The Buhari administration: Prospects and problems

Tatalo Alamu

It is said that thunder hardly strikes twice at the same spot. If the now civilianized former military ruler from Daura is remembered for little else, he will be memorialized as the man under whose watch thunder struck the Nigerian political firmament twice. It is no mean achievement. Let us now elaborate on this political conceit.
In March 1984 and after the first hundred days of his first coming, it was clear that the lean ramrod straight infantry general meant exacting business. Now thirty one years apart, and after another hundred days of the new civilian regime headed by the selfsame but now retired general, Buhari has again shaken Nigeria to its political foundation. A brief historical detour is in order.
At the close of the month of December 1983, a group of senior military officers led by Major General Mohamadu Buhari , as at then the General Officer commanding the Third Division of the Nigerian Army based in Jos, overthrew the  civilian regime headed by Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari. There was widespread jubilation and applause across the length and breadth of the nation. The joyous mood of the nation was captured in the enraptured refrain: “Happy new year, and happy new regime!!”
It is interesting to note that when Buhari was toppled twenty months later in a palace coup spearheaded by the then Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Babangida, the applause, if any at all, was muted.  There was no general jubilation except among disaffected factions of the political class. As far as the general populace was concerned, it was a play of giants among military juggernauts in which Nigerians were nothing but spectral spectators.
But as fate and divine destiny would have it, thirty years after his ouster by his colleagues, Buhari has been returned to power as a civilian after another major ruling class implosion and this time on the cusp of a pan-Nigerian revolt against corrupt and inept civilian rule. This was after three storied attempts in 2003, 2007 and 2011 which ended in tears and much gnashing of teeth.
This time around, nothing could have stopped the Buhari momentum as it swept the cobwebs of elite mischief and ancient feuds before it. Never in Nigeria’s history has the national multitude rooted and rallied valiantly for one individual. Since no one can argue with a political volcano, the utterly remiss and renegade Nigerian ruling class quietly slunk away after one last ditch attempt to torpedo the entire process.
It should be noted that the old military coalition which swept Buhari to power was an inchoate, contrary and contradictory amalgam comprising of careerists, rightwing power venders, professional coupists and a sprinkling of genuine nationalists officers. Very soon, the stress and strains began to manifest and it was clear to the discerning that a military showdown was all but inevitable.
It was said that Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the ousted and absconding former civilian president, aborted his precipitate flight around Lafia upon learning of the headship and composition of the new military junta. It was not a revolution, so to say. It was an orderly revolt among military orderlies of the oligarchy.
Demonstrating astonishing political virginity, General Buhari himself did not help matters. A devout  traditionalist obviously insulated from the then prevalent national mood and temperament, he addressed a press conference denouncing those who were insinuating that Alhaji Shagari was brought down to Lagos in chains. This was at a time when Shagari’s deputy, Alex Ekwueme, had been hauled into detention where he developed a beard that would make Nebuchadinazeer wince in fearful admiration.
By the time Buhari was ousted, what was perceived as the less than evenhanded handling of the cases of corrupt self-enrichment and other sensitive national matters had cost the administration considerable elite sympathy particularly among the Southern factions. The powerful ASUU gave up after dismissing the junta as the military wing of the NPN.
Wole Soyinka, soon to be ennobled—or ennobeled—was on fearsome rampage tearing the administration to pieces at every available forum. Two respected civil war stalwarts from the west tore into the administration. In a coup de grace, the inevitable General Obasanjo gave a lecture at UI in which he warned that Nigeria was not the exclusive property of a section and must not be so ruled. It was the beginning of the end.
In retrospect, it can now be seen that just as the military amalgam that originally brought Buhari to power was inchoate and irredeemably conflictual, the civilian coalition that has brought him to power almost thirty two years after is even more inchoate, contradictory and roiling with mutually exclusive political tendencies. It has already occasioned much stress and tension in the polity. The senate is lost to a desperate counter-revolutionary group who do not care a hoot about Buhari’s messianic mission.
It is only a mere hundred days into Buhari’s civilian administration and writs are already flying all over the place. Investigative organs are being legally defanged or disabled on a daily basis. The masses who are still solidly behind Buhari do not own either newspapers or electronic organs of counter-revolutionary dissemination of virulent nation-tearing propaganda and they can only watch in fearful dismay. It is obvious that if thunder can strike twice, so can retrogressive reaction.
What remains is at this point is to take a prospective analysis of the balance of forces, the problems that may fatally entrap Buhari this time around as a result of certain persistent political peccadilloes and the political formations that will shape up in opposition to the retired general in all their structural, systemic, ideological and institutional dimensions. This should serve as a political primer and mnemonic device for the retired general as well as a handy manual for a chronically conflicted nation.
In a brilliant, profoundly ironic comparison of the two Bonapartes, Karl Marx once observed that history often repeats itself, the first time as a tragedy and the second time as a farce. In an interesting gloss on this passage, Terry Eagleton, the notable Anglo-Irish Marxist literary theorist,  has noted that it was not just that Louis Bonaparte was a pathetic parody of his more illustrious uncle but that that was the way Napoleon Bonaparte himself would have appeared had he shown up around that time: A regressive caricature of his former self. In other words, time changes everything and change also must time itself.
It is important to save General Buhari from becoming a self-parodying caricature of his former self. The first time he ruled Nigeria, it was as an absolute military autocrat with all the power, the symbolic aura and paraphernalia of military despotism. This time around as a civilian ruler, he can no longer tap into or avail himself of such wide, untrammeled powers. Military rule is passé and the international community abjures autocratic civilian rule.
But besides all this, and much more importantly, the National Question, in the intervening decades, has been critically exacerbated and Nigeria has become a roiling cage of contrary nationalities clawing at each other to death.  The Nigerian post-colonial state is completely demystified and desacralized. Nothing is sacred or sacrosanct anymore.
President Buhari should therefore not be surprised or miffed if every step he takes to bring succour and solace to Nigerians irrespective of tribe, creed or region is subject to stringent scrutiny and every appointment is viewed from ethnic, religious and regional prism. Many will cock a snook at him just for the fun of it. Others will try to derail him out of bitter primordial malice, and he cannot resort to extra-constitutional measures in a just bid to sanitize the nation without calling into question the fragile national fabric. The Nigeria political elites have never been this bitterly polarized.
Yet it is a scary and precarious situation when a seeming revolution cannot employ revolutionary methods to deal with a historic mess. The former general just has to get on with the job within the circumscribed and constricting ambit of law and order.  Unlike the first time around when he was able to slam a tense somnolence on the nation by sheer military muscle, many more writs will erupt this time around as his sense of justice, evenhandedness and fair play is called into question by ethnic barons and ideological charlatans who have suddenly found their voice after keeping quiet when Jonathan’s misrule appeared to favour their section.
However, one thing Buhari has going for him which his military regime did not enjoy is massive international support and global approval. Having helped to bleed Nigeria senseless through its tacit support for executive pickpockets, the west is now showing some remorse about the fate and tragedy of the greatest conglomeration of Black souls in the world. Buhari should be able to leverage this global opprobrium for looters of our national patrimony irrespective of their status as the internal battle against corrupt enrichment gets underway.
But character is fate as the ancient Greek sages noted.  What may eventually derail President Buhari are certain character traits which may be admirable when viewed in isolation but which when viewed holistically may represent a classic instance of how personal virtues may become political handicaps in the ethnic hotbed and political bedlam of fractious nations.
For example, Buhari’s contempt for the Nigerian political class is legendary .This contempt is well-deserved and shared by many patriotic Nigerians. But such was this contempt that the first time around,  it didn’t allow him to even contemplate a Transition Programme for a return of the country to civil rule. The enemies who would eventually oust him pounced on this.
This time around, the same contempt is driving Buhari to throw the baby away with the birth water by stiffly ignoring the call for another look at the structural misalignment that has hobbled the nation’s march to authentic nationhood. The president sees it as mere political irritation but it may eventually be discovered that without this drastic structural surgery, good governance and probity may simply not be enough.  An opportunistic but expired faction of the political elite has already latched on to this as causus belli, knowing how it resonates with wide sections of the nation.
The other problem is Buhari’s seeming inability to transcend a confining cultural and religious milieu. Nobody can grudge a man for his fidelity to the spiritual and cultural conditioning of his political habitus. This is in the nature of human acculturation. But to rule a fractious multi-national nation like Nigeria requires far more cosmopolitan gamesmanship and metropolitan expansiveness than the president has shown. No one is asking him to admit contrary elements into his inner spiritual chambers, but he needs to widen and broaden his political associations in order to avail himself of the political, economic and spiritual intelligence that he will need in the struggle to redeem Nigeria.
If he has not been told, then he must be told that he could not have come to power without this .That critical political intelligence, economic surveillance, cultural patrolling and intellectual trouble shooting will be quite decisive as the battle to redeem Nigeria shapes up in the months ahead. The first time around, General Buhari did most things right, but left his military flanks exposed which proved fatal.
This time around, President Buhari has been doing most things right while leaving his political flanks exposed which may prove equally lethal. The senate fiasco ought to have taught him a lesson. Even as the benefits of his nationalist reforms are beginning to kick in, he will still need a countervailing patriotic political cadre to shield him from political hyenas and to serve as the conduit pipe and transmission belt of a new national consciousness. It is morning yet after a mere hundred days and whatever the elite carping about posts and postings, Mohamadu Buhari is doing very well.

