The Autumn of the Young Patriarch.

 Tatalo Alamu

By this time next week, the Goodluck Jonathan presidency would have become history. And what a history this has been! As the whole country, in phenomenal darkness, wearily inches its way towards the excruciating finale, there is cause for sober reflection. Never in the history of this country have things been this terrible. We have finally arrived at the bottom of the terrible pit of hell. It is a sad commentary on the greatest conglomeration of Black souls anywhere in the world.
There is good luck and there is good luck. As the good old Greeks would have put it, call no man lucky until he has carried his luck to his grave. Like a Shakespearean play, life is full of strange twists and even more remarkable turns. The very combination of lucky circumstances that has propelled the formerly shoeless boy from Otueke to the pinnacle of electoral fortunes in his country has also made him the first sitting Nigerian ruler to be electorally dismissed. It doesn’t get more Delphic.
But the Jonathan story is still unfolding. As the youngest patriarch among the paleontology of under-achieving paterfamilias, Jonathan may yet surprise us as a statesman where he has disappointed as a political practitioner. It may well be that Jonathan is more temperamentally suited to the elevated art of statesmanship than the dark science of political magic.
Nevertheless, we must return an interim verdict on the Jonathan years, and it is as damning in its dismal details as it is as disagreeable and even disgraceful in its essence. Never in the history of Nigeria has there been a more divisive and polarizing president. Never has such incompetence combined with cluelessness and such in your face impunity coupled with sheer vindictive malice. Jonathan leaves behind a country that is so badly distorted politically, economically and spiritually that it will amount to a wry understatement to conclude that the country is in the grip of a deep systemic rot. It is much worse.
But however much we rail at him, however much we excoriate him in anger and deep disappointment, we are also railing at and excoriating ourselves. Jonathan is the ultimate product of a deeply disfigured polity and a luckless pawn at that. At any point in time, a ruler is the sum total of the strengths and weaknesses of the polity that throws him up and an accurate reflection of the forces at play and the balance of power. A system which allows a few privileged military officers to annul the electoral will of a whole country and which permits some demented autocrats to impose their political choice on the nation is bound to throw up a Jonathan as the end product of political infamy.
So here we are at the very nadir of our political and economic fortunes. The good news is that hubris has finally met its match in a resurgence of national will and a reawakening of national consciousness. Perhaps we had to get to this gate of hell in order to come back to our senses. Nothing concentrates the collective mind of a nation more than the thought of imminent extinction. The very idea of God’s own people or God’s own nation is one of the pious and energizing myths of national creation. Nations are not products of divine proclamations but products of human will and self-surpassing exertions.
By early 2012 and at the time of the petroleum subsidy hoax which has now returned in all its horrifying dimensions to see off Jonathan, it was clear to all discerning folks that Nigeria had a problem ruler on its laps. By that time, this column had a full measure of its man, describing Jonathan as a boy-emperor handed a toy rigged with explosives. It is perhaps owing to this nation’s legendary luck and the close attention of the international community that Jonathan was prevented from detonating himself and the nation along.
Those who fought valiantly on the streets and in smoke-filled rooms of endless strategizing to rescue him and the nation from the clutches of an overreaching cabal became Jonathan’s sworn enemies. As he came under the spell and political sorcery of tribal hegemonists and clueless power neophytes, Jonathan began playing the ethnic and religious card in such a derisive and abysmal manner that the pan-Nigerian coalition on which he rode to power gave way completely, leaving him at the mercy of infantile thugs and some senile political delinquents.
From then on, it was one constitutional infraction after another; one act of daring impunity after another; one assault on the institutional integrity of the country’s judicial and legislative foundation after another. At a point, it seems as if Jonathan derives a sadistic pleasure in cocking a snook at the country’s old power establishment and the relish of the psychologically tormented in imposing disorder on fragile order. Like a chap who killed his parents and asked the court to set him free on the grounds that he was an orphan, the chutzpah was quite breathtaking in its brazen audacity.

