Aayekooto

Massive Healthcare Fraud: How Nigeria Painfully Kills Her People, By Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú

2016-05-26T06:03:00.003-07:00

This is a shame! It is a shame because Nigeria does not provide leadership in Africa except in stealing and corruption. Other African countries have gaps that they have to address. Ours are not gaps but canyons of corruption. We have lost all the rights to be a leading voice on the continent. No other country handles donor monies irresponsibly like Nigerians do… It is total and complete assault to deny the needy access to lifesaving vaccines and medicines because of personal greed.

After the rescue of Alheri Buba, the kidnapped 13 year old girl from Bauchi, Vivien Bello-Osagie wrote me on the need to help girls kidnapped by Boko Haram who returned to their communities with HIV. Like every other victory, I had no time to celebrate Alheri’s rescue. Getting HIV from repeated rape from abductors is one thing, but getting help to cope with the disease is another. It is a big problem getting into the programme to get the HIV drugs needed to stay alive. The only organisation that has it together is the military. Years ago, I got a dear friend to get tested after suffering repeated bouts of Malaria. He tested positive. My heart was broken, but I had no time to grieve; I needed to support him and help him avoid the stigma. That exposed me to the shady world of HIV drug administration in Nigeria. We went from pillar to post. Finally, we found Hope Foundation, tucked into a serene nondescript environment along Ikorodu road at Obanikoro. Immediately I told them I was not positive, they excluded me and took him in. They denied me access to every information about him henceforth, which I respect and even admire. They treated him well, with dignity and respect but they charged money. It was called administrative fees. I enrolled five more people in the programme and accompanied them on occasions to see the level of care. I helped them monitor their CD4 count and supplied Selenium, once I found out the cells needed that trace element to multiply.

Everything was fine until three years later. Two of them developed pneumonia and I lost one. I almost lost another. I was aghast! Had they stopped using their medications? I was aware they still attended night vigil and crusades, where they get bitten mercilessly by mosquitoes and get exposed to pneumonia and tuberculosis given their compromised immune system. Being Nigerians, they believed they would one day be healed through faith. I suspected something might have gone wrong with the medications because all of them were in poor health. With enough suspicion, I visited Hope Foundation with one of them and that visit haunts me till date. I saw sufferers with protruding eyeballs like these would fall out. I saw people with very scaly peeling skin. I was livid and started investigating. By God! Hope Foundation got adulterated drugs and many lives were lost due to these. One of their doctors died in the process. I was devastated! The Nigerian end shafted the most vulnerable at their time of need and many died. I asked around for alternatives and I was advised to try the military hospital. I moved quickly and transferred my people to Ikeja cantonment. The military hospitals have it together. They are well managed and are accountable. In addition, my “patients” stemmed their exposure to mosquitoes and avoided badly ventilated places like night vigil spaces and there has been no nail biter, no crisis. All these ran through my mind when I thought of how to help terror victims who got HIV through rape. How can I get this done in the North, how is it over there? I kept thinking.

Officials of the health ministry pocketed monies and retired them with falsified receipts which the donors subjected to forensic investigation and discovered the wholesale fraud therein. These officials reportedly use donor funds to buy cars, build houses, train their children in expensive schools in Europe and North America, while victims of communicable diseases for which the monies were meant, were left suffering and dying from them.

Unfortunately, Nigeria is a den of vipers. Since I woke up this morning, my heart has been heavy, my day thoroughly paralysed! Why? The latest information reaching me is that funds from donor agencies for communicable diseases may be cut. The donor agencies are angry as hell. Readers of my column will recall I chronicled how the Ebola fund was looted. Same thing has been happening for all other diseases and the Global Fund, Roll Back Malaria, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI Alliance and UNAIDS are not taking it lightly. They are demanding accountability and the prosecution of Nigeria health officials who stole monies meant to save Nigerian lives. Officials of the health ministry pocketed monies and retired them with falsified receipts which the donors subjected to forensic investigation and discovered the wholesale fraud therein. These officials reportedly use donor funds to buy cars, build houses, train their children in expensive schools in Europe and North America, while victims of communicable diseases for which the monies were meant, were left suffering and dying from them.

Investigations reveal that the head of the Roll Back Malaria programme in Nigeria single-handedly administers billions of naira worth of donor funds outside of the Ministry of Health. He is running a parallel programme, he travels in business class, sends his children to expensive foreign schools, all on donors funds meant for poor Nigerians. As I write, The Global Fund has suspended cooperation with Nigeria until we put our house in order. They are demanding accountability, transparency and due process. They want these crooked officials investigated and brought to book as a deterrent to others in the healthcare sector. I was reliably informed that they insist this is not “oil money” that health officials are pocketing but taxpayers money from Europe and America. The prevailing consensus is that, this is another litmus test for the anti-corruption agenda of the Buhari administration and they are waiting to see what will be done to these erring health officials. The names of these officials are also known to all the aid agencies. They are all waiting to see what President Buhari and EFCC will do.

$1.2 billion has been given by Global Funds since 2003 to 2014 and the health indicators in the country haven’t changed. Now, they are suspending the $1.2 billion in assistance accruable to Nigeria between 2015 and 2017 because of corruption. If we have a clean and transparent system, our entire health system would not have to depend on the Nigerian federal budget to function.

I don’t understand why we are like this. While some of us are trying to change things on a shoestring budget from our little corners, these health officials are damaging our efforts and robbing us of the moral voice in advocacy for our vulnerable and at-risk populations. $1.2 billion has been given by Global Funds since 2003 to 2014 and the health indicators in the country haven’t changed. Now, they are suspending the $1.2 billion in assistance accruable to Nigeria between 2015 and 2017 because of corruption. If we have a clean and transparent system, our entire health system would not have to depend on the Nigerian federal budget to function. But thieves in the health sector stole Nigeria senseless under the Jonathan administration.

This is a shame! It is a shame because Nigeria does not provide leadership in Africa except in stealing and corruption. Other African countries have gaps that they have to address. Ours are not gaps but canyons of corruption. We have lost all the rights to be a leading voice on the continent. No other country handles donor monies irresponsibly like Nigerians do. Where is the Hippocratic oath they swore to as doctors? How can a few individuals entrusted with saving lives, divert the money given by foreign donors to taking care of their children in Marquee European Universities and Ivy league schools in North America? It is total and complete assault to deny the needy access to lifesaving vaccines and medicines because of personal greed. Like it happened in Hope Foundation six years ago, we cannot count those who have died or been rendered with permanent disabilities because of the activities of these thieves. President Buhari and EFCC, over to you!

Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú a farmer, youth advocate and political analyst writes this weekly column – “Bamidele Upfront” for the Premium Times. Follow me on Twitter @olufunmilayo

Living in the Matrix.

2016-05-15T13:45:00.001-07:00

Copied this from a colleague.

Most Nigerians don't realise we've been living in The Matrix. This subsidy removal is the red pill that may wake us up to reality.

We are poor. We are broke. We've been raped, pillaged, looted and left for dead.

All these years our economy has been sustained on the junk food of corruption. We have kwashiorkor but because we look chubby we think we are healthy.

Those two bedrooms in Abuja going for N700 million. Those make up artists charging 500k and pre-wedding photo shoots for 700k. Aso ebi for 90k. Buying Rolexes and Ferraris. Range Rover Sport all over Lagos like keke napep.

It is all fake. It's all a mirage. We've all been living off the spoils of corruption. That's why the country is so hard now. No money circulating. Because no money to steal and rent flats and shops for girlfriends. For civil servants to pay bogus tithes of N500k. For senators to spray dollars at their daughters' weddings. For lagos big boys to spend N2m every Friday night at nightclubs.

It's time to face reality. The party is over. Now we may see the real Nigeria and Nigerians.

Now that money will go into our roads and bridges and hospitals. It will benefit those who don't have a rich corrupt uncle with connections in oil and gas. Those who can't travel to Dubai to celebrate birthdays. Those who don't know what Coldstone ice cream tastes like.

Hopefully the real estate markets will crash. The thieves with 15 houses in abuja will be forced to sell them fast for cash. I would prefer if EFCC seized and auctioned them, though.

All those in the service industry will have to revaluate their pricing. You can't charge 500k to paint faces anymore; free money don finish.

Welcome to the real world.

How I sold rice, sugar to survive - Ooni Ogunwusi

2016-05-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

HOW I SOLD RICE, SUGAR TO SURVIVE –Ooni Ogunwusi

— 14th May 2016

After coronation, tradition forbids that I ever see my dad again

By YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE

ENITAN Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, the Ooni of Ife, exemplifies the lofty, sublime words of truth: “True greatness lies in simplicity. For greatness does not know conceit, since it has no need to be conceited”

Given his affluence and influence as occupant of arguably the most powerful throne in Yorubaland, Ooni remains the “spiritual head” and custodian of the culture of the Yoruba people, who number about 90 million people in the country and the Diaspora, including Sudan, Ghana, Republic of Benin, Togo, USA, Brazil and other Carrebbean countries. At the young age of 41, Ooni Ogunwusi could well huff and be condescending amidst the fawning of courtiers and the royal splendor of his palace at Okunwa, Ile Ife, Osun State.

The interview with The Sun team was billed to take place at 3pm on Tuesday, April 19, but had to be reslated for between 10am and 12 noon the following day, as an unscheduled trip took the Ooni to Ogun State.

Although, the journalists had arrived the royal court by 9am, one full hour ahead of the appointment, they only had the first opportunity of an audience with the king at about 6 o’ clock in the evening. Since 12 noon, when, with royal flourish, he breezed into the Ooni Okunade Sijuwade Hall, his official reception auditorium, he had been busy receiving a throng of guests, including various guilds of artisans, members of the Association of Nigerian Movie Marketers accompanied by popular Nollywood artistes, some traditional rulers, religious groups, a team of professors and students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, others who came to seek favour, or on some other missions.

When the visitors were eventually ushered before him, the youthful monarch exclaimed in an apologetic tone: “Oh, The Sun! Awfully sorry, but, you too didn’t come on time,” hinting that the media chat could have held before he began to hold court. Apparently, there was a communication gap as to the presence of The Sun team.

Informed that we had been around since 9am, the Ooni ordered that we be taken to the inner chamber and served lunch, since he was sure we could not have eaten, promising to join us for the session as soon as he decongested the hall of the remaining crowd.

As it were, the more than one hour discussion eventually held about 10pm and lasted till past 11pm.

Time for commemorative photograph taking. The reporter, inadvertently placed an arm in a reclining gesture on the massive immaculate throne, with touches of cream and a sewn wild animal skin, on which the Ooni sat. But, immediately, the “Emeses” (royal servants), who formed a shield and rampart of protection around the Ooni, intermittently chanting his”oriki” (praise name) and sanctioning every word of prayer he uttered with “Ase”, rushed and pushed the hand away and bid the reporter move away from the symbol of the Yoruba traditional spirituality. In an attempt to carry out the directive, the reporter’s hand again fell and touched the flowing tail of his all white lace costume on the floor. Again, the Emesesswiftly moved, but halted in their tracks, with a gentle restraining wave from Ooni Ogunwusi, who turned and smiled kindly to the reporter. “It’s nothing really. It’s actually just for your own protection,” he said, trying to explain that the restriction of such close physical contact with him, was to prevent etheric radiations emanating from his immediate surrounding from harming visitors and not necessarily a vain display of power.

This experience and revelations from the subsequent interview with him underscored that the rare wisdom and modesty Ooni Ogunwusi has charmed the world since he was crowned late last year were no fluke. He has lived his philosophy, signaled in his inaugural address in which he declared that he was in no supremacy contest with other Obas, especially elderly and influential ones, perceived as rivals of his predecessor, the late Ooni Sijuwade, with his consistent pacifist attitude and message of peace and unity in Yorubaland.

This humility and perceptibly deep passion and empathy for the poor, underscored by his many collaboration with organizations and tertiary institutions for empowerment and entrepreneurial skills acquisition and development among youths and the grassroots, Ogunwusi gained early in life, when as a graduate, he dropped pride and dumped his certificate and a career in accountancy, to start trading in sugar and rice, with illiterate traders in Agbeni and other local markets around Ibadan and the South west. His humble association with these unschooled set of people, however, paid off as it taught him trade secrets that made him a millionaire at just age 20!

The monarch says that he is familiar and also able to connect with the poor. He recalled as a child, there was nothing he did not do, including hawking to support his middle class parents struggling to raise six children. His humility explains his closeness to his workers and why he knew each one by name, when he diversified his business into construction industry.

Ooni Ogunwusi, who fielded questions on sundry issues, among them, his controversial marriage to a Benin woman, considered a foreigner, his agenda for the Yoruba race, life as a monarch, leadership, and Alaafin’s contention that the National Council of Traditional Rulers, which he (Ooni) co-chairs with the Sultan of Sokoto, offends the federal principle, narrates how a prediction of his fortune in becoming the Ooni would have been aborted when, some years ago, he almost drowned in a boat mishap in the Lagos lagoon, on his way to inspect a tourist resort he was developing on an island. The interview is unputdownable.

Was there any indication that you would one day occupy this exalted stool of your forebears, maybe through dream, oracular prediction or whatever?

Well, yes. Many years before I was born, it was predicted to my parents that indeed, a child would be born, a male child and things about him would be very different. In fact, the prediction was so specific about the time and day of the week that it would happen. My parents, my father and my late mother of blessed memory, had the first child, it didn’t happen, the second, the third, the fourth child, the prediction didn’t happen, but the fifth child was born exactly on a Thursday at 1.00pm in the afternoon. Immediately I was given birth to, my mother of blessed memory knew. Another very mysterious thing that happened was that my grandfather from my mother’s side in Ife was on a sick bed. My mother wasn’t even due to have me, but my grandfather kept pushing her that she should leave, that she could not have the child in that place. Basically, my grandfather pushed my mother and my mother told him she was not due yet. My grandfather said to my mother “you are due, you need to leave this place now and go and have this child. This child is a very peculiar child. This child has a mission in this world, quickly go and have this child”. So, my mother quickly rushed with force. Immediately, my mother gave birth to me, my grandfather left this world. That affected my mother so much. Thank God that I still survived, because after my mother had me, immediately they told her, “your father just died,” she left me and hastily went to take care of her father. She was the first child and the most loved child. My grandfather on my father’s side knew when I was born too. He sent a message that: “This child that just came to this world, there is a reason why he is here. They gave me the name Adetoyeoye ( Adeyeye, the crown befits the king). My parents, my father and my mum named me Enitan, that there is something very mysterious about this child, a child of history, all because there was a powerful story behind my birth. My mother, herself named me Babatunde meaning “My father is back, our ancestor is back.” Unfortunately, because my mum couldn’t take care of me very well, having just lost her father, the first 11 days were very tough for me, according to my parents’ story. But, ever since that time, God has been guiding me, the King of kings has been doing very peculiar things. I believe so much in the power of making impossibilities possible. Anything that is impossible that is where I take challenge, I take it up as a challenge and I go for it. So it was very clear God has been involved, really. It is one thing to have predictions, it is another thing for you to work towards it.

With the circumstance you have just narrated and your being named Babatunde, could you be a reincarnation of a past Ooni?

Well, I never put it in my head because the stool of the Ooni is a very revered stool and highly spiritual. It is a stool that we don’t joke with in Ife, but my grandfather used to address me as Adeyeye Ooni. At two years old, they warned everybody not to touch me on my head or hit me on my head. My grandfather gave a stern warning that I should avoid being knocked or touched on the head by anyone all my life. Anybody that tries to hit me on my head, there is a problem. As a result, everybody in my family just believed that there is something about me. And God has been faithful to me, God has been very protective and has been my guardian angel for a very long time. So working towards such a thing is not by power nor by might, it is by the Grace of God. So, reincarnation, or me becoming the Ooni of Ife can only happen if God says yes, because there are so many predictions in life that may not come to pass. Yes, it came up severally but by the Glory of God, God gave me that grace for it to come to pass.

How was growing up as an Ife prince?

Very interesting, I was a very inquisitive child, extremely so. It was very challenging to my parents. I went as far as opening the television at a very tender age to see which human beings were there. I went as far as trying to unlock the socket to see how it brings electric currents that lighted up the house and almost got electrocuted. At age four, people nicknamed me “NEPA”. I lived all my life at a tender age asking my parents questions. In fact, my late mum used to get very angry that I was always asking questions. But, eventually, when I started to grow up properly they later understood that it was how God created me. So, it was very interesting!

How about influences of peer group, societal values of the era and did you enjoy special privileges coming from a royal family?

Very interesting! No, I won’t say we were from a well- to -do background. No! There was nothing that I didn’t do to support my parents. Both of them were civil servants and they struggled to raise six children. My mum never believed in things of this world. What was primary was to raise her children. She had six and she would tell anybody that cared to listen that: “I have six houses that I am building, I don’t have any other house. I don’t need to do any other thing”. So, anytime she leaves work, she does another petty trading-selling drinks, soft drinks. She was born into the family of business, they were all entrepreneurs. They used to go to the North to bring beans, locally made rice, corn flour, maize and all that. That was what her grandmother was doing. I supported my mother to the extent of even hawking after school,

(cuts in) Here on the streets of Ife or Ibadan?

In both places, because my grandparents were in Ife. Both of my parents are from Ife, even my grandparents are all from Ife. So we moved from Ife to Ibadan, very short distance. We moved from Ife and we moved to Ibadan. So anytime we were out of school, we come to Ife to stay with our grandparents and we would still help them because that was their trade. In Ibadan after school we helped my mum. I schooled up to the tertiary level in Ibadan. I came to Ife briefly as well and I did my national youth service in Benue, I went to the North. Then in Ibadan, I started business at a very tender age. I started trading the same rice and sugar that my mum used to do and God was very faithful to me. I did it on a very large scale at a tender age, to the extent that I became a major distributor for the likes of Dangote, Olam, Stallion Group and so many others.

(Cuts in) So, what has been your experience with childhood friends, school mates etc when you were crowned Ooni?

They were very excited. It gave them a level of hope, it gave them conviction that, indeed, when God says yes, no one can say no. That there is nothing God cannot do, and that we shouldn’t underestimate anybody. I saw one of them recently in Abuja. He came to look for me and I have not seen him since our youth service days, 1996. And I could remember because he was the head of our platoon then, very jovial and we got talking and were able to hook up with a lot of people that we served together. Well, some of them didn’t know how to address me with the current status, in which it is only God that elevates. But for me, I never forget where I was coming from. Anytime you forget your source, there is a problem. So, I reached out my hands to them and embraced them and encouraged them that “don’t worry it’s still me. It is just the position, and let us have our eyes on the ball, how to get things done well in the country that is all.”

Now, you are an astute entrepreneur, what gave you the idea that your path to success lies in business?

Like I told you, I ask a lot of questions and everyday of my life, I usually ask myself what have I achieved. I have two options; to become a banker or accountant and go all the way and practise, set up an audit firm and practice accountancy. All to just leave that line of accountancy and go into business at a very early age. Today, I never regretted diverting into the line of becoming an entrepreneur. The reason is, it gave me a lot of exposure at a very early stage and it gave good opportunity to be exposed to how to make money from the scratch. I can account for every penny I made today to the glory of God, because I started quite early. When my other colleagues were out all the way to rise up through the professional career ladder, I focused on business and God helped me.

So, when and how did you hit the first million and the mega bucks started rolling in?

Interestingly enough, I still have the account of when I started making millions. I was just 20 years old, a trader of rice and sugar inside Agbeni market in Ibadan. A trader of biscuits and vegetable oil. I saw a very good opportunity, a very good window, that there would be strike. So, I thought it was better to have this stock so that one could sell at higher profit. I wasn’t even particular about price increment. So, what did I do, I stocked up 50 bags of sugar, 100 bags of rice. I used to go to Owo in Ondo State at that age, to Ajao family Farms to buy vegetable oil made from soya. And I used to buy biscuits from Sumal Foods and I stored everything in my warehouse. But, I needed more money, I had good relationship with everybody in the market, I didn’t sell. I think a good spirit led me on that day. All of a sudden, there was scarcity, serious scarcity and those goods became almost triple in value. I couldn’t believe it and that was the beginning of my breakthrough in life. I started doing really big turnover in sales. So, I only worked for three months in a company. Then, I started doing my normal deal. When Dangote wanted to come to Ibadan to open up- country sales, we did a lot in terms of opening up sales for Dangote around that time. We got a very big warehouse in Ibadan and were pushing a lot of sales for Dangote. I had a friend then, we are both princes, but we never knew, the current Olofa of Ofa and myself in Ido market. I would travel to Lagos, shuttle between Lagos and Ibadan. We were both rice and sugar merchants and we both did it majorly for Dangote. We didn’t know both of us are future kings.

A highly educated person like you moving about towns and jostling with mostly, illiterate market people. Weren’t you embarrassed?

Yes, it was a major issue then and a lot of people didn’t want to mingle with me. Yes, a lot of these people were illiterates, they didn’t go to school, they had little education, but they were highly educated in commerce! They got it from their parents, uncles, aunts etc. But thank God I always believe so much in humility, I didn’t wear that toga that, okay I’m better exposed, because I went to school. So, I was able to learn a lot of trade tricks from them, despite the fact that they didn’t go to school. So, in life when you are humble and you don’t put your position on your head, God will elevate you. God elevated me at a very tender age, I thank God for that.

You had a stint in a business relationship with your elder brother. The business was said to be doing well, but you suddenly pulled out. Why?

Well, he is my senior brother, you have to respect your elders. But, in actual fact, it was like a collaboration between the two of us, but he is the senior one. He has his own company, so I supported the cause of developing his company and at a time that was right for me to leave, we had that understanding. I went to start on my own. I went into real estate sector.

(Cuts in) Now, what informed that decision to divert into this sector of the economy at that point in time? Had you foreseen that area as the next growth sector that it has eventually become?

Very interesting! Everything started from trading. I told you I was doing rice and sugar. I went into biscuit, I went into vegetable oil, then I went into cement. That time Nigeria was majorly a trading economy. Dangote was importing cement, we were selling for him as well. Pacific Holding was importing iron rod, we were selling for them. They are friends, the owner of Pacific Holdings, Dr. Deji Adeleke and Dangote are very good friends. I realized that the demand for cement and iron rod was very high, it was unbelievable. Very incredible! I later realized that I needed to move higher. My brother in the banking sector, my brother that we worked together had very strong background in Finance and he became a consultant to land owners in Lagos. I am very strong in marketing and business development. Based on my background in trading in rice, sugar and later cement, I realised the demand for those products for construction. So that got me interested in real estate and from there I started real estate on a very large scale. Initially, it was challenging, but it was very good because you are building what you can see. We did so much opening up the Lekki corridor. I facilitated so much in that corridor and that is why I believe so much in collaboration and partnerships. We did quite a lot. The first one we did was with Aircom Limited owned by Yemi Idowu, whom I have much respect for, we did that together. And from there, I started doing so many. I did some with my brother too. And from there, I became very big in that industry and God has been very faithful.

Being an urbane, well traveled, accomplished businessman, one tends to wonder what attraction you found in Obaship that many people believe is a relic of archaic tradition and sure to be a boring life.

It is a clarion call for me and I thank the King of kings. The reason why it is a clarion call is because somebody must do it. It is more of social service, how to make things work in your community. So, my point is, it is not an old relic anymore, it doesn’t belong to that class of institution. Like I told you, I like to delve into areas where people believe this is the set ways and bring positive change. I like to reinvent and put a proper structure, that’s my philosophy-to blend modernity with tradition and God has been very good to me.

