Welcome to Nigeria

Thank You! Thank You!! Thank You!!!

The applause is really appreciated.

Welcome to this side of the world; now we need to just spell out a little ‘something something” for your enjoyment.

A country where a contractor uses substandard materials to build a hospital because lives are not important to them; it’s just another day in the office, business must go on.

A country where politicians love enslavement; enjoys having the people remain poor so they can exploit that weakness for electoral gains. It’s just life and ‘we can’t all be equal’

A country where medical practitioners rationalize medical equipment because humans are going to die REGARDLESS; why stress yourself to prevent the inevitable?

A country that allows her athletes sponsor themselves to world sporting events because that’s the true test of patriotism; how else do they define coolness?

A country where pensioners, who have laboured for years, die while waiting for their legitimate earnings. But some ‘top guy gets a new jet’ irrespective of the economy and the daily pangs of hunger suffered by the populace.

A country where stable power supply cannot be achieved; you know that some top guys must make money from generator sales.

A country where public thieves are conferred with honours and awards while brilliant minds are left to either travel out of the country and change nationality or be left to rot because the system does not recognise ‘hard work’. Brain drain is not much of stress anymore.

A country where a pothole patches is commissioned with fanfare; you know it’s such a tedious task to cover holes successfully.  (no pun intended)

A country that criminalised homosexuality but top guys warm beds with young boys; after all, “all animals are equal but are more equal than others”.

A country where pastors, imams and monarchs occupies the top echelon and directs the people sheepishly (democratically elected leaders even draw strength from them) because they are the ‘mouth piece of gods’.

A country where stealing a mobile phone can land you into jail for 20 years but ‘cap banking of 600 thousand dollars’ is just a misunderstanding of intentions; you know 3 > 5 (no offense Mr Bron, Kobe is the only recognised king)

A country where citizens fight themselves on social media rather than uniting against their thieving politicians; 100 dollars for every hashtag is more sustainable than a well-planned future apparently.  I won’t blame them sha, 100*(insert today’s exchange rate) #ballintenz.

A country where 1 train took 10 years to be completed. My only anger is that this train isn’t from Lagos to London sha, you gerrit?

A country where a power drunken ex-politician still feels the need to move around with men in uniform not because he is at war with himself (the war they are fighting must be deadlier than Boko Haram or the civil war in Syria) but because his social status is more important than the security of every other citizen.

A country where “god of men” acquire luxurious materials and leave their members who slaved for them to suffer in abject poverty; Even Jesus shared his loaves of bread and fishes but what do I know, they have to store these riches in case Heaven is not real.

A country where her legislative arm of government sees ‘budget padding’ as a thing of pride and parade themselves in a fashion show of shame. So our budget now bleeds every month? What a wowing something! Catch phrase; use our sanitary towel and we guarantee no stains.

And finally, a country where the lawmakers break the laws; law are meant for the poor obviously.

My country is crazy, amidst still trying to figure out what type of system of government we want to run between democracy and dictatorship, we lose the essence of leadership. It is interesting to know that her citizens are the spear headers of this madness, this isn’t going away anytime soon as long as we have parties that don’t have clear ideological leanings and godfathers still ‘endorsing’ candidates of choice prior to elections.

We are stuck with this bullshit (I’m sorry mommy) for life.

If one begins to ask questions of what is wrong with our nation? One won’t stop until the Cock starts growing teeth. Just ask asking questions of how Nigeria got to plunge herself in this mess won’t get an answer, even after the wait of a century! Wait, does it mean we can’t explain how Nigeria found herself in this trying time?

I was at a conference one bright Monday, smiling and in my normal self until one of the speakers at the conference said something which automatically changed my mood as a remote to a television set would. What did he say? He said researches have shown that the world has about 36 different mineral resources, he then moved to what broke me down. He asserted that Nigeria had 33 of these 36 mineral resources. The first thing that came to my mind was, with 33 mineral resources, we are still termed “underdeveloped”. When then would we get developed? Maybe when we have all!

The situation of our country Nigeria is getting worse by the second, rather than having things change for the better, things are becoming more difficult. The government in town today is claiming it’s trying her best in ensuring that life gets easier for her people, and her people are complaining of everyday difficulty. What’s wrong? Maybe because they felt they were coming to govern just the capital city, as apparent in their release that, they didn’t plan for what they have met.

What would a family relaying on civil servants do? How will they help their selves in times like this? When they have to get a month salary after working assiduously for months. A family like this also has other responsibilities to meet, like the paying of rents, electricity bills, children school fee among others. Now tell me, how do we expect them to thrive? I am forced to asking myself if this was the way it started, but the book of history is clearing my doubt, by making me understand it was never like this, even if it wasn’t too good then, at least, people were living. Is Nigeria tired of her citizens?

The rate at which our countries currency is plundering into the sea is another thing that puts the heart of an average Nigeria in his or her mouth. Our currency is fast losing value just like the rapid diffusion of a gluttons fart. How do we help this? Nigerians who by things online to sell are now jobless or on forceful leave, you can’t even predict the price of what you want to buy in the market, if you do, you will just help yourself waste your time and money to the market. If not for the federal government’s intervention, many would have performed their pilgrimage in their very own room. It’s that bad.

In spite all that we have at hand now, security is still a problem. Firms have fled out of our country to neighbouring countries, some of which we still supply electricity. Sometimes I am forced to agree our own countries brain relies on other countries own to work, even with the hemispheres of theirs not complete. We are the backbone of other countries development and sustenance, yet we are begging to breathe. How irrational this is!

As hard as this time is, it even hasn’t got to the pick. There are speculations that if things continue this way, we would run into recession. It surprises me, Nigeria, recession, how come? Many things are really wrong and not something any more. When we then get to that stage, an average Nigeria would then resolve to what? Feeding on grass or something? Because it won’t be easy at all, even the sound of the word “recession” frightens.

A nation with enough human and natural resources, hoping and praying not to go into recession; height of impunity. If the government of today gives room for corruption at this present time, I tell you, people will still steal. Sometimes one just think the solution to Nigeria’s problem is that it has no solution. But then, as long as optimism still remains in the dictionary, we would continue to believe things will get better.

Tijani Sheriffdeen writes… (sheriffdeentijani@gmail.com)

Overtime, students have always been seen as precocious set of people that challenge the injustice within and around their environment, they raise the placard to challenge the tyrannical leaders of their institution, stand as a body that protect the interest of fellow students by making sure that life is favorable  and living is worthwhile for a common student by regulating the price of goods and services consumed by the students populace, they have risen up to make sure that the leadership of their country is never in the wrong hand, they campaign against anti-students policies of the government  and challenge mediocrity in governance of the land, example of this was the role they played during the colonial era, when they, as members and founders of the West African Students Union (W.A.S.U) stood  behind the Nationalists to fight for the independence of this nation and several other African countries from the colonial masters.

A similar occurrence was the activism engaged by National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) during the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo as the military  head of state when he increased the tuition fee in Nigerian higher institutions  without considering the common students on street, the students leaders rose against the policy and hence convene the struggle known as Ali-Must-Go, (the name Ali implies the name of the minister of Education at that time), though, this struggle led by comrade Segun Okeowo, the then NUNS president from University of Lagos resulted into proscription of NUNS but we must as a matter of expediency continue protecting the interest of students as this could be the only way to express our sincere condolence to those that have either lost their lives or properties (be it grade or money) to the uplift of welfare of Students in Nigeria .

I am not oblivion of the struggles embarked upon by the students leaders in the recent times, but various occurrences have revealed that the most sought after phrase “Aluta continua Victoria Ascerta “has been given another meaning, the Portuguese saying which was discovered as an inscription on kunta kinte’s commemorate which means struggle continues, victory is certain has been reworded  by Nigerian students leaders with Aluta continua, no more victory is certain, this, if critically looked into happened not  because the tyranny are too powerful to be confronted  nor because they are undefeatable  but this surfaced  because of the Get-Rich-Quick syndrome and power intoxication. The leaders that hailed from Not-so rich and Not-rich at all homes believed that National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other students leadership portfolios are avenues to gather resources and indeed amass wealth so as to challenge the status quo of their family, this, which hinders them from achieving what they earlier set as goals.

Though the political firmament of the country has changed, a better Nigeria has been given birth to, but the set of people that stays there remains, we may believe the leadership and the ruling party has changed but the only thing that can help a developing country like Nigeria is a rank and file change, a change at homes and streets, this, which is a good way of making sure that the effort of our heroes past will not be in vain.

It is high time the stakeholders in the Educational sector and the human right campaigners in the country rose up to challenge the ills in the land, they need to convene a modus vivendi that brings together all the decision makers as far as student’s movement in Nigeria is concerned. They need to review the journey so far, highlight the looming challenges and ways of influencing the obnoxious policies of the ruling class without going dirty. NANS as an independent non-profit oriented pressure group should not embark on any struggle, except the ones that protects the interest of the students that formed the body. The student leaders must stop betraying their allegiance to students struggle for those starched papers that lies in brown envelopes, students must feel their impacts and no student should cry because of the injustice in the land again.

Jimoh Hammed Olaoluwa is pursuing a degree in Animal Production and Health in the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

He is a born writer, he started writing articles and poems as early as when he was nine years old, he is an orator with sweet words of conviction and blogs at www.mroctomed.blogspot.com

He can be contacted through www.facebook.com/jimoh.ho

I woke up yesterday to read a fictitious report credited to me by Sunday Tribune that I claimed President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve to be president. And on the basis of the fiction weaved together by a reporter, he let loose one of those now-very-common indecorous and rumor- inspired verbal assault from presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu.

However, today, in one of those uncommon but very professional decisions, Tribune newspaper not only recanted on the story but also apologized to me. While I thank the newspaper for toeing the path of honour, I hope Mallam Garba Shehu will also be decent enough to admit his error of judgement and tender an unreserved apology for his falsehood and unwarranted attacks at me.

Notwithstanding, it is important not to lose sight of the real issue which is about the fate of 2000 young Nigerians who were employed into the Nigerian Immigration Service, after a rigorous and transparent process by the last administration, only for their services to be cynically dispensed with by the current administration. These are Nigerians from across the country.

Incidentally, I was drawn to their plight just because in driving past where they had congregated, I saw among them a friend and BBOG colleague, Hajia Aisha Yesufu, who, as it would turn out, had taken up their cause. I spoke with them briefly and I had pleaded with the president to look into their matter. Fortunately, in correcting the earlier wrong publication, Tribune has helped to bring out what I said in its story of today as captured below:

FORMER Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, never said President Muhammadu Buhari did not deserve to be president.
Our sister publication, Sunday Tribune, had attributed the statement to be part of what she said over the plight of 2,000 immigration service recruits who slept at the entrance of Aso Villa from Friday till Saturday morning.
Ezekwesili, while addressing the recruits, had said “I am, therefore, appealing to the president to immediately ask the military as well as the Nigerian Immigration Service to do what is right, give justice to all these young men and women who, on the basis of merit, were appointed into positions in the NIS.
“I want to say that if justice is not given to them immediately, I certainly will join them in sitting here every day until they get their justice. Justice is to be able to come to table with them.
“Whatever the challenges are, let it be known, but don’t let anything be done in secrecy, and let nothing be done with such opaqueness. These young people are the present of Nigeria, not just the future of Nigeria. If we don’t treat our young right, we are laying ourselves up for what we already have troubling us in the country.
“So, I join my voice with them and I appeal to the President whom they have come to see to immediately do something about their cause. And I also use this opportunity to speak to the Federal Government, there have been too many instances of allegations of illegal recruitment into the public service.
“If our public service is dysfunctional and you are worsening it by recruiting people through the back doors, people who don’t have the talent, skills, competence, capacity, character to be able to give us good service in public service, then, we certainly have no plans to be better than we are.
“So, we should just from henceforth desist from doing this. And usually, when these illegal recruitments are done, we sacrifice the best for the worst among us. Usually, when these illegal recruitments are done, what ends up happening is that the children of the poorer segment of our society who struggle to get through their education are left behind, then, that is the basis of worsening inequality.
“We cannot afford this and an unequal society is a society laying itself up for implosion and God forbid that would be the case with our nation. I want to just applaud all of you for coming out and standing, standing for your cause. I want to say that I would actually be speaking to a lawyer who will become your lawyer in this matter, so that, not just would you be on the streets, but you would have to get legal redress of your situation, because that’s very important.
“I also applaud the fact that you have been civil. Today is Saturday, I don’t know what your plan is, Saturday is not a work day. Sunday is also not a work day. So people might say they are not at work, that’s why they are not able to speak to you. Maybe what we would do is have a discussion among yourselves and perhaps resume your sit-out by wherever you chose to do that, by the first day of the week. Then whatever you want to say to the President, I think you should give the opportunity for all your members to speak to the President. He’s the one you came to see.”
The Tribune Newspapers hereby tender unreserved apology to Dr Ezekwesili, Aisha Yesufu and the Presidency for the misrepresentation.

Let me again state that the injustice that the #NigeriaImmigration2000 protesters allege needs immediate Presidential resolution considering that all other levels of authority have failed them. If Garba Shehu  was not deploying his time and talent to the wrong priorities, he should have  brought the issue of 2000 disaffected young people to the President’s attention when they occupied the gate of his office last Friday.

I advise him to do so now.