Yet it was all clear where it was leading. A rising power formation is one thing but a power bloc is another. Jonathan’s ethnic group might have been the ascendant power formation but it had not yet solidified and cohered into a durable power bloc. Power blocs are made of sterner stuff.
In a multi-ethnic post-colonial nation with multiplicities of countervailing and mutually cancelling power centres, it takes intricate networking, durable bridge-building and exemplary wheeling and dealing to cobble together a dominant power bloc. You cannot serially insult and humiliate a people publicly only to turn round when elections were approaching with bales of dollar to bribe their renegade leaders. Jonathan has been taught an elementary lesson in power politics.
Even after allowances might have been made for defects of character and personality, it is only the remarkable structural disfigurement of the country that can explain how Jonathan became president in the first instance and why he became such a horrendous presidential disaster with such damning disclaimers even from the normally diplomatic international community.
Standing logic and rationality on their head, Jonathan’s rabid partisans have been hollering that by conceding defeat at the time he did, he has snatched eternal victory from the jaws of bitter defeat. The question to ask is whether he had any real choice in the matter. The morphine of power addiction often wears off in the wake of imminent self-destruction. The eternal catch22 logic suggests that one’s concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers real and immediate is the process of a rational mind. Lucidity intervenes in the face of political morbidity.
In the nearest future, we will know what really happened. As a means of easing off hapless and heedless African rulers who are about to detonate their country, the international community normally offers political sweeteners. In the heat of the battle for Monrovia, the illiterate and abject Samuel Doe was rumoured to have been promised a prestigious American fellowship. Valentine Strasser, a former disc jockey in Freetown who became head of state through the instrumentality of military brigandage, was given a scholarship to study in one of Britain’s leading universities.
Strasser accepted while Doe demurred only to be brutally dispatched shortly thereafter. But at the last check, Strasser was living in a hovel outside Freetown with his mother. Sierra Leoneans do not even want to be reminded of the period, not to talk remembering or honouring him as a former head of state.
Statesmanship is not a title or honour to be bequeathed. It is earned. Exemplary leadership is not a function of an isolated instance of grace and common sense but the cumulative hulk of good and noble deeds accruing over a period. Judging by the havoc and mayhem he has wreaked on the country in the last six years, it is clear that Jonathan is neither a statesman nor an exemplary leader.
It is instructive that so soon after conceding defeat, Jonathan, like somebody recovering from a benign trance, simply reverted to his default mode of petty malice and vindictive witch hunting, deliberately loading the dice of destabilization against his successor and conqueror through questionable appointments and even more questionable confirmations while abandoning real governance. If General Buhari were to respond in kind, then Nigerians must brace themselves for a stormy session of outlandish revelations ahead.
But after all atonements have been made, let us be ready to forgive the man from Otuoke. A man cannot give what he doesn’t have. He has been plucked from nowhere by the power protocol and thrown into a brutal coliseum that he could barely comprehend. We must now return to the original labours of our founding fathers who were not just politicians but theorists of the state. Given the systemic rot, the promise of good governance emblematized by Mohammadu Buhari may just not be enough. Nigeria needs a new architecture of the state. Let that old debate which was terminated in 1962 now resume in earnest.

From GEJ To GMB: A Poisoned Chalice.

 by Olatunji Dare

Early in Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, I asked an eminent and influential public figure who was in a position to know — I asked him whether Dr Jonathan was up to the task.
‘Without hesitation, no,” he said, his voice tinged with pained disappointment.
He went on to relate how Dr Jonathan would arrive at meetings not having studied his briefing papers, and how he would often doze off during meetings he himself had convened.
Nor was the eminent person impressed by Dr Jonathan’s inner circle, men and women who had no business being on such hallowed ground – “ ragamuffins,” — he called them. They caroused far into the night, with their host holding court– as it were.
I had no reason to doubt my source, a person of few but measured words. But I checked his assessment with two other public figures, persons of consequence in their own right, who were also in a position to know whether Dr Jonathan was up to the job.
Each, separately, concurred in the assessment of my first source.
That was early in the Jonathan presidency. As the years passed by, he may have cut down on the night-time carousing and learned to stay attentive and engaged during meetings. But mastery of his brief, or of any public issue for that matter, eluded him throughout his presidency, now mercifully set to end next Friday.
You could never accuse him of having a firm grasp on any issue, be it commonplace routine or recondite, despite his advertised doctorate in ichthyology. You could never accuse him of profundity, of lofty thought, the type that springs from a lofty mind. You could not even accuse him of honest-to-goodness blandness.
Dr Jonathan was, well, Dr Jonathan.
It has to be said, however, that he did not seek the office. He did not envisage public office outside the bucolic enclave where he had spent his entire life until national service took him to Osun State. And as soon as he completed the one-year deployment, he returned to familiar surroundings. All his three degrees came from the University of Port Harcourt, which further locked him into the insularity that he was never able to shed.
Catapulted from deputy governor in Bayelsa to state governor, to vice president, and then to president of the Republic in two dizzy years, from obscurity to celebrity and to the global stage as it were, Dr Jonathan was more than overwhelmed.
Nothing had prepared him for such preferment. He never rose to its opportunities.
Instead he took refuge in a Transformation Agenda that was more slogan than substance, so much motion but, alas, very little movement. Meetings of the Federal Executive Council became contract bazaars, at the end of which contract awards were solemnly announced as if they were epochal achievements. And for the most part, nothing was heard again about them.
Dr Jonathan felt much more comfortable traipsing all over the country in gaudy apparel to attend to the affairs of the dysfunctional PDP than sitting down and contemplating how to make Nigeria work for the masses of the people. Nigeria was working well for him and his cronies. The formerly shoeless boy had a fleet of 11 executive jets at his beck and call, a one billion naira budget for food and beverages. What could be sworn with a system like that?