Won’t leaving the management and direction of your businesses and investments in other people’s hands not affect your fortunes now?

In life you cannot have it all. You win some, you lose some. Trade off is part of the game, you leave the business and serve your people. Leave the business and serve mankind, it is a sacrifice one must make. You cannot be there to oversee things, but God is looking at you in anything you do. So, I am very happy, I am at peace, I don’t have any regret. Somebody must give up something for something.

With your unassuming personality and pacifist attitude Kabiyesi, you seem to have won the hearts of everyone in Yorubaland and beyond, including elderly and influential Obas, whose relationship with Ile Ife was hitherto not particularly cordial, due to rivalry and superiority contest with your predecessor. I recall that people marveled at the wisdom displayed in your inaugural address last year, when you declared that you were not in any supremacy battle with anybody. If I may ask, who is your teacher?

Thank you very much. My teacher basically is the King of Kings. I don’t have any other teacher other than Him. Everyday of my life, I go on my knees and I pray to Him and for the rest of my life I will bow to him. He leads and guides me well. Well, why are you claiming supremacy over others? Who can claim that, except the Supreme Being Himself, the I Am that I Am. Don’t you know the name they call Him, the King of Kings. So, why are you now saying that it is you that is superior. I just want to focus on youth empowerment, I just want to champion peace and harmony, for the world to be a better place.

Now, talking about that, there is the belief that the Ooni is a god. You have also been accused of desecrating tradition when you bowed or knelt down at a Thanksgiving service in the church shortly after your coronation. I like to ask, are you a god? Then, how do you resolve conflict between your Christian beliefs and tradition and customs, which in Ife may even require your participation in palace or festival rituals?

(Chuckles) I am not god and I will not call myself a god. God is in heaven, above everybody. But what I will say is that the occupant of the stool has a high level of spirituality. We don’t practice…there are some things that I cannot do again in the public, that I used to do when I was a prince. Ife is a very, very spiritual ground, so the kingship system in Ife is very different. To your other question about people saying that I should not have bowed, they are ignorant. I didn’t bow to anybody, I bowed to Almighty God, the Kings of kings. I will bow over and over again, because He is the One that makes kings. He can put you there and He can take you away from there. So, I will continue to bow to Him, everyday I will bow.

The second question about my Christian beliefs, sacrifices and the other. You know we are ignorant of so many things and I pray to God Almighty for us to have that exposure. As a black race, our our ancestors have a peculiar way of worshipping God. The way Christians worship God is through Jesus Christ and for Muslims, it is through Prophet Mohammad. The traditional worshippers go through the smaller gods, or the deities and then to the main God. But there is something common to all three major religions, they call on the Almighty God. Why do we now have differences? Why do we have variations? It is because we haven’t really taken time to understudy the similarities among these three religions. They are very similar. The only thing about the traditional belief is that it is nature -based. Everything in the tradition is nature all the way. Christianity is grace, grace, grace all the way. It is easier. Islam is based on strict regulation, discipline. Five tenets of Islam, five pillars of Islam. So, you look at it, it is the same God we are calling. And nature -based religion is complete Old Testament way, if you read your Bible very well. So, why can’t you still worship in the Old Testament way? It is even much more difficult to serve God through Old Testament ways, because it is very routine-based, because you have to give sacrifices to God. You have to do certain things and processes. The New Testament way is based on grace, but people misuse that grace to perpetrate all sorts. And it is in the same Bible that it is said: “Shall we continue in sin and expect grace to abide forever?” So my point is, I will never condemn the traditional way of worshipping God. It is even the oldest of all.

Critics have faulted your taking a Benin woman for a wife. They say there are enough Yoruba damsels to warm the royal bed of the spiritual head and custodian of Yoruba culture other than a “foreigner”. Your reaction, Your Royal Majesty?

It is another display of ignorance of people. Benin and Ife have so many ties and affinities. We are blood-related and that is the truth. One may be trying to claim supremacy over the other, I really don’t care about that. We are one in the presence of God. But the truth is that the Olori has her root from Ife here, from Oluyari compound in Ile-Ife. They migrated to settle down in Benin for bronze casting. So, she is back at home. Her forebears left Ife to start bronze casting in Benin and after teaching and learning bronze casting, they came back to Ife to rejoin their families. So, they still have blood cousins and relations in Ife. So, you now understand why we are one and together.

How has life as the Ooni of Ife been- i.e, coping with the stress of attending to numerous visitors, managing local affairs, etc?

It is complete turn around, 360 degrees. But I thank God, you know, it is a calling from God, you have to attend to everything, because you are very close to your community. You listen to their views and cry and try to proffer solutions, because they look up to you so much. As a result, you need to have your temperament right and you need to instill hope in your community. So, it is a very big shoe, very big one indeed. It takes the grace of God for that shoe to be filled and God has been faithful to me.

In your speeches, activities empowerment programmes, you have shown deep empathy and concern for the poor. One wonders how a wealthy person of your status is able to connect with the plight of this class of people?

I love human beings so much. It is part of me, it is my life. I have to live my life. I live my life for people. Anytime people are successful in climbing up, that is when I am happy and that is my happiest moment. The private sector background I came from is a labour intensive one -construction sector and tourism sector. I have all sorts of categories of workers and I know thousands of my workers’ name and I have close relationships with them. We eat together, we dine together. If you see me, you will never know that I am their boss. So, God has been preparing me for this stool for a long time. So, for the rest of my life, I will be a lover of people. I don’t like to see anybody sad. Before I do anything for myself I would have done it for people. It is a policy that has remained in me for a long time. And I don’t intend to change and I will not change. Nothing will make me to change by the special grace of God. So, it is something that I am used to.

You co-chair the National Council of Traditional Rulers with the Sultan of Sokoto. But, a prominent Oba has said that the existence of that body offends the federal principle. How do you react to this?

People have different opinions. We don’t need to condemn ourselves in life. Whoever that might have said that I don’t know who it is. I don’t want to know the name, but I respect people’s opinion.

It is the Alaafin

Oh! If it is Alaafin, yes, I respect his opinion. He is an intelligent king. He has been there over 40 years. So, if that is his view, there will be a reason why he said so. But the truth is God made structure, it still boils down to trying to prove supremacy, or trying to say that this is what it should be or not be. No! Let us come together in form of team. Anybody can be co-chairman, anybody can be president, but the team work is much more critical than the leadership. Wherever there is leadership, there is followership. To me personally, I will never blame him. It is his opinion, so let him express his opinion.

Now, you are Oonirisa, the focal point of the Yoruba people in the country and the Diaspora. Can you recall an experience in your past, that could, peradventure, have aborted this fortune?

Well, I go on water. I am a very daring person, yet I don’t know how to swim. I have a very huge investment off an island in Lagos. I am not afraid of death. I have never been. I have had cases that the boat would just stop in the middle of the water and I didn’t know how to swim. So, I’d been close to having an accident, wreckage, but God saved me, then the engine would just be moving again. That did not stop me from going again.

Can you cite a particular instance?

Like I told you, I have a resort on an island in Lagos. I was going for inspection. I like to go on water because it is very therapeutic for me. People go on top of water and they lose their lives. The accident on water is very minimal, but it happens. Maybe that would have probably cut the dream short, but God intervened. I was afraid, but I prayed to God and I had battle with the flow of current.

Again, maybe if I had been involved in things that are not good, which I am always careful of, we won’t be talking of me as Ooni. I really don’t like to get involved in problems and God has really guided me.

What does being endowed with wealth and leade r s h i p mean to you?

Wealth to me is how impactful you are to your neighbour next door. How impactful you are to your driver, your cook, the cleaner of your house, how impactful you are to your subjects, to your peers and contemporaries. That is wealth to me. Leadership to me is stewardship, nothing but stewardship. A leader should take responsibility and bullet for everything. That is a good leader because a typical leader is what everybody will be calling a steward “bring this, bring this fork, bring that knife”. That is a responsible act and that is leadership. To me, leadership and stewardship go hand in hand.

Elders including national leaders such as Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of this country, who was head of state when you were probably, a school kid have been coming to pay you homage and as tradition demands prostrating to you. How do you feel about it all?

Point of correction, they don’t prostrate to me, but to the office of Ooni of Ife. I think we should not get that wrong. They are respecting the stool. Former President Obasanjo I have tremendous respect for. He has been an amazing leader and a very peculiar human being and he knows the customs and traditions of the Yoruba very well. So, it is our culture. It is our tradition. If you think that it is all about you personally, you are getting it wrong because a lot of people are coming from left and right and if it is getting into your head, you are getting it wrong. Respect is reciprocal. If you respect them, they will honour you. What I believe is, it should not get into your head.

What about the king’s father now? Does he also come to visit you?

Traditionally, it is not possible again. It is forbidden in our tradition. Mobile phone (GSM) is there, we communicate a lot. We have so much respect for each other. But, that is how it is…You want my father to prostrate for me?

What agenda do you come with for the Yoruba people?

Very simple. Unity, peace and youth empowerment. 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population is youth and nobody is championing their cause. The stool is dedicated to youth empowerment. That us what I stand for. That is my philosophy for the entire Yoruba and Nigeria as a whole.

Fuel crisis: Deregulation is the way out
— 12th May 2016

ATA UDO GUEST COLUMNIST I read two articles Dr. Amanze Obi wrote on the presolve. If the Nigeria Labour…
Life and its intrigues
— 12th May 2016

“STOP watering things that were never meant to grow in your life. Water what works, what’s good, what’s right. Stop playing around with those dead bones and stuff you can’t fix, it’s over…leave it alone! You’re coming into a season of greatness. If you water what’s alive and divine, you will see harvest like…
As Buhari takes anti-corruption war to UK
— 11th May 2016

As you read this piece, our President, Muhammadu Buhari, would be in London, where he is expected to join several world leaders and organisations, in pushing the frontiers of the renewed onslaught against corruption. It is the same London where many of our public treasury looters have their loots all stashed away. The same London…
Demons among men (2)
— 11th May 2016

“Dear Prof. Uzorma, the miracle I received after the use of your oil is very fascinating. They are too many but let me share few of them, I ordered your oil in January this year I did all that you asked me to do with it and I discovered that the wicked people going against…
Yoruba/Benin ancestry dispute (9)
— 11th May 2016

I am starting with the expression of gratitude to Chief Ibitoye Ogunshuyi, the Life Patron of the Yorubas in Plateau State and the President of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in the 19 Northern States, who phoned on Saturday from Jos to commend my column which he said he had just come across. Not only did…
When celebrities shape the news
— 11th May 2016

The decades of the 1980s and 1990s were described pejoratively, as the era of junk journalism in Nigeria. More than two decades on, the contents of Nigerian newspapers provide compelling reasons to suggest we are still well and truly tickled by the titillating stories that define the capricious life and times of pop

Unbelievable New Discovery! This Fruit Destroys Cancer Within Few Minutes!

2016-05-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

March 15, 2016

Posted By: ministryofhealthyfood Destroys Cancer, Fruit, Health

Unbelievable new discovery! This fruit destroys cancer within few minutes!

This news has spread with incredible speed all over the internet and gave hope to millions who suffer from cancer.

Scientists discovered effective and natural anti-cancer mean completely by accident! The results of the clinical research of the plant are pretty encouraging.

Scientists have found that cancer cells can be eliminated with the drug “EVS-46”. This is obtained from the tree “Australian blushwood”, form the seeds of its fruits.

This tree is rare and grows in northern Australia’s specific areas only.

Researchers have accidentally noticed that as soon as the wild animals feed on this fruit, they immediately spit its seeds.
Such behavior of the animals encouraged scientists’ curiosity, after which they decided to examine it, and they do so.

Professor Wole Soyinka gives coded rebuke to Trumpism in Westminster commencement address

2016-05-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

Benjamin O. Akande and Wole Soyinka

Westminster College President Benjamin Ola Akande with Nobel Prize winning author and activist Wole Soyinka, who delivered Westminster's 2016 commencement address Saturday in Fulton, Mo. Photo by Rebecca Barr / Westminster College

FULTON, MO. – The graduating Class of 2016 at Westminster College was treated to a commencement address by Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature, international freedom fighter and arguably the most important historic figure to speak on its quiet campus since Winston Churchill gave his “Iron Curtain” speech there in 1946.

Soyinka spoke at the small, independent liberal arts college in “serene” (his words) Fulton, Missouri, on Saturday, May 7 at the invitation of college President Benjamin Ola Akande, his countryman from Nigeria, West Africa and – much more intimately – his fellow Yoruba.

Soyinka told The American that he accepted the invitation, even with his crowded schedule as an 81-year-old intellectual nomad, out of “tribal chauvinism,” a jesting choice of words, given that he told the young Westminster graduates that they must reject chauvinism and all attempts to divide people and oppress any category of a divided people.

Without ever mentioning the name of Donald Trump, Soyinka offered a complex philosophical argument for why the graduates should reject the kind of rhetoric offered on the Republican primary trail by Trump. The billionaire real estate developer and political neophyte has described Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and called for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, deporting all undocumented immigrants and barring all Muslims from entering the United States.

Soyinka cast his argument in terms of the “versus syndrome,” the dangerous habit of casting people in oppositional terms, as one kind of person “versus” another – “old habits,” he said, “that simplify the complexity of human interactions.”

The closest Soyinka came to pinning this syndrome on Trump was when he derided “glib demonizations,” perhaps the most succinct summary of Trump’s rhetoric that has all but won him the 2016 Republican nomination for U.S. president. Soyinka also cast his remarks in the context of “the choices that Americans are presently poised to make,” a clear reference to the November 8 general election when Americans will elect their next president.

In an interview with The American, Soyinka was much more blunt and explicit. When asked about the rise of Trump, Soyinka said that “it’s very revealing that someone who is, basically, a clown” could seriously contend for the U.S. presidency.

In his commencement speech, Soyinka cast the ascendancy of the “versus syndrome” – that is, the rise of Trump – as a backlash against America’s historic election of an African-American president in 2008. Soyinka did mention President Barack Obama by name, once, and wittily remarked that the present White House is “at least a 90 percent African-American household” where, from time to time, “soul food is served.”

Soyinka said that the election of Obama “triggered the height of these binary oppositions,” including the primary binary opposition of white versus black people, resulting in “the highest form of race denigration.” Again, Trump was never named, but anyone able to follow Soyinka’s dense eloquence understood that he was describing the emergence of the rabid Republican base that cheers on Trump.

Soyinka challenged the Westminster graduates to reject the logic of us versus them and reclaim, instead, the power of “we,” referencing one of Obama’s campaign slogans from 2008, when these graduates were too young to vote or even drive a motor vehicle.

“You already possess that armor of invincibility that reads, ‘Yes, we can,’” Soyinka said to conclude his commencement address.

Soyinka – who has published books in nearly every genre, including plays, novels, poems, memoirs and diatribes – has a philosophical cast of mind, though he tends to be more confrontational and less suggestive than he was at Westminster. He may have skirted a more blunt attack on Trump out of respect for his host, a Yoruba from Nigeria conducting his first commencement as the first black president of a college in a mid-Missouri town that is 81 percent white.

Fulton is the county seat of Callaway County. In 2008, voters in Callaway County chose John McCain – and Sarah Palin – over Obama and Joe Biden by a huge margin of 59 to 41 percent. In 2012, they close Mitt Romney over Obama by an almost 2:1 margin, 64 to 33 percent.

Soyinka was more biting – that is, more himself – in very brief remarks he made at a reception in his honor the evening before commencement. Westminster College is home to a Winston Churchill museum and reveres the memory of the former British prime minister (and, like Soyinka, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, in his case in 1953) who put the college on the map with his “Iron Curtain” speech.

Yet Soyinka was anything but reverential about the former prime minister who fought colonial wars in Africa for the British kingdom that colonized Nigeria. To a small crowd of faculty from Westminster and the neighboring University of Missouri Columbia, Soyinka described Churchill as “an unapologetic colonialist and exploiter.”

Nigeria: FG Orders Prosecution of Senators Over Forgery of Senate Standing Orders

2016-05-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Nigeria's Justice Minister, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation and the police to bring charges against suspects, who allegedly forged the Senate Standing Orders used to inaugurate the 8th senate, in two weeks.

According to Punch Newspaper, Malami gave the order after he found out last week that the ministry had since July 29, 2015, some months before his appointment, recommended the prosecution of the yet-to-be-identified suspects.

The suspects would be charged with criminal conspiracy, forgery, breach of official trust and unlawful assembly which is said to have contravened various provisions of Penal Code in about one or two weeks.

NIGERIA DELISTED FROM FASTEST GROWING ECONOMIES IN AFRICA

2016-04-29T15:02:00.002-07:00

Apr 28, 2016
Views 809

Nigeria for the first time in 15 years has dropped out of the league of fastest growing economies in Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook for Africa in 2016.
The revised outlook released on Tuesday indicates that the country’s economy will grow by a modest 3.2 percent from an average of 7.0 percent it has grown in the last decade, making her drop to the league of slow growing economies.
In 2014 and early 2015, Nigeria was named the third fastest growing economy in the world by CNNMoney with China and Qatar ahead of Nigeria on 7.3 and 7.1 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth, respectively.
The country’s status as one of the world’s fastest growing economies came to fore majorly in the wake of its rebased GDP in 2014, which made it Africa’s largest economy and 26th in the world.
In the revised outlook, the IMF noted Cote d’Ivoire as the fastest growing economy in Africa for 2016 while Chad was named the slowest with expected negative growth.
Specifically, the IMF said Cote d’Ivoire dethroned Africa’s giant, Nigeria, and she is expected to experience an 8.5 percent rise in GDP. On the other hand, Nigeria’s neighbor, Chad, is expected to see a -0.4 percent growth.
Chad like Nigeria is one of the countries suffering from the Boko Harm insurgency and is heavily imperiled by systemic corruption and undemocratic tendencies.
The fastest growing economies in Africa by GDP growth rate, as projected by IMF for 2016 are: Cote D’Ivoire (8.5%), Tanzania (6.9%), Senegal (6.6%), Djibouti (6.5%), Rwanda (6.3%), Kenya (6.0%), Mozambique (6.0%), Central African Republic (5.7%), Sierra Leone (5.3%) and Uganda (5.3%).
Also, DR Congo expects a GDP growth of 4.9 percent; Cameroon, 4.9 percent; Ethiopia, 4.5 percent; Ghana, 4.5 percent, and Republic of Congo, 4.4 percent.
Madagascar, Zambia, and Chad are expected to see a growth of 4.1 percent, 3.4 percent, and 3.2 percent, respectively.
Major oil exporters, Angola, and Nigeria, hard hit by the slump in crude oil prices, are projected to see a growth 2.5 and 2.3 percent, respectively.
Notably, this would be the first time Nigeria’s GDP would slump to 2.3 percent growth since the return of democracy in 1999.
Analysts say the economic success story of the past 16 years is gradually turning gloom as the country’s economic fortunes are fast dropping.
Since the All Progressives Congress (APC) came into power on a change mantra, it has been beset with internal party wrangling and the hounding of the opposition on the guise of corruption.
It was gathered that the country has operated for 26 days without a budget and that no policy direction has been muted by the government let alone being concretised.
Inflation, according to the nation’s statistical agency, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has reached a four-year high of 12.8 percent while unemployment has spiraled out of control as well as infrastructure deficit increasingly becoming acute.
The country’s economic underperformance could also be traced to insecurity largely fuelled by Boko Haram insurgency in the North and falling crude oil prices in the international markets.
The country’s pathetic economic and security situation is topping the bill in issues to be discussed when the IMF, and the World Economic Forum (WEF), would meet in Africa later in May.
Nigeria’s fall was rapid and could be compounded if the government does not make concerted efforts to rein in inhibitive economic policies acting as hazards, the report says.
This dramatic fall amid opportunities and the high hopes expressed by the rest of the world when the new government came in has been blamed on lack of reform and government direction.
The new gem of Africa, it said, is Rwanda, which the report urged should be copied as it has transformed dramatically since the 1994 genocide. She is placed 5th in the fastest growing African economies.
The IMF and World Bank list Rwanda as one of the continent’s most competitive economies and a top reformer in improving the business environment.
“It is important to recognize the challenges that many African economies face – the commodities slump, currency devaluations and geo-security risks all threaten growth,” WEF explained.
Therefore, the May meeting of the Forum will highlight the need for diversification in order to ensure inclusive economic growth, tapping into the fourth industrial revolution’s potential to create new industries and help reduce inequality across the continent.
The World Economic Forum on Africa 2016 will take place in Kigali, Rwanda from May 11-13, highlighting the new influential status of the country.

2016-04-24T15:17:00.001-07:00

18 Rules of Living by the Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs: 1. Respect for self 2. Respect for others 3. Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Spits Fire!!! Buhari And Obj More Interested In Oil Block Than The Change They Promised.

2016-04-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

Obasanjo endorsed General Buhari as the man to deliver this nation. I was personally shocked when I heard the news. This is because, I was expecting Baba to stay at the touch line, and leave Nigerians to study his body language. But the masquerade could not control his dance in the public market. Hence, he mistakenly flogged his own mother who is also a trader in the market. Nigerians, I am left with no option than to tell us that, these ex-generals and their boys are up to something. The issue at hand is not all about the presidential seat. But rather, the national cake (oil blocks).

Less I forget, is it not the same Obasanjo who woke up and hand picked his puppet 2011, who eventually grew like Joseph the messiah of Egypt? Is it not the same Obj that told us 2011, that General Buhari is too old to rule this country? Is it not the same Obj that told us Buhari is a dictator? Somebody should have a rethink like me. We must understand the preacher’s language before decoding his message. If Obj can take a swift and prefer General Buhari to Jonathan, a puppet he dedicated his energy and resources to win 2011 election, then as an average Nigerian, we should have a rethink and ask our leaders what is so special in Aso Rock. If leadership is to serve the people, why is it that,the ex-generals finally gang up against their new recruit on account of change? If we’re to outline the sins of Mr.President, are the ex- generals not guilty of such sins? One may ask why is SPEAKER taking a swift? Everybody wants change. But I am astonished the way and manner these ex- general joined the train of change. Is it that, this is the first time they heard the word change? If NO, why did they not change this country when they were given opportunity? Why advocating for change now when the puppet body language shows he Will not renew their oil blocks licence? Why advocating for change now, when the puppet purchased equipment to monitor and reduce vandalism? Why advocating for change now, when the strong headed puppet wiped out their ghost names from the civil service payroll?

Why advocating for change now, when the puppet sacked your boys as corrupt ministers? Why advocating for change now, when the puppet refused to dump Sambo for another puppet? Why advocating for change when he refused to kill Nigerians indiscriminately. But rather he is exploiting all means of dialogue. Unlike your Odi brutal killings and destruction.

Why advocating for change now, when the puppet refused to twist governors hands with EFCC to pave his way like you did? Why advocating for change now, when at 72 years, you still tell your children of 50years they are the leaders of tomorrow? Why advocating for change now, when the puppet refused to give you the fertilizer deal? Why advocating for change now, when the puppet refused to jail your enemies? Why advocating for change now, when the puppet refused to rig the election for your daughter? Why advocating for change now, when in your time railways were not working? Why advocating for change, when in your time, our judiciary could not deliver a fair judgement in favour of oppositions? Baba, Nigerians are fed up of you sitting in Otta, deciding their future. We want to decide our destiny with the help of God. We want to practice true democracy by using our votes to decide our future. Let the good works or antecedents of our leaders speak volume for them. Just after the presidential chat with Mr.President, we discovered that you, your colleagues and errant boys, are spreading false information to pave your way to Aso rock. Lastly, I challenge you Baba, #Tinubu, #Atiku and others to tell Nigerians you don’t have oil blocks or you Generals are not fighting the last battle to protect your oil blocks. They won’t come out and speak my brothers and sisters. They want us to believe they are fighting for us. When they have their own local refineries at their backyards. R..I.P Fela: Animals wan dash me my human right.

