The Zany Analyst

www.jumia88.com: Scam site, beware!

2023-08-03T02:28:00.005-07:00

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www.jumia66.com.

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The Agent Telegram id is : @tutor5835

(EFCC should use this to track these scammers).

They claim to be processing orders for bigger online shops like Jumia, Konga, etc.

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The trick is they will give you a welcome bonus of 300 Naira. And allow you process 3/10 tasks. And ask you to recharge to complete the 10/10 orders.

If you are lucky you deposited N1000 recharge for Vip1, they would allow you withdraw the first profit of N400 ( bonus) plus the N1000.

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10/10 tasks you can never complete again as you will be getting order running into thousands of Naira. At this stage you can't withdraw any money or take another order. You must process the order you have grabbed. It could be N1,000,000 order, you must deposit N1,000,000 to process that order. Next they match you up with N2,000,000 order. So it becomes impossible to withdraw again.

Stay away from this organised thieves. Help spread this information to protect others from their fraudulent websites.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - A Perfect Fit for the WTO

2020-07-24T12:05:00.001-07:00

Okonjo-Iweala

BY Oluwakemi Makinde
In the cesspool of corruption and continuous A-grade drama that is Nigeria, only a handful of names have stood out to tell a different story, not only in Nigerian circles but across global scenes, too. One very prominent name to reckon with is the iconic name of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who through sheer hard work and pristine service has risen to the ranks of a national hero. She is a woman of reckoning across the world, sitting on many seats without breaking them, standing at many a podium, accepting heavy responsibilities and handling them all with classy aplomb, thus deserving the countless feathered caps that sit so immaculately well on her head.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is not a name that suddenly leapt out of nowhere. It belongs to a personality that has worked hard and tirelessly in the economic echelon of Nigeria. One quick mention of this is, to quote Forbes, “helping to increase the economic value of Nigeria by an average of 6%, consistently for three years”. This is no small feat as Nigeria's economy is considered one of the largest in Africa and had been on a steady decline. This Harvard and MIT trained epitome of excellence has left a long line of achievements in her trail and, at the risk of sounding repetitive, recounted they must be.

Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has shown her devotion to Nigeria's progress since as far back as 1981 when she bagged a PhD in Regional Economics with a thesis on Credit Policy, Rural Financial markets, and Nigeria's Agricultural Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has since then, had a 25-year career with the World Bank, rising to the position of the Managing Director, the second-highest position there, and making indelible waves in procuring aid and support for developing countries. She also served as a two time Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2003-2006, 2011-2015), Coordinating Minister of the Economy (2011-2015) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (June-August 2006).

During this time, she established herself as a leader who doesn't turn up her nose at the mess made, but as one who rolls up her sleeve to clean up the debris. This she proved by embarking on several groundbreaking projects, including helping to increase the economic strength of the country, driving negotiations that led to the relief of Nigeria's over USD30 billion debt, initiating transparency and accountability in the system with tools and policies such as publications of monthly financial allocations to each state, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). She also spearheaded several notable projects such as the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Corporation (NMRC), the Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria Programme (GWIN) and the Youth Enterprise with Innovation Programme (YouWIN), which has been proclaimed as one of the most effectual agendas deployed for economic balance by the World Bank.

She has not only clinched remarkable notches to her bedpost on a national level. She has also gained acclaim on an international level, as someone capable of deriving positive results from the most strenuous of situations. The results of her work in Nigeria, a country renowned for its complacent and fraudulent elements with a high rate of corruption and poverty, are only testaments to this fact.

Apart from her position at the World Bank, this remarkable woman has held and still holds several positions with international organisations. Some of these include Chair on the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI); Senior Adviser at Lazard, one of the foremost financial and asset management firms in the world; Chair of the Board of the African Risk Capacity of the AU; Nonresident Distinguished Fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative in the Global Economy and Development Programme at Brookings; Adviser on Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative at the World Bank; Board of Directors, Twitter; Special Envoy on COVID-19 for the African Union, to mention a few.

With the endless economical threats the infamous COVID-19 pandemic poses, Dr Okonjo-Iweala, a recipient of several awards and honorary degrees has written several articles and accepted several speaking engagements with World Economic Forum, CNBC Africa, World Bank among others. These were steps taken in a bid to give solid and practicable solutions to the economic and health problems caused by the pandemic.

Little wonder local, national and international organisations all over the globe have been more than eager to engage her expertise in just a few short weeks she was appointed not only as an AU Special Envoy on COVID-19 solutions and a special envoy for the newly inaugurated Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator. She also sits on the External Advisory Board of the International Monetary Fund and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council of South Africa and since she has been appointed for this latter role by the President of South Africa in March, she has been nothing but a positive influence on the growth of their economy, despite the economic influences of a global pandemic.

This unbeatable portfolio of effective leadership is no doubt a solid launching pad for Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to head the World Trade Organisation. She has the experience to deliver. She has promised to work at bringing the World Trade to a point of unity and purpose and to deploy the WTO as a platform for sustainable growth and economic recovery. From the much we know, she is more than capable of this. She is a woman that has carved a niche in a field where few can stand and walked a path where many have slipped.

While it is obvious that it will take more than a few well-constructed sentences to achieve these promises, it is also more trustworthy to say that if anyone can walk her talk with tangible results, it is Dr Okonjo-Iweala.

Oluwakemi Makinde is dedicated to informative writing that drives positive change and impact in the society. She is an advocate of both art for art sake and art for life sake.

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2017-12-20T04:03:00.000-08:00

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Nigeria’s foreign policy in 100 years

2014-03-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

By PAUL ARHEWE

L-R: Awolowo, Abubakar, Bello, Azikiwe at a function in Lagos

Before the amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, agricultural commodities were exported to Europe and totally controlled by the British Empire. This showed the level of foreign bilateral trade between the colony and the outside world, where cocoa, groundnuts, palm oil and palm kernels were exported and chemicals, machines, transportation equipment and other manufactured products were imported. This level of bilateral trade extended until the 1950s.

The dual mandate adopted by the Europeans, whereby African countries will receive Europe’s civilization in exchange for unrestricted access to the continent resources prevailed during that era.

Britain stood as Nigeria’s major trading partner, even as 70 percent of her exports, as late as 1955 went to Britain and another 47 percent of import came from that country to Nigeria.

However, this bilateral trade changed from 1976, when British dominance of Nigeria’s economy began to wane. The United States then took over as Nigeria leading trade partner. By this time, exports to Britain dropped to 38 percent while import from the country to Nigeria dropped to 32 percent.

At post independence and for decades, Nigeria’s fore

ign policy thrust remained consistent with catering for the interests of African countries. However, the change in policy focus was brought about as government sort to arrest the declining economic setbacks. The end of apartheid in South Africa brought to a climax the Afrocentric position Nigeria’s foreign policy. Hence, in the country’s 1999 Constitution the policy shift revolved around economic diplomacy. This became a useful tool for promoting and protecting the country’s national interest in its bilateral ties with other countries.

Each regime during and after the country’s independence in 1960, took to formulating its own course of action to manipulate and propel national interest within the international community; with the purpose of forging a unique identity for their governments. There was a welter of dynamic and conservative foreign policies that went a long way towards how governments of the country actively or passively influenced the country’s interests on the international scene.

While the governments of Tafawa Balewa, Yakubu Gowon and Shehu Shagari were seen as conservative by foreign policy analysts, those of late Muritala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo (during the military era of 1976-79) operated dynamic foreign policies. However, observers of Nigeria’s foreign policy especially in her interaction with the international community may have confused radicalism for dynamism, hence, faulting this conceptualisation as a virile tool for measuring an effective policy. The erstwhileAction Group shadow Foreign Minister, late Anthony Enahoro was attributed as being a proponent of dynamic foreign policy.

He is reported to having moved a motion and prompted the country’s first post independence legislative house, arguing that the August 20, 1960 foreign policy adopted by the House of Representatives lacked dynamism and regretted that the Tafawa Balewa government’s interpretation and conduct of foreign policy lacked all ingredients of activism.

The August 20, 1960 official statement of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa at the Federal House of Representatives, stated that Nigeria is “adopting clear and practical policies with regard to Africa; it will be our aim to assist any country to find solution to its problem”. Nevertheless, observers and analysts are of the view that the country’s foreign policy then lacked any definite direction.

Nigeria’s Afrocentric policy

By adopting an Afrocentric policy, in the wake of the country’s independence Nigeria aimed to engage the international community through Africa’s interests and issues that tended to be of benefits to the continent. Nigerian’s first Foreign Minister, Jaja Wachukwu threw more perspectives to this Afrocentricism posture, when he said; “Charity begins at home and therefore any Nigerian foreign policy that does not take into consideration the peculiar position of Africa is unrealistic”. Nigeria under this policy framework contributed immensely in the struggles that led to the independence of Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia and participated in the anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa. Nigeria also played a crucial role in the establishment of continental and regional organisations. For example, Nigeria was pivotal to the establishment of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963. Nigeria was also instrumental in ensuring that it attained the two major objectives that included the quick decolonization of colonies in Africa and the rapid socio-economic growth and development of African countries.

Similarly, the creation of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) on May 28, 1975 saw Nigeria taking a fundamental role in spearheading the integration of neighbouring countries’ resources to enhance regional prosperity. Under the leadership of ex-General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria led the formation of the 16-member regional body that signed the treaty establishing ECOWAS.

Nigeria further played a significant role in military peacekeeping operations on the continent. It contributed both financial and human resources in the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) peacekeeping operations in Liberia, Sierra LeChad and several others.
New policy thrust in citizen diplomacy

The interventions to restore peace in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the fight against apartheid in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Angola among other missions of mediating in conflict prone countries like Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso especially after coup d’états, signified the apogee in foreign interventions in the past decades. Of recent, the country’s foreign relations has become tamed, mainly due to internal problems and politics associated with getting a proper footing for our nascent democracy amid pressing economic problems.

The military regime of ex- Gen. Ibrahim Babaginda conceptualised a new face to Nigeria’s foreign policy, where economic diplomacy would enhance the promotion of export trade, investment and financial assistance from friendly countries. The then Foreign Affairs Minister, ex-Gen Ike Nwachukwu in June 1988, said that “it is the responsibility of our foreign policy apparatus to advance the course of our national economic recovery.”

It was during the democratically elected government of President Olusegun Obasanjo that the country’s foreign policy was refocused to de-emphasise an explicitly African bias. While appointing ambassadors in 1999, his administration admonished that “Nigeria’s foreign policy today extends, however, far beyond our concern for the well being of our continent, Africa”. In addition, Obasanjo, pointed out that “The debt burden, for instance, is not an exclusively African predicament. Many countries in Asia, the Caribbean and South America were facing similar problems.

It is imperative; therefore, that these regions harmonise their efforts in the search for a fairer deal from the industrialised nations of the west; and this requires of us a more global approach to world affairs than was previously the case.

Last year, the President Jonathan administration paved a new path for the country’s foreign policy thrust, by embracing an agenda that promotes growth and national development. In this new policy, both private partnership and foreign missions will be utilised as new vanguards in economic diplomacy. Hence, the collapsing of both economic and citizen diplomacy by the current administration, that is geared towards attaining national economic development and growth where the citizens at home and abroad are used as agents towards achieving policy goals.

Bilateral relations with members of the developing eight countries for economic cooperation (D8) have been a centre piece for the country’s economic diplomacy. In this regard, the foreign ministry has engaged in various economic activities of the D8, especially since it assumed leadership of the group in 2010.

Using the economic diplomacy policy to source and promote trade between Nigeria and D8 members, the foreign ministry has rectified three of its important legal documents: The D-8 preferential Trade Agreement, Multilateral Agreement on administrative assistance in Customs Matters and the Simplification of VISA procedures for businessmen of D8 member countries.

Former Foreign Minister, Olugbenga Ashiru, while expatiating on the new paradigm shift, said that: “We will redress existing imbalances and forge a strong partnership with OPS to assist economic growth. Consequently, members of OPS will frequently constitute part of any bilateral discussions between our governments and other foreign delegations, so that Nigeria can benefit from visits to and from other countries.”

“Our envoys will be directed to drive this new focus of our foreign policy by spending more time and effort on attracting foreign investments to Nigeria. Simply put, our ambassadors will be the foot-soldiers in this new approach for the purpose of achieving our Vision 20:2020 while bringing economic benefits to Nigeria.”

When contacted, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, told National Mirror, that any country’s foreign policy should be for the benefits of the people.

“I will say Nigeria’s foreign policy is not really doing badly and not getting worse. Though, sometimes we may not be getting it right and in other times we do get it right. The people must come first, so Nigerians at home and those in Diaspora should be the centre of our policy thrust.

Nigeria was faced with huge challenge during the military era where her public image was relegated. The country’s foreign policy could not stand as imperative tool for image building, especially, where dictatorial rule and clampdowns on human rights were strongly opposed by the western world.”

Nigeria played a prominent role in the Congo crisis of 1960-1965. It sent military peacekeeping troops.
In addition, during the Cold War era, Nigeria adopted a non-aligned stance; where it refused to align with any of the power blocs.

Another significant development in Nigeria foreign relations after the country’s independence was the protest of Nigerian students against the signing of agreement by the then new Tafawa Balewa’s government with the British government. The Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact entered by the government then meant that British military could maintain bases and presence in Kano. The Nigerian student’s protest made Tafawa Balewa’s government to back down from the intended deal. The message of the student then was that Britain was to be kept at arm’s length.

The foreign relations between Nigeria and Britain experienced some challenging moment, especially during the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo where the Nigerian government nationalized the British Petroleum’s (BP( interest in the country, as a measure to arm-twist the UK government into withdrawing its sanctions and to restore British authority in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). This was after the white supremacist in that country hijacked power. This created a scene at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Lusaka in 1978. When the British Prime Minister challenged the Nigerian Foreign Minister, General Adefowope, he told Margret Thatcher, “Madam Prime Minister that is Act 1, Scene 1, many more will follow if you don’t play ball on Zimbabwe”. Thatcher had no choice than to relent and began process that enabled Zimbabwe have a free and fair elections.

The West and hypocrisy in pushing gay practice to Africa

2014-02-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

Anti-gay protest in Paris, France, recently

By Paul Arhewe

What will the western world gain when the whole of Africa continent adopt an alien culture of sodomy and gay life styles? Many advocates of anti-gay practices are asking with fewer responses to this question. The fierceness in which western countries are pushing for the adoption of gay practices in all parts of the world, especially in cultures that abhor it, makes it looks as if the world’s existence depends on a practice that is known to have sent many to their untimely graves. Homosexuals are known to be among those who had first contracted the Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which took a rapid spread among same-sex partners. Initially, the terminal disease was referred to as homosexual ailment, where it was called Gay-related immune deficiency (GRID). Some commentators have argued that the move of the West remains sinister, as they continue in pushing the wide recognition of gay lifestyle when it brings no positive contribution to humankind and the society, but diseases and deaths.

President Goodluck Jonathan drew the annoyance of some western nations, recently, when he signed the prohibition act against same-sex marriage in Nigeria.

Antagonists of the anti-gay law have described it as obnoxious and draconian. Some Western governments, including the United States and Britain say the enactment of the law is a direct encroachment on the rights of gay people in Nigeria. The views of these opponents are that the law will make the country a barbaric state and relegate it to be slave to tradition, morality and religion.

