Development: PTF - shining in the gloom

The Petroleum Trust Fund, headed by former President, Gen. Buhari, has confounded all its critics. As a development agency, it has succeeded spectacularly where all others failed. Pini Jason has the details.

The one silver lining to emerge from the current heavy economic cloud must be the performance of the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF). In October 1994, General Sani Abacha hiked the pump price of petrol from N3.25 to N11 per litre, promising, with Decree 25, to set up a Petroleum Trust Fund to distribute the gains from the increase on social and infrasturctural projects. The board of the fund, headed by former Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, was eventually inaugurated on March 21, 1995.

The Fund began with an initial capital of about N60bn in 1996. Its all encompassing mandate includes the rehabilitation of roads and waterways, educational and health institutions, providing textbooks and stationary, procuring essential drugs and vaccines, providing water supply systems, reviving crumbling agricultural sectors, connecting outlying areas to the national electricity grid, extending railways and telecommunications and ensuring consistent food supply.

The huge budget and all-embracing mandate earned PTF some criticisms. Some dubbed it "the alternative government," accusing it of duplicating the responsibilities of other existing government agencies. There was for instance an initial conflict about who should be tarring which road, between PTF and the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.

Yet, for once, other Nigerians began to hope that here was an agency that took its work seriously. The question was: could it carry out its entire mandate, or even a part of it? Everyone waited to see what would happen.

Initially PTF awarded contracts for the rehabilitation of 12,000km of federal highways (including drainages) nationwide, and between 25-100km of urban road in major cities such as Gusau, Benin, Funtua, Zaria, Enugu, Kaduna, Aba, Lagos, Lokoja, and Port Harcourt. A N27.3bn contract was awarded for road rehabilitation in the first quarter of 1996. The sum of N1.328bn was awarded to 53 pharmaceutical companies for the supply of drugs, while the importation of vaccines cost N229.9m. As at December 31, 1997, funds available to PTF stood at N115.1bn.

One thing even the most uncharitable critic of PTF will admit is that it has evolved a new way of doing things. This is true to its mission statement which is 'to establish and operate an open, modest and efficient organisation for the purpose of achieving the honest and timely execution of carefully designed socio-economic projects.'

Right from its inception, the Head of State directed the fund to operate a lean bureaucracy. It depends therefore largely on consultants supervised by Afri-Projects Consortium, the management consultant to PTF. This policy has created jobs and boosted the confidence of Nigerian professionals such as architects, engineers and quantity surveyors.

In many other ways, PTF has thrown a lifeline to dying sectors of the economy. Most of Nigeria's pharmaceutical companies were failing, and the foreign multinationals were divesting. But through its drugs procurement programme, PTF has turned the balance sheet of most of them into profit. Equipment and car leasing companies are also benefitting from the multiplier effects of PTF operations.

Banks and insurance companies have also benefited. Nigeria has a history of contractors collecting mobilisation (advance) fees and not carrying out the contract. But not with PTF. Every advance payment up to N10m must be guaranteed by a PTF-approved bank, while other advance payments are covered by performance bonds issued by similarly approved insurance companies. This method, apart from increasing solvency through cash deposits, has created business for banks and insurance companies.

One of the insurance companies that has benefited from PTF as a provider of performance bonds is The United Nigeria Insurance Company (UNIC), a composite insurance company which provides both life and non-life insurance. The total assets of UNIC stood at N979m while it grossed premium income of N916m and settled claims of N263m in 1996. With a staff of 552 spread all over its nationwide branch network, UNIC is today one of the leading insurance company in Nigeria.

Another company that has done good business with PTF is IPWA plc, formerly International Paints (West Africa) Ltd. IPWA is today one of the biggest and most diversified paint manufacturers in Nigeria. The company product range spans automotive paints, building paints, industrial coatings and marine coatings. Others are packaging coatings, protective coatings and wood finishes.

Most PTF contractors, specialist advisers and consultants lease and use computers, fax machines, printers and photocopiers. This has provided a new market for computer companies like Leading Edge Ltd., headed by Mr Tony Edoro, the managing director. Leading Edge is foremost in cloning computers with parts from diverse companies such as US Micro-Generation, IBM Direct, Merisel and Gateway. According to Mr Edoro, a widely experienced computer systems engineer, the advent of PTF has been good for Leading Edge. The company's turnover has grown from N50m in 1995 to well over N100m in 1997.

Apart from energising several sectors of the economy, PTF is also setting the pace in another direction. In the words of Mr Salihijo Ahmad, of Afri-Projects Consortium, the twin objectives of PTF are to "rehabilitate infrastructures and reorientate the people." This the fund does through its insistence on transparency even though some critics still accuse it of lopsidedness in project execution and selection of consultants and contractors.

In a country dogged by lack of transparency, PTF is the first, and perhaps the only public institution in Nigeria to publish its annual accounts. Last year, when he presented the annual report and accounts of 1996, Gen. Buhari promised to present the 1997 accounts before the end of the first quarter of 1998. He fulfilled that promise.

The 1997 account of PTF shows that it disbursed N24.3bn on roads, N21.2bn on security, N7.8bn on health, and N3bn on other projects. Other disbursements include N2.2bn on water supply, N936m on food supply and N476m on education. It realised a total of N1.049bn from various investment activities.

Reviewing the success story of PTF, Gen. Buhari said: "We have consolidated our execution of the take-off projects for the previous year and increased our intervention within the sectors. There is no doubt that the years ahead will witness even more intervention, as reports of some of the studies commissioned are received and project execution commenced."

