Ebuka Obi-Uchendu: The Abuja delusion/illusion

I look at all these evidently important roads and wonder what really the government is doing. Then I realize that they’re actually busy constructing 10 lane highways from the airport to the city. Yes in Abuja of course; complete with bridges and street lights all the way through.

I’m really not sure how to say this without sounding overly dramatic, but our Federal Government disgusts me. I don’t understand how things work in Aso Rock, or how they are able to sleep at night, knowing that some of the most basic infrastructure under their purview, is non-existent. Every week, every single week, a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting is held, the president gets to show off his newest and well starched pan-Nigerian garb, while everyone in the room stays smiling as if some performance index just showed that Nigeria had nothing to worry about.
I lived in Abuja for 14 years of my life so I almost know what it feels like to stay in the capital city and believe that all’s well with Nigeria. Back then, I only left the town to visit my village and for the most part, it was a set route home, most of which never really gave me a proper feel of Nigeria. If I visited a place like Lagos, I was more consumed by the chaos than by the fact that almost nothing worked. The truth is, visitors or tourists never truly understand what locals go through in any city.
Moving to Lagos over 6 years ago, has made me see reason with complaints I heard growing up in Abuja. Back then, there was talk about Niger Deltans coming to the capital for the first time and being shocked out of the socks that a city like that existed in their country, built with oil from their backyard. That apparently sowed the seeds for what has today given birth to militancy, kidnapping, oil bunkering and violent revolts against government.
Abuja is not a reflection of Nigeria, Even though I can see why living there can make one think that way. But that excuse should not be valid for those in government, who by virtue of their oath of office, should leave the comfort of their offices once in a while and see what Nigeria is, especially those visible infrastructural lapses that litter the country. No one needs to look too hard to find them. Not the government.
The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has taken almost a decade now just to award its contract. Makes you wonder how long the execution itself will take.  Asphalt on the Benin-Ore Road, has been constantly washed away by floods; and sometimes, tears of Federal Ministers. Many years down the line, it is still under re-construction. The Enugu-Onitsha Expressway was once a bone of contention between the Federal Government and a former Anambra State Governor who wanted to fix it with state funds since the federal neglect had become unbearable. Today, lives are still being lost while the FEC continues to assure us that the road would soon be delivered in first class shape to motorists. The unfortunate flooding especially in and around Kogi State is obviously a natural disaster and could befall any country really. But anyone who plies that route will tell you that the Abaji-Lokoja Road was already on its way to being washed away. The floods were just a sad catalyst that sped up the inevitable.
The worst of all for me though is that Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. Earlier in the year, it looked like all was well and set for the road to finally become the well laid 10 lane expressway it was always meant to be. Julius Berger started construction at the Mile 2 end of the road and started working their way towards Cele. But sometime in August, the construction tractors disappeared and have not reappeared since. Some have said that they left because government owed them money. Others say government revoked the contract since they now wanted to concession the road on some Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. Whatever the case, the fact is that work has stopped on what is arguably Nigeria’s most economically important and yet most dilapidated road. The state of disrepair on that road can honestly not be described properly. It has to be experienced to be understood. And as if to add salt to injury, the fuel tankers are back to using the road as a park, making the already sorry traffic state unbearable.
I look at all these evidently important roads and wonder what really the government is doing. Then I realize that they’re actually busy constructing 10 lane highways from the airport to the city. Yes in Abuja of course; complete with bridges and street lights all the way through. The same streetlights that were impossible to install on the Third Mainland Bridge, which they shut down for upwards of 3 months for repairs, only to open it back up with fewer side railings and absolutely no lighting.
I’ve tried to understand it all. I really have, but I still can’t.
YNaija.com