Despite all the talk of transformation, Dr Jonathan could not build an independent power facility for the Presidential Villa and its complementary facilities.. Nor could he raise to world class the National Hospital that serves the Presidency to world class. Why bother when he could always hop off in an executive jet for treatment in European hospitals?
Being at the helm and reveling in the perks was what mattered the most to Dr Jonathan. Performance was of no consequence, whether at the national level or in the states where the PDP held sway, more by crook than by hook. Perversity and impunity thrived without even perfunctory remonstrance, especially in the PDP states or in the ministries, departments and agencies headed by its stalwarts.
It is in fact the case that, the greater the perversity and the impunity perpetrated in those domains, the greater the tacit support of the Jonathan presidency.
The PDP was never a political party, in any case. It has always been a patronage organisation, held together by the power of federal patronage. One of its chieftains, Iyiola Omisore, spoke a greater truth than he intended or realised when, in a plea for party unity, he urged squabbling camp followers to remember that the PDP was nothing without the presidency.
Omisore was splendidly vindicated when, following the PDP’ rout two months ago in the general elections, its senior officials and card-carrying supporters started jumping ship by the thousands. The cookie on which they had gorged themselves remorselessly for 16 unbroken years had crumbled.
Jonathan presided over a comprehensive collapse of state institutions and the national value system. In almost no area of national life can Nigerians say with confidence that they are better off today than they were four years ago when Jonathan was voted into office on his own.
At its best, Nigeria generated in the Jonathan years only a small fraction of what a platinum mine in South Africa generates for its operations. When they work at all, Nigeria’s four oil refineries produce less than one-half of the nation’s needs; the balance is imported through a system that is about as transparent as a steel door.
Nigeria has been mired in corruption on a scale beyond belief. But to Dr Jonathan, the problem is ordinary stealing, and we only compound matters when we call it corruption.
Faced with the devastation over which he has presided, it might be thought that a contrite Jonathan would accept that he was not up to the task, thank Nigerians for the jolly good ride he has had, and humbly vacate the scene.
Instead, he engineered a false consensus to clinch the PDP’s presidential ticket and sought desperately to buy or steal the presidential election, employing in the process some of the most despicable tactics ever seen in these parts.
Instead of consolidating the ethnic solidarity that had triumphed over the machinations of a cabal bent on preventing him from taking power following the death of his principal, and had thereafter given him a strong mandate for a substantive term of his own, he resorted to ethnic-baiting and incitement.
In the twilight of his disastrous tenure, Dr Jonathan launched out on an activist streak, making major appointments, dismissing senior personnel, setting up new institutions, threatening to link all 36 state capitals by rail, and even vowing to become a statesman, as if that is a position to which one can appoint oneself.
He has even cast himself as a super patriot who has always been ready to lay down his life for Nigeria. Coming from a president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces who could not bring himself to go near Chibok where Boko Haram abducted 230 young women from their school hostel and stole their future, this has got to be the height of delusion.
The system collapse Nigeria is experiencing now is an eloquent epitaph to Dr Jonathan’s inept rule. The damage he has inflicted on every aspect of Nigerian life will be with us for a long time. What he is handing to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari is nothing less than a poisoned chalice.