In its reaction recently, the Nigerian Federal Government said the Western nations are playing double standard with their crying foul of the new law. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Viola Onwuliri, recently, in her trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, told reporters that the president signed the bill into law as a way of protecting Nigerians and democracy. She did not fail in adding that the criticisms of the West are based on “double standards”.

Parts of her words read: “What happened in Nigeria is democracy in action and it will really be unfortunate that people who are talking about democracy when they now see democracy work, they want us to go against democracy,” she said.

“Is democracy for pick and choose? When it suites them they want us to do good governance and democracy, but when it does not suit them they want us to go against the democracy that has been put in place.

“The National Assembly took a decision, the National Assembly is the face of democracy in Nigeria, they are the representatives of the people, they form the voice of the people and they have spoken,’’ she said.

Many Nigerians from different occupations have lauded President Jonathan’s action for approving the law. Some religious group leaders have shown backings for this singular act. A bishop of the Living Faith Church, David Abioye, in his commendation said, “The decision against same sex marriage is pace setting for nations in Africa and other nations of the world. “We commend the president for signing the bill into law. Same Sex marriage is against ethics; it is against tradition; it is against culture, humanity, the will of God and everything. Not once will that evil rise up its head in this country,” he said.

Nigeria’s Catholic Cardinal, John Olurenfemi Onaiyekan also gave his approval of the government‘s stance. In his words: “The position of the Catholic Church has always been clear that the designs of God are very clear to us. God created man; male and female He created them and told them to go and multiply and the church has stood by that natural plan of God. As a catholic, obviously I am against homosexuality therefore against same-sex marriage. My position all along has been that strictly speaking there is no such thing as same-sex marriage because marriage by definition is between a man and a woman. Anything else, you can call it whatever you like. Don’t call it marriage because marriage is between a husband and a wife."

Delta state governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan also is puzzled by the amount of opposition and pressure from the western world. In his words: “There was a public hearing by the National Assembly and we are not aware of their opposition to this bill. What happened was that a lot of Nigerians appeared and made submission in favour of it. So it is a surprise that after the bill has been passed, we are now facing this opposition by the international community.”

While airing his view recently, the governor likened gay marriage to paedophilia. He insisted that gay marriage offends the cultural norms of Nigerians and that it can be likened to paedophilia. The governor said the way it is viewed as taboo for an adult to sleep with a 10-year-old girl in Ireland, is the same way Nigerians view gay marriage.

“Whenever a couple come together, they are not coming together by themselves, it almost involves their different families and if it is known that in that family there are married gays, the danger is that the taboo emanating from that might even affect others who are straight and that is not right,” he stressed.

The double standards of the West are traced to the huge pressure placed on Africans to forgo a rich cultural heritage that forbids homosexuality and lesbianism. The politics behind this western campaign to expand the gay practice has reflected a scenario where less pressure are mounted on few western countries that have decided to single themselves and preserve traditional decorum.

Russia has made it known to the world that it will not allow gay practice in its society, as it seeks to protect children and preserve the family tradition in its society. President Vladimir Putin, recently, had to douse the fear of athletes, and sports lovers who have the intention to visit the Eastern European country for the impending Olympics, by assuring that they won’t be punished by the country’s existing anti-gay laws.

In addition, some states in the United States are still against the practise of gay marriages. As at January 2014, only 17 states and the District of Columbia have constitutionally legalised same-sex marriage. In 31 US states, there still exist constitutional amendments banning recognition of gay marriages.

Virginia State adopted a referendum in 2006 that outlaw gay marriages. Virginia has upheld for over 400 years now that marriage is between a man and a woman, this is because the state has continued to uphold the important role father and mother plays in families. Recently, a mass protest was held in France to stop law allowing gay marriages in the European country. It is interesting to note that before now Britain has not legally implemented the practice of gay marriage, but waiting to put into effect from 29 March 2014, the law passed by its parliament where it will be fully in force in England and Wales. Furthermore, a walk down history lane has revealed that homosexuality was a criminal offense, for over 300 years, in the United Kingdom. Reports say that it was decriminalized in 1959; not based on the grounds of human rights, but because the son of the then Prime Minister, Nicholas Eden and the son of Lord John Wolfenden , Jeremy Wolfenden, were gays. It is reported that Nicholas Eden was among those first set of people that die of Aids. That the former colonial masters who created anti-sodomy and homosexuality laws in Nigerian failed to repeal them when it was decriminalising its domestic laws, is another pungent question that demands answer.

The western world is still against paedophilic practices, which is seen as a psychiatric disorder where an adult defile and have sexual intercourse with a minor. This paedophilic practice was termed together with homosexuality and lesbianism as a psychiatric disorder, but the later was removed from the category of the debasing practice. American Psychiatric Association included homosexuality in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a sociopathic personality disorder or perverse psychosexual disorder, but since 2000, this was expunged.

Westerners and those opposing the government’s same sex prohibition act may not have gotten concrete insight of the African culture and the chronological events surrounding the history of Nigeria’s stance against sodomy and gay practices. Nigerian society, since the colonial era, has stood against sodomy and gay practices. In the 1916, southern part of the country enacted laws that criminalized these practices in its sections 214 and 215 of Criminal Code Act which now in chapter 77 of the laws of the federation of Nigerian, 1990. Similarly, in northern Nigeria, the penal code in 1960, which became a chapter in the laws of Northern Nigeria, had provisions against sodomy and other gay practices. These laws have given credence to the new same –sex prohibition act. It is seen that the recent law is a reinforcement of the previous ones. Imperatively, what this implies is that since the law against such practices have existed since 1916 it becomes wrong to claim that Nigerian government is violating the rights of its citizens, in contemporary times, by reinforcing laws to protect its ‘sane society’ and preserve family values culture.

As a move to continue the campaign and propaganda against Nigerian government, alleged western sponsored activists and protesters are said to be writing petitions and staging protests from foreign countries against the law. One of such propagandas is the one signed by some ‘Nigerians’ from the United States; where they wrote that the prohibition on same-sex act “it ignores the fruits of many decades of scientific research which proves decisively that homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Fourth, the law threatens to reverse the gains made by programs aimed at fighting the HIV-AIDS epidemic in the country”.

Some Nigerians have started utilizing the situation for some cheap advantages to travel abroad. The volume of applications from Nigerians to seek asylum in some western countries is increasing. The Netherlands embassy in Nigeria attested to reporters that it has received several applications from Nigerians seeking for asylum.

In addition, the Canadian embassy in Nigeria in a report said, it has not really received any increase from Nigerian applicants in recent times. However, it said applications for asylum would be granted, only in Ottawa, on arrival in their country.

“We cannot grant asylum to anyone here on any grounds, that is the prerogative of Ottawa. Such a Nigerian must have already satisfied regular visa requirements and must have travelled to Canada, he or she as the case may be, can now apply to stay back for fear of persecution upon return to Nigerian.”

The embassy said it would investigate to verify if actually applicants are gay or just making a claim, when such applications are received.

When the Australian Embassy was contacted, about its view on the anti-gay law in Nigeria. Tom Beamish, Second Secretary of the mission said, “The Australian Government is concerned that some provision of the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act appear inconsistent with a number of human rights enshrined in international conventions, including the rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly”.

He said, “Australia condemns all discrimination, violence or harassment against people on the basis of their sexual orientation”.

“We have previously raised our concerns with the legislation with the Government of Nigeria prior to signing into law, and will do so again now that it has been enacted”, he added.

The argument of many commentators are that the hypocrisy and double standards of the West are pronounced when it continues to discriminate against some practices based on sexual orientation, like polygamy, incest and paedophilia and want the world to adopt homosexuality and lesbianism, even in cultures that detest it.

Why Nigerians are comfortable in foreign prisons

2013-09-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

About 10,000 Nigerians are in jail in foreign countries, especially in Europe and Asia. PAUL ARHEWE reports that these citizens who ran away to be free from the economic misfortune at home before they were caught on the wrong side of the law, are, however, rejecting government’s move to bring them back home.

The number of Nigerians serving prison terms in foreign countries continues to rise.
It is estimated that about 9,000 Nigerians are in jail overseas, mostly in Europe and Asian countries.
These Nigerians who have run afoul of the laws of their host countries include the millions who have left the country in droves since the economy nose-dived.
In the 80s and 90s, the exodus of Nigerians to overseas was embarked upon by professionals and intellectuals, in what has come to be known as “

brain drain.” These were class of people that were uncomfortable with the military regimes or those who were being hounded by the military dictatorship of the era.
Since returning to civilian rule over 14 years ago and still without a change in the economic fortune of citizens, the next set of Nigerians “checking out” are mostly youths, who get involved in crimes, especially drug trafficking with a view to amassing wealth fast. In the process, they get caught by the law and are jailed or in some countries, executed.
Investigations have also revealed that among Nigerians in prisons abroad, many are incarcerated because of immigration misdemeanors.

Efforts of the Nigerian government, past and present, aimed at reducing the number of its citizens languishing in foreign prisons may not have achieved the desired objective, as available data have shown that Nigerians continue to top the list of Africans in some foreign jails, especially in Europe and Asia.
Government’s efforts at securing the release of some of these prisoners may not have yielded the desired result, not because of its ineptitude in handling the diplomatic process of negotiating for their freedom or because of negligence. Findings have revealed that some Nigerians in some foreign prisons, rather than returning home, sometimes put a spanner in the works of efforts seeking to free them.
But there is no official statistics on the total number of Nigerians in foreign prisons and those willing or unwilling to be assisted by the Federal Government.
The outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Olugbenga Ashiru, recently said there were about 9,000 Nigerians in various prisons abroad.
“The highest numbers of 752 are in UK prisons while most of them are in Asian-Pacific on death row,” Ashiru said.

Cross section of participants at the 13th Brainstorming Session of the

Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on the Plight of Nigerians in

Foreign Prisons held recently at the Institute.

A different figure revealed at a brainstorming conference organised by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), put it at about 25,000.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), however, recently accused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of neglecting existing laws that would bring about accurate data of Nigerians in foreign jails.

L-R: Comptroller General, Nigerian Prisons Service, Mr. Zakari Ibrahim

and Elder Statesman Chief Arthur Mbanefo at the Brainstorming Session.

Section 45 of the NDLEA Act mandates all Heads of Nigerian Diplomatic Missions abroad to furnish the NDLEA with the statistics of Nigerians in jails abroad for drug related-offenses every six months. But NDLEA’s Director of Prosecution and Legal Services, Femi Oloruntoba, accused the Foreign Affairs Ministry of failing to ensure compliance with the provisions of the law, which has in effect hampered the agency from gathering accurate statistics.
In the absence of reliable data on the number of Nigerians in foreign jails, it becomes a difficult task, even if government chooses to seek for their transfer home or make a plea bargain for their freedom.
National Mirror recently approached the UK Government relying on the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and consequently, the British Ministry of Justice (MoJ) sent the accurate number of Nigerians in their prisons.
As at March 31, 2013 there were 545 Nigerians in prisons in England and Wales. This figure was made up of 494 males and 51 females.
Also, the Hong Kong government, through its Principal Information Officer (Public Relations Unit), Mr. Marenda Lo, told National Mirror that there were 23 Nigerian inmates in the country’s jail houses as at May 28, 2013.
The Spanish Embassy in Nigeria said as at February 27, 2013 there were 585 Nigerians imprisoned in Spain.
The Comptroller-General of Nigerian Prisons, Mr. Zakari Ibrahim, said the number of Nigerians in US prisons, two years ago was estimated to be around 800, and the number must have increased by now. “The situation now poses a serious concern,” he said.
To further highlight the high rate of Nigerians in foreign prisons, Nigeria’s Ambassador to China, Alhaji Aminu Wali, recently said, “Right now, we have over 400 Nigerians in various jails in China and 80 per cent of them are drug-related offences.”
The above data portray Nigerians as among the highest number of Africans serving terms abroad. This may have connection with the increasing number of Nigerians who are caught with drugs.
For instance, the data the British government gave National Mirror shows that while there are 545 Nigerians in prisons in England and Wales alone, there are only 84 South Africans, 50 Kenyans, 143 Ghanaians, 13 Egyptians, two Togolese, and two Beninoise there.
Nigeria no doubt is the most populous country in Africa, but the percentage difference of her citizens incarcerated in foreign prisons when compared with those of other nationals is very high.
Furthermore, from the same data, it is seen that Somalia having 408 of her citizens jailed in England is next to Nigeria. There may be a correlation between the rates of incarceration of Africans in foreign prisons with the corruption index rankings of each country. Somalia since 2008 has occupied the number one position as the world’s most corrupt nation, according to the Transparency International corruption perception indexes.
Nigeria too is not far from the bottom; ranking 35th last year. Many Nigerians have damned the consequences and are caught with drugs, even in countries where death penalty is the price for drug peddling.
To further buttress the above point, Director-General of the NDLEA, Femi Ajayi, told the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Matters recently that Nigeria had more of her citizens in foreign prisons than any other African country.
Ajayi said over 6,000 Nigerians were serving various jail terms across the globe. He listed some countries where Nigerians were incarcerated for drugs offences, including Iran (with 4,000 Nigerians), Brazil (500), Thailand (500) and Malaysia (300). Ajayi said the list was more than that “but that is what we have for now.”
Apart from the get-rich-quick syndrome, ignorance and the urge to circumvent immigration laws have further increased the number of Nigerians in foreign jails.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in her paper delivered recently during the NIIA 13th Brainstorming Session, tagged “The Plight of Nigerians in Foreign Prisons: The Challenge of Transformation” said many Nigerians settle for illegal arrangements in obtaining required travel documents.
“They employ all manners of pranks to beat immigration laws and ultimately regret their actions,” Abike-Erewa said.
She said in extreme cases, like in China, where over 2,000 Nigerians are said to be languishing in various jails, when they are caught with expired documents, they are dumped in jail and rather than deported home, they request that they pay $5,000.”
Director General of the NIIA, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, also bemoaned the situation whereby in Nigeria, going to prison is seen as no big deal. “Serving a jail term under normal circumstance is supposed to have a negative impact. One does something wrong, he is incarcerated. But in Nigeria if one goes to prison, he comes back, he is honoured, celebrated and given chieftaincy titles. Then how would one explain such type of imprisonment?,” Akinterinwa asked.
The NIIA DG continued, “We have two types of prisoners; those that have been tried and convicted and those still awaiting trials. When we looked at it, we see that the numbers are increasing. We really want to find out how many Nigerians have been tried and lawfully convicted, as oppose to those who may have engaged in immigration offences and are still waiting trials; during the process they are mistreated. So the situation is such that if government would succeed in its transformation agenda, there is the need to begin with an analyses and a review of our attitudinal approach.”
Contacted, the Chairman, Board of Trustees for Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), Europe, Hon. Collins Nweke, also bemoaned the state of prisons in Nigeria and gave reasons why Nigerian prisoners in foreign countries have been rejecting moves of government to bring them back home to complete their terms.
According to Nweke, “The situation where some Nigerians in foreign prisons would rather die there, as it were, than return to Nigeria, should be seen beyond the surface.
“It is perhaps an indication of how bad things are socio-economically and otherwise in the country. It’s however important to put the problem in the right context. This represents an insignificant number of Nigerians and I hope we are not making it look as if it’s rampant because it’s not.”
On why many Nigerians are in jail abroad, Nweke replied, “I’m not sure about greed being a motivation for the behaviour of these fellow Nigerians. I’d rather pin it down to poverty and frustration. The last time I checked the poverty rate of the country it stood at some 70per cent of the population while youth unemployment was a whopping 42 per cent mainly graduates.
“In the 1980s and 1990s, Nigerians left the country in droves due to military misrule. The decades from 2000 to 2020 will perhaps be characterised by brain drain occasioned by poverty and frustration. Some of these figures really challenge and embarrass unrepentant believers in the potentials of the country like me.
“The revolutionary wave of violent and non-violent demonstrations that has rocked the Arab world since December 2010 was motivated by indignation to youth unemployment. As we speak, Egypt is still burning to the point that President Morsi is in house arrest. This must be a reason for concern by Nigerian leaders. They need to be seen to be squarely addressing the unacceptably high youth unemployment and poverty to curb situations like young Nigerians preferring to die in foreign prisons than return home”
Nweke added, “However let’s not make it look like this is an exclusive Nigerian malaise. Even in developed economies you find isolated cases of individuals who for a combination of reasons find the prison safer. As Counsellor for Social Affairs here in Belgium, I’ve been confronted with situations of constituents who purposely re-offend in the winter so they would be sent back to jail. Reason is that on their own, they can’t pay for heating and other expenses. But at least in prison, they’d be taken care of. I guess that such situations are somewhat comparable to Nigerians in foreign prisons who’d rather do their time there than being repatriated back to Nigeria.
“Even prisoners have fundamental human rights that need to be respected. The Nigerian Government through its Embassies and High Commissions should at least ensure that the basic rights of prisoners of Nigerian origin are respected; right to defense, right to a fair trial, respect for bodily integrity, et cetera. We know that such rights are respected to the letters if the foreign prison authorities know that the government of the foreign prisoner has not looked away.”
While some countries like the United Kingdom are lamenting the increasing costs for catering for foreign prisoners, they have started fashioning out policy that will make speedy transfer of prisoners back to their countries. In this view, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently admitted that too many foreign prisoners are in his country and that Britain is “helping to build prisons in their countries so that more foreign prisoners can be sent back home.”
Already, the Nigerian government is making moves for speedy conclusion of the Prison Transfer Agreement (PTA) it has with European countries. Foreign Minister, Ambassador Ashiru, told Heads of Nigerian Missions in Europe at a seminar recently in Berlin, Germany, that talks were on towards reaching the agreement.
”One strategy we need to deliberate upon to ameliorate the plight of Nigerian prisoners is the prospect of concluding the PTA. This includes the legal framework for orderly repatriation of Nigerians who have lost their rights to remain in their host countries,” he said.
However, Nweke has denounced any planned move to transfer Nigerians from foreign prisons back home. “As an association, we condemn the move in its totality,” he said, adding “The move is a bad arrangement as it does not reflect the real essence of going to jail. Serving a jail term is a punishment for a crime committed; afterwards, prisoners are expected to be reintegrated back to society. So when they try to deport them back to their countries of origin, they are challenged by the judicial system. Since they cannot accomplish that, they are now seeking illicit cooperation of African governments.”
Legal luminary, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, supports Nweke’s stand, arguing that Nigerian prisons are overstretched and if Nigerians in foreign prisons are brought home, this would create more problems.
Falana said it is illegal to go abroad and sign foreign prison exchange programme without the consent of the prisoners. He further argues that instead of seeking transfer of these prisoners to Nigeria, preventing fresh incidences should be government’s priority in its campaigns.
Hon. Dabiri-Erewa also recommends that government should embark on massive awareness programmes on dangers involved in illegal migration, while Nigerian embassies should issue educational materials to citizens arriving in their host countries on what to expect.

