IG berates predecessors over policemen’s welfare

 by Adelani Adepegba

Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar

Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, has criticised his predecessors for not caring about the welfare of policemen on peace-keeping missions.

Abubakar said this while inaugurating the renovated Peacekeeping Hall at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Friday.

He said members of the Nigeria Police Force were the least paid in the world.

According to him, the fact that policemen on peacekeeping missions performed well, but were not praised at home means that the difference is because of lack of equipment.

He said, “What we met here was not palatable. The former IGs sent officers for peacekeeping without taking care of their welfare.

“But now, it is a different thing. Even when the mission was not ready to pay, I pay pending when the mission will pay; their welfare is a concern to us.”

The IG bemoaned the poor remuneration of policemen, saying they were the least paid security personnel in the world.

“This is the only country in the world that policemen are least paid; this is the only country in the world that police welfare is least considered.

“Our officers and men have made Nigeria proud at all times and at all places they served and are serving. If we were able to do it outside, why are we failing here? We are not able to do it here because of the lack of equipment.”

According to the IG, the renovation of the peacekeeping centre cost the force N1.6m.

In a related development, the police compensated the families of the victims of the police helicopter crash that happened in Plateau State early this year.

A total of N38,633,500 was disbursed to the eight bereaved families.

Among those that were compensated was the wife of the late Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Haruna John.

Mrs. Olayinka Haruna, who was absent at the Force Headquarters, was to receive N9.6m.

Families of three other officers received cheques, while four families that their properties were destroyed by the crash were not left out.

Abubakar, who presented the cheques, said, “It is not what we give that matters, but that we remember their services to the nation.”

The Punch

Is Poverty Bane Of Nigeria’s Opposition?