2015 Election Scam: Police Commission Staff Fingers Ex IG Okiro In N274 Million Fraud.

2015



 
 
By Danlami Nmodu
(EXCLUSIVE) Even as the ruling Peoples Democratic Party,PDP  struggles  with post election trauma after it was defeated by the All Progressives Congress, more reports are emerging indicating that some managers of federal institutions may have used the election as a cover to defraud the government.
A clear case in point is that of Mr Mike Okiro, former Inspector General of Police and incumbent chairman of Police Service Commission who has been accused of  election related scam in which he allegedly swindled  the commission of over N275 million, according to a staff.A petition already with anti graft agencies accused  the retired  Inspector General of Police of inflating the staff strength of the commission to justify a fraudulent act.
Undoubtedly, the  days ahead  will  be full of troubles for Okiro  as a staff of the Commission has written a petition to some anti-corruption agencies accusing the chairman of fraud.Newsdiaryonline learnt that a Mr.  Aaron Kaase, a principal Admin officer(press and public Relations ) of the police service Commission has written and submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC  as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission ,ICPC.A copy of the petition  against Okiro submitted and acknowledged today (Friday May 22nd )  by  the EFCC was obtained by Newsdiaryonline .
It’s titled: “Petition against sir(Dr )n Mike Mbama Okiro,Chairman ,Police Service Commission for Corruption,Abuse  and Fraudulent Act To Swindle The Police Service Commission  To the Tune of N275,525,000(Two Hundred And Twnty Five Million,Five Hundred And Twenty Five Thousand Naira Only”.
In the opening paragraph, the petitioner said “Iam Aaron  Kaase, a Principal Admin Officer(Press and Public Relations Unit)of Police Service Commission.
“This petition is based on my findings and concerns as a citizen of Nigeria and a staff f the Police Service Commssion,whose Civic Responsibility amongst  others includes fighting corruption in our society.”
Presenting what he said  were  the facts  to justify his petition  against  the Commission’s chairman,Mr Kaase said “ As a  build up to the 2015 General Elections,the Police Service Commission relying on  provisions of its establishment Act,sought for  and obtained   the sum of N350,000,000.00(Three Hundred and Fifty Million )Naira only from the National Security Adviser(NSA) purportedly to train her (sic) staff in Monitoring  the conduct of The Nigeria Police in the concluded General Election”
“With the funds in hand of the Commission , (and) as statutorily required , the Commission sought for approval to use  same vide two letters to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP)with RefNo.PSC:1499/VOL/111/138 dated March 12 and received on March 19,2015;the Commission requested  for  the issuance of “No objection” to adopt selective tendering Method for the training  of Commission staff  on Monitoring of Police conduct during the 2015 general elections.
“In the said letters,the Chairman of the Commission Sir Mike Okiro fraudulently and  knowingly claimed that the training  programme(s)  were in three(3) separate lots to be carried out in (a)Abuja (for headquarters staff) for 500 participants;(b)Kano(out station staff)200 participants and (c)Lot (3) for 200 staff participants in Lagos.
According to the petition “The Chairman of the Commission quoted the prices for the  training as follows(1) Abuja(Abuja staff) 500 participants,awarded to Bobec &Associates at –N95,525,000.00(N95,255,000 Million) ;(ii)Kano staff(200 participants) awarded to Direct Knowledge Consult limited at=N95,000,000(N95Million) and (iii) Lagos staff,200participants awarded  to Tzone Communications Ltd at-N85,000,000(N85Million)”
The petitioner made further revelations which exposed the fraud in Okiro’s  deal .According to him, “It is however  a  verifiable fact that the entire Police Service Commissions staff are not up to  400.
“It is also a fact that the Commission has  no office in Lagos and the entire South West
“It is also a fact  that the Commission has less than 10 members of staff in Kano
“It is a miracle that  the Chairman  would claim  the Commission has almost a thousand staff”
Kaase  in the petition ,also further accused commission’s chairman   of fraudulently deceiving the Bureau of Public Procurement,BPP to obtain  an approval for his scam.He said “I want to state here categorically that the Chairman of the Commission  fraudulently deceived the Bureau of Public Procurement(BPP) to obtain approval dated March 23,2015 with reference N.BPP/S.I/15/VOL.1/050 to carry out the fraud.”
The petitioner further argued that “instead of public bidding  by the Commission decided to award  the contract to his  girlfriend (name withheld)
“That instead of  the four day approval  granted by the Bureau of Public  Procurement,a mock training of 2 hours  was conducted at Northgate Hotels Limited,Mararaba Nasarawa State ,instead of Kano state.
He asserted that Bobec & Associates -(run  by)  a known friend  (name withheld) that grounded BEN House ,an agency of Benue state government  -which was   listed to conduct the exercise in  Abuja, hurriedly put together  a 2 hour training in Oasis Hotel in Mararaba,Nasarawa state.
“Mr Okiro has failed  to refund money granted for the other 3 days in his request letter.”
He also alleged “That Mr.Okiro has severally collected money from the Police Service Commission under the pretext of travelling abroad for official duties without doing so”
In the petition, names of several aides to the chairman and the amounts of  money they collected  for their boss were  listed. It  was  further  alleged that “Mr.Okiro also collected the sum of N4.6 Million as first class  ticket to travel to the U.S in 2013 without doing so”.
Kaase wrote that “You can crosscheck   his international Passport to ascertain this and PSC account books”.He also noted that in utter disregard to an official circular,Okiro has used an aide dubbed as SA media  to “make frivolous claims in the name of media settlements, facts which are contained in the Commission’s account books”.
The petitioner stated clearly that he was aware of the risk he had taken by serving as a whistleblower. ”That I know as fact that the Chairman will viciously fight ,as no one fights  corruption  and goes unscathed.Iam ready to pay the supreme price if need be”
“I can assure you  the Commission has become a cesspool (of corruption) as a scratch will certainly unveil more”.
He also alleged that Okiro’s fraudulent acts  were worse than those of Chief Bode George, a PDP chieftain who was “prosecuted  for a mere  contract splitting”.
Kaase assured  the anti graft agencies  that he would be available to give further information. “Iam very much available for further information and to buttress my assertion with the required documents as I neither use a pseudo name nor  a fictitious name and will not rest  till these people are brought to book”
Newsdiaryonline  contacted the spokesman of the Police Service Commission ,Mr Ikechukwu Ani  who   pointedly said that  to the best  of his knowledge ,there was no  expenditure by the commission  on training  for election monitoring.
“There is no such expenditure on the training of the commission’s   staff for election monitoring”he told Newsdiaryonline.
When he was told  that there was evidence from  BPP  mentioned  in  the petition   showing that the chairman sought and got procurement  approval for  the training programme, the spokesman of Police Service Commission  said,  “on others Iam not aware”.

GMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital Issues.

Clement Ejiofor


President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, has had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, today, May 23, at Downing Street, London.
According to a press release issued by a Downing Street spokesperson, Cameron and Buhari discussed the challenges facing Nigeria.
GMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital Issues
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron (L) stands with Nigeria’s President-elect Muhammadu Buhari following a meeting in Downing Street, central London on May 23, 2015. AFP PHOTO / LEON NEAL

“The Prime Minister welcomed President-elect Buhari of Nigeria to  this morning. Both leaders congratulated each other on their recent election victories and discussed the challenges facing Nigeria. The Prime Minister stressed the UK’s wish to work for a stable, prosperous and secure Nigeria. The leaders discussed security in the region and the fight against terrorism, particularly the threat posed by Boko Haram. They discussed the need for a regional approach and agreed to continue working together to build the capacity of the Nigerian army, with the UK continuing to provide military training and intelligence support,” the spokesperson said.
Speaking about corruption, they both agreed that a fight against corruption in Nigeria is a priority to ensure Nigeria’s prosperity and success. The Prime Minister agreed to look at what technical assistance and support the UK could provide to the Nigerian government as it looks to undertake its reforms.
 


They also discussed the need to tackle organised crime and the links between the UK and Nigeria.
Finally, they talked about the challenges posed by migration from Africa to Europe and the president-elect, said he would do all he could to secure Nigeria’s borders.
GMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital IssuesGMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital Issues
GMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital IssuesGMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital IssuesGMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital IssuesGMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital IssuesGMB Visits British PM In London, Discusses Vital Issues
It would be recalled that, former British prime minister, Tony Blair, visited Buhari on May 13 in Abuja. Blair, said that the key to success to make Nigeria great as the UK is not to waste time while in office.

Will Jonathan Win A SecondTerm?