Obiageli (Oby) Ezekwesili

If your valuables are being stolen in the school premises, the school security says it’s due to carelessness.
If you are being robbed off your valuables in the comfort of your hostels off campus, the school security says they have a limited jurisdiction. “We do not interfere with matters off campus.”
The horrors of the night we experience as students of Funaab (Funaabites) by leaving classes in the evening, hoping and praying that one’s hostel won’t be the next on the line while the school security section is being run like a freaking assembly line.
Funaabites couldn’t act. Funaabites couldn’t speak out. We obey everything like zombies in warm bodies. We live in fear of the horrific ones who invade our hostels at night. They come in, tell us to lie down, take our valuables, injure those that resist or not and rape our ladies.
I happen to be a victim of circumstance as well. A year ago, my colleagues and I were robbed in the comfort of our hostel with items such as laptops and phones being extorted from us. We informed the school CSO of the incident and he questioned our reason of getting a hostel off campus which we were shocked to hear. After we wrote down our names and items we were robbed off, he said that the school security is not concerned about matters off campus.
This means the matter of security is left with the Nigeria Police Force. Once matters like this are being reported, the issue of jurisdiction comes up again so we remained silent. We are always being silenced by the fact that students have the fear of being rusticated if any act of protest should occur.
Our silence cost us. The robbery toll increased drastically and now fed up Funaabites replaced the silence with action and words. Funaabites took to the streets after being pushed to the wall. A protest ones peaceful starting at the school gate as early as 6 a.m. on Thursday 18th of August, 2016. The protest was going on smoothly as students demand the presence of the press to voice out what they have been experiencing.
Policemen that never surfaced when horrors of the night ripped our hostels apart appeared at the scene of protest and were being questioned by the students about the level of insecurity off campus.
It was reported that “The protest later turned into a riot after a police officer shot a student in the eye.”
A primary source also said that the student was shot at close range by a policeman with tear gas trying to scare Funaabites away or whatever their intentions were.
Innocents students were arrested mostly inside their hostels as a statement was being released, ” 150 students must be captured.”
As of the time of writing this, the police was said to have arrested about 34-59 individuals who aren’t all students after the protest and they have been arraigned to court by the police. When one of the lawyers was asked, he said that each person would be granted a bail with 100k or a collateral worth that amount.
Funaabiltes have had enough of being intimidated, being pushed around, kept pain in form of silence while the media report wrongly to the world.
Media houses that were being requested at the beginning of the protest could not make up anything realistic as they boosted their way of line trying to sale their business by writing headlines that criticize the rights the students were fighting for. Headlines like “students go wild in Ogun” “Funaab students on rampage, many vehicles burnt”
The police P.R.O. Ogun state, Oyeyemi Abimbola said that no shots were fired at the scene of protest. There is a picture taken at the scene courtesy of Funaab medias that shows the shell of a fired bullet and he is over there in his office saying “no shot was fired, I can assure you that.”
PLEASE SIR, WHAT IS THAT???
Is he trying to make himself or the police force look good by this statement?
We have tried enough
Do not take our silence as an act of foolishness
The horrors of the night come here to injure us so did the police
This is not a refugee camp; it is the environs a great and peaceful named Funaab where we Funaabites reside.
Medias reporting to the nation about this incident, I wonder where your sources are from as not a person from any media house was spotted during the protest and the riot.
Are you backing the police force?
Are you happy with the insecurity experienced by Funaabites?
If you want to keep spreading false information, remember we have approximately
15,000 students, 150,000 fingers and a whole lot of followers on social networks
You do the math
We were there, you were not
We witnessed it, you were told
We experienced it, you imagined
We were victimized
We are Funaabites
Tell the world the truth!!!
?#?saveFunaab? ?#?releaseFunaabites? ?#?Funaabites_not_secured?

When I warned the Nigerian people about what the APC represented and that, if given power, they would be the most reactionary, repressive, vindictive, insensitive, vicious, thin-skinned, paranoid, divisive and, worse of all, incompetent government in the history of Nigeria no-one listened.

When I told the people that the leaders of the APC were not only unfit to hold power but that they were also Nigeria’s local equivalent to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood no-one listened.

When I warned the people that their initial plan was to field a Muslim/Muslim ticket for the 2015 presidential election (until public outrage killed the idea) no-one listened.

When I warned our people about the limitations of President Muhammadu Buhari and what he would do if trusted with power no-one listened.

When I warned the PDP leadership and particularly our PDP governors and Board of Trustee members about the dangers of making Ali Modu Sheriff National Chairman of our party they would not listen.

When I warned them to remove him immediately and not to let him stay as National Chairman for the three months that he asked for they would not listen.

When I told them that the government would NOT allow the National Convention of the party to hold on 17th August or indeed at any other time, no matter what, because Sheriff is working for them they would not listen.

Now I have been proved right and vindicated on all fronts. Let us consider what took place in Port Harcourt on the day of the convention. Armed with a questionable court ruling the Buhari administration set out to destabilise, destroy and silence the opposition. It was well planned, well-orchestrated and well-executed.

Governors were temporarily barred from movong around freely and were essentually put under house arrest. The convention venue was sealed off and delegates were prevented from entering the stadium by gun-wielding mobile police men and soldiers. It was not only a show of shameful, naked brute force but it was also thoroughly evil.

Let me make a another prediction: this is just the beginning of their tyranny. It will get far worse. That is “mai chanji” for you!

The sooner the leaders of the PDP wake up, smell the coffee and appreciate the kind of monster they are dealing with and the sooner they elect and select leaders that are prepared to risk their lives and liberty to confront this government the better.

If you want democracy and freedom you must be prepared to confront the dictator and fight for it. Where there is no justice, there can be no peace. Where there is no freedom, there can be no development. Where there is no equity, there can be no progress.

Our land has been turned into a barren and poverty-striken shell of its former-self by President Buhari’s administration.

They have stripped away the glory of our nation, ruined the economy, created ethnic and religious divisions, impoverished the people, brought tears to the eyes of the down-trodden, dashed the hopes and dreams of the young and destroyed the destiny of millions.

The only thing that is left for them to do is to crush the leading opposition party and to attempt to silence, humiliate, discredit, destroy, jail and break every single opposition leader that remains vocal.

That is where Senator Ali Modu Sheriff comes in and that is why his disruptive role and questionable mission in the PDP is of so much interest and so useful to the government.

That Sheriff has turned into the proverbial stubborn bone that is stuck in the throat of the PDP is no longer news .

The role and noble efforts of the Senator Makarfi-led Caretaker Commitee have been exemplary and commendable and, in my view, they have earned the support and affection of every loyal party leader and member.

I am not surprised by that because I happen to have known Senator Makarfi, Senator Ben Obi (the Secretary of the Committee) and Hon. Minister Dayo Adeyeye (the Publicity Secretary) for many years and I can attest to the fact that they are all profoundly good men who are very restrained in their manner and approach to complicated issues and who are not only experienced but also rational, reasonable and balanced.

Yet despite their efforts the question that still needs to be answered is how best to handle Ali Modu Sheriff.

Dr. Doyin Okupe, a man for whom I have the greatest respect and affection and one of the most formidable and credible leaders in our party, suggested on his Facebook wall that we should “negotiate” with Sheriff with a view to settling this issue.

He has also said that we should “not blame Buhari and the APC for our woes” but rather we should blame ourselves.

He may be right on the latter point but I beg to respectfully and humbly differ with him on the former. There can be no question of any further negotiation with Sheriff. My response to him, which was posted on his Facebook page and on twitter, reads as follows:

“My dearest brother, I beg to differ with you on your suggestion that we must negotiate with the former National Chairman of our party Ali Modu Sheriff. If you remember I warned the governors about Shetiff when they imposed him on us.

The PDP Ministers Forum rejected him as did the PDP Board of Trustees did at the initial stage but the governors would not listen. Now we have been vindicated because everything that we said would happen has come to pass.

The imposition of Sheriff by the Governors Forum was the biggest mistake that we have made since President Goodluck Jonathan and the then leadership of our party conceeded the election to Buhari without at least contesting the matter in court.

Frankly, as I wrote at the time, I believe that Sheriff bewitched the governors that brought him to us and indeed those in our party that accepted him and agreed to work with him.

Now the power of the spell has worne off and their eyes have opened. Sadly though things will get worse because Sheriff is under orders: he is working a script and that script was crafted by those who commissioned him to divide, weaken and kill our party.

When you open your doors to a snake what do you expect? I am not surprised by all that he is doing because he is acting true to type: he is a green snake who has dipped his fangs deeply into our flesh and whose poison is kiling us slowly.

The truth is that there can never be any compromise with Sheriff. You cannot compromise with the devil or a snake.

You cannot wine and dine or attempt to cohabit with a creature that the great writer and teacher, Mr. David Icke, describes as a “shape-shifting sociopath and reptilian”.

There can be no felllowship between light and darkness even in politics. You cannot negotiate with a narcicistic meglomaniac who wants your head to be cut off and served to him on a silver platter. Sheriff is working for Buhari to destroy the PDP and he has almost succeeded in his mission.

The only solution to this intractible and difficult problem is for us to continue to fight him in the courts and elsewhere and, if push comes to shove, form another political party, get our members and supporters to join that party and leave the desperate old scavanger to feed on the carcass of the old PDP.

Very few people will stay with him because, after some time, carcasses tend to stink and because he is the quintessential plague. After some time even his most diehard supporters will get sick of him, run away and abandon him.

Permit me to conclude with the following counsel. We must never attempt to appease a bully and a tyrant: it encourages him in his tyranny and it gives him pleasure. To the bully, compromise is seen as nothing more than weakness.

We must be prepared to stand up, stand firm and speak out against the evil that has gripped our land till the very end knowing that the Lord is with us and that He will never forsake us.

If necessary, we must also be prepared to pay the price for doing so because the future of our nation and our children depends on it.

We must not waiver. We must hold the line, firm in the knowledge that no matter how dark the night, joy comes in the morning. Fondest thoughts egbon. Shalom”.

This is definitely not a cheering moment for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the upcoming governorship election in Edo state, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu with the revelation that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki has trounced him in the social media.

 
The news report that analysed the trend showed a yawning gap between both leading candidates with the odds in favour of Obaseki. From the way things stood as at the time the report was written, Ize- Iyamu had about 2,818 followers on twitter, 4,919 on Facebook and 450 likes on his Facebook page. Obaseki on the other hand has a combined total of 63,243 followers from two official twitter handles, 75,000 followers on his Facebook page, 35,000 likes with an average view of 3,373 daily.

 
At best the PDP would maintain an ill-advised silence and later a kneejerk reaction. When the reality of this development sink deeper, the PDP camp would immediately try to wave aside what is now almost an unofficial exit poll – predicting a taste of the drubbing that Obaseki’s main opponent is likely to receive at the polls come September 7. One argument they will contrive against Obaseki’s online dominance would be based on the notion that those on the social media do not register to vote.

 
Recent research findings have however made mincemeat of this mindset. A remarkable seven out of every ten persons that could get online to would be at the polling stations to cast their ballots, which makes the current trend the harbinger of defeat for the PDP as the online pattern would be repeated offline at the various polling units.

 
To have disregarded the reality that more Edo people are now connected has proven to be the PDP’s and its candidate’s greatest undoing. They already lag behind by an unimaginable margin and the best they could achieve under the circumstances is to attempt narrowing the gap. Any thought of a win would qualify as clinical hallucination.

 
As for the argument that those active online scarcely vote, the 2015 General Election mistake in this regard costed the PDP greatly as it wrongly dismissed discontent expressed by cyber communities as the ranting of the non-voting segment of the country at that time. The last time the social media and online community were less influential in election matters on these shores was in 2011. Obaseki’s social media following has thus basically sealed the deal for him, not just because his online assets would vote for him but because they are opinion moulders and great influencers.

 
A second reaction would be for the PDP campaign to attempt tinkering with the figures. They would go after inorganic followers and use paid strategies to drive online following. This would be as bad as the rigging charade that the PDP was known for in the 16 years it held sway at the federal level. The same way Ize-Iyamu’s party failed to positively impact the electorates’ lives in the false hope of resorting to rigging it had also failed to realise that APC’s Obaseki has massive online following because of what they know he is coming to build upon.

 
Obaseki has presented a blueprint that will move Edo state to the next level and his campaign speeches so far have shown a man who is not going it alone but has rather made the Edo State project the people’s own. He has articulated how he wants to build the future of Edo State by sorting out issues of basic human needs in the state; health care; access to quality education and provision of security while addressing the issue of revenue generation in way that leaves the people of the state as the winners. On top of this, the APC candidate has promised to restore socio-cultural values in a state where cultists are brave enough to attempt taking over.

 
The same cannot be said of Ize-Iyamu, whose idea of a campaign has remained in the same era as his lack of attention to what happens online. Each time he or his team and party members climb the soap box it is to hurl abuses and make claims for which they have no facts. Those who at this rallies apparently were present there for the entertainment value as findings have also shown that only three out of every 10 people that showed up to listen to the vitriolic would show up at the polling booth; and Ize-Iyamu has done a poor job of convincing even this measly number to vote for him.

 
To compound this candidate’s woes, each time anyone using the internet searches for his name the result would be crowded with histories of his association and primacy in an administration that ran the state aground in his hey days as the Secretary to the State Government (SSG). Somewhere in the mix are links to the invitation he had to keep with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). His sting as a cultist is barely encouraging. So how does he seriously expect someone to see all these and still follow him online not to talk of voting him at the polls.

When has the Nigerian government ever gotten anything right? BudgIT a civic technology company focused on promoting good governance in Nigeria by simplifying the government’s budget, made me aware of the recent non-governmental regulatory bill. Using info-graphs, maps, and mobile applications, BudgIT aims to make public data accessible and easier to understand – well the company achieved its mission because I became aware of a new bill.

Sponsored by Umar Buba Jibril, Deputy House Leader for the Lokoja-Kogi Federal Constituency, the proposed non-governmental regulatory bill aims to erode the independence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) by overburdening them with regulations and fines. It should be on record that this is not the first time a similar bill will be proposed. On June 30, 2014 Eddie Mbadiwe, a member of the House of Representatives representing Imo state sponsored a bill with the aim to regulate international funding to non-governmental bodies in Nigeria. Why are Nigerian lawmakers focused on destroying the independence of NGOs and CSOs? The reality is that the strength of non-governmental and civil society organizations lie in its independence from government.

Nigeria is currently in a recession and a majority of Nigerians are living in poverty. Toke Ibru, executive director at The Guardian Newspapers Nigeria writes on Instagram that “there has been a significant increase in the number of vacant properties in the upper-class real estate neighborhoods of Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikoyi.” The recent report by the Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) attributes the rise in the number of vacant properties to a combination of rising inflation, GDP contraction, falling consumer confidence and increasing unemployment rates.”

To date, NGOs have continuously filled a gap where government has not, cannot and will not. Using various social media platforms to include twitter and Instagram, Nigerians on an all too frequent basis come together to support an NGO in paying the medical bill of an average citizen or to sponsor the education of a child. NGOs provide a multilateral approach to supporting Nigeria’s failing healthcare and educational system, or simply to provide daily meals to orphans or to support our farmers. Once again, why are Nigerian lawmakers focused on destroying the independence of NGOs and CSOs?

A regulatory body will only increase corruption as Nigeria lacks the transparent system and open culture needed to make this work. How many NGOs will be forced to bribe officials in order to get their organizations approved? BudgIT for instance has promoted the #OpenNASS campaign for several years now – a campaign focused on increasing the standards of transparency and citizenship engagement at the National Assembly. To date, they are yet to be taken seriously and their request granted. If NASS refuses to be transparent how do we expect them to create a transparent regulatory body?  This is not practical, unethical and unfair.