Buhari needs new ethos and paradigm -Idowu Akinlotan

In its response to accusations of sectionalism and even nepotism in determining federal appointments so far, the Buhari presidency has confidently indicated that balance would soon be restored, itself an admission  of existing disequilibrium. Presidential aides went on further to reassure the country that President Muhammadu Buhari, a changed and firm leader and democrat, harboured no sectional agenda, whether hidden or open. They also added that all the appointments made so far were done on merit, without explaining why merit can’t seem to be widespread, or why it seems to the government expediently localised. There is no statistical proof of how many people are persuaded by the president’s response, but there is at least evidence that most Nigerians, assured by the government’s overwhelming response to the anti-graft war and other laudable steps taken so far, are prepared to give the president the benefit of the doubt.
Why the president did not deem the controversy weighty enough to merit his direct intervention and explanation is hard to fathom. Last week, given the intensity of the migration crisis inundating Europe, not to say the evocative and iconic images of distressed, dying or dead migrants, some of them infants, the British prime minister, David Cameron, felt compelled to urgently and directly respond to accusations of British lukewarmness on the plight of refugees. Germany foresaw the scale of the disaster early enough and indicated preparedness to accommodate more than its fair share of refugees. Britain reacted a little late, but at least Mr Cameron finally stirred himself. A leader cannot react to everything, but he must have the judgement or at least the intuition to know matters weighty enough to require his direct intervention.
President Buhari’s governing machine may just be revving up, as he and his aides have generously asserted. But he has an urgent responsibility to define that machine and open the understanding of the public to its fundamental attributes. Other than his travels to assemble a coalition against Boko Haram, and a few words now and again on his anti-corruption war, he has not made either concrete or symbolic trips to the geopolitical zones of the South to deliver a few great messages about himself, his government, and his country. There is nothing on the ethos of the country, those ennobling characteristics of the nation that manifest in the cumulation of national attitudes and goals. Nor is there anything yet on his governing paradigm, that indispensable fulcrum of policies. But perhaps he is still in deep contemplation.
One hundred days in the life of a government may be an arbitrary figure advertised by unreflective and populist military governments. But it is not so short a period for the public to begin to have a feel of the fundamental direction of the Buhari government in terms of a political manifesto, social charter and economic philosophy. These charters go far deeper than the anti-corruption war he appears besotted to, than his platitudes on the rule of law and other liberties, and than his promises of the good life for everyone, especially the poor. What, in short, these times call for is the enunciation of a new ethos and paradigm for Nigeria. These are the two fundamentals required to drive his vision in the next four years. These are the fundamentals that will define him as a leader and sculpt an image of him in the public mind. These are the fundamentals that will shape and refine the country, and give it a personality in the world, in the same way an individual is defined and shaped by intrinsic ideas and inscrutable personal responses to experiences.
Recruiting advisers and presidential aides, and making other key appointments into his cabinet, are not an end in themselves. They are just a part of the building block. What should engage the president is the kind of building he wants to construct and the use it would be put to. When critics assailed him over the 30 or so appointments he had made so far, accusing him of insensitivity and insularity, it was not because they already dismissed his government. The enlightened among the critics were only alarmed that the appointments did not give an indication of the change and future Nigerians want to see, or that President Buhari possessed the depth and innovation needed to remake the society on a scale that rivals great countries in other parts of the world.
This column advocated this point a few weeks ago. Who are we? What do we stand for? How costly is the life of a Nigerian? What is the leitmotif of our existence? Do we have a leader who embodies the ambition and worldview of Nigeria? This column’s engagement with these issues, especially the recent presidential appointments, is anchored on historical facts. As far back as 6th – 5th century BC, Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon, recognised the importance of widening his empire’s leadership recruitment base by casting his net far and wide to include promising captives of his many wars. The empire boasted of a template to sieve and assess talents from far and wide, a function he obviously placed great emphasis on. It was in that process that Daniel the Jewish captive was discovered. He would later become Prime Minister of Babylon.
President Buhari must possess an acute sense of history, particularly Nigerian history, in order to function above the common mediocrity and self-created restraints that past leaders had entangled themselves with. World history is important to him to the extent that the lives and achievements of great world leaders and countries can ennoble his own actions and inspire him with great and incomparable examples. But to him, Nigerian history must be indispensable to the extent that in one sweeping and wholesome breath he would personify the life and ambitions of Nigeria.
Once a Nigerian leader reaches that esoteric level, he becomes inured to the giant obstacles and barricades — some of them ethnic, and others religious — that create artificial divides between the people. He will then aspire to produce a definition of Nigeria within which he can situate a definition of himself, making the two inextricable, the one personifying the other. He will go on to synthesise the concepts of citizenship and individual rights without which Nigeria can never be great, not even if everyone achieved sainthood in a corruption-free country. Nigeria’s past leaders struggled with depth, unable to do more than enunciate a code of superficial and artificial behaviours for the country, and at various times devote either a department or a ministry to champion what they described as a reorientation movement. But their ethical revolution and national reorientation were nothing but sentimental and wasteful drivel.