By Bayo Olupohunda.
 The handwriting is on the wall. The bold imprints are seen in the failings of this administration. Now the dashed expectations of the Jonathan’s presidency all seem to be
leading to one predictable end — he may not be re-elected in 2015. There are strong reasons to believe that his fairy tale journey to the Presidency may end in his first term.
Apart from the unfolding infighting threatening to tear his party apart, President Goodluck Jonathan appears to have squandered the goodwill that ensured his becoming
Nigeria’s first minority president. There is a depressing sense in which one cannot just imagine that this country would endure another term of this administration for another
four years in office ending in 2019. This will be suicidal. Even now, 2015 looks too distant into the future in the eyes of ordinary Nigerians. In 2011, the president won the
election by playing the underdog card. The 2011 presidential election was won because ordinary Nigerians insisted on voting en masse for the country’s first minority president — the man who said he walked
barefooted as a child; the man who also became the symbol of an end to the North’s bragging right to power since Nigeria’s independence from British rule. In 2015, Jonathan
will not have the luxury of leveraging on the sentiments that swept him to power in his first term. Now, he will have to look for other reasons. Except that this time, he will not
be able to whip up emotions based on his poverty as a child. His ethnic background will also not matter. If he does, no one will believe him again. Rather in 2015, the President
will be confronted with the record of his performance. He will have to answer hard questions about his first term in office. And if truth be told, if the present situation in the polity
is anything to go by, President Jonathan will be heading back to his hometown in Otuoke come May 29, 2015. The President will not stand a chance against a formidable opposition with the right candidate in a free and fair election. But even at that, it still does not matter because it
appears any type of candidate will still beat this President. His performance so far makes him vulnerable to defeat in a free and fair election. He just has not lived up to the
expectations of Nigerians. And I suspect the President and his party are in for a surprise. Perhaps, for the first time, Nigerians will witness the power of their votes. The
incumbency factor will not matter in 2015 because the President is poised to lose the election. But President Jonathan should not blame anybody for his predicament if he
loses. He has so far been the architect of his own misfortune as a President. He had no excuse not to perform. Let’s face it, the President has fallen short of expectations that
Nigerians had of his presidency. There is no better expression to measure his performance since 2011. For a President that came into office to have squandered the enormous goodwill and support from
Nigerians is evidence of opportunities gone awry; of hopes deferred. The only people who will support the President are the army of praise singers from his ethnic group who
have been singing his praises to no end. And this brings me to the attitude of the so-called Niger Deltan activists and leaders. The leaders of the region have been so
disappointing to say the least. This attitude of it-is-either-Jonathan-for-a-second term-or-we-will-all-perish does their ethnic group no good. It is even an embarrassment to the
office of the President. Why do they act as if Jonathan is the President of only the Niger Delta? Why are they threatening to bring Nigeria down if Jonathan does not get a
second term? Did the President emerge in his first term only by the region’s votes? Can threats make a non-performing President stay in office in perpetuity? The culture of entitlement that pervades the region is the reason why the Niger Delta might still be backward even if Jonathan gets a second term. They should know that it was the support of
Nigerians that got the President a first term. Nigerians thus have the right to demand performance from him. And right now, the situation in our country today does not look
good. In 2015, President Jonathan will have to present his scorecard. Nigerians will ask him why corruption which he promised to tackle in his inaugural address has become a hydra-headed monster in his administration. He will have to explain
why his administration has not so secured a single conviction in spite of massive corruption in the land. Nigerians will in 2015 ask this President why all the cases of corruption
involving individuals in his government have all died a natural death. The President will explain why all the anti-corruption agencies have all become toothless bulldogs. It has
become glaring that President Jonathan has lost the trust and goodwill of Nigerians. The dominant view of Nigerians is that this government has failed. The impunity that has
become a culture in the country today is because the president has not been decisive in the fight against corruption. That is why all the agencies of government have been left to their own devices. The culture of impunity has been so pervasive. Take the power sector for example. The
President has not arrested the unending conundrum that has dogged the unbundling of the sector. This should not continue beyond 2015. Meanwhile, the power situation
continues to get worse. The 2015 elections should be about performance and the President has a lot of questions to answer about his stewardship unless something drastic
happens between now and the election date. The President also has to explain why million of Nigerian youths cannot find jobs. All we hear from this government is how the economy is growing at an unbelievable rate.
Pray, how can the economy grow while millions are unemployed? What kind of voodoo economy is that? Didn’t the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the
Economy say the last time that the unemployment figures give her sleepless night? What further evidence do Nigerians need that this government is not providing an enabling
environment for job creation? The millions of youths who had hoped in this government will ask hard questions in 2015. The security situation in the country is a cause for
grave concern. The other day, about 40 pupils were murdered by suspected terrorists in Yobe State. As I write, nobody has been apprehended for perpetrating the dastardly
act. The Jos crisis continues to claim more lives. In many parts of the country, lives and property are not secure. Yet, the government blames everybody else except itself. How
can a government whose primary duty is to safeguard lives and property fail woefully in performing the same duty? Meanwhile, the country also lags behind in all development
indexes. The argument advanced by the supporters of this government is that our problems are not created by President Jonathan. But has the administration demonstrated
the political will to tackle the problems head on? Does government not exist to solve problems no matter how old they have existed? However, there has been some good news lately. The President recently inaugurated the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Let’s just hope the project will not
become abandoned like the previous attempts. The federal roads across the country are also said to be getting the attention they deserve. This is not forgetting the ongoing
rehabilitation in the nation’s airports. But all this will pale into insignificance when compared to the dashed expectations of this government. It is for these reasons that
Jonathan may lose in 2015. All things being equal, anyway. Punch