STANLEY NKWOCHA

The keynote address delivered by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has elicited considerable interest and generated comments across the polity. STANLEY NKWOCHA reviews the governor’s position and contrasts it with the situation in the larger polity.
The conference theme was, “Is The Opposition A Serious Alternative In Nigeria?” and the event host was LEAERSHIP Newspapers Group. While Governor Shettima delivered the keynote address, Prof Pat Utomi delivered the lead paper. For the nation’s opposition, it must be stated that since the return of democracy in 1999, their dwindling fortunes has made most opposition political parties court extinction or regression.
Take for instance, the All Peoples Party, which merged with the United Nigeria Peoples Party, UNPP, to give rise to the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, has seen a total loss of about 6 states out of the nine it accumulated through the period in review.
For parties like the Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, their tale can best be described as sad. Whilst it took the two states of Imo and Abia by storm in 2007 general elections, enthroning governors in the two states, the speed with which it rose and shook the polity equally seems the speed with which it experienced internal crisis largely engineered by the PDP. PPA is today sadly missing on the nation’s political turf.
But from LEADERSHIP WEEKEND’s checks the party under its founding arrowhead Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu is regrouping and rebounding. And as it is for the PPA so it is for other political parties that are far below the party in terms of prominence.
Except for the Action Congress of Nigeria,ACN, which has been on a steady rise since 2007, jumping from having two states to a whooping six, no party can clearly say it is the face of opposition in the country as at today! But for the gentle, humble and unassuming Governor Shettima, a former banker, lecturer and a thorough-bred intellectual, it was an opportunity to show a side many didn’t know of the governor of the troubled Borno State. He did it in and in style too, damning the consequences and shooting straightfrom the hip.
Delivering his keynote address through his SSG, Ambassador Ahmed Baba Jidda, on the topic “Is The Opposition A Serious Alternative In Nigeria?”, Shettima threw all manner of punches before agreeing to finally focus on corruption as the bane of opposition in Nigeria. He identified poverty as the major challenge hindering the advancement of opposition parties in Nigeria and that it was the number one threat to any opposition becoming a serious challenger because it replaces ideologies with cash.
The governor said the situation has made votes become objects for the highest bidders, forcing some otherwise patriotic election umpires to act against their conscience to enthrone leaderships at different levels of government whether at the local, state or federal strata. Shettima, who further identified lack of internal democracy as another reason why political parties have continued to face challenges in Nigeria.According to him, this has only resulted in discontentment amongst members thereby brewing crisis and failures as signified by loss of members and factionalisation of parties.
“In the build up to the 2007 and 2011 elections, virtually all the key political parties were guilty of failures on internal democracy.
My party, the ANPP was accused of either imposing or wrongly substituting candidates with the result being a long pre-election and post-election litigation on the governorship tickets of Yobe, Kaduna, Kano etcetera; the CPC which is about 2 or 3 years old was accused of wrongly substituting governorship candidates in Kano, Katsina, Bauchi and Taraba; the ACN was also accused of imposing candidates especially in the southwestern states and the PDP as the biggest party, was accused of committing the most crime against party internal democracy by allegedly imposing or wrongly substituting governorship candidates in Rivers, Taraba, Bauchi, Anambra and a host of others.
“These crimes were known because they involved governorship seats on which those affected ran to the media, one can therefore imagine those that may have been silenced not by persuasion and political negotiation but by the instrumentality of power.
“Though all the parties seem to be guilty at different degrees, most of the feeling of discontent brewing in the country have largely and rightly, I must say, been directed at the ruling PDP at the centre, largely because of the size of the party; the number of seats it controls in parliament as well as the number of states under its control.For the obvious reasons that there is lethal hunger, brutal insecurity, fatal unemployment, crippled education, substandard healthcare and what have you.The list is long and successive leaders share the blame,” Shettima said.
Cautioning on the ‘winner-takes-all system’the governor said the situation has indeed contributed to the depth of frustration in the country since from 1999 the nation’s democratic process has largely been a tale of unfulfilled hopes and the increasing exasperation of the majority of the Nigerian people, adding that this has led to societal ills such as have been seen in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, with the Boko Haram insurgency. He correctly restated that this is one of the most tragic examples of disconnect between the political elites and the younger generation.
He bemoaned the loss of ideologies amongst political parties attributing it to ‘a very long period of military dictatorship’ as the hurry in the formulation of political parties did not help the polity in this regard.
‘’And as the crises situation has built up, some of these parties bred factions; while newer parties have also emerged. What marks these parties is the incredible similarity not only in their programs, but the manner in which members move through a revolving door from one to the other.
“There are no ideological issues held dear by them; inner party democracy hardly exists; the parties are generally just vehicles of access to power. And because they do not have very grand visions, they have not been able to galvanize the Nigerian people in a grand narrative of development and patriotic exertion. The fact that members of the political elite seemed to have regularly behaved in the same manner, especially in their excesses, meant that there was often little to choose between the political parties,” Shettima said.
Despite the challenges, however, the Borno governor said it is still possible for the opposition to become serious alternative in Nigeria as no matter how rocky and huge the challenges were, they were still surmountable.
“Nigerian electorates are becoming more politically conscious but like I had talked about, we must collectively fight that thick, black, stinky snake called poverty so that no one sells a vote for a meal ticket and this we can achieve through justice, fairness, and equity in our style of governance as opposition public office holders and our internal democraccies as parties so that credible candidates with rooted connection with the ordinary Nigerian are not prevented from carrying our flags to defeat a system Nigerians unanimously desire to replace,” Governor Shettima submitted.
As if to buttress the governor’s assertion, secretary general of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, Chief Willy Ezeugwu says he agrees in totality with the position of Governor Kashim, saying it was the point blank truth.
“Politicians can continue to deny it, but the truth remains that in this country, politicians are not principled and lack ideology. It is this total lack of ideology that has made them porous and easily gullible as they continue to be patronised by the government in power.
“Again is the winner take-all syndrome of the politics we play in this country. The government at the center takes it all, controlling every facet and instrument of power, thereby reducing opposition members to helpless bunch without capacity to sustain their oppositional bids”, Chief Ezeugwu stated.
As if tagging along with Shettima and Ezeugwu, Labour Party national chairman, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu threw the fire-works in the air, not minding whose ox was gored and announced to a bewildered nation that the PDP owned, controlled and financed 30 out of the 62 parties in place.
Of these, Nwanyanwu said only nine have functional offices in Abuja as stipulated by the electoral laws. While delivering a lecture titled ‘Transformation of Nigeria Politics: The Labour Party Perspective’ at the Institute of the Security Studies in Abuja last weekend, the LP chairman called on the National Assembly to make laws that will punish public officers who deliberately misadvise the government as well as laws that will make electoral fraud impracticable.
Said Nwanyanwu: “Out of the existing 62 political parties in Nigeria, 30 of them are owned by the PDP out of which just nine have functional office in Abuja while the rest of the parties have their offices in their briefcases.
“The best political system for Nigeria is a two party system. Such arrangement will make it difficult for rigging because it is just two parties, there will be no need for anybody to carry ballot boxes because there won’t be such opportunity. Touts will not have jobs and the electoral tribunal will be useless because a clear winner will emerge just as was the case in 1992 general election between the SDP and NRC. The issue of merger or alliance will not arise because it is just two of them and they have different ideologies.”
Leadership

Corrupt Judiciary, Threat to Democracy, Says Ewherido

Senator Pius Akpor Ewherido

Senator Pius Akpor Ewherido represents Delta Central senatorial district in the upper chamber of the National Assembly. In this interview with Anayo Okolie, he speaks on the way forward for Nigeria at 52. Excerpts:

In less than a week from now, Nigeria will be 52 years since independence. How has the country fared?
So many things still need to be put right. For industrialisation, we still need to get the energy sector right because once you provide stable electricity, businesses will pick up; production will be at lower rate because there is difference between when you produce with generator and when produce with electricity. Many benefits come with that. Thank God that government is putting a lot of effort into the power sector; my prayer is that we get it right this time so that we will have stable electricity in Nigeria because it will help in terms of industrialisation. Second, we still need to get the steel thing right; we built steel industries that are not working today despite the money we had invested in them. It is difficult for any country to grow without steel industry that functions well. Again, the twin problem of unemployment and poverty, we need to eradicate it. If there are jobs for people to do or if industries strive, of course there will be job for people to do and that way poverty will be wiped out because so many people are unemployed.

Looking at the current day problem, we need to get security right because the security situation in this country has reached a point that it requires an urgent attention because all that I have talked about, from getting power right, the steel industry and others cannot work in an unsecure environment. Nothing can work without a peaceful place. So, peace is security and pre-conditions for a stable working environment. These are some of the most important ones that I believe we need to get right before we can actually say that we are developing.