Efforts to transform Nigeria through economic diplomacy

2013-05-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

Cross section of participants at the 13^th Brainstorming Session

of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs

on the Plight of Nigerians in

Foreign Prisons held recently at the Institute.

By Paul Arhewe
The scorecard for Nigerian foreign policy in harnessing and contributing positively to government’s transformational agenda, since 2011, is adjudged by stakeholders that more impetus is required to garner more dividends in comparative to what is achieved. Identified challenges need to be addressed to make the policy more effective and result oriented.
Economic diplomacy which forms the centrepiece of Nigerian foreign policy is a foremost instrument used by the current administration to propel the attainment of a robust economy.
The President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s agenda which is anchored on attaining specific targets in its vision 20:2020 policy; foremost among these are job creation, poverty alleviation, and the creation of a robust economic growth for the country.

The Nigerian Foreign Ministry since the present administration came to power in May 29, 2011, has involved in strategic engagements with other countries, particularly those that are seen as veritable sources for trade, acquisition of technology, those who can contribute to Nigerian democracy and peace, security and territorial integrity.
The ministry, in a bid to attract inflow of direct foreign investments, has entered into bilateral deals between Nigeria and other several countries, in areas of trade, technological cooper
ation, ICT, education, culture and tourism.
In the same vein, it has revived several agreements and MOUs for the benefit of the country.
Currently, Nigeria has Bi-national Commissions with five countries- US, Canada, Germany, South Africa and Algeria.
The Foreign Ministry said in its annual report for last year, “in order to effectively complement the economic drive of the present administration, the Trade and Investment Division of the Ministry has been repositioned and upgraded to better deliver on its foreign investment and trade promotion mandate.”
The Ministry said it now have “better synergy with the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, other relevant MDAs and State Governments as well as effective coordination of all Missions abroad.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru recently said, many have frequently asked why Nigerians cannot derive greater benefits from the huge investments government has made to the cause of Africa. “What we have done today, in response to the global realities and changing times, are to make Nigeria the centre-piece of Nigeria’s foreign policy. This entails that every foreign policy decision must pass the litmus test of how far and by how much Nigeria’s specific and general national interests are being promoted, pursued and served.”
“This is why we have sought to deploy foreign policy to support and promote the economic development of Nigeria through job and wealth creation, empowerment and the development of critical infrastructure for the benefit of the Nigerian people. Making Nigeria our primary focus in terms of issues bordering on our national security, economic prosperity, youth unemployment and infrastructural development, does not translate to a reduction of our commitment to Africa,” Ashiru added.
Answering the question on how new policy thrust has contributed in revamping the country’s economy, the minister said “It is in light of the foregoing considerations, as well as the bright economic prospects of the country that we are encouraged to note the report recently released by Price Waterhouse Coopers, which forecasts that Nigeria will emerge as the 13th top economy in the world by 2050. Indeed, a recent study classified Nigeria, together with Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey, as members of MINTs, in recognition of our emerging economic prospects and as the new centres of global economic growth. These assessments are not only reassuring but are also pointers that Nigeria is on the right path to attain the objectives of Vision 20:2020. These also challenge us to redouble our efforts in this regard.”
Moves to secure seat at UNSC
Another vital issue on the foreign front, since the Jonathan’s administration took the reign of power since 2011, is the bid to secure a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2014.
Nigeria last served in the prestigious UN Security Council from 2010-2011 and is seeking a re-election for another twoterms (2014-2015).
The country is promoting its contribution to peacekeeping and security in Africa accomplishments as credentials that qualifies it for another term of membership.
For now, Nigeria and Chad are campaigning for the two available African seats at the Council and both countries have already received the endorsement of the African Union.
The forthcoming election is to replace Togo, Morocco, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Guatemala, whose two-year term at the council expires on December 31.
Lobbying prominent members had begun in harness, with some European countries like Poland and France already tilting to the side of Nigeria. Some others, like Canada, remain undecided.
The five permanent veto-wielding members- U.S., UK, France, Russia and China, and the 10 non-permanent members at the UNSC, currently, together make up the 15-member body, which are empowered by the UN Charter to ensure maintenance of international peace and security, investigate disputes that may escalate and to formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments.
Recently, report said the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Chris Cooter made it known that his country is yet to “declare a position” on Nigeria’s bid for the seat.
“That issue was raised at our meeting in Ottawa, we haven’t declared our position on that yet,’’ Cooter said.
“But obviously our relationship with Nigeria is growing all the time and I know we will give that a very serious consideration.’’
Polish President Donald Tusk who recently was hosted in Abuja disclosed his country’s intention of backing Nigeria for the UNSC seat.
According to Tusk, “Nigeria is one of the most promising economies in the world …”
“Nigeria is in the focus of interest of growth because of the abundant natural resources including oil.”
He emphasised that there was a sign of hope of freedom and development of human rights that could spread throughout the continent as result of the courage and ambition of Nigerians, both factors, which are “the strongest magnet that is attracting Poland to Nigeria.”
The country battle to secure a seat in the UNSC, in order to have a strong voice in global security, internal security threat, is a huge challenge for the current government that is constrained with local security challenges.
However, the Foreign Affairs Minister recently said the country has continued to earn more respect in the international community despite its lingering domestic challenges.
“While we have experienced some security challenges locally, this has not affected the goodwill, friendship and partnerships that Nigeria continues to enjoy in the comity of nations”. Ashiru said hardly does any week pass without the visit of one high-level delegation or the other to Nigeria, just as Nigerian officials are also received and respected abroad. “We have continued to receive official delegations and visitors from all countries seeking to engage with us, to invest in Nigeria’s economy and exchange views on important issues of common interest and concerns.”
“As a testimony to Nigeria’s strategic importance in the comity of nations, President Goodluck Jonathan has undertaken several trips to many countries abroad, where he was received very warmly by his hosts and the resident Nigerian community in those countries.”
Nigerians in foreign prisons
There are currently about 25,000 Nigerians in foreign prisons, according to estimate given during a brainstorming conference organised in Lagos by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), in March this year.
The Spanish Embassy in Nigeria said as at February 27, 2013 there are 585 Nigerians imprisoned in Spain. Also, last year the British High Commission revealed that 6,000 Nigerians are in UK prisons.
The Chairman, House Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri Erewa, in her paper delivered during the meeting said many Nigerians settle for illegal arrangements in obtaining required travel documents. “They employ all manners of pranks to beat immigration laws and ultimately regret their actions.
She said in extreme cases, like in China, where over 2000 Nigerians are said to be languishing in various jails, when they are caught with expired documents; they are cramped in jail, rather than repatriate them home, they request that they pay $5000.”
The Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, who was represented at the conference by the Controller-General of Nigerian Prisons, Zakari Ibrahim said the number of Nigerians in US prison, two years ago was estimated to be around 800, and the number must have increased by now. “The situation now poses a serious concern,” he said.
Furthermore, to address the problem of drugs trafficking from Nigeria, currently, eight countries have subscribed for visa clearance certificate from National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Nigerians who intend to travel to these countries are required to obtain this visa clearance.
A statement from the NDLEA states that the visa clearance system remains an important instrument which serves as a strong deterrent for aspiring drug dealers from obtaining visas from countries that have subscribed to the scheme.

My NUJ Award

2013-05-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

Paul Arhewe, Winner of Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) Best Foreign / Diplomatic Reporter of the Year ( 2012), in March 2013.

Gloom, pageantry mark 2012 at international scene

2012-12-31T06:42:00.002-08:00

By Paul Arhewe

The outgoing year, like previous ones, witnessed its share of awful and gloomy moments and some instances for jubilation, merriment and pageantry.

Syrian war

The Arab spring crisis which began in December 2010 in Tunisia continued in Syria war as a full blown war that has claimed more than 44,000 lives. The conflict began in this Arab country in March 2011 with peaceful protests, before degenerating into a large-scale deadly conflict.

The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad tenaciously held on to power, even when some of his generals had fled to the rebel side. Many efforts to bring peace to the country has failed, as world powers divided over what has become an majorly sectarian strife between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.

By December 12, United States and other western countries like United Kingdom, France, Turkey and some Gulf states recognised the opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

US Presidential election

The United States’ 2012 general election, no doubt was one remarkable event at the international for the outgoing year.

President, Barack Obama, beats his Republican presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, to clench his second term for another four years as leader of the world’s leading economy in the November 6 general polls. Obama won 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

The 2012 election was adjudged to be the most expensive in US electoral history.

Obama and Biden and their families celebrating

Candidates flooded the airwaves with relentless attacks on each other, with accusations of lying, deceit, fabrications and other chicanery — even renewed charges over the long discredited claims over whether Obama had been born in this country — which flew for almost a year.

Obama questioned Romney’s lack of a specific plan for reviving the economy while branding the challenger a candidate who changed his positions to suit the shifting political winds.

Romney, 65, went after the president’s economic policies touting his own success in business as the skill most needed in tough times. He also sought to portray Obama as weak on foreign policy but neither strategy pried enough of the nation’s independent voters to his side.

Hurricane Sandy

The United States’ East Coast region was battered when Hurricane Sandy makes landfall on October 29. At least 128 people were killed and more than $71 billion worth of destruction was recorded.

The ‘superstorm’, with its torrential wind and rain knocked out power in major US cities. More than 8.1 million peoples in 17 states were left in the dark at the aftermath of the storm.

In terms of its outage impact, hurricane Sandy was roughly on par with hurricane Irene, which in August 2011 knocked out power to more than 9.3 million customers along the East Coast and in Puerto Rico – about 6 million in 13 East Coast states.

But Sandy's impact was more concentrated than Irene's, doing the bulk of its damage in fewer but more heavily populated states. Most of the outages were in eight states: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and West Virginia – some 7.4 million.

Costa Concordia

The fatal accident for year 2012 began when Costa Concordia, a 950-foot luxury ocean liner struck a rock and ran aground off the island of Giglio in Italy on January 13. The accident claimed 32 lives.

Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ship, was criticized for leaving the vessel before all the passengers were safely ashore. Among his accusers was Coast Guard officer Gregorio de Falco, who ordered the captain back to his ship. Schettino, who admitted he took the $570 million ship within a few hundred feet of the island to perform a "maritime salute" (perhaps to impress a blond Moldovan passenger), faces possible charges of manslaughter.

In October, the raising of the Costa Concordia began in earnest, with more than 450 workers attempting what's been called the biggest sea salvage effort of all time. The $400 million operation is expected to take at least eight months.

UK’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee

The United Kingdom Queen Elizabeth II this year marked 60 years of her accession to throne upon her father King George VI demise on 6 February, 1952. Celebration marking the diamond jubilee occurred throughout the year.

UK royal family

On 2nd June, The Queen attended the Epsom Derby. On 3rd June the Big Jubilee Lunch and the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant took place, where tens of thousands of people gathered along the Thames to rejoice with the royal family. On 4th June a concert was held at Buckingham Palace and a network of beacons lit throughout the UK and the Commonwealth. On 5th June a Service of Thanksgiving was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was followed by a formal carriage Procession.

Protest against anti-Prophet Muhammad film

The low budget US film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ which mocked the Prophet Muhammed sparked a violence international response, especially for Muslim countries.