The fund has embarked on community education to sensitise and enlighten communities of its activities. The idea is to bring recipients closer to the objectives of the fund, so that they can participate in project identification and selection as well as eventual PTF projects in their areas.

One aspect of the overall project that the public has raised an eyebrow over is the Armed Forces PTF. According to Gen. Buhari, PTF is under instruction to allocate 20% of its funds to the armed forces, and another 1% to the Federal Capital Territory. The allocation to the Armed Forces is probably a continuation of a practice that started during Gen. Babangida's time when he used to allocate excess revenue from the projected price of crude directly to the commanding officers. But what worries critics of PTF is that the military is not accountable to anyone regarding its utilisation of funds. Moreover, critics question the wisdom of allocating such a huge chunk to the military (who also usually takes the lion's share of the budget) over and above food supply, education and health. Apart from roads, the allocation to all other sectors does not add up to the Armed Forces PTF allocation.

Nobody knows how long PTF, a purely intensive intervention agency, will last or whether there will be a place for such an agency under a democratic set up. That decision, Gen. Buhari said, will be up to Nigerians. For now his preoccupation is to rehabilitate infrastructure and reorientate the people towards a new, effective and efficient way of executing uninflated contracts without kickbacks and without consuming mobilisation fees. Said Gen. Buhari to PTF contractors: "If you perform well, you get a hand shake. If you perform badly, you get a handcuff."

NewAfrican

BUHARISM: Economic Theory and Political Economy By Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

 

I have followed with more than a little interest the many contributions of commentators on the surprising decision of General Muhammadu Buhari to jump into the murky waters of Nigerian politics. Most of the regular writers in the Trust stable have had something to say on this. The political adviser to a late general has transferred his services to a living one. My dear friend and prolific veterinary doctor, who like me is allegedly an ideologue of Fulani supremacy, has taken a leading emir to the cleaners based on information of suspect authenticity. Another friend has contributed an articulate piece, which for those in the know gives a bird’s eye view into the thinking within the IBB camp. A young northern Turk has made several interventions and given novel expressions to what I call the PTF connection. Some readers and writers alike have done Buhari incalculable damage by viewing his politics through the narrow prism of ethnicity and religion, risking the alienation of whole sections of the Nigerian polity without whose votes their candidate cannot succeed.

 

With one or two notable exceptions, the various positions for or against Buhari have focused on his personality and continued to reveal a certain aversion or disdain for deeper and more thorough analysis of his regime. The reality, as noted by Tolstoy, is that too often history is erroneously reduced to single individuals. By losing sight of the multiplicity of individuals, events, actions and inactions (deliberate or otherwise) that combine to produce a set of historical circumstances, the historian is able to create a mythical figure and turn him into an everlasting hero (like Lincoln) or a villain (like Hitler). The same is true of Buhari. There seems to be a dangerous trend of competition between two opposing camps aimed at glorifying him beyond his wildest dreams or demonizing him beyond all justifiable limits, through a selective reading of history and opportunistic attribution and misattribution of responsibility.

 

The discourse has been thus impoverished through personalization and we are no closer at the end of it than at the beginning to a divination of the exact locus or nexus of his administration in the flow of Nigerian history. This is what I seek to achieve in this intervention through an exposition of the theoretical underpinnings of the economic policy of Buharism and the necessary correlation between the economic decisions made and the concomitant legal and political superstructure.

 

Taxonomy

Let me begin by stating up front the principal thesis that I will propound. Within the schema of discourses on Nigerian history, the most accurate problematization of the Buhari government is one that views it strictly as a regime founded on the ideology of Bourgeois Nationalism. In this sense it was a true off-shoot of the regime of Murtala Mohammed. Buharism was a stage the logical outcome of whose machinations would have been a transcendence of what Marx called the stage of Primitive Accumulation in his Theories of Surplus Value. It was radical, not in the sense of being socialist or left wing, but in the sense of being a progressive move away from a political economy dominated by a parasitic and subservient elite to one in which a nationalist and productive class gains ascendancy. Buharism represented a two-way struggle: with Global capitalism (externally) and with its parasitic and unpatriotic agents and spokespersons (internally).

 

The struggle against global capital as represented by the unholy trinity of the IMF, the World Bank and multilateral “trade” organizations as well that against the entrenched domestic class of contractors, commission agents and corrupt public officers were vicious and thus required extreme measures. Draconian policies were a necessary component of this struggle for transformation and this has been the case with all such epochs in history. The Meiji restoration in Japan was not conducted in a liberal environment. The Industrial Revolution in Europe and the great economic progress of the empires were not attained in the same liberal atmosphere of the 21st Century. The “tiger economies” of Asia such as Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand are not exactly models of democratic freedom. To this extent Buharism was a despotic regime but its despotism was historically determined, necessitated by the historical task of dismantling the structures of dependency and launching the nation on to a path beyond primitive accumulation. At his best Buhari may have been a Bonaparte or a Bismarck. At his worst he may have been a Hitler or a Mussolini. In either case Buharism drawn to its logical conclusion would have provided the bedrock for a new society and its overthrow marked a relapse, a step backward into that era from which we sought escape and in which, sadly for all of us we remain embedded and enslaved. I will now proceed with an elaboration of Buharism as a manifestation of bourgeois economics and political economy.

