Dangote to invest N300bn on fertilizer plant in Edo

 by Cajetan Mmuta, Benin

THE groundbreak ing ceremony of a $2 billion (about N300 billion) fertilizer plant, the biggest in Africa to be sited in Agenebode, Edo State will be done before the end of Janu-ary, next year.

President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, disclosed this on Monday during the second term swearing in ceremony of Edo state governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole held at the Samuel Ogbemu-dia Stadium in Benin the state capital.

He said arrangements have been concluded for the ceremony before the end of December, this year or towards the end of January 2013.

Alhaji Dangote, listed by Forbes magazine as Africa’s richest man, said the company which is expected to employ more than ten thousand people directly and indi-rectly will be completed in three years.

He said: “yes, we will build the biggest fertil-izer plant in Africa here in Edo State.”

According to the industrialist, “Comrade Oshiomhole has done well on road, infrastructure, but now he’s going to deliver on job creation. We will partner with him to make sure he gives us a conducive environment to create jobs here in Edo State.

“He has already men-tioned that we will set up a fertiliser plant here in Edo State. I am sure he wants me to reaffirm that, yes, we will build the biggest fertilizer plant in Africa here in Edo State.

“It is a commitment and I am reassuring you, your excellency, by this year, either in December of January, next year, we will perform the ground breaking ceremony in Edo State. It will be at a cost of $2 billion.

“I am reassuring you, in the presence of every-body, that in the next three years, Edo State will be exporting fertilizer from here to other parts of Africa.”

NigerianCompass

Swearing-in: NJC to meet over Justice Jombo-Ofo

by Tunde Oyesina

Indications have shown that the National Judicial Commission (NJC) may be holding an emergency meeting to look into the case of Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo, who was dropped by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma Muktarh, from being sworn- in as a judge of the Court of Appeal.
The chairman, Senate Committee on judiciary, Senator Umaru Dahiru, gave the indication while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune in Abuja.
Senator Dahiru stated that the House was yet to communicate the CJN on the issue, adding that when  communicated, she would have to call the meeting of the NJC to look into the matter.
According to him, “to the best of my knowledge, the NJC have not met, but from grapevine,I heard  they are going to have another emergency meeting over the issue.
“The CJN cannot act on her own, because NJC is a body which consists of many people and so, they have to work as a body.”
Justice Jumbo-Ofo was last week Monday, dropped from being sworn-in alongside 11 others, whom President Goodluck Jonathan had approved their elevation to the Court of Appeal bench.
At first, it was alleged that Jombo-Ofo was dropped, based on a petition against her on the grounds that the state she represented was not her state of origin.
It was further alleged that Jombo-Ofo hails from Anambra State, but after her wedding, she transferred her service from her home state to that of her husband, Abia, where she had worked  for 14 years.
Nigerian Tribune also gathered that Jumbo-Ofo, in an application for elevation to the intermediate court filled by her four years ago, when Abia State had no vacant slot, filled Anambra State, which had a vacant slot, but lost the  slot to another candidate.
NigerianTribune

Obama, Incumbency and 2015

oluwasegun.adeniyi@thisdaylive.com

When I arrived Washington DC on Sunday, the mood in the city reminded me of the same period in November 2004 when I was also in the United States to observe the election between then incumbent Republican President George Bush and his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry. While most Americans were not enthusiastic about the prospect of a Bush second term back then, it was also obvious that they didn’t see Kerry as a viable alternative. At the end, they stood by the devil they knew, to borrow from the phrase used last week by The Economist in endorsing President Barack Obama for a second term.

Even though he came to office amid high expectations in January 2009, President Obama has found it very difficult to deliver on the American economy which is still in bad shape, perhaps due to no fault of his given what he inherited. When such an accomplished orator also faltered at the first but very crucial presidential debate, then the fears became heightened that Obama could end up as another one-term president. It was such a cliff-hanger that the result from Dixville Notch, (the New Hampshire village where the first votes are traditionally cast after midnight on Election Day) recorded, for the first time in history, a tie: five votes each for Obama and Republican challenger, former Governor Mitt Romney. Yet four years ago in the same Dixville Notch, Obama defeated Senator John McCain by 15 votes to six!

With everything seeming to be going against him, Obama on the eve of the election also had to contend with a superstition called the “Redskins Rule.” According to this superstition, an incumbent president always loses whenever the Washington-based Redskins football team lost their home game preceding the election (as they did last Sunday against Carolina Panthers). That record lasted 70 years until it was broken in 2004 by Bush. Well, on Tuesday, Obama also broke the “Rule” by defeating Romney in a contest that will go down as one of the most dramatic and unpredictable in history.