I implore the Nigerian government to figure out other ways to create a sustainable revenue stream. Overburdening NGOs and CSOs is not the answer nor is this the appropriate response to the current economic situation at hand. Creating a regulatory commission of all-boys club is not the answer. NASS should focus on other urgent priorities like finding ways to eliminate Boko Haram, ensuring that Nigeria remains competitive in the global market, establishing energy incentives for small business owners, improving our failing education and healthcare system or more importantly, figuring out ways to create jobs for our youths – have you seen or even noticed the increasing youth unemployment numbers?  There are loads of problems to be solved and the NGO regulatory bill should not be one of them.

Mary Olushoga is the Founder of AWP Network

Fethullah Gülen

On the night of July 15, Turkey went through the most catastrophic tragedy in its recent history as a result of the attempted military coup. The events of that night could be called a serious terror coup.

Turkish people from all walks of life who thought the era of military coups was over showed solidarity against the coup and on the side of democracy. While the coup attempt was in progress, I condemned it in the strongest terms.

Twenty minutes after the military coup attempt surfaced, before the real actors were known, President Erdogan hastily blamed me. It is troubling that an accusation was issued without waiting for the event’s details and the perpetrators’ motives to emerge. As someone who has suffered through four coups in the last 50 years, it is especially insulting to be associated with a coup attempt. I categorically reject such accusations.

I have been living a reclusive life in self-exile in a small town in the United States for the last 17 years. The assertion that I convinced the eighth largest army in the world – from 6,000 miles away – to act against its own government is not only baseless, it is false, and has not resonated throughout the world.

If there are any officers among the coup plotters who consider themselves as a sympathizer of Hizmet movement, in my opinion those people committed treason against the unity of their country by taking part in an event where their own citizens lost their lives. They also violated the values that I have cherished throughout my life, and caused hundreds of thousands of innocent people to suffer under the government’s oppressive treatment.

If there are those who acted under the influence of an interventionist culture that persists among some of the military officers and have put these interventionist reflexes before Hizmet values, which I believe is unlikely, then an entire movement cannot be blamed for the wrongdoings of those individuals. I leave them to God’s judgment.

No one is above the rule of law, myself included. I would like for those who are responsible for this coup attempt, regardless of their identities, to receive the punishment they deserve if found guilty in a fair trial.  The Turkish judiciary has been politicized and controlled by the government since 2014 and, consequently, the possibility of a fair trial is very small. For this reason, I have advocated several times for the establishment of an international commission to investigate the coup attempt and I have expressed my commitment to abide by the findings of such a commission.

Hizmet movement participants have not been involved in one single violent incident throughout its 50-year history. They haven’t even taken to the streets to confront Turkish security forces while they have been suffering under the government’s “witch hunt,” to use Mr. Erdo?an’s own words, for the last three years.

Despite being subjected to a smear campaign and suffering under state oppression for the last three years in the hands of a politically controlled law enforcement and the judiciary, Hizmet movement participants have complied with the law, opposed injustices through legitimate means and only defended their rights within the legal framework.

Turkey’s legal and law enforcement agencies have been mobilized for the last three years to investigate and reveal an alleged “parallel state” that they claim that I run.

The administration called the 2013 public corruption probe an organized attempt by Hizmet sympathizers within the bureaucracy to bring down the government. Despite detaining 4,000 people, purging tens of thousands of government employees and unlawfully seizing hundreds of NGOs and private businesses, authorities were unable to find a single piece of credible evidence to prove their claims.

Turkey’s prime minister called an opportunity to meet with me “heaven-sent” in May 2013; however, after the public corruption probe emerged in December 2013, he began using hate language such as “assassins” and “blood sucking vampires” when referring to Hizmet movement participants.

After the treasonous coup attempt of July 15, the attacks have become unbearable. Turkish government officials also began referring to me and people sympathetic to my views as a “virus” and “cancer cells that need to be wiped out.” Hundreds of thousands of people that have supported institutions and organizations affiliated with the Hizmet movement have been dehumanized in one way or another.

Their private properties have been confiscated, bank accounts taken over and their passports cancelled, restricting their freedom of travel. Hundreds of thousands of families are living through a humanitarian tragedy due to this ongoing witch hunt. News reports show that nearly 90,000 individuals have been purged from their jobs and 21,000 teachers’ teaching licenses have been revoked.

Is the Turkish government forcing these families to starve to death by preventing them from working and prohibiting them from leaving the country? What is the difference between this treatment and the pre-genocide practices throughout European history?

I’ve witnessed every single military coup in Turkey and, like many other Turkish citizens, have suffered during and after each one. I was imprisoned by the order of the junta administration after the March 12, 1971 coup. After the coup of September 12, 1980, a detention warrant was issued against me and I lived as a fugitive for six years.

Right after the February 28, 1997, post-modern military coup, a lawsuit asking for capital punishment was filed against me with the charge of “an unarmed terrorist organization consisting of one person.”

During all of these oppressive, military-dominated administrations, three cases accusing me of “leading a terror organization” were opened and, in each case, I was cleared of the charges. I was targeted by the authoritarian military administrations back then, and now, I face the very same accusations projected in an even more unlawful manner by a civilian autocratic regime.

I had friendly relations with leaders from various political parties, such as Mr. Turgut Ozal, Mr. Suleyman Demirel and Mr. Bulent Ecevit, and genuinely supported their policies that I found to be beneficial to the larger community. They treated me with respect, especially when recognizing Hizmet activities that contribute to social peace and education.

Even though I distanced myself from the idea of political Islam, I praised the democratic reforms undertaken by Mr. Erdogan and AKP leaders during their first term in power.

But throughout my life, I have stood against military coups and intervention in domestic politics. When I declared 20 years ago that “there is no turning back from democracy and secularism of the state,” I was accused and insulted by the same political Islamists who are close to the current administration. I still stand behind my words. More than 70 books based on my articles and sermons spanning40 years are publicly available. Not only is there not a single expression that legitimizes the idea of a coup in these works, but, on the contrary, they discuss universal human values that are the foundation of democracy.

Emancipating Turkey from the vicious cycle of authoritarianism is possible only through the adoption of a democratic culture and a merit-based administration. Neither a military coup nor a civilian autocracy is a solution.

Unfortunately, in a country where independent media outlets are shut down or taken under government custody, a significant portion of Turkish citizens were made to believe – through relentless pro-government propaganda – that I am the actor behind the July 15 coup. However, world opinion, which is shaped by objective information, clearly sees that what is going on is a power grab by the administration under the guise of a witch-hunt.

Of course, what matters is not majority opinion but the truths that will emerge through the process of a fair trial. Tens of thousands of people, including myself, who have been the target of such gross accusations, would like to clear our names through a fair judicial process. We do not want to live with this suspicion that was cast on us. Unfortunately, the government has exerted political control over the judiciary since 2014, thereby destroying the opportunity for Hizmet sympathizers to clear their names of these accusations.

I openly call on the Turkish government to allow for an international commission to investigate the coup attempt, and promise my full cooperation in this matter. If the commission finds one-tenth of the accusations against me to be justified, I am ready to return to Turkey and receive the harshest punishment.

Participants in the Hizmet movement have been overseen by hundreds of governments, intelligence agencies, researchers or independent civil society organizations for 25 years and have never been found to be involved in illegal activity. For this reason, many countries do not take seriously the accusations of the Turkish government.

The most important characteristic of the Hizmet movement is to not to seek political power, but instead to seek long-term solutions for the problems threatening the future of their societies. At a time when Muslim-majority societies are featured in the news for terror, bloodshed and underdevelopment, Hizmet participants have been focusing on raising educated generations who are open to dialogue and actively contributing to their societies.

Since I have always believed that the biggest problems facing these societies are ignorance, intolerance-driven conflicts and poverty, I have always encouraged those who would listen to build schools instead of mosques or Quran tutoring centers.

Hizmet participants are active in education, health care and humanitarian aid not only in Turkey, but also in more than 160 countries around the world. The most significant characteristic of these activities is that they serve people of all religions and ethnic backgrounds – not just Muslims.

Hizmet movement participants opened schools for girls in the most difficult areas of Pakistan and continued to provide education in the Central African Republic during the country’s civil war. While Boko Haram took young girls hostage in Nigeria, Hizmet participants opened schools that educated girls and women. In France and the French-speaking world, I have encouraged people who share my ideas and values to fight against groups that embrace radical Islamic ideologies and to support the authorities in this struggle. In these countries, I strived for Muslims to be recognized as free and contributing members of society, and have urged them to become part of the solution rather than be associated with the problems.

Despite receiving threats, I categorically condemned numerous times terrorist groups such as Al Qaida and ISIS who taint the bright face of Islam. However, the Turkish government is trying to convince governments around the world to act against schools that have been opened by individuals who did not take part in the July 15 coup attempt, and who have always categorically rejected violence. My appeal to governments around the world is that they ignore the Turkish government’s claims and reject its irrational demands.

Indeed, the Turkish government’s political decision to designate the Hizmet movement as a terrorist organization resulted in the closure of institutions such as schools, hospitals and relief organizations. Those who have been jailed are teachers, entrepreneurs, doctors, academics and journalists. The government did not produce any evidence to show that the hundreds of thousands targeted in the government’s witch hunt supported the coup or that they were associated with any violence.

It is impossible to justify actions such as burning down a cultural center in Paris, detaining or holding hostage family members of wanted individuals, denying detained journalists access to medical care, shutting down 35 hospitals and the humanitarian relief organization Kimse Yok Mu, or forcing 1,500 university deans to resign as part of a post-coup investigation.

It appears that, by presenting the recent purges as efforts that target only Hizmet participants, the Turkish government is in fact removing anyone from the bureaucracy who is not loyal to the ruling party, while also intimidating civil society organizations. It is dreadful to see human rights violations occurring in Turkey, including the torture detailed in recent reports by Amnesty International. This is truly a human tragedy.

The fact that the July 15 coup attempt – which was an anti-democratic intervention against an elected government – was foiled with Turkish citizens’ support is historically significant. However, the coup’s failure does not mean a victory for democracy. Neither the domination by a minority nor the domination of a majority that results in the oppression of a minority nor the rule of an elected autocrat is a true democracy.

One cannot speak of democracy in the absence of the rule of law, separation of powers and essential human rights and freedoms, especially the freedom of expression. True victory for democracy in Turkey is only possible by reviving these core values.

English translation of the op-ed by Mr. Gulen originally published in Le Monde on August 10, 2016.

*Fethullah Gülen is an intellectual, preacher and a social advocate.

This is certainly not the best of times for us. We have experienced one too many distractions in recent times. And the last is the coup attempt by a section of the Turkish Military. On that day, I had a long day at work, and all I wanted was to retire home to the comfort of my family and get some well-deserved rest. But I was wrong. By 10.30pm, my phone began buzzing, calls from everywhere. I was confused and a bit reluctant to take the calls not until I read a message from an editor of one of the newspapers in Nigeria to see the breaking news on CNN.

I jolted from my exhaustion and tuned to CNN and my world crashed! A coup attempt has taken place in Turkey! I screamed so loud that my wife who equally had a longer day and was already asleep rushed out of the bedroom to the living room where I was. I was sobbing and could not hold back myself. All I could muster was “a coup, a coup” she didn’t get the import of my utterances until her gaze caught the headlines on the television set. And she was distraught.

I just could not come to terms with the stark reality facing me. My phone was still buzzing from friends and colleagues especially in the media. I recall that an editor in one of the newspapers called to congratulate me that at last President Erdogan have been removed from office. I was dazed at such attitude, and I was quick to say “no, there is no going back from democracy in Turkey. The worst of democracy is better than the best of military control.” And that has been my stand as well as that of the Hizmet movement. We firmly condemned the coup in its entirety and wished the news making the rounds could be a huge joke. But I was wrong because little did I know that I was in for a bigger shock.  President Erdogan has accused respected Islamic scholar and inspirer of the Hizmet movement Fetullah Gulen as behind the coup attempt.

That was when I knew something sinister was in the pipeline. And I feared for participants of the Hizmet Movement in Turkey and other places. And true to my fears, the government clamp-down on the Hizmet movement has been phenomenal as well as despicable. So much so that in Turkey as I write, reports have it that members of the Hizmet movement are chastised and humiliated at the slightest opportunity. In restaurants and public places, there are inscriptions such as “ Gulenists are not welcome here”  This is quite sad and the highpoint of the Erdogan authoritarian regime in Turkey.

But we participants of the Hizmet movement are consoled by the fact that the world is watching the untold hardship and despicable manner participants of the Hizmet movement are being subjected to by the Turkish government. It is not enough to accuse someone, the question is do you have evidence to back up such claims? Anyone who knows Fethulan Gulen or has interacted with partcipants of the Hizmet movement, they know that what we radiate at every point in time is dialogue, love, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. It is worthy of note that Fethullah Gulen has said that he is ready to be investigated by an international organization, and he would accept the outcome of such investigation. He indeed within minutes of the reported coup issued a statement condemning the coup in its entirety. Part of his statement reads: I condemn in strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey. Government should be won through a process of free and fair elections, not force. I pray to God for Turkey, Turkish citizens, and for all those currently in Turkey that this situation is resolved peacefully and quickly”

Those were the words of Fethullah Gulen. And being who he is, he meant every word. There is also another school of thought that posits that the coup might have been staged by the Erdogan government to clamp down on the Hizmet movement and use the opportunity to amend the Turkish constitution. Whatever is the case, a coup is a coup, and I can vouch with the last drop of my blood that Fethullah Gulen can never be associated with violence or military interference with democratic institutions.

As I write 15,200 education ministry officials have sacked, 21,000 teachers have had their licenses revoked, 1,577 university deans have been asked to resign, 1,500 finance ministry staff have been fired, 393 social policy ministry staff have been dismissed, 100 intelligence officials have been suspended and many more.

Also, 257 people working at the office of the prime minister were dismissed, and the Directorate of Religious Affairs announced it had sacked 492 staff including clerics, preachers, and religious teachers. One might be tempted to ask what is happening. Why impose a state of emergency and relieve thousands of Turkish citizens of their jobs for a supposed coup that was staged by a fraction of the Military?