The 14-minute film trailer was posted on YouTube, prompting riots throughout Muslim communities. Libyan protesters were said to have exploited the situation after the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was attacked by al-Qaida terrorists on September 11. The US ambassador in Libya, Chris Stevens was among four Americans killed in Benghazi.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a man identifying himself as Sam Bacile, a 52-year-old California real estate developer said he had made the film. The Associated Press, though, said "Sam Bacile" was an alias for Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, aka Mark Basseley Youssef. Using an alias was a violation of Nakoula's probation for a check fraud conviction, and he was jailed. The Egyptian-born Coptic Christian and others involved in the film were sentenced to death in Egypt, a largely symbolic gesture.

Attempted assassination of Pakistani teen human rights activist

Yousafzai

On October 9, Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani women's rights activist, was shot in the head and neck by Taliban gunmen while returning home from school—a place the Taliban have, at times, banned girls from attending. Yousafzai was hospitalized in critical condition and eventually transferred to a U.K. hospital, where she continues to recover.

And in November, Time magazine nominated Malala as one of its 2012 "Person of the Year" candidates. Malala, Time said, "has become an inspiration not only in her native Pakistan—where the culture wars over women's rights and religious diversity have taken many violent turns—but all around the globe."

WikiLeaks founder takes refuge in Ecuadorean embassy

Assange

On August 16, the founder of the whistle blowing website, Julian Assange was granted asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in Britain. Ecuador defied the British government, which threatened to storm the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, in order to extradite him to Sweden for questioning about cases of alleged rape and sexual molestation. Three days later, Assange emerged from a window onto a small balcony of the embassy to denounce what he called an American-led "witch hunt."

"I ask President Obama to do the right thing," said Assange, who has been staying in what accounts describe as poor, dark quarters in the embassy since June. "The United States must renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks."

The White House declined to comment.

Mali’s crisis and Tuareg, Islamist rebels’ insurgency

Mali’s government was thrown into dilemma when on March 22 President Amadou Toumani Toure was ousted in a coup detat over manner he handled the conflict in the northern part of the country where Tuareg fighters and Islamist group Ansar Dine had seized part of the country from the control of government.

Mutineer soldiers, under the banner of the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State, (CNRDR) suspended the constitution of Mali, although this move was reversed on 1 April.

The Islamist group Ansar Dine, too, began fighting the government in later stages of the conflict, claiming control of vast swathes of territory, albeit disputed by the MNLA. As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Northern Mali's three largest cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels on three consecutive days. On 5 April, after the capture of Douentza, the MNLA said that it had accomplished its goals and called off its offensive. The following day, it proclaimed Azawad's independence from Mali.

After the end of hostilities with the Malian Army, however, Tuareg nationalists and Islamists struggled to reconcile their conflicting visions for the intended new state.

Members of the sub regional body have proposed and offered troops to intervene in restoring peace in this volatile West African country.

Ghanaian President Attah Mills dies

On July 25, Africa and the rest of the world were dazed with the sudden death of Ghanaian president John Evans Atta Mills. The Ghanaian leader was 68 years and died of cardiac arrest at a military hospital in Accra. He was buried August 10.

Atta Mills became third president of Ghana in 2009 after losing twice. He previously served as vice president. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 election. He was Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The incumbent Ghanaian leader who took over from Mills after his demise, John Dramani Mahama was elected December 10, 2012 in a closely fought presidential poll.

Egyptians’ angst over Morsi’s power grab

2012-12-05T06:14:00.000-08:00

By Paul Arhewe

Morsi

Six month after his election, Egypt’s democratic leader, President Mohammed Morsi has attracted the denouncement of his people, with the sudden attempt to conduct a referendum on the country’s constitution; in his latest moves to grab more power and clip the wings of the opposition.
If Morsi succeed in this manoeuvring, he may be on the path to acquiring more power and consolidating on his Islamist party’s dominance in Egypt. This is likely to split opposition and make them weak.
The autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, spanning three decades, was brought to an abrupt end in 11 February 2011, with the vigorous and unrelenting protests of millions of people in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and across other major Egyptian cities. The emergency law operated by Mubarak’s administration where a supposedly heir successor was groomed, no doubt is one epoch the Egyptians would never want to replay.
The victorious feat spurred by the revolution, making Egypt the second country after Tunisia to have a change of government, fallout from the Arab Spring, provided room for a democratic process which brought Morsi to power.

Again, anti-Morsi protesters in their thousands have gathered in Tahrir Square, opposing his power grabbing moves. In addition, Judges have embarked on industrial action to protest his dictatorial intentions.
The Constituent Assembly, dominated by Morsi’s Islamists is drafting the new constitution, and attempt by the Egypt’s High Constitutional Court on Sunday to issue a ruling to disband the assembly was obstructed by progovernment protesters, who had taken their protest outside the court.
Before now, out of the 100 original members of the Constituent Assembly, 22 of them have resigned and seven reserved members have quitted- most of them are leftists and Coptic Christians.
Their resignation is based on the accusation that the process was rigged to give the Muslim Brotherhood the dominant role in writing a new constitution for the country.
The intended referendum vote on the draft constitution slated for December 15 would not only enshrine Islamist Sharia Law, if the plebiscite is affirmative, but would guarantee the country’s military the essential power it enjoyed during the Mubarak’s rule.
Morsi accrued to himself centralised power through the November 22 decree. In this power grab scheme the Egyptian leader gave himself sole legislative authority and barred judges from ruling against or striking down any of his laws or actions embarked by the Constituent Assembly.
This sudden aggressive move has rattled many in the President’s inner circle. Implications from this move have already aroused negative acrimonies among top officials of the Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) which mobilized and backed the recent insurrection in Tahrir Square.
Egypt’s top judicial body on Monday said it will oversee the conduct of the referendum. However, another body of judges, the Judges Club, has urged its members to boycott the December 15 vote. The Judges Club represents a powerful but an unofficial body of judges across the country. Its proposed boycott on the referendum is to undermine the plebiscite’s credibility.

How Nigerian foreign missions frustrate investors, tourists

2012-11-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

L-R: Hillary Clinton, Olugbega Ashiru and President Goodluck Jonathan

Nigerian Embassies abroad are not driving the Federal Government’s economic development policies as PAUL ARHEWE reports that the Missions are still operating archaic information system that makes them inaccessible and traumatise Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Nigeria’s quest to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and boost tourism revenue will remain mere sloganeering until Nigerian Embassies abroad upgrade their information system and make their Missions accessible.

National Mirror investigations have exposed the rot in Nigerian Missions abroad, especially the trauma Nigerians in the Diaspora and others willing to do businesses in the country face while trying to access the embassies.
The President Goodluck Jonathan administration has adopted economic diplomacy as part of its foreign policy thrust. To this end, the country’s embassies are seen as gateways for attracting investors and tourists to Nigeria.
But stakeholders have expressed concern that the objectives of the economic development diplomacy would not be realised because of the archaic information systems Nigerian missions abroad still operate, which make them not able to meet the yearnings and aspiration of Nigerians resident in such countries and also frustrate genuine investors and tourists from coming to Nigeria.

Even Nigerians in distress and in dire need of support are usually left to their fate because of lack of or insufficient information by the embassies.

Recently, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Olugbenga Ashiru, while signing the performance contract, initiated by President Jonathan with 10 ambassadors at the Nigerian High Commission in London tasked all the embassies to make their mission offices accessible to Nigerians and showcase Nigeria for global visibility.
“We want to make sure our embassies are now open to Nigerians abroad or those passing through,” the minister said.
Ashiru challenged them to deliver on the key performance indicators (KPI), saying they will be judged by their achievements.
The KPIs contain parameters which include protecting the interests of Nigerians abroad, promoting the country’s economic interest and enhancing its representation and visibility in international organisations.
The Minister also directed the envoys to send their staff to often visit Nigerians in prisons in their countries of posting.
Responding on behalf of the envoys, the Nigerian Ambassador to France, Akin Fayomi, on behalf of his colleagues said: “We will do our best to achieve the deliverables.”
Stakeholders, however say that not much has changed as many Nigerians and potential foreign investors are still passing through horrendous travails in accessing the country’s embassies abroad.

National Mirror made contact with 68 Nigerian Embassies, sending letters through their official listed email addresses sourced from the website of the Foreign Ministry, demanding to know what measures are being put in place to make their services accessible to Nigerians and other viable foreign investors.
Out of 68 embassies contacted, only six (Nigeria Embassy in Kuwait, Nigeria High Commission in Australia, Embassy of Nigeria in Ukraine, Nigeria Embassy in China, Nigeria Embassy in Portugal and Nigeria Embassy in Mali) acknowledged our mail, despite sending the mail twice; a week apart.
It was discovered that some of the embassies operate email addresses that are invalid and are still misleading the general public with wrong information. These addresses are still posted on their websites, forgetting that the sites are the major links with the public. Over 31 email addresses of the 68 embassies contacted are not operational. The sent emails were returned as ‘undelivered mail.’
This issue is even made worse, as the Foreign Ministry in its own website, http://www.mfa.gov.ng/, continues to harbour the misleading information, even having contact telephone numbers of the embassies that are not reachable. Even several emails sent to the Ministry on this issue were not replied.
Some of these nonoperational Nigerian embassies’ email addresses include: nigeria-hc.lusaka@zamnet.zm,info@ embassynigeriacs.org.ve,doualaconsulategeneral@yahoo. com, nhckingston@mail.infochan.com, ngembconakry@ yahoo.com,nigeriadamascus@yahoo.com,archives@ nigeria.rg.my,enquries@nigerianembassy.ie,consular@ nigeriahighcom.org,nigemb@jobantech.cd,ng@ nigeriahighcom.org,mission-nigeria@bluewin.ch, info@embassyofnigeriainspain.org,nigeria.embassy@ swipnet.se,nhcnam@mweb.com.na,nigeremb@canad. ro,office@nigeriahcindia.com,enigeria@ceniai.inf.cu, nhc-dsm@raha.com,nigeriabissau@rocketmails.com, dmoffice@ethionet.et,info@nigeria-consulate.org.hk, information@nigerianembassy.org.ar,empngrdprk@ yahoo.com,nhckingston@mail.infochan.com,admin@ nigerianembassy-brasilia.org.br,embnigeria@att.net. mx,info@nigeriainspain.org,ng@nigeriahighcom.org, highcommission@nigerian-singapore.org.sg,andinfo@ embnigeriabkk.com
National Mirror also found out that some of these Embassies don’t update information posted on their websites regularly as some of them still reflect events as old as those published in 2007 as their current updates.
For instance, the Nigerian Embassy in Argentina, in its website http://www.nigerianembassy.org.ar, in its news section still displayed the following, “Quoting from the inaugural address to the nation by President Umaru Yar’Adua at his swearing-in on the 29th May, 2007.” This same website is accommodated among those published in the Nigeria Foreign Ministry’s website.
Investigation also revealed that most of the telephone numbers on some of these websites are not reachable; some only receive voice mails, which are already full.
A frustrated Nigerian in the Diaspora, Isaac Izoya, said recently: “In my personal opinion, an embassy is supposed to be a place of refuge or a home away from home for those in the Diaspora. A place you can hope for rescue in case of any unforeseen circumstances – irrespective of one’s ethnic background. A house any citizen could call at any time for succour when encountering danger even on weekends. Could this be said of the present Nigeria Embassy in Berlin under the leadership of H.E Ambassador Abdu Usman Abubakar?”
Izoya used the Kenya Embassy as an example which he claims renders services to Kenyans at any giving time. “When anyone calls the embassy line on weekends or at midnight, after a while, the phone switches immediately to the emergency line where one will be attended to. But Nigeria that claims to be the power house of Africa, the case is always pathetic when it comes to rescuing Nigerians in despicable situation in Germany and many other parts of the world. Reaching the embassy staff on working days has always been a problem, not to talk of weekends. In a nutshell, don’t attempt calling the Nigerian Embassy when faced with difficult situation on weekends, you’ll only end up adding salt to your injury,” Izoya added.
Ola Abdul in London narrated similar experience. “My own personal experience at the Nigerian Consulate in London is that immediately you step in you feel you’re back in Nigeria even though you’re two minutes from Trafalgar Square. Customer service is poor and you feel embarrassed because of other foreign nationals in there with you watching how your own people are treating you,” Abdul said.
“The Nigerian society in general needs to learn the importance of customer service; the customer is king and should always be treated as such.” He concluded by saying, “However, recent changes seem to have improved the situation although I haven’t experienced it.”
Though there are diffculties accessing many Nigerian embassies abroad, some have established effective communication system. Information from some of these embassies are very positive and give insight into how they have built systems which are very accessible and responsive to the yearnings of both Nigerians and people of their host country willing to transact business with Nigeria.
For Nengak Gondyi, a Nigerian postgraduate student in Sweden, his experience with the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm is positive and commendable.

“I have never visited or contacted any Nigerian Embassy abroad until August 2011 when I moved to Sweden to study and I decided to contact the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm just to say hi. So I found their website and wrote them an email introducing myself and also completed a form they had online seeking to know citizens abroad.”
“Frankly I thought that would be the end of it until I got a call. A few days afterwards, the Ambassador, His Excellency Benedict Onochie Amobi called me to say they have received my email and he felt he should call to thank me, welcome me to Sweden and wish me the best in my studies. He then asked me about Malmo, the southern town I live in and how Nigerians here are faring and also promised to visit us someday soon. I will never forget that call.”
“If all Ambassadors are approachable and welcoming like Amobi then I am sure we are on the right track,” Gondyi said.
Ambassador Bashir Wali, Nigerian envoy to China, when contacted, told National Mirror that “the Nigerian Embassy in the People’s Republic of China has continued to carry out both its diplomatic and consular responsibilities very diligently and collaborates cordially on regular basis with our fellow men and women resident and/or visiting China.”
He said the Embassy not only collaborates with the students’ body and association of Nigerian community but also undertakes periodic consular visits to Nigerians in various Chinese prisons, extending moral and financial support (where necessary) to the inmates. “We equally facilitate and assist Nigerians seeking investment and/or other commercial partnerships in China and intervene where there exists any commercial dispute.
“The Embassy is always up and doing and therefore accessible to all Nigerians who either visit, phone or write the Embassy on any matter. Also, the Embassy is always on hand whenever it hears that a Nigerian is in any form of distress.”

Ambassador Wali also admonished the media to put in efforts towards educating Nigerians at home to be good Ambassadors while abroad and also the importance of collaborating with our various missions. He emphasised that the Embassies are not there for only Nigerians in distress.
Also, the Nigerian mission in Kuwait wrote National Mirror, saying the country’s Embassy opens five days a week from Sunday to Thursday from 9am – 3pm to attend to Nigerians on all days during the working week.
The Embassy said it also has a 24-hour Consular hotline for all Nigerians for after-work and weekend contacts.
“We also wish to state that there is no single Nigerian prisoner or detainee in Kuwait. The Embassy takes the welfare of Nigerians in the Gulf State as its topmost priority,” the Nigerian mission wrote.
Nigerian Ambassador to Portugal, Her Exellency (Mrs.) Ijeoma Bristol, who took over the saddle of leadership of the Mission in 2011, told National Mirror she had met with the Nigerian Community in Lisbon (Central) Porto (North) and Faro (South) on several occasions during consular visits to advice and listen to their complaints with the view to proffering solutions. “Nigerians in Portugal can testify that all cases brought to the attention of the Head of Mission are given immediate attention.
“The Mission adheres to the 48 hours directive of the Federal Government of Nigeria with regard to the issuance of Visas to qualified applicants,” she said.
The Ambassador also stressed that the existing vibrant Nigerian Community in Portugal cooperates and maintains close contact with the Embassy and through the Community, the Embassy is kept abreast of the issues relating to the general wellbeing of Nigerians in Lisbon and its environs.
“We wish to state categorically that the Mission is accessible to Nigerians in Portugal and that it provides prompt and efficient service to all who require same,” Bristol said.
Furthermore, the Nigeria High Commision in Australia, through its Media, Culture and Information Officer, Funsho Oluyide, said, “I don’t know about other Embassies but as for the Nigerian High Commission in Australia, we have an operating website, a Twitter account and even an interactive Facebook account for the general public to interact with us and also get necessary information.”
He added that the Chancery in Canberra is also accessible to Nigerians without exception.
Head of Chancery at the Nigerian Embassy in Ukraine, Ola Awe, told National Mirror that Nigerians in Ukraine have unfettered access to the Mission up to the closing hour of 5p.m.

