows what is wrong with Nigerians, and knows what to do about it, an insight he demonstrated in his Military tenure, and he led a memorable assault on indiscipline and excess in public life.
Nigerians needs in office a leader whose word will command respect; a leader who will not speak out of both sides of his mouth; a leader who will deploy power in the national interest and not in the massaging of his own bloated ego and the greed of his friends. Nigerians needs a leader who is capable of holding himself and those around him to high standards of accountability and performance, not one who simply preaches about them in public.
Nigerians need a man who has demonstrated he can stand up to masses needs of the rich and influential, not one whose friends, colleagues and mistresses are exempted from the law. Nigerians needs a man who will be consistent from day to day, not one for whom right and wrong depends on the company or the time of day. Nigerians needs a man who can tell opportunity from opportunism; a man who can resist the greed, insensitivity and ethical nothingness that now defines the country.
There are many people asking to be Nigeria’s President in 2015, but only GMB truly meets these basic considerations. Only he answers the question: Who is Nigeria’s best hope for halting and reversing the deterioration and decay? Only he can change the questions and seek new answers. He can bring in new men and women of character, and throw open a genuine new beginning anchored on public service.
He can slam the doors on indolence and compromise, and unlock the cellars where the bad politician hopes the bodies will never be discovered. I wholeheartedly endorsed his candidature as Nigeria’s next President because he has the capacity to bring a sense of responsibility and mission to governance. If he does, implementing budgets and policies will become standard, and good men and women will have a place in our nation head of the mob of monsters. All of this is possible because GMB has character. He has also chosen another man of integrity. Through action, not loud rhetoric, they can correct the principal weaknesses that have made Nigerians underachieving and under-developing State.
I have never met GMB or spoken to him. But I have observed him closely for the better part of three decades, and I know that what he offers is superior to the weaknesses those who fear his ascendancy are eager to cite.

Desert Herald

President Jonathan In Secret Get-Away Out Of Abuja To See Ailing Wife

President Goodluck Jonathan

By SaharaReporters, New York

A plane with President Goodluck Jonathan has reportedly left Nigeria's capital, Abuja, several hours before the Nigerian leader was scheduled to depart to New York to attend this year's United Nations General Assembly. SaharaReporters learnt that the secretive maneuver meant that the president was most likely headed for Germany to see his ailing wife.
“There has been a great measure of secrecy surrounding the president’s departure,” said a source close to the Presidency. “I believe that Mr. President will stop over in Germany to see the First Lady before arriving in New York.”
Mrs. Patience Jonathan is spending her fourth week in a hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany.
A Saharareporters source in Germany disclosed that German authorities cleared a Nigerian presidential jet to travel last night out of Abuja.
Earlier today, the Presidency issued a statement to the effect that Mr. Jonathan would head for New York accompanied by a delegation of several Nigerian officials including state governors and presidential aides. SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the governors of Bauchi and Akwa Ibom are included on Mr. Jonathan’s delegation.
A source in Abuja told our correspondent that presidential aide Oronto Douglas and Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State were recently added to the delegation.

SaharaReporters had also disclosed that German doctors ruled out the prospect of Mrs. Jonathan making the trip to New York. “Once the president heard that the First Lady cannot make it to New York, he began to plan how to make a secret trip to Germany to her,” said a source in Abuja.
In a bid to deflect attention from his stopover in Germany, Mr. Jonathan decided to travel to New York in two separate jets. The first plane, which is being used as a decoy, was to take the president to Germany on a secret mission to see his wife while the second jet will leave Nigeria and head straight to New York sometime tomorrow.

A source at the Presidency disclosed that it was unusual for the president to travel with two presidential jets. The only exceptions were when the First Lady insisted on traveling with a separate delegation, a major source of waste in the Presidency.
President Jonathan frequently travels either on a Boeing 737-7N6 business jet with tail number 5N-FGT or a newer jet, a Gulfstream G550 with tail number 5N-FGW. The Gulfstream was bought in April 2011.