We as participants of the Hizmet movement in Nigeria strongly condemned the coup attempt, and to this end, we held an extensive press conference where we stated our stance on the recent development in Turkey. We also highlighted the activities of the Hizmet movement in Nigeria. It must also be said that just like our activities in Nigeria through UFUK Dialogue Initiative is known to support dialogue, love, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, the general philosophy of the Hizmet movement is known to be geared towards the aforementioned. we are appalled by the unfounded allegations by President Erdogan for we can never be associated with violence or military interference with democracy.

Last week witnessed what may be the last act of an unfolding struggle between two major Islamic movements in Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused exiled Islamic leader Fethullah Gulen of plotting last week’s failed coup against the government. Immediately thereafter, Erdogan unleashed massive Stalin-style purges and arrests across the country of anyone suspected of any connection with Gulen or indeed of anyone of any ideology who opposes Erdogan.

First of all, when we talk about Islamic leaders in Turkey, we’re talking about a very different scene than in most of the rest of the Muslim world. In Turkey, it’s basically a struggle among Islamic moderates. Neither Erdogan nor Gulen call for any kind of Islamic State, Sharia law or Caliphate. They both operate fairly comfortably within a primarily secular state structure established a century ago by the country’s modernizing secularist founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. We’re not really talking about Islam or theology but about power and influence. Politics in Turkey has always been a rough game, even within a basically democratic order.

But there are important differences between the two groups. Erdogan runs a political party while Gulen operates a civil movement called Hizmet (“Service”). Erdogan comes out of a more traditional Sunni Turkish Islamist movement; Gulen comes out of an apolitical, more Sufi, mystical and social tradition. Gulen is interested in slow and deep social change, including secular higher education; Erdogan as a party leader is first and foremost interested in preserving his party’s power, operating in a populist manner, trying to raise the general welfare.

Why would Gulen choose to attempt a coup that’s contrary to all his views and at a time of maximum weakness vis-a-vis Erdogan?

I believe it is unlikely that Gulen was the mastermind behind the dramatic failed coup attempt against Erdogan last week. Of course, in the absence of evidence, so far no one can speak with certainty. Gulen’s social movement probably has well over a million followers or sympathizers who are not under centralized control. With the arrests of tens of thousands this week and the use of torture already suspected, there is no telling what kind of “confessions” will be generated. Erdogan demands that the U.S. extradite Gulen (he lives in Pennsylvania) to Turkey, but Washington does not usually extradite political figures unless the evidence is highly persuasive in a U.S. court.

More importantly, Erdogan’s sensational and sweeping charges against Gulen seem to fly in the face of most logic. Consider the following:

Erdogan had already largely crushed Hizmet before the coup. He was enraged in 2013 at the publication — by Gulen followers — of police wiretap evidence of widespread corruption within Erdogan’s own circles. He undertook a massive and ongoing purge against Hizmet’s members, activists, supporters, officials, financial institutions, television stations, newspapers, educational and social institutions, especially within the police and judiciary. Hizmet institutions were devastated. Its members knew their base had been crippled and understood the need to regroup as a movement, perhaps working more closely with liberal and even secular forces to maintain democracy, to protect against a return of military power and to prevent Erdogan’s widening abuses of authority.

Gulen has always embraced the importance and dignity of the state, in the best Ottoman tradition. He has supported the state against earlier Islamist movements that raised Islam over the state. He even felt compelled to support the military takeover of the state in 1980 in order to preserve the state in the face of raging guerrilla warfare raging in the streets. Basically, however, he supports democracy over military rule as the surest guarantee for the freedom of Hizmet to exist and conduct its social mission.

Gulen immediately denounced last week’s coup as well. Was he merely dissembling? Unlikely, since it is consistent with Gulen’s discomfort with military rule over years. Furthermore, Hizmet does not engage in terrorist activities, so support for political violence in this case is extremely unlikely. Erdogan’s charge that Hizmet is a “terrorist organization” is absurd to anyone with the least knowledge of the movement, given its strong emphasis on peace and dialogue.

Gulen arguably lacked even the capability to organize a serious coup in an army that, over decades, has rigorously weeded Hizmet followers out — indeed, any officers showing any religious beliefs. Turkish intelligence has also been all over the movement for years, amassing massive dossiers. Why would Gulen choose to attempt a coup that’s contrary to all his views and at a time of maximum weakness vis-a-vis Erdogan?

I found Hizmet to be remarkably moderate, tolerant, non-violent and open to dialogue.

The coup leaders called themselves the Peace at Home Committee. “Peace at home” (yurtta sulh) is part of a famous slogan of Ataturk’s and not associated with Gulen.

It beggars the imagination to believe that the now tens of thousands of people purged and arrested — police, army, judges, lawyers, teachers, bankers, journalists — are all terrorist enemies of the state. Clearly Erdogan is seizing the occasion to eliminate any and all opposition to his plans to create a new super-powerful presidency for himself. Erdogan will find many, even within his own party, who are dismayed at his reach for total power — but are cowed into silence. Once objective journalists now watch their words.

In the interest of full disclosure — it is on public record that I wrote a letter as a private citizen in connection with Gulen’s U.S. green card application in 2006, stating that I did not believe that Gulen constituted a security threat to the U.S. This came shortly after I had finished a book, The Future of Political Islam that involved extensive travel and interviews with Islamists around the world. In that context, I found Hizmet to be remarkably moderate, tolerant, non-violent, open to dialogue, a social rather than political movement, and a strong proponent of education as the means to empower Muslims in a globalizing future.

But in the years of Bush’s global war on terrorism, many neoconservatives in Washington were agitating to deport Gulen — among many hundreds of other Muslim clerics — as a security risk to the U.S. I found the charge baseless. Indeed, I still believe that Hizmet as a movement represents one of the most encouraging faces of contemporary Islam in the world.

I wanted the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to at least be aware of my considered personal opinion as they considered his case. Since then, enemies of Gulen and many conspiratorial-minded Turks decided to connect the dots: the fact that I was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency official (I had retired from the agency 18 years before) and that I had spoken out in defense of Gulen constituted clear “proof” that Gulen is a CIA agent.

Gulen’s movement is hardly without its faults. He is an old-school figure, 75 years old, reclusive and often not in touch with daily aspects of the organization. Hizmet has not been a transparent organization — hence it’s viewed as “shadowy.” But in past decades, when membership in Hizmet (or any Islamic movement in Turkey) constituted grounds for possible prosecution, its members kept a low profile, often hiding their affiliation.

That changed after Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (known as the AKP) came to power in 2002. Many members of Hizmet then became free to seek positions in government (if qualified). In particular, they sought jobs in the police and judiciary, to a large measure to ensure that police powers would never be wielded against them (or the AKP) again, as in the past. The tide has now turned, and the full powers of the Erdogan-controlled police are being used against Hizmet members. Sadly, the police have regularly been a political football in Turkish politics over the years.

Erdogan’s own AKP had once been a remarkable model. Indeed, if Erdogan had retired from politics in 2011 with all the party’s accomplishments, he would certainly go down in history as the greatest prime minister in the history of democratic Turkey. But, as with so many leaders, after a decade in power, corruption sets in, leaders lose their touch and grow isolated and power-hungry. Erdogan is now in the process of destroying virtually everything his party created in the first decade of governance. His sweeping purges and the pall of fear and uncertainty is destroying Turkey itself.

How will it end? Erdogan has beaten Hizmet decisively. But he is planting the seeds for his own destruction. How and when he will fall remains unclear. Meanwhile, on the international scene, Turkey is rapidly becoming a pariah. The country itself is now his primary victim.

* Graham E. Fuller

Former vice chairman, CIA’s National Intelligence Council; Author “Breaking Faith”

Last Friday a faction of the Turkish Military staged a coup against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan where hundreds of persons were reported to have been killed. Some international media reported that over 6,000 people were arrested in the crackdown, while about 294 were reported to have been killed in the night of chaos, with yet over 2,839 soldiers held in prison, and 2,745 judges facing arrest.

For instance according to information from Turkish embassy in Nigeria, over 100 coup plotters were killed and over 200 Turkish civilian citizens also lost their lives in the failed coup attempt.

Since last Friday when the unfortunate event occurred, world leaders and indeed many stakeholders have been commenting on the incident. Turkish citizens across the globe strongly condemned the odious attempt to return the country to dark days of military jackboot and horsewhip which has long been rejected by many developed and developing countries.

Fethulla Gulen, the inspirer of the Hizmet movement, a Turkish national based in the United States of America was among the first Turkish citizens who came out openly to condemn the dastardly act of the military who made attempt to return Turkey to primitive age of military rule. Gulen in his condemnation said “there is no u-turn to democracy”

He said he rejected all military interventions, and said he had personally suffered after the coups of the 1990s. According to him “After military coups in Turkey,” he said, “I have been pressured and I have been imprisoned. I have been tried and faced various forms of harassment.” Gulen also said: “Now that Turkey is on the path to democracy, it cannot turn back.”

Analysts and followers of world events were taken aback with the Turkish government who within this ample time that the coup attempt failed, is already pointing accusing fingers at Fethulla Gulen as the mastermind of the unfortunate incident. It was reported that Erdogan and other officials had blamed Gulen and his supporters for the coup attempt that took place on Friday in Turkey, but Gulen had earlier condemned the failed attempt and denied any involvement in it.

For instance in furtherance of their onslaught against the Gulen inspired Hizmet, Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria Hakan Cakil addressed a press conference in the Turkish Embassy in Abuja capital of Nigeria, describing the failed coup as an act of terrorism. In his words: “It was understood in a short time that this was more than a treacherous plot, it was a terrorist campaign. The perpetrators killed and wounded their own people, stabbed their commanders in the back and bombed the National Parliament and the office of the Presidency.

Mr. Cakil like his Principal and Government of Turkey did in the city of Ankara, outrightly pointed accusing fingers at the Hizmet Movement when he said  “This coup attempt was staged by the Fethullah Gulen terrorist Organization (FETO). Turkish Government has been constantly exposing the real motives of this terrorist group and its leader, Fethullah Gulen, to all allies and partners. The foiled coup is the latest criminal act revealing the danger posed by FETO. Mr. Hakan Cakil however concluded that the terrorists will be punished in front of the Law.

The Turkish government had already requested for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen to face the wrath of the law. And the Cleric has also come out to say he would obey any extradition ruling from the United States. He has insisted that he had nothing to do with the uprising and suggested that Mr. Erdogan could have staged the attack himself in order to legitimise a fresh crackdown on the judiciary and military.

Speaking however in a press Conference on Tuesday in Abuja Nigeria, President of UFUK Dialogue Foundation, a Non-governmental organization linked to the Hizmet movement in Nigeria, Mr. Kamil Kemanci said “we, UFUK Dialogue, strongly condemn the attempted military coup that occurred in Turkey, on Friday the 15th of July and reiterate that there is no place for military interventions in democracy.

Mr. Kamanci described the act as an aggression and unjust, he stressed that his organization has always supported Turkey’s democracy in spite of the anti-democratic practices in the recent years.  The President who further stressed that “democracy, rule of law, peaceful coexistence, freedoms and human rights are the core values of Hizmet participants. Thus, Ufuk dialogue strongly condemned any attempt to overthrow an elected government by military coup.

He described as wicked and irresponsible attempt by President Erdogan and his close circles’ to place blame on the Hizmet movement for the failedcoup. He said: “Mr. Fethullah Gulen, inspirer of Hizmet Movement, has always advocated for democracy and insisted “there is no u-turn from democracy at every stage of his life.

“As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt. I categorically deny such accusation”.

In line with this argument UFUK Dialogue Foundation, Regional manager Mr. Cemal Yigit has described the accusation from Turkish government as irresponsible and unacceptable. Speaking at the press conference on Tuesday he said “Hizmet Movement or Gulen, we definitely deny this too, this is irresponsible, and this is unacceptable this is simply use of Hizmet movement as a scapegoat.”

Cemal who declared that, the worse democratic administration is better than the best coup, added that this is the stance and believe of all participants in the Hizmet movement. He said the movement supports Turkish democracy as citizens who love their country and the people of Turkey as a whole.

However, Mr. Gulen Fethullah has accused President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an for the failed coup,  stressing that the uprising by members of the country’s military could have been “staged” by the government. “I don’t believe that the world believes the accusations made by President Erdo?an,” Gülen said. “There is a possibility that it could be a staged coup and it could be meant for further accusations [against Gülen and his followers].”

But Turkish President Erdogan while addressing people in public in Istanbul on Saturday, called on Barack Obama to arrest Gülen and deport him to Turkey. He said Turkey had never turned back any extradition request for “terrorists” by its US ally , adding: “I say if we are strategic partners then you should bring about our request.”

Also Turkey’s justice minister said that his government expects Washington to extradite US-based Islamic cleric Fetullah Gulen whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating Friday’s attempted coup

Speaking to state-run news channel TRT Haber, Bekir Bozdag said keeping Gulen “wouldn’t befit the solidarity, cooperation, alliance and friendship between Turkey and the United States.” He said, “does one need evidence to prove the existence of the Sun? This is just as clear a matter.” He added that Turkey would be submitting the necessary documentation, but hoped the US would extradite without waiting for the paperwork.

But the US Secretary of state,  John Kerry said no official extradition request had been made when he spoke to reporters in Luxembourg. “We fully anticipate that there will be questions raised about Mr Gülen,” he said. “And obviously we would invite the government of Turkey, as we always do, to present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny. And the United States will accept that and look at it and make judgments about it appropriately.”

The United States has however pledged support for the investigations to determine who instigated the attempted coup and where its support originates.  Secretary of State John F. Kerry said he anticipates questions will be raised about Gulen.

However Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been warned by world leaders not to use the attempted coup as “carte blanche to do whatever he wants,” amid concerns the putsch has become a pretext for him to consolidate power. Mr Erdogan moved rapidly over the weekend to round up his adversaries, arresting more than 6,000 soldiers, including senior military leaders, and judges, suspected of involvement.  So many soldiers have been detained that the lower ranked conscripts have been locked in schools and gymnasiums in the capital, Ankara. With expectations growing of heavy measures against dissent, European politicians warned Mr. Erdogan that the coup attempt did not give him a “blank cheque” to disregard the rule of law.

Mr Erdogan has hinted he may reintroduce the death penalty, which the country abolished in 2004 in line with its bid to join the European Union.  Guenther Oettinger, the European Commissioner, said Mr Erdogan would move Turkey away from the core values represented by the EU and the Nato defence alliance, of which Turkey has been a crucial member in the fight against ISIL, if he decides to use the attempted coup to restrict basic democratic rights further.