“Also, consular service has been extended to 5.00 p.m. from the earlier time of 1.00 p.m. They are equally free to call officials of the Mission on phone anytime in the case of an emergency,” Awe disclosed.
Secretary to the Minister and Consular of Nigerian Embassy in Mali, Abraham Dakoru, said that Nigeria Mission in Bamako has its doors open to all Nigerians. “We have even created an office for Nigerians so as to be closer and hear their problems as well as their contributions and suggestions to improve upon the general welfare of all Nigerians living in Mali,” Dakouru said.

Stakeholders believe that while the task of updating and providing the general public with valid and current information on websites are being trivialised by some of the missions abroad, the Foreign Ministry is not giving good example to the Embassies since its own website is not usually updated.

Expectations from Obama’s second term

2012-11-12T09:34:00.001-08:00

By Paul Arhewe

Obama

There was global jubilation when United States President Barack Obama emerged victorious on Wednesday and was re-elected for a second term. However, there are high expectations as the American leader takes control of the world’s leading economy for another four year.

The unemployment rate in US is still very high with 7.9 percent, which nearly marred his chances of retaining the seat in White House. His second term administration is expected to provide millions of decent paying jobs for Americans.

Also, China that is jubilant at the defeat of Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, may have enjoyed a less or non-confrontational foreign policy from Obama’s regime, resulting in the Asian country’s rising global profile.

Obama’s second term will need to formulate policy that will address Chinese ‘cut-corners’ trades, in order to win over the large supporters of Romney’s intended confrontational policy on China’s trade.

For Africa, Obama , who only visited the continent just once; seven months after his inauguration in January 2009, flew to Ghana and delivered a ‘non-commitment’ policy; urging Africans to fend for themselves. He said Africa didn’t need interference and that the continent’s future should be built by Africans.

The American leader also opined that he and his administration would strive to “minimise our footprint and maximise the degree to which we’re training people to do for themselves.”

Obama’s first term, no doubt has somewhat shied away from making meaningful impact on Africa’s development. Even Kenya where his paternal ancestral root originates is yet to feel the expected great impulse of their son’s administration from the White House. His failure to visit Kenya, which he has an ancestral link and Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, indicates his disposition not to reflect much focus to Africa, as a special case. Then, with his second term ambition at stake, as the first Black American leader, he may have neglected the continent in a scheme to play safe.

President Obama’s administration also played cautiously during the Arab Spring that toppled three governments (Egypt,Tunisia, and Libya) in North Africa by not taking a leading position while the crisis lasted.

He also acted behind-the-scene in the solution leading to the mediation in South Sudan becoming independent.

His administration in the first term, which lacks a cohesive Africa policy and ignoring the plight of African nations, is expected by many in the continent to have a shift as he is inaugurated January next year for a fresh term. Obama knowing that he won’t face another election, is expected to make quite a difference.

Some human rights groups expect Obama will live up to his promise by closing all controversial detention camps.

The American Civil Liberties Union chief called on the President to make good on his first-term promise to shut down the prison camps at Guantánamo.

“We urge President Obama to dismantle a national security state where warrantless surveillance, extra-judicial killings of American citizens by drones and other attacks on our personal freedoms have been deemed acceptable,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement on Wednesday.

Obama ordered his administration on his second day in office in January 2009 to empty the detention centre within a year. He’s been able to cut the population to 166 but has been repeatedly thwarted by Congress in his goal of closing the controversial camps by moving some of the captives to U.S. soil.

Indeed, the president has a huge task of surpassing the performance attained in his first term.

Dead: Repulsive replay of violent South Africa

2012-08-28T14:31:00.001-07:00

By Paul Arhewe

The killings of 34 protesting South African miners penultimate Thursday quite unfortunately amplified the global perception of Africans still ruminating in the Stone Age, in spite of the privilege of co-existing among people of civilised parts of the world where the value for human lives is inestimably cherished and protected. The apartheid era in South Africa was a blight in world civilisation because of the callous indifference of the minority white rulers to the rights of black Africans and the regime’s dehumanising and discriminatory practices against them, especially treating them as second class citizens and subjecting them to all kinds of cruelties.

The massacre of the 34 miners by South African police at the Marikana platinum mine, Rustenburg, Johannesburg brings back memories of the ugly affairs of the apartheid state.

An incident that has claimed 44 lives since the quagmire began is a sad reflection of the dark side of an uncivilised society. It is even more painful that black South African policemen were killing striking workers in the public glare. It is pertinent to ask when black Africans would be civilized enough to disconnect from any acts that reflect us as still living in the Stone Age. This sad event shows South Africa is wallowing in the hangover of the evil of yesteryears.

It shows the Zulu people are still in an apartheid state, but in a new garb. In the epochal 1948-1994 period, the various governments dominated by the National Party visited the worst forms of denigrations on the majority black South Africans. Torture, maiming, killings of blacks were elevated to an art by the Afrikaner minority in power.

Just like what happened to the harangued miners in the Marikana platinum mine site, unprovoked killing of protesting blacks underlined the brutality of the apartheid era. The civilized world identified that regime with extreme brutality and torture in its efforts to suppress opposition.

Under the current black African leadership, such unpardonable carnage as displayed, tends to mangle the celebrated sacrifices the nonagenarian political icon and poster card of South African multiculturalism, Nelson Mandela and others paid in the redemption of their country. Mandela was arrested in 1962 for being the arrowhead of the 1961 workers strike. He spent 27 years in confinement at the height of segregation and apartheid in South Africa. His release in 1990 and subsequently becoming the first postapartheid president of the country (1994- 1999), is seen as victory against the gory experience of the dark period of cruelty.

Howbeit, the Marikana saga is quite revealing on violence in people in this part of the continent. How can one describe the situation where rival political group killed about 14,000 people between 1990 and 1994 even after the supposedly end of apartheid? It is a good thing President Jacob Zuma has instituted a panel of inquiry to get to the root of this massacre.

I believe his chances of securing another term next December depend on how he would manage the current bad situation, which is the only way to placate aggrieved South Africans. Critics argue that Zuma was slow to responding to the massacre. It is true his visit to the mine site was delayed because of a state visit to neighbouring Mozambique.

He couldn’t reach the aggrieved workers, but he visited the injured in hospital.

The police’s argument that they were acting in self defence is untenable. Using live bullets to quell a rioting mob and killing some in the process, is a premeditated murder. In civilized societies shield, batons and water cannons are normally deployed to disperse protesters, no matter how grievous the situation seems to be. It is unfortunate that South Africa is still showing flashes of a high level of intolerance.

Similar occurrences in the post apartheid era have shown that xenophobia is a militating physiological phenomenon in that country.

While the targeted recipients of such hostilities are foreigners, including blacks from other African countries, it was rare seeing attacks on natives, even as this spate of xenophobic dispositions becomes ubiquitous. When security personnel paid by taxpayers turnaround to unleash mayhem on the same people it is to protect, something is really amiss. South Africa, Africa’s largest economy, should not condone such dehumanizing penchant for bloodletting. What moral grounds would the big brother portray when mediating in other smaller countries with similar tendencies?

The Africa continent needs to grow up and belong to the modern civilized age where people’s rights of protests are respected. Using brutality to quell justified grievances will only end up in causing more pandemonium; and things will get messier.

Poverty reduction, not dollops, for our pregnant women

2012-08-14T08:34:00.001-07:00

By Paul Arhewe

A Nigerian health personnel attending to pregnant women

Access to antenatal services is one sure way of uncomplicated labour and childbirth for pregnant Nigerian women. With a reputation of the second highest rate of maternal death in the world, Nigerian governments would need radical reforms in their healthcare delivery system. It is within this context I situate the recent moves by the federal government to introduce monthly stipends for our pregnant women to enable them access available antenatal services and thus bolster our healthcare service delivery system. The latest United Nations estimate puts annual global deaths during pregnancy and childbirth at 287,000 out of which India accounts for 56,000 (19 percent) and Nigeria 40,000 (14 percent). Nigeria is still miles away from plugging the loopholes and obvious gaps inherent in its ill-equipped public healthcare centres. Accessing full antenatal services at our various health centres, no doubt, would bring down drastically the problem of deaths during and after pregnancy.
However, findings have shown that many pregnant women are still finding it difficult in accessing these essential services. The FG’s new policy of N5, 000 stipend to each pregnant woman for antenatal services and delivery comes to focus. The policy which is part of the Midwifery Service Scheme (MSS) to be funded from the N15 billion Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).
The conditions laid down before one could benefit from it, methinks, would require rigorous nationwide awareness creation else many of the pregnant women might not be able to access it out of ignorance.

Under the scheme, according to Abdullahi Mohamed, the Director for Primary Health Care Development in the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, “The woman must attend antenatal clinic at least four times.
For each of those antenatal visits, there is money attached to it, which is N1, 000. The woman must deliver at the facility; if she does, she is entitled to something; the woman must also ensure that the child is fully immunised.
The total package is about N5, 000”.
The alarming rate of death among our expectant would-be-mothers, the US Ambassador to Nigeria had this to say of the situation: “While factors like early marriage, teenage pregnancy, low contraceptive usage, unsafe and illegal abortions contribute to the high mortality rate, poverty is a major driver to this preventable situation.”
He is very correct. Many would-be-mothers shy away from available health facilities due to either the high poverty rate in the country or ignorance.
The planned policy of FG might be a welcomed development. The N5, 000 may be significantly little, it would no doubt motivate many women to embrace the antenatal practice. But will this policy address the pervasive poverty in the land?
Many pregnant women are malnourished due to their impoverished status.
During this delicate state, many are over-laboured when they engage in rigorous jobs to augment their husbands’ income, and in extreme cases, they are actually the breadwinner of the families, when their hubbies are jobless.
The situation is so messed up and complicated that government would be seen as sincere, only when the economic deficit of almost 100 million Nigerians living on less than one dollar a day is uplifted.
This could only happen through aggressive poverty reduction measures.
In a country where poverty is like a companion, paying pregnant women such stipends without addressing the poverty level is tantamount to a drop of water in the ocean. My other worry is continuity and sustenance.
It is no new tale that many attractive policies in time past only ended up as avenue for self aggrandizement by those who implement them.
Will this be an exception? It won’t come as surprise when ‘pregnant ghosts’ suddenly turn up in all parts of the country to relegate the real pregnant women beneficiaries to the background.

Some antagonists of the policy are of the view that what FG ought to do is drastically reduced the consultation delivery bills in public hospitals.
For me, this argument is more feasible and realistic than the payment of allowance that would likely end up in the pockets of ‘pregnant ghosts’.
How are we sure this policy won’t be another mirage of the many juicy promises SURE-P is programmed to render to Nigerians?
I have foreboding fear that this one might not stand the test of time, but go the way of other government redistributive and intermediation policies.
A sincere and serious government would take headlong the burgeoning and deplorable poverty status of greater number of the citizenry.
Any policy geared towards sinking the embarrassing maternal mortality rate should inevitably be thoroughly and sincerely implemented.
Anything short of this will result in the recurring rigmarole which has fast become a national identity. Time will definitely proof pessimists right or wrong.

Oshiomhole and the social contract with Edolites

2012-07-24T13:49:00.002-07:00

By Paul Arhewe

Governor Oshiomhole standing in queue to cast his vote in Edo state

The Edo State governorship elec-tions held on July 14, 2012, has since left in its trail a victor and a vanquished. Incumbent Governor Adam Oshiomhole triumphed over his closest rival, Major General Charles Airhiavbere (retd) of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), in what observers dubbed the ‘most one-sided electoral contest’ in Edo political history. The clear victory of ACN received enthusiastic responses even from people outside the state. Social media were awashed with commentaries from thousands of applauders and cen-surers.

My congratulations to Comrade Governor Oshiomhole for a well deserved victory.
The Oba of Benin, His Royal Highness Omo n’Oba n’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Solomon Igbinoghodua Aisiokuoba Akenzua Erediauwa I, had captured the endorsement of the incumbent governor for a second term thus: “You have cleaned up the roads not only in Benin Kingdom but in several other towns. The last time you came I prayed through our ancestors for you to come back and complete the work and also do more for Edo people”.
So the victory of the ACN candidate was settled even before the July 14 elections.

That election has confirmed President Goodluck Jonathan as a rare statesman and true national leader. He was among the first to send goodwill and congratula-tory messages to victorious Oshiomhole. While lamenting his party’s loss, Mr. President had reiterated his stance that he would not use federal might against opposition parties.

Indeed, Nigerians need more of such non-partisan assurances from their leaders. They are what we need to nurture and nourish our bur-geoning democracy.Victory gyrations should be over now, I think it is time for serious business.
Edo people have spoken through the ballot box; they have played their part of the social contract bargain. It is now left for Oshiomhole to fulfill his side of the contract.

He must ensure that he accomplishes more of what made the people to endorse his second term.

It is becoming a norm in this part of the world, where politicians who are elected for second term tend to relax in delivering on expected promises.
In some quarters, the argument is that Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, is now a slumbering leader; a far cry from his commendable and laudable per-formance during his first tenure.

This assertion maybe wrong, but it is somewhat tempting that a second term leader who has nothing at stake, may want to selfish-ly use this period to lord it around rather than meeting the needs of the people, as promised during political campaigns.
In a previous article in this column titled, ‘The votes of Edo electorate must count’ and published on June 5, 2012, I wrote: “I urged politicians in the state to respect the wishes of the people and this should be seen as supreme”.

In that article I argued that politicians’ campaigns should be issues-based and not person-ality-based with overconcentration on what would give them cheap publicity. Now that the elections are over, explicit execution of those issues- based promises is paramount.

Anything short of this would be a disservice to the conscience and reputation of the leader.
The former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Pally Iriase, has assured that Oshiomhole would deliver on his campaign promises.

“The Comrade Adams Oshiomhole that I worked with will never renege in his promise to even do more in his second tenure”.
I will only say time will definitely tell and prove him right or wrong.
The votes of Edo electorate must have counted and given him his heart desire; he must not betray the trust of the people.
The voting pattern in the last elections indeed showed that the electorate are apt in clinging more to the candidate that they believe in and not unnecessary pandering to ethnic sentiments.
Oshiomhole got 90 percent of Benin votes; 80 percent of the votes from his Afemai people.
This near absolute support from the people would only be compensated when the governor outperform his first term feat.