A cursory study of Roman history would have shown these leaders how to develop a new ethos, and nurture it. Roman Empire citizenship was so valuable that it was not even lawful for anyone, no matter how highly placed, to strike a Roman without a trial. (A Roman citizen could not be tortured or whipped, nor could he receive the death penalty, unless he was found guilty of treason. If accused of treason, a Roman citizen had the right to be tried in Rome, and even if sentenced to death, no Roman citizen could be sentenced to die on the cross). Paul the Christian missionary had reasons to remonstrate this point with Roman officials during his illustrious proselytising career. But more than two centuries later, Nigerian leaders have been unable to formulate an inspiring, practicable and disciplined concept of Nigerian citizenship, and have consistently sought to hide their incompetence and mediocrity behind the mask of bureaucratic and political skullduggery. Nigerian leaders and their security forces, nearly all of which cannot draw a line between private security interest and national security interest, possess probably one of the worst and most contemptible views of citizenship. Without a revolutionary conception and enforcement of the rights of the Nigerian, it is impossible to harness the country’s energies for national redefinition, growth and greatness, let alone to mobilise the people behind the government for country and glory. Two centuries ago, it meant a whole lot to be a Roman citizen. Today, it means virtually nothing to be a Nigerian.
President Buhari was elected against the wishes of millions of sceptics who never really believed he had changed for the better or was capable of changing. He will be president for the next four years. So, it may be imprudent to give up on him until he gives up on himself. He will of course be criticised, counseled, admonished and reproved until he becomes a much better man and leader, even at 72. If he wants to mobilise the people behind himself, he will need to do more than just fighting corruption, remoulding the economy and instilling discipline. He must fundamentally rethink many national concepts, using a study of historical examples as a stepping stone. He must take contributions from his brilliant aides or his own private readings on how the concept of the German, American, British, French, Russian, and Chinese persons, among others, evolved and were nurtured over the centuries. He can learn from them if he wishes to leave the country a changed nation, far better than he met it.
In a Sunday Times of London extract from his new revelatory and shocking book, The Outsider, due for release this week, the author Frederick Forsyth disclosed how he spied for Britain during the Nigerian civil war. His spying was not much different from the pushy but guileful manner many Western countries’ diplomats ferret information out of top Nigerian business, cultural and political leaders. The disturbing fact is that nearly all Nigerian leaders dissolve into molecules in the presence of white leaders, especially of the industrialised democracies. Though he has not started well, given his hasty visit to the United States even before he had time to recognise his own soul, President Buhari must begin to find ways of hardening his resolve against foreign interferences, and carving out a brave and independent idea of his country and unleashing and propelling the sublime geniuses of its peoples, whether they are writers, artists or musicians. That a leader does not grovel at the feet of white leaders does not mean that, like late Gen Murtala Ramat Mohammed, he is rebellious or defiant. His independent posture can also be interpreted as confident and self-reliant. If Nelson Mandela could do it, other African leaders can also do it, even if not on the same scale.
Eight years of Olusegun Obasanjo was a gross national waste and misadventure. He had the opportunity to lay a solid foundation for Nigerian democracy, albeit a minor component of the needed national ethos. If that was all he was capable of, the country would today be grateful for that modest contribution. But he lacked the intellect and the discipline to fulfill that great and noble mission. Umaru Yar’Adua was a painful, emasculative hiatus. And six years of Goodluck Jonathan proved more than enough to purge Nigerians of any great hope for the future and infuse them with the most enervating pessimism ever. Between the three former leaders, not counting the about 40 years before them, Nigeria has managed to waste 16 whole years.
If the next four years will not be another needless waste, President Buhari must take counsel far beyond his inner, and sometimes limited, reaches. He and his party enthuse about how well he has started. It is not clear what kind of measures they are using. But he needs to conceive and implement fundamental policies that will touch every nerve and organ and hidden crevices in the body politic. He has neither conceived nor implemented anything substantially evocative of the ethos and paradigm his government and this country sorely need. Even the anti-graft battle he is waging has not taken cognisance of the political economy of corruption, let alone devising formulae to ensure a lasting impact on the society, economy and polity.
It is time Nigeria stopped frolicking with the peripherals of politics and government. President Buhari must dig deeper, with the help of his aides and advisers, into the purpose of government to bring out the ethos and paradigm Nigeria needs to fulfill its manifest destiny. Much of the little good Chief Obasanjo did in his eight years in office were quickly reversed because they were neither substantial nor impactful of the lives of the people in an unchangeable, unalterable way. President Buhari will undoubtedly do some good, but whatever things he does seem fated to become meretricious rather than consequential and ramifying — an obsession with provision of milk and bread, etc. rather than life- and destiny-changing ideas and policies in a way no one can dismantle for hundreds of years, not even with a succession of incompetent rulers, such as the Ottoman Empire endured after Suleiman, and Rome fitfully experienced after Julius and Augustus Caesar.