Bauchi Bombings: CAN Begs Christians Not To Revenge, Says ‘Systematic Cleansing Of Christians’ Ongoing

Chairman of Bauchi State CAN Reverend Pokti Lewi

Burial of June 3rd victims at Christian Cemetery in Yelwa Kagadama, Bauchi.

By SaharaReporters, New York

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has reacted to this morning’s suicide bombing attack on a church in Bauchi State, and urged Christians not to take vengeance into their own hands.
The attack, which resulted in several deaths as well as severe injury to more than 40 persons, took place at St. John's Catholic Cathedral in Bayan Gari.
In an exclusive interview with SaharaReporters, the Chairman of CAN in the state, Reverend Pokti Lewi, described what is going on as nothing but systematic cleansing of Christians in Northern Nigeria.
“We cannot express the depth of what we are going through, and the pains we are in presently,” he said.  “Just few Sundays ago we lost nine persons in [another] suicide bombing and today again.
Now we have lost four persons, and over 40 in different severe [injury] situations; in the survivors some will die from what we are seeing presently.  Many of them are between life and death and this is clearly cleansing agenda by those perpetrating this act.”
Rev. Lewi, noting that the suicide bomber sacrificed his life in order to kill Christian worshippers, wondered what kind of world exists today.
“We are sad but are appealing to all Christians to be calm and not seek revenge, we have not kicked against anyone and his or her religion but God is watching and time will tell,” he said.
 He listed those who were killed in the last suicide bomb attack on  June 3rd 2012 when Boko Haram suicide bombers struck at Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel) and Harvest Field Church in Yelwa Tudu, Bauchi State. The victims of those attacks were buried on the June 6th  2012 at Christian Cemetery, Yelwa Kagadama, Bauchi.
Reverend Lewi gave the names of the victims of the June 3rd bombing as follows:
•    Mrs. Nyarim Jingina, who died with three months old pregnancy;
•     Irmiya Hassan Dodo, 67, a Second Republic House of Representatives member;
•    Joseph Kehinde Aiyedipe, 30, a student of Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi;
•    Samuel Olusegun, 16, a SS II student of Divine International School, Bauchi;
•     Augustine Effion Ita, 32, a health specialist; and
•    Suru Bamgboshe, a final year student of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University.
“You can see the pains of what we are going through,” he said.  “We are still managing many others that sustained serious injuries and now another one has occurred.  Where do we go from here if not to continue turning unto God.”

Bakare, Utomi, Fawehinmi berate Jonathan for fuel protest comment

 by Leke Baiyewu

Some of the leaders of the January anti-subsidy removal rally in Lagos have described President Goodluck Jonathan as insincere over his claim that the mass protest against the removal fuel subsidy was sponsored by a political class in the state.

The leaders, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH, include the Convener, Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare; political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi and the first son of the late human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Mohammed.

Jonathan had last Tuesday exhumed the controversy, when he alleged that the mass action, tagged; Occupy Nigeria, and organised by civil society groups, was manipulated by an unnamed class of people.

He had said, “Look at the demonstrations back home; look at the areas these demonstrations are coming from, you begin to ask, are these the ordinary citizens that are demonstrating? Or are people pushing them to demonstrate?

“(During) The demonstration in Lagos, people were given bottled water that people in my village don’t have access to. People were given expensive food that the ordinary people in Lagos cannot eat. So even going to eat free alone attracts people.

“They go and hire the best musicians to come and play and the best comedian to come and entertain. Is that demonstration? Are you telling me that that is a demonstration from ordinary masses in Nigeria who want to communicate something to government?

“I believe that that protest in Lagos was manipulated by a class in Lagos and was not from the ordinary people.”

In his reaction through a text message to our correspondent, Bakare alleged that the President back-stabbed the masses, that had influenced his emergence as late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s successor.

He said, “One word is sufficient to define the president’s thoughtless comment – bunkum. I hope he and his handlers understand the full meaning of the word. In case they don’t, he should supply the names of the imaginary sponsors.

“It is indeed true that the people that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Human memory can be so fickle. Otherwise, how can the same President Jonathan, who benefited from the civil protests that birthed the “doctrine of necessity” which cleared the way for him to become the acting president, now turns around to blaspheme the same process that once benefited him.”