How about the beliefs that corruption is the bane of Nigeria’s development?
Corruption is a serious problem in this country but we cannot wait to solve the problem of corruption before solving other minor problems because you will wait forever. Corruption is as old as the human race. It’s just that the magnitude in Nigeria is unbelievable. I believe that to tackle corruption more sincerely, we need to strengthen the agencies that handle corruption matters- the ICPC and the EFCC. We need to come down from that level where we prosecute only people who have no connections because that is what is going on. People who have been prosecuted are not the most corrupt Nigerians. There are people who have been found more corrupt than most of those people who have been prosecuted but they are free.

So, we need to also have a reorientation, a new attitude toward the whole idea of corruption, and we also need to work on our judiciary because the way the judiciary handles corruption cases is such that you can just afford to commit corruption related crimes and go to court. Nigeria is one of the few places on in the world where every thief can go to court get an injunction and get away with it. The judiciary has a role to play. Thank God the Chief Justice of the Federation has promised to sanitise the judiciary and a lot of us are waiting for that cleansing because a corrupt judiciary is more dangerous than the other arms. So, we expect that cleansing in the judiciary will help our democracy grow. So, that those who won the election get elected by the people are returned. So, the judiciary has a major role to play because unless we have a corruption free nation at least free to an extent that people will have the conscience to know that if you continue to embezzle all the money we will not be able to develop. 

Are you worried about the unity and stability of this country? 
Since independence, I don’t think there has been another time that the unity of this nation has been as threatened as in the last one and half year due to the new type of insurgence. Many factors have arisen and different kinds of crimes in terms of militancy and the Boko Haram issue. Alongside the Boko Haram problem, so much has been happening in the South, most especially kidnapping issue. Today, if you go to those areas that used to have a lot of foreign presence in terms of industries, you will see that many of them had gone and with some of their investments too. Even the Nigerian investors are afraid of their own areas.

Nigerians are afraid in terms of living in some parts of the country, like Borno State, Yobe State and the other states where the activities of Boko Haram is prominent and you’ll hear people give a lot of interpretation to what is going on. Some people say it is a Christian and Muslim fight just to distabilise the country and these is not good for us and the unity of our country. So, all hands must be on deck if we must tackle this. The security in Nigeria today must not be left in the hands of the security agencies alone, we must involve the local people. That is why I disagree with those who are against state policing because I even support the idea of a local policing. It is easier for the local people within their area to nab criminals than when you come from outside. We must develop different forms of security involving our local people. I am very convinced as I sit here that if we had state police, the governor of Borno State has his own police; it would have been easier for him using the local police to tackle the insurgence of Boko Haram. But people read different wrong meanings to it that it will be abused by governors. Even the federal police can be abused. 

How would you assess the President’s performance in the Niger Delta?
The question of development of the Niger Delta region is not just an issue for Mr. President alone. Yes I believe that Mr. President should do more, but I also believe that our various state governments from the 13 per cent derivation they get should do a lot to complement efforts of the Federal Government. I am not too sure, because when people from the North question our governors about it, some of them say oh, we are not responsible to you. But those of us who come from the area that they are responsible to, I am not sure that we are convinced that all of them are doing enough for the region.

Do you support the idea of making local governments autonomous?
The question of local government in Nigeria is a knotty one and let me tell you, do not believe that this constitution amendment is exclusive in terms of the fact that only contributions from the National Assembly will be accepted. But specifically on the local governments, because of the worry of many people including a lot of Senators, it is an area I believe should be amended. And if Nigeria really wants proper grassroots development, we must amend the provisions on local governments. The local government in the constitution as it is today are just tied to the apron strings of the state governments; they have no independent recognition and all that is normal in a federal constitution is that local governments are normally not granted the kind of autonomy that we are talking about. But we are in a peculiar situation.

In our democracy, there is that peculiarity in the operations of local governments and our experience tells us, if we continue to tie local government to the apron strings of state governments, we will never know genuine grassroots development because we now know that governors pilfer the funds of local governments and which shouldn’t be so. Even the local government chairmen have complained. ALGON as a body has complained that what all governors do is to pilfer their funds. Some say they want to use it to do some other developments. Money allocated to local government is expected to be used for the development of that local government so you cannot appropriate local government money for them.
  

This Day

Bakassi people rally as controversy trails Elias, Wachuku positions

By HUGO ODIOGOR
Displaced indigenes of Bakassi Peninsula will hold rallies in different parts of the world today to highlight the injustice that has been visited on them by the ceding of their homeland by the Federal Government without their consent.
With less than 10 days for the Jonathan led administration to take a second look at the October 1  2002 ,International Court of Justice judgment that ceded the Peninsula to Cameroon where there is apprehension as the Central African country tightens its grip.
Saturday Vanguard was reliably informed that the indigenous Bakassi population would hold rallies in Lagos, Abuja, Calabar, London, Germany, France, The Hague among others.
They said that the foundation for the ceding of Bakassi by the Federal Government  was laid by a clause in an advise given to the government by the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Taslim Oluwole Elias, during the Yakubu Gowon’s regime, that Nigeria should allow Cameroon take over the peninsula because of the country’s assistance to it during the Nigeria- Biafran civil war, wondering why some indigenous communities would be donated to another country based on such flimsy excuses.