Reuben Abati: The Senate needs to be rescued

2016-04-22T07:12:00.001-07:00

The present Senate serving the Nigerian people runs the risk of being remembered as the worst since 1999. Public Relations Consultants and media officials of this particular Senate have done their part flooding both the print and the online media with details of how productive the Bukola Saraki-led Senate has been, and they have been quite aggressive in telling us about 30 important Bills which when passed, will change the face of Nigeria and deliver change. The Senate according to one report has considered over 125 bills, debated over 48 motions, and passed three bills. But nobody is apparently impressed. During the Jonathan administration, the Senate was the better regarded of the two legislative chambers. While members of the House of Representatives in the Seventh Assembly behaved as if they were a band of students’ unionists, the then Red Chamber projected an image of maturity and temperance, even if it was also self-serving! With the 8th Assembly, the House of Representatives, apart from the shameful resort to physical combat over the distribution of “juicy” committees in November 2015, has shown itself to be better organized than the present Senate. The critical difference is that of leadership. It is one of management. It is a matter of weight and politics. Many Nigerians would find it difficult to see how a Senate whose leader is on trial for corruption-related matters, and that has chosen to buy for its members, luxury SUV vehicles at inflated cost can claim to be helping Nigerians at a time when the economy is on a tragic downward spiral, and yet the same Senators had allegedly collected vehicle loans. This has brought the Senate condemnation from both the Nigeria Labour Congress and a coalition of about 400 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). What is clear is that the leadership recruitment and selection process in the legislative arm of government is as critical as it is in any other sphere of government. During the 7th Assembly, the politics of the emergence of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, a PDP lawmaker who became an agent and later, chieftain of the opposition party, ensured that the House remained almost permanently in a frosty relationship with the Executive. Likewise, the manner of Bukola Saraki’s emergence as Senate President, marked again by alleged disloyalty to his own party and collusion with the opposition for personal gains, has laid the foundation for the supremacy of intrigues, cabals, and the politics of mischief in a Chamber that should be devoted strictly to the making of laws for the good governance of Nigeria. His colleague in the House of Representatives also emerged under controversial circumstances, but Yakubu Dogara’s politics seems to be better managed. Saraki’s politics is made more complex by the fact that he has strong roots in the two dominant parties in the National Assembly and has proven to be extremely influential across party lines, making him a dominant force in Nigeria’s current power equation, and most certainly, a threat to other power centres. Online, the Saraki-led Senate claims that it has done a lot, even if it has spent more time being on vacation in less than a year, and obsessed daily with the politics of contradictions. The Senate President once reportedly boasted that the Senate under his watch has helped to block corruption by helping Nigeria to save money. He talked about the Senate’s probe of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). But now, here is the contradiction: Many Nigerians would find it difficult to see how a Senate whose leader is on trial for corruption-related matters, and that has chosen to buy for its members, luxury SUV vehicles at inflated cost can claim to be helping Nigerians at a time when the economy is on a tragic downward spiral, and yet the same Senators had allegedly collected vehicle loans. This has brought the Senate condemnation from both the Nigeria Labour Congress and a coalition of about 400 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). But we know where the problem lies: politicians are always playing games, and the Senate under Bukola Saraki’s watch has acted more than once, as if it is against the people. This Senate has had to reverse itself thrice in the last one month following public outcry about its lack of moral rectitude. The painful reality is that the impression has now been created that the Senate as presently constituted is playing the politics of one man. It has reduced itself to a Saraki-must-stay-and-the-Executive-and-anti-Saraki-APC-leaders-must-bow-Red-Chamber. Most members of the House of Representatives have tactfully stayed away from this abuse of privilege and utter contempt for the original mandate of the National Assembly, but they need to be advised to also stay away from the kind of infectious madness that seems to be seizing hold of the Senate. It is a form of madness that encourages recourse to farce, burlesque and conspicuous acquisition. Senate President Bukola Saraki may not have read Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, for he seems to have broken too many of those laws already; perhaps he has read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He should have been told that to rush headlong into war without mastering the dynamics of power is costly. This is one bitter political lesson about the strategy of war that Senator Saraki is currently learning. But now that he has gone so deep into the battlefield, he may no longer be allowed to surrender or retreat, even as his troops are gradually fleeing Determined to show support for their embattled Senate President who is on trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), and whose name has also been mentioned in the Panama Papers scandal, many of the Senators abandoned the Senate Chambers and started following their boss to the Tribunal. On one occasion as many as close to 50 Senators abandoned their primary assignment and chose to go and play politics at the Tribunal. If this seeming relocation of the Senate to the Code of Conduct Tribunal was meant to intimidate the presiding judge, His Lordship has refused to be intimidated, either by the crowd or the convoy of buses or the retinue of 90 defence lawyers. He has now chosen to attend to the case on a daily basis. The number of Senators doing follow-follow has since reduced: it will of course, be absurd to shut down the entire Senate to embark on sycophantic frolic. Nonetheless, the Saraki case is taking its toll on the Senate. It has placed it on a collision course with a court of competent jurisdiction, with the Executive and also divided the ruling All Progressives Congress. It has also led to a situation whereby the lawmakers even attempted to change the Code of Conduct Bureau Act in an obvious attempt to frustrate the Saraki trial. In less than 48 hours, the amendment bill went through first and second readings. If there had been no public outcry, the lawmakers would have passed the bill in less than 72 hours. It would have been the fastest piece of legislation ever, and yet it was meant to be self-serving: making a law to sabotage due process, even when they know that a law cannot have retroactive effect. When that failed, our Senators came up with the ingenious idea that the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal must appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions. An indignant crowd of civil society agitators also shut that down. The Chairman of the CCT has also been a target of campaigns of calumny. Saraki’s supporters are throwing everything possible into this matter, where the legal process fails, the legislative process is deployed; when that also fails, an internet war, rallies, protests, all designed to win the public mind is launched. Saraki has stepped on the proverbial Banana peel; as he struggles for survival, our Senate, the people’s Senate, must not be allowed to fail as a public institution. Senator Saraki should step aside, for now, as Senate President. If he emerges victorious from his travails, his colleagues should do him the honour of reinstating him to that office of honour, without question. Senate President Bukola Saraki may not have read Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, for he seems to have broken too many of those laws already; perhaps he has read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He should have been told that to rush headlong into war without mastering the dynamics of power is costly. This is one bitter political lesson about the strategy of war that Senator Saraki is currently learning. But now that he has gone so deep into the battlefield, he may no longer be allowed to surrender or retreat, even as his troops are gradually fleeing. Saraki has stepped on the proverbial Banana peel; as he struggles for survival, our Senate, the people’s Senate, must not be allowed to fail as a public institution. Senator Saraki should step aside, for now, as Senate President. If he emerges victorious from his travails, his colleagues should do him the honour of reinstating him to that office of honour, without question. But if he loses, he should remember that war only offers two possibilities, and even when a warrior wins, there may still be dangers on the way back home. In all, the politics of Saraki’s trial should not consume the Senate, and indeed the 8th Assembly. “So far, so good”, Saka Olawale wrote assessing the present Senate. I don’t think so. If anything, this Senate needs to be rescued. Whatever explanations our present set of Senators offers would be difficult to believe given the manner in which they have exposed their own limitations. The Senate cannot even keep documents. Copies of the 2016 Budget vanished from its custody. The copies when eventually found mutated into versions unknown to the Executive arm that presented the same Budget at an open ceremony. For five months, the Senate is embroiled in a needless controversy over the content of the Budget. What is worse: In almost one year, no Senator can be quoted as having said anything engaging or profound. The only Senator who makes a serious effort to display some common sense is far more active on Twitter than on the floor of the Senate. The more prominent Senators are known for their rabid politicking or their wardrobe or exotic cars or the comedy that they provide. One of them even came up with a bill to gag free speech. It was in this same Senate that some male chauvinists declared that women cannot have any equal rights with men, and so a Gender Equality Bill is unacceptable. They failed to realize that in the United States, whose Constitutional democracy we are copying, a woman is only a short distance away from emerging as Presidential candidate of the Democratic Party and as 45th President of the United States. I imagine many of them struggling to be photographed with the same woman if they are so privileged. Was it also not in this same Senate that a member argued that Nigerian lawmakers should only patronise Made-in-Nigeria-women? This was meant to be a “brilliant” contribution to a debate on the need to promote Made-in-Nigeria goods. How dumb! And this kindergarten level statement actually generated some debate! Challenging as the democratic process may have been, Nigerians can still remember a few Senators of old who sat in that same Assembly and made impact with their interventions and insightful speeches. To now have a group of Senators who crack jokes, borrow their imageries from road side bars, embark on a frolic, or spend time on sycophantic exertions, and when called upon, prove annoyingly incapable of analyzing and interrogating policies and making solid contributions is sad. We expect this to change. *This article was originally titled: The Senate, CCT and the politics of Saraki’s trial

N2.5bn fraud: EFCC arrests Jonathan’s campaign director, Senator Nenadi Usman

2016-04-22T05:12:00.002-07:00

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested the Director of Finance of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Senator Nenadi Usman, for allegedly receiving N2.5bn from the Central Bank of Nigeria. A top official of the EFCC, who confided in The PUNCH, said the former minister was arrested on Thursday in Abuja. All funds that came from the Presidency during the campaign were believed to have come through Usman. Usman, who is also a former Minister of State for Finance, had been on the radar of the EFCC for several weeks but she travelled out of the country on March 13, 2016 thereby stalling investigations. According to impeccable sources at the anti-graft agency, N4bn was transferred from the account of the CBN into a mysterious account known as the Ministry of External Affairs Library. The mysterious account was believed to be a conduit put in place by the Office of the National Security Adviser on the instructions of the Presidency. From the mysterious account, N2.5bn was said to have been transferred to the company account of Usman while N140m cash was allegedly paid into her Zenith Bank account with number, 1000158311, domiciled in 7 Kachia Road, Kaduna. The said transfer was said to have taken place in January 2015, during the build-up to the last presidential election. The PUNCH had reported in March that Usman, on the instructions of a former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, transferred different sums of money to several individuals and interest groups during the build-up to the last general elections. Usman allegedly transferred money to several persons through the bank account of a company, Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited. Through the said account, the Director of Publicity of the Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, received N840m. According to the documents sighted by our correspondent, the money was deposited into Fani-Kayode’s Zenith Bank account, Maitama branch with account number 1004735721 on February 19, 2015. EFCC sources said a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Chief Olu Falae, received N100m through a company, Marreco Limited, where he is chairman. The fund was credited into the company’s United Bank for Africa Plc account number 1000627022. About N320m was also paid into the bank account of the Goodluck Support Group, an association of over 100 pro-Jonathan groups headed by Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Prof. Rufai Alkali. However, many of the recipients of the money said they did not know that the funds emanated from the CBN as they were told by Usman that they were sourced privately. A detective at the EFCC described Usman’s arrest as a breakthrough, adding that she would be able to shed more light on the controversy. He said, “A lot of people who received money during the campaign claimed to have received money from Nenadi Usman. Since she was in charge of funds, she will be able to list the names of those who collected money and if the money was approved by Jonathan. “There is no part of the constitution which gives the CBN the right to fund a political party. Usman must therefore tell us why the CBN gave her money.” It was gathered that the former Finance Minister was being interrogated at the EFCC headquarters as of the time of filing this report. Meanwhile, the EFCC has also traced N316m to the company account of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Clement Iloh. Our correspondent learnt that Iloh was currently in the EFCC custody as part of investigations into the fraud at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency under the leadership of the immediate past Director-General of the agency, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi. A reliable source in the anti-graft agency told our correspondent that the N316m was traced to Iloh’s company account domiciled in Zenith Bank in contravention of Civil Service Rules. The Civil Service Rules Part I, Fifth Schedule, Section 2 (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that, “A public officer shall not, except where he is not employed on a full-time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade, but nothing shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming.” The source, who did not want his name in print, said the permanent secretary was undergoing interrogation at the Lagos office of the EFCC as of Wednesday. The detective said N14.1m was traced to Iloh’s bank account from NIMASA. He said, “In the course of investigating the Technical Committee for Ratification of MLC of NIMASA, we traced about N14.1m from NIMASA’s account to a company account belonging to Clement, Bob and Associates domiciled in Zenith Bank. Upon investigations, we found out that the account belonged to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Clement Iloh, who is the sole signatory. He is being investigated because we traced N316m to a company belonging to him. “The name of the company is Clement, Bob and Associates. Investigations revealed that Iloh is a signatory to the account which is domiciled in Zenith Bank.” It was learnt that although NIMASA is not under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the ministry is concerned with relations between workers and employers. Last year, Iloh as the permanent secretary headed the ministry for several months in the absence of a minister, overseeing labour matters at NIMASA. The source stated that the EFCC traced some money from what he called ‘maritime labour services’ into Iloh’s account.

Asiwaju: why contestation for supremacy among yoruba Obas will linger.

2016-04-20T03:46:00.000-07:00

By MUYIWA ADEYEMI (Head South West Bureau) | 17 April 2016 | 2:24 am For Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Lagos, Anthony Asiwaju, contestation for supremacy among and between Yoruba Obas will continue to linger because of the politicisation of Yorubaland’s oral tradition. Asiwaju, who turns 77 on April 27, in this interview with The Guardian at his Imeko, Ogun State residence gave an historical and deep scholarly insight into the recent debate between the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona and advised the Yoruba Obas to be humble enough to read and learn more about their history, beyond what is traditionally transmitted in the local courts and palaces. MUYIWA ADEYEMI (Head South West Bureau) reports. Why has supremacy tussle among Yoruba Obas become a recurring decimal? A recurring decimal, indeed! The controversy was ignited early during European colonial rule. It all started when the British authorities tried using the Obaship institution to achieve in Yorubaland what their so-called Indirect Rule system was attaining for them in the Northern Emirates of Nigeria. The encounter with a bewildering number of traditional rulers in several parts of Yorubaland caused the colonial authorities to inquire after who is who among them. And since they had come to know that Ile-Ife is the commonly acclaimed ancestral home of most of the claimants, the Ooni of Ife became the point of reference. The British were also informed of the Old Oyo Empire, hence their use of the Alaafin to erect the artefact that has been aptly styled the ‘New Oyo Empire,’ which in the heydays of indirect rule in western Nigeria, comprised the combined areas of present-day Oyo and Osun States. The European enquiries of the colonial period, contained in the wide-ranging Intelligence Reports that eventually became useful source of materials for a more scientific historical research, introduced us to the reason for the controversy and its interminable nature. It is that the main source of the history on which the claims and counter-claims are rested is oral and when, as in the subject under discussion, the concern is about power and power relations, oral traditions become especially contentious and highly politicised. Can you elaborate on this? My thoughts on the subject were first polled together in a 1975 scholarly study, titled ‘Political Motivation and Oral Tradition in Africa: The Case of Yoruba Beaded Crowns,’ published in Africa (Quarterly Journal of International Africa Institute – IAI, London), 46, 2, 113 – 127. It touches on the contending issues of the number of what we may call foundation or pioneer ‘beaded crowns’ and their hierarchy. The publication elaborates on the inherent nature of the debate and the pragmatic character of state policy. Take first the issue of endless debate, relating to the number of foundation-beaded crowns. The current claim by the Alake, paramount ruler of Egbaland, sharply contradicted by the Awujale of Ijebuland, was about the so-called ‘big five:’ Ooni of Ife, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba of Benin, the Alake and the Awujale in that hierarchical order. The point in this claim and counter-claim is that both sides conveniently ignored a pre-existing popular list of the principal seven in Samuel Johnson’s admittedly Oyo-biased History of the Yorubas (CMS, 1921), namely: the Olowu of Owu, Alaketu of Ketu, the Onisabe of Sabe, the Orangun of Ila, the Oba of Benin, the Onipopo of Popo and the Alaafin of Oyo. You can see that this more widely circulated alternative list excludes not only the Alake and the Awujale, the two protagonists in the current debate; it also does not include the Ooni of Ife, whose visit to the Alake sparked off the debate. My 1975 publication had indicated other lists in accordance with the perspectives in other competing Yoruba Oral Traditions, e.g. the Ife and the Ekiti versions of 16, though of different details, and the 29 of the Ijesa. It may serve some purpose to recall here the well-known life-long contestation for supremacy between the immediate past Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuade Olubuse and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, based on the contrast between the different oral historical perspectives. In all of this, how do we locate the Alake of Egbaland and Awujale of Ijebuland? This question relates to the issue of categorisation, if not ranking, which is not less contentious in the sources. But there is a point in the Awujale’s comment regarding the probability of some of the ‘beaded crowns’ being primary and others of secondary derivation. Thus, for example, we know of a fact that the hallowed stool of today’s Alake of Egbaland was originally derived from Ketu, the ancient Yoruba Kingdom, now in the Republic of Benin. This view is based on the unanimity of the oral traditions, as recorded in Ketu and Ake itself (See E. Geoffrey Parrinder, The Story of Ketu, 1956, and Saburi Biobaku, The Egba and Their Neighbours, 1957). Of course, the Ketu connection in reference predated the Abeokuta phase of Egba history, where the stool was a resuscitation of 1854, thanks to the prodding and encouragement of the Christian missionaries and officials of the British Crown, who followed them there. By reason, therefore, of the common agreement of the Ketu and Ake oral tradition, the Alake dynasty is arguably a secondary derivation from the Alaketu, which may be reasonably viewed, as one of the originally few Yoruba Obas of direct descendant from the Yoruba ancestral home of Ile-Ife. The present Alaketu of Ketu, Oba Basil Adiro Alade-Ife rehashed this point during an elaborate reception organised for him by the Ogun State Government in Abeokuta on June 6, 2006. The statement came as a response to an assertion made at the same occasion by the Alake of Egbaland, to the effect that the visiting Alaketu is his ‘son’, whereas the boot was on the other foot of the enshrined genealogy of the Yoruba monarchical institution. On the other hand, the Awujale would appear to have held sway as the primary monarch of the ancient Ijebu Kingdom over the entire period that dates back to the arrival of the Oduduwa group led by Obanta or Olu Iwa, acclaimed founder of the dynasty, from Ile-Ife via an eastern route through the same Rain Forest, where the founders of Ondo and related kingdoms of Ile-Oluji and Idanre settled. What would you say about the Ijebu in this order? Bearing in mind the aforementioned observations, I should say the Awujale dynasty and the masses of the Ijebu are definitely a part of the larger Yoruba cultural complex, and the statement credited to the Awujale, in terms of origination of the dynasty from Wadai in present-day Republic of Sudan, west of Borno, does not contradict this obvious fact. After all, Samuel Johnson, Olumide Lucas (see his The Religion of the Yorubas… Especially in Relation to the Religion of Ancient Egypt, CMS 1948) and even Biobaku are known to have argued, though controversially, for an origination in the remotest period of history from ancient Egypt and even Saudi Arabia. There have been stories about the migratory route passing through Nubia, Wadai, Borno and Kwararafa, a routing that formed the basis of some belief in the historical connection between Yoruba-speaking peoples on the one hand and, on the other, such other peoples as the Nubians in Southern Sudan, the Kanuri (issues of the Gogobiri legend) and the Kwararafa, particularly the stool of the Aku of Wukari. There are similar legends connecting the Kisra migration stories and the foundation of traditional ruling elites of the Bariba of Borgu with the Odudua legendary migration from ‘the East’ to Ile Ife. Is there any established research work that supports Awujale’s Wadai claim of origination of the Ijebus? I have already made pertinent allusions to the Wadai claim of the origination, not of the Ijebu, but more specifically the Awujale dynasty. I have suggested that the Awujale’s claim to Wadai origination was probably in reference to the controversial school of thought, pioneered by Johnson and Lucas, regarding Eastern origination of the Yoruba culture. I have emphasised repeatedly that our focus in this interview is on the Yoruba ruling dynasties, not necessarily on the larger history of the people themselves. With regards to the people, in this case the Ijebu sub-group of the Yoruba-speaking cultural complex, reference has been made to the historical integration or fusion of the pre-Obanta or pre-Odudua Agemo stock with the in-coming Oduduwa elements, founders of the Awujale dynasty. It is in this connection that Oba Sikiru Adetona, the esteemed Awujale of Ijebuland, has made reference to the Ijebu as a distinct, if not a distinguished Yoruba sub-group and cited the book on The Ijebu of Yorubaland by Professor E.A. Ayandele, a highly renowned Nigerian historian. One other work of distinction on the Ijebu is Ijebu Under Colonial Rule by Tunde Oduwobi, Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos. Are you saying the Awujale throne cannot be separated from the Oduduwa Stock? Yes. It is part and parcel of the Oduduwa hegemonic penetration that changed the historical dynamics of Yorubaland. Does that mean the Awujale’s crown is older than that of the Alake’s? Yes, if the reference is to the Alake in the Abeokuta phase of Egba history. Okukenu, the first Alake in Abeokuta, the great ancestor of Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, Okukeni IV, was enthroned only in 1854, 24 years after the foundation of the Egba metropolis, thanks to the encouragement of the Christian Missionaries and visiting agents of the British Crown. The Alake’s throne at the Ake homestead in the historic Egba Forest was technically abrogated, like virtually those of the other Yoruba Obas, following the turbulence of the infamous 19th Century Wars that led to the destruction of most of the pre-existing Yoruba ancestral cities and kingdoms, including Ile-Ife, Old Oyo, Owu, Ketu, Sabe and Ila among others and wide-spread ascendancy of the military class all over Yorubaland, including Ijebu Ode and wider area of the Ijebu Kingdom, where, for quite a while, military personages such as Balogun Kuku and Onafowokan eclipsed the Awujale and the Ijebu civil order. In light of this inherently interminable tussle among Yoruba Obas, which threatens the unity of the land and the people, what suggestions would you offer? My first suggestion is for Yoruba royal fathers to be sensitive to the vulnerability of historical sources on which their titles and positions are based and the need, therefore, for them to be more cautious in their public pronouncements. This is especially important, if the concern is the promotion of unity across the entire culture area in Nigeria and, why not even across the border in the Republic of Benin and beyond? In this important regard, I would urge that revered Yoruba Obas be humble enough to read and learn more about their constituents’ history, beyond what is traditionally transmitted in the local courts and palaces. Personally, I think it is significant that the latest outburst on the supremacy tussle, the Awujale’s understandable tirade against the Alake, was during the fund-raising for the Chair of Governance at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), in honour of Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale and ‘Orisa Ijebu’. The event, including the statement by the Awujale, as well as the keynote by the venerable Professor Akin Mabogunje and the intervention of the Emir of Kano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Alhaji Lamido Sanusi Lamido, all point to critical issues of governance in Nigeria. Professor Mabogunje’s keynote was focused on the deplorable state of Local Governments, which coincided with Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State’s announcement that his administration is resolved to increase the number of Local councils in the state from 20 to 57. The Emir of Kano’s intervention hammered on the budget implications of the over-sized Federal Government bureaucracy. The presence of the Awujale and other traditional rulers, including the Emir, at the occasion, aside the Awujale’s statement under discussion, clearly attested to yet another fundamental challenge to governance in Nigeria, namely: the contradiction in what I once referred to as ‘a republic of thousand kings’. All together, there is an underscoring of the pertinence and relevance of the Oba Sikiru Adetona Chair of Governance at the OOU.