A Soul Search By A Catholic Faithful.

By Petra Iyabo Akinti Onyegbule.


Must have been in my third year or final year in the University when I stopped saying the 'Hail Mary'
I was a Catholic. Staunch one. Baptized. Communicant. Confirmed. I was a member of St Cecilia's Choir of my school chaplaincy. We covered two Masses on a regular Sunday. Damn, I was a member of Block Rosary then Legion of Mary. I prayed the 15 Mysteries and later the 20Mysteries of the Rosary for years. But I stopped saying one of the most important Catholic prayers one day.
Why?
I had no conviction in my spirit to so do.
I recalled that I was taught a reason for the Hail Mary during Catechism. Every Catholic I knew gave the exact same reason. And I figured that if hundreds or thousands or millions or billions had the same reason for doing the same thing, I should search myself and get a reason before continuing.
I still haven't found that reason.
In the same vein, I received Holy Communion for years without going for Confessions. It simply got to a time I stopped going for Confessions. You can't teach me that after Crucifixion when Jesus hung on the Cross the Temple Veil rent in two to symbolise easy access to God the Father then turn around and tell me I need someone to absolve me of my sins when I can easily go to God in prayers, confess my sins and receive pardon.
You see...
I am not good with dogmas. I never have been. I doubt I ever will.
Issues of faith have always been personal. And even now that I have resumed Church going, I still choose what I practice.
Did you ask why I still go for Mass? Oh, because the Catholic Church still appeals to me over others. The Gospel and practice of Social Justice is given a very prominent place in the Church. And for me, that is the whole essence of Christianity as Jesus would approve:-
Feed the hungry;
 Shelter the homeless;
 Clothe the naked;
 Comfort the lonely;
 Tend to the sick;
 Fight for the oppressed;
 Help the poor;
 Strengthen the weak;
 Empathise with others;
 Bury the dead.
Just be your brother's keeper. Loving your neighbor like yourself. Even when it is not convenient.
That is the old time religion. That is Christianity the Catholic way.
It trumps any form of new age Christianity.
The old time religion is good enough for me. Reason I love the Catholic Church. But they should miss me with all them dogmas and some prayers. I ain't got time for those. Well, until God tells me I should.
Have a great Sunday, folks. Good morning.
Evans Adetokunbo Emmanuel,that chat inspired this.

100 Days: Official corruption down by 50 percent – Garba Shehu

By Bashir Adefaka
Mallam Garba Shehu, one-time President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), is Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity. In this interview, Shehu gives reasons Nigerians should eschew sentiments about the administrative style of his principal as, according to him, Buhari will not be judged after four years based on ethnic or religious benchmarks but on performance. He, however, says appointments will go round according to the Constitution as the President is a law and order person. He also speaks on Buhari’s 100 days in office, corruption, the economy, etc. Excerpts:

Garba Shehu

Nigerians are divided in their reactions to President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments which many people described as pro-North. How are these decisions expected to take Nigeria to achieving the set goals?
President Buhari is President with responsibility for the entire Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is not a sectional leader. Appointments will be made one step at a time. Others are still coming and it will even run like that throughout the four years of the mandate of the administration. What people should have on this matter is patience. Those who feel they have not been reached will definitely be reached. A government that has a lifespan of four years should not be judged by its action on day one. No. It should be that by the time the President says, ‘Now, I have finished my appointments’, they should be able to look at it and pass judgment as to whether he was fair to all sections of the country or not.
The Constitution of the country protects every part in terms of representation, in terms of clear guidelines as to Federal Character, in terms of representation to give a sense of belonging to everybody.
President Muhammadu Buhari is a law and order person. He is a Constitution-oriented person. He will not fail Nigerians and he will do what is right. We think that much of the anger that is coming is emotional and premature because there are thousands of appointments that can come. And then on the aggregate, people will look at it and judge.
Let me give you an example. When former President Goodluck Jonathan took over, in the first 50 appointments he made, the South -West was not represented. There was a document widely circulated; and even translated into Yoruba and was being aired on local radio stations in the South West and people were being told, “This is not your government. This is what they are doing.”
In the appointments President Buhari has made so far, people should, first and foremost, take consolation in the fact that those he found in the offices, he was not in a hurry to fire them quickly just because he felt he did not appoint them. This is the first time we are witnessing this kind of attitude to governance in Nigeria. This country has a spoilt system by which a new government will fire everybody in office so that they could bring in their own people. President Buhari is doing his own on a case-by-case basis insisting that whoever is there for the good of the country and is adding value to the nation, it would be unfair to carelessly fire him. And this is essential because four years down the line, when Nigerians come to assess what nature of governance President Buhari has given to this nation, the record of success will not be measured by the number of ethnically or religiously based appointments he made. He will be
measured by how many jobs he has created, how much of the prevailing corruption in the country he has curtailed, how much of the infrastructure including power and roads he has fixed and how secured we are because he will be asked whether he has eliminated Boko Haram. These are the things the judgment of his administration will be based upon and on these he is not wavering. He has given 100 percent attention to all of them and people who are kind to him should give him the environment that he needs in order to do more.