Bakassi protesters Photo by Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Elias, had in his advise entitled ‘’Nigeria/ Cameroun Boundary Demarcation,” dated September 3, 1970 stated, ’The principle of good faith in international relations demands that Nigeria should not disavow her word of honour,” adding that ‘’every effort should be exerted on our side to ensure that Nigeria does not show ingratitude to a sister country that stood by us during the civil war.
Accordingly, I strongly urge that these recommendations of the Nigerian – Cameroun’s Joint Boundary Commission dated August 14, 1970 should be implemented expeditiously…”
The Jonathan administration seem not prepared to comply with Article 61 of the ICJ Charter by approaching the court to review the judgment obtained by concealment of vital facts from the world jurists by both Nigeria and Cameroon.
This is even as Cameroon is alleged to be massing troops in the borders just as the movement of indigenes of Bakassi into Nigeria is heavily monitored.
According to sources, Bakassi people are also cut off from streams of information while efforts have been intensified by Cameroon to force thousands of the natives to change their names and language to French and to leave the peninsula in violation of the Green Tree Agreement, GTA.
Mr. Ani Esin, a former local government Chairman for Bakassi Local Government told Saturday Vanguard that since the uproar in Nigeria, following the publications by the Vanguard Newspaper, the Cameroonian government has been emboldened by the reluctance of the Federal government to demand for a revisit of the ICJ rulings to send troops into the peninsula to expel the indigenous population; force them out of their territory and occupy their property.
He said “The people of Bakassi who had hoped that the Jonathan administration will revisit to issue have become dejected as it appears that those who gave away Bakassi would not want to be exposed for the injustice committed against us. This is why the Pirate confraternity has been mobilising the public for a mass rally while we explore the option of forming a government in exile to continue the struggle after October 10, 2012”.
It was learnt that in Yaounde, the Cameroonian authorities are in panic following revelations that ICJ was misled into believing that the moribund 1913 Anglo-German treaty and the unsigned 1975 Maroua declarations were the only legal documents that set the Land and Maritime boundaries between Nigeria and the Cameroun.
The Legal Opinion of Justice T.O. Elias
Meanwhile, the last may not have been heard of the administrative and legal tardiness that were employed to mislead the ICJ to concede Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
Specifically, the legal opinion provided by Chief Elias and the Diplomatic Note written by Mr. Aja Wachuku as the External Affairs Minister have come up for scrutiny.
Some members of Nigerian defence team have continued to cite those documents as evidences that Bakassi Peninsula was part of Cameroon based on the 1913 Anglo German Treaty, which some claimed that Nigeria was obliged to uphold on attainment of independence on October 1,1960.
Prince Bola Ajibola SAN, who wrote a minority judgement at the Hague told Saturday Vanguard the Nigeria’s case was weakened ‘’because of what happened in the 1913 in the Anglo-German Agreement,” pointing out that, ‘’it was since then that we have this uphill task because it was Britain that ceded the whole of that Bakassi area, well described in Article 21 and 22 of that agreement, specifically to Germany.”
However, it has been discovered the agreement dated March 11, 1913 was not signed until Germany was defeated during the First World War, hence it was deprived of the Bakassi Peninsula as Bakassi was ceded to France, which thereafter, gave independence to Cameroun that now got involved in the boundary dispute.
Both Senator Ewah Bassey- Henshaw and Prof. Walter Ofonagoro told Saturday Vanguard that the documents cited by the Nigerian defence team were ‘’mischievously used to mislead those who are not familiar with the issues especially to achieve a predetermined goal.”
Senator Henshaw said that until recently, most Nigerian government officials have regarded the 1913 Anglo-German Treaty as a living document but it was fundamentally flawed by the fact that it was not signed before the outbreak of the First World War after which Germany was stripped of all its colonial territories, making the treaty useless.
It was of no effect because all German territories were transferred to the League of Nations. Hensahaw further said,  “those who have been citing the Aja Wachuku Diplomatic note and Dr. T.O Elias legal opinion have substantially relied on the belief that the Anglo- Nigeria Treaty was a living document, but this is not true.”
Also, Nella Andem Rabana SAN who was part of Nigeria’s team to the Hague said nations do not concede territories on exchange of diplomatic note or on legal opinion that are outside the stipulations of the parliament, which was one of the key institutions on Nigeria’s attainment of independence in 1960. Bakassi Peninsula was recognised as part of the Nigerian territory in the 1963 Constitution and in the Cairo 1964 OUA summit, it was resolved that all colonial boundaries inherited at independence should be inviolated.
Furthermore, Prof. Ofonagoro said Nigeria and Cameroon decided to bind themselves with a document that was dead and had no force of law. He said “It is evident that Dr. Elias placed extra-ordinary weight on the work of the Nigeria/Cameroon Joint Commission which met at Yaoundé from August 12 to 14, 1970.
He said, ‘’The major decisions taken at that meeting, after considerable discussion”, was that the Joint Commission agreed to use the 1913 Anglo-German Treaty” as the basis for demarcating the boundary. It is obvious that this decision was made without seeking guidance from either the Attorney General, or the Honorable Minister of Transport through the office of the Head of State, otherwise, Dr. Elias would not be referring to decisions reached at the Yaoundé meeting of August 12-14, 1970.
The vital decision had been taken at that meeting of the Joint Commission, at which the most senior Nigerian official present was the Federal Director of Surveys. Once that decision had been taken, there was no escaping the implications of Article 20 of the Anglo-German Treaty of March 11, 1913, which stipulated that;
“Should the lower course of the Akwa Yafe so change its mouth as to transfer it to the Rio Del Rey, it is agreed that the area now known as the Bakassi peninsula shall remain German territory. In the said Legal Opinion, Dr. Elias further drew attention to “the exchange of notes between Nigeria and the United Kingdom on October 1, 1960 which binds Nigeria to honour obligations entered into on our behalf by the United Kingdom.
The implication of this statement is that the External Affairs Ministry considered the 1913 Agreement as one of the pre-independence treaties entered into by Britain on Nigeria’s behalf. The diplomatic Note which was cited as evidence that the Bakassi peninsula was based on the above assumption. Dr. Elias did not, however, make any pronouncement on the legal validity of that treaty.
He only referred to decisions already taken by the Yaoundé meeting of the Nigerian-Cameroon border commission to adopt the 1913 Treaty as the basis for their boundary demarcation negotiations.
The commitment had already been made in August 12-14, of 1971 and he was of the opinion that Nigeria was bound by it.In fact, the Nigerian legal team at the ICJ had this to say about the legal validity of the Anglo-German Agreement of March 11, 1913:
In relation to the Treaty of Versailles, Nigeria points out that Article 289 thereof provided for “the revival of pre-war bi-lateral treaties concluded by Germany on notification to Germany by the other party.” It contends that since Great Britain had taken no steps under Article 289 to revive the Agreement of March 11, 1913, it was accordingly abrogated.