Four Nigerians Who Contested For UK's Parliament Seats Won Their Elections.

 

Four Nigerians who contested for various seats to represent different county in UK's parliament won their elections. Helen Grant won the seat for Member of Parliament representing Maidstone and The Weald while Chuka Umunna won the elections to represent Streatham. Kate Osamor won the seat for Edmonton in North London while Chi Onwurah won the seat for New Castle upon Tyne Central. Congrats to them.

Inside Buhari's Transition Committee

By Nuruddeen M. Abdallah
At last President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has ended the weeks-long speculation about the composition of his transition committee by unveiling its members.
As expected, the 18-member committee is indeed lean and populated by technocrats not politicians as he promised.
Buhari would inaugurate his 18-member transition committee to be headed by Malam Ahmed Joda within the week, Daily Trust has learned.
The president-elect appointed people on the committee that were least expected. Observers say the Buhari committee is impressive because its members are Nigerians of high intellect with unblemished record in their professional endeavour.
The committee headed by elder statesman and former super permanent secretary, Malam Ahmed Joda, has a development economist Dr Doyin Salami, as deputy, while a University of Columbia-trained journalist, Malam Adamu Adamu, serves as secretary.
Other members of the committee are seasoned financial experts, business administrators, lawyers, civil servants, oil and gas experts, former military chiefs, and few politicians.

During an interview in his hometown Daura, Buhari had explained the nature of his transition committee thus: "Personally, I will make sure that it is not too big because if it is big, they will start thinking of how to influence the choice of ministers either for themselves or for those they want to be ministers."
The president-elect added that "my hope and idea is to get knowledgeable and experienced technocrats that are really patriotic to study the handing over notes by ministries and make recommendations. I want them to be completely detached people who are patriotic Nigerians; who are knowledgeable and experienced."
Nigerians believe that Buhari has kept to his words by appointing technocrats with untainted records of corruption, according to university don and former member of the House of Representatives Dr. Haruna Yerima.
Yerima said, "it is now clear to all doubting Thomases that it is not going to be business as usual under President Buhari."
The president-elect has "blended public service experience with deep intellect in finance, business, law, oil and gas as well as those with unblemished records of service in the transition committee membership," the don said.
The former lawmaker and APC chieftain said, "the near perfect assembly of the committee provides an insight into the nature of President Buhari's cabinet. The professional competence of the majority technocrats will make up for any shortcomings of the few politicians on the committee."
Also, the executive director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said the transition committee is Buhari's "first signal that he heeded to the civil society's call for more technocrats with unblemished records than politicians."
"We are happy that no member of the transition committee has a pending graft case with EFCC or ICPC. This indicates that the cabinet will also be peopled by competent Nigerians with integrity," Rafsanjani said.
An analysis of the committee shows that of the 18 members, only six are active politicians. They are APC national chairman and former Edo State governor Chief John Oyegun, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, former PDP national chairman and minister of agriculture Chief Audu Ogbeh, APC presidential campaign director of mobilisation Boss Mustapha, Senator Hadi Sirika, as well as former ANPP national chairman and Abia State governor Dr Ogbonnaya Onu.
There are also about five corporate finance and development economy experts on the committee. They are development economist Dr Doyin Salami, corporate finance expert Wale Edun, business development guru Dr Festus Odimegwu, finance expert Mrs Bola Adesola and ace banker and investment specialist Mrs Nike Aboderin.
Others are senior lawyer Alhaji Abubakar Malami, SAN; former military attaché to the United Nations retired General Lawal Jaafaru Isa, financial and investment expert Muhammad Hayatuddeen, activist and lawyer Solomon Dalung, and former minister of petroleum under Buhari's regime, Prof. Tam David West.
Even among the politicians in the committee are professionals such as Chief Ogbeh who is foremost agriculturist, Senator Sirika, a pilot and aviation expert; while the likes of Oyegun, Onu and Amaechi come to the committee with vast experience as former and outgoing governors respectively.
The committee will liaise with federal government's committee headed by Vice President Namadi Sambo as well as study and work on the handover notes preparatory to May 29.
The Joda committee will also design the blueprint that would assist the incoming government take off smoothly with a clear understanding of the challenges at hand.
Ahmed Joda
Ahmed Joda, an elder statesman, is an administrator, journalist, politician who is a former permanent secretary in the Northern Nigerian Public Service, Federal Ministry of Information, Education and the Federal Ministry of Industries.
He was among a class of super permanent secretaries in the 1970s.
In the 1960s, he worked with Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Northern Nigeria.
In 1999, he headed a Committee on Assessment of Federal Government parastatals and also a panel on poverty alleviation.
He is a close friend of former President Obasanjo and former chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