How is the President taking the public outcry against his anti-corruption campaign, considering the fact that one of the cardinal reasons he was voted into office was to fight corruption before it kills Nigeria?
Well, it must be disappointing not being appreciated but, beyond all of that, President Buhari is not the gallery kind of politician, who wants to get applause by being populist in his actions. He is looking at the bigger national interest and he believes that he is making a huge sacrifice.
Given all of the service he had rendered to this country, assuming things were going right for the nation, he would have been happier enjoying his rest somewhere. But he ran to be (civilian) President of this country three times and didn’t make it until the fourth time when Nigerians felt it was the right time for him to come and govern them. Things have changed since then. If he had come in 2003, I would say things were bad. Now, things are rotten so much so that there is far more work to do than there were in 2003. So, he is making a huge sacrifice to bring back the nation to the point of sanity and clean all the mess. Yes, corruption is a cancer that has eaten deep into the fabrics of the nation. Without it being addressed, there will not be development in the country. Foreign investments will not come, better life will not come into Nigeria, education will not run well, economy will be shackled, undermined and
infrastructure will not work well.
Look at what is happening with electric power. As I speak to you now, there are so many parts of the country that are enjoying 24-hour power supply. Some,16 hours, some 20 hours daily. Not many people thought this was possible until it came under President Buhari. And people will be shocked to learn that this government has not started to pump money into this thing, yet, it has started to work.

Then what did he do to make it so?
It is the body language of the President and doing the right thing so that all the laziness and sabotage in that sector took flight. We now have far more generated power than we had ever generated in this country. It is not to say that it is adequate for 170 million people but, given the narrowness of the distribution, the power that is being generated today is far more than what the system of generation can handle. So, that poses the next challenge, that is, to expand and renew generation per grid and then make more power to be distributed. So that with the national grid system, if they call Abuja and say, ‘We have more power for you’, they will be glad and say, ‘Oh, pump it’, so that they will give it to people for them to enjoy.
So, we are getting somewhere and the President promised during the campaign period that if he was voted into office, from the day he was sworn in, official corruption would go down by 50 percent.
Voluntarily, people relinquished 50 percent of the corruption that prevailed in the country and that is what has happened.

A member of the House of Representatives recently alerted over a particular distribution company covering his constituency in Oyo State, and its territory extends to Abeokuta, Ijoko, Ota areas of Ogun State, how they are making epileptic power the order of the day whereas other Nigerians are enjoying. Don’t you think things like this will sabotage President Buhari’s effort on power if nothing is done to really check these DISCOs?
They have their own system. Under the system put in place by the National Council on Privatization, distribution companies are supposed to be fined for even taking light thereby not allowing the people to access the power that is allocated to them from the national grid. I want to believe that such penalty will be meted out to them for failing in discharging their duties to the people once found to be so.

The Central Bank of Nigeria reportedly said the economy was at this state because there were no fiscal directions….?
(Cuts in) Nobody will tell you that there is no fiscal direction. President Buhari knows where he is going. Look at what is happening in the country with oil, in terms of failed price, which has come down from $120 to $43 per barrel and the prediction is that, it may even fall further. With sanctions on Iran being gradually removed, by the time Iran resume their place in the oil market, they will pump more oil and the price will still come down, coupled with the fact that this country has a record of unprecedented oil theft that President Buhari is trying to curtail and eliminate eventually. Therefore, the earnings of the country are down and a responsible government must do whatever it can in order to reduce the wastage of foreign exchange. Government is trying to manage that.
Look at the issue of importation of rice; billions of US dollars expended on this, on a commodity that is locally growable and is available. Seven states have already taken the challenge under this government and they are saying, ‘We can provide Nigeria with rice to export beyond our capacity to consume’. But there are other things that are so frivolous and annoying just like where Nigerians buy tooth pick from China. So, what they (CBN) are saying is, ‘Manufacturers or somebody setting up industry or a productive venture, going overseas on medical, school fees and all of that, don’t even go to the parallel market. Come to the CBN, we will give you forex. But if it is frivolous items that they have listed and advertised, no, go elsewhere and source your foreign exchange’. And that is why even when oil price has gone down, our foreign reserve has risen.

But in its own assessment, the main opposition party, PDP, said the economy had worsened under the Buhari’s 90, 100 days administration. How do you react to that?
It depends on their judgment about assessing an economy. May be they are talking about their personal economy that it is worse than it used to be. They ran an economy in which they put government money on the table and shared it. This is what President Buhari has stopped.
Nigerians should be patient with Mr. President. By the time he addresses the nation on the recoveries that are being made in the oil sector, in the national security sector that has come under probe now; of procurement of weapons and this Air Force jet that crashed killing pilots of the Nigerian Armed Forces! …because people bought equipment that were left unattended to, you see, by the time President Buhari will address the nation on all these, a day will come when people in the street will ask, ‘Are you PDP?’ and you will reply, ‘No, I am not PDP’. Yes. And it will be so because of the shame to answer the name of PDP.
So, the economy of the PDP is under threat. The economy of the Nigerian nation is being revived.