“He would strengthen his position domestically, but he would isolate himself internationally,” he warned.

—
Olawale Rotimi
B.A, M.A Ilorin, DELF Paris.
T: @RotimiLawale
“You don’t struggle to grow, grow the grass and the sheep will come, nurture it and they will never. Increase in quality not in quantity”

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Two things are certain; Nigeria’s major problem is electricity; its production, distribution and utilization. There is also no gain in making the above declaration as it is apparent to everyone who has at least a passing interest in Nigeria.

On 13th July, 2016, during an inspection of the 215MW Dual Fire Kaduna Power Plant, Babatunde Raji Fashola, Nigeria’s Minister for Works, Power and Housing announced that the power plant cited in Kaduna’s Kudenda area will be completed in the second quarter of 2017. More precisely in June.

The importance of this plant is in the fact that when completed it will effectively provide good quality electric power for most of Kaduna’s textile industries, thereby reviving them and creating thousands of jobs in the process.

Fashola’s declaration was the easy part.

There was no talk of the intense lobbying it took to bring Federal attention to this project, or the very draining efforts to ensure effective electricity distribution by taking smaller communities off the national grid and providing them with solar options that provide even cleaner electricity. Or when the state decided to source funds for the project completion itself, this search eventually culminated in obtaining a N7.5billion CBN intervention fund which has been reserved and will be appropriately utilized in the completion of the project.

The Kaduna State Government in all its efforts has been ambitious and determined to see that the power project is completed and it provides the electricity the state so badly needs. Kaduna State requires about 1000mw to run efficiently but it currently receives slightly above 200mw. This is a problem that the State has identified as dangerous for the kind of development it needs.

To understand the reason behind the urgency to get this project attention, you need to understand the circumstances surrounding the project itself.

The contract itself was awarded in 2009 with an expected completion time of 36 months, but delays due to inadequate budgetary allocations by the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan led administration ensured that this project with the capacity to revive a whole industry and create thousands of jobs was left abandoned.

The harmful message that Governments send when they do not prioritize projects capable of reviving Nigeria’s largely dead and buried manufacturing industry is that ‘it really doesn’t matter if Nigeria and its states don’t produce things’. And this message is as detrimental as it is false.

What Governors like el-Rufai prove when they ensure projects like these are completed and fully functional is that they are willing to fight for their people, to ensure that jobs are created and the societies they leave behind are self- sufficient. This is the way states should be run.

Beyond Kaduna alone, electricity is a fundamental part of manufacturing and completing a 215mw power plant in Kaduna means that factories from Kano to Sokoto will be operational and jobs will be protected. It also means that students from Nigeria’s South to its North will have improved electricity for those nights when they have to study.

The agricultural sector of the economy will also benefit tremendously, as electricity is vital for the preservation of harvested crops complete with the availability of irrigation systems that benefit dry season farming.

A case must be made nationwide for bold, fearless leaders who confront our challenges and proffer solutions. There is no place for weak, timid leaders in a Nigeria that seeks to progress and we must all know this.

It is going to take boldness to fix Nigeria and a thing or two can be learnt from Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and the ambitious measures his government adopts.

Adejoh Idoko Momoh writes from Kaduna, Nigeria. He can be reached on momoh.adejoh@gmail.com and tweets from @Adejoh

As with most appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari since he assumed office over a year ago, this week’s announcement of 40-year old Hadiza Bala Usman as the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has set tongues wagging. This is set on the background of perceived deliberate disregard for diversity, in ethnicity, age and gender, by Mr President in his appointments. The arguments put forward by the pro-diversity groups are sometimes hard to refute but discourse on the efficacy or otherwise of Federal Character as a vehicle for national development is meal for another day.

Hadiza Bala Usman’s appointment makes her the first ever female Managing Director of the NPA and indeed the first female chief executive of a top tier federal government agency. According to reports, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, motivated by the need for a positive and progressive change in the operations of the NPA recommended Hadiza for the position as replacement for outgoing MD, Alhaji Habib Abdullahi.

If those reports are true, and I have no reason to doubt they are, Hadiza’s appointment would mark a departure from Nigeria’s political leadership culture of rewarding people, and or ethnic zones, with appointments for supporting a party and its candidate at the election. It could very well birth a new era in Nigeria’s political system where competence, character and credibility are the factors upon which people are judged before they are given assignments rather than the tribe they are from or the language they speak.

Hadiza Bala Usman’s track record shows that if change and efficiency is what Amaechi and President Buhari want at the NPA, she is the woman for the job. A versatile administrator, Hadiza holds an MA in Development Studies from the University of Leeds having preciously obtained a B.Sc in Business Administration from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. A career that started as Research Assistant at the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training in Zaria has progressed to Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai.

For President Buhari, Hadiza’s appointment as MD of NPA presents the perfect opportunity to show that diversity and competence are not mutually exclusive terms in leadership. With dwindling oil revenue and the need to diversify Nigeria’s stream of income, the NPA is a central element to making Nigeria a service-based economy. And Hadiza’s track record shows she is the perfect pick to lead such an organisation into the 21st century style of operations that would make it a backbone of Nigeria’s economy.

The debate on whether an outsider like Hadiza would be able to lead the NPA effectively is best laid to rest when her records at the Bureau of Public Enterprise (Enterprise Officer) and Federal Capital Territory Administration (Special Assistant to the Minister on Project Implementation) are examined. Not only is she competent, she also has the strength of character to institutionalize a culture of credibility and service lacking in most government agencies, the NPA inclusive.

Hadiza is not new to leadership, and she is also not new to the politics of leadership, having served as a member of the APC Strategy Committee and as Member and Secretary of the APC National Elections Planning Committee.  A fearless activist, Hadiza co-founded the global #BringBackOurGirls movement in demanding the rescue of the 219 school girls kidnapped from Chibok by Boko Haram. Financial Times named Hadiza amongst the most influential women of 2014.

Appointments like this represent the right dose of youth, capacity and competence that needs to be injected into Nigeria’s civil service leadership for our ailing economy to stand any chance of an expedited recovery. President Buhari is certainly right on this one!

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

The present economic challenges, which were necessitated by the downfall in oil revenue, undoubtedly compelled all tiers of governments to look elsewhere for their survival and continuous existence. Absent of the present challenges would have rendered the ongoing economic diversification unrealistic and this explains why some persons warmly embraced and considered the challenges as a blessing in disguised.

While other States (particularly Northern States) are struggling to adapt to the current economic reality, Lagos State, due to its efficient tax administration and collection system, have little or nothing to worry about. The monthly Internally Generated Revenue of Lagos State has drastically grown from N3.6B in 2006 to N24.5B in January 2016. In 2015, Lagos State recorded the total revenue generation of N268.22B, the closest State, River State, generated N82.10B while Kano State generated N13.611B.

The boost in the Internally Generated Revenue of Lagos State was as a result of the consolidation of real property with land based charges and rates, to wit, Tenement Rates Law, Land Rates Law, Neighborhood Improvement and Assessment Law into the Land Use Charge Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The recent One Day retreat on the review of Kano State Land Use Charge Bill 2016, organized by the State Government is indeed a milestone of the expected achievement. Though long overdue for a State that should be competing with Lagos State in terms of Internally Generated Revenue, the Bill and the retreat are moves in the right direction. The passage of the Bill into law would drastically boost Internally Generated Revenue of Kano State, ensure financial independent Kano State and further serve as an eye opener and yardstick to other Northern States.

The Kano State Government and the tax authorities need to prepare for the likely impediments that may curtailed the attainment of the targeted revenue boost. To ensure the revenue boost, all hands must be on deck to address the likely impediments which may include: fraud and corruption, non-availability of property statistics and information, poor tax enforcement, administration and policy, multiple taxation, lack of awareness and infrastructural development, problems of assessment and evaluation, lack of modern technology, poor compliance and non-engagement of experts.

The Bill, if duly passed and effectively implemented, would place Kano State on its rightful position in the ranking of financial independent States in the Country and further better the life of the taxpayers.

Musa Idris Talle

Legal Practitioner

mtallethefirst@gmail.com

@MITalle

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor associates

It’s like being a child of your parent, a brother or sister to your siblings, a husband or wife and father or mother to your children, a friend of your friends and problem to your foes, it is being a little bit of everything without conflicting your role as an individual or duplicating your identity to function as all of this characters at the same time, it occurs naturally, a part of your natural identity and it only takes you being you for you to function in this position all at once. Your being a father or mother to your children doesn’t stop you from being a child to your own parent or uncle to your nieces and nephew and more, it all happens at once, each unique role, perfectly performed at the same time without losing your identity, it the same as well as your role as a citizen of the earth, it is natural, undeniable and cannot be transferred, abandoned or ignored, and has nothing to do with your abilities, gender, status, background, faith, color or ideology, it is part of you being a little bit of everything as long as you are human and a change of name, gender, nationality or belief does not in any nullify or change your role as a citizen of the earth.

Every element existing in this universe serves a unique purpose to maintain a balance in nature and so do I. My ability to identify and define this role substantiate my purpose for being here on earth and any attempt to abandon, shortchange, modify, reject or totally deny this role sums up to abuse, creating an imbalance that is irremediable by any other person than me, and this is true for all men it is therefore imperative for every man to first find his/her purpose as a human, find her place in the order of life and serve his/her purpose without reserve whether whole, blind, lame, deaf or dumb because only when this is done that the earth will remain livable for all and sundry for as long as it exists. The good news is that the role of every element of nature is predefined, but the big question is now, “How Do I Find And Play My Role Effectively?”

The role of every element on earth is indeed found in its nature and it is the same for man, but instead of functioning exclusively as humans, we intentionally bludgeon our role as defined by nature trying to be something beyond our reach, and creating more problems than nature itself can solve, calling on us to reverse our course and get back to nature.

We invented guns and bombs but instead of using it to hunt food, and break rocks for road, we turn it on each other and complain about war and conflict. We walked into the corridor of science but instead of curing diseases, we created more and tested it on humans just for the fun of it in the name of research. Immigrating horses are treated better than immigrating humans in the gulf of Arabia, and dove in the courts of the Vatican gets more grain and clean water than the children in war camps in Central African Republic or the Sudanese refugee camps in Kenya and yet we preach religion instead of concentrating on humanity as a single entity, either black or white. We polluted our planet by our own actions, but instead of cleaning it up with our reactions, we are thinking of running to Mars. How I wish we can just concentrate on our primary role of being humans, the custodian of the earth and north rulers or world power.

When a child is conceived, nature defines the fetus’ gender according to its needs; male or female, living the seed neither the choice of race nor nationality, only ensuring he/she joins the human race. Through education the child is groomed, and even without, the child is groomed as well and placed into an existing society to serve a pivotal role in the ecosystem of such but the excuse of choice and pleasure deludes us, and we dump our role as males, females, husbands, wives to become the opposite or nothing, abandoning our roles and leaving it to burden others, creating more irreversible problems and our biggest excuse is choice.

If homosexuality is a choice hinged on the freedom to choose a sex partner, then a word like “Incest” should not exist, it’s all a choice as long as force is not applied which makes it rape. Let’s see who will give birth to the next generation, two males or two females romping on each other like bald grapes? Our roles as humans cannot be traded on the stock market of choice, it’s a function, a role that must be played or else, a bigger irreversible price will have to be paid.

“Medical waste is posing a growing problem worldwide, jeopardizing the health of staff, patients, disposal workers and anyone else coming into contact with the often hazardous materials discarded by hospitals and other health-care sites, a United Nations human rights expert said today.”—UN.

The sad part of this development is that a good percentage of these medical wastes come from choices. George, a man suddenly gets tired of being a man and heads to the hospital to become a woman. Stella gets tired of looking like Stella and heads to a plastic or cosmetic surgeon with a picture of Beyoncé. To treat Malaria, a real sickness, one or two syringes will do the trick while an healthy George and Stella will generate a bucket load of health waste just for a pair of boobs, a new  genital and a new look. Jane was born as black as Lupita, but now she’s as white as an albino with dark knuckles and knee cap, with a skin texture that wouldn’t allow him function beyond the dark hours but her knowledge is needed in broad day light so she denies the earth her nature given value, creating a problem for others to solve.

“One in 500 children is seriously affected by facial disfigurement. One in 100 children has a noticeable facial or other feature”—BBC.

Governments spend trillions of dollars on military research every year and another truckload of billions of dollars on choice-based medical research while the real issues that affects humanity rely on philanthropy to get attention. Religion carts away trillions in tithes and offerings, seeds, zakat and more. The Imam rides with a convoy, the pastors and bishops fly and cruise and they still stand up to ask you to give your shirt to the naked, when the religious establishments are already rich enough to establish a clothing line dedicated to employing the jobless and clothing the naked. Our young and learning men lives in hostels not worthy to be ranked as jail houses for conmen, requiring only a few million bucks per annum to keep it livable and conducive for free, but instead, our congress men get billions in furniture allowances and they are still paid to sit.

Now the earth is at risk, Fukushima is busy feeding the sea with nuclear poison, Iran is nuke ready, the ozone layer is depleted and there are now two suns serving Maiduguri. Instead of war on poverty, maybe Detroit will be off the list of the most dangerous city on earth, America is busy searching for another Libya since they are unable to violate Syria, and Russia has got a perfect excuse to enter Ukraine, “we are protecting our people” they say, I wonder why the thirst for world domination. Ammunition makers are in constant production with more research on death and destruction, and we are praying and dreaming for the wars to end on the streets and the borders of North Korea. An outright ban is still on Mary-jay  the healer but Tobacco the killer is rolled out in trucks and train, christened Cigar and Cigarette, after all, a lot of research is going on to help keep lung cancer patients longer on earth. “I think I need me a gun” like the Irish would say, who knows, a Zimmerman may be driving by tonight, returning from getting some crack in the corner, all in the name of CHOICE?

We all know our roles but we just refuse to play it, my role and your role is the same, it’s only clothed in different garments of a doctor, lawyer, engineer, politician, herbalist, government, citizens and more, our role as humans is not a choice we chose or a choice we can make, it is already defined by nature and it is on us to honour our identity, find our role and play it effectively.

My first role as a human is to be a man and next a Nigerian that lives for God and men. Amen!

I?am Abidemi Babaolowo Oderinlo

I read what I need, I write what I like an I act what I write.

Blog: www.babaolowo.blogspot.com

Twitter: @enyola

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

“I am depressed, my brother.”