‘’Former President Shehu Shagari was advised that the treaty was voidable by a Task Force that he appointed in 1981, to study the controversial 1913 Anglo-German Treaty. The committee concluded that the 1913 Agreement was voidable.
This was also the position reached by Professor Bassey Atte in a study of this subject saying that the 1913 Anglo-German Agreement “which purported to alter the status quo to Nigeria’s disadvantage, is subject to great controversy as to its legality.”
Prof. Ofonanagoro argued further that
the opinion of Elias on the matter was limited by the fact that he was not at the Yaoundé Summit of the two Heads of State, on April 4, 1971, and that the famous Ngo/Coker, was first drawn to a 3-mile limit from the Akwa Yafe River, westwards to the channel of the Cross and Calabar Rivers, placing Bakassi on the Cameroonian side of this new boundary.”
“If Dr. Elias knew about this boundary by September 3, 1970, eight months before Yaoundé Summit, where the Ngo/Coker line was agreed , then it means that at the highest level of the Nigerian Government, the level of the Attorney General, and presumably, his boss, the Head of State, the decision had already been taken at that time, to ignore the provision of Article 21 of the Anglo-German Treaty of March 11, 1913, and draw the boundary to the west of the Akwa Yafe River.
”In practice, the navigable channel of the Akwa Yafe was invariably forced to flow to the Bakassi north shore, and East to the Rio del Rey, and the British stated this fact in Article 20: which stated that, “Should the lower course of the Akwa Yafe so change its mouth as to transfer it to the Rio Del Rey, it is agreed that the area now known as Bakassi peninsula shall still remain German territory. Even by Article 20 of this Treaty, Bakassi is not ceded to German Cameroon; the article simply says that Bakassi shall still remain German territory.
This means that it was already “German territory” before the date of the drafting of Article 20 of that treaty. That being the case, Cameroon still has to produce the documentary basis of Bakassi becoming “German territory” in the first place.
There must be some documentary basis of Bakassi becoming German territory between April 14, 1893 and March 13, 1913, since the language of the Treaty says that Bakassi shall still remain German territory, even when by the flow of the boundary, following Akwa Yafe to Rio del Rey, it finds itself on the British side of the boundary. This is most strange to treaty law.
”In 1907, when the British and Germans had agreed that the Boundary should progress inland from the Thalweg of the Akwa Yafe, the Germans had requested for the frontier to be continued out to sea after reaching the mouth of the Akwa Yafe, all the way to the middle of the channel of the mouth of the old Calabar River.
However,  according to minutes recorded by Mr. Strachey of the Foreign Office, Britain refused this request and told the Germans the “line should follow the shore of the Bakassi peninsula along the thalweg of the Akwa Yafe when the actual mouth of the river was reached.
It is therefore clear that as far back as 1907, it was generally known by both powers, that the navigable channel of the Akwa Yafe could never put Bakassi on the Cameroonian side of the border, since that channel must lie to the east of the Calabar and Cross River channels.
The heavier flow of these two bigger rivers would always force the Akwa Yafe east to Bakassi shore and the Rio Del Rey. Most often, the channel disappeared altogether, and was extremely difficult to find.

Vanguard

Nigeria at 52: A city set on a hill that cannot be hidden

By CHIOMA GABRIEL
Okonta still remembers  that morning when a neighbour rushed to the colonial  residence of Dr. Harrison at Ikoyi, Lagos, where he worked to announce to him that his wife Mariana  had been delivered of a bouncing baby boy. Okonta was dressed in his well- starched  khaki uniform in the colonial house when the cheery news got to him.
He made merry and entertained his friends to celebrate the birth of his son and named him Harrison after the whiteman in whose household he served as a servant.