 

The Economic Theory of Buharism

One of the greatest myths spun around Buharism was that it lacked a sound basis in economic theory. As evidence of this, the regime that succeeded Buhari employed the services of economic “gurus” of “international standard” as the architects of fiscal and monetary policy. These were IMF and World Bank economists like Dr. Chu Okongwu and Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, as well as Mr SAP himself, Chief Olu Falae (an economist trained at Yale). At the time Buhari’s Finance Minister, Dr Onaolapo Soleye (who was not a trained economist) was debating with the pro-IMF lobby and explaining why the naira would not be devalued I was teaching economics at the Ahmadu Bello University. I had no doubt in my mind that the position of Buharism was based on a sound understanding of neo-classical economics and that those who were pushing for devaluation either did not understand their subject or were acting deliberately as agents of international capital in its rampage against all barriers set up by sovereign states to protect the integrity of the domestic economy. I still believe some of the key economic policy experts of the IBB administration were economic saboteurs who should be tried for treason.

 

When the IMF recently owned up to “mistakes” in its policy prescriptions all patriotic economists saw it for what it was: A hypocritical statement of remorse after attaining set objectives. Let me explain, briefly, the economic theory underlying Buhari’s refusal to devalue the naira and then show how the policy merely served the interest of global capitalism and its domestic agents. This will be the principal building block of our taxonomy.

In brief, neo-classical theory holds that a country can, under certain conditions, expect to improve its Balance of Payments through devaluation of its currency. The IMF believed that given the pressure on the country’s foreign reserves and its adverse balance of payments situation Nigeria must devalue its currency. Buharism held otherwise and insisted that the conditions for improving Balance of Payments through devaluation did not exist and that there were alternate and superior approaches to the problem. Let me explain.

 

The first condition that must exist is that the price of every country’s export is denominated in its currency. If Nigeria’s exports are priced in naira and its imports from the US in dollars then, ceteris paribus, a devaluation of the naira makes imports dearer to Nigerians and makes Nigerian goods cheaper to Americans. This would then lead to an increase in the quantum of exports to the US and a reduction in the quantum of imports from there per unit of time. But while this is a necessary condition, it is not a sufficient one. For a positive change in the balance of payments the increase in the quantum of exports must be substantial enough to outweigh the revenue lost through a reduction in price. In other words the quantity exported must increase at a rate faster than the rate of decrease in its price. Similarly imports must fall faster than their price is increasing. Otherwise the nation may be devoting more of its wealth to importing less and receiving less of the wealth of foreigners for exporting more! In consequence, devaluation by a country whose exports and imports are not price elastic leads to the continued impoverishment of the nation vis a vis its trading partners. The second, and sufficient, condition is therefore that the combined price elasticity of demand for exports and imports must exceed unity.

 

The argument of Buharism, for which it was castigated by global capital and its domestic agents, was that these conditions did not exist clearly enough for Nigeria to take the gamble. First our major export, oil, was priced in dollars and the volume exported was determined ab initio by the quota set by OPEC, a cartel to which we belonged. Neither the price nor the volume of our exports would be affected by a devaluation of the naira. As for imports, indeed they would become dearer. However the manufacturing base depended on imported raw materials. Also many essential food items were imported. The demand for imports was therefore inelastic. We would end up spending more of our national income to import less, in the process fuelling inflation, creating excess capacity and unemployment, wiping out the production base of the real sector and causing hardship to the consumer through the erosion of real disposable incomes. Given the structural dislocations in income distribution in Nigeria the only groups who would benefit from devaluation were the rich parasites who had enough liquidity to continue with their conspicuous consumption, the large multi-national corporations with an unlimited access to loanable funds and the foreign “investor” who can now purchase our grossly cheapened and undervalued domestic assets.

 

In one stroke we would wipe out the middle class, destroy indigenous manufacturing, undervalue the national wealth and create inflation and unemployment. This is standard economic theory and it is exactly what happened to Nigeria after it went through the hands of our IMF economists under IBB. The decision not to devalue set Buharism on a collision course with those who wanted devaluation and would profit from it-namely global capitalism, the so-called “captains of industry” (an acronym for the errand boys of multinational corporations), the nouveaux-riches parasites who had naira and dollars waiting to be spent, the rump elements of feudalism and so on. Buharism therefore was a crisis in the dominant class, a fracturing of its members into a patriotic, nationalist group and a dependent, parasitic and corrupt one. It was not a struggle between classes but within the same class. A victory for Buharism would be a victory for the more progressive elements of the national bourgeoisie. Unfortunately the fifth columnists within the military establishment were allied to the backward and retrogressive elements and succeeded in defeating Buharism before it took firm root. But I digress.

 

Having decided not to devalue or to rush into privatization and liberalization Buharism still faced an economic crisis it must address. There was pressure on foreign reserves, mounting foreign debt and a Balance of Payments crisis. Clearly the demand for foreign exchange outstripped its supply. The government therefore adopted demand management measures. The basic principle was that we did not really need all that we imported and if we could ensure that our scarce foreign exchange was only allocated to what we really needed we would be able to pay our debts and lay the foundations for economic stability. But this line of action also has its drawbacks.

 

First, there are political costs to be borne in terms of opposition from those who feel unfairly excluded from the allocation process and who do not share the government’s sense of priorities. Muslims for example cursed Buhari’s government for restricting the number of pilgrims in order to conserve foreign exchange.