Pension: EFCC arrests suspended DG, others for N2.5bn fraud

2016-04-20T03:20:00.000-07:00

April 20, 2016 Suspended Director-General, of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, Nelly Mayshak Eniola Akinkuotu and Ifeanyi Onuba The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested the suspended Director-General, of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, Nelly Mayshak, and three others, Yoab Youssoufou, Patricia Iyogun, and Ruth Imonikhe for a N2.5bn fraud. PTAD is an independent pension agency established in August 2013 to oversee the management of pensions under the Defined Benefit Scheme for pensioners not transiting to the defined contributory scheme. It will be recalled that Mayshak was last month placed on an indefinite suspension and investigated after it was discovered that she allegedly received N50m monthly in salary and allowances. According to sources at the EFCC, investigations into the alleged fraud revealed that Mayshak allegedly misappropriated about N2bn that was left in the pensions’ account of the Head of the Civil Service, Nigeria Immigrations Service, Nigeria Customs Service, and Nigeria Prisons Service. She also allegedly embezzled about N500m meant as the take-off grant for PTAD. The alleged scam, which borders on procurement fraud, was committed during her three-year tenure. A detective at the anti-graft agency told our correspondent that Mayshak allegedly awarded several fictitious contracts to her cronies at PTAD, one of whom was her sister-in-law. A source at the EFCC said, “In one instance, Mayshak allegedly approved N25,410,000 for the supply of 121,000,000 litres of fuel in one day when in fact there was no corresponding storage capacity, as PTAD only has a storage capacity of about 11,000 litres, which lasts for about a month. “Mayshak is alleged to have awarded several phony contracts to cronies and members of staff of PTAD, through which she used to enrich herself as they only served as fronts for her. “Between December 8 and 30, 2014 she awarded multiple contracts to one company , Interactive Wide Nigeria Limited to the tune of N29,377,993.26. Contracts for the supply of office materials, air conditioners, and conference materials to the tune of N375, 704,287 were awarded to Belzacode, Hosley Nigeria Limited, and Pabak Nigeria Limited.” Investigations revealed that one of the suspects, Yousoufou, who is the Team Leader, ICT Department, owned Belzacode; while Imonihke, Team Leader, DG’s Office, owned Hosley Nigeria Limited. Iyogun, who is Team Leader, Customs, Immigration, Prisons, Pensions Department, and also a sister-in-law to Mayshak, owned Pabak Nigeria Limited. The anti-graft agency, however, said the three suspects were merely fronts for the prime suspect, Mayshak. The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded. The latest arrest of Mayshak is one of many pension scams in recent times. Last year the EFCC declared wanted Mr. Abdulrsheed Maina, a former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, for his role in the fraudulent biometric contracts through which he and a former Head of Service, Steve Oronsaye, and two others allegedly stole over N2bn of pension funds. The International Police Organisation has already issued a ‘Red Notice’ on Maina, who is believed to have fled to Dubai. Attempts to get comments from the spokesperson for PTAD, Mrs. Theodora Amechi ,were not successful as calls made to her mobile line did not connect. Similarly a text message sent to her phone had yet to be responded to as of 7.56pm on Tuesday night.

FG loses N1bn to 37,395 ghost workers—EFCC

2016-04-20T03:11:00.001-07:00

ON APRIL 20, 20164:50 The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said yesterday that the Federal Government had uncovered 37,395 ghost workers on the payroll of the Federal Civil Service, which led to a loss of about N1 billion. EFCC’s acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, made the disclosure during an anti-corruption sensitisation programme organised for staff of works and housing sectors. Magu said apart from the widespread procurement frauds in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, the issue of ghost workers was a source of serious concern to the commission. He said: “EFCC has uncovered 37,395 ghost workers in the Federal Civil Service and investigation is still going on. Our investigations have so far revealed that the Federal Government has lost close to N1 billion to these ghost workers. “The figure will definitely increase as we unravel more ghost workers buried deep in Federal Civil Service payrolls.” He also explained that the commission had established a Procurement Fraud Unit to handle the increasing number of petitions relating to violations of the Public Procurement Laws. He, therefore, advised civil servants to avoid any act that was in breach of public procurement procedures, warning that violators risked imprisonment and dismissal from service. Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary (Works and Housing), Abubakar Magaji, said as drivers of government policies, MDAs should be in the forefront of compliance with public service laws and regulations. He said the works and housing sectors had resolved to regularly organise interactive sessions to re-orientate officers on the importance of compliance with extant laws, regulations and guidelines. Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/fg-loses-n1bn-37395-ghost-workers-efcc/

HYSTERIA, EUPHORIA & AMNESIA: NIGERIA’S LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, BY MATTHEW KUKAH

2016-04-19T10:57:00.001-07:00

Below is an excerpt of a lecture delivered by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto at the Platform, Covenant Centre, Lagos, on October 1, 2015. (FOT THE RECORDS) Read full text: For years and perhaps out of deep frustration, Nigerians have raised up messiahs, hoping and praying that they would take away their sins and sufferings and usher in a new dawn. But, in almost all instances, our joys have turned into ashes. For over fifty years, we have celebrated every military or civilian regime only to lose patience and fall into depression. Under the civilian administrations, we have often summoned the military to come to our rescue. Some years back, while I was in Oxford and working on my book, a friend of mine, a retired military officer paid me a visit. We got talking about our country. I told him I really wanted to know how military coups were planned because I had never really read anything about coup plotting. He laughed and offered me some insights. I asked him if I could have him on tape and he said yes. In summary, he said something like this: The idea of a coup could come from an individual who might then sell it to another very close friend. It is hard to know whom to trust so you have to know how to send out feelers. So, for example, you meet a friend and you ask, how are things? And he says, well, my brother, country hard. You could go on and say something like, how can things be so bad? Will we continue like this? It is really terrible. Then you watch and see or hear his reaction. If he is of the same feeling of frustration, then you know that he is a good material and you go from there. Just like that? I said. He continued: Well, you keep sharing the feelings and then from two of you, the circle could gradually increase until you become a small core group. You then get to work and this could take months to plan. But when you are done with planning, the challenge is how to gauge the mood of the country to be sure that the coup might be popular. At this point, we then reach out to our friends in the media. We get people to write articles, editorial opinions, saying how bad things are in the country. Gradually, the people themselves begin to feel that things are really bad. Even those who are doing well may begin to feel guilty and so on. By doing this, we set the tone for public approval. This is why you always see people on the streets, rejoicing and welcoming us as messiahs and redeemers. The rest, as they say is history. The hysteria and euphoria that greeted General Buhari’s election victory is reminiscent of these sentiments. You get a sense of de javu, we have been on this road before, it all looks so familiar. I have listened to Nigerians sing the praises of General Buhari as a morally ramrod Muslim, God fearing, a disciplined officer, a patriot, an incorruptible man who is now been adorned with a messianic regalia. We are told that he will take us to the promised land, Nigerians argue by ridding our nation of the devil of corruption. And, as they say, we shall live happy ever after. I do not disagree with these sentiments. Some like myself have known the man for the better part of twenty years and can even claim some level of friendship and greater familiarity than most of those who met General Buhari after worship at the Church of latter day saints. However, I believe that Nigerians are very much mistaken in associating fear of God and goodness Going forward, I want to do three things in this presentation. First, I will define the key words in this presentation. Secondly, I will then try to look back at how the so-called fight against corruption has been deployed by the successive military regimes as a means of seducing us into compliance. My concern is whether we shall continue to fall for the same all tricks given that after over fifty years, we are nowhere near achieving success in our fight against corruption. 1: Hysteria, Euphoria & Amnesia: Definitions and Conceptual clarifications: Against the backdrop of what I have said, I hope you can now understand why I chose the words, hysteria, euphoria and amnesia as a way of interrogating the situation we are in. So far, what I have tried to do is to draw attention to the fact that we have been on this road before. What lessons are there for us to learn? By way of conclusion, I wish to now turn my attention to examining why I believe that ours is a case of a long walk to freedom. My Apple computer dictionary defines hysteria as follows; exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people…. psychological disorder whose symptoms include conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms, shown in volatile emotions, overdramatic or attention seeking behaviour. While Euphoria is defined as; a state of intense excitement and happiness, Amnesia defined and associated with, total or partial loss of memory. Amnesia is defined as; partial or total loss of memory. I believe that the outpouring of emotions welcoming the new administration was necessary and understandable, given the nature of the trepidation ahead of the elections. However, now that we have been able to catch our breathe, what should we make of this hysteria and euphoria? Personally, with some trepidation, the sense of de javu manifested in the blind hysterical and euphoric outpouring of emotions welcoming the return of President Buhari and the belief that he has come to take our sins away. The sense that somehow, we should simply fold our hands and wait because, like a scene out of Jim-will-fix-it in the British television programme, we should hand our future to one man who knows it all. We are becoming victims of what our favourite daughter, Chimamanda has referred to in a most powerful essay as the danger of the Single story. In her words, the single story is built on stereotypes and, the trouble with stereotypes is not that they are false, but that they are incomplete. Building on this, Nigerians have imbibed the notion of the single story that we are being defined as corrupt. Thus, the idea of a fight, a war against corruption has often taken a life of its own in our collective narrative of the problems of our country. We have moved a step further by saying that if we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill us. I consider most of this analysis a bit shallow, lacking in a serious understanding of how societies and human nature work in semi primitive society such as ours. My argument therefore is to say that, no, we should not be talking of fighting corruption, rather, we should see corruption as a symptom of something that is intrinsically wrong with our society, the loss of the moral centre of gravity of our society. If Corruption is so evil, how come we are so much at peace with it? If corruption is so rotten, how come we all seem to enjoy its company? What are the agencies for Corruption? What capacity do they have? Are they above the fray or are they also caught up in the same web of corruption? How much bribe does a President need to pay to get an Anti corruption Agency or bill passed in the Legislative assembly? Why has Corruption become so easy and pervasive and why is it that, like MTN would say, it is everywhere you go? What makes it so attractive? If we are so much against, it, how is it that we cannot generate a collective sense of moral revulsion? But, if we are a serious people with a sense of history, how many wars have we won in this country? Fifty years after the civil war, MASOOB says Biafra is still alive because those who govern us have refused to admit that in our dishonesty, we have left a few windows open. We did not win the war against indiscipline? Why did we not win the war against illiteracy? Why did we not win the war against hunger despite operation feed the nation? We did we not win the war against armed robbery? Why did not win the war against poverty? Why did we not win the war against insecurity? What makes us confident that we will win this war? Should it not be clear to us that there is more than meets the eye? President Buhari is not new on the block. He came and saw but we all know the story. In declaring a war against corruption, he lost his job. It is quite interesting that none of all of those who have suddenly become vocal now in the war against corruption went out on the streets to condemn the overthrow of their hero. If Nigerians were so convinced about the war against corruption, why did they all cross to the other side of the street where President Babangida was already offering them a decaffeinated form of war by stating that the overthrow of Buhari had become necessary because in his words on August 27th, 1985: Muhammad Buhari was too rigid and uncompromising in his attitude to issues of national significance? General Babangida justified his coup by claiming that General Buhari had been rather impervious to reason. In his words: Efforts to make him understand that a diverse polity like Nigeria requires recognition and appreciation of the difference in both cultural and individual perception only served to aggravate these attitudes…He arrogated to himself the absolute knowledge of problems and solutions and acted in accordance with what was convenient to him using the machinery of government as his tool. This was thirty years ago and both men are still alive. So, when I warn about the consequences of our hysteria, euphoria and amnesia, it is based on the feeling that in a more serious country, we should appreciate that we have been on this road before. The question we should be asking ourselves now is, how and why is it that every coup plotter in Nigeria hung nailed his colours on the mast of fighting corruption? How come that all successive governments have come in, accusing their predecessors of massive corruption only to turn around and do even worse or leave a similar legacy of rut? In my book, Witness to Justice, I titled one of the chapters, Do Not Forget to Remember. The idea was to call attention to a chronic lack of a sense of history that was unpardonable. I drew from a few of the speeches of coup plotters to illustrate this tragedy and argued that we are all culpable and that we are also sinners, not a bunch of innocent people who have been sinned against. Let me just very briefly trace this same trajectory so as to make the point. On January 15th, 1966, Major Nzeogwu told a stunned nation that they had intervened to establish a strong, united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife. The highpoint of his speech was when he said: Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10%, those who keep the country permanently divided so that they can remain in office. He ended his speech by proclaiming that: We promise that you will no more be ashamed to say that you are Nigerians. As we know, he and his men went on to commit heinous crimes against this nation by killing innocent men and finally triggering off the ugly events that led to a civil war. When the war ended, Gowon was finally overthrown on July 29th, 1975. Brigadier General Mohammed stated that the military had intervened because: Despite our great human and material resources, the government has not been able to fulfill the legitimate expectations of our people. Nigeria has been left to drift. Even the charlatan, Lt. Col BS Dimka opened greeted Nigerians on February 13th in 1976, by saying: I bring you good tidings, and ended his speech by reminding Nigerians that: We are together. On December 31st, 1983, the nation woke up to the voice of one Brigadier Sani Abacha who conscripted Nigerians into the witness box by arguing that: You have been witnesses to the grave economic predicament and uncertainty which an inept and corrupt leadership has imposed on our beloved nation…Our economy has been mis-managed. We have become a debtor and beggar nation…In some states; workers are being owed salaries of 8-12 months. General Abacha concluded that he and his colleagues had intervened because it was their duty as; promoters and protectors of our national interest. The new Head of State was announced as Brigadier General Muhammadu Buhari who, in his opening address noted: The change became necessary in order to put an end to the serious economic predicament and the crisis of confidence afflicting our country….This government will not tolerate kickbacks, inflation of contracts and over invoicing of imports, nor will it condone forgery, fraud, embezzlement, misuse and abuse of office and illegal dealings in foreign exchange and smuggling…..Workers who have not received their salaries in the past eight or so months will receive such salaries today or tomorrow. It was interesting that the President acknowledged that even the criminals had a role to play in his vision for the nation. He said: We expect all Nigerians, including those who participated directly or indirectly in bringing the nation to this present predicament, to cooperate with us. When Brigadier General Dogon Yaro announced the overthrow of the Buhari administration on August 27th, 1985, he acknowledged that the government had been welcomed with what he called, unprecedented enthusiasm. He complained that Members of the Supreme Military Council had been sidelined and made redundant because only ….a select few members were charged with the day-to-day implementation of the SMC’s policies and decisions….the concept of collective leadership has been substituted by stubborn and ill advised unilateral actions, thereby destroying the principles upon which the military came to power. On the same day, General Abacha in his own speech, complained that: …the Buhari leadership lacked the capacity and the capability to lead this nation out of its social and economic predicament….It is most disheartening that most of the ills that plagued the nation during the civilian regime are still present in our society. President Ibrahim Babangida then stepped up and opened his speech by reminding a stunned nation that; Buhari had come to power with the most popular enthusiasm accorded any government in the history of this country. But sadly, he continued: Since January 1984, we have witnessed systematic denigration of hope. He continued: Muhammadu Buhari was too rigid and uncompromising in his attitudes to issues of national significance…He arrogated to himself the absolute knowledge of the problems and solutions and acted in accordance with what was convenient to him using the machinery of government as his tool. General Babangida made the usual noises about the state of the economy and the plans to end economic mismanagement and place the nation on the path of rectitude. Then General Abacha came back a third time, this time to oust Shonekan. This was a rather curious speech because it was like no other. General Abacha broke from the tradition of denigrating his predecessor as a way of justifying his coup. Instead, he commended Shonekan for, in his own words, showing the greater courage of knowing when to leave. He promised to lay a solid foundation for the growth of democracy. He ended his speech by again, lamenting Chief Shonekan who, again in his words, unfortunately, resigned yesterday, stated that the government was a child of necessity out to enthrone lasting democracy. I know I sound like a bearer of bad news, a cynic or one who does not support Buhari’s war as my enemies have concluded. Indeed, the opposite is actually the case. First, as the American Television series, Everybody loves Raymond will say, Everybody loves Buhari. But that is the first danger. It is not in President Buhari’s interest that everyone presents a face of love for him. The country is more than one man. President Buhari himself has said that much. What the President needs is an army of non partisan patriots committed to supporting him, but looking well beyond him and his Party and focusing on the nation and its future. Despite our claims of moral probity, the President’s men and women who will be Ministers will be taken from among us. They will serve in the same public service that has deteriorated into a conveyor belt of corruption and malfeasance. We do not know how long they will stay on the high horse of moral probity before we start hearing the usual cry of, na morality we go chop? These men are from among us, and they will be surrounded by the usual coterie of carpetbaggers. So, the President requires other men and women outside his formal choir of Party members who can help him think, men and women who are unencumbered by the vagaries of the sweet juices of political power and office, men and women who are not seduced by popular approval, men and women who live for tomorrow, men and women who have ideas about how nations are build, men and women who do not see public trust as a vehicle for vengeance, men and women who live by the law of live and let live, men and women who do not see the exigencies of the moment as our turn to eat. 2: Still a very Long Walk To Freedom: I always had great difficulties understanding how Nigerians tried to compare Nelson Mandela with General Olusegun Obasanjo. On the surface, local and international commentators kept saying that they expected Obasanjo to do a Mandela by which they meant that he should have served one term and moved on. The comparison to my mind was a useless distraction because both men had such totally different dispositions, spiritual and other wise. Mandela never spoke of religion while Obasanjo had had a road to Damascus spiritual experience in prison. Obasanjo had been a President, an experience Mandela never had. Mandela inherited a disciplined society which had come at great cost to the black people, but it had produced a nation of superb infrastructure, a business elite that was largely ensconced from direct politics. Obasanjo had been wheeled into power by a thoroughly corrupt and inefficient system with which he had to negotiate and keep happy at a great cost to the nation. Mandela had had years of training and preparation, negotiation and the search for common ground with the Afrikaners while Obasanjo did not have such an experience. Finally, Mandela inherited an almost 80 year political movement that had the discipline of a religious group, while Obasanjo inherited a rickety contraption quickly assembled merely to wheel him to power. So, while one moved on and the other opted to stay on and on. The title of Mandela’s biography, A Long Walk to Freedom more or less says it all. In his personal life, he had been disciplined in the purifying fires of suffering. He promised the traumatised and oppressed people of South Africa who had been rendered landless and homeless a million houses and salt. But, in the end, none of these really became available to the people of South Africa, majority of who are still in the sheebeens of poverty and squalor. For Mandela, there was a trade off. In exchange for a stable country ravaged by hatred and injustice, he opted to heal the wounds of his people by focusing on the dignity of forgiveness and reconciliation. The verdict is out there as to whether he succeeded, but no one can take away the fact that he left his country sufficiently stable. This singular achievement laid the foundation for a new South Africa. It can be argued therefore that for Mandela, securing peace and reconciliation were the primary objectives he wished to achieve. He had all the reasons to turn an angry and hungry populace against the white supremacists especially given that most of those who crafted the architecture of apartheid were still alive and relatively well enough to go to prison as the case may be. He left the task of creating a wealthy country to his successors, believing that first, there has to be a country before we can talk of prosperity and wealth. What lessons can we learn from this? It is important to note that Buhari is not a new kid on the block. I hear people talking about a new Sherriff in town, but this is absolute nonsense. This Sherriff was here and left us a record. As I have indicated earlier, he was overthrown when he embarked on his war against corruption and indiscipline. None of us went out on the streets to show solidarity with him. We embraced Babangida but we also ended up accusing him sowing the seeds of corruption. In the 8 years of his rule, we watered those seeds. Today, Buhari has to confront the children of the Babangida era who are still very much around, have become fathers, grand fathers and in some cases, great grand fathers. They have passed on the milk of this corruption to their descendants many of who have built empires and kingdoms. Having been President before, Buhari knows things we do not know. But, we already also know a thing a two about Buhari and what he represents. There has been too much focus on his being a good man, a patriot, a moral probity and so on. But really, all of these qualities might be good for the Chairman of the Pilgrims Agency, a Mosque or Church building Committee or Chairman of Parish Council and so on. But for a President to sort out a dysfunctional society like Nigeria, these qualities are necessary but not sufficient to guarantee success. Fixing Nigeria will require more than just a good man especially as we in Nigeria seem to equate goodness with prayer, building private churches and mosques which tend to become shelters and places of refuge criminals and thieves who should really be in prison. In the final analysis, I do not really care what faith our President professes, if he professes any at all. All we need is a man who can fix our problems with the precision of the Chinese who are atheistic, not praying but getting results. What we need is a leader who can learn and not be afraid to admit what he does not know, a leader who can ignore the whispers of the coterie of so called inner circles, separate friendship and camaradiere from the business of hearing the cry of the oppressed. Buhari fought his war without a Constitution. Buhari fought his war without a National Assembly. Buhari fought his war with a Judiciary. He fought his war with Tribunals. We can start an effort to lay a solid foundation for a change in the Nigerian psyche. However, for this to be more effective, the fight against corruption is not so much going to be won by how many investigations, probes we conduct. It will not be won by how many people go to jail. While we fight corruption, we must not see this as the business of one man, a President, no matter who capable he may be. Governance is about creating safe spaces where citizens can thrive and achieve their goals. This requires a clear vision about a world with limitless frontiers where individuals can thrive with government creating the necessary support structures. The President should learn some of the things that worked and the ones that did not. Nigerians genuinely want a change, sadly as things are, they want others to change so that they can have a good. They are not prepared as individuals to change. But, we can learn that change happens as the result of a sequence of actions and activities, dreams and visions that serve as a foundation on which generation after generation make their contributions and move on. As they said with Obama: Rosa Parks and her generation sat (on the bus) so we could walk. Martin Luther and his colleagues took the baton and walked so that the next generation, that of Obama might run. Now, the Obama generation has run so that the next generation can fly. We must build today with tomorrow in mind, hoping that those coming after us will do much better than us, that they will find a more peaceful nation than the one we are living in. The youth bulge should not be seen as a threat, rather an opportunity. If governments create the right climate, then, we can produce our own generation of the likes of the Mark Zuckerbergs. After, as we can see from our youth, people like young Davido has proved you can go to school and still make millions without breaking a bank. The energy of youth must be properly challenged and rather than looking for elders to imitate, every young man and woman must know that God has plans for us all. The challenge is to meet up and co-operate with the grace of God by staying on the right path. Building a nation as diverse as ours is, is a tough job and requires patience. If we have the patience and are ready for the sacrifice, then, the sky will be a footstone for us. Till then, we must learn from the likes of Mandela, that it is indeed, a long, long road to freedom. This is why I am pleased to eave you with the words of Jimmy Cliff who titled one of his songs, Hard Road to Travel. I will sing it for you just so you can know that if I had not become a priest, who knows, I could have ventured into music and made a living. Among other things, he said: I’ve got a hard road to travel and a rough rough way to go Said it’s a hard road to travel and a rough rough way to go But I can’t turn back, my heart is fixed My mind’s made up, I’ll never stop My faith will see, see me through

NJC Suspends Justices Gbaja-Biamila, Evuti With Immediate Effect Over Misconduct, Age Falsification