The governor has vowed before the Be-nin monarch that the development of the state would not be compromised.

“I want to assure your majesty that we will ensure that the great Benin Kingdom witness accelerated development in order to restore the glory of the kingdom”, was how he put it.

The people would only wish that this promise is fulfilled, not only to the people of Benin Kingdom, but to all the ethnic sub nationalities that make up the state.

Four years from now the good work Oshiomhole would have accomplished will sufficiently burnish his CV so much that Nigerians would endorse him for a higher national office. So he should know that the whole of Nigeria is watching him.

How relevant is NYSC now for national integration?

2012-07-17T07:29:00.002-07:00

BY PAUL ARHEWE

NYSC members

There are strident clamours for the scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in some quarters, in the face of the prevalent near intractable insecurity situation in Nigeria. Ironically, the national unity raison d’être for the establishment of the scheme in 1973, has come under severe assaults as the country slides into pervasive insecurity. By the NYSC Act, partici-pating graduates could be sent to any of the 36 states and FCT, Abuja. More importantly, no participant is allowed to serve in his/her state of origin. There are few exceptions to this rule. However, the implementation of the NYSC statute in the face of the worrisome security challenge posed by the exacerbating insurgency in the North has exposed the programme to attacks bordering on insensitivity.

The post election violence last year, where 10 corps members were slaughtered in Bauchi State, has thrown up a cacophonous debate of the continuing relevance of the scheme. And when in the current 2012 Batch B exercise some corps members were posted to states considered high security risk, the debate assumed a frightening dimension and even the management of the NYSC came into further barrage of attacks. Many participating corps members, their parents, some state governments and even the National Assembly were defiant in their condemnation and rejection of the exercise.

All that was said about assurance of their safety was received with a pinch of salt.

Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan cited reasons why the programme could not be scrapped.

“The NYSC is a programme that is helpful to the Nigerian youth.

It encourages integration and creates an environment for youth to move out of his domain to learn other cultures”, was how he put it. I agree with Mr. President.

The scheme’s long term goal might seem defeated, but its total scrapping would pose dire consequences for the unity of country.

The prevailing security challenge in the country is mostly tied to intolerance and the insensitivity of the perpetrators.

The drive towards ethno-religious supremacy is fueled by ignorance. Many Nigerians do not know anything beyond their immediate environment.

Such people are intolerance and quick to exhibit cultural aggressiveness simply because they have not socialised sufficiently or traveled extensively to get firsthand experience of how people in other culture areas exist and coexist with Nigerians from outside their culture areas.

This is the core value the NYSC scheme is established to project to the participants.

My experience during my service year in Taraba State some years back is instructive.

I had a deep insight into life in some parts of the North, quite different from Lagos where I spent my growing up years.

During my one year stay there I really came to appreciate the culture of my host state and community.

I came to realise that Tarabans are not a core Hausa people.

It may come as a surprise that majority of the people are Christians.

Nevertheless, as laudable as the scheme is for national integration, it behooves on our leaders and the management of NYSC to be circumspect in the posting of corps members, especially in this critical period in our national life.

The security situation in the North has changed for the worse in the past three years.

Pragmatism should be the watchword of the authorities when it comes to the issue of posting of corps members.

The posting of non-northern corps members to parts of the volatile North is tantamount to tempting God and still expecting miracles.

Thank goodness, the rumour last week of the bombing of Bauchi’s NYSC orientation camp only ended up as the figment of the imagination of the psychotic purveyors of the news.

Imagine if this was true, the damage it would have wreaked on the fragile stability of the country would have been enormous.

Thousands have lost their lives, and properties of high proportional worth have been destroyed since terrorist attacks became implanted in North. We cannot avoid this now.

Last week, the Minister of Youth De-velopment, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir, overruling the Director-General of the NYSC, Brigadier-General Nnamdi Okore-Affia on the decision to reverse the posting of corps members to these troubled states, likened the participation in the scheme to “national sacrifice”.

I dare say the likes of Alhaji Abdulkadir in government would not in their wildest dreams send any of their siblings close to these troubled states for national service.

I challenge the minister to relocate his office from Abuja to Borno, and lead by example to show us the real meaning of ‘national sacrifice.’

Government should at this moment do all within its power to be proactive by averting avoidable security mishaps.

There is no sense in posting participating corps members from the South to states like Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna etc when it is clear that such a decision is tantamount to waiting for a ticking bomb to detonate.

Jonathan’s new moves and the looming apocalypse

2012-07-03T10:02:00.002-07:00

By Paul Arhewe

Scene of Kaduna terorrist attack

A recent cartoon created by National Mirror’s nimble-fingered chief cartoonist Leke Moses and used in the editorial page of last June 25 edition of the paper is both hilarious and sarcastic. It showed President Goodluck Jonathan in an airborne aircraft with fire extinguisher, destination Brazil to attend the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, and assuring he would have it refilled there, come back with it to attack the smoldering insecurity inferno in the nation. Since the Nigerian leader returned from the trip, he had taken some very hard and significant decisions, top of which is the major shakeup in the nation’s defence and security set up. Both the National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi and Defence Minister, Dr. Haliru Bello were relieved of their posts, an action Mr. President said was necessary to bring fresh ideas into the nation’s security strategic enforcement framework (SEF).

He also shook the nation when he sacked the entire management of the Nigeria Na-tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in what is generally seen as the resolve of Mr. President to fight corruption. He promised more of such actions to a nation hobbled by both corruption and impunity. And Nigerians are awaiting the fulfillment. With the ferocious escalation of insurgency in the North and the looming religious war in the land, pundits expected something to give.
That Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gun-powder is an understatement. A serious implosion is imminent. Strategic intervention is necessary to contain it. The people are yet to see the gravitas from their leaders. “We are on top of the situation” has become the usual official refrain each time there is a serious ugly occurrence like bomb attacks and the resultant deaths.
Many Nigerians have begun to see this mantra as the evidence of ‘non- performance’ on the part of the political leadership. I think many Nigerians like me, are tired of this ‘we are on top of the situation’ man-tra. They need evidence of the success of the government’s policy recipe. The present government should get it acts together and stop the mounting carnage that has become a recurring index of how bad things have gone in this country. Amidst the height of security challenge in Kaduna and Yobe states recently, the President chose to embark on a foreign trip to Brazil.
This decision only goes to show the level of disconnect between the leaders and the led. While justifying the trip’s expediency, President Jonathan had said it was to deny the terrorists any room for jubilation, where they would see it as having strangulated the leaders of the country from attending major global events.
He also said embarking on the trip was to avoid sending the wrong signals to the international community on the level of insecurity in the country.
Nice talk! I concede that the executive bravado could have its fine point, nevertheless, our leaders have nothing to impress the all-too-knowing international commu-nity.
A man whose house is on fire cannot impress other people in the village square by telling tales of the degree of security and fortification of his abode.One of the disadvantages of the internet age is that information one thinks is exclusive is easily accessed.
The embattled Julian Assange of the WikiLeaks saga has attracted many foes globally when he exposed files ‘not meant for public consumption’.
The point I am making is that the level of insecurity in the country and the apparent dismal handling of the issue by the governments are not issues that the international community is oblivious of. Recently, the United States named and placed three members of the Boko Haram sect in its terrorists list.
Some of these names were unknown within Nigeria until the Americans ex-posed them.

This tells a lot about the sophistication of the intelligence gathering processes of the US.I must add that the other apparent area of disconnect between Nigerians and their leaders is also seen when governments continue to reiterate that they are performing and that they are in the stage of build-ing foundations for futuristic economic benefits whose delivery the people are not seeing.

President Jonathan, in his recent media chat, stated the obvious that many Nigerians are criticizing and abusing his administration. But, I don’t see this as abuse, but reactions of discerning Nigerians yearning for and seeking succour from their leader and not getting them.

Methinks the existing lacuna between the seeming vigour with which Jonathan administration is tackling the multifarious economic and security challenges and the trickles of results observable are far below the expectations of the people.The political leadership should brace up for serious jobs.

Appreciative Nigerians will rally to their support when their ac-tions are yielding commensurate results.

The subsidy probe shenanigan

2012-06-19T08:47:00.003-07:00

By Paul Arhewe

L-R: Farouk, Otedola

Barely two months after the chair-man of the Committee on Capital Markets, Herman Hembe and his members were floored by inappropriate dirty dealing, subsequently suspended and facing prosecution, another hot sleaze has sprouted in the House of Representatives. Its ripples are cascading like waves across the length and breadth of Nigeria. The full blown pay-$3m-and-get-re-prieve scandal that pitted the oil mogul, Femi Otedola against the chairman, House Ad Hoc Committee on oil subsidy payment, Farouk Lawan, is no doubt a precedent I would always want to recur. From the fallout, I know those who are in the habit of soliciting for bribes be-fore dispensing favours would now have cause to think twice. In another vein, could this be another flash in the pan, a decoy? Lawan, before this shameful revelation, was one of those few members of the National Assembly regarded as experienced, ‘honest’ and frank in his utterances and deeds. For this attribute, he is held in very high esteem. This current revelation has no doubt dampened my spirit, and I believe that of many Nigerians.

The Kano politician has not helped matters in his drive to redeem his name, by several of his double speaks.
To worsen his testimony, Hon Jagaba Adams Jagaba, the chairman of the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes denied receiving a report about the underhand deal from Lawan or took the marked dollar bills from him, as claimed by the latter.By the entire development, I am beginning to lose hope of our country capability to subdue this monster called corruption. One wonders how the Integrity Group, which has Lawan as chairman, would take this dent.
The hideous state corruption has advanced in Nigeria in contemporary times is no doubt frightening and dangerously metamorphosing into a cancer. The stench from this monstrous blight is fast becoming a permanent scar in the psyche of the nation.
How would one describe a scenario where corruption is obviously as ubiquitous as the air we breathe and has become a pop culture subscribed to by both the high and low members of the society? It has become a no-cure-ailment like cancer.
Painful also is the fact that those who are expected to lead Nigeria out of this quagmire are the same people busy inventing more sophisticated ways of nurturing corruption into the biggest business in the country.We are not comforted by the fact that it takes two to tango.
The anti-corruption law holds the giver as well as the receiver culpabale. However, the giver in this scenario may be relying on the protection of the covert arrangement he orchestrated under the ogle of the Secret Security Service (SSS).
However, I perceive the intention to tempt another person to commit crime should not be upheld as a gratifying or plausible action. If Lawan was the one who initiated and solicited for bribe in this opprobrious drama, then he should be allowed to face the music to the extent the law allows. If otherwise, he should be prepared to clear his name beyond doubts to save the reputation of his Integrity Group - if the situation is still emendable. And now the pertinent question.
Between the bribe taking brouhaha and the implementation of the Lawan Report, which now takes the back seat? Of course, the subsidy probe report is already drowned in the floodgate of anti-Lawan sentiments.
But can the nation afford to throw the baby with the bath-water? No, but first there should be a conciliation of records to capture all the partakers in the sharing of the subsidy booties. When this is done, the implementation of the report must be done expeditiously.
The point must be made that we as a people tend to forget where we are coming from when a diversionary flicker is cunningly used to hoodwink us. Our conning politicians and economic saboteurs have repeatedly employed this seemingly weakness in us to their advantage.
Lawan and those fingered in the scandal maybe guilty as charged, however, we must not fail to pursue to logical conclusion the bigger corruption of shared subsidy boo-ties that got us where we now are. It is laughable when the spokesman to President Goodluck Jonathan said his boss should not be involved in the current underhand deal. Methinks it is the business of the Presidency and the National Assembly to fight corruption.
All hands ought to be on deck to collectively discourage those who are really seeking ways of rubbishing the oil subsidy probe like what happened in the power probe exercise. Nigeria is bigger than any individual therefore, her economic and political health should be the concern of all. For this very reason, all economic saboteurs should be exposed and prosecuted, if the country must be rescued.

The votes of Edo electorate must count

2012-06-05T06:23:00.004-07:00

Adam Oshiomhole, Edo State Governor

By Paul Arhewe

Edo State is attracting cover headline news once again, no thanks to the imminent gubernatorial election in the state fixed for next July 14. Already on display is the usual melodrama where the dramatist personae devise dirty schemes to outwit one another. Characteristically, the electorate are relegated to the background.

As politicians are busy heating up the system they usually see dirty antics and ploys as primal to winning elections. This recurring trait is undeniably fast becoming a stratagem for electioneering in Africa’s largest democracy. How politicking in Nigeria got so messy and pathetically undemocratic should be not only a concern of the authorities, the problem should be fixed. Politicians should allow the electorate to freely exercise their franchise to decide who should rule them. I cannot help but wonder why Nigerian electorate are not wooed with realistic manifestoes and campaigns promises?

The incumbent state governor, Comrade Adam Oshiomole of the ACN, has demonstrable and intimidating evidences of performance that have become a formidable threat to his opponents. Displacing him from the high office may therefore, be difficult. In an ideal democracy, the opposition is expected to come up with more convincing action plans that would make the electorate consider it better than the incumbent and cast their votes in its favour.
The first state governor under this dispensation, Chief Lucky Igbinedion of the PDP, spent eight years without significantly impacting on the lives and living standards of the people of the state. His performance in office is a serious drawback for the PDP and the reason why the electorate would want to throw their support for an achievement driven by the ruling ACN governor.
With the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and other opponents scheming to seize power from the ruling ACN, I believe this should be done through the presentation of a stronger USP laced with robust and convincing policy alternatives supported by executable strategic enforcement framework (SEF), which is much more realistic than what ACN has. I am totally opposed to the deployment of the state’s instruments of coercion (military, police etc) and non-appropriated funds to get unpopular and undeserved results. The attraction of democracy lies in the fact that the electorate can punish a non-performing government while rewarding achievements saturated one.
It is glaring that Oshiomhole’s campaign team is getting it right with the One Man, One Vote sloganeering. Watching the incumbent’s governor’s campaign in Esan land recently, the manner in which he read out the lists of ongoing projects and those executed in this part of the state and called out witnesses from among the local people to either refute his statement or corroborate it, was really heart-warming.
The July 14 election in the state should be based on issues; especially developmental programmes that each party is capable and willing to deliver in making the people of Edo feel more the impact of their government. If there is true that opposition parties are campaigning and making promises of what the current government has already delivered to the people, then I see this as a lazy man’s approach to politicking and evidence of the ill preparation of a party that wants to take over from a performing incumbent government. The opposition should refrain from name calling, but keep to the strategy of telling Edo people the blueprint of what they can deliver better than the ruling party in the next four years if given power.
Nigeria’s politics, after 13 years of uninterrupted democratic governance, begs for consolidation with well thought out programmes and policies and SEFs for actualizing the set goals. For the assurance of a free and fair election, the ruling party at the federal level should know to what extent it should interfere in the politics of the states without overt show of its preference for the ruling party, likewise for the state governments during local polls.
The era of political god-fatherism, witch-hunting and political thuggery should really be a thing of the past. What makes the ideal democracy worldwide a beauty to behold? The answer is that politics is played with fairness, transparency, level playing ground for all the parties and respect for the choice of the people. That explained why Nicolas Sarkozy, the immediate past president of France, could within 20 minutes of poll results declaration come out openly to congratulate his opponent and nemesis, Francois Hollande, and pledged his support and cooperation for his government.
Such maturity is what we really desire in Nigeria to grow our democracy. We can start experiencing such when politicians respect the wishes of the electorate and see them as the ultimate sovereign. It is my outmost desire that all the political actors powers must strive towards ensuring that come next July 14, the wishes of Edo people must be supreme. This is non-negotiable.