Also reacting, Utomi, in an interview argued that there was nothing wrong with a protest against an anti-people policy of a government, even if it was sponsored.

He said, “I don’t know if anything is wrong, where the protest was sponsored. If the president understands politics and democracy, then he will know that political parties can organise and mobilise the masses for protests or public awareness campaigns. These are tools and vehicles of politics.

“I can equally be referred to as a sponsor of the protest because I led the professional bodies, which held a rally in Ikoyi, Lagos. The President should know that the political parties can organise public or mass action against a government that is not doing the right thing.”

Similarly, Mohammed said civil society groups were ready to take to the streets again, if government failed to fulfil its promises to the people.

He said, “The President does not understand governance or care about the feeling of the people. How can any government increase the pump price when it is obvious that the economy of the common man depends on petrol?

“Nigeria has what it takes to be one of the greatest countries of the world but for lazy and incompetent leadership. The government should think of the masses.”

Punch

Northern Unity Crisis: Useni Slams VP Sambo, Obasanjo

PEMBI STEPHEN and MUSA AHMAD TIJJANI

The Chairman Board of Trustees’ (BoT) chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum,  Lt Gen. Jeremiah Useni (rtd), has said that Vice President Namadi Sambo, the highest ranking political office holder from the geopolitical north, does not have the clout to rally the north together, while the 19 northern governors were interested in political gains in 2015 rather than suing for peace.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, Useni said the ACF had on several occasions, tried to provide a platform to foster northern unity and seek solutions to its problems, but with little cooperation from those with political authority.
The media aide to the vice president, Umar Sani, however, said that his principal was very capable and able to lead to the north politically or otherwise but every action of his must be seen to be  patriotic and not regional in nature.
Sani said, “The vice president is not only a northern leader. His duties are guided by the constitution and the constitution gives powers to the president and it is what Mr President tells him to do that he will do. What clout is he talking about if he has no constitutional powers?”
He continued, “The vice president is guided by the overall national interest. He must subordinate himself to Mr President and deliver on their electoral promises.”
Useni also chided northern elder Mallam Adamu Ciroma for only having political interests while blaming former president Olusegun Obasanjo for using regional groups like the Middle Belt Forum to divide the north.
Speaking on the north’s unity, he said, “Take Sardauna for instance, he was a rallying point for both Muslims and Christians. He was a leader, but today so many leaders have emerged from the north. In fact, we have no leader, who can rally the north?
“We have senior officers from the north, the vice president is the most senior government official from the north today, but can he rally the whole north? That is why I said we have leaders but I don’t think we have a leader now who would make a clarion call and everybody would follow like during the Sardauna period.”
Speaking on the lack of development, poverty and insecurity in the north, he said, “These are things that unless we sit down and do something about, it will be too bad for us. We at the ACF are doing our best to ensure that things don’t get out of hand.
“We organised a conference in December last year and we invited all the governors. The vice president who represented the President came and most of the governors came but they left almost immediately without listening to the issues raised and possible solutions.”
Only the host governor, Useni said, stayed to the end. “So, are we at the ACF going to implement anything?  We are not the executive body, not the judiciary and we don’t have the finance to tackle these problems. How do you think we can make a headway with this?”
On leaders who only speak for political interests, Useni said: “But some people, for reasons best known to them, maybe they have not been heard for a long time and they want to be heard now or they want you to know that they are doing something, will start segmenting the north, which is very unfortunate.
“There is the issue of Mallam Adamu Ciroma coming out to say that a particular candidate is the northern candidate for the recent presidential election. That is for a party. After that, did you hear anything from them again? The committee members are alive but did you hear anything from them about the north again?”
He said, “Look at the Middle Belt Forum, which I don’t belong to anyway, because Obasanjo was using them to kill the north. They say they are different from the ‘core north’. Which one is ‘core north’? Why am I chairman of ACF Board of Trustees? If they are ‘core north’, I am from Plateau State.
“So after Obasanjo left, did you hear anything? Even that time they had no office. I used to challenge them to show me their office. You can go to ACF and see the office. All these are for selfish interests.”
Leadership