“You are always depressed. I am actually used to that. I can’t remember when last you were not choleric, depressed, obsessed, uptight, down-spirited, what’s that your word again, yes, anxious. You better watch it, buddie-bae-bff-bros, stop carrying the world on your back, man. There was Atlas before you. There was Sisyphus. But the world has never stopped moving on.”

“I read this story”

“What story?”

“Pathetic story about how right now in Ilorin, Kwara state, it is risky to leave a pot of soup on fire because it is most likely to be stolen. Armed robbers are now targeting pots of soup.”

“Armed robbers? Not burglars?”

“I say armed robbers are now so hungry, even a pot of soup cannot be spared. I can give you the web link to the story.”

“Give me the gist. The theft of pots of soup is definitely a crime of serious magnitude and should be a matter of urgent national concern. Pots of soup being stolen in Nigeria?.”

“Let me read some excerpts from the story to you. “Amidst the stinging hardship occasioned by the present economic recession in the country, the spate of insecurity is rising and taking a tinge of the ridiculous by the day. In Kwara State, cooking a pot of soup is now an invitation to robbers, as cases of eagle-eyed hungry men absconding with cooked food still on the fire is a daily occurrence. The incident is widespread in areas without perimeter fencing and among women who cook or have opted to cook with coal pots. At each of such areas such as Tanke, Basin, Sango, Offa Garage, and Kilanko, the incident occurred according to The Guardian investigations, over five times in just a week…”  (http://m.guardian.ng/news/theft-of-cooked-food-on-fire-becomes-widespread-in-ilorin/)

“An epidemic of vanishing soup pots?”

“Nothing can be more dehumanizing. To think that Nigerians can be so hungry and poor, they will begin to carry guns and machetes to steal pots of soup.”

“Not cars. Not jewelry. Stomach first.”

“My first reaction was to ask whether they even have a Governor in that Kwara State. Whoever the Governor is, he cannot provide opportunities for people in the state to be able to cook a pot of soup?”

“I hear the Governor like other Governors cannot pay salaries. The Governors are helpless. ”

“But the Governors and their wives are eating from multiple pots of soup”

“Yes. Yes. Actually, if you ask me, I would say that the real crime of serious magnitude that we are talking about and that we should worry about is how the Governors and government officials have stolen the people’s pot of soup. The armed robbers who go from house to house to collect pots of soup on fire are actually copying the big men.”

“You are now asking me to decode something.”

“It is not every pot of soup for example, that gets stolen.  The location is important. The opportunity is important. The content is all-important. And if you read that story you were quoting carefully, the soup snatcher monitors the soup. He waits till all the condiments are in, and he or she steals at the right moment.  It is the story of Nigeria. Sign of the times.”

“I don’t want to go that far.  I won’t reduce Nigeria to a pot of soup. But I agree with you that only particular kinds of soup pots get stolen. Good point. Smart point. ”

“Particularly if the pot of soup contains goat meat. You know goat meat can smell when combined with Maggi and Tomato. Tomato, these days, is expensive.”

“Tomato with goat meat, perfect combination.. Hmmm. Mua. Shuhhhh. Ahhhhh uuuu. I must tell you one secret about tomato today.”

“What?”

“It clears the prostate. It contains carotene, which is good for the prostate, as an anti-oxidant.”

“What has that got to do with soup snatching?”

“When you eat better tomato, and your prostate is very clear, I hear that your downstairs will function very well, and you can crack fire much better, upstairs and downstairs.  Combined with goat meat, ha, something else. And you know goat has a strong smell.”

“Are we now a country of goat-meat chasers on fire?”

“I hear that even among the robbers themselves, who takes what part of the goat meat is a  serious issue. That was how one woman eventually found her pot of soup. A big fight broke out. And as the goat thieves quarreled over the pot of soup, the owner arrived and started screaming,, neighbours joined and everybody started screaming and the truth came out. ”

“I think this country should just ban tomato and goat meat.”

“I have not finished the story. In this particular woman’s case, it was discovered that even her husband was part of the plot to steal the pot of goat meat.”

“How?”

“The man wanted to play a fast one. He wanted to take the pot of soup to his second wife. Rob Peter,  please Paul.”

“What? He should be castrated.”

“But can I say something? This thing didn’t just start oh. I think poverty is correctly defined as a disease.  Last year, there was actually an incident in Calabar about a man who was butchered and set ablaze because he robbed a woman of a pot of soup.”

“Last year?”

 “Yes”

“We should check and be sure”

“Last year, in fact, in August 2015.”

“August?”

“Yes, August 2015, after everything changed. The fellow and his group attacked a woman’s home and stole her pot of soup.  As they rushed out, the woman raised an alarm, but the man with the pot of soup did not want it to spill, so he couldn’t run as fast as the others, and that was how he eventually got caught and he lost his life. He was butchered and set ablaze.”

“And there is a Governor in Cross Rivers State?”

“There is but let’s spare the Professor. If you had lived in Calabar or Cross River State, you will know that a pot of soup is a serious source of temptation in that place. I mean, in Calabar, they don’t just put goat meat, they add everything else on top, from periwinkle to snails, fish, and tomato.”

“I feel like my sense of being human is right now under grave assault.”

“Come to think of it, the destiny of Nigeria is about the pot of soup and its politics.”

“Pot of soup? Well, may be. You know, I heard a story recently, about one of these face-me-I-face-you houses in Lagos where a pot of soup just as we have been saying disappeared from the general kitchen. The woman left the kitchen to attend to her suckling baby. Five minutes max. By the time she returned, her soup pot had vanished. The landlord had to summon a babalawo, a father of secrets, a dibia, to identify the culprit and the punishment was meant to be open confession or instant death.”

“Sign of the times”

“Yes oh. But to be fair, there is hunger, poverty and a terrible food crisis across Africa, not just Nigeria. In Malawi, for example, the newly elected President has told his people to stop complaining about hunger. If the people are hungry, they should start eating mice and grasshoppers. (https://www.today.ng/news/africa/143951/malawian-president-tells-starving-citizens-eat-mice-grasshoppers)”

“May that never happen in Nigeria.”

“Well, if the people can’t eat goat meat and tomato, they will opt for sub-human options. Even kerosene is now too expensive, ordinary people are now buying gas. And charcoal.”

“And God you are on the throne”

“Please, don’t blaspheme. This is a holy season.”

“ I know what I am talking about.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“In Kano, I should tell you this. One man went to buy a bag of rice. He went along with his son.  He left that five-year old son behind, and promised to come back with the money. But he never showed up. He disappeared with the bag of rice (http://nigeriancurrent.com/2016/06/27/man-exchanges-son-for-a-bag-of-rice/)”

“God. God. God Almighty. What happened?”

“When the shop owner waited and waited, he had to ask the boy for the way to his home.  Good enough, the boy is old enough. Eventually the father was traced to his home and he confessed that he was willing to give up the boy to have the bag of rice because he had no money to pay.”

“What happened?”

“There are still good people in this country. The rice-seller donated the bag of rice and returned the boy to the father.”

“God bless him. God bless him. God bless the rice seller. Great message. In this country, the strong must learn to help the weak. That is when we can have a country and a nation.”

“Food For Thought, indeed. In the end, it is all about food, feeding the people, rescuing them from a life of danger and criminality or a resort to a menu of mice and grasshoppers, or carrying expensive AK-47 guns to steal pots of soup.”

“People are dying”

“I know. Nigeria and the tragedy of broken pots.”

“Stolen pots. Broken pots. Burnt pots. Oh, Nigeria. Chief Ojo Maduekwe. I hear, slumped at the airport on his arrival from the United States from his son’s graduation, heading towards his wife’s 70^th birthday.  Elechi Amadi, famous for the novels, The Concubines, The Great Ponds and his plays, Pepper Soup and The Women of Calabar has also dropped the pot. In Ojota, Lagos, a young hawker, pursued by LASTMA officials ran into the path of a moving trailer and was crushed, his intestines splattered all over the highway and there was pandemonium resulting in more deaths and destruction. ”

“Man, you speak in parables and proverbs. Goat meat that caused trouble, deaths, broken pots and stolen pots.”

“Those who have ears let them hear. Only God speaks to the people in parables and proverbs.”

“I have faith. Nigeria will survive.”

“Of course, I see people are beginning to padlock their pots of soup. I have seen pictures of padlocked pots of soup in this country. Even if you steal it, you’d make some effort to break it open. Smart housewives are saying they will never again leave the kitchen until the soup is done and ready to be served.”

“Na wa oh, you mean we are now a country of sealed and broken pots.”

The Mo Ibrahim’s prize for achievement in African leadership was announced few weeks ago and for the umpteenth time there was no clear cut winner for the coveted prize among past African leaders.

After reading the news, I remembered a discussion with a colleague at work recently on the personality of Mo himself and how best he could channel his God-given wealth to develop his home of descent – Sudan.

My colleague had argued that instead of Mo investing so much as high as 5 million dollars on African leaders, it would not be out of place if he directly spend or invest it in Sudan or some countries battling with economic challenges within the continent.

Since I was a novice about what he is saying I had to keep quiet but was quick to marshal out my point as well and told him I have heard so much about him and that he was at the anti-corruption conference held in London of recent alongside Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari among others.

So, who is Mo Ibrahim?

After the announcement that there was no winner in this year’s edition of the award, I was further challenged to do some googling about his personality and his rationale for setting up the African Leadership Achievement Prize.

There I found out that Mo is a Sudanese-British Billionaire with investment majorly in telecommunication and one of the most powerful persons in the United Kingdom.

The foundation he set up has been in the fore-front of sponsoring the African Leadership Prize which is geared towards celebrating leaders from the continent who had contributed immensely to the growth of their country.

From my research, one of the objectives of the prize is to ensure that Africa continues to benefit from the experience and expertise of exceptional leaders when they leave national office, by enabling them to continue in other public roles on the continent.

Aside the 5 million dollars prize, it is expected that such Leader will earn 200,000 dollars monthly for the rest of his or her life.

That’s breathtaking you will say? Well, it was borne out of the free will of the donor which aims at encouraging African Leaders to invest vigorously in the countries they govern while also ensuring that such legacies are sustainable.

That the monetary value of the Ibrahim’s Prize is higher than the coveted Nobel Prize for Peace is also an indication that Mo meant well for Leaders from his continent of origin.

Since the Prize commenced in 2007, it has been won by four African Leaders, the last being former President of Namibia, Mr Hifikepunye Pohamba, .

In 2007, President Joaquim Chissano from Mozambique won the inaugural Prize while South African Leader, Nelson Mandela was an honorary awardee for that year. The award was not given to any Leader in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and of late, 2015.

Will it elude past African leaders in 2016 as well? Only time will tell.

So what’s my concern about someone’s else intention to reward African leaders for their achievements? The answer is not farfetched.

Most of these leaders are rich already while some of them will get life pensions and allowances after leaving the office. Why I am not saying leaders who have contributed immensely to the development of their countries should not be celebrated, what the sponsors of the Ibrahim’s Prize need to do is to look at sectors in which such huge amount of money can be invested.

Sectors like Science and Technology, Universal Health Coverage, Water Supply, Electricity, Education, Agriculture and Research among others can be prioritized, thus taking the continent out of the quagmire facing it in terms of funding these sectors.

Some specialized higher institutions on the continent have been established for the purpose of research in Medicine, Agriculture and Science and Technology. Such institutions are lacking adequate funds and they need grants to further consolidate on the mandate of establishing them.

Mo Ibrahim need to review his mandate on the 5 million dollars African Leadership Prize by channeling it to the development of countries and institutions on the continent rather than her leaders.

Africa need more philanthropists like the Sudanese-British billionaire at the moment in order to take her rightful place among the comity of nations.

Ours is a continent that is rich with abundant resources and talents which will take up the world in the near future. Suffice it to say that most innovations and inventions we see in America and the West today were developed by African brains.

Hakeem-Adebumiti writes from Ondo State, Nigeria. Contact via twitter @hakeemadebumiti

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Babies are awesome. They are really cute. They grow into children who through adolescence, grow to become adults. I was once a baby who just like any other, desperately wanted to grow into an adult? I really desired it. But now, hopefully, you know the truth: I now dread it. Perhaps because most employers today, only hire graduates who are below the age of 27. The case was and is same for many of us and I’m curious, why? That’s how I knew I am still a baby.

I was so excited at the age of 17 that I couldn’t wait to clock 18. I seriously was hoping my 20^th birthday would be the very day after the 19^th.  Every 6^th of April was a “woo!” experience. I so loved being seen as grown that at 21, I managed to make my course mates believe I was 22 just to clear the doubt brought about by my baby–face. Sometimes, I’d say to elderly folks: “I’m 23 and I am no longer a kid”. The same was the case at 22 too. But at 23 came that conscious reaction: “hey, wait, wasup? I’m growing mehn!” At 24, I was like “oh no, time’s not my friend!” At 25 however, I was crying to God to make it stop. I badly wanted to be 22 again. Maybe 21 or even 20 since claiming 19 would be preposterous.

As we grow, we try to tally our age with our achievements and here comes an air of disappointment. “Look at my mates. See how far they’ve gone and how great they are doing”: that was the feeling. But here’s the good news, I got over mine: it was via the three lessons the life of a baby teaches us:

i.                    Curiosity? babies are very curious: It’s good you were curious as a child. You wanted it badly, to grow and you got it. Why despise it now? A baby wants to know what’s in a container; he wants to touch and feel it. A baby would do anything just to protect his toy, get in through a cleft, hold unto a table and even climb a chair or something akin. Sometimes, he gets hurt but he won’t just stop. Like babies, innovators want to try something new all the time. That’s curiosity. You need it too; maybe just a little more.

ii.                  Struggle? babies fight tirelessly for what they want: Give a baby a piece of sweet and expect it back? That would be very tough. You take it by force? See commotion!Babies hold tightly to what they have and struggle hard to never lose it. Without them knowing, they break through barriers, defile orders, carve niches and make some kind of difference. When a child wants something badly, s/he chases it madly? crying incessantly for it and maybe, crawling seamlessly towards it. And really, that’s how s/he starts walking.

iii.                Happiness? babies are always happy: Ever watched a baby play immediately after a prolonged moment of crying? You’d marvel! That’s one great lesson babies teach us; they live as though, they were never broken. Living life like it’s one; it’s just one, actually. A playing child certainly can’t remember he once cried. Babies need no special reason to be happy. They are just happy.