 

Second, in all attempts to manage demand through quotas and quantitative restrictions there is room for abuse because there is always the incentive of a premium to be earned through circumvention of due process. Import licenses become “hot cake” and the black market for foreign exchange highly lucrative. This policy can only succeed if backed by strong deterrent laws and strict and enforcible exchange rules. Again it is trite micro-economic theory that where price is fixed below equilibrium the market is only cleared through quotas and the potential exists for round tripping as there will be a minority willing and able to offer a very high price for the “artificially scarce” product. So again we see that the harsh exchange control and economic sabotage laws of Buharism were a necessary and logical fallout of its economic theory.

Conclusion

 

I have tried to show in this intervention what I consider to be the principal building blocks of the military government of Muhammadu Buhari and the logical connection between its ideology, its economic theory and the legal and political superstructure that characterized it. My objective is to raise the intellectual profile of discourse beyond its present focus on personalities by letting readers see the intricate links between disparate and seemingly unrelated aspects of that government, thus contextualizing the actions of Buharism in its specific historical and ideological milieu. I have tried to review its treatment of politicians as part of a general struggle against primitive accumulation and its harsh laws on exchange and economic crimes as a necessary fallout of economic policy options. Similarly its treatment of drug pushers reflected the patriotic zeal of a bourgeois nationalist establishment.

 

As happens in all such cases a number of innocent people become victims of draconian laws, such as a few honest leaders like Shehu Shagari and Balarabe Musa who were improperly detained. The reality however is that many of those claiming to be victims today were looters who deserved to go to jail but who would like to hide under the cover of a few glaring errors. The failure of key members of the Buhari administration to tender public and unreserved apology to those who may have been improperly detained has not helped matters in this regard.

 

This raises a question I have often been asked. Do I support Buhari’s decision to contest for the presidency of Nigeria? My answer is no. And I will explain.

 

First, I believe Buhari played a creditable role in a particular historical epoch but like Tolstoy and Marx I do not believe he can re-enact that role at will. Men do not make history exactly as they please but, as Marx wrote in the 18th Brumaire, “in circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.” Muhammadu Buhari as a military general had more room for manoevre than he can ever hope for in Nigerian Politics.

 

Second, I am convinced that the situation of Nigeria and its elite today is worse than it was in 1983.Compared to the politicians who populate the PDP, ANPP and AD today, second republic politicians were angels. Buhari waged a battle against second republic politicians, but he is joining this generation. Anyone who rides a tiger ends up in its belly and one man cannot change the system from within. A number of those Buhari jailed for theft later became ministers and many of those who hold key offices in all tiers of government and the legislature were made by the very system he sought to destroy. My view is that Nigeria needs people like Buhari in politics but not to contest elections. Buhari should be in politics to develop Civil Society and strengthen the conscience of the nation. He should try to develop many Buharis who will continue to challenge the elements that have hijacked the nation.

 

Third, I do not think Nigerians today are ready for Buhari. Everywhere you turn you see thieves who have amassed wealth in the last four years, be they legislators, Local Government chairmen and councilors, or governors and ministers. But these are the heroes in their societies. They are the religious leaders and ethnic champions and Nigerians, especially northerners, will castigate and discredit anyone who challenges them. Unless we start by educating our people and changing their value system, people like Buhari will remain the victims of their own love for Nigeria.

Fourth, and on a lighter note, I am opposed to recycled material. In a nation of 120million people we can do better than restrict our leadership to a small group. I think Buhari, Babangida and yes Obasanjo should simply allow others try their hand instead of believing they have the monopoly of wisdom.

 

Having said all this let me conclude by saying that if Buhari gets a nomination he will have my vote (for what it is worth). I will vote for him not, like some have averred, because he is a northerner and a Muslim or because I think his candidacy is good for the north and Islam; I will vote for him not because I think he will make a good democrat or that he was not a dictator. I will vote for Buhari as a Nigerian for a leader who restored my pride and dignity and my belief in the motherland. I will vote for the man who made it undesirable for the “Andrews” to “check out” instead of staying to change Nigeria. I will vote for Buhari to say thank you for the world view of Buharism, a truly nationalist ideology for all Nigerians. I do not know if Buhari is still a nationalist or a closet bigot and fanatic, or if he was the spirit and not just the face of Buharism. My vote for him is not based on a divination of what he is or may be, but a celebration of what his government was and what it gave to the nation.

Museveni on the defensive

 

UGANDA

 

It is becoming clear that the President wants yet another term of office, possibly for his son, but he has major legal and political obstacles to overcome first

Uganda’s next election may only be in 2016 but President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who is almost certain to run again, has set out an early agenda. He is mobilising support amongst the armed forces and veterans – and moving to quash all dissent in the governing National Resistance Movement (NRM). With the Public Order Management Bill, which has been widely criticised for restricting free speech, having passed into law in May, police now have discretionary powers to break up meetings of three people or more that they believe to be political. Museveni may also be seeking to raise the constitutional age limit for a president above 75.

Yet the biggest battle Museveni and NRM Secretary General and Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi are now fighting is an attempt to rein in the ‘rebel MPs’, as four NRM dissident members of parliament have become known:  Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga, AC Vol 53 No 4, Spring in opposition’s step and Vol 53 No 5, Rebels with a cause), Barnabas Ateenyi Tinkasiimire (Buyaga West), Wilfred Niwagaba (Ndorwa East) and Muhammad Nsereko (Kampala Central). All were expelled by an NRM tribunal in April 2013, but they refused to leave parliament even though the constitution requires MPs who have left their political parties also to resign their seats. They claim that the provision in the constitution is aimed at MPs switching party allegiance – and they have not. The Supreme Court was in hearings on the matter as AC went to press.