Of Probes and Government’s Lack of Political Will – Adewale Kupoluyi

The nation’s yearning for development may continue to be an illusion as long as we are not ready to learn from our past mistakes.
Whenever one hears of committees or probe panels being set up to investigate some activities, what readily comes to mind is either — politics at play or nothing would come out of it.
Before the return to democratic rule, Nigerians used to take the failures of implementation of probe panel reports as part of the outcome of military dictatorship but events have shown that this is not so.
This worrisome trend is neither limited to the Executive arm of government nor the Jonathan administration — and if care is not taken — it may continue to be a burden the nation will live with.
The latest of such disdain for public reports is the alleged moves to discredit the submission by the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, headed by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
The drama began at the presentation of the report at the State House, Abuja, when Steve Oronsaye, deputy chairman of the task force and Ben Otti, another member of the 17-member committee tried, in a futile bid, to discredit the report. They claimed that they were not privy to the final draft being tendered.
The committee produced the 146-page document, based on the request by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, covering 10 years     — 2002 to 2012.
According to the report, Nigeria had lost tens of billions of dollars in oil and gas income over the last decade from shady deals struck between multinational oil companies and government officials.
The report alleged that foreign oil traders often bought crude without any formal contracts, and that the state oil firm had short-changed the nation’s treasury by selling gas and crude oil to itself below market rates without any transparency.
The task force also found anomalies ranging from about $183m in signature bonuses for oil bloc licences not accounted for and $3.02 bn as unpaid royalties, theft of up to 250,000 barrels of crude per day and fraud by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in converting its dollar earnings to naira.
Discrediting the report, presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, had said “an obvious DISCLAIMER (emphasis mine) issued by the committee on the entire report, makes it impossible under our laws to indict or punish anyone except, and until, the Federal Government fully verifies and reconciles the facts as recommended by the committee in its submission to the government.”
Okupe also criticised part of the report which says, “Due to the time frame of the assignment, some of the data used could not be independently verified and the task force recommends that the government should conduct such necessary verifications and reconciliations.”
He blamed Ribadu for the politicisation of the report and claimed that it was a calculated attempt to overheat the polity and incite Nigerians against President Goodluck Jonathan.
Over the years, findings of many panels and committees have not been made useful to the nation, resulting into wastage of material resources and man-hours.
A very few examples suffice: Following the violence that trailed the 2011 general elections in the country, over 900 persons were said to have lost their lives. President Jonathan inaugurated a 22-man panel of enquiry, headed by Sheikh Ahmed Lemu, to look at the incident and make recommendations on how to forestall a recurrence.
On October 10, 2011, the investigation panel submitted its report and advised that “the first and probably the most important major cause (of violence) is the failure on the part of the previous successive regimes, since the military handover of power in 1999, to implement the recommendations of various committees, commissions and panels that had taken place in our nation.”
The panel also called for the implementation of the Babalakin Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Bauchi State Civil Disturbances, Justice Snakey Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Wase and Langtang Disturbances and Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Committee, Karibi Whyte Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Kafanchan Disturbances, Professor Tamuno Panel of Inquiry on National Security, Niki Tobi Judicial Commission of Inquiry and Justice Disu Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Plateau State Disturbances.
Several Judicial Commissions of Inquiry had been set up by both the Federal and the Plateau State governments, to investigate the Jos crises but unfortunately, many of these reports were not made public or the culprits made accountable.
The denial of the public’s right to know the content of these reports by successive governments had provided moral grounds for speculations, distrust, and disregard for constituted authorities which significantly contributed towards escalating the crises that had led to wanton destruction of lives and property.
Another of such hibernated reports is the Steve Oronsaye Committee on the restructuring of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The Oronsaye panel recommended that government should reduce its over-bloated statutory agencies from 263 to 161 and also called for the abolition of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and reversion of 14 agencies to departments in the relevant ministries. Again, nothing concrete has been done to the report after its submission to the President.
The Ndudi Elumelu-led House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel set up to investigate the alleged $16bn expenditure in the power sector, the Farouk Lawan-led House Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management and the Nigeria Stock Exchange probe headed by Ibrahim El-Sudi, and the N6.2bn SIM cards registration probe had some reports that generated serious debates but are idling away.
In June 1999, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration set up the Human Rights Violations Investigation Panel, popularly known as the Oputa Panel to review the human rights abuses experienced during previous military regimes.
While the panel worked assiduously according to its mandate, nothing came out of its report, as some powerful Nigerians even sought court orders to stop its proceedings.
Halliburton had sacked its top executive, Albert Stanley, for allegedly bribing senior Nigerian government officials with about US$180million to win Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas contracts in the late 1990s.
While the Federal Government set up a probe panel, headed by the former Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, to investigate the case, the Senate and the House of Representatives separately also probed the incident.
Till date, no result has come from the probes and nobody was ever prosecuted from the outcome of the probes even when other foreign countries had sanctioned those indicted in the Halliburton scandal.
The report of highly celebrated Dr. Pius Okigbo-led panel went the same way. The panel was meant to probe the Gulf War period oil receipts. The full report, submitted on September 27, 1994, never saw the light of day, and was declared “missing” from records till date.
The failure to implement previous reports has been attributed to the lack of political will on the part of government in bringing about a change.
It should be appreciated that probing is a core part of governance and public office management. It is a modern tool used all over the world to get to the roots of problems, not necessarily for witch-hunting.
- Adewale Kupoluyi writes from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, vide adewalekupoluyi@yahoo.co.uk
Omojuwa.com