The birth of  his only son coincided  with  the celebration of Nigeria’s independence on October 1, 1960.
Today, Harrison is 52 years and lives in Lagos. He has no  regular job  after  graduating from the university several years ago.
He had tried to sustain himself as a self-employed businessman but his business at Tincan Island suffered from excess custom duties and multiple taxations. Harrison couldn’t  cope with the blows that fate had severally dealt on him. At 52, he has no house he could call his own.
He has no regular  means of livelihood despite his B.SC in Business Administration and Masters  Degrees in two other Disciplines. He has no home  and has transversed severally between being an okada rider and a tricycle driver. On many occasions , he has served as a bus conductor and the finesse he acquired through education has given way to a crude, frustrated, middle-aged man.
But Harrison Ogbonna is not the only Nigerian whom fate has dealt with badly. Across the 36 States of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, there are many Harrisons who have been battered by fate but only few  were able to make a success story from  the school of hard-knocks.
The above story sounds like the typical Nigerian story. From what they taught us in history,  the pathway to Nigeria’s 52 years of independence  was littered with broken  promises.
Nigerians are people  suffering from battered egos and damaged psyche. Ab initio, our leaders had envisaged prosperity for the country, given  the country’s enormous resources but that had been mere dreams. As a nation very rich in oil resources, we have  receded from oil boom to oil doom.  Nigeria  has become  a giant with mosquito legs.
The elders of the country left good legacies. But their successors could not match the strength of the sages.
Sir Ahmadu Bello, former Premier of Northern Nigeria at our independence in 1960 said that the freedom of Nigeria from British rule  is not the freedom of the jungle, where might is right.
“We are not free to molest others  less strong than ourselves or to trample on their rights simply because we are in a position of authority over them. Independence brings with it heavier and new responsibilities.
The eyes of the world are on Nigeria now and there are many friends who hope that we shall be the leading nation in Africa. Let us say with all emphasis at my command that we shall never attain this goal if there is suspicion and mistrust among the peoples of Nigeria.
Such an attitude cannot benefit anyone and can easily lead to strife as has been the painful experience of other independent nations in Africa and elsewhere.”
It is obvious that Nigerians of today  never heeded the wisdom of the sages . In today’s Nigeria, deceit holds sway ! Almost every year, we lament our situation , wondering if  achieving nationhood is such an unrealistic and unworkable project.
From all indications, many have come to accept the reality that ours is a society where the morons are the barons; a society where thieves are kings;  a  society  where the monkey works and the baboon chops; a society where might is right and injustice the order of the day.
Today, ours is  a kingdom against itself. Things are  falling  apart and the centre can barely hold. Anarchy appears to have let loose upon  the nation. Insecurity, corruption in high places and other vices are building strongholds. These are felt in every facet of our daily life.
For years, we keep questioning ourselves about what went wrong  with our country but each year, the questions increase but there are less answers. We are forever  preoccupied with how to redesign the Nigerian project after 52 years of self-governance because of  the folly and greed of those who took over the affairs of modern Nigeria.
Beginning from 1966,  the country recorded eight military regimes. The final military regime left power on May 29, 1999 in between interjections of civilian regimes.
The military government came to power in pretence of restoring sanity in government but today, Nigerians know better.
Celebrating Nigeria at 52 is only to fulfill all righteousness. At least,  the country has been able to sustain civilian government  without interruption of the military government since 1999.  With her avalanche of social economic cum political challenges, the country is still rated as a major key player in the global economy.
The present  Nigerian leaders should see this independence celebration as time to reflect on our  past so as focus on the political emancipation of the country; restore security and the confidence of the populace.

Vanguard

Nigeria needs an Igbo President to march forward – Ezeife

Former Governor of Anambra  State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife in this no-holds barred interview x-rays Nigeria’s socio-economic and political development  these past 52 years and posits that the component nationalities  and other social forces in the country must fix Nigeria this time around or forget about its future. He spoke to OKEY NDIRIBE AND EMMAN OVUAKPORIE in Abuja.
Considering the fact that a man of  52 is generally believed to be a mature person,  can you say Nigeria has matured politically, economically and socially?
It is unfortunate that every year we have to make this assessment. It appears that every year we are saying the same thing. However, there is something special about this year.  There is a story about the tortoise in Igbo folklore; the tortoise had fallen into a pit latrine. He was there for many days. However, on the very day the tortoise was to be rescued by some people, he began to complain and asked those who had come for the rescue operation to hurry up because the smell of the latrine was too much for him. But he was told to be patient since he had managed to endure the stench inside the pit for so long.