What could you really point to of this government’s achievements in the last 100 days?
It is too early to assess the government or any government in terms of its failure or success in 100 days. But 100 days are sufficient enough to know and understand a leader and his government on where they stand on issues of the day; where they are coming from and where they are going. So, there is enough on the table for Nigerians to see and understand President Buhari, where he is going to and he has given clear indications as to where he stands on issues of the day.
He would not steal money and would not allow others to steal. He would reinstate our international relations, which had been mismanaged. America, Europe, even our neighbors, now we are friends with everybody. President Buhari would be business friendly. Foreign investments will come because he is bent on creating a secured environment. He is going to defeat terrorism. He has given three months’ timeline to the service commanders and they have accepted the challenge. They are saying, ‘Mr. President, we can even do it in shorter period of time’. They are doing it and it is ongoing. So, infrastructure is being revived. We just talked about power now which industry is happy about. And the thing then is to continue to expand the generation and distribution of power and this is there in the APC manifesto of more than 20,000 megawatts in four years. We hope that we will get there.
There is going to be massive transformation of agriculture and mining, because those are where the jobs are, so that all these young people will be cleared off the streets by the jobs in agriculture and mining unless they are not willing. Already we are enjoying dividends of peace. Neighborhoods are becoming safer. People are sleeping nicely and dreaming sweet dreams because security is getting better. More of these will come. So, President Muhammadu Buhari has given indication and I think, by-and-large, 90 percent or more of Nigerians are happy and are identifying with the direction he is going.
There would be a few people, as I said, especially PDP, who are not happy. How will they be happy? Governor Adams Oshiomhole said somebody stole $6 billion. That person will be a fool if he doesn’t bring out one billion, two billion (Naira) to go and compromise public opinion and try to corrupt the judiciary with that kind of money. So, we expect attacks would come. These are people who pay for Buhari to be attacked, but he would not be deterred because he is determined to remain on course.

When do we have our ministers?
The ministers will come.

Expectedly, corruption is fighting back!

    Mike Ikhariale

 

Mike Ikhariale

No one should habour the illusion that the hydra-headed demon of corruption would simply be scared away from our shores just by the fact of the presidential inauguration of Muhammadu Buhari, a man who has made the fight against corruption a personal vow. To do so would simply be under-rating a mammoth and ferociously diabolic system. The danger, which corruption poses, is further reinforced by the fact that it has stayed long enough with us to know much about our strengths and limitations.

It has, over the years, built the requisite force, wealth, influence, guile and temerity with which to resist whatever is thrown at it. Its loyal army is very large and active and its recruitment process expansive: from the unpatriotic taxman, who makes illicit ‘deals’ with tax evaders, to the detriment of the treasury, to the policeman, who openly extorts money from road users and the judge, who accepts money to subvert the course of justice, through to the political ‘big man’, who diverts chunks of the national budget into his private account, all are at the service of Corruption Incorporated.

So, the election of Muhammadu Buhari on the basis of his pledge to rid the nation of the evil of corruption, may have only just secured for Nigerians, the first victory out of a series of inevitable battles remaining; thus pitting the corrupt ancient regime against the new political order. In the larger war theatre, the more organised forces of corruption are doing everything they can in order to roll back on whatever gains that the inchoate anti-corruption social alliance has made. At its disposal are the elements of ethnicity, religion, distractive legalism and the anti-progressive sophistry of a pseudo right-wing. It is therefore, not yet Uhuru on the anti-corruption front.

Corruption has even tried to reset the agenda for the battle in ways that would tactically disable those fighting it. That is why it began its resistance by trying to dictate ‘when’ and ‘where’ the fight should begin: 2007, 1999, 1966, or even from the colonial era of Lord Lugard! They started shouting about an imaginary ‘100-day’ performance card instead of telling us how much of their loots that they have returned during the period. By so doing, they hope to deflect attention from the substantive issues of their guilt to the procedural elements of their trial. They have even introduced the puerile elements of ethnicity and religion into the fray as if their thefts were committed on behalf of any tribe, group or religion. They are asking PMB to leave them and face other issues, forgetting that until corruption is tamed, there is no meaningful way forward.

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They even hired an amorphous ‘Peace Committee’ to blackmail the government out of focus without thinking of any counterpart ‘Justice Committee’ to assuage the rights of the victim population. How could anyone be calling for ‘peace’ when he deeply loathes ‘justice’ himself? A regime that prides itself in producing several billionaires at the expense of the majority poor of the country must have another meaning for social justice.

All over the world, responsible governments seek to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor; not so for the People Democratic Party, which turned itself into a hatchery for illicit billionaires. Whereas, the Constitution of Nigeria directs that the economic system shall “not be operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of a few individuals”, Olisa Metuh(PDP National Publicity Secretary), on the contrary, is shamelessly calling us to roll out the drums for the party for creating the largest band of billionaires in their 16 years of locust-like reign. Incredible!

If we must deal with corruption decisively and within the parameters of the Rule of Law and commonsense, we have to do more than merely attacking it on the surface because these people are callous. That is why we argued some weeks ago that an Integrity Plan should be instituted by President Buhari as a way to strengthen the war against corruption. If it didn’t make sense then, unfolding events have now made it crystal clear.

We now know that corruption is a serious violation of our human rights as it denies majority of the citizens the material benefits of the commonwealth. People wonder why so many refugee-seeking migrants are taking risky voyages to Europe these days. They are from countries where wars and other social strife resulted from the unbridled corruption of the elite. If we do not resist corruption today in Nigeria, sooner or later, we may someday also find ourselves inside those rickety boats heading to Europe or elsewhere.