2016-04-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

NJC Suspends Justices Gbaja-Biamila, Evuti With Immediate Effect Over Misconduct, Age Falsification April 19, 2016 Share on Facebook Tweet on Twitter … Recommends Compulsory Retirement Of Judges SAN FRANCISCO, April 19, (THEWILL) – The National Judicial Council (NJC) under the Chairmanship of the Honourable, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Mahmud Mohammed, GCON, has recommended the compulsory retirement of Justices O. Gbaja-Biamila of the Lagos State High Court and Idris M. J. Evuti of the Niger State High Court, with immediate effect. THEWILL can report that NJC’s decision was reached at its Meeting which was held on 13th and 14th April, 2016. Soji Oye, Esq., NJC’s Ag. Director, Information, in a statement Tuesday, said: “Hon. Justice O. Gbaja-Biamila was recommended for compulsory retirement from Office to the Governor of Lagos State, pursuant to the Findings by the Council on the allegations contained in the Petitions written against His Lordship by Mr. C. A. Candide Johnson, SAN. The allegations are: That the Hon. Judge delivered judgment in Suit No ID\1279\2007 P. K. Ojo Vs SDV & SCOA Nigeria Plc, twenty months (22), after written addresses were adopted by all the Counsel and Thirty-five (35) months after the close of evidence in the Suit, contrary to the Constitutional Provisions that judgments should be delivered within a period of 90 days; That His Lordship did not publish a copy of judgment he delivered on 24th December, 2013 until after 40 days, contrary to the provision of the Constitution which required that a copy of the Judgment of a Superior Court of Record be given to Parties in the case within 7 days of delivery. That the Hon. Judge continued to hear the Suit in his Court after he had been notified of the pendency of a Motion for a Stay Of Execution at the Court of Appeal and that an appeal had been entered. Prior to the issuance of the first writ of attachment, the Court Registrar under the direct administration of the Hon. Judge falsely misrepresented to the Deputy Sheriff in a memo dated 28th November, 2014, that there was no Appeal or Motion in the case file as at 28th November 2014. Meanwhile, there were two Notices of Appeal and two Summons to settle Records in the Court’s file. That the Hon. Judge gave an Order on 23rd February, 2015 upon an Ex-parte application substituting the name of SDV Nigeria Ltd with Bollore Logistics Nigeria Ltd without serving the Order of substitution on the affected party or its legal representatives. That the Hon. Judge failed to maintain Professional competence required to preserve the integrity of the Judiciary. The above allegations constitute misconduct contrary to Section 292 (1) (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended and Rules 1.3, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.7 of the 2016 Revised Code Of Conduct for Judicial Officers Of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the interim, the National Judicial Council in exercise of its power under Paragraph 21 Sub-Paragraph (d) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, has suspended Hon. O. Gbaja-Biamila from Office with immediate effect. Council also considered a petition written by Mohammed Idris Eggun against Hon. Justices Idris M. J. Evuti and Tanko Yusuf Usman of the High Court of Niger State on falsification of their dates of birth. He alleged that Hon. Justice Idris M. J. Evuti falsified his age from 15th September, 1950 to 10th April, 1953 and Hon Justice Tanko Yusuf Usman falsified his age from 27th June, 1950 to 27th June, 1951. A Fact Finding Committee set-up by the Council found from the records made available to it that the Hon. Justice Evuti used three different dates of birth over the years as 15th September, 1950, 10th April, 1953 and 1st April, 1953 and therefore recommended his compulsory retirement with immediate effect. Apart from the recommendation for compulsory retirement of Hon. Justice Idris M. J. Evuti, Council recommended to the Government of Niger State to deduct all salaries received by him from September, 2015 till date from his gratuity and remit same to the National Judicial Council that pays salaries of all Judicial Officers in the Federation. With respect to the Hon. Justice Tanko Yusuf Usman, Council did not recommend his compulsory retirement because it had already accepted his retirement with effect from 1st March, 2016. However, Council decided to write to the Government of Niger State, to deduct from the gratuity the salaries received by him from June 2015 when His Lordship should have retired from the Bench. Council at the same Meeting exonerated Hon. Justice Saliu Saidu of the Federal High Court, Lagos of misconduct as it found unsubstantiated a Petition of alleged misconduct written against him by Securities and Exchange Commission. The Hon. Judge was alleged to have been biased in granting Ex-parte Orders of injunction against the Commission in Suit No FNC\L\CS\767\15: BGL Ltd and Ors V. Securities and Exchange Commission without due regard to the relevant factors and circumstances of the case. The Counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission Oluwaseun Olusiyi was also reported to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee for walking out on the Judge on the matter when she was told the matter was not ripe for hearing for disciplinary action. In the last two years, the National Judicial Council has been repositioned and some reforms which are ongoing have been introduced pursuant to the Provisions of Section 160 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, viz: Revised National Judicial Council Guidelines & Procedural Rules for Appointment of Judicial Officers of all Superior Courts of Record in Nigeria; Judicial Discipline Regulations; Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; and National Judicial Policy Given the far reaching amendments effected in the aforementioned documents and the laudable policies introduced in the National Judicial Policy which will impact on the general administration of justice, Council decided that it is imperative for the Honourable, The Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of National Judicial Council to publicly launch them on a date to be announced.”

McDonald's experiments with all-you-can-eat fries option

2016-04-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

You are driving along and your hand wanders for one last French fry in the oily paper sachet in the arm rest. Except it’s not the last. However many times you reach, the fries keep regenerating. So you just keep popping them in your mouth. A happy dream or a nightmare? McDonald's is preparing to experiment with an all-you-can eat French fries option, an idea that should appeal to customers with eyes bigger than stomachs but which surely would have sent Morgan Spurlock to the emergency room had it been available in time for his 2004 documentary film, ‘Super Size Me’, exploring the effects of gorging exclusively on all things Mickey D. This is not about to be introduced to the burger chain worldwide. Serious fans of Golden Arches fries who like the idea of eating as many as they can in one sitting for the same price - much like enjoying a bottomless mug of coffee - will have to make their way to Missouri. Nor should they buy their plane or train tickets just yet. The only franchise promising the fries landslide will be in St Joseph, a little way north of Kansas City, and it hasn’t been built yet. Still, the grand opening is planned for July, according to its owner, Chris Habiger. The fries option is only the half of it. Mr Habiger told the local news outlet, News-Press Now, that customers will for the first time be able to custom-build their burgers at touch-screen kiosks - perhaps a sneaky way to cut payroll costs just as the campaign for a higher minimum wage gets serious. “There really are hundreds of different choices to build the burger of your dreams,” owner Chris Habiger gushed to the News-Press Now, the building site behind him. “Once you’ve placed your order, you can find your seat because we’ll bring it out to you.”

PLUNGING NAIRA – BEFORE YOU BLAME EMEFIELE LOOK AT YOURSELF

2016-02-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

This is a nice piece written by someone I do not know but definitely hit at us, Nigerians, with the plain truth. Its time to start to CHANGE please. PMB is only to act as our navigator. It is either I do not understand economics and how exchange rates work or a vast majority of us Nigerians still don’t get how we have wrecked our country with our own curious choices. Just this morning I was listening to the radio and the lady on air went on and on about how she thought CBN governor Godwin Emefiele was incompetent and should be sacked because the naira was now exchanging at 309 or so to the USD. That view pretty much echoes the sentiments expressed by many people I know and it amazes me that there are Nigerians who actually think there is some magic POLICY that can make the Naira strong in the near term. If my economics and my understanding of the way the world works are right, then that is as far from the truth as Jesus Christ is black. The simple fact of the matter is that apart from oil that accounts for over 90% of our revenues, we really don’t have much of an economy. We hardly produce anything, we import even toothpicks, so exactly what policy is going to be implemented that will turn Nigeria into a top exporting economy in the near term? Where are our Apples, IBMs, Disneys, GMs, General Electrics, Coca Colas, Empire State buildings, Statues of Liberties, Lockheeds, Citibanks, JP Morgans, ExxonMobils, NBAs, Super Bowls etc? Let me bring that closer home. There was a time long ago when Nigeria had a truly strong economy and the naira was one to the dollar – even exchanged for higher than the USD, but that Nigeria is not this Nigeria. Sadly that Nigeria was laid by the British, and this Nigeria (if you don’t believe in the nonsensical imperialist conspiracies like me) – fueled by the DAMAGING Indigenisation Decree, has been the creation of us Nigerians.Back then we had a booming economy. We were either the top, or among the top exporters, of timbre, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber, palm oil, etc, in the world. Nigerians not only holidayed at home in their villages, at Yankari Games Reserve, at Obudu Cattle Ranch, at Oguta Lake, at Ikogosi springs, at Gurara Falls, at Mambilla Platueau, etc, we attracted international tourists who brought in loads of foreign exchange. Even Nigerian schools were foreign exchange earners because they attracted foreign students. We had different car assembly plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco etc. Nigerian government officials only bought vehicles assembled in Nigeria for official cars. We had a thriving sports industry. We were not Man United or Chelsea fans, we were Rangers or IICC fans. We had the Nduka Odizors, people made money from sports. We also had companies like Lennards and Bata producing school shoes in their thousands, we had the thriving Nigerian Airways and the Aviation School in the north that produced some of the best pilots in the world. In those days if you were brilliant you were respected much more than the crass money-miss-road contractors of today. Most of the Aje Butters I knew had fathers who were university dons. Back then it meant something to ‘know book’. Our textile industry was alive and well. Just recently I watched a news report on the textile industry in Nigeria on CCTV News. Though the main focus was on the comatose status of the industry, I was stunned by the gigantic Kaduna Textile Mill built in 1957. I could go on and on. Today however, no thanks to our parents (and we must call them out the way Wole Soyinka did his generation) and many of us (and we should be remembered for failing our children if we continue like this), we have destroyed everything. Today for instance Nigerian football (which comes easy to me obviously) doesn’t appeal to us, we have to fly across thousands of miles to watch ‘our’ clubs play. Every year we collectively burn billions of Naira being fans of clubs that give us nothing back, but some ‘entertainment value’ – simple pleasures for which we are ready to destroy the future of our children. Well people, payback time is here. Even with our ta-she-re money we all want to wear designer clothes and carry designer bags, Armani, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton etc. We all want to drive jeeps with American specs, our children must now school overseas and acquire the necessary accents to come back home and bamboozle their ‘bush and crass’ contemporaries that they left behind. Who holidays in Nigeria anymore, is there Disneyland here? No one buys made-in-Nigeria school bags for their children, after all no Superman or Incredible Hulk or Cinderella on them. We are no longer top exporters of anything and the demise of oil means we have zilch… zero. A country of 170m fashion-conscious people has no textile industry. We take delight in showing how our made-in-Switzerland Aso Ebi is different class to everyone else’s. When we help our musicians grow and pay them millions, they repay us by immediately shipping the monies overseas to produce their “i-don-dey-different-level”music videos. It makes no difference that distinctly Zulu dancers are dancing to a Nigerian highlife song. As stars concerned they also wed and holiday overseas to impress us all. All the musicians who acknowledge their Ajegunle roots now speak in a cocktail of strange accents to symbolise how much they have blown their monies overseas. Were we a more serious people, the highly popular Kingsway Stores of the past would probably have a thousand outlets pan Nigeria today supporting a massive agriculture industry among others, but today we have the likes of SPAR, Shoprite, dominating the retail industry while Kingsway is dead. And we Nigerians make it a special point to shop from the Oyinbos who have ‘cleaner shops’, ‘better this and better that’. For our personal pleasure we don’t mind them dominating us in our own backyard and shipping proceeds overseas. I could go on and on, but I don tire. Even as you are reading this, stop for a moment and look around you. What you see will probably explain why we are lucky it is not N1000 to the USD yet. And don’t think for a moment that it cannot get there. Just continue to wear your Armani gear and Swiss-made lace, continue to spend your money on Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Barca and encourage your children to do same. (My article tomorrow in my Saturday column in This Day is on the Nigerian champions Enyimba FC – Nigeria’s most successful club – not having a sponsor, yet Nigerian brands pay over N600m to Man United and Arsenal for sponsorship to impress us.) Ehhh, no problem, continue to tell me the NPFL is rubbish or the clubs should clean up their act if they want sponsorship, mo gbo . Don’t curtail your interest in choice wines ( we were the number one champagne consumers in the world in 2015), continue to love your American specs, cheer the education ministry for letting schools sink to pitiable levels, don’t fight them to improve our schools, don’t chide them for letting schools drop Nigerian history and embrace British, America and whatever else curricula. Carry on with your love of French wines and Chinese silk, don’t bother about Jamiu Alli when there is Roger Federer. Stock up on your Italian, American, British products which you cannot live without, including the ‘baby soft’ toilet rolls produced only in that small unique village in England – the days are long gone since you were a broke student who used wet newspapers to wipe your butt. Don’t even consider holidaying in Nigeria, it’s too dangerous – you have to fulfill your dream of being Nigeria’s Henry Ford. Don’t listen to people like me who have a wardrobe full of only cheap adire that is actually cheaper than just one of your Tom Ford blazers. Please keep dressing in fine silk made in some exotic place so you can be addressed accordingly. Finally keep letting corrupt leaders who have looted your commonwealth and shipped all the monies overseas get away because to attack them does not fit your political narrative. Let us continue with the fine life, let us all continue to work for Oyinbo. But don’t forget that there is payback time and Emefiele is not your problem. Time for us all to look in the mirror and take responsibility. Read more at http://www.theheraldng.com/see-why-the-naira-may-fall-to-…/…