The rebels were helped by Speaker of the House Rebecca Kadaga, who together with Mbabazi is regarded as a possible presidential candidate. Kadaga was part of the NRM committee that expelled the four. She then changed her mind and kept them in the chamber until the courts could decide. Mbabazi retaliated against Kadaga’s retention of the MPs when the government front bench (cabinet ministers who are responsible to Mbabazi) boycotted the house and brought government business to a standstill.
The outcome of this issue will shape Kadaga's decision on whether or not to break from the party and stand as an independent presidential candidate in 2016, according to sources close to her. Mbabazi is, however, determined to ensure that the troublesome MPs lose their seats. If he succeeds, the party could use the same tactic against Kadaga, whose independence from the NRM leadership angers the Prime Minister and the President.
Playing with loaded diceMuseveni hopes the Supreme Court will rule against the MPs and has attracted accusations of trying to load the dice in his favour. When the issue moved to the courts, Museveni reappointed retired Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki, a former schoolmate, to the Supreme Court in July, against the advice of the Judicial Service Commission. Odoki had passed the mandatory retirement age of 70. The Attorney General, Peter Nyombi, was then ‘suspended’ from the Uganda Law Society for advising the President that the Odoki appointment was lawful. Nyombi has denied that the ULS has any say in his activities and has threatened to sue them.
Legal scholars and observers believe that by reappointing Odoki, Museveni is also surreptitiously lifting age limits in the constitution generally. Uganda has an age limit of 75 for the president. Museveni is officially 69, although some believe he is older. Nyombi was also faulted by his lawyer critics for advising the President that it was lawful to appoint Gen. Aronda Nyakairima to the cabinet as Internal Affairs Minister without him first resigning from the army. This is another strand in Museveni’s strategy of building a higher-profile military constituency and extending the armed forces into parts of civil society.
Another general, Kale Kayihura, is in charge of the Uganda Police Force. The two Generals are bitter foes and Kayihura was once tipped to replace Nyakairima after he ceased to be army chief. Like the rivalry between Kadaga and Mbabazi, the feud between the military men benefits Museveni, observers say, because it puts him ‘above the fray’.

The President also used the recent reshuffle at the top of the military to speed up the appointment of younger army officers. The military establishment defers to Museveni’s son, Brigadier Kainerugaba Muhoozi, the chief of the Special Forces Command, as the ‘real’ head of the army. It was Museveni's plan to install Muhoozi as his successor that drove David Sejusa, the head of the External Security Organisation, Uganda’s foreign intelligence service, into exile (AC Vol 54 No 11, Talking Tinyefuza).

In recent months, Museveni’s half-brother Gen. Salim Saleh, the head of the reserve forces who is also responsible for veterans, has accompanied him on his ‘anti-poverty’ tours around the country, the traditional elements of early presidential campaigns. Starting with the district of Luwero, Museveni announced in July that the military would get more involved in monitoring government anti-poverty campaigns and supervising new initiatives. He even pledged to set up barracks in every county so as to guarantee their implementation. The deployment of serving officers as government anti-poverty civil servants across the country is intended to bind the younger officers more to Muhoozi and Saleh, who are at the heart of Ugandan electoral politics.
Muhoozi project speeds upThis week the Electoral Commission announced an ‘updating’ process for polling stations that has largely been shunned or ignored by the political opposition. The former leader of the Forum for Democratic Change, Kizza Besigye, who is a retired Colonel, claimed recently that Museveni believed that Sejusa had turned many veterans against him and was plotting to overthrow him in a coup. This explains the Museveni campaign, he said. ‘Paradoxically,’ Besigye continued in an article for the Kampala Observer, ‘what Gen. Sejusa and other senior Uganda People’s Defence Force officers were concerned about seems to have been fuelled by the fallout. The changes and purges that were precipitated in the UPDF and other armed forces, paramilitary forces and security organisations have accelerated the "Muhoozi Project".’
No matter which way the wind blows, Museveni is set to remain the main political player. All this politicking is, however, taking its toll on the practical business of government. Both central and local governments are in a state of inertia. The annual budget was read in June but parliament has not appropriated the monies. Many public servants remain unpaid despite the passing of the Supplementary Budgets request, which was designed to deal with the shortfalls. Strikes by primary school teachers, lecturers at public universities and health workers have shown that government funds, gutted by donor-aid withdrawals, continue to suffer.
According to the Minister of Finance, Maria Kiwanuka, the gove
rnment is broke but a flurry of largely bilateral deals in construction, energy and oil have come in to plug the gaps. Yet there are widespread suspicions that the political elite is sponging off these procurements in order to raise funds for elections. A spate of capital-intensive procurements has resulted in a greater loss of public funds, according to the Auditor General, John FS Muwanga, in his report for the year ending June 2012. His report – which AC will analyse – details an exponential increase in the loss of public funds to theft and fraud amounting to up to US$100 million. The political import of losses on such a scale is equivalent to a run on the banks. Afraid of the consequences of the coming elections, politicians are stealing money for their war chests.

AfricaConfidential

Buhari's bold statement on Ndigbo.

Buhari’s bold statement on Ndigbo

Mohammadu Buhari is somebody I admire so much. My high regard for him dates back to when he was a military Head of state. I was among the crowd that lined the streets of Onitsha in 1984 to see him during his visit to Anambra State, few months after he took over. 