That is why we are now proposing an Ethical Revolution that is founded upon strong personal and institutional integrity platforms. Accordingly, we ask for a National Integrity Action Plan that would offer an institutional Ombudsman-type oversight and enforcement of a new national ethical order. I must say about this idea, that we are not re-inventing the wheel. Other countries with sordid histories of corruption and ineptitude in the past have already applied it and they benefited immensely.

Take the case of the United Arab Emirate. Leading by example, visibly austere and prudential in their governance, citizens and foreigners alike have all keyed into it and, today, the Emirate has changed from being once an unlivable arid desert to an oasis of affluence and general happiness. The same can also be said of most of the successful Asian countries with Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew as locus classicus – the existence of national integrity mechanism wherein corruption is fought as a communal war.

This suggestion cannot be dismissed as theoretical or impracticable. It works. For any nation to succeed, she must have certain values that it cannot compromise on. No doubt, Nigerians are good people; they just need a leader, who will demonstrate to them that it pays to be honest and trustworthy while reducing on the incentives for corruption by firmly and judiciously punishing infractions instead of tolerating them or looking the other way.

There is nothing impossible about integrity as a systemic matter. At the individual level integrity is the quality of being honest and upright, characteristics which are based on universally noble values such as being honest, truthful, trustworthy, accountable etc. With respect to public officials, it is simply carrying out the trust and responsibilities bestowed upon them in line with public interest. They are not allowed to misuse their power for their self-interest, or for the interest of their families or relatives. Should a conflict of interest occur, public interest overrides personal interest. With an exemplary leader at the helm, there will be maximum commitment by his followers to this integrity call.

The Itse Sagay-led Advisory Committee on Corruption is a step in the right direction as it offers the nation the immediate opportunity to define the parameters of the battle against those who have plundered the nation. More than that, we still need to institute and deepen a national culture that is able to proactively tackle the all-pervading disposition to corruption from a much deeper moral and psychological perspective than with mere prosecutorial post-mortems or sensational media exposure. It would no longer be possible for those who looted our commonwealth to unapologetically claim that they have saved us from poverty by improperly making themselves billionaires.

The war against corruption is one that Nigeria must fight and win. Expectedly, corruption will fight back. We must therefore be vigilant. The most potent weapon in the fight against corruption is a population that is sufficiently educated about the need to eliminate the scourge as a way of life.

Copyright PUNCH.

Buhari cabinet: Govs Senators, Reps, lose power to pick nominees

 By: Yusuf Alli   

 

• Buhari may reject governors’ list
Contrary to what obtained in the last 16 years, state governors appeared to have lost influence to make input into the appointment of ministers.
The governors, especially those elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have found it difficult to penetrate President Muhammadu Buhari to pick their nominees as ministers.
Also, some Senators, who are godfathers in their states, might be unable to install their stooges as ministers.
In deference to the principle of Separation of Powers, there were indications that Buhari may not accept imposition of nominees on him by some leaders of the National Assembly.
But the jostle for ministerial ticket is assuming a hot race in Kwara, Sokoto, Gombe, Enugu, Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Katsina, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, and Bauchi,
Investigation by our correspondent showed that apart from deference to party supremacy, President Buhari has largely been his own man in appointing members of his cabinet.
It was learnt that although some governors had attempted to recommend some nominees, the president is insisting on merit.
The same dilemma is confronting some influential Senators and leaders of the House of Representatives.
According to findings, Buhari is sticking to the principle of separation of powers instead of throwing the ministerial nomination open.
The discipline being employed by the president in choosing his cabinet members accounted for the delay in appointing commissioners in some states.
It was gathered that the governors prefer to compensate their loyalists, who may be schemed out of ministerial slots, as commissioners.
A reliable source said: “Unlike in the past, most governors are stranded this because the president will not ask them to nominate ministers. Some of them attempted to make recommendations but did not succeed.
“In fact, the same game is playing out with influential Senators who have found it difficult to lobby for their candidates as ministerial nominees.
“Buhari is trying to be his own man as far as the choice of ministers is concerned. The only thing he reckons with is party supremacy. He also wants to adhere to constitutional provision on the appointment of ministers.
“The governors could not have their way because Buhari has refused to ask for any office slot or favour from any governor, including his own governor, Aminu Masari of Katsina State.”
As at press time, investigation confirmed that the jostle for ministerial slot is keen in Kwara, Sokoto, Gombe, Enugu, Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Niger, Delta, Edo, Kogi, and Adamawa.
Some godfathers in the affected states were said to be panicking because of recent political developments in the country, especially in the National Assembly.
Another source said: “Those who have no respect for party supremacy cannot recommend or nominate ministers. Respect begets respect.
“This is why the president is looking for credible hands whom they cannot disqualify under a flimsy excuse or the other.”
THE NATION had exclusively reported that the president is on the final lap of consultations with some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It was learnt that the president has met with some leaders of the party on the shape of his cabinet, those who may be on board and what he intends to do.
But he is yet to unveil his list of cabinet members to the leadership of the party.
It was unclear if the President will reduce the size of the cabinet from 42 to 36 or a lower figure.
Section 147(1-3) directs the President to appoint at least 36 ministers unless the constitution is amended.
The section reads: “There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President.
“Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President.
“Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution:
“Provided that in giving effect to the Provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each state, who shall be an indigene of such state.”