But at the end, it was not so much a surprise that Obama won, having carefully built, over a period of four years, critical constituencies like the Latinos, the African-Americans, the gays and lesbians, the immigrants, the low-income earners, and other such minority groups who could only envision an unsecure future under a President Romney. According to George C. Edward, author of the book, “Governing by Campaigning”, Obama “essentially framed the election as a choice, not a referendum. His message was that ‘you may not like me, but Romney’s a risky choice; he’s out of touch’ ”. But then Obama could successfully weave such a campaign narrative because he was the sitting president, the same way Bush successfully projected Kerry as untrustworthy to be elected commander-in-chief in 2004. While Bush relied on security as his anchor, Obama deployed social issues, as well the economy in critical areas of the country where such narrative rhymed with public sentiment.

Now that the election is over, what I find very revealing is that even in the United States incumbency could still be a strong game-changer. In his pre-election column titled, “Beware of the incumbent advantage” in USA Today, Ross Baker argued that “history demonstrates that it is a dauntingly difficult job to unseat an incumbent president who is seeking a second term. Indeed, the number of presidents who have won a second term is almost twice the number of those who have failed to gain the favour of voters a second time.”

Now, if incumbency could still confer some advantage under a system where the president does not have the key to the till, where the rules of engagement dictate a level-playing field and where the contest is generally free and fair, one can then wonder what would happen under our own system where the incumbent controls all the resources and is not bound by strict rules. While the Nigerian and the American political circumstances are markedly different, there are compelling lessons for our political office seekers, especially as we move towards the 2015 general elections.

It is indeed telling that in the 19th century only five American incumbents failed to secure second term in office. John Adams was defeated by Thomas Jefferson in 1800; John Quincy Adams lost to Andrew Jackson in 1828; while Martin Van Buren was ousted by William Henry Harrison in 1840. Incidentally, Grover Cleveland who lost to Benjamin Harrison in 1888 went on to defeat his successor four years later in 1892. Being the only man elected twice with another president in-between, Cleveland was 22nd and 24thpresidents and this accounts for why Obama is the 43rd person to be American president but the 44th president.

In the 20thcentury, there were only four incumbents who failed in their bids for second term: William Taft was defeated by Woodrow Wilson in 1916 while Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Carter himself was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the second term aspiration of George H.W. Bush was derailed in 1992 by Bill Clinton. There were of course incumbent presidents who did not win their parties’ nomination for a second term. They included John Tyler (1844); Millard Fillmore (1852); Franklin Pierce (1856); James Buchanan (1860); Andrew Johnson (1868) and Chester Alan Arthur (1884). Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson were among the six presidents who did not seek second term.

I am aware that being a sitting president may have played only a small role in Obama’s re-election on Tuesday but I have deliberately zeroed in on the incumbency factor essentially because of its significance to presidential elections in Africa, as I highlighted in my 2011 research paper which any interested readers can assess on http://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/fellows/publications/divided-opposition-boon-african-incumbents. But then are we not comparing apples and oranges?

Unlike in our country, politics in the US is about issues, programmes, values and even the character of the contenders but one of the constants is that campaign rhetoric is usually dominated by the taxes certain categories of Americans would have to pay under each of the candidates seeking their votes. In our country, politicians make all manner of promises without demanding anything of citizens. They know it’s all lies; we know it’s all lies but we always go along with this fraud. The central issue about representation, which democracy is all about, is taxation, except in Nigeria!

While I intend to explore some of those issues another day, what is important to reiterate here is that anybody who intends to be president of Nigeria in 2015 is almost too late if his/her campaign has not started. Except of course he is the incumbent. President Goodluck Jonathan has not said he would run but that he has also not said he would not is instructive enough. This is not to say that the incumbent cannot be defeated, even in Nigeria, the point being made here is that it is not an easy task and that it requires more serious work of mobilising people and resources around common platforms. In places where incumbents have been defeated in Africa, as I highlighted in my paper mentioned above, the path to success is usually through a coalition of credible opposition which is never easy to forge.

The enduring lesson of Obama’s victory on Tuesday despite daunting odds was that he could build a coalition of different segments of the American society and eventually got them to the polls. The way things stand today in Nigeria, there is no indication that our politicians understand the meaning and demands of taking time and efforts to build such coalitions, even of disaffected people. I hope that will change in the days and weeks ahead.