Living a super-life means happily struggling towards greatness with intense curiosity. Babies are adventurous. They are like stars on earth; they are all special. Be a baby. You are special too. I am Paul Akingbola. You can join the conversation using #SuperLiving on Twitter and Instagram. Fastest way to reach me: paulakingbla@gmail.com. Many thanks.

Currently, Nigeria’s economy is faced with venomous challenges- 27 of the 36 states in Nigeria are unable to pay workers’ salaries, the existing infrastructures are swiftly becoming poor while new ones are not in place, power generation has degenerated significantly, the financial system is crumbling, foreign investors are shunning Nigeria’s bonds and stocks, companies are laying off workers in hundreds due to inability to pay salaries, a surge has hit the prices of commodities and the cost of living has doubled, regional security challenges and incessant protests from- Niger Delta Avengers, kidnappers, religious extremists, Biafran Movement, Fulani herdsmen among others threaten Nigeria’s economy.

The economic woes befalling Nigeria has been attributed to the crashing oil price in the global market, over the years, Nigeria’s oil revenue keep experiencing significant setback on monthly basis. In December 2014, gross oil revenue recorded was N480bn, in January 2015- N460bn, in February 2015- N401bn, in March 2015- N315bn while in April 2015- N282bn. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Statistical Bulletin for 2015 quarters, at N1.859 trillion, Nigeria’s crude oil revenue for the 2015 fiscal year dipped by 37.47% from N2.973trillion recorded in 2014. In 2016, the fall continued to the lowest level in more than five years.

Nigeria’s economy has been degenerating over the years- despite bogus revenue recorded from crude oil by Africa’s largest oil producer, infrastructural and human development in Nigeria have been thoroughly poor over the years, and major roads have remained in bad condition, power supply unstable, unemployment escalated annually. Nigeria’s failure over the years cannot be disconnected from massive corruption, mismanagement, tax evasion, oil theft, contract breach e.t.c. among the political and economic elites.

Nigeria is running a very expensive political system, 58% of the nation’s allocation is spent at federal level, while 32% goes to the 36 states and 10% for the 774 Local Government Areas; a larger percentage of this revenue goes to governance and jumbo pay for politicians such high estacode, N9bn as legislators’ annual ward-robe allowance, N500m security vote monthly to state governors, pension for life for governors/deputy governors after serving four or eight years among others. It’s also on record that Nigeria loses at least 400,000 barrel of crude oil to oil theft daily.

With Nigeria’s current economic plight, it is evident that the Federal Government can no longer continue to bailout states, and capital intensive projects are not feasible. Due to incessant attacks on oil facilities and workers in Niger-Delta, many oil companies are shutting down operations, if this persists, it implies Nigeria’s source of revenue might be blocked. One of the most important things in Nigeria today is for unpaid workers to be paid, create jobs for the people so that they can afford shelter, feeding and schooling for their households. Nigeria’s economy has to return on track for this to happen.

Reducing poverty has been a major challenge to Nigeria- even though mismanagement has been prevalent in Nigeria for many years, there’s equally an urgent need for economic diversification in Nigeria. It has become more apparent that Nigeria’s economy can no longer be sustained by the crashing oil revenue. Like other African nations, 70 to 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas and earn a living through agriculture, increasing their capacities through agricultural development is major commitment the Nigerian Government has to make to reinvent the nation’s economy.

Agriculture as a means of sustaining the economy is not alien to Nigeria. Prior to the discovery of oil, Nigeria’s economy flourished through agriculture. During the pre-crude oil era when Nigeria’s economy totally depended on agriculture; the sector offered vast opportunities and employed over seventy percent (70%) of the Nigerian labour force. Agricultural sector provided food requirements for the country and raw materials for local industries, as well revenue from exportation of cash crops. Agriculture can not only be a major source of revenue for Nigeria’s economy, it is also the bedrock of Africa’s economy as a continent.

Agriculture has proven itself to be potent, if deliberate and meticulous investments are made into agricultural infrastructures such as irrigation facilities, rural roads, farm security, and storage facilities to improve production and value-chain, Nigerian local farmers in their millions will be moved from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture. This will not only help Nigeria to feed her population, but huge revenue will be generated from exportation of commodities. Agriculture can be a big business for Nigeria if made efficient, policies that allow credit channel to the system must be encouraged. There will be a boost in Agriculture if more viable market is created. Cameroon, Ivory Coast among other African countries are strengthening agriculture in their country with significant results; Ivory Coast emerged the largest cashew nut exporter, taking over from India.

Agriculture provides a way out of the on-going economic challenges confronting Nigeria. Agriculture is life, with vast land and resources, favourable weather and good soil minerals, Nigeria as a nation should diversify her economy into agriculture to transform the nation at the shortest delay.

Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi is a writer/journalist. He can be reached via olawalerotty@gmail.com or +2348105508224

—
Olawale Rotimi
B.A, M.A Ilorin, DELF Paris.
T: @RotimiLawale
“You don’t struggle to grow, grow the grass and the sheep will come, nurture it and they will never. Increase in quality not in quantity”

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

This  is a commentary which intends to bring into focus the  burden associated with illegal deductions from subscribers’ airtime by telecommunication operators.The consequences of the menace  on average Nigerians  is beyond imagination depending on rates of subscription.On daily basis,the subscribers are not only made to pay for unsolicited services ,  customers’ consent   are obtained by fraudulent means thereby inflicting pains and untold hardship on the citizens. The  investors in telecommunication business appeared to be suffering from  ‘quick  money syndrome’.This has obviously become our way of life as a people.Somebody needs to remind telecommunication  operators that  exploitation does’nt guarantee economic prosperity. With the recent happenings in the telecommunication  industry,it will be  justified that government should halt the trend now.The unsolicited SMS comes in the form of caller tones,games, quotations, health hints,sport news etc.We are all   victims of the exploitation by the service providers. Worse still,people that can neither read nor write are not exempted from the unauthorized deductions from customers’ airtime on daily basis.

            What this implies is that customers’ rights are  not adequately protected by the extant regulations with this uncontrollable exploitation by the service providers. When  customers are debited for  unsolicited  sms and calls,the victims are often  subjected to  serious financial burden in the process.In economic terms,every amount illegally deducted from users’ account counts on future purchasing power of the victims no matter how small the deducted sum might be.

            Even with the persistent public outcry against the menace since the debut of Global Satellite Mobil System (GSM), the telecommunication operators appeared to be less concerned and adamant.It has reached a stage where people would be ready to match to the streets in protest,If that is what will put a stop to the atrocious  acts of the service providers.

            As June 30 deadline issued to the service providers draws nearer, nothing suggests the readiness to  put a stop to the barrage of unsolicited text messages (sms) and calls by this thieving telecom operators in the country.Virtually all the existing service providers are guilty.Without an exemption, they have all added to our pains and agonies as a nation.

            Being a victim of this orchestrated exploitation by the service providers, I am not just concerned but waiting  eagerly for the expiration of the deadline. As we count down, people look forward  to see what the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will do.

            The body language of the regulatory authority could best be described as a metaphor of toothless bull dog until contrary  is proved after the expiration of the deadline.It is difficult to trust the Nigerian Telecommunication Commission (NCC) having failed several times to curtail the excesses and exploitative ttendencies of the service providers.

            With the current trend, illegal deductions from airtime of customers through unsolicited sms and calls need serious sanction by the regulatory commission as a necessary reprieve.

            The menace of unsolicited calls and sms  by service providers is an eye opener  to   other allegation that the telecommunication operators are also culpable of tax avoidance practices.Even though the allegation is yet to be substantiated by anyone,it cannot however be dismissed by a wave of hand. In essence, the allegation  needs further investigation by the appropriate authorities to ensure the telecommunication service providers pay tax as appropriate.

If it requires reorganisation of consumer protection agencies, the earlier the  government put necessary machinery  in place to achieve the feat.

                   By:

      Rahaman Onike,an author,public administrator and policy analyst,Oyo,Oyo State.

Since the government announced the deregulation of PMS I have seen different versions of interpretations, some in support, some against the policy and some reflective of the previous attempt by the government in 2012 to deregulate the PMS. In all of this the simple explanation is we failed to save when we had plenty and it has coming back to hunt us badly. While the previous administration inherited crude in its best years which sold for the average of $77.38, $107.46, $109.45, 105.87 and $96.24 between 2010 to December 2014 respectively, the current government inherited rather lowest price of crude in more than a decade and a half $49.49 in 2015 and it is currently being sold at an average of $29.96. What I’m trying to point out is we had our chance but we blew it.

A lot of us didn’t support deregulation then because we didn’t trust the previous government and that government had enough to finance subsidy and still restore our refineries to full capacity but they chose to waste the nations resources thinking it will continue to rain, but news flash: we are in a time of drought. We had our Joseph moment but didn’t utilize it.

The country doesn’t have the reserve to finance subsidy because of the previous government’s mismanagement, our crude out put is at a 22yrs minimum due to recent vandalism of pipelines by the so called “Niger Delta Avengers” and the government can no longer finance the subsidy rigime so they have to suspend it and free the market for competition but its citizens are yet to come to terms to the realities of today, they still think we are still in the days of plenty so they want the government to continue payment of subsidy and still deliver on her campaign promises but that’s a little far fetched. The previous government did not save for rainy days so we are socked in this together. It is time to make serious and concious adjustment So we either keep our heads up or drown.

By Yamai Patrick

@Yamcy_P

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has lost its relevance. For almost twenty years now, it has been more reactive than proactive. It has not been able to develop a comprehensive development agenda that represents the interests of workers and the poor that could form a basis to engage with government. Such a broad development agenda should have clearly set out the short term sacrifices workers will make for their long term benefits and overall development of the country. Alas, it has not been able to do that. Thus like the predatory class, the Nigerian Labour Congress and TUC have engaged in rent seeking behaviour. No nation can develop when one segment of society refuse to make sacrifices.

Most Nigerians will be sceptical to support the strike being called by both the NLC and TUC over the increase in the prices of petrol. These trade union federations need to develop a broad development framework that should form the basis of negotiations with government. The reactive strike being called over the increases in petrol prices do not have the potential to lead to structural transformation of the Nigerian economy, which will ultimately be beneficial to workers and the average Nigerian.

When in 1988, as student leaders, we led the first protest against the removal of fuel subsidy by the General Ibrahim Babangida regime (which we began at the University of Jos), it was part of the general struggle against military rule.

Certainly, the increase of petrol prices is evidence of the piecemeal approach to the CHANGE agenda by the President Buhari administration, with likely negative consequences for workers and the poor. This piecemail approach to development reforms, won’t work in the absence of a comprehensive national development plan that connects the various components of the CHANGE agenda of the government.  How will the increases in fuel prices contribute to diversification of the Nigerian economy? What is the government policy to promote the manufacturing sector, whose contribution to GDP is now lower than it was in the 1970s?  What will be effects of the fuel price increases on employment creation and reduction of poverty and inequality? What impact will it have on investors’ confidence?

The price increases of petroleum products by the government have created uncertainty about the currency exchange rate policy of the government. At one level, the federal government continued to maintain that the official exchange rate of N199 to $1. At the same time, in announcing the petrol prices increases, it indicated that importers of petroleum products will use an exchange rate of about N298 to the dollar. At the same time the parallel exchange rate, which has increased to about N360 to the dollar will continued to exist.  Does this mean that the President Buhari administration will maintain three exchange rate regimes? Nigerians need clarity on this.

In the absence of a comprehensive national development plan, citizens do not have a sense of direction the government is taking the country. The government will build trust among citizens if it set out a comprehensive development plan, which also becomes the social contract between government and the people. In turn,  it should become a basis for citizens to hold the government accountable for its actions. The importance of a national development plan to national development cannot be overemphasized. It would constitute the medium term development agenda of the government for the country, to be followed by sectoral plans. The national budgets are to be expression of the national development plan, which are normally five years in duration. This means that the budget cannot be the main planning tool for the government. Nigerians expect the President Buhari administration to come up with a broad based national development plan. It also has to explain to the Nigerian people the reasons behind the fuel price increases by more than 60%.  Prices of goods and services are going to increase. The President Buhari administration needs to come up with measures to cushion the effects of such increases especially on workers and the poor.

The strike being called by the NLC and TUC is not different from the piecemeal approach to CHANGE by the federal government.

As I write this, I am pained to recall that I lost a dear friend and brother, Chima Ubani, over ten years ago over a mass mobilisation by NLC and CSOs against petrol subsidy removal, which the NLC pursued half heartedly. We also recall how the NLC betrayed the Nigerian people in 2012 during the protest against removal of fuel subsidy by the President Jonathan administration. What evidence is there that this time that the leadership of the NLC and TUC will not betray the Nigerian workers and people again?

I also want to raise another point. It is not only politicians and senior civil servants that are involved in corruption. Workers who are members of NLC and TUC are also involved daily in corrupt practices. What have these two union federations done to ensure that their members are not involved in corrupt practices both in the public and private sectors?

What these analysis points to is that the trade union federations in Nigeria themselves need to be transformed and revitalised if Nigeria is to progress and prosper.

Rent seeking behaviour by both the elite and workers can only doomed the country. Both government and unions have a role to play to ensure Nigeria’s progress and prosperity. To do that, both need to adopt a comprehensive, not piecemeal, approach to national development in order to revitalise the Nigerian economy and improve the standard of living of our people.

Dr. Omano Edigheji is a political economist and has served as a development consultant for a number of development agencies in and outside the African continent. You can follow me on twitter @omanoE

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Finding the difference between Senator Smart Adeyemi and Senator Dino Melaye is tantamount to finding the difference between six and half a dozen. I mean how can Senator Smart’s monkey moves it’s head that Senator Dino’s baboon cannot?
Since both baboon and monkey are primates the interest to talk about them never dies. More importantly, it is very easy for a person to get confused when these primates are concerned. Separate characterization would provide a strong platform to make a fair and reliable comparison between baboon and money but in brief, baboons are also monkeys.

Haven said that, Dino Melaye who should have been chairman Senate committee on Automobiles and chieftancy titles and Smart Adeyemi who should have been chairman Senate committee on Hotels and hospitality are not too far apart when it comes down to comparison. They are essentially equivalent. In my opinion, we must have ideals and principles and try to live up to them, even if we don’t quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.