One hundred days ago

          

When President Muhammadu Buhari, after his swearing-in, on May 29, allowed himself up to September to name his ministerial cabinet, he couldn’t have reckoned that the seeming adequate time would pass so swiftly to open him to very critical scrutiny by both supporters and political opponents on how far he had gone in meeting their expectations. Supporters, in opting for Buhari in the presidential elections, believed he would provide a fresh political/administrative atmosphere, in contrast to the record of the previous 16 years while critics contemptuously dismissed all such optimism. To worsen matters for Buhari, the public expectations/pessimism (of supporters and critics respectively) within the conventional first 100 days (ending tomorrow), coincided with the September undertaking within which to name his ministers, Unless those ministers have been named by now, Buhari has up till the last day of the month to keep his undertaking, as he did not specify a particular date. But such an excuse or even undue delay henceforth, will subject the Buhari administration to further ridicule, both in Nigeria and abroad. Meanwhile, pro and anti-Buhari groups are, as expected, engaged in polemical fisticuffs on his performance so far
Either way, the better objective verdict must be related to what President Buhari inherited and promised the nation as a newly elected head of government on May 29, 2015. 1. Widespread goodwill at home and abroad. 2.Perception of Nigerians and the entire international community that the scale of corruption in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world. 3. A feeling of omnibus marginalisation of northerners and indifference by south westerners even if such existed. The only point of note was the opportunistic exploitation of that dissatisfaction by discredited and politically irrelevant elements parading as representatives of Yoruba under the banner of a remnant Afenifere. 4. Free looting of national treasury by financial criminals purportedly claiming subsidy for fuel not supplied at all in many cases. 5. A rampaging Boko Haram insurgency, which forced the closure of Maiduguri International Airport for over a year. 6.Virtual collapse of nationwide power supply throughout the previous five years. 7. A poorly equipped Nigerian army facing and deserting a better-equipped insurgents. 8. Unpaid arrears of monthly salaries of federal and state civil servants. 9. Promise of battling corruption among public office holders and civil servants. 10. Routing of the Boko Haram assault on the nation. 11. National debt of trillions of naira owed to contractors.
Largely, international goodwill brought President Buhari to office last May and it is to his credit that he still retains that distinction for Nigeria. Substantially, the country is no longer viewed by foreign governments and businessmen as swimming in corruption. That is a feat attained within three months. Rather than a professional gimmick of foreign public relations consultants, that image change for Nigeria is due to Buhari’s firm leadership in containing the vermins in the public and private sectors as well as their foreign collaborators. Even on the highly debated issue of human rights, given his military background, Muhammadu Buhari is emerging unduly liberal. A good example was his weak submission that he would abide by any leadership(s) produced by the national leadership. Confronted with fallout of his liberal disposition, the same Buhari had to tactfully clip the wings of his National Assembly dissidents, who, after tasting the first blood, became insatiable. The prospects at that stage were that the National Assembly APC rebels, would eventually commence ruling the man at Aso Rock.
Rather sadly, President Buhari’s almost unlimited goodwill on the local scene, which followed him to office three months ago, has diminished. It should be a matter for concern that a man like former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa now reminds us that we have a President of Nigeria who must ensure he does not deteriorate to president of northern Nigeria. There is an irony in this development. The controversy should not be sourced to only the appointments made, as the timing and manner. For example, for all the criticisms made, it is remarkable that, traditional critics have not described the appointees by President Buhari as “mediocrities.” The only reason for that is the sound education background of these fellows.
Mr. Babachir Lawal, the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation is a law post-graduate of Oxbridge (Oxford/Cambridge) as well as Warwick Universities. Such distinctions do not come better even though the easiest counter-submission is that any other part of the country (specifically South) could also produce men of distinction. Still, the criticism should be at a different aspect of the appointments. What was so important or more compelling for these latest appointments than the release of the list of the ministerial nominees? What is holding up ordinary release of list of ministers? If such a list had been simultaneously released with the recent appointment of virtually personal staff of President Buhari, there, definitely, would not have been any uproar or such might make much impact since ministers, statutorily, must comprise appointees from all parts of the country.
What is more, whenever the list of ministers is released for screening by National Assembly, the time may be only for the members to proceed on sallah holidays. For at least a fortnight if not longer? That will stretch to October before the commencement of the screening proper. To last how long? Conservatively, we may run into the first six months of the administration with another possible six months for the new ministers to effectively grasp their new job. In that situation, the longest serving minister may be for barely three years. If President Buhari strictly adheres to the public impression that he would serve for only one term, it must still be his interest that his party (would) win the 2019 race. Unfortunately, the anti-PDP coalition, which won APC the presidency only six months, no longer exists. South South and south East are now reflecting that, perhaps, they were correct in their voting preferences at the last presidential elections. After the elections, widespread reports indicated that South East thereby lost the Senate presidency. Hence the general speculation that South East would be compensated with the post of Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Nothing was done to dispel that speculation, only to be shattered all round,
On its part, South West is back to its old survival tactics of “siddon look” to nurse its wound. However, must South East, South South and South West (entire South) not retire into sober reflection on their political pattern of self-destruction? Each of the three was, along with the three northern zones, in contention for the post recently filled. But the three states, which lost were victims of regicide. In Rivers State, ex-Governor Rotimi Amaechi was subjected to judicial probe of his tenure by his political enemy, Nyesom Wike. In Lagos, new helmsman, Akinwunmi Ambode, for yet-to-be-stated reasons, intermittently released costs of some projects while his predecessor, Babatunde Fasola, was in office. In Imo, the battle for the South East zonal leadership of APC was the deciding factor. Hence, whatever the feelings of the people, Governor Rochas Okorocha openly supported President Buhari on the new appointments.
Still on the credit side, theft of public fund through legalised fraud called fuel subsidy has been substantially reduced. Indeed, there is no more display of loose money. Federal and state civil servants now collect monthly salaries as and when due after collecting their accumulated arrears hitherto owed them. The magic was sequel to instant and firm streamlining of financial regulation, affirming only a single Federation Account for any revenue accruable to Federal Government. Not left out are unpaid poor Nigerian soldiers at the war front, who have had that situation reversed. The army is now well equipped and has contained the Boko Haram insurgents. Maiduguri International Airport, forced to be closed almost two years ago by the superior firepower of Boko Haram, has been re-opened.
Most significantly, within the last 100 days, President Buhari gave order to the entire armed forces leadership to rout out the Boko Haram within a stipulated time of three months. The import of that directive was recently affirmed by one service chief, who said: “It is an order from the Commander-in-Chief and we must carry it out.” Days or at most weeks more for Boko Haram?