ThisDay

This Stealing Is Too Much!

| SAM NDA-ISAIAH

• N2.8 trillion stolen – Ribadu Report
   
• N2.6 trillion stolen – Fuel Subsidy Report
   
• N1.2 trillion stolen annually or the equivalent to the 250,000 barrels of oil stolen daily
   
• N256 billion stolen in the first quarter via separate theft of 24 million barrels of oil as alleged by Dr. Aganga, minister of trade
   
• N100 billion stolen from pension funds
   
• N10 billion estimated loss to Nigeria via the NCC frequency scam
   
• $35.8 million and sundry dubious annual payments to Tompolo and co

And many, many, many more…
Can This House Survive?
Leadership

PDP dares Jega to name bribe-giving parties

by Olusola Fabiyi

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega

BARELY 24 hours after the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, alleged that political parties  set aside funds to bribe parties, the Peoples Democratic Party,  on Tuesday challenged  the INEC boss to name names.

The  other parties, the Labour Party and All Nigeria Peoples Party denied being the parties Jega had in mind.

But while the ANPP said it had no capacity to offer bribes to INEC and security agents, it  claimed  that the PDP must be the  bribe giver because “it (bribery) is clearly the practice act of the PDP.”

The LP  said it was too small to bribe INEC and that Jega must be referring to “the big political parties.”

Jega, at the opening of a two-day roundtable conference with the theme, “Party Politics in Nigeria and Lobbying, the Lobbyist and the Legislature,” on Monday, in Abuja, had said that political parties in the country budgeted money with which to bribe security agents and officials of the electoral body during elections.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said that with the results of the governorship elections in  Edo and Ondo states, there was no way INEC  could rig elections in the country.

Metu said, “We heard what the INEC chairman said that some political parties attempted to bribe INEC officials to help rig or influence elections, but our response to it is that the INEC chairman should be honourable enough to mention the names of the political parties involved.

“Under the circumstances of transparent and fair elections, INEC officials can no longer rig or influence elections as shown from the result of governorship elections that were held in Edo and Ondo states.

“We are therefore urging the commission to mention the names of political parties that offered bribes to it to enable the PDP reclaim the two states.”

Also, the National Publicity Secretary of the ANPP, Chief Emma Eneukwu, said the  party  had never set aside money  for bribing INEC officials and would never do such.

He said, “If we are budgeting to bribe INEC, we will not be diminishing the way we are in some states.

“If there is any bribery, then it is done by the PDP, not our  party. We only budget for our agents but budgeting for INEC, it is clearly the practice act of the PDP.”

In his reaction, the National Chairman of Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, said that the allegation by Jega could be true, but added that the chairman of the commission should be able to “call a spade a spade.”

He said Jega must be referring to the big political parties “that have money and not small parties like Labour Party that  are  struggling to meet their  obligations financially.

“For him to say such a thing means he must have been experiencing such pressures from money bags in the big political parties.”