It was a glance that I got of his perspective as he perched daintily inside his limousine that sped by, the Awka Road axis of the commercial town, where I had gone on a visit from Lagos, just after my secondary school. But that picture has remained in my mind till date. It was an awe-inspiring experience that I find quite difficult to explain, even as an adult.  

Even as an adult, I still revere the General, despite my misgivings, just like many other Nigerians, over his human rights records, while in office. 

Part of my reasons for my admiration is my belief that he is a rare specie. To me, he is one of the few Nigerians you can predict. You could easily, give or take, tell what Buhari will or will not do. Of course, because he is also human, you may not be 100 per cent sure in such predictions, but you are sure not to be off the mark completely, as you would other Nigerians of his stature.

I also admire the General for his simplicity. I got a first hand experience few years ago, when I went to Kaduna to interview him. Even though I had heard of his simplicity, I never prepared for what I experienced. I had steeled myself for the usual fuss you see at the gates of Nigeria’s Very Important Persons (VIPs), which some of us are forced to experience now and again, because of our peculiar job. 

Surely, this was a former Head of State, the number one citizen of the country. I had expected to see a colony of stern-looking military men, with all the paraphernalia of terror, which are never in short supply at the gate of people of Buhari’s standing. I had expected the usual high walls and the huge gates that would warn you of the environment where you are.

Surprisingly, it was a totally different ballgame altogether. Yes, there were security operatives. But immediately I identified myself and stated my mission, there was no further attempt to remind me that I was in a big man’s house. 

I had also expected to be kept waiting, as the usual Nigerian big man would do, just to emphasise his importance. Of course, in such missions, I’m always prepared to endure that type of indignity and even more, because it is my job to do so. Yet, in the house of Buhari, you needn’t worry. Not only was the ambience quite welcoming, but the owner, would not allow you suffer it.

To cut a long story short, I came out of Buhari’s house, not only with increased respect for his personality, but his taste, which reflected everywhere. In fact, you needed not be convinced that his passion and interests are poles apart from those of millions of Nigerians, particularly the high and mighty. 

So, when I hear many of his admirers saying that his passion to rule Nigeria is not to use our commonwealth as his pillow and that he would give nothing but service, I was not in the least surprised why they are so convinced.

However, I have been wondering how Buhari would ever become the President of Nigeria. Why? I believe that apart from the fact that the hawks at the corridors of power, those who have taken it upon themselves to make such a project possible, at a prize and for a prize, will never let him, he knows very little of how to get to that office. 

Whatever doubts I have about this was dispelled substantially, since the General announced his running mate, Monday, last week. Though the name of his choice, Tunde Bakare, the Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, had been hovering in the winds for sometime now, many political watchers had dismissed it as quite impossible. I was one of those.

Don’t get me wrong. It has nothing to do with Bakare’s competence for the job. I have no quarrel with that. Rather, I have every quarrel with his choice because of his outing in the Nigerian polity in the last few months. I join many Nigerians who find it difficult not to link the pastor’s recent posturing with what has eventually come out of it.

Since then, I have listened to many voices coalesce into one view; that the respected cleric was out to deceive the people that he was fighting their cause, while all he wanted was to use them as a ladder to achieve his selfish political ambition. “So, all these noise about his rejecting “transport money” given to him by the Presidency is really to gain political mileage?” That is the question in most lips since then and I’m sure would linger in many more for a long time to come, even if the pastor swears with everything at his disposal that the contrary is the case.

Beyond the issue of the question mark on the Bakare’s altruism, I’m yet to come to grasp with why Buhari would bypass the South East for a Yoruba man at this point in our political development, when all expectations are that the next President after this dispensation should be an Igbo man, whichever criteria are used.

I actually raised this question with the spokesman of the former Head of State, Yinka Odumakin. This is what he told me: “The choice of Bakare was to get on board a recognisable name, whose ideals are well known. You know the focus of Buhari’s presidency is the fight against corruption and you know in this, he has an ally in Bakare.

“Besides, Nigeria is moving away from the method of zonal considerations to a much more enduring way of choosing leaders. It is also moving a way from balance of hate to balance of faith. The current process is going to bring down the tension in the country and engender better leadership and development.”

Besides, he explained that Buhari had picked Igbo men in his two previous attempts and decided to take a look elsewhere now. Now, could this be ample explanation to assuage the feeling of the Igbo people. I ask this question because, it is assumed in most quarters that the General is the only person capable of giving President Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a fight in the presidential election, scheduled for April. 

For whatever it is worth, virtually all the frontline aspirants for the presidency had one way or the other tried to put the Igbo question in perspective in their campaigns, before now. It is not a secret that Buhari’s successor, Ibrahim Babangida, vowed to hand over to an Igbo man at the end of his tenure. Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who eventually emerged the Northern consensus candidate in the PDP, had not only made a similar commitment, but went ahead to make the Igbo the arrowhead of his campaign, before he lost the ticket to Jonathan, last month. 

Even Nuhu Ribadu, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) presidential candidate, seemed not to have lost sight of this, in picking an Igbo man. Not even the choice of Governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekerau, could be said to be totally bad. Shekerau picked former Edo State Governor, John Odigie Oyegun, as his running mate. 

To observers, what this means is that if he eventually wins the presidency, he is likely to hand over to a South South person, which is not a bad idea, given the current argument in the polity.