There is a Cape of Good Hope in Nigeria. For the first time in recent history, there is a convergence of views on what needs to be done about Nigeria. There is a consensus on what needs to be done for Nigeria-a country which is nearly always shipwrecked – so that it could become transformed into where things work.
Some eminent politicians held a meeting not too ago in Lagos and their major demand was that a National Conference be held.
Sometime ago, I was invited to Port-Harcourt over the debate on Sovereign National Conference. I was able to convince them that we should not talk about a Sovereign National Conference. This is because, once a Sovereign National Conference is convened, it would have the power to sack both the President and the National Assembly. Indeed, such a conference would have the power to do whatever it likes.
However, if we can have a National Conference,  where we reach a consensus on certain issues, its decisions would come into effect after the incumbent government has left office.
One of the major problems we have faced in this country in the past is that some people do not believe in agreements. For  instance an agreement was reached at the National Political Reforms Conference held in 2005 that an additional state should be created for the South-east geopolitical zone.  About three months ago, the Presidential Committee on Constitutional Reforms also endorsed the same idea with some refinement.
However, a certain Governor from the North was quoted to have said he was opposed to that agreement. The question I want to ask is what is the population of Northern Nigeria?
What is the population of the South? What is the population of Anambra State? What is the population of Kano?

Ezeife: Ndigbo

We should allow the sleeping dogs to lie in this country. kicking up old dust is not good.
In 1962, there was a census and what was called preliminary result was announced. The result indicated that the population of the North at that time was 14 .5 million. The population of the Eastern Region was 11.5 million and that of the Western Region was eight million. So, the population of the south at that time was above 19.5 million and higher than that of  the north.
Then two young men at that time: Mbazulike Amaechi and RBK Okafor now said that based on the census results, all the southern progressives should join hands together and form the next government. That declaration kicked up a census controversy. The lesson we learnt was from the controversy and its outcome. In the course of the controversy, the population of the North moved up from 14.5 million to 17 million. Then it was moved up again from this to 19 million. It was manipulated again from 19 million to 21 million and finally ended up being hiked to 29 million which was double of the initial figure for the region.
The East remained at 11.5 million while the West remained at eight million  but was later raised to 10 million. The increment of the figures for the West arose after the Late Ladoke Akintola , former Premier of Western Region agreed to cooperate with the political party from the North. This is the foundation of all the subsequent census that has been conducted in this country. So when certain people talk about the population of their own part of the country, you begin to wonder whether they really have a sense of history.
Mr Smith, a British colonial officer who conducted an earlier census in 1951 stated that after the exercise, the North was found to have a smaller population than the South. He confessed before he died that the British authorities at that time did not want that census result to stand and therefore ordered a revision which turned the table.
What we are advocating is that there should be equality of zones; these six zones should then become the federating units of the country. Each of the zones should have some autonomy. Any of the zones could create one million states if they like. There is a consensus on this already.
If this arrangement is finally endorsed and  captured in a constitution, there would be no need to argue over state police. There would be a middle ground and this could be called zonal police.
There should also be a revenue generation and sharing formula which recognizes fiscal federalism. Under this arrangement, there would be emphasis on the derivation formula as we have always had. We must emphasize national interest. All those who want Nigeria to still remain united do not desire a very weak central government. There should be a fairly strong centre; but nothing like what we have now. Again, we could ask ourselves whether we should continue with a bi-cameral legislature  or unicameral arrangement with only the Senate in place? We could even consider having part-time Senators.
This is because what we are seeing in Nigeria is abnormal in the extreme; a developing country which spends about 80 percent of its income on recurrent expenditure, rather than capital expenditure. It is like a farmer who consumes more than what he had harvested; nothing would  remain for him to plant in the next planting season.
Very recently, the House of Representatives rejected a bill which sought to recognize the geo-political zones. How do you react to this development at the legislature?
It is beyond the competence of the National Assembly to deal with matters

Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife

Iike that. The role of the National Assembly should be to repair the cracks on the wall of the House and not that of rebuilding the house. Rebuilding the House is the responsibility of the owners of the house.
It is not for the National Assembly which is part of the structural imbalances we want to correct to dictate the way to go. All the senators and members of  House  of  Representatives emerged from these manipulated constituencies based on doctored election results. Unless some people want this country to disintegrate, we must open our eyes and act fast. We must not use present advantages at all.
Under the present arrangement, the  North could kill whatever bill it doesn’t want. We need a National Conference to address Nigeria’s fundamental problems.
Nigeria has been moving along the wrong path; we don’t seem to realize that our country is the largest black nation on earth. We don’t seem to also realize that the black man who was number one in world civilization and development has today become the foot mat of the world.  We do not seem to realize the manifest destiny of our country which is to restore the dignity of the black race.
In today’s world you could get military power with economic power. Nigeria is the country in Africa which can become the super power of the black race. Nigeria has a history which could easily appropriate the credit for whatever success we achieve unlike say South Africa.  This could only be achieved if Nigeria remains a united country.
But if we cannot restructure, develop  and unleash the great potentials everybody has identified in Nigeria; if we continue to remain backward and our peers overtake us, then such a country should cease to exist.
What can you say about the high level of insecurity in the country as has been epitomized by the activities of Boko Haram in the North and other violent groups in other parts of the country?
Insecurity is a common problem in several countries of the world. But when you talk about Boko Haram, it has several dimensions. For instance, those who said they would make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan if he won last year’s election have exploited Boko Haram. They had expected that by unleashing violence on the nation, Nigerians would be cowed into submission and ask them to take over power so that there would be peace. There is also the original Boko Haram which wanted to Islamise the entire country.  There are also those who are angry about how Nigeria has been governed and the poverty, illiteracy and disease it has led to and the emergence of the almajiris. However, majority of Nigeria’s past leaders responsible for the plight of even the almajiris were from the North. Yet some of them are still talking about power returning to the North in 2015.
I wish to state that those who think that they are punishing the Igbos by keeping them out of  power are deceiving themselves. It is Nigeria that needs and Igbo President for this country to move forward. Infact, until Nigeria produces an Igbo man as President, this country is going no where in terms of progress. Igbos are number one agents of development wherever they may be. They are known for transforming their environment.
But some of those opposed to Igbo presidency have said that Igbos are inherently politically unstable. Such persons have cited how other Igbos pulled down various Presidents of the Senate when that office was allocated to the South-East under the PDP zoning arrangement.
It is not true that Igbos are not united. There is no ethnic nationality which would remain out of power for such a long time without being affected politically. Look at how disunited the North has become after remaining out of power for such a short time.