Punch

Corruption: The Writing On Nigeria’s Wall

LEADERSHIP EDITORIAL

Corruption did not begin with President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. But, at the current rate, corruption would kill Nigeria on his watch. By a number of credible accounts, more than $500 billion (N80 trillion) has been stolen from Nigeria’s public coffers since independence in 1960. We don’t know exactly how much of this has been stolen under Jonathan. With record heists reported almost daily from the oil sector to pension funds, it is beyond a doubt that corruption is plumbing new, frightening depths under this government.
And the crooks are roaming free. Not only that, they are enjoying executive protection and daring the public to do its worst. This is the climate under which the world has witnessed the bizarre drama following the submission of the report of the Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force last week.
While Ribadu was submitting the report to President Jonathan, two members of the task force, who had been offered jobs in the same NNPC that they were supposed to be investigating and who contributed nothing to the panel’s work, were allowed to discredit the report without anybody reprimanding them. In the particular case of one of them, Steve Oronsaye, it is baffling that he is never in short of supply of juicy appointments from every government in power. He is not only on the board of the NNPC, he is also on the board of the Central Bank of Nigeria. A few days after the Ribadu panel submitted its report, the president’s aide, Doyin Okupe, dismissed it as shoddy and “impossible to implement”. And now there’s a rash of spin about everything other than about when the criminals will be brought to justice. How long will this nonsense continue?
President Jonathan has often spoken of his administration’s resolve to crush oil thieves or drive all economic saboteurs in the country into another planet. While inaugurating new service chiefs last month, he gave them a marching order to crush oil thieves. For the umpteenth time, last week, at the launch of Reforming the Unreformable, a book authored by finance minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the president swore that all those found culpable in the fuel subsidy scam would be severely punished after they had been forced to refund the funds they illegally collected. He was obviously referring to those who allegedly stole N2.6 trillon in the name of fuel subsidy funds last year. The Ribadu report, by the way, revealed that $16 billion or N2.8 trillion had been separately stolen in the oil sector.
Indeed, it’s under the Jonathan regime that the country has witnessed the exposure of looted trillions of naira. Billions – like the N100 billion stolen by a syndicate that specialises in stealing pensions -- have become relatively insignificant! The source of looted trillions, of course, is the nation’s oil wealth -- oil contributes more than 80 per cent of government’s revenue.
Need we recount a few other cases of larceny on a grand scale? Nigerians are aware that the country loses 600,000 barrels of crude oil daily to illegal bunkering. At the current price of N112.52 per barrel, a whopping sum of N 3.7 trillion ($24.64 billion) is lost annually. The NNPC disclosed that 1.7 million barrels of crude oil were lost between May and June 2009 alone. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has reported that “West African pirates have been increasingly attacking ships further and further from shore. They illegally siphon US$3 billion yearly worth of crude oil and refined petroleum products between 100,000 and 130,000 barrels a day with an international market value of about US$3billion; the equivalent of a large 95,000 metric ton crude oil tanker is being stolen from Nigeria without punishment”.
The situation of oil theft has grown worse with allegations of complicity by members of the ruling party and others close to the corridors of power who have been indicted by various administrative panel reports. This illegal activity is being carried out without a licence, authorisation or valid documents and in violation of the Nigerian maritime laws and guidelines. Not a few people snorted when the minister of trade and investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, blurted that some documents from his ministry were forged to perpetrate illegal oil theft. According to him, the country loses N775 billion annually over non-metering of oil wells and inaccurate ship-to shore loading and offloading of vessels. In the third quarter of this year, documents were forged leading to the export of 24million barrels of oil valued at $1.6billion.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the NNPC have demonstrated gross incompetence in tackling these oil thieves in spite of the huge resources at their disposal, apparently because their officials also collude with them. The engagement of repentant militant Government Ekpemupolo’s (Tompolo) company to secure our maritime coast has equally been a pipe dream. The nation continues to experience huge revenue loss through oil theft and various forms of criminality at sea. Two vessels believed to have been used in this criminal act recently are said to be owned by some high-ranking PDP members and top officials of the NNPC who were allegedly accused of stealing about 6.5 million barrels of Nigeria’s crude oil.
More often than not, the Nigerian judiciary has aided and abetted this crime through endless litigations. That is why Nigerians do not believe any of the indicted would be brought to justice. Recently, the EFCC arraigned 13 suspects in connection with the fuel subsidy scam. These suspects, eight individuals and five companies, were accused of allegedly receiving N1,265,204, 348.20 and N76, 267,387.47 purportedly as subsidy for the supply of 17, 989,540.00 litres and 20,021,873 litres respectively of PMS. More of the suspects are expected to have their day in court. The question still: where is the justice? How long will this nonsense continue?
President Jonathan should have facts and security reports on these economic saboteurs more than any other Nigerian. Pandering to sentiments and schmoozing with them will only continue to do damage to the already battered image of his administration. He has to act fast before corruption kills the country on his watch. It is not enough to vow, at every forum, to eliminate corruption. It requires a few days of surveillance to be carried out in the swamps of Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Ondo and AkwaIbom states, where these oil thieves load crude oil or petroleum products into large barges, and in the labyrinthine creeks of the Niger Delta, directly from oil field production wellheads or from NNPC jetties at Okrika, Effurum, Calabar, Escravos, Atlas Cove (Lagos), and deliberate puncturing of crude oil or petroleum product pipelines across the country’s hinterland.
The oil thieves are not spirits. Report after report, panel after panel, and committee after committee have named them, indicted them and turned them in. The Ribadu report has done no less. Yet Jonathan’s government keeps vowing that heads would roll without lifting a finger. If the government continues playing its favourite game of obfuscation - its promise of action not worth a kobo in the piggybank - it is only a matter of time before the government would collapse under the weight of its own malfeasance.
In addressing a gathering of the Communist Party in China a few days ago, the outgoing Chinese president, Hu Jin Tao,told them that if corruption was not tackled, both their party and the nation together with it would be sunk.That is the stuff that great leaders are made of.
The writing is on the wall.
Leadership

Omo Omoruyi and the indignity of living in Nigeria

by Sabella Abidde

Prof. Omo Omoruyi was a professor of political science at the University of Benin. But he was better known as the Director-General, Centre for Democratic Studies, and as Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s trusted friend and intellectual springboard. Outside of the military establishment, Omoruyi was the man the then Head of State went to if he needed things done. His loyalty to Babangida was complete and unwavering. He was also friends with a pool of people — many of whom were titans of the Nigerian political, economic, social and cultural estate.