But for Buhari to totally go out of sync with this prevailing and pervading argument, seems to me, a deliberate attempt to undermine himself, since the natural reading is that a deputy is supposed to take over from his principal at the end of a full tenure. Now, what would the General be telling Ndigbo if he goes to campaign? Would he be telling them that there is nobody amongst them that qualifies for the job, whether the agenda is to fight corruption or run a credible government? Would he be telling them that because his previous picks were from the area, they’ve had their chance and no more? 

Till date, there are many Igbo, who still hold the former Head of State in bad light, as an Igbo hater, simply because they believe that during his period as the Chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), the South East got the least representation in terms of projects and other considerations. For such people, this is just a confirmation. 

Well, as Odumakin said, the decision may be sincere and intention noble. But I believe the Buhari camp still has a lot of explaining to do. That’s if he needs Igbo votes. Otherwise his action is nothing but a bold statement. I won’t say more.  

Re-Buhari’s bold statement on Ndigbo By Ogbonnaya Uwadiegwu Although the headline, Buhari’s bold statement on Ndigbo, gave out the intension of the writer too early, Sunny Igboanugo’s piece published in his Political Whirlwind column in the Daily Independentof February 8, 2011 was, nonetheless, worth reading. Igboanugo writes like a good story teller and that is why the level of anger that would have followed his submissions and conclusion would be mitigated. Seriously, it is high time Ndigbo calls itself to order and stop blaming its political misfortunes on others. Being Igbo, at times it is sickening, other times it is quite embarrassing, watching our people point accusing fingers at others when we are indeed the architects of our misfortune. Often time Ndigbo assumes righteousness even in the face of evident tomfoolery. I did a piece when the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Ralph Uwechue, took spaces in newspapers to advertise the support of Ndigbo for President Goodluck Jonathan. Unfortunately that piece was not published. I warned then that that the open declaration by Ohanaeze, the subservience of our governors, including Peter Obi of APGA, the naked dance of our elders in the court of Jonathan and the double speak of our youths will cause Ndigbo its birthright.  Then, our people castigated Atiku Abubakar and others for mentioning zoning in the nation’s power calculus; they called them names, they said zoning was archaic, it is moribund, something of the past, it is sectional, a product of ethnic jingoist, and all sorts! Just about that same period, the same choristers were singing ‘Ndigbo for 2015’.  The question that boggled the mind was: ‘On what basis is Ndigbo warming up for the presidency in 2015 or preparing to succeed any of the current presidential candidates if zoning is archiac or had long died?’ It is quite baffling the way some otherwise enlightened and exposed Ndigbo think and talk. Can any sane and reasonable person, who has lived in this country in the last decade believe, assuming he were told by an imbecile, that after the South South, the South East would pick the presidency in quick succession? Would it not be daydreaming which, unfortunately, has become the pastime of our elders and leaders? Is it not pathetic that people like Igboanugo who should know better, as a political columnist, is now joining them! It should be clear to Ndigbo that by sheer connivance with others to denounce zoning of the presidency, it unwittingly declared the race to that office a survival of the fittest. So why should Igboanugo blame Buhari for picking his running mate from anywhere that pleases his political fancy. He asked if there was no qualified Ndigbo to be picked as Buhari’s running mate; but a more potent question which perhaps he failed to ask is: What did Ndigbo do with its own political parties? Ndigbo could rightly lay claims to All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Peoples Progressive Party (PPA), what happened to them? Couldn’t these parties have produced Igbo sons/daughters as presidential candidates and then shop for running-mates elsewhere? Or are they no qualified Igbo people to occupy the office, especially now that zoning has been killed with the connivance of Ndigbo? Chief Orji Uzor Kalu who floated PPA started junketing between PPA and Peoples democratic Party (PDP) and at a point got confused. Theodore Orji (Abia) and Ikedi Ohakim (Imo) who won their governorship tickets on that platform left for the PDP. Mr Peter Obi, the only APGA governor, is now the spokesman of the South East PDP Governor’s Forum. He is now the South East “coordinator” of the Jonathan/Sambo campaign, an outsider who is wailing louder than the bereaved. For goodness sake, why is Igboanugo raising issues with Buhari’s pick of a Yoruba as running mate. Is Igbonaugo not aware of the saying of the elders that if the lizard of the homestead behaves like the lizard of the farmland, it would be mistaken as such! Ndigbo had the chairmanship of the ruling party, a position that gave the people a sense of belonging, and a bargaining chip which could have, if skillfully employed, been the weapon to fight the presidency war in future; but in-fighting among Ndigbo created an opening which others used as justification to slam Ndigbo.  Now Ndigbo is neither in government nor in power (party). But didn’t our elders say that when two brothers fight, the stranger reaps the harvest. Let no Igboanugo or any other Ndigbo sing the dirge near my compound. Let them not think that the Igbos are a herd of cattle that would head in the direction intended by a wailing shepherd boy, mbanu! People like me will never align with the thinking that Ndigbo will not vote for Buhari because he did not pick an Igboman as his runningmate. Ndigbo for too long has been playing the second fiddle; unfortunately it is now playing no fiddle at all - not because there is no fiddle, but because they prefer others to play while they dance to the tune, even if the lyrics are abusive and derogatory. Igboanugo mentioned Atiku as having used the Igbo as the arrowhead of his campaign, what did Igbo delegates do to him at the PDP convention? Did they vote for Atiku? Didn’t they vote for Jonathan with a northern running mate? Will Namadi Sambo give way to an Igboman after Jonathan must have served his term? Why should Buhari trust the Igboman when he saw what they did to Atiku who was hobnobbing with them? Igboanugo, did our wise elders of old not warn that he who brings home ant infested faggots should not complain when lizards pay him a visit? It is high time Ndigbo come together to really brainstorm on our destiny as a people instead of creating distrust among themselves and turning around to blame others for not coming to their rescue. Since we have joined hands to kill zoning, it is now to thy tent oh Israel! •Ogbonnaya Uwadiegwu, Julius Berger, Lagos.