Nigeria’s ill timed military foray in West Africa

2012-05-22T06:34:00.004-07:00

Nigerian soldiers

By Paul Arhewe

It is rather perplexing that it is when there are knots to untie in the continent that the magnificence and might of Nigeria is overtly and absolutely embraced. Juxtaposing the gains the country has received from her big brother sacrificial roles in Africa with the accruable benefits, what one sees is a non-commensurate reward. Why this assessment one may ask? Nigeria’s past Afrocentric engagements, whether solidarity supports or foreign military pacification operations, are known to attract momentary applause, but quickly forgotten as soon as the problems are fixed. The problems associated with military usurpation of power the West African states of Mali and Guinea Bissau, are engaging the attention of the leaders of the sub region in particular and both the Africa Union and the UN in general.

Expectedly, Nigeria is being wooed to spearhead West African security force to trouble shoot in these two hot spots.It is an incontestable fact that Nigeria has always played the big brother role in the African continent, and contributed in no small measure in restoring stability in countries in the sub Sahara region.

But when the backings of these countries are strategically germane in Nigeria’s quest for global or continental reckonings, what one sees is a painful rebuff. Nigeria’s intervention in some African countries spans from sending troops, financial aids and copious support to see the black race live in harmony.
This is the philosophical underpinning of her foreign policy focus with Africa as centre piece.Since 1964 till date, Nigeria has deployed troops in numerous African and global theatres of peace-keeping opera-tions, bilateral security and observer missions, including Congo Kinshasa (1960-64); Tanzania (1964); Indo-Pakistan (1965-66); Chad (1979); New Guinea (1962-63); Lebanon (1978-82); Angola(1991-95), among several others.
It is a fact that prior the Gulf War (1989-90), Nigeria was the only country in West and Central of Africa that has participated and sustained in military operations abroad.
In the 1990s Nigeria played a major role, via the ECOMOG Mission, in counter insurgency operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone. She was also in Somalia.While such interventions and foreign missions may have increased the country’s profile as a promoter of global peace and safeguarding the continent from the precinct of self annihilation and help in forging a convivial world, I do not think Nigeria has really gotten a commensurate compensation from these laudable actions when the need for regional supports arises. I do not want to be misconstrued as mixing sacrificial missions for a gain recouping venture.
But little appreciation when and where required, would not hurt. I dare say it would be the required push for Nigeria to participate in future missions.Last week, Nigeria joined other Africa countries in volunteering troops to Guinea Bissau and Mali.
I don’t think this lofty role is astute at the present moment, where the country is inundated with frights of insecurity from terrorists, kidnappers and men of the underworld.

It is no small problem that insecurity in the country is developing a firm root by the day. The litotes in the aforementioned underscores factors that would undermine the giant of Africa’s effort in contributing effectively in pushing for peace in current hot spots in the West African region.

Securing and maintaining a peaceful Nigeria is one of the litmus tests President Goodluck Jonathan needs to assure Nigerians and the entire world that he is indeed the leader the nation wants at these trying times.
As the country is fast slipping into another Somalia and Afghanistan, it is not an auspicious time to have a military whose focus is divided between internal security and foreign military operations.

As the most populous black nation on earth, God forbid that there is a catastrophic disorder in the country; our neighbouring countries would be hobbled by massive humanitarian problems, such as mass exodus out of the country that might destabilise them.

This is the more reason our government should be focused and utilised all available resources in plugging loopholes in the country’s security equation.Years of gap in crucial trainings arising from paucity of funds has hampered the development of our military into a fighting machine needed to contain the raging insecurity challenges in the country.

President Jonathan may have weighed the current might and fitness of the military in a frank statement abroad recently, when he said “Nigerian Army was below international standards.”

However, this self-indictment from the commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has attracted criticisms, even from the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Professor Tam David-West. Nevertheless, the country at the moment is in dire need of a military that is focused and well equipped, this is paramount and should take prime precedence over any foreign military missions, at least for now.

Domestic oil supply disequilibrium and Niger’s offer

2012-05-01T06:24:00.004-07:00

Port Harcourt refinery

By Paul Arhewe

How did our blessed Nigeria, with her abundance of crude oil deposit and a leading global exporter of crude could get reduced to the lowly status of relying on external supply for her domestic oil consumption? The lowest point of the national embarrassment is the gesture from Niger Republic. Our neighbor up North on the fringe of Sahara Desert has expressed her willingness to come to our rescue with her residual 13, 000 barrels (2.06 million litres) of premium motor spirit (PMS) of her daily refined oil output of 20, 000 barrels. This gesture was made by Nigerien minister of petroleum, Foumakoye Gado, last week during a visit to Nigeria.

I personally feel affronted by the gesture for the simple fact that it underlines our planlessness and the visionlessness of our leaders. Niger is a fringe player in the global oil business. Yet she was perceptive enough to realize that her best option is to refine more petroleum products than she needed. This influenced the production policy of 20, 000 barrels per day while domestic demand currently stands at 7, 000 barrels. It is this leftover she is pleading to off load to her neighbour, our dear Nigeria, the leading crude oil producer in Africa. We have sunk to this lowly status because NNPC has still not found pragmatic solutions for full capacity utilization of the installed capacities of our four refineries nor have we made any sense of the private refinery policy.

However, I still find the gesture from Niger Republic laudable and instructive. The authorities should see this gesture not as succor, but as a wakeup call to come up with down-to-earth solution in routing out those sabotaging the optimal functioning of existing refineries in the country and the obstacles on the way to the implementation of the private refinery policy. One is left in quandary that Nigeria with the huge yearly receipts from crude oil sales cannot efficiently develop and run refining system that could place her in good stead to rescue her less privileged African countries.

That is only a wish. How would Nigeria now or in the nearest future operate functional refineries when revelations from the ongoing House of Representatives’ probe on oil subsidy has exposed a monumental corruption in the extant supply equation in the nation’s oil supply and demand mix?

Presently, the country has four refineries - two in Port Harcourt, one in Kaduna and one in Warri. Their combined installed capacity is 445,000 barrels per day. Presently, the four refineries are working at less than 30 percent of their installed capacities according to official figures, contrary to the well flaunted figure of between 60-75 percent capacity utilization by the NNPC.
Past and present governments have pumped in billions of our hard earned foreign exchange in turn around maintenance to put the refineries at optimal capacities, but the activities of faceless economic saboteurs appropriately tagged ‘oil cabal’, have ensured that the gestures of the governments never yielded the targeted objectives. The raking in of billions of naira of abnormal or unmerited profits is the attraction for these acts of economic sabotage.
How does anyone expect our refineries to work and be cleansed of sabotage when report has it that our daily consumption of fuel is 35 million litres yet importers were being paid for 59 million litres a day? Such loopholes utilised by this faceless cabal for sapping the country’s dry won’t allow any meaningful progress in the refineries’ TAM or the establishment of private oil refineries.
Even as government currently plan to achieve a 90 percentage production capacity by next December, where it is expected that production of PMS will rise to 20.3 million litres, 9.2 million litres of kerosene and 15.3 litres of diesel, this would still be less than the daily national consumption which currently stands at 35 million litres for PMS, 10 million litres for kerosene and 12 million litres for diesel. Assuming the oil cabal allows this new plan to come to fruition, I think the country still needs more refineries. This would not only stop the fraud associated with subsidy, but would lead to flow of billions naira into government’s coffer from the sale of by-products from crude oil during refining.
It is time government acted sincerely, as not doing so will be a disservice to Nigerians and a shame to the nation.

Nigeria’s cheerless economic growth indicator

2012-04-24T06:40:00.003-07:00

President Goodluck Jonathan

By Paul Arhewe

Economics is full of ambivalences; some would add it is a whole load of bullshit. Why? Economists talk from two sides of the mouth. A reality could be painted good and bad, all at the same time in the same way they could talk of growth without development. What sets me on the edge is the recent revelation that our dear Nigeria is the third fastest growing economy in the world. With annual growth rate of 7.68 percent, she trails behind Mongolia (14.9 percent) and China (8.4 percent). The above revelation, no doubt, should have been one that should have boosted the dampened spirit of the highly impoverished people of the country, especially from the ethereal level against a future expectation that things might turn better for them. I would rather such indexes came as in-dicators for the real economy situation on improved standard of living for Nigerians.

Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Mgama, who broke the sup-posedly cheery news after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting in Abuja said: “The previous year, 2010, the GDP growth was 8.4 per cent but last year, it dropped to 7.68 per cent be-cause we had a negative growth in the oil sector. So, it means that the non-oil sector is actually resilient and strong enough to carry the economy forward with or without the oil sector.”Interpreting Mgama’s statement above would mean Nigeria even had a better result in 2010 with a growth rate of 8.4 percent.

However, the reality on ground in 2010 did not paint that picture of better life.

It was the year of labour angst over agitation for rise in the minimum wage to N18, 000, which was a tug of war. Furthermore, I do not see the validity in the minister’s statement that Nigeria’s non-oil sector is strong enough to move the country forward without oil sector. We still have oil driven economy now and it would be like that for a long time to come.

The greater percentage of our GDP is tied to the production of crude, and other sectors of the economy are really below par.Past and present governments in the country for last three decades have paid lip service to the diversification of the economy such that the solid mineral sector, agriculture, tourism, entertainment etc would be big revenue earners.

That we are very far away from expectation is underscored by the raging feud over the need to tinker with the extant revenue allocation formula to allow the less privileged members of the Nigerian federation, especially those from the North, to get more of the nation’s earn-ings from the sale of crude oil! By and large, this ‘fast growing economy’ mantra has no meaning to many Nigerians in the sense that they would have wanted a lift in their objective material position.

The reality on the ground is that Nigerians have one of the lowest standards of living in the world. Some apologists of the government might hoodwink us by saying that the impact would be felt in the long run. I want to believe the future of the country has already been decided and positioned for more excruciating pains, except large scale corruption in public places, real leakages from the economy, is contained. Last week, the TIMES magazine added to our elation when it named President Goodluck Jonathan among the 100 most influential personalities in the world.

I do not know the parameters used to arrive at this, I think the president’s inclusion might not be unconnected with the rambunctiousness of Boko Haram and the visibility it has created for the President.

I wish also to add that no ruler of the most populous black nation on earth would be inconsequential.The leaders of Nigeria have a lot to do to convert the available potentials for greatness into real greatness and sustain such. With an estimated population of about 160 million people, fertile land for agricultural activities and an abundant of natural endowments, Nigeria ought to be the envy of the rest of the world.

However, maladministration, corruption and rudderless leadership have all conspired to hobble her to slow the developmental process. The purported giant of Africa seems to have lost her strides as the available resources to beautify and de-velop her have been misused by few for egotistical motives, hence subjecting the majority of Nigerians to perpetual penury.

While the gap between the rich and poor Nigerians is getting wider by the day, and unemployment rate is alarming for the country’s teeming population of youths, seemingly robust economic indicators of a non-visible improvement on the lives of the people, to me, may be another grand conspiracy of the West.

Of the US, North’s underdevelopment and Boko Haram

2012-04-17T06:49:00.003-07:00

 By Paul Arhewe

A rural Nothern Nigerian houses

Can the United States of America afford to be indifferent to developments in Nigeria? The answer is a categorical no! Reason is that there is a strong trade relation between both coun-tries, mostly on oil. It is worth over $42 billion a year and growing. In 2010, the two countries entered into a Bi-national Commission Agreement, which is de-signed to deepen bilateral relations be-tween the two countries. The strategic interest of Nigeria to the US and indeed the West lies in the fact that she is Africa’s most populous nation, its largest contributor of peacekeepers, its largest producer of oil, and the largest recipient of direct investment by the American private sector in sub-Saharan Africa. It is therefore, natural that the American government cannot ignore the problems facing our dear Nigeria. I reason within the context of the recent statement credited to the US Assistant Secretary of State, Johnnie Carson linking the pervasive poverty in the North with the deadly attacks of the Islamist militant sect, Boko Haram.

“Nigerians are hungry for progress and improvement in their lives, but northern Nigerians feel this need most acutely. Life in Nigeria may be tough for many, but life in the North is grim for almost all”, was how he put it.

Expectedly, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) took great exception to the statement, advising Americans to do a thorough investigation before making sweeping generalization.

I ask what is wrong with Johnnie Carson’s statement. Generally, all he said about the ravaging poverty in the country is correct. It is true that majority of Nigerians in all the six geopolitical zones are plagued with abject poverty and about 70 percent living below one dollar a day. However, the situation in some parts of the North is grimmer when compared with what obtains in the southern part of the country.

However, what I found objectionable is using poverty as the premise for Boko Haram recourse to the use of terror.

I was privileged to get a first hand view of the level of poverty in North when I did my compulsory National Youth Service (NYSC) in Taraba State some years back. In my one year stay there, I visited Nas-sarawa, Kaduna, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe, Benue and Adamawa states. In all these places I found that same level of wretched-ness and high level of joblessness among the uneducated youths.
The level of poverty in the North is really embarrassing, especially against the backdrop of the fact that the region has produced more heads of state (military and civilian) than the South. Indeed, these past national leaders of northern extraction who have ruled Nigeria have failed woefully to ameliorate the suffering of their people beyond the cos-metics of infrastructural facelifts for state capitals and awarding the region more local government areas than it deserves.

Many of the towns and villages in the North are vastly desert-like ruined lands, where huts mostly constitute haven for humans, with no electricity, water or good roads.
The escape from ghastly poverty is why the streets of major cities in the South like Lagos, are flooded with mendicants. Has anyone bothered to ask where do those rusty, worn-out and retired properties transported from the South go to?Nevertheless, to say that Boko Haram insurgency is the result of the bleak situation in the North is rather fallacious.
Just like the argument put up by CAN, the sophistication of the weaponry at the disposal of these militants no doubts requires huge funds to finance.
Further-more, the sect has on many occasions explicitly shown that the crux of their onslaughts is for the propagation of a Shariah state in the region. The attacks on Christians and their worship centres are signals that the crisis in the North has a religious undertone, even as there is truth also that it is politically motivated.
If indeed these people are fighting for the cause of a better life they would not turn the battle on their compatriots and destroy their lives and the pitiable infra-structure available. Those supposedly faceless financiers of this group, no doubt would have watched while this region wrench from the pains of wanton wretch-edness, but choose to destroy the little de-velopment on ground.
The many national leaders from this re-gion are the wrongdoers that ought to be the targets of the attackers.
The insurgency of Boko Haram is helping to destroy the little development there and heightening the level of poverty in this region. I don’t see any right thinking foreigner or local investor making this region a place of choice for establishing their businesses. It should be the major task of all Nigerians to ensure peace returns to the North.