In the early 1980s and through the later part of the 1990s, you couldn’t be half-conscious and not know who Omo Omoruyi was. He was a star of the Nigerian public space.But, his role and significance began to wane a few years after his benefactor, Babangida, left office. Thereafter, he had a fallout with Gen. Sani Abacha whom, as Omoruyi himself had said, wanted him dead. In various interviews, he reminded readers that he was“still carrying eight pellets in my lower hip today.”But of course, eight or 18 pellets pale in comparison with his current bout with cancer, which first occurred in 2007, and a relapse in the latter half of 2012.

It is this latter round of cancer and his verbalisation of abandonment, lack and helplessness that caught many people’s attention. And while a section of the people sympathised with and prayed for his quick recovery; the other half were not so compassionate. Omoruyi, himself, made his health and financial crisis public in, “IBB, friends have abandoned me, I need help” (The PUNCH, October 30, 2012). You could not read it and not pity a man who once was a constant presence in the Nigerian landscape; a reminder that nothing about life is permanent.

The PUNCH further quoted Omoruyi as saying, “I have been used and dumped, especially by Babangida”Now, did Babangida really abandon Omoruyi? If he did, why? After all, there are some who will swear by anything that the former Head of State is known for his enduring friendships and generosity. And perhaps, the most ironic part of Omoruyi’s statement was when he said: “There is vindictiveness in the land. I have paid my dues in this country and the country is unfair to me. What did I not do?” Well, I am sad that Omoruyi suffers ill-health. And I am especially sad that he has cancer. No one should rejoice at anyone’s misfortune. From one human being to another, he deserves our attention and compassion and prayers.

But he was part of the system, part of the ruling class that left millions of Nigerians without access to quality health care and other human and basic needs such as potable water; clean, safe and secure environment; and to robust private and public institutions. They made and left Nigeria a mess. They made the average Nigerians miserable. Consequently, millions of Nigerians are in a terrible state of need and a terrible state of mind. The second irony is that there are now thousands of men and women like Prof. Omoruyi– men and women who basked in the limelight and who had access to the best medical treatment abroad at the expense of the government, or paid for by ill-gotten wealth — but who are now in dire need because they squandered their wealth and position.

After several decades of wealth, influence and power, Omoruyi now wants government, and other wealthy individuals, to pay for his treatment abroad. Are Nigerian hospitals not good enough for him and his type? A better question would be: Are Nigerian hospitals good enough for any one at all? Of course not! Nigeria cannot boast a world-class hospital. As a result of neglect, the vast majority of our hospitals are not where people go to regain their health. No, they go there to suffer and to die.

According to the American Cancer Society, “there are medical expenses from doctor visits; lab tests; clinic visits for treatments; diagnosis and imaging tests; radiation treatments; drug costs; hospital stays; surgery; and home care which can include equipment, drugs, visits from specially trained nurses, and more.” Depending on the type of cancer Omoruyi has, prescription medicines alone can cost anywhere from $15,000-$150,000 a year. When you add all the aforelisted expenses, the average cost is anywhere from $170,000 – $500,000 a year.

The Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has been said to be financially responsible for Omoruyi’s treatment abroad. Questions: will Oshiomhole also pay for a hundred other indigenes that may need same or similar medical treatment abroad? And how much has he spent so far? And was this amount approved by the Edo State House of Assembly?

In the words of Omoruyi, “There are two fears. Fear number one is the fear of a recurrence, that the cancer could come back. Fear number two is that one could die.” If I may ask,why is he afraid? Millions of Nigerians face these fears on a daily basis. They face death every single day. They have all sorts of diseases and ailments the Nigerian medical system is not equipped to treat, cure, or properly manage. Thousands die every year without the government batting an eyelid. These needless and senseless deaths are one of the sad realities of life in Nigeria — the indignity of living in a failing and reckless society.

Every year, for the last 20 years, about 2,000 Nigerians (the Nigerian Medical Association says it is 5,000 annually) leave the country for medical care (in places like India, Israel, South Africa, the US, Canada, Germany and other European countries). How much has this cost the Nigerian government and the society? Money that could have been used to improve the Nigerian health care system is sent abroad (a recent account Nigerians spend N80bn annually on medical tourism) to advance other systems and economy.In spite of the callousness and or indifference of the ruling class, death is a leveler. Many of us do not know how or when we are going to die. We don’t.

But somewhere along the way, death will surely come. Six feet under; and with worms and all sorts of tiny creatures crawling and burrowing all around! How we live our life matters.  You may be in a position of power today; and be powerless tomorrow. And so one must be careful when the going is good; otherwise, we’ll come to know that life is a bleeding bitch!

Punch