3 D's: Diversification,Deregulation and Devolution. The Way Forward For Nigeria.- Pastor Tunde Bakare

2016-01-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

TEXT OF SPEECH BY PASTOR 'TUNDE BAKARE AT THE STATE OF THE NATION BROADCAST ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015 THEME: ROAD MAP TO SUCCESSFUL CHANGE SCRIPTURAL TEXTIsaiah 43:18&19 (NKJV) 18 “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” PREAMBLE Fellow citizens of our great country, let me begin this annual State of the Nation broadcast with a preamble in the hope that mischief makers will give us the benefit of the doubt that we truly do what we do for two compelling reasons: love of God and love of country. Many of you here today are living witnesses of what we went through, by the grace of God, after we placed an embargo in the spirit on the 2015 presidential election slated for February 14 to avert a bloodbath and national disintegration. We all stood here in agonising corporate intercessions with fasting for fourteen days and nights from Sunday, February 1 to Saturday, February 14, 2015, to dismantle all the negative and counterproductive power blocs hindering the manifestation of a New Nigeria. We kept on pushing in the spirit until our political euroclydon was averted and a successful transition took place. Those who neither saw what we saw nor heard what we heard thereafter began to disseminate ill - motivated rumours, concluding in confidential whispers to those who lent them their ears that we had joined forces with the opposition. May the good Lord in due season reward every true or pretentious stakeholder as his or her works had been, or shall be, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let me for the sake of posterity state clearly here that I am not an agent of any individual and, up till today, whatever I have done for any government, past or present, publicly or behind the scenes, I have done pro bono. I recall with gratitude to God a conversation between Dr. Andrew Pocock, now Sir Andrew, the then British High Commissioner to Nigeria who was still in active service during the 2015 elections. After going up and down like a pendulum between the incoming and outgoing presidents, with stopovers at the residence of the British High Commissioner, he asked me a question: “What exactly do you want out of all these near impossible interventions?” I told him the story of how in 1994, while in the UK, my family applied for British passports for my wife and five children. Within the stipulated time, without a need to contact or visit any ‘connections’ at the British Passport Office, the passports arrived at our doorstep through the post. I then said to Dr. Pocock that I would like to see a nation that works like that in my lifetime and I am prepared to work alongside other patriots to make that happen. In correspondence following the elections, he noted with much appreciation my contributions to brokering peace and reconciliation behind-the-scenes. I seek no further reward or commendation than this. I believe God that I will see a nation that works in my lifetime. Now, to those who are muttering and whispering untrue stories about us behind the scenes while laughing with us in public, our conviction is tamper-proof: God will not forsake the righteous (Joshua 31:8; Psalm 37:25); He will not justify the wicked (Exodus 23:7); The righteousness of a righteous man will answer for him in times to come (Genesis 30:25-33); And the wickedness of the wicked will pour upon his own head (Ezekiel 18:20). And those in positions of authority who may believe or entertain their lies, I leave such with the words of Prophet Jonah: “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy”. (Jonah 2:8; KJV) As for me, regardless of how I am perceived, I will continue to contribute my quota, as long as I breathe, to building an enduring and progressive nation. I hope the audience will pardon my long preamble. Now, to the theme of our State of the Nation broadcast: ROAD MAP TO SUCCESSFUL CHANGE The buzzword in our nation today is “change”. It was perhaps the key word and message that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power as he campaigned all over the country on APC's platform. Now that the election is over, it is incumbent upon us all, citizens and government, to do all in our collective power to ensure that we are not short-changed by the change we so desired and voted for. Therefore, to ensure we are on the same page regarding how we define change, I have chosen a text of Scripture by Apostle Paul who definitely knew about change. He wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and from the depth of his personal transformative experience from Saul to Paul, in II Corinthians 3:18 (KJV): But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Greek word translated “changed” is metamorphoumetha, from which we get the word metamorphosis. Metamorphosis describes the process by which tadpoles lose their tails, grow legs, and become frogs; it is also the course through which caterpillars become butterflies. Metamorphosis involves changing into another form. Fellow Nigerians, we cannot rearrange the old and label it the new - that is an exercise in self-deception or delusion. The tadpole has to be willing to change if it is going to become a frog. The caterpillar must be willing to give up being what it has always been, spin a cocoon around itself, and wait until it is fashioned into a butterfly. In like manner, We the People, and those we put in power to serve our collective interests, must be willing to die to our inglorious past. We must expect and accept a clearly defined pathway to what we collectively desire to become. We must turn our backs on what used to be if we are ever to become something new. That is the secret to successful change. To settle for less that this is to short-change ourselves. Let me state clearly here that I firmly believe that change is possible. And, much more, I am fully persuaded that Nigeria can and will change for the better. My strong persuasion is based on the Word of God revealed to me in January 1996 as I was praying in Jerusalem during a conference. This revelation is contained in the Book of Zephaniah detailing the wickedness of Jerusalem just like we are today and the turnaround brought about by God Almighty. First, the wickedness: Zephaniah 3:1-5 (NKJV): 1Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city! 2 She has not obeyed His voice, she has not received correction; she has not trusted in the LORD, she has not drawn near to her God. 3 Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning. 4 Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. 5 The LORD is righteous in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails, but the unjust knows no shame. Then, the turnaround: Zephaniah 3:9-13 & 18-20 (NKJV): 9 “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord.10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, My worshipers, the daughter of My dispersed ones, shall bring My offering. 11 In that day you shall not be shamed for any of your deeds in which you transgress against Me; for then I will take away from your midst those who rejoice in your pride, and you shall no longer be haughty in My holy mountain. 12I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. 13The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed their flocks and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.” Zephaniah 3:18-20: 18 “I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly, who are among you, to whom its reproach is a burden. 19 Behold, at that time I will deal with all who afflict you; I will save the lame, and gather those who were driven out; I will appoint them for praise and fame in every land where they were put to shame. 20 At that time I will bring you back, even at the time I gather you; for I will give you fame and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I return your captives before your eyes,” Says the LORD. I pray the Father that this will be our portion, in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen. Some of you will recall that, after that encounter, I returned to Nigeria to preach the message “From Shame to Fame because of His Name”. Nevertheless for that to happen, we all have to start acting differently at all levels: individual, organisational and societal. For this to happen a crystal clear direction must be provided by leadership at all levels: parents, teachers, CEOs, religious leaders and especially leaders in government. WHAT DO WE NEED TO CHANGE? 1. We need to change our way of thinking and then doing. Only transformed people can transform nations. Difficult as it may seem, National Transformation is not rocket science. Even if it is, rocket scientists are not aliens from another planet - they are human beings like you and me. I will share further thoughts on this shortly; 2. We need to change our governance structure. The present system is severely wasteful. Left as is, it will continue to generate as well as perpetuate a syndicate of scams and profligacy at all levels of government; 3. We need to change our Grundnorm by creating a true federal system of government while making the welfare and security of our people the raison d’être of government; 4. We need to change our cash and carry judicial and legislative systems. Thus, in order to obtain the new, we must release a decaying system that has arrested our development and growth as well as created a very wide gulf between the opportunistic elitist rich and unfortunate poor among our citizens. After all, the resources of the nation belong to all the citizens as clearly stated in: Ecclesiastes 5:8&9 (NKJV): 8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them. 9 Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field. That being so, and in order to correct this abnormality, we must critically assess and evaluate our journey so far before adopting our new Road Map to Successful Change. I have chosen a parable for this critical evaluation. THE PARABLE OF THE GREAT MANSION A great mansion had a large and beautifully decorated banquet hall. Adjoining the hall were three large kitchens, each with a large storeroom. Each kitchen was unique and servants served various kinds of food and drink to the people in the hall. The banquet hall was filled with people eating, drinking, dancing and rejoicing. Suddenly, the security guards invaded the mansion, killed some servants, drove the rest out of the banquet hall, settled on the food, ate all they could, and carted some away. Then they broke down the great mansion and, with time, built another edifice. The new edifice had a large banquet hall and six large kitchens, though not as large as the initial three. Each kitchen had a number of storerooms. In all, there were a total of thirty-six storerooms in the edifice. The security guards hired a new set of servants to manage the edifice and handed the bunch containing all the keys to the servants. Thereafter, they relinquished control and returned to their duty posts. People came into the banquet hall to celebrate once again. This time, however, food and drinks were supplied only from one of the kitchens as the security guards had opened just one kitchen and left the others locked as they handed the keys over to the servants. In addition, the servants helped themselves to much of the food and drink and served only the leftovers. In no time, there was severe shortage and the people began to complain. Then those who dwelt in the new edifice, believing that their main problem was the theft of food by the dishonest servants, gave control to one among them, formerly a security officer, revered for his integrity and forthrightness. This was followed by much jubilation. However, the food shortage situation intensified and celebration was soon replaced by murmuring, grumbling and commotion, leaving the servants wondering what to do next. Fellow Nigerians, welcome to the year 2016. In the course of this address, I shall shortly unravel the parable of the mansion, which is the parable of Nigeria. But, at this juncture, let us review 2015 as we take a critical look at the state of the nation. 2015 IN REVIEW At the turn of the year 2015, in the wake of the centenary celebrations, and ahead of the general elections, the destiny of Nigeria hung in the balance. Never before, since the Civil War, has the pre-election atmosphere in our country been as tense and intense as it was between January and March 2015. As fears of post-election crises engulfed the nation, observers of the Nigerian political space, including the intelligence community , warned of the looming dangers. At the beginning of last year, precisely on January 4 and 11, in a two-part series of State of the Nation addresses that caused tremors in the Nigerian political landscape, we warned of the “Gathering Storms and Avoidable Shipwreck” and gave the nation valuable counsel on “How to Avoid Catastrophic Euroclydon”. We advised the nation to postpone the elections and allow for a transitional period of restructuring. Expectedly, our position was severely mocked and our recommendations rebuffed when some mischievously opined that we were calling for an interim government. Nevertheless, undeterred by the flood of criticism that accompanied our position and recommendations, right here on this platform, as earlier said, I placed an embargo on the elections. Then, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we embarked on a two-week fast to intercede for a nation that was hell-bent on its own course. Just before the conclusion of that season of intercession, the nation was face-to-face with some of the realities highlighted in our position. The electoral umpire made a volte-face and postponed the elections . When it became clear that the nation had chosen its course, much like Israel’s rejection of divine counsel and insistent demand for a king, we stepped into the terrain to mediate between belligerent parties and to mitigate election risks. Time will fail me to tell further details of my behind-the-scenes engagement with the stakeholders ahead of the elections and how, by a whisker, our nation narrowly escaped the jaws of disintegration. Nevertheless, you will recall that as I lifted the prophetic embargo on elections on Sunday March 22, 2015, I sent out a warning: “If anyone thinks PDP’s loss is going to be APC’s gain, he or she should think twice, for after the polls APC’s pain may be PDP’s gain” . It turned out that, whereas the PDP lost to the APC in the general elections, bringing an end to sixteen years of misgovernance, the PDP brought pain on the APC in elections into the key offices of the National Assembly - an injury the APC is still trying to recover from. Fellow Nigerians, the lesson in all of these is to never despise prophecy. THE STATE OF THE NATION: A PANORAMIC VIEW We live in what may be described as trying times for our nation. President Muhammadu Buhari raised the alarm at his inauguration on May 29, 2015 when he noted that, “with depleted foreign reserves, falling oil prices, leakages and debts the Nigerian economy is in deep trouble…” He became even more direct on the state of the economy when he declared in October 2015, at the Africa-India Summit in New Delhi, India, that the country was broke and struggling to pay salaries . That declaration was severely criticized in various quarters and especially by the PDP . However, an unbiased assessment of the economy based on major indicators paints a truly gloomy picture - from the 64% drop in year-on-year GDP annual growth rate as at July 2015, to the 2.354 trillion naira plunge in market capitalization as at December 2015 ; from the 66 billion dollar debt burden as at October 2015 , to the 12.63% decline in foreign reserves between December 2014 and November 2015 ; from the 48% crash in oil prices between December 2014 and December 2015 , to the 67% corresponding fall in crude revenue between September 2014 and July 2015 . When these alarming economic indicators, together with the massive expenditure requirements, such as the 10 trillion naira annual infrastructure spending needs , are viewed against the backdrop of the reported lootings during previous administrations , one may start to understand the concerns of the president. In addition to the economic challenges, the social indicators reveal that Nigerians generally live in less than adequate conditions with the latest Human Development Index (HDI) report, which is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education and income indices, placing Nigeria 153rd out of 188 countries. Apart from the raging battle with insurgency in the North East, the political landscape has been marred by increasingly hostile clamours for self-determination as seen in pro-Biafra agitations in the South-East , sectarian violence in the North Central , tension in the North-West in relation to the sectarian activities of the Shiite Islamic sect , the increasing perception by the Southern intelligentsia of sectional bias by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari , and signs of resumption of violent agitation by militants in the South-South . • The Present 36 States of our “Federation” In June 2015, barely two weeks into the current administration, we woke up to the alarming news that some states were unable to pay salaries, with at least one state owing 11 months in arrears . These states ran to the federal government which then arranged a special intervention fund for 27 states . On the heels of this development, the state governors have further disclosed the inability of their respective states to meet their minimum wage obligations . This underscores the non-viability of most of the 36 states, corroborating a 2013 report that only 4 states of the federation show signs of viability based on internal revenue generation . • Unravelling the Parable of the Great Mansion The parable of the mansion is about the journey of our nation from abundance to the current economic downturn. The mansion is the Nigerian state. The banquet hall is the Nigerian economy. At Independence, Nigeria had 3 regions, each of them a significant economic powerhouse. These are the kitchens and storerooms. The kitchens represent the productive base of the respective regions at that time while the storerooms represent their latent resources. Just as each kitchen in the mansion served its unique menu to the banquet hall, each region made its unique contribution to the Nigerian economy. The Northern Region contributed to the centre through groundnut, cotton, and hides and skin production. The Eastern Region contributed to the national economy through oil palm and rubber production, while the Western Region contributed mainly through cocoa production. The result was prosperity for Nigeria, represented by the eating, drinking and rejoicing in the banquet hall. The first set of servants who served in the mansion represents the first set of Nigerian leaders – the Nnamdi Azikiwes, the Obafemi Awolowos, the Ahmadu Bellos and the Tafawa Balewas who demonstrated selfless service. However, just as the security guards took over the house, the military took over government and killed some of our leaders through a coup. Just as the security guards pulled down the mansion, so the military dismantled the regional structure of the nation and laid our thriving Federal System in the vault of their Unitary System while largely enriching themselves through corruption. However, during the interregnum, the military took the nation through a series of geopolitical experiments until thirty-six states were created and the nation was subsequently delineated along six geopolitical zones. These are the six kitchens in the new edifice put together by the security guards. As each kitchen had its storerooms, so does each zone have its states - thirty-six altogether. The military handed power back to the politicians in 1999 just as the security guards handed the bunch of keys over to the subsequent set of hired servants. But just as only one kitchen and storehouse was open and active while the others were left shut, in like manner, the military and their successor politicians have focused on petroleum from the South-South as the main revenue source for the nation, neglecting the diverse resources spread across the six geopolitical zones. Besides, like the servants in the parable, Nigerian politicians, in the last sixteen years, enriched themselves with the nation’s oil wealth and fed crumbs to the Nigerian people, resulting in shortage and causing them to groan. However, the Nigerian people, believing that corruption is the major problem of our land, have elected one whom we believe is the embodiment of anti-corruption - President Muhammadu Buhari. Nevertheless, few months into his administration, the groaning has intensified and now there seems to be a lot of confusion as to the way forward for Nigeria. In the words of Polybius, the Greek historian: “Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories”. Fellow Nigerians, the way forward is what this address is all about. But first, let us identify what I call beacons of hope – encouraging signs of progress in spite of the social, economic and political upheavals. BEACONS OF HOPE We have seen what has been generally described as the anti-corruption body language of Mr. President. This president does “give a damn” as far as public declaration of assets is concerned. And so does the vice-president. We have also seen a seeming reduction in the size of government and the courts buzzing with anti-corruption cases. With respect to specific policies and strategies, I believe the following are commendable: 1. The focus on diversification of the economy ; 2. Efforts aimed at recovering looted funds ; 3. The implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) ; 4. The retention and expansion of effective financial management tools and strategies such as Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS) introduced by the previous administration ; 5. The creation of the Efficiency Unit or E-Unit to ensure efficient use of allocations ; 6. The 223% year-on-year increase in capital expenditure ; 7. The reforms in the petroleum sector especially in relation to the structure, functions and management of the NNPC and the re-examination of the fuel subsidy conundrum; and 8. The infrastructure agenda with a phased strategy for roads, housing and power . A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF OUR NATIONAL TRAJECTORY Any fair assessment of this administration must be carried out in the context of promises made to Nigerians during elections. Therefore, our assessment shall be against the backdrop of the top campaign promises of Mr. President, the president’s inaugural address, and the APC manifesto. Hence, by asking salient questions as we go on, we shall examine the policies on five major issues namely: i. Economic diversification ii. Infrastructure iii. Human Capital Development iv. National Security and v. Critical Aspects of Financial Management • Economic Diversification We must examine the diversification thrust not just in terms of the over-reliance of the federal government on petroleum for export revenue but also in the failure of state and local governments to internally generate revenue. How can we effectively diversify the economy as regards mining and allied industries, for instance, without taking another look at Item 39 of the Exclusive Legislative List of the 1999 Constitution which confers powers in this regard exclusively on the federal government? This provision hampers the ability of states to generate income and create jobs through investment in solid minerals. Is it a coincidence that every state of the federation is endowed with mineral resources? Would it not be a better strategy for states to be empowered to manage these resources? The need for diversification also brings to the fore the question of viability of states in relation to the need for economies of scale. Can the states, as presently constituted, maximize their endowments even if more power were to be devolved to them? This, I believe, also explains the inability of states to optimize agriculture as it is on the Concurrent Legislative List. This introduces to the debate the need for a zonal or regional approach to national development, and in this regard we ask: is it sheer coincidence that the nation’s bio-geographical features, including the vegetation belts and rivers, roughly divide the landscape into six geographical zones? Shouldn’t these zones provide a basis for economic mapping and development? Why were the regions in the days of our Founding Fathers so economically viable to the extent of sustaining the federal government? Why can’t we begin a geo-economic path to geopolitical restructuring? Who is afraid of zonal commissions and geopolitical zones; and, if I may add, who is afraid of zonal federating units? Time has come for us to “feed our faith” in this regard and “starve our fears to death”. • Infrastructure According to the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, of about 200,000 kilometres of total road networks in the country, the federal government owns 16% or 36,000km which bear an estimated 70% of the total traffic . The state governments own 18% and the local governments control the remaining 66%. According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), out of Nigeria’s total road network of 200,000km, only about 30,000km is paved . It is perhaps safe to assume that federal roads constitute the majority of paved roads. A transportation infrastructure map often reflects the socioeconomic profile. These statistics suggest at least two gruesome facts: firstly, that most states and local governments lack the needed capacity to maintain an efficient network of roads and, secondly, given the low traffic on those roads, that the federating units have been unable to facilitate the evolution of vibrant sub-national and local economies that can in turn feed into the national and global economy. The need for such local economies is in keeping with the argument that small and medium enterprises are the heart of any national economy. The inability of the federating units to comfortably fund infrastructure projects is an aberration in a federal system. Despite the massive investment in the power sector, the short-term target of 6000 megawatts has remained a mirage. As at mid-December 2015, electricity generation stood at 3,730.24 megawatts . Have we exhausted options with respect to electricity generation, transmission and distribution? Is deregulation without devolution a sustainable pathway to uninterrupted electricity supply? Must the national grid constitute a gridlock to progress? Why can’t the state governments, working as zonal blocs, come together with the federal government, to design an inter-modal transport system, as well as a hybrid power infrastructure model, along the lines of regional comparative advantage, and begin to push for the appropriate legal regimes to facilitate its implementation? Why can’t we allow for electricity generation, transmission and distribution at the zonal, state and community levels, such that domestic consumption needs are met at the sub-national levels, while the national grid becomes an electricity exporting vehicle serving the rest of West and even Central Africa, generating income for the federation that could be distributed on the derivation principle based on percentage generation? • Human Capital Development Central to human capital development is the education of our people. However, there is a regional or zonal dimension to the state of education in the country in terms of access. While 56.75% of the population in the North-East is uneducated, 54.85% of the North-West and 30.3% of the North-Central population lack access . In the southern zones, the uneducated population statistics are: 14.35% for the South-West, 14.7% for the South-East, and 9.55% for the South-South . These disparities are brought about by socio-cultural, security, economic, and, sometimes, geographical factors. In light of these statistics and causal factors, is it not common sense policy-making to have zonal regulation of education, with each zone charged with the responsibility of developing qualitative and quantitative human capital in order to maximize the peculiar potential of the respective zone, in line with a national vision that links education to industrialization? • National Security Given the circumstances, the government may have already begun to do all within its power to combat terrorism. However, considering regional, geographical and cultural peculiarities, why not allow zonal coalitions of states to design and implement regional security strategies in conjunction with the federal government? Why have we bought into the deceptive notion that the security of our nation will be hampered if we introduce policing at federal, regional, state and community levels? Consider the exploits of the Civilian JTF (Joint Task Force) in Borno State and imagine them to have been part of a regional or even a state police force in their own familiar terrain. Who can tell what a devastating impact such a formidable local force could have had on insurgents and terrorists, especially in terms of intelligence gathering, had they been a much more organised and well-coordinated security force? The earlier we remove the legal bottlenecks in the way of achieving the maximisation of our local resources in this regard, the better our chances of defeating insurgents and terrorists in record time. • Petroleum Sector At this juncture, given the resurgence of the subsidy conundrum, it has become needful to pre-empt or respond to those who might be wondering if our January 2012 protests were organized in error. Let me reiterate that the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) did not mobilize the people of this country to the Gani Fawehinmi Park at Ojota merely to protest the removal of the fuel subsidy but to challenge the corruption that defined the fuel subsidy regime. Even at that time, we recognized the unsustainability of the subsidy regime but maintained that corrupt politicians, in collusion with certain private interests, had plundered the national treasury through fictitious fuel subsidy claims and were merely hiking the fuel price to mobilize funds to cover up the negative effects of their actions on the economy. We insisted then that it was not a deregulation as was being claimed by the government but a hike in fuel price. We demanded the prosecution of those indicted in the damning report of the Farouk Lawan Committee, a phenomenon we referred to as “Kleptocracy Unlimited”, where, for instance, 999 million naira was reportedly paid 129 times, totalling 127,827 billion naira, to some companies, by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation . Four years later, those indicted persons have not been prosecuted. Do we still need to wonder why corruption is so endemic and very pervasive in our nation today? Here is the verdict of Heaven: Ecclesiastes 8:11-13 (NKJV): 11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God. Is it not shameful that we have been subsidizing consumption and practicing the economics of laziness? As stated in Proverbs 12:27 (NKJV): The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, But diligence is man’s precious possession. Is it not laziness of the highest order that one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world exports crude and imports refined products at cut-throat costs? It is incomprehensible laziness that an oil producing country would decline to zero refining capacity! There is no gainsaying the fact that we have become the laughing stock of other oil producing countries in the world. It is in our collective interest to bring this aberration to an end, taking advantage of the dip in oil prices to effect a phased replacement of the subsidy regime with domestic production. Whereas the buzzword in the subsidy debate is “subsidy removal”, we are advocating “subsidy replacement”. Subsidy replacement would entail the adoption of targeted palliatives that would ensure that the benefits of intervention get to the so-called average Nigerian for whom it is designed while taking steps to restore full capacity for domestic production. This must be communicated effectively and transparently to stakeholders including the labour unions. A crucial step in transparent communication would be full investigation into the past five years of the subsidy regime and the prosecution of culprits including those indicted in past probes. Transparent communication would also entail explaining to Nigerians why the pump price of fuel has not had a direct proportional relationship with changing global crude oil prices such that the pump price is adjusted with every significant drop in oil prices. For example, it will be very interesting to know what happened with respect to the landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) between June 2014 when the price of crude was 115 dollars per barrel , and January 2015 when it fell below 50 dollars per barrel . Without a doubt, the ultimate solution to the subsidy conundrum lies in optimally functional refineries. While we appreciate the current efforts towards restructuring the downstream sector, we also need to explore innovative approaches to domestic refining; in this regard, the need for modular refineries cannot be overemphasized. In relation to the upstream sector, we maintain that now that crude is fast losing its value, is the best time to diversify, and that diversification can only succeed when accompanied with devolution of powers in a restructured federal system. Indeed, the summary of our assessment of the entire framework of governance and public policy is that, without restructuring, this administration may achieve little or no significant and sustainable success. • Critical Aspects of Financial Management First, flowing from the issue of fuel subsidy, the government must examine carefully the argument by economists that sound monetary policy, including proper management of the exchange rate regime by the CBN, would eliminate the need for subsidies. The intricate connection between monetary policy on the one hand, and the fuel subsidy debacle on the other, makes the management of the CBN a major concern. As regulator, the CBN keeps some amount of depositors’ funds on behalf of the commercial or deposit money banks thereby controlling liquidity, which is the amount of money in circulation. It does this by what is called the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), which is the percentage of depositor’s funds that every commercial bank must keep with the CBN. Over the years, the CBN, through its CRR and interest rate policies, has been increasing the amount of money in circulation, creating a situation known as excess liquidity. It then goes on to buy back this excess money in circulation by issuing treasury bills to the same banks and other investors through the Open Market Operations (OMO); a monetary policy tool used in buying or selling short term government securities (Treasury Bills) to control money supply. Simply put, the government tells the banks, “give me your excess money (which I have unwittingly or generously created for you) and I will pay you back with interest”. Roughly put, it is almost like an already heavily indebted shop owner selling goods at a discounted price, such that the buyer is able to purchase much more than he is able to transport home. Then the shop owner offers to store the excess goods in his own store and to pay the buyer heavy interest when he returns to collect the goods. The same indebted store owner then cries out, “I’m broke o! My debt burden is killing me o!” To the discerning, the CBN currently contributes negatively to the Nigerian state in more ways than one. Firstly, the CBN has become a conduit for politicians to drain the nation. Otherwise, how can a letter of barely two paragraphs addressed to the current CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, by the then National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), become the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) leading to cash flow of $47 million (US dollars) and several millions of euros? In decent climes, the CBN Governor cannot continue in office while the NSA is accounting for his alleged misdeeds. Secondly, another negative contribution by the CBN is the needless obscurity it has created regarding currency in circulation. It was not so in the past. For instance, S. 43 (2) of the CBN Decree (now Act) No. 24 of 1991 stipulates: without prejudice to the provision of S1 of this section, the President may direct the Auditor General of the Federation to conduct an examination of the Bank, and submit a report thereon relating to the issue, re-issue, exchange and withdrawal of currency notes and coins by the Bank and the Bank shall provide all necessary facilities for the purpose of the examination. This vital sub-section was completely removed in the current CBN Act 2007, thereby making it possible for the CBN to decide the printing of the Nigerian currency, amounts to be printed, currencies to be destroyed (of which the CBN staff can take as much of such dirty notes as they like and inject back into the system while keeping all of us in the dark) without any check and balances stipulated in S. 43 (2) of the previous CBN Act No. 24 of 1991. This major lacuna has not only aided and abetted corruption, it presently compounds the fight against corruption especially in the apex bank. We need to remind ourselves some basic truths about the CBN: i. That the apex bank is not a conglomerate of the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers and the Morgans; ii. That the CBN is not a privately-controlled banking agency; and iii. That the CBN is simply not the US Fed. The wealth of the Central Bank of Nigeria belongs to the people of Nigeria, not the Governor and staff of the CBN. Our foreign reserves could be used to drive infrastructural development with a view to building a strong local industrial base and ensuring a solid financial services sector rather than for political and unaccountable misadventures. It is important to add that, rather than mere devaluation of the naira, a strong local productive base that widens Nigeria’s foreign exchange window is the lasting solution to the lingering currency crisis, especially the shortage of the dollar relative to the naira. Finally, if we are serious about sound financial management, a more significant reduction in the size and cost of running government will be required than this present administration has been able to effect. The government re-sizing process has been hampered by structural anomalies and constitutional constraints. For instance, of what use is a bloated legislature that could potentially gulp 25% of the entire national recurrent budget? Of what use is a profligate governmental structure characterized by minuscule but treasury-draining federating units? Of what use is a constitutional provision for the appointment of thirty-six ministers even when we have no need for so many? As for the state governments, care must be taken not to provoke the rage of poorly paid civil servants by reducing the minimum wage of already impoverished workers. What they should do is devise a reasonable policy direction that will lead to a reduction in the salaries of politicians and political appointees, reduce security votes, significantly trim the size and cost of governance, and then embark on vigorous revenue mobilization strategies. THE STATUS QUO IN PERSPECTIVE Fellow Nigerians, let it be known that in spite of the rejection of our pre-election call for a transition period, Nigeria is now a nation in transition. This transition period will predictably be followed by a revolution which will, in turn, be followed by a reformation that will eventually usher in the desired transformation of our nation. A key outcome of this process will be the emergence of a true People’s Constitution that will facilitate national integration and provide a suitable governmental framework for the Nigeria of our dreams – “a truly federal state with such powers vested exclusively on the federal government as are necessary to firmly and prosperously knit together the federating units upon which residual powers shall be vested” . That promise of true federalism is contained in Article 14 of the Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration, which was unanimously adopted and signed by the delegates to the 2014 National Conference, including myself, as the basis of our union. I appeal to Mr. President not to ignore the report of the 2014 National Conference! God went ahead of you to provide a navigational map with which you can begin to steer the ship of state to a safe destination. The APC may have refused to participate in the 2014 National Conference, but the report of that conference is completely in tandem with the promise of the APC Manifesto. The APC Manifesto and the report of the 2014 National Conference are a tag team in waiting, not a thesis and antithesis. Just as this government adopted the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and the Treasury Single Account (TSA) , which were conceived by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the Buhari-led government should embrace the report of the 2014 National Conference. That report may have been produced under a PDP government but it is not a PDP document. It is a Nigerian people’s document. All the delegates to the 2014 National Conference, East, West, North, and South endorsed the report without a single vote on any issue. 2016: HIGHER GROUNDS AND GREATER HEIGHTS For Nigeria, the year of higher grounds and greater heights is the year of restructuring. It is the year when we can begin to rebuild her structures towards a new political order characterized by true and viable federalism that will usher in a new economic order. As I stated in a previous address titled “Nigeria Beyond 2015”: “One of the first fruits of this new economic order will be the emergence of Regional Economic Zones. In this regard, Nigeria will experience the rise of megacities across the six geopolitical zones such that there will be six unique models of the Dubai experience”. The Dubai model will integrate communities, districts, states and geopolitical zones around efficient governance, human capital development, infrastructural development, socio-cultural development, safety and security. Each of these “Dubais” will constitute an economic hub integrating the states within each geopolitical zone such that at least six states will be integrated into a zonal hub; each of the current 36 states will, in turn, facilitate the rise of an economic hub integrating three senatorial districts; and each of the senatorial districts will, in turn, facilitate the emergence of an economic hub integrating the Local Government Areas within their delineation. Internal revenue generation and massive job creation will be the outcome so much so that the federating units, being empowered to harness the resources within their respective jurisdictions, will fund a regionally and globally influential and powerful federal government. Such structural re-arrangement, backed by good governance at all levels, will facilitate tremendous improvement in standard of living, bring our people out of poverty and facilitate the prosperity and wellbeing of Nigerians. In conclusion, I have observed that this government has been laying emphasis on 2 Ds – Deregulation and Diversification. However, the diversification policy cannot be pursued without Devolution and to devolve effectively means to restructure the geo-polity and review our forms of government. Therefore, the government needs to update to 3 Ds. We cannot afford to sweep devolution of powers under the carpet. To the government and people of Nigeria, I say: “use the keys”! The bunch of keys in the parable of the mansion represents the power of government bestowed on it by the people – the power to give the nation the needed structural, cultural, institutional and constitutional change. Rather than bemoan the depletion of our revenues or complain about how broke the nation is, all we need do is use the keys to unlock the staggering potential of our great nation, to empower the various geopolitical zones to develop at their respective paces, and to facilitate the emergence of viable federating units that can contribute meaningfully and diversely to the common goal of building a great and prosperous nation. Mr. President, Sir, please use the keys and make real the promise of change! There is no better time than now! Go, PMB, GO! For such a time as this, God and Nigerians have brought you back into power. Like an arrow in the hands of Almighty God, hit the main target. Make hay while the sun shines. Strike the iron while it is hot and trust God and posterity to judge you right for saving Nigeria from a self-imposed debilitating structural defect. Remember, only those who dare drive the world forward. Thank you for listening. God bless you, and God bless Nigeria. January 10,2016.

Authentic News Network: ILE-IFE IS THE MECCA OF YORUBA AND OONI IS THE RUL...

2016-01-09T16:10:00.001-08:00

Authentic News Network: ILE-IFE IS THE MECCA OF YORUBA AND OONI IS THE RUL...: A REJOINDER TO ADEJARE IBRAHIM'S 'BEFORE YORUBA HISTORY IS DISTORTED' Readers, The writer of this piece BEFORE YORUBA HIST...