The travails of Nigerians abroad

2012-04-12T11:18:00.004-07:00

Nigerian rounded up by Polish police

By Paul Arhewe

Many Nigerians believe that un-less they travel to a foreign land they cannot achieve their desires in life. But, in most cases, these Nigerians end up being worse off than their counterparts that choose to remain at home. Reports of racist attacks against foreigners, especially in the United States and Europe and, lately, South Af-rica, have continued unabated. A larger proportion of Nigerians, as with citizens of other developing nations, who travel abroad in search of a greener pasture have had sad tales to render. The recent deportation of 125 Nigeri-ans by the South African government, for allegedly carrying fake yellow fever vaccine certificates, is only one of the many abuses being suffered regularly by citizens who travel abroad, legally or otherwise.

Recent revelations have shown that the number of Nigerians in foreign prisons worldwide has greatly increased.
Minister of Youth Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, disclosed recently that a large number of Nigerians are cur-rently languishing in Chinese prisons. Records from the Nigerian Embassy in China show that 360 Nigerians are serving various jail terms in China, with their sentences ranging between 10 years and suspended death sentence.
The records further show that 320 of them were sentenced for drug-related offences, while the remaining 20 were jailed for other offences, including fraud, kidnapping, armed robbery and rape. Also, in India, it has been found that about 500 Nigerians are serving various jail terms.

The Nigerian High Commissioner to India, Mr. Oyebola Kuku, recently told visiting members of the House of Rep-resentatives Committee on Diaspora, led by Abike Dabiri-Erewa, that most of the inmates were convicted for offences such as drug trafficking and internet scam.
It has equally been discovered that many of the nation’s citizens are incarcerated in Malaysia, another Asian country. Many of them, who were charged with either murder or drug trafficking, have been sentenced to death without the option of appeal.

The exact number of convicted Nige-rians in this country could, however, not be ascertained.When asked recently about the num-ber of Nigerians serving jail terms in his country, the Malaysian High Commis-sioner to Nigeria, Nik Mustafa Kamal Nik Ahmad, said: “I do not know how many Nigerians are in jail in Malaysia.
There are many Nigerians in Malaysia. Last year alone, we issued over 12,000 visas. “Also, sometimes, there is a problem of identity assumption. For instance, last year, there was a report that a Nigerian committed suicide in a hostel. When I read the news, I quickly made an investigation into the case. I was surprised to find out that the deceased was not a Nigerian but a Guinean."

Contribution of a depressed economy

The depression in the nation’s econ-omy has, in no small measure, contrib-uted to the rate at which citizens flee abroad in search of greener pastures. A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that over 100 million Nigerians, representing about 61 percent of the population, lived on less than one dollar (about N150) a day as at the end of 2010. That figure showed a sharp in-crease from the 51 percent recorded in 2004.

Roles of Nigerian embassies
Maltreatment of Nigerians abroad also stems from stereotyping, false accu-sations, harassments and other forms of racial abuses. In many cases, the affected citizens receive little assistance or pro-tection from Nigerian embassies. There have been reports of some embassy staff frustrating Nigerians who seek their assistance.
For instance, one Uzoma Aha-mefule bemoaned the fact that Nigerians live like prisoners in Austria, with the Nigerian embassy there “not showing any concern for their plights.”A clear example was the case of one Miss Edith Abuchi, who was impregnated by her Chinese boss, Yu Fei.
She narrated to National Mirror how she eloped with her boss to China with-out the consent of her parents and how the man’s family started maltreating her soon after she delivered her baby.

She said they tried various antics, including threat of deportation, in their bid to take the baby from her.“They succeeded in making sure that my papers expired, so that I won’t have any legal ground to fight for my baby. They deliberately hindered me through their local connections and made sure that my papers were not extended, so that I could lose my baby to them,” Edith said.
She eventually succeeded in running to the Nigerian Embassy in Beijing with her six-year-old son, but was disappointed by the way the embassy reacted to her situation. “I explained everything that linked me with the Chinese man to them, but for some unknown reasons, they didn’t want to protect me, rather, they supported the Chinese.“They treated me as a non-Nigerian and even insulted me in the presence of the Chinese.

They handed my baby back to his family members without any legal proof that they deserved to take posses-sion of him,” she further revealed.She said, after that incident, Yu Fei’s family prevented her from getting close to her child and was told on phone she would never see him for the rest of her life.

Edith went again to inform the embassy of the latest development, but they told her they could not go after Yu Fei’s family and advised her to solve the problem herself. “Yet they knew that I didn’t have papers to fight this matter and they also knew that I am a poor girl who would not be able to fight the matter without help.
They knew it was the man’s family that made sure that I didn’t have papers in their country, but none of those points made any sense to the embassy,” she lamented.When National Mirror contacted the Nigerian embassy in China, Ambassador Aminu Wali, in an email response, gave the embassy’s account of the story.
The embassy said Edith had no papers and therefore, was residing illegally in China.
The embassy said she needed to acquire valid documents for her to fight her cause diligently. “Having overstayed in China, she risks the consequence of imprisonment and eventual deportation, as she has no valid residence in China,” the embassy said. According to the embassy, the decision it took was also based on the fact that Edith has no visible means of liveli-hood to maintain the child in his present condition.

“Without a residence permit and valid work visa, she would be a fugi-tive of the local law enforcement author-ities,” it said.The Nigerian envoy said the embassy was not in doubt that the child has Ni-gerian blood.

“However, when Ms Edith Yu Xiao Tian, product of bi-racial relationship between a Nigerian mother and a Chinesewas asked to provide his birth certifi-cate, registration card and passport, she had nothing to show, neither was the child endorsed on her passport after his birth,” he noted.
A scanned copy of right of custody shows that both Edith and Yu Fei agreed in a document dated 10 October, 2011, which they both signed, that their child, Yu Xiao Tian, would be in the custody of the man. And also that Edith is entitled to visit and take full care and custody of the child on Saturdays and Sundays.
She is required to return the child on Mon-day mornings for school.With that information, the embassy said it invited the child’s foster grand-parents and handed him over to them, with a stern warning that Edith should be allowed full and unhindered access to the child every weekend as they had, hitherto, been doing.
The embassy, thereafter, counseled Edith against continuing with her bel-ligerent attitudes, as it could get her into trouble with the Chinese authorities. “We cautioned her to exercise some degree of restraint and not to quarrel with the foster parents until she had sorted out herself properly,” the embassy dis-closed.

Also, in order to ensure both parties maintained the terms of the agreement, the Nigerian Embassy agreed not to issue Nigerian passport or Emergency Travel Certificate (ETC) to the child, until the case of custody and paternity is legally settled.
Both parties also agreed not to take the child outside the territory of China until the determination of the right of custody and paternity by the court.The Nigerian Embassy said it should be on record that it was duly committed to protecting the welfare and wellbeing of all Nigerians living in China, “as we have done for the near 350 in various prisons here (in China).” It further affirmed: “It is also our re-sponsibility to promote bilateral relations between our two countries.

But we must not be seen to perpetuate illegality and criminal behaviour by our nationals, nor be overtly sensational about this case. Ms. Edith and her boy, under the prevailing circumstances, could not have been left in the premises and custody of the embassy, ad infinitum.
As the mother of the boy, she can lay claim to him anytime and any day. However, stay-ing in a foreign country, she must do so within the ambit of the law as she was advised.”

Dilemma of renewing Nigerian passport abroad

Another factor responsible for the difficulties experienced by Nigerians abroad is traceable to passport racke-teering. This poses a major problem es-pecially for those seeking to renew their expired passports outside the country.Some Nigerians abroad have waited in frustration for over one year without succeeding in getting their passports renewed. During this period, they are forced to live like fugitives. Some have ended up being arrested and deported in the process.

An affected Nigerian, who lives in Austria, Julius Onyedikachi, lamented that after applying for a passport since December 2010 without success, he felt really embarrassed when a staff of the Nigerian embassy in Austria warned him to stop bothering them, because he was not the only one that applied and had not paid the embassy any money.
He further stated: “Because the pass-port has got a very significant role to play in my life now, I have approached the Nigerian embassy in Vienna for authorisation that can allow me to obtain the passport in any of the Nigerian em-bassies in Europe but, again, the embas-sy refused, insisting that I pay 25 euros. For this reason, several Nigerians are stranded abroad, with those willing to come home during holiday periods sometimes unable to, because of the de-lays in obtaining new passports.
There is shortage of machines that can produce the new ECOWAS passports in Nigerian embassies, with reports say-ing that the machines are available only in five embassies in Europe. What this means is that Nigerians in other Euro-pean countries must travel to the coun-tries where the machines are available to renew expired, or replace lost pass-ports.A Nigerian in United States, Tola Adenle, in a recent report, commented on the passport racketeering, involving staff of Nigerian embassies.
She said she had come across many Nigerians who continued to tell horror stories from the Nigerian embassies and consulates in Washington D.C. and London. “Just as in the home country, civil ser-vants on diplomatic postings, as well as their underpaid non-home based staff, that is, locally-recruited, have perfected ways of demanding and receiving what are – no matter how couched – bribes.
Anyone who has ever had cause to do business with the Nigeria Police must have heard the euphemisms – we need X Naira to buy paper to write the charge sheet and so on.“The child of a friend who needed to travel to Nigeria from Washington D.C. could not get a passport for her new-born because the covers for new passports were not available.
She eventually had to apply for the baby’s U.S. passport, an application that she mailed and secured a brand new passport all within a week-and-a-half after mailing off the applica-tion,” she submitted.

‘Nigerians suffer discriminatory arrests’

The Chairman, House Committee on Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri, in this interview with PAUL ARHEWE, shares her opinion on the continuous maltreatment of Nigerians abroad and more. Excerpts:

What is responsible for the rise in the number of Nigerians imprisoned abroad?
The rising spate of imprisonment of Nigerians in the Diaspora is alarming and more disturbing is the way they treat them at the point of arrest. We’ve received several reports from different parts of the world of Nigerians claiming to have been arrested unlawfully and on several occa-sions without a fair judicial process.Human beings are naturally in search of greener pastures and in instances where the person involved is overzealous or des-perate, drug, prostitution and other sun-dry crimes become quick options.
Things like these are what get them into serious mess. In Italy, we have several Nigerian girls who earn their daily living from pros-titution, some willingly, some unwillingly. People in this kind of business will defi-nitely get themselves involved in activities that will eventually lead to their arrest by the authorities of these countries.However, it sometimes becomes very difficult to assist these people as some of them don’t even have Nigerian passports. It, therefore, becomes very hard for the em-bassy or the government to intervene.

What are the major reasons for these imprisonments?

We will look inward and outward in this regard. Several things are respon-sible for the incessant arrest of Nigerians abroad; some of these arrests are lawful, while some are discriminatory. Moreover, I think we should not look at the problem but the cause of the problem. While it is obvious Nigerians suffer discriminatory arrests abroad, the question we should ask ourselves is why is it so?
Why do our youths troop out of the country in their thousands? What value does the Nigerian government attach to its citizens? What are the structures in place to make Nige-ria conducive for business? I will point out some of the root causes, but I won’t explain them in details. These include bad educa-tional system, poor leadership structure, lack of good moral and cultural orienta-tion and poor structures to support growth and development.

What is your committee doing to address some of these issues?

The committee has attended to several calls from Nigerians in prisons in different parts of the world. The committee has in-tervened in China, Brazil, UK, Libya, Tuni-sia, Morocco, Ghana and Malaysia. In 2010, over 21 Nigerians that were to be executed by the Libyan government were saved and brought back to the country through the committee’s intervention.

Has government done enough to protect Nigerians abroad?

The government is trying its best, ex-cept that it can still do better to protect the lives and property of Nigerians abroad. I think the government can still do more to address the plight of Nigerians in pris-ons abroad and those encountering other forms of problems.

Abike Dabiri

Obama and Okonjo-Iweala’s World Bank bid

2012-04-10T08:20:00.003-07:00

Ngozi-Iweala

By Paul Arhewe

The race for the presidency of the World Bank is reaching a crescendo with the billed appearance of Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala before a 26 member panel of assessors yesterday. Her rivals, Jose Antonio Ocampo of Colombia and Professor Jim Young Kim, nominated by President Barack Obama, will take their turn on Tuesday and Wednesday re-spectively. On a personal note, I am still at a loss over the rationale behind Obama’s nomination of the relatively low profiled American-Korean Kim for the exalted position. It is to say the least, perplexing.I have followed the international dis-course on the politics of appointing the presidency of both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Of the three potential candidates for the World Bank presidency, one thing analysts are agreed on is that Jim Young Kim, the public health professor, has the least appealing credentials. I find it rather baffling that the USA President throws his weight behind a candidate that is a hard sale when his candidacy is juxtaposed over the more qualified Nigerian Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Colombian Jose Antonio Ocampo.

Given the real politick that underlines international relations, I would think the USA would offer the world a first class candidate if she wants to maintain the existing tradition where America gets the presidency of the World Bank as a matter of right, and Europe that of the IMF. I wish to appreciate the dilemma President Obama faces in an election year.

If he gives his blessing to a non-American, the US president would have given critics and his political opponents the needed fuel to incinerate his second term bid.
There is the argument that President Obama’s choice of Kim is in line with his push for a change in the World Bank. Supporting insiders like Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo, it is reasoned, would have obviated his desire for a change of the status quo.
The argument is that Kim’s antecedents as the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s campaign against AIDS/HIV in underdeveloped countries would endear him more to these countries, hence his choice. This may not have changed Kim’s anti- economic growth and private investment views, as reflected in his book ‘Dying for Growth’.
His positions on core issues like these are already being bandied as the most compelling reason why he is unfit for the World Bank plum job. By Obama’s choice, it might eventu-ally turn out to be a repeat of the fiasco committed by former President George Bush when he foisted Paul Wolfowitz on the world in 2005. Informed commentators said Wolfowitz was one of the most polarizing figures in the world to head this great global institution. I would think Kim is best suited as the director general of WHO.
He would be a misfit in the World Bank where vast array of economic and development issues requiring serious grounding in econom-ics to be properly appreciated, would be thrown up.
Ocampo put his finger on the issue when he recently said: “I think in terms of development expertise it is quite clear to everyone that the finance minister of Nigeria and myself stand above the US candidate, who has very narrow expertise in development. He is an excellent physician, nobody denies that, but we’re talking about a develop-ment institution.”
Despite having the least appealing resume among the trio, the US nominee cannot be sidelined in this contest. The vote distribution arrangement might be tilted in Kim’s favour, as Europe, especially the United Kingdom, is more dis-posed to following the path of America.
Also, Kim partly a Korean, may also have the sympathy of Japan and China.No doubts, Okonjo-Iweala stands out, clearly, as the most qualified to take over from Robert Zoellick comes June this year. Her credential and many years experience as a former managing director of the World Bank is a plus.
In addition, the Bretton Wood institution that mainly focuses on the fight against poverty, and proffers supports for development among developing and third world countries would no doubt requires the services and experience of someone who is a two-time finance minister in Africa’s most populous state, a country where the fight against poverty is predominant.

Okonjo-Iweala’s expected emergence as the World Bank president would really be of tremendous benefits to developing coun-tries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is time, indeed, the developing world felt the pulse of this great institution through the endorsement of the most qualified and most suitable candidate for the World Bank presidency.