SFU arrests six MDs over N24.6b oil subsidy scam

As part of ongoing investigations into the oil subsidy scam, six Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of some oil companies have been arrested by the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Millerton, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
The MDs were picked up as a result of their indictment by the Presidential Committee on Oil Subsidy.
The Managing Directors are: Mrs. Gladys Amaefule – MD Somerset Oil and Gas Ltd; Mallam Bashir Adamu Gusau – MD Imad Oil and Gas Ltd and Sir Daniel Chikwudozie -MD Dozzy Oil and Gas ltd.
Others are Mr. Odjegba Onoriode – MD Eurafric Coastal Services; Mr. Ejiofor Innoma Chikadibia – GMD Caades Oil and Gas Ltd; Mr. Sowami Abuwasin Olatunde – MD/CEO Prudent Energy and Services Ltd.
The Commissioner of Police, SFU, Tunde Ogunshakin, gave a breakdown of the total subsidy amount each company was paid.
Eurafric Coastal Services Ltd: A total of N6.130billion was paid to it based on 85, 519 million litres of fuel imported between November 2010 – 2011 financial year which comprises 6 transactions.
Caades Oil and Gas Ltd: A total amount of N9.935 billion was paid to it, based on 13.501 million litres of PMS imported in December 2011 which comprises 2 transactions.
Prudent Energy and Services Ltd: A total subsidy payment of N1, 360, 898,638.10 was paid to it, based on a single importation of 18, 316, 767 million litres of PMS.
Somerset Oil and Gas Ltd: A total subsidy payment of N2.690 billion was paid to it, based on 40.165 million litres of PMS imported in 2 transactions.
IMAD Oil and Gas: A total amount of N2.760 billion was paid to it, based on 55.426 million litres of PMS imported which comprises 3 transactions.
Dozzy Oil and Gas Ltd: A total amount of N1, 773, 938, 533.60 was claimed by it, in a single transaction dated 01/07/2011.
Ogunshakin said investigation are on-going. He added that the suspects would be charged to court in due course.
DailyPost

I Do Not Believe In God Or Anything Supernatural – Seun Kuti

This shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s family – they don’t seem to profess any faith or religious beliefs but looking at his explanation, does it make any meaningful sense that; ‘God, to me is in existence.’
Here is what Seun is quoted to have said:
I do not believe in God. I am not a believer of anything supernatural. I don’t believe in God, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Ifa, Ogun, or whatever anybody uses as a reason to explain simple actions of nature. God, to me, is in existence. – Seun Kuti
InformationNigeria.org

The Way The Press Portrays Me, You’d Think I Was The Devil – Empress Njamah

Former Timaya lover and controversial Nollywood actress, Empress Njamah has taken to Facebook to pour out her emotional feelings especially regarding the negative publicity about her in recent times.
The sexy-eyed actress who made her entry into Nigerua’s movie scene known as nollywood in in 1995 was reacting to some of the controversies trailing her acting career recently and concluded that she has been wrongly judged over the years by her critics.
According to her, “never judge a book by its cover; I am a typical example of that. When people who have read or heard a lot of negative reports about me meet me, they are always shocked. Some will even render their apology, telling me, ‘Empress, I am sorry, I didn’t think you were this kind of warm’,” she wrote on her Facebook.
She continued, “You see with the way people painted at me especially the press, anyone who has not met me before will think I am a devil. The function of the press in society is to inform, but its role in decadent society like ours is abused by misinforming the masses in order to make money. If you believe everything you see and hear in the news, then, you can as well believe Obama is a grandmother”

“I do not see myself joining any clique. I do not see myself hanging out at the theatre with others, discussing everything about nothing. If anybody needs me, if you have a job for me, just call me.
“Our society is full of hypocrisy. Apart from the fact that acting nude is alien to our culture, there are so many things happening in our society today which are not part of our culture. The same people who would love to see you look decent are the same people who would go behind your back to criticise you. That’s our society for you. Yes, if my society is not all that hypocritical, I will do it.”
 InformationNigeria.org

Republicans Abandon Romney in Droves After ‘Gifts’ Comments

Mitt Romney’s comments to donors about the “gifts” that President Barack Obama gave to constituents to win the election continue to cause members of his party to run away from the former candidate. Despite their insistence during the election that Romney’s position on entitlement in America was accurate, the new consensus among the GOP politicians, if not their pundits, is that Romney’s statements could not be more wrong.
After several prominent Republican governors expressed their disagreement with Romney’s statements, the hits have continued coming. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, considered at one point by the Romney campaign as a possible running mate, said on Friday, “You can’t expect to be a leader of all the people and be divisive. You have to talk about themes, policies that unite people, and play to their aspirations and their goals and their hopes for their family and their neighbors.”
Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor and another potential running mate for Romney, though silent on Romney’s 47% comments, likewise shot-down Romney’s “gifts” theory.
Those who didn’t outright disagree with Romney’s words disagreed with his message. Appearing on Meet the Press on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stated that it wasn’t his intention to vilify those who are beneficiaries of public assistance programs:

People can be on public assistance and scheme the system and that’s real, these systems are teetering on bankruptcy. But most people on public assistance don’t have a character flaw. They just have a tough life. I want to create more jobs. The focus should be on creating more jobs, not demonize those who find themselves on hard times.

Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) gave an interview highlighting his issues with Romney’s belief. “I don’t want to rebut him point by point. I would just say to you, I don’t believe that we have millions and millions of people in this country that don’t want to work,” Rubio said. “I think we have millions of people in this country that are out of work and are dependent on the government because they can’t find a job.”
New Mexico governor Susana Martinez (R) and top Romney surrogate to the Hispanic community Carlos Guiterrez have also joined in the chorus disparaging Romney’s statements and calling for more inclusiveness in the Republican party. It’s unfortunate that this many Republican politicians seem to have discovered the divisiveness of their party’s policies towards minorities and the working class only after a massive loss to President Obama.
TP

Opinion: Why you and I are badly losing the argument on pastors and jets

by Chude Jideonwo

Rants are of course easier than research. But it is an insult to members of this church to reduce their shepherd to a false caricature, and the more we do that, the more they respond with matching disdain, and no one changes for the better.

I attend Daystar Christian Centre, have been blessed by Rev. Sam Adeyemi, I go to church on in the morning because I admire the character of his ministry and attend House Fellowship in the evening because I am inspired by his message. There is a distinct focus on the Word of God that is attractive and practical and reasonable.
Imagine my alarm therefore when, early this week the media reported a statement from my pastor.
“I do not have a private jet – yet,” he said. Yet? Having been drawn, as I said above, to Pastor Sam’s acute sense of responsibility, I was alarmed. Had my pastor joined the motley crowd of pastors who had abandoned the Gospel for wanton materialism?
But I soon recovered.
The cause for my ‘soonest recover’ was simple: pastors run by a simple moral code, and that code is the scripture. Criticizing a man who has violated my own personal moral code, while he has remained true to the code by which he was called is akin to screaming at a deaf man.
To hear the din on social media, pastors should be accountable to members of the public, but in fact the only people they are accountable to are their stakeholders – the congregation they oversee, and the commissioner of their enterprise i.e. the God they claim to serve. Some wail that pastors have jerry curls. But the bible does not say pastors should not have jerry curls. Some declaim pastors own businesses. But there is nothing wrong in a man of the gospel running lucrative enterprises. We quarrel that they cozy up to government, but, after all said and done, there is even no sin in cozying up to government.
And that is why many churchgoers will ignore the scathing criticism and continue to contribute so that pastors can buy flashy cars, houses and, now, private jets. Because, when we try to make our point, we insist on insulting their intelligence.
For instance, many accuse Bishop David Oyedepo of running hugely expensive schools but have not taken the time to discover that a huge number of the students are on scholarship, those who blame the Pastor Enoch Adeboye for mercantile expansionism have not taken the time to find out how many people are sustained on the church’s charity; those who insist that Pastor Paul Adefarasin preaches only prosperity have not made the effort to discover that the man emphasizes holiness and Hell Fire each Sunday, and those who accuse Ayo Oritsejafor of ignoring flood victims have not taken care to discover just how much he has contributed to flood victims in his state.
Rants are of course easier than research. But it is an insult to members of this church to reduce their shepherd to a false caricature, and the more we do that, the more they respond with matching disdain, and no one changes for the better.
This exaggeration, this loud condemnation, this reflex disgust is exactly the reason we have lost the ability to influence governance by the strength of that numbers. Arguments are won by logic – and that which says pastors should not spend money because we have poverty in our midst is tendentious as best.
To put it in shorthand: if you earn less than N500,000 per month and own a car that costs more, it is hypocrisy to criticize a pastor whose income or church revenue is in the millions for buying a luxury automobile. Calculated as a percentage of income, you lack the moral authority to make such a claim.
If you therefore request the pastor to make that luxury contribution to charity instead, then one must of necessity demand to know if you have done the same. This is what Jesus meant exactly when he said you should look at the huge log in your eyes before staring with disdain at the speck in your neighbours.
Many insist Jesus would be disgusted by the obesity of these pastor’s lifestyles. I daresay that Jesus would be just as disgusted at those who judge a man as harshly as the disciples judged Mary Madgalene when she poured expensive oil at his royal feet.
There has to be another way.
Christians who demand Biblical moderation of these pastors must be ready to demonstrate Biblical temperance.
We can yet have a reasoned argument with these flamboyant pastors and their flock about the inappropriateness of private jets, boats and other excesses.
We can remind them that the Bible says all things are lawful, but not all are expedient; we can remind them of the moderation the Bible demands in the book of Philippians, we can remind them that they represent God on earth, and we can convince them of their role in shaping society. Yes, we can.
But first, we have to be reasonable.
YNaija.com