How Nigeria can get out of economic crisis – IMF boss

2016-01-09T14:29:00.001-08:00

January 07, 2016 MANAGING Director, International Monetary Fund, IMF, Christine Lagarde has asked Nigeria and Nigerians to brace up for harder times, following the massive fall in the price of oil globally, just as she said that the country since inception recorded the slowest pace of growth in the year 2015. Lagarde, who called for increase in Value Added Tax, VAT, stressed that it has become imperative for the federal government to broaden the country’s tax base against the backdrop that Nigeria has the lowest VAT rate in the African continent. According to her, “the current VAT rate is among the lowest in the world and well below the rates in other ECOWAS members—so some increase should be considered.” Although the IMF Managing Director was careful not to endorse the devaluation of naira against major international currencies, she, however, urged the federal government to adopt a flexible monetary policy that will better serve the interest of Nigerians. Speaking, yesterday, at the National Assembly complex in Abuja during a meeting with Senate President Bukola Saraki and other senators, the IMF boss who called on the federal government to reduce cost of governance, said that the contentious fuel subsidy must be removed to allow government spend on infrastructure, housing, education, health, among others. She, however, cautioned Nigeria against obtaining loans, noting that it was at the moment affecting the country and subsequent borrowing could hurt the nation’s economy in the long run. She said: “On recurrent expenditure, efforts should be made to streamline the cost of government and improve efficiency of public service delivery across the federal and sub-national governments. Transfers and tax expenditures should also be addressed. For example, continuing the move already begun by the government in the 2016 budget to eliminate resources allocated to fuel subsidies would allow more targeted spending, including on innovative social programmes for the most needy.” Fuel subsidies hard to defend She continued: “Indeed fuel subsidies are hard to defend.“Not only do they harm the planet, but they rarely help the poor. IMF research shows that more than 40 per cent of fuel price subsidies in developing countries accrue to the richest 20 per cent of households, while only 7 per cent of the benefits go to the poorest 20 per cent. “The move by the government to remove fuel subsidy is good. Those people who need the subsidy can receive cash transfer. Fuel subsidies are hard to defend. Subsidies are no longer good. But I hear that it will hurt the poor. Forty per cent of fuel subsidies in rich countries go to rich families. The people do not really need the subsidy. Look at the number of people who stay in stations trying to buy fuel. “There is a small acceleration expected in 2016. Growth in the last 10 years has slowed down in Sub-Saharan African countries. Oil prices will remain low and low for a long time. Oil producing countries must factor this in and model their economic policies towards this direction. Nigeria is facing mounting pressure. There will continue to be abundant supply of oil, but low demands. It is very unlikely that we will see any rise anytime soon. “Private sector investments will be affected. Higher interest rate will continue to rise. Sub-Saharan African countries are facing immense pressure as a result of this. I can feel the hardship and pains as a result of activities of Boko Haram. The resources spent in trying to fight insurgency are supposed to be spent on infrastructure. “Whatever happens in Nigeria will affect our neighbours because of the trading relationship. There must be a fundamental change in the way government operates. It is not about how to divide proceeds from oil wealth. It is about how to deliver to Nigerians the basic services they deserve. Hard decisions must be made. As the National Assembly considers the 2016 budget, these are the issues they consider. “Moreover, the experience here in Nigeria of administering fuel subsidies suggests that it is time for a change—think of the regular accusations of corruption, and think of the many Nigerians who spend hours in queues trying to get gas (fuel) so that they can go about their everyday business. “At the same time, we should not forget the huge challenges facing Nigeria’s state and local governments. These sub-national governments—which account for the bulk of social spending—have only limited tools to manage the impact of declining oil revenues. My message here is to manage better the smaller purse, while building capacity to increase internally generated revenue.” Nigeria and West Africa Lagarde then urged Nigeria as a country to build regional cooperation among West African countries because whatever affects Nigeria directly or indirectly affects other countries within the sub region. According to her, “This is always a moment I cherish. My first visit to Nigeria was in late 2011. At that time, Nigeria was emerging from the global economic crisis. Nigeria is the prime destination in Africa. Nigeria has gone through democratic transition which is a good thing. When investors know that transitions can happen successfully, they have more confidence. “The richness of Nigeria has to do with the population. Nigeria is a huge market and people who are prepared to put their money here look at the population. Oil prices have fallen sharply. The geopolitical tensions have increased. These things are happening at a time the country needed to lift the standard of living of Nigerians. Nigerians are known for their courage and doggedness. Nigeria cannot waste time. There is no time at all. “Government must step up revenue mobilization and reduce leakages. Every 50 kobo collected from 30 per cent of the country’s revenue goes into the servicing of local and foreign debts. The government must focus on power, transportation and housing. These three areas will create wealth. They are critically important. Efforts should be made to reduce the cost of governance. “As I am told, Nollywood currently employs over one million Nigerians. Poverty and inequality still remain high in many parts of the country. Mortality rate is still high.” Speaking on the need to strengthen institutions of government empowered to tackle corruption-related issues, Ms Lagarde revealed that over $1 trillion was given and received as bribes globally every year. She equally revealed that corruption makes up five per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The IMF boss who urged the National Assembly to come up with laws that will address corruption and block leakages in the system, said: “Corruption is touted to be five per cent of the global GDP and over $1 trillion is said to be given as bribes globally every year. Today, Nigeria is looking ahead. The future is greater than the past in Nigeria. But the sooner the government delivers, the better it will be for Nigeria and Nigerians.” Nigerian financial sector’s strong, solid, but needs to support real economy Meanwhile, speaking earlier during a meeting with officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and chief executives of financial institutions in Abuja, Lagarde emphasized the need for the financial sector to support the real sector and also contribute to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy. She said: “We had a productive meeting with representatives of the banking industry and we had the chance to discuss the stability and the sustainability of that particular sector. We also had the chance to debate together how the financial sector can better contribute to financing the economy and supporting the business and the development of growth in Nigeria. “From my perspective, it was a very productive meeting, very open; we had the chance to really exchange and consider how the system can improve further. “The financial sector of Nigeria is strong, solid and needs to continue to be so, but it also needs to lend to the real economy and to provide good terms of business.” Also, Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, stated that banks in the country promised to increase their support of the real sector and also play a major role in Nigeria’s economic development. He said: “On behalf of the people of Nigeria and the bankers, I would like to thank the IMF and Lagarde. We had very fruitful discussions and she gave support to the efforts of the CBN by also trying to encourage Nigerian banks to continue to support the real sector, support SME in Nigeria and indeed, also try as much as possible to boost lending at very concessionary pricing, just as we are doing. “And the banks themselves have given their words that they would do their best to support, notwithstanding the risk as well as some of the challenges we had witnessed in the past.” After the meeting at the CBN, Lagarde, who was accompanied by her husband, Xavier Giocanti, also visited Mother Theresa Children Home, Gwarimpa, Abuja, where she made a donation of $7,500, about N1.5 million, to the orphanage on behalf of the IMF. Speaking at the orphanage, Lagarde congratulated the management of the orphanage for their efforts at caring for the children. She said this was her second visit to Nigeria as IMF president, but nothing was as touching as whenever she visits orphanage of the likes of Mother Theresa Children Home. She said: “This is my second visit to Nigeria as head of the IMF and on every occasion I have visited, presidents, governor of the CBN and legislators, but nothing is as touching as a visit like this one. “And as you say, the future of Nigeria is bigger than its past. But the future is built investing in youth and education. And that future is built one child at a time; and that is what this orphanage demonstrates. No child is left behind and you care about those who are left by the society. And for that, I really want to thank you. President Muhammadu Buhari receiving IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde in Abuja. President Muhammadu Buhari receiving IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde in Abuja. “Nigeria is a country with oil, energy, entrepreneurship, resilience, but it should come to the reach of the youth as well. So please, keep doing what you are doing and we at the IMF, we care about the youths, poor and about those who are left at the side of the road.” Lagarde’s speech NASS Lagarde’s speech at the National Assembly which was was titled, “Nigeria—Act with Resolve, Build Resilience, and Exercise Restraint”, read in part: “I would like to thank you for the gracious introduction, and Members of Parliament and the people of Nigeria for their incredible hospitality. I have been looking forward to starting my new year here in Nigeria—and I am grateful for the special privilege to speak before this parliament. “My first visit to Africa as IMF Managing Director was in late 2011, and the first country on my itinerary was Nigeria. At that time, Nigeria was emerging from the 2008-09 commodity price collapse and the banking crisis that followed. “Since that visit, Nigeria has been acknowledged as the largest economy in Africa—with a maturing political system. We saw a peaceful general election last year in which, for the first time in Nigeria’s history, there was a democratic transition between two civilian governments. It was a strong sign of Nigeria’s commitment to democracy, to a new Nigeria. “At the same time, the external environment has changed. Oil prices have fallen sharply; global financial conditions have tightened; growth in emerging and developing economies has slowed; and geopolitical tensions have increased. All this has come at a time when Nigeria is facing an urgent need to address a massive infrastructure deficit and high levels of poverty and inequality. “So, Nigeria faces some tough choices going forward. Nigerians, however, are well known for their resilience and strong belief in their ability to improve their nation and lead others by example. I firmly believe that Nigeria will rise to the challenge and make the decisions that will propel the country to greater prosperity. As the great Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe once said: “If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.” This is exactly what you are doing right now. And let me assure you that, as you go forward, as you develop your story, the IMF will support your efforts. “Today, I would like to offer my perspective—on your story and punctuate it with three R’s: resolve, resilience, and restraint. I will first identify the global economic transitions that are affecting Nigeria and the region. I will then turn to the importance of managing the near-term vulnerabilities facing Nigeria’s economy. And, finally, share my thoughts on what might help to achieve more inclusive and sustainable growth. 1. Global economic transitions and implications for Nigeria and the region “So let me start with the big picture. For more than a decade, growth in Sub-Saharan Africa was driven by an extraordinary combination of improved policies, stronger institutions, high commodity prices, and high capital inflows. “The region has now entered a different phase, where commodity prices and capital flows are far less supportive. We are in the process of updating our forecasts, but broadly the IMF staff estimates that regional economic growth dropped from 5 per cent in 2014 to about 3.8 percent last year, with only a modest recovery expected in 2016. “There is a similar picture at the global level—modest growth last year, with only a slight acceleration expected in 2016. Emerging markets, which propelled global growth after the 2008 global financial crisis, have slowed; advanced economies are still recovering from the impact of that crisis; and financial markets remain volatile. In fact, both at the regional and global level, growth is affected by three major economic transitions. They include China’s move to a new growth model, the prospect of commodity prices remaining lower for longer, and the increasing divergence in monetary policy in major economies, especially since the recent rise in U.S. interest rates. “Understandably, policymakers in this region are concerned—because these transitions can create spillovers through trade, exchange rates, asset markets, and capital flows. “For example, spillovers are now affecting oil-exporting countries, which generate about half of this region’s GDP. These economies, including Nigeria, are facing massive pressures and challenging prospects. Over the medium term, oil prices are likely to remain much lowerthan the 2010-13 average of more than $100 a barrel. Why? Because of the huge oversupply in global oil markets. Think of the shale oil boom in the United States, and some historically large producers such as Iraq and Iran coming back to the market. Other factors include OPEC’s strategic behavior and the drop in global demand for oil, especially in emerging economies. “Already, lower oil prices have sharply reduced Nigeria’s export earnings and government revenues. Both are likely to remain at depressed levels, reducing the space for policy interventions to address Nigeria’s social and infrastructure needs. “Private sector investment will also be affected. Investor confidence about the outlook has remained weak, and financing is likely to become more difficult and more costly for everyone. With U.S. interest rates expected to continue to rise, albeit slowly, the likelihood of capital outflows will increase, and exchange rate pressures could mount as investors re-assess their appetite for risk. “More broadly, Sub-Saharan Africa is also facing spillovers from geopolitical factors, including the fight against Boko Haram. The threat of terrorism is very real and never far from our minds. Having been in Paris during the November attacks, I know firsthand the sorrow that so many Nigerians carry in their hearts. In this region, terrorism not only takes a human toll but it also makes public finances more fragile. How? By widening budget deficits. Revenues are lower, including from lower growth, and spending needs higher, including for security and for supporting those impacted by the violence. One immediate downside is higher financing needs that can crowd out other essential public spending. “This brings me to my second topic—how can policymakers manage these near-term vulnerabilities? 2. Managing near-term vulnerabilities Let me start by underscoring the progress made in recent years. Nigerians have created a large and diversified economy that has grown by about 7 per cent a year over the last decade. This has been a remarkable achievement, a testament to Nigeria’s immense potential. The outlook, however, has weakened. Growth in 2015 is estimated at about 3.2 per cent—its slowest pace since 1999—and only a modest recovery is expected in 2016. For a country with a rapidly increasing population, this means almost no real economic growth in per capita terms. On top of the slowdown, vulnerabilities have increased. The ability to manage shocks is restricted by low fiscal savings and reserves. And the weakening oil sector could stress balance sheets and put pressure on the banking system. “Reduced confidence and lower capital spending also impact the non-oil corporate sector. Unfortunately, this sector looks less resilient today than during the downturn of 2008-09. Companies that have increased their leverage and US-dollar debt in recent years may now come under pressure as they face rising interest rates and a stronger dollar. “Nigeria also has a large regional footprint, and its fortunes affect that of its neighbors, especially through trade. For example, it is estimated that a one per cent reduction in Nigeria’s growth causes a 0.3 percent reduction in Benin’s growth. So what can policymakers do? I see an immediate priority—a fundamental change in the way government operates. What do I mean by that? The new reality of low oil prices and low oil revenues means that the fiscal challenge facing government is no longer about how to divide the proceeds of Nigeria’s oil wealth, but what needs to be done so that Nigeria can deliver to its people the public services they deserve—be it in education, health or infrastructure. “This means that hard decisions will need to be taken on revenue, expenditure, debt, and investment going forward. My policy refrain is this: Act with resolve—by stepping up revenue mobilization. The first step is to broaden the tax base and reduce leakages by improving compliance and enhancing collection efficiency. At the same time, public finances can be bolstered further to meet the huge expenditure needs. For example, the current VAT rate is among the lowest in the world and well below the rates in other ECOWAS members—so some increase should be considered. Build resilience—by making careful decisions on borrowing. Nigeria’s debt is relatively low at about 12 percent of GDP. But it weighs heavily on the public purse…” Already, about 35 kobo of every naira collected by the federal government is used to service outstanding public debt. Exercise restraint—by focusing on the quality and efficiency of every naira spent. This is critically important. As more people pay taxes there will, rightly, be increasing pressure to demonstrate that those tax payments are producing improvements in public service delivery. Let me give you examples of what I mean: “On capital expenditure, the focus must be on high-impact and high value-added projects. This is why the government is focusing on power, integrated transport (roads, rail, air, and ports), and housing. These can help connect centers of activity across the country and drive growth prospects. “On recurrent expenditure, efforts should be made to streamline the cost of government and improve efficiency of public service delivery across the federal and sub-national governments. Transfers and tax expenditures should also be addressed. For example, continuing the move already begun by the government in the 2016 budget to eliminate resources allocated to fuel subsidies would allow more targeted spending, including on innovative social programs for the most needy. Indeed, fuel subsidies are hard to defend. Not only do they harm the planet, but they rarely help the poor. IMF research shows that more than 40 per cent of fuel price subsidies in developing countries accrue to the richest 20 per cent of households, while only 7 per cent of the benefits go to the poorest 20 per cent. Moreover, the experience here in Nigeria of administering fuel subsidies suggests that it is time for a change—think of the regular accusations of corruption, and think of the many Nigerians who spend hours in queues trying to get gas so that they can go about their everyday business. “At the same time, we should not forget the huge challenges facing Nigeria’s state and local governments. These sub-national governments—which account for the bulk of social spending—have only limited tools to manage the impact of declining oil revenues. My message here is to manage better the smaller purse, while building capacity to increase internally generated revenue. The IMF can help in that regard by providing technical assistance on public financial management. We did so for the Kaduna State Government. We can explore how to support states’ efforts to undertake budget reform. I see another immediate policy priority—strengthen Nigeria’s external position. The essential fact is that, given the structure of the economy, the massive fall in oil prices—which is expected to continue—has changed the medium term foundations for economic resilience. To be clear, the goal of achieving external competitiveness requires a package of policies including business-friendly monetary, flexible exchange rate and disciplined fiscal policies, as well as implementing structural reforms. Additional exchange rate flexibility—both up or down—can help soften the impact of external shocks, make output and employment less volatile, and help build external reserves. It can also help avoid the need for costly foreign exchange restrictions – which should, in any case, remain temporary. And going forward, improved competitiveness from improved exchange rate flexibility and other reforms will facilitate the needed diversification of the exports base and, ultimately, growth. This brings me to my final topic—how can policymakers achieve more inclusive and sustainable growth? 3. Achieving inclusive and sustainable growth The good news is that Nigeria is already, in many ways, a 21st-century economy. • Think of the boom in mobile communications in a country where more than 140 million cell phones are in use, nearly one for each Nigerian. • Think of the vibrant, home-grown film industry that has become the world’s second-largest by output. Nollywood employs about one million people who create films that are winning audiences across the continent and beyond. • Think of the growing number of innovative startups—from fashion to software development—that are promoting Brand Nigeria. Indeed, the growth in services to about half of Nigeria’s output is a testament to the transformation that has begun, and which needs to continue. But we all know that huge structural challenges remain, despite the many initiatives that are ongoing. Let me highlight the conditional cash transfer scheme in Kano, where poor households receive financial assistance linked to girls’ enrolment in schools. Overall, however, poverty and inequality still remain high, especially in some parts of the country. Women account for about 42 percent of the total labor force—which is comparatively low—and their literacy rates are well below that of men. Maternal mortality is relatively high because of limited access to health care. Many women and children are dying every day simply because they cannot get to medical facilities fast enough. With that in mind, what are the key policy priorities? Invest in quality infrastructure, make the banks work, and improve governance. Let me take each in turn: The first—act with resolve to significantly improve transportation networks and power delivery [i.e., generation, transmission, and distribution]. For example, Nigeria could be exporting tomato paste—a staple of Nigerian cuisine—on a large scale, but it imports about half of what it needs. This is why Nigeria needs to build more roads and better rail networks, so that more farmers can bring their crops to market. Likewise, more investment is needed in energy infrastructure in a country where too many businesses and households regard their backup generators as their main power source. The second priority—build resilience by fostering a sound banking system. This will help channel more savings into productive investments, especially in quality infrastructure. “To be sure, Nigeria’s banks are generally well-capitalized and more resilient than during the downturn of 2008-09. But they are beginning to feel the impact of the growing vulnerabilities in the corporate sector. This means rising non-performing loans, which will need to be carefully monitored and managed. The third priority—act with resolve in fighting against corruption. In his first public speech after the election, President Buhari singled out corruption as a “form of evil that is even worse than terrorism.” “Corruption not only corrodes public trust, but it also destroys confidence and diminishes the potential for strong economic growth. At the global level, it is estimated that the cost of corruption is equivalent to more than 5 percent of world GDP1, with over US$ 1 trillion paid in bribes each year2. Here in Nigeria, important initiatives to discourage graft are underway and should be applauded. Let me highlight the publication of monthly data on the finances and operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. This provides information on a key sector, building confidence in transparency, and improving accountability of oil revenues, for the benefit of all Nigerians. Much more can—and needs to be—done. Fighting corruption is a multi-year, multi-generational struggle that must be won. Conclusion “So let me conclude: today your nation has embarked on a new journey. Nigeria is looking ahead, while drawing strength from its assets—the richness and diversity of its culture, the ingenuity of its people, and the belief in a better future. Today policymakers have the opportunity to address near-term vulnerabilities and medium-term challenges—with resolve, resilience, and restraint. Today the “Giant of Africa” is walking with a spring in her step—inspiring others in the region and across the world. As the great Nigerian poet Ben Okri once said: “Our future is greater than our past”. Earlier in his remarks, Senate President, Bukola Saraki disclosed that the National Assembly was willing to partner with the global financial body to come up with policies that would benefit Nigeria and Nigerians, adding that there was the need to review the Forex policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria as that would ease restriction on foreign currency and would in the long run, encourage both local and foreign investments.

Alabukun' and it's course of history in Nigeria.

2016-01-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

Jacob Sogboyega Odulate, the Blessed Jacob, sat at the work table in his laboratory, writing the notes which contained the formula for what would ultimately be known as his famous patented medicine, Alabukun Powder. This was in the year 1918. It was early in the evening of another hectic day at his place of work, a functional combination of office, consulting room and laboratory-cum workshop. His single minded pursuit of the goal of establishing an indigenous medical/pharmaceutical brand was legendary. He had displayed the same purposeful determination when at the age of 14, he decided to uproot himself from his ancestral town of Ikorodu and he had embarked on an exploratory journey which took him three months on foot to establish a domestic and commercial base in Abeokuta. His very modest, but cherished “headquarters” was built in the Sapon area of Abeokuta, a mere walking distance from the site of his future three-storey landmark home in Ijemo Agbadu. With the day’s work finished, he supervised the ritualistic tidying-up of the office, a task in which some of his children were willing and excited participants. Soon it would be time to join his friends for a few games at tennis at the Abeokuta Tennis Club, and then go off to his home to join his wives and children for dinner. His face, which could sometimes bear the disconcertingly combined countenance of both a firm disciplinarian and a mirthful father in equal measure, was today aglow with joy. He, a black man and member of the Yoruba ethnic group had triumphed against the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that the British colonial authorities had placed in the path of ambitious “natives”. He had penetrated the fortress of British-dominated commercial enterprise in nascent Nigeria, to become one of a very small group of Nigerian entrepreneurs in the colony. He had reasons to smile. From the modest, but gradually escalating proceeds of the sale of Alabukun Powder, Alabukun Mentholine and other locally made products – all produced by him – the Blessed Jacob was able to realize his overarching desire, which was to underwrite all the expenses associated with sending his children to the land of the erstwhile colonial rulers, Britain, to further their education. One after the other, his offspring went off to study at Durham, Newcastle, USA and London to qualify as educationists, medical doctors, lawyers and engineers. They returned to Nigeria to join the pool of highly educated and successful professionals for which Abeokuta has been particularly famed in Nigeria history. Alabukun’s offspring have prospered and have made immense contributions to Yorubaland and to Nigeria in their various professions and spheres of endeavour. The enduring success of the Alabukun brand is now interwoven into the fabric of modern Nigeria medical history. The Alabukun Powder in particular is displayed and sold in thousands of pharmacies, markets and roadside stalls all over Nigeria. In many states in Nigeria, Alabukun powder is considered to be the obligatory cure-all for almost every ailment. In neighbouring countries such as Benin Republic, Ghana and Cameroon, the eye-catching Alabukun brand is to be seen advertised everywhere. Alabukun products are sold in several towns and cities in the USA, the UK, in Europe, Brazil, Jamaica, and yes, even as far away as China. You can buy Alabukun products on-line, off-line, under-bridges and over-expressways. Just last year, 2012, the descendants and family of the Blessed Jacob marked and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the passing on of this towering man. In a manner in which he would have been proud, the celebrations were modest and without fanfare. None of the governors of the various states in South West Nigeria in which the Blessed Jacob made huge contributions was present. Both Ogun State and Lagos State were in no way officially represented at this significant anniversary. However, we owe nobody any grudge because for a particular reason the family had decided to make the anniversary a low-key affair. Happily, his children, his grandchildren, great grand-children and great-great grandchildren as well as the descendants and relations of the multitudes of his beneficiaries, patients, friends and employees, were all there to celebrate the history of this under-appreciated icon. And so, one year after this 50th anniversary, what are the physical edifices and buildings that can serve as a present and future testimony to his legacy, to his industriousness, to his trailblazing entrepreneurship? Even then a befitting memorial, indeed, a legacy, solid, towering structure such as a house has severally suffered from uncaring and insensitive official arm. First to go was the magnificent family residence in Ijemo Agbadu with its unique granite-hued frontage and castle-like grounds which for more than half a century housed living quarters for family and friends alike – DEMOLISHED! Secondly, in 2013 the building (the first two-level building in Abeokuta, Sapon) the original birthplace and home of the Alabukun brand was – DEMOLISHED!! Thirdly, the storey-building that the Blessed Jacob built on the east side of Ikorodu Road and which for decades was the most significant landmark on that road before one reached the landmark Ikorodu Roundabout was also pitifully – DEMOLISHED!!! This sad history of willful disregard and disrespect for the legacies of those who came before us and who contributed so much to the nation that we today call Nigeria is abundantly exemplified in the tragic fate of Alabukun’s properties. We, the descendants of the glorious Blessed Jacob are so grateful and proud of his life. The education that he bestowed upon us, the wonderful example he showed in his personal and business life, his immense generosity and kindness of spirit, these are what we and our own descendants will never forget. For those who find themselves in power today, and for those who were in power when all of the destructive acts described above were committed, we have only this to say: The act of destruction of the physical properties of those who did so much to make our nation great can never desecrate their names or their legacies. It is those who permit such destruction who should ask themselves this: “Is this the way to honour the past? Are we proud to announce to the world that we allowed history to be corrupted and eroded like this?” Finally, sad as we may feel about this story of demolition as chronicled above, we, the descendants, especially his children, are proud and grateful to God that our magnificent Patriarch, Papa Chief Jacob Sogboyega Odulate – ALABUKUN – The Blessed Jacob – left us a legacy that can never be forgotten in the history of Nigeria. In life and in death he stands up in the development of Nigeria. What a man! What a hero! What a legacy! For more information on the life of this great man, I refer you to the book “Reaching for the Stars” an autobiography of one of his children – Chief Folake Solanke SAN.