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Buhari threatens to leave APC over National Publicity Secretary position, insists on Fashakin

By Ali Adoyi

Nigerian former Head of state and APC stalwart, General Mohammed Buhari is facing another test of his political career as the All Progressive Congress; APC now remains divided over his nomination of Rotimi Fashakin as the party’s new Publicity secretary.
Speculations are now rife that contrary to the wish of other members of the party that, Lai Mohammed deserves to remain in the said position, Buhari is of the opinion that Fashakin ho was the Publicity secretary under his defunct CPC takes over from Lai Mohammed who is now the interim National Publicity Secretary of the party.
It would be recalled that the interim national Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande has been agreeing and disagreeing with Buhari over several party matters, especially with regards to the ideological differences noticed after the merger. The former leader was stopped from answering questions directed to him by the press on several occasions by Akande, all in an attempt to regulate his superiority in the party.
An inside source has revealed to DailyPost political correspondent that even though, a convention to elect the party’s National Working Committee has not been held yet, Buhari has requested that Fashakin one of his foot soldiers be considered for the position of the party’s National publicity secretary, a request that is said to be opposed by the Tinubu group who sees Lai mohammed as most suitable for the sensitive position .This scenario appears to have unsettled the party as Buhari’s loyalists insist that Lai should conceal the position to CPC group.

Buhari, whose hope of becoming the party’s flag bearer is almost dashed, as the party has resolved to pick a younger person from the North, is asking that his trusted ally, Fashakin be considered for the position, or he pulls out of the party as the request was the first major one he had made since the merger became successful.
The source had further revealed that the party leadership has already arrived at an agreement to retain the service of Lai Mohammed, whom most of them have said was brilliant enough for the job, but Buhari argued that Fashakin was as good as Lai, hence his interest must also be regarded if he must give up his ambition for a younger person, come 2015.
Our checks have revealed that the disagreement over the Publicity Secretary position has created different tents in the party, as most of the party leaders from the Southwest are beginning to doubt Buhari’s sincerity towards keeping to the terms of their initial agreement.
However, both Lai and Fashakin have refuted the rumour, asserting that there is no such in-fight in the fold of the APC. Speaking with our content Editor, Adoyi Ali, the APC media officer who pleaded anonymity said ‘’Buhari himself wrote a letter commending Lai Mohammed’s handling of the defunct A C N publicity , urging him to continue as the publicity secretary for the APC. I would have shown you a copy of the letter if not that my office is locked, so there is no disagreement over the position of the interim national publicity secretary of the party because the position was zoned to the defunct A C N”
While speaking with Engr. Fashakin on the phone in confirmation of the story, he said ‘’ Me, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about that at all. That is a rumour to me. My brother, it’s all rumour. There is no truth to it.’’
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72-Year-Old PDP Chieftain Marries His 23-Year-Old Heartthrob (PHOTOS)

72-year-old grandfather, Elder statesman, Owerri PDP Chietain and renowned business mogul, Chief Dr Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu traditionally wedded the love of his life, 23-year-old Miss Chinonyerem Enwerem last Saturday, 14th September, 2013.

It was gathered that Chief Emmanuel had paid her bride last year after his wife of more than 40 years, Lady Eudora, with whom he had three sons and five daughters, died on 28 August 2011, aged 63.
According to a family source, "he was distraught when his wife died and wanted to marry her immediately but was convinced by his kinsmen to wait for a while".
Though his children are not in support of the marriage, they have to go along with it as they have been warned by their father to either accept it and co-operate or be cut off, a source revealed.
With the traditional wedding out of the way, the church wedding will hold on September 21st, 2013 and they will be wedded by Rt Rev. Emmanuel Maduwuike, Bishop of Ikeduru Diocese of Anglican Communion at the Bishop’s chapel by 10am.

72-Year-Old PDP Chieftain Marries His 23-Year-Old Heartthrob (PHOTOS)

72-year-old grandfather, Elder statesman, Owerri PDP Chietain and renowned business mogul, Chief Dr Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu traditionally wedded the love of his life, 23-year-old Miss Chinonyerem Enwerem last Saturday, 14th September, 2013.

It was gathered that Chief Emmanuel had paid her bride last year after his wife of more than 40 years, Lady Eudora, with whom he had three sons and five daughters, died on 28 August 2011, aged 63.
According to a family source, "he was distraught when his wife died and wanted to marry her immediately but was convinced by his kinsmen to wait for a while".
Though his children are not in support of the marriage, they have to go along with it as they have been warned by their father to either accept it and co-operate or be cut off, a source revealed.
With the traditional wedding out of the way, the church wedding will hold on September 21st, 2013 and they will be wedded by Rt Rev. Emmanuel Maduwuike, Bishop of Ikeduru Diocese of Anglican Communion at the Bishop’s chapel by 10am.