Vanguard

Time To Raise Non-oil Revenue

  ISAAC AIMURIE

So much has been said by experts and politicians about the need to harness the huge potential in the non-oil sector for increased revenue and overall growth of the economy.
Current global trends are pointers to what could befall countries that rely solely on oil revenue. With the economic crises in  western countries and the attendant thinning of their spending power, Nigeria’s fate is hanging as a degeneration of the situation in Europe and America spells doom for the nation’s economy.
In the interim however, the crude oil money can be used to open up all the 774 local government areas in the country-electricity, road, schools, hospitals, town halls, modern markets, housing schemes and huge investment in agriculture.
While the beautification of city centres and peri-urban areas is not a bad idea, massive investment in infrastructures in the rural areas is the key to the nation’s industrialization and ultimately, economic diversification.
The infrastructure will no doubt drive economic activities in these local government areas and the socio-economic impact will be huge.
Also, with economic activities come higher earning power, and the tax agencies at the various levels of government can make tax deductions for the development of more infra and superstructures.
The recent  revelation by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that out of the N3.401 trillion it collected in the first eight months non-oil taxes recorded N1.187 trillion of the cumulative figures, while oil revenue accounted for N2.202 trillion, lending strength to the call for economic diversification through non-oil sector.
According to reports the total collection by the Federal Inland Revenue Service the first eight months of the year represents an increase in the tax revenue collection performance of N468.65billion when compared to the total collection of N2.93 trillion for the same period in 2011. The service has less than N233, 57billion to achieve government’s provisional annual estimate of the N3.6 trillion, an average monthly collection of N302.95billion set for the FIRS in the current fiscal.
At a recent stakeholders’ meetings in Asaba, Delta State and Lagos, FIRS Acting Executive Chairman, Kabir Mashi, was quoted as saying that the reforms embarked upon by the agency were showing that oil taxes were no longer commanding the height in revenue generation.
His statement came amid fears of a possible  economic downturn due to the ailing European and American economies.
Mashi asserted the days of economic oil boom were were coming to an end as the non-oil taxes were giving oil and gas taxes a run for their money.
This is however not surprising given that  under the 2012 fiscal plan, the agency was mandated by the Federal Ministry of Finance to significantly grow the non-oil revenue to 10 per cent of the non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Acting Chairman of FIRS, Mashi said: “Our total collection as at May 2012 amounted to N1.886 trillion as against the government’s target for the same period of N1.515 trillion. This translates to 125 per cent of the set target with a positive variance of N371 billion.
However, when compared with the FIRS target, we recorded a shortfall of N232.6 billion which is roughly 11 per cent. The Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) contributed about 70 per cent of the total collection while Companies Income Tax (CIT) and the Value Added Tax (VAT) contributions were 12 per cent and 16 per cent in that order. Other tax types contributed the residue of two per cent, which is a cause for concern.
This trend is in sharp contrast with our set objective to grow the non-oil collection significantly in the year.”According to the figures, non-oil tax receipts leaped this year, rising from 26.8 per cent of total tax collections in the first quarter (Q1) to 41.29 per cent in Q2 in relation to oil and gas performance during the period under review.
In the first quarter, of a total tax generation of N1.172 trillion, oil and gas earnings accounted for N857.162 billion, representing 73.1 per cent while non-oil pooled N315.306 billion, representing 26.8 per cent.
During the second quarter, which ended in June this year, there was a leap in the performance of non-oil collection as, out of a total of N1.267 trillion, the gap narrowed with oil and gas taxes contributing N743.950 billion or 58.7 per cent while non-oil collection moved up to N523.279 billion, representing 41 per cent of the total revenue.
While the Q3 collection and analysis are still ongoing, there are indications that the trend had continued in favour of non-oil window as figures obtained for the month of July have shown a further narrowing of the margin, moving up to 42 per cent.
From the  figures, of a total of N524.12 billion tax revenue as at July 2012, oil and gas tax stood at N302.37 billion, representing 57.6 per cent while non-oil taxes fetched the sum of N221.749 billion, representing 42.31 per cent.
The agency attributed the increase to the  direct response to the “aggressive drive by the tax agency in recent times by our enforcement team, which is raking in a lot of revenue. In fact, there was a week we raked in over N4.2 billion. The initiative has also led to enhanced compliance by tax-payers.
And I can tell you that with the support of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Presidency, we can make up to N15 trillion yearly if we deploy the right information technology to track the activities of contract awards by agencies of the federal and state governments as well as the activities in the property and estate sectors to effectively assess and collect taxes from operators in the industry.”
Leadership