Nigeria in deep economic trouble - Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

2015-12-18T15:54:00.000-08:00

For decades, Nigeria danced in close confines with economic disaster. In the past, higher oil prices allowed us to dodge the worst. We have survived but not thrived. Improvised but not planned. Spent but not invested. Laughed, drank and feasted but did not build, construct or maintain. Now, Nigeria has collided into a wall, merciless and immovable. The present downturn in oil prices may be more than just a transient slump in the business cycle. (www.punchng.com)

“Dasukigate: SUVs not $300,000 was collected from Jonathan”

2015-12-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

ABUJA – Presidency, last night, stated categorically that President Mohammadu Buhari never collected any monetary compensation from the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan or any of its officials in the aftermath of the Boko Haram attack on him in Kaduna last year. The denial followed reports making the rounds that president was settled with $300,000 and 5 Sports Utility Vehicles, SUVs after the attacks. The reports however came on the heels of a high profile investigation into the activities of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) in the purchase of military hardwares. Dasuki had threatened to reveal the involvement of former Nigerian Leaders who shared in the “loot”. But in a swift reaction to the disturbing development, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina on Tuesday, in a statement refuted the claims. He however accepted that only two jeeps were given to the president. According to him, the jeeps were only two, one armored and one not amoured. Adesina added that the SUVs were statutory entitlement of president Buhari as a former Head of State. He stated that the president could not have compromised his integrity by accepting monetary compensation from a discredited regime of president Jonathan. The statement read in full: “Our attention has been drawn to reports making the rounds, especially on internet-based media, that President Muhammadu Buhari received $300,000.00 and up to five armoured SUVs from the Office of the National Security Adviser in the aftermath of the attack on his convoy in Kaduna last year. “We unequivocally deny that President Buhari received $300,000.00 or any monetary compensation whatsoever from the Jonathan Presidency or any of its officials, in the aftermath of that attack, or at any other time since then. “While it is true that one armoured SUV and one untreated SUV were sent to the President in the aftermath of the attack, the vehicles were in keeping with his entitlements as a former Head of State under the Remuneration of Former Presidents and Heads of State (And other Ancillary Matters) Decree of 1999. “Section 3, Sub Section 1 of that Decree provides that three vehicles will be provided for former heads of state and replaced every four years. “There was therefore nothing untoward, illegal or tending to corruption in former Head of State Buhari and Presidential aspirant, as he then was, receiving vehicles, to which he was statutorily entitled, from the Federal Government of Nigeria. “President Buhari had in keeping with his austere, spartan and frugal disposition shunned most of his entitlements as a former Head of State, but was prevailed upon by his supporters to accept the two vehicles for his personal safety in the aftermath of the dastardly attempt to assassinate him. “It is preposterous to think that the President will allow his acclaimed reputation of honesty and incorruptibility to be tarnished by accepting a questionable monetary compensation from a discredited regime.”

Awo Not Guilty As Charged By Chinua Achebe: Here Is Why!-Part 1

2012-10-18T08:33:00.001-07:00

Posted: October 18, 2012 - 14:50 By Dr. Wumi Akintide I have vowed never to comment on Chinua Achebe’s controversial best seller titled “There was a Country” until I have had a chance to read it from cover to cover. Having read the book, I now feel at liberty to do a 3 part series on it starting with this one. I do not believe anyone can do justice to all of the issues raised in that book in one or two articles. I have read some of the comments by prominent Igbo leaders supporting the central thesis of Chinua Achebe’s indictment of Obafemi Awolowo as the man who arguably crafted, engineered and implemented the genocidal policies that led to the Biafran War. Chinua Achebe has argued that Awolowo and by implication the Yoruba people as a whole should be held responsible for the more than 2 million deaths from Biafra and half that number or more from the Federal side because nobody was able to keep an accurate record of how many people died in that war on both sides. I was an Assistant Secretary (Army) in Defense Headquarters in Lagos and I know that to be the truth. All I can tell you is that there was needless loss of lives on both sides. The Abagana disaster which was the most successful ambush of the Nigerian troops by the Biafran troops who effectively deployed the “Ugbunigwe” land mines against Federal troops in that war was a case in point. The inference can be drawn from Chinua Achebe’s analysis and conclusions and those who support him that Obafemi Awolowo and the Yorubas were the “fons et origo” of the Biafran apocalyptic misadventure. I would beg to disagree with that observation on hindsight. If Chinua Achebe in this book has added that here was plenty of blame to go around on both sides, and if he has gone ahead to correctly analyze and itemize those blames and those responsible for them, I would have been less critical of the learned Professor in this write-up. Why? Because the learned Professor to me remains one of the greatest literary giants Nigeria has ever produced. He has been a hero of mine from my Secondary School days when I first read his “Things Fall Apart”. If I was one of the judges in the Board of Assessors for the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, I would have picked the man before I pick my former Lecturer and fellow Yoruba juggernaut, Professor Emeritus of English Language, Wole Soyinka. I honestly consider “Things Fall Apart” as Chinua Achebe’s greatest literary gift to the Universe. The book has now been translated into more than 192 foreign languages the last time I checked. That to me is an eloquent testimony to the distinction of Chinua Achebe’s as Nigeria’s closest runners-up to William Shakespeare. I will therefore be the last person to cast aspersion on anything Chinua Achebe has ever written. It is in fact beyond my pay grade to want to do that. But that said, I am a bit disillusioned that Chinua Achebe who is not saying anything new about what many among his tribe have said about Obafemi Awolowo and the Yorubas would choose this particular time of all times to start lending his powerful voice to uninformed speculations about any role Awolowo and the Yorubas must have played in cajoling Biafrans to fight a war in which they lost so much. The Achebe book could not have come at a worse moment for the South at a time the Jonathan Government has now finally agreed to allow the Sovereign National Conference to go forward. The three dominant tribes in Nigeria i.e. the Hausa/Fulani Oligarchy in the North, the Igbos in the South East and the Yorubas in the Southwest and now the Ijaws in the South/South should not have to face this kind of wedge issue that could predictably weaken the solidarity of the South as we prepare for that conference to drastically restructure Nigeria for the good of the country. The Igbos and the Yorubas - two of the most progressive, educated, civilized and economically vibrant tribes in Nigeria would be doing ourselves a huge disfavor to go into that national conference with a mind set that emphasizes what divides us rather than what unites us. Chinua Achebe who I consider as one of the powerful voices to decide where Nigeria goes from here in that conference should not have allowed himself to be used as enabler to further divide the South at this time. I personally regret that the Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu, the undisputed leader of the Igbos and the Commander-in-Chief of the Biafran forces in that war did not live long enough to complete his memoirs on that war like he had promised to do. That memoir would have cleared the air once and for all. The central thesis of Chinua Achebe in that book would have been more credible to me if that conclusion had come from the Ikemba himself. I could care less about what the so-called Commander of Biafran Army, “General” Alex Madiebo had said that Chinua Achebe had understated the hostility of Obafemi Awolowo to Igbo nation. I am fully aware of how Okwealieze Nwodo and Dr. Mbadinuju have already endorsed the Chinua Achebe’s view point in the book. I am also aware that former Governor Ezeife has issued a statement which I totally agree with that we must all remember that “Awolowo did not join the war against Nigeria and neither did he start the war against Eastern Region but he eventually joined Gowon” What Governor Ezeife did not add and should have added was that Ogbuefi Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Igbos foremost leader who reportedly composed the Biafran National Anthem has also had cause to desert Biafra and to side with Gowon at the most critical phase of the war. As a matter of fact, it could be argued that the Azikiwe’s retreat or betrayal had dealt a far more fatal blow to the Biafran struggle than anything that Awolowo ever did. Ogbuefi Nnamdi Azikiwe far more than Odumegwu Ojukwu at the time was like the Ayatollah, the spiritual and ultimate leader of Iran while Ojukwu could be compared to Ahmadinejad the transient political leader of Iran. “Ayatollah” Azikiwe taking a U turn and siding with General Gowon at the time was a major blow to Biafra“ far more damaging than anything Awolowo ever did. It was only a question of time before the Ikemba clearly saw the hand writing on the wall by quickly flying to exile in the Ivory Coast thereby leaving “General” Philip Effiong to handle the surrender formalities that ended the War. Chinua Achebe did not dwell so much on that development in his book but he found it convenient to put all the blame on Obafemi Awolowo and the Yorubas and their ambition to subjugate and forever humiliate the Igbos using genocide as a convenient weapon. Socrates was right when he said that “what any man is saying or seeing is often a factor of where that man is sitting or standing at any given point” I will concede to Professor Chinua Achebe that he probably drew his conclusion based on where he was sitting or standing when he made his observation, But there is more to what really happened in that war than the totality of what Chinua Achebe has stated in that book. It was as if Chinua Achebe was less concerned about the sequence of events leading to the Biafran War in 1967 which included the murder of Ahmadu Bello in January 15, 1966, the assassination Aguiyi Ironsi at Ibadan 6 months later and the heroic role played by Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, a Yoruba man who laid down his own life rather than betray his Igbo Commander-in-Chief. Chinua Achebe seemed to forget that the Igbos and the Hausas dominated the Nigerian Military pre and post- Independence era because the Hausas dominated the rank and file of the Military in Nigeria while the Igbos clearly dominated the officer rank. The Yorubas at that particular time in our history did not particularly value the Military and the Nigerian Police and the Para-military establishments in Nigeria as career points for our people. Yorubas preferred joining the Civil Service or going to teach than seeking a career in the Military. When I graduated from the University of Ife in June 1966 as the first child of all Nigerian veterans of the Second World War to win the British/Canadian Legion Scholarship to do my first degree, the Military should have been the first choice for me. I could easily have been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Nigerian Defense Academy in Kaduna. I was actually made an offer and encouraged to join the Army by then Major and late General Agbazika Innih as I recall. I rejected the offer because my mother would not let me take it because I was my mother’s only child. I did not think I lost anything at the time because smart and educated Yorubas would rather take a teaching job or join the Civil Service than join the Military. I predictably ended up taking up a teaching job first at Aquinas College, Akure from June 1966 before crossing over to Igbobi College, Lagos from where I joined the Federal Public Service as an Administrative Officer in the Federal Ministry of Defense on January 3rd 1968 with late Yusuf Gobir from Kwara as my Permanent Secretary and late B. G. Popo as my Deputy Permanent Secretary. It would have been naïve and foolish of the Yorubas under Awolowo to simply join forces with the Igbos to fight or confront the Hausa/Fulani dominance of Nigeria with only a few Yorubas in the Military at the time. That was one of Awolowo’s calculations. Awolowo was among the few prominent Yoruba men bold enough to visit the East to try to persuade Ojukwu to reconsider his declaration of war against Nigeria because he clearly told Ojukwu that the West was not militarily and mentally ready to join in, if the East decided to go forward with her plan to break away. The same Awo who did not suffer fools gladly did not hesitate to convey to General Yakubu Gowon in an unmistakable language that if the East is allowed to break away then the West would have no other choice than to separate from the North. It was an honest position to take because Awolowo had always demonstrated his preference to form a coalition with the East than with the North because he was convinced it would make more sense to team up with the East and the Yorubas supported him in that decision. If Awolowo was the kind of leader Chinua Achebe was painting him to be in that book he would have preferred going with the North which was more educationally backward and disadvantaged at the time. Awolowo was by far the strongest Nigerian leader of that era who knew what he wanted and the courage to state his case very clearly. Another Yoruba leader who made it clear he totally supported the Igbos for wanting to break away because of the genocide unleashed on them in the North by the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy was Professor Wole Soyinka. The third Yoruba man who was a self-confessed confidant of Odumegwu Ojukwu and a great friend of the Igbos in general was the late Professor Samuel Adepoju Aluko who lectured for many years at the great University of Nsukka. There was also late Tai Solarin who wrote several articles opposing the killing of the Igbos in the North. These distinguished Yoruba men plus Colonel Banjo who actually gave up his life fighting under the Biafran flag and Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi who gave up his life like I said earlier, were all out rooting for the Igbos during the war. Let anyone with facts dispute the facts I am making here if they have them. How for goodness sake can Professor Achebe not remember some of the peaceful and friendly overtures the Yorubas have made to the Igbos on so many occasions in the history of Nigeria. It baffles me that the Professor would not mention anything about these larger than life overtures the Yorubas have always made to the Igbos because we view the Igbos as being more compatible with us than the Hausa/Fulani Oligarchy and majority of us still feel the same way till now. The Yorubas have demonstrated that goodwill every now and then. When Nigeria became independent in 1960, Awolowo had proposed to Azikiwe for the NCNC and the Action Group to form a coalition to run the central Government with Awolowo agreeing to let Azikiwe become Prime Minister while he himself would be happy to settle for Finance Minister. The man did the right thing but Azikiwe turned him down. Look where the NCNC/NPC coalition has led Nigeria today 52 years later. Need I say more? Azikiwe and the Igbos instead chose to go with the Northerners because they have made the calculation that the Igbos were going to be able to dominate the Hausas more than they could ever hope to dominate the Yorubas who were equally as educated as the Igbos. Come on folks. There is plenty of blame to go around, if we want to be realistic. The Igbos have made a few mistakes like the Yorubas. What the hell is Chinua Achebe talking about? Wasn’t Azikiwe going to become the first Premier of Western Nigeria while Imoke was going to be the first Premier of Eastern Nigeria? Who voted for the NCNC and Azikiwe to initially win the majority at Ibadan in 1952? Was it not the Yorubas? Can the Igbos ever point to any similar concessions for the Yorubas in their own enclave? If it exists let them say it if there is any. I am more than willing to learn. The Yorubas have been great supporters of the Igbos for as long as any of us can remember. The NCNC led by Azikiwe have always won in Ibadan, Ilesha and Akure Metropolis even in Awolowo days? Akure as I recall was among the Yoruba towns begging the Igbos to not return to the East because they were guaranteed their safety in Akure and not one of their abandoned properties in Akure were taken over after they left Akure during the war. The properties were all kept safe for them till after the war, Compare that with what happened to the Igbo’s abandoned properties in Port Harcourt and much of River’s State after the war was over! I am offended that Chinua Achebe has applied such a wide brush to use his book to chastise Awolowo and all the Yorubas as pursuing an agenda to suppress and humiliate the Igbos. That indictment is not supported by any reality check. It is sad that very few things are documented in Nigeria. There is no substitute for documented history. Those who know Awolowo very well would realize that he had political ambition to rule Nigeria but certainly not at the expense of the Igbos or any other tribe in Nigeria. Awolowo predicted long time ago that the minority Ijaws are going to rule Nigeria. The prediction has come to pass with the coronation of Jonathan. Awolowo was fighting for Democracy and development and purposeful leadership to take root in Nigeria and not a one party dictatorship where the blind will be leading the blind. If Chinua Achebe reads Awolowo’s “Path to Nigerian Freedom” the “Voice of Reason” and The Peoples’ Republic he would appreciate that Awolowo was totally above those petty ethnic jealousies and squabbles. He wanted a Nigeria we all can be proud of, with Freedom for all and Life more abundant just like he did for the old Western Region. I wish Awolowo were still alive to defend himself. I knew Obafemi Awolowo. Obafemi Awolowo was in many ways my mentor. I worked under him very closely for a year in the Federal Ministry of Finance. I was born into the Action Group, my father was one of the foundation pillars of the Action Group in the defunct Western Nigeria and in Akure the Ondo State Capital. Nigeria would never know a fighter and a braver Nigerian leader who fears nobody and will tell you his mind, come rain or shine. Awolowo was never a leader to be taken for granted or taken lightly. He drove himself far much harder than he drove others. Awolowo would look you straight in the face and tell you not what he thought you wanted to hear but what you needed to hear loud and clear. I witnessed a little bit of that when in 1974 or 1975 he addressed a Convocation at the University that now bears his name. I personally prepared the first draft of the speech he was supposed to read as Chancellor of the University. I passed on the draft of that speech for clearance thru my then Deputy Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Aminu Saleh who passed on the draft to late Abdul Azeez Attah the Permanent Secretary who made a few cosmetic changes before passing the draft to Obafemi Awolowo as Federal Commissioner for Finance and Deputy Chairman of the Federal Executive Council at the time. We were all expecting Awolowo to read our draft on the Convocation Day. Awo did not use a single word from the draft. He read the speech he himself had prepared without clearing it with Dodan Barracks or General Yakubu Gowon, his boss at the time. Awolowo was the only Federal Commissioner who could have done that without being queried by anybody. It took a lot of courage and hard work for him to do that because the speech he read was totally devoted to the 1973 or 1974 Census conducted by the Yakubu Gowon Government. Awolowo demolished the Census as dead on arrival because “it has defied all the known rules and norms of Demography in the whole world “ to use Awolowo’s exact words at the Convocation. I have never in my life seen anything like that. The late President Leopold Senghor of Senegal and Prime Minister late Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago were in the audience to be honored by the University and so was Yakubu Gowon himself. By that single stroke Obafemi Awolowo killed the Census that day. When Murtala Mohammed took over from Gowon in 1975, one of his first actions as the new Head of State was to annul the Census altogether and to order a recount. He, Murtala Mohammed, had lifted verbatim part of Awolowo’s speech in so doing. It is not for fun that the Ikemba himself, Odumegwu Ojukwu who had shown so much respect for Awolowo by describing “Awo as the best President Nigeria never had” I don’t know what Chinua Achebe is talking about. If the Ikemba has shared the views canvassed by Professor Achebe in this controversial book, he most certainly would have said so without mincing words. I have personally read a narrative of Rudolf Okonkwo’s interview with the Ikemba carried verbatim by the Sahara Reporters before the Ikemba’s death. If the Ikemba truly believed that Awolowo was to blame for all the genocidal policies against Biafra, he would have said so without any doubt. Awolowo was neither the head of the Federal Government nor the head of the Military when the genocide occurred. He was the Federal Commissioner and the Deputy Chairman to Gowon in the Federal Executive Council at the time. The policy was a joint decision of the Federal Executive Council at the time. It is totally disingenuous of Professor Achebe to now put the blame on Awolowo as if Awo was Head of Government. I totally reject that attempt. . Awolowo as Federal Commissioner for Finance had managed the finances of Nigeria at the time with distinction making sure that Nigeria did not borrow a penny to prosecute that war. He did so by persuading the Federal Executive Council to stop wasting money by creating white elephant missions abroad while the nation was engaged in a very expensive and destructive civil war. His colleague Okoi Arikpo could easily have condemned Awolowo for dabbling into the affairs of his Ministry at the time. He did not do so like because he knew Awolowo was right to champion such a cause and to master-mind and influence the implementation of that policy with clock-like precision. That was Awo for all of us during his entire public life. Nigeria was blessed to have a man of his caliber managing the nation’s finances during the civil war. By the same token Awolowo personally confided in me when I worked under him about his rational for telling General Yakubu Gowon it made no sense for his Government to continue to prolong the war and to continue to enrich the pockets of all the war commanders who did not want the war to end at all because they were substantially benefiting from it. If the war had continued beyond 3 to 5 or more years, the Biafra and Nigeria side would have lost a lot more than the 2 million Chinua Achebe wants Awolowo to be crucified for. Chinua Achebe has completely forgotten that Awolowo was an economist and a lawyer by training and profession. He realized that the Law of diminishing returns had already set in and it was his duty and responsibility as Finance Minister to stop the hemorrhage and he did by asking why it made sense to continue to actively feed the Biafran troops while they continue to have access to fresh supplies of arms and food supplies from Ivory Coast, Gabon, and one or two countries openly supporting Biafra at the time. America, right now, has unleashed very tough and harsh economic sanctions on Iran today because they don’t want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Only God can tell how many Iranians are dying today from those sanctions or how many Libyans died when NATO forces led by America cut off supplies to Libyan troops and when America started giving drones to the Libyan opposition to topple Moammar Ghadafi. When there is a war, compassion has to take a back seat. That is the plain truth that Awolowo as a leader clearly understood. Very few rational people would fault Awolowo for raising the points he has raised as the effective manager of the Nigerian finances at the time. Awolowo’s decision to persuade the Federal Government to all of a sudden change the Nigerian Currency half way thru the war so as not to allow Biafra to continue to spend the money they have looted from the Enugu branch of the Central Bank was exactly the right thing to do. The decision had forced the Biafra to go print her own money which was not internationally recognized at the time. Once Nigeria took away their financial capacity to continue the war, their Commander-in-Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu had to know it was time to end the war and he did as a rational leader. That was exactly what happened. I can understand Chinua Achebe complaining out of sympathy for his own people but for him to then take the quantum leap and start putting all the blame on Obafemi Awolowo and the Yorubas leaving out General Gowon and the Northerners who started the war as less blameless is a total outrage as far as I am concerned. It is even a worse outrage that General Yakubu Gowon and many of his commanders who are still alive and many of the northerners who started and justified the pogrom against the Igbos in the North would not stand up to put defend Obafemi Awolowo who is no longer in a position to defend himself. One would expect the Yoruba war commanders like Benjamin Adekunle, General Adeyinka Adebayo, General Olusegun Obasanjo, General Alani Akinrinade who are still alive to come out in defense of Obafemi Awolowo and the Yorubas if the northern war commanders and Yakubu Gowon are too timid to do so . I would be the first to admit that Awolowo, like every human being, is not perfect. But if you put all Nigerian leaders on a ranking scale, Awolowo without any question has proved himself to be a leader of consequence in Nigeria and a democrat without blemish. His track record in the old West has proved just that. That is why the man would continue to loom larger than life even in death. When he started the free education and free health program in the old West in 1955 many nihilists said the program would not work. When it started working, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe tried the same concept in the former Eastern region. The whole thing collapsed in less than 3 years. Many Igbo and Hausa parents relocated to the old West to take full advantage of free education for their children. Awolowo did not stop them. All he did was to find a way to sustain and consolidate the program by creating what he called Modern Schools to absorb the excess from Awolowo schools. Sad to say, Boko Haram is thriving today in much of the North and spreading like bush fire in the Harmattan because the northern leaders had failed to do for their own people what Obafemi Awolowo was able to do for the Yorubas. Awolowo had done what he had to do as a leader and I take off my hat for him. Let the chips fall where they may, Awolowo is not the villain that the learned Professor wants to make him with his new book written in flawless language as usual. I rest my case.