He served as the chairman of ABTI-American University of Nigeria, Yola and is the principal founder of Benue Valley Farms.
He is one of the few retired civil servants that command tremendous respect from Buhari.
Joda is believed to share same ideals with the president-elect when it comes to civil service, policies and governance.
He is also a no-nonsense person like Buhari.
Dr Doyin Salami


Doyin Salami is a full time member of the faculty at the Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan-Atlantic University where he is an associate professor.
In addition to teaching, he works as a principal consultant in Edward Kingston Associates.
His consulting activities have included assignments for the Department for International Development (DFID), World Bank, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Dr Salami is a past member of the Federal Government's Economic Management Team. He serves as a member of the Advisory Board of CBO Investment Management.
He is an accomplished economist and has a doctorate degree from Queen Mary College, University of London.
Adamu Adamu
A foremost journalist and writer, was Buhari's personal assistant during his period at the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).
The University of Columbia, United States-trained journalist is one of Buhari's confidants.
In the last 16 years of PDP administration, Adamu reportedly rejected appointment to serve as minister.
He is said to be very upright and shares so many things in common with Buhari in terms of public service, good governance and policy making.
Wale Edun
Edun is the deputy head of corporate finance at Chase Merchant Bank.
He has over 25 years experience in merchant banking, corporate finance, economics and international finance at national and international levels.
At the World Bank, Edun worked on economic and financial packages for several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago as well as Indonesia and India in the Far East.
In 1989, he returned to Nigeria as co-founder and executive director of Stanbic IBTC Plc (formerly Investment Banking & Trust Company Limited).
He was Lagos State commissioner of finance throughout Governor Bola Tinubu's administration from 1999 to 2007.
He holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from the University of London and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Sussex, England.
Mrs Bola Adesola
Mrs Adesola is the managing director and chief executive of Nigeria's Standard Chartered Bank Plc and former Executive Director of First Bank Plc.
She was a former executive director, Corporate Banking at First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
A seasoned financial services expert, she spent nine years in Citibank Nigeria, (Nigeria International Bank, a member of Citigroup). She was also part of the start-up team for Citibank Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, where she served as pioneer Treasurer.
Called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985, Bola holds a law degree from the University of Buckingham UK and has attended numerous industry-related and personal development courses in Nigeria and overseas.
Dr Festus Odimegwu
Dr Festus Odimegwu was chief executive of Nigerian Breweries and former chairman of the National Population Commission.

Nigerian Breweries became the most capitalized stock on the Nigerian Stock Exchange under his leadership.
He was severally a director at Dangote Cement Plc; Union Bank of Nigeria Plc; Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc.
He graduated with B.Sc Chemistry from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and M.Sc Brewing from Beriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.
Mrs Nike Aboderin
Mrs Aboderin is the Group head Large Corporates; and assistant general manager in Skye Bank Plc.
She was a special adviser on trade and investment in the Ogun State government