These two senators lack ideals and principles just like most politicians. Let’s take a look at the highlights; They are both from the same local government area, they were once members of the PDP but now members of APC, Smart was once chairman Senate committee on FCT a position Dino is currently saddled with, they are both arrogant and cocky, they are both sycophants, they are both users of men and political party. Both Smart and Dino are selfish and are only interested in personal aggrandizement to the detriment of the people of Kogi West. While Dino is merely interested in buying any toy inform of cars and amassing chieftancy titles, Smart is purely interested in hotel business.

I wonder when these two will write their names in the hearts of the people of their constituents via viable, verifiable and not phantom constituency projects. Whenever I see Dino’s vehicles and the customized number plates bearing his name I feel disgusted and nauseated. I’m forced to ask, what has he done as a constituency project? A couple of months ago, the senator representing Kaduna Central Senator Shehu Sani  donated books worth the sum of $30,000 to the National Library and to medical students from his state. A couple of days ago he inaugurated the distribution of 60 units of electricity transformers and 250 solar panels to over 100 communities in his senatorial district in Kaduna State. What has Dino done? And what did Smart do during his tenure?

Senator Smart Adeyemi’s tenure was a classic example of irresponsible representation in the upper chamber a line Senator Dino Melaye is presently towing. Smart’s tenure was a total letdown that will always be cited whenever clear misrepresentation in the upper chamber is mentioned. This betrayal of kogi west is clearly espoused by Senator Dino Melaye. In Iyara Smart Adeyemi’s home town he kept boasting of 100 locked up shops he built and I asked which of the Iyara is he talking about and where did he build the said shops?

These two are sycophants as they have both demonstrated countless times. Whereas Smart was busy sucking up to former President Goodluck Jonathan raining encomiums on him in a way that is second to Dr. Doyin Okupe, Dino is busy sucking up to the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki. Dino had to body guard the SP’s wife Toyin Saraki to the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The most recent of his sycophancy was his display of his readiness to die for the Senate President. But come to think of it, is Senator Dino Melaye not the Executive Secretary Anti corruption Network and a Private Investigator? Rather than Dino’s display of hypocrisy which of course is second to that of Senator Ben Murray Bruce by telling us he is an Anti corruption crusader at least his Twitter bio still says so. But as a Private Investigator, he owe his ‘friend and brother’ Senator Bukola Saraki a thorough investigation since he, Saraki, has constantly denied EFCC’s allegations against him. Dino as a Private Investigator should help the Senate President in collaboration with the retinue of lawyers come up with facts to show his support as well as help proof the Senate President’s innocence rather than a childish and watery display of support on Facebook.

Both Smart and Dino have obtained PhD in ranting and eye services. The PhD in ranting they both obtained is not Honoris Causa. They both earned it. One is a renowned journalist who is trained to talk while the other is a talker by birth. Days ago Dino took to Twitter boasting of the numbers of bills he has presented and motions he has moved and I asked; does the motions include his ‘made in Nigeria women’ he advised us to patronise? Can you imagine him boasting of doing what he was actually elected to do? Boasting about what he is actually paid all manner of allowances to do? A calm sea does not make a skilled sailor someone should tell this childish senator. The eye service that follows these two men’s ranting is always geared towards attracting the media’s attention to every tacky and phantom constituency project.

I couldn’t just stop laughing when Sahara Reporters published phone numbers of all 109 senators so their constituents can at least have access to them. Na today? Abeg leave matter. This is why I called both Smart and Dino users of men! This dudes are only interested in been addressed as Senator of the Federal Republic no matter whose shoulder they have to climb on to realize their dreams. Hitherto they became senators yes! Just like Smart, Dino never responds to calls or WhatsApp messages since he became senator so all these #OccupyPhoneLines does not work with my Senator.

These are the two heavy mistakes that have easily befell us in Kogi West senatorial district. My question is what is the difference between this six and half a dozen? Yet if Dino or Smart arrive our neighborhood in motorcade today, my people will role out drums to welcome the two mediocres with cultural display and outdo one another in seeking photo ops with them. The only upshot they get for their negligence and misrepresentation of our senatorial district is our youths adulation.
@richardtayo

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

It has gradually but finally emerged that more than 20 states in Nigeria are still unable to pay workers’ salaries despite a Federal Government bail-out given to 27 of them through the Central Bank of Nigeria between July to September last year. Before the bail-out, the states owed workers from between 2 to 9 months salaries. Several months later, many of these states still owe workers. It is still not very clear whether this problem still persists because some of the states allegedly misapplied or even diverted the bail-out funds or the bail-out funds were not just enough to solve the problem. Whatever the case, one thing that is crystal clear is that majority of the states in Nigeria are not economically fit to exist as states and no short-term solution can change this.

With probably the exception of the first eleven states created by former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, all later states created were largely and systematically done based on parochial considerations. Agitations for states creation by different communities have been to a large extent based on political, ethnic and religious considerations. Many misinformed Nigerians may think of peace, unity and progress as a scenario where everyone is of the same religion or tribe or at least something similar or close to that situation. This explains the agitation for disintegration in many quarters and the idea of confining one ethnic group to a particular boundary. The belief is that once we have entities of Igbos only, Yorubas only, Ijaws only, Muslims only or Christians only, then there would be unity and progress. Hence, we see states creation as means of settling some dispute. For instance, many are of the opinion that creating an additional state from Southern Kaduna will help solve the long-time ethno-religious crisis bedevilling the state. Advocates of a solution like this have forgotten that even within states occupied by one ethnic group, we still hear of some heated political crisis and the quest for power rotation among different senatorial districts.

Favourable crude oil prices over the most significant part of the last 15 years has largely helped in concealing not only the non-viability of the states but also the monumental corruption and political miscalculations that have prevented them from establishing a stable financial future. The unprecedented fall in oil prices which began in 2014 and got severe in 2015 was what exposed most of the states for what they are, fragile states that have been parochially created, corruptibly and incompetently managed over a significant period of their existence and those without any development plan for the future.

As it stands today, only Lagos can meet its financial responsibilities without depending on federal allocations. While this is so partly due to proper management, it is largely due to colonial and geographical advantages. Other states that can have a reasonable complementary source of revenue to federal allocations if the amount of internally generated revenue in 2014 is anything to go by are Rivers, Enugu, Ogun and Cross-Rivers states. About 16 states generate less than 10% of their total revenue from internal sources, meaning 90% or more of their funds come from federal allocations. As at 2015, only 8 out of 36 states generate at least 20% or more of its total revenue from internal sources.

Something that is puzzling is that even states with an appreciable internal revenue base are now struggling to pay salaries. For instance, Kwara State which came 6^th among the states with the highest IGR in 2014 with more than 21% of its total revenue coming from within is reported to be badly struggling to pay salaries. Some Niger-delta States that in addition to statutory allocations, internally generated revenue also enjoy 13% from the derivation formula are not left out as only Rivers and Akwa-Ibom appears to be safe.

Apart from the inability to pay salaries, many states are unable to carry out the basic functions of government.  A report by the daily trust newspaper published on Monday, April 25, 2016 revealed that states with one salary issue or the other are Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau, Benue, Borno, Yobe, Imo, Taraba, Kogi, Bauchi, Delta, Oyo, Nassarawa, Osun, Kano and Ogun. The report stated that some states that are managing to pay salaries have slashed between 30 to 50% while others have stopped paying leave grants, pensions and other workers’ entitlements. On top of all this, there is virtually no state without debts and liabilities that run into billions of nairas and millions of dollars.

Many reasons are responsible for states in Nigeria finding themselves in this situation of unprecedented financial mess when salary has become luxury. Here are some few of them.

Firstly, one of our major problems is that most of our national actions are short sighted. We seldom do things with foresight taking into cognizance our long-term future. In the 1990’s and 1980’s, the Federal Military Governments kept on creating more and more states until we had 36. Most of these states even then were heavily financially dependent and never looked to have any stable financial future. In fact most of them were never created based on merit. In some cases, states were weakened by creating other states out of them. Today half of these states cannot pay their own workers and almost all cannot do so without Federal Government allocations. Any state that cannot generate enough IGR to meet 75% of its salary obligations is not fit to be a state and the option of merging it with another state, even if highly controversial, should be considered.  Ironically, Nigerians still ‘want’ more states. One need to check out how many states-creation proposals mostly motivated by ethnic and regional agendas did the 7^th National Assembly received.

Secondly, most of the states have been incompetently and corruptibly managed, especially during this democratic dispensation. Siphoning and embezzlement of public funds have been widely reported in many states over the last few years. Many of the funds stolen would be enough to pay workers’ salaries for many years. For example, former Delta State Governor James Ibori was reportedly convicted of stealing 250 million US Dollars, an equivalent of more than 50 billion Naira at official exchange rate. How much impact would this money make on Delta State’s present and future? Many other state governors may have gotten away with billions of public funds that could turn around the financial future of their states. In many states, governors have introduced ridiculous and selfish pension packages for themselves and ironically, the poor current financial status of the states doesn’t seem to affect its implementation; it only affects salaries of workers.

Thirdly, our states have been consuming without investing over the last 16 years. The major objective of the states was to exhaust all what accrues to them and wait for the next month, we never hear of any reserve being kept for the future. Many of the states consume their resources and expend them on political projects that yield no financial dividend for the future. We hardly hear states investing in agriculture, industrialization and tourism. Between 1999 and 2007, cross rivers state heavily invested in tourism and it appeared to have paid off as the state was ranked 5^th among those with high IGR in 2014. With about 20 small and large dams and reservoirs in Kano State, the state could have invested in irrigation agriculture and curbed unemployment, produced more food as well as generated revenue if it had not focused on political and white elephant projects in the last 15 years.

Fourthly, the absence of a national development plan has given way to the politicization of government activities at the federal and state levels. Government projects are not initiated along any short or long-term development plan but rather based on political sentiments. At the states, hardly, can you find a state with any long term development plan which is continuous and consistent; even states that have been governed by one party since 1999 experience planning inconsistencies and policy summersaults. Many state governors lack any initiative; they just come and go without adding any value to what they met. Right from 1999, if the states have made it an objective to become economically self-sufficient, many would’ve achieved significant progress by now and the issue of salaries would not be our problem. In addition, the states have gradually succeeded in killing the local government system through the joint account structure. The Local Governments if strengthened can complement the development efforts of the federal and state governments. However, with the system now deliberately killed, the states which have failed to carry out their own functions properly, have also failed woefully to bridge the gap created by the ‘dead’ Local Governments.

We agitated for states without any reliable and sustainable long term plan to run them, the military governments granted our wishes and we are now heavily paying the price. While it would be very complicated if not impossible to scrap or merge some states, we must forget about any further creation of states for whatever reason if we want ourselves out of this mess. When this oil price crisis is over, we must learn and implement the lessons we might have learnt from it.

While we must acknowledge the fact that these states came with mainly short-term benefits, the current salary crises is their consequence and indication of their unsustainability in the long run.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

In the past few days, a couple of my friends have drawn my attention to what they consider a demystification of President Muhammadu Buhari by a so-called Mail-on-Line medium in the United Kingdom. Upon reading the story, I got thoroughly disappointed, not at the story, but the fact that some well educated Nigerians could be taken in by what is no more than a red herring masquerading as the smoking gun that it pretended to have unearthed.

What is the story? What are the facts leading to President Buhari’s unwarranted vilification by the Mail-On-Line newspaper? There appears to be a four-count charge against the President of Nigeria by a newspaper that ought to be more preoccupied with the Panama Papers and the uncertain fate of Britain in the European Union, aka Brexit.

Count 1: That he sends his daughter to a 26, 000 pounds a year school and, perhaps without the approval of Mail-on-Line, had allegedly spent one hundred and fifty thousand pounds on the education of his daughter Zahra, a University of Surrey student.

Count 2: Without recourse to Her Majesty’s media, Buhari had allegedly allowed his 16-year old daughter, Hanan, to indulge in the royal privilege of flying first class from London to Abuja when her father had banned ‘public officials’ from the same privilege. Perhaps, she should have travelled by sea or better still, through the Sahara desert escorted by some Bedouin Arabs.

Count three: Buhari’s anti-corruption claim is spurious and sectional unlike what obtains in Britain where the election of Saqid Khan, a Muslim, as the new mayor of London, is being ‘applauded’ by all Britons.

Count Four: The Mail-on-Line describes Buhari, the popularly elected President of Nigeria as “the self-styled people’s President”. By implication, he is an impostor.

What is my take on this? First, as a Nigerian, I am conscious of the public image of our leader, whomsoever that person may be; in this instance, it is President Buhari. I concede that not every Nigerian agrees with his policies, his style or his actions. The same applies to David Cameron, prime minister of Britain. I will also be the first to admit that there is no consensus among Nigerians on these matters, including Buhari’s achievements. But that does not warrant this spurious attack on his person to the extent that he is being described as a “self-styled people’s president”.

Pray, was he not elected by the people? Yes, he flew the flag of a political party. But once elected, had he not become the president of Nigeria and its peoples? To the best of my knowledge, at no time has Buhari ever arrogated to himself the title of the ‘people’s president’, if, by that, the Mail-on-Line was referring to a long disused epithet by maximum rulers of old. The paper can conveniently spew its pejorative gibberish because Nigerians choose to be gullible and refuse to draw the line between partisan disagreement and patriotic consensus on matters of national pride and survival. If that had not been the case, for a medium in a country that taught Nigerians the ignoble art of corruption (read Professor Peter Ekeh’s Colonialism and the Two Publics), for a newspaper in a county that, for long has provided safe haven for funds stolen from Nigeria, the newspaper would have adopted greater circumspection in talking about Nigeria or President Buhari whose anti-corruption credentials date back to over three decades.

My take on the story is that it was timed as a distraction from the unprecedented anti-graft war taking place in Nigeria; the fact that in the past few weeks, millions of dollars have been traced to shoddy processes and transactions. Coming on the eve of the London conference on corruption, one is tempted to suspect that the Mail-on-Line’s poorly executed diatribe could have been timed to take the sail from whatever presentation the Nigerian leader planned to make at the conference. In that case, we are bound to ask: whose interest is the newspaper serving?

I do not necessarily subscribe to the style of the Buhari Administration. But it will amount to sheer perfidy for any Nigerian or friend of Nigeria, to ignore the uncontroverted revelations of misuse of public funds by public officers of all political colouration. If the Mail-on-Line speaks for Nigerians, it must be the tiny cabal that turned our collective patrimony into personal wealth and turned all of us beggars either as individuals or as a country. Had that not been so, the medium wouldn’t have had the temerity to talk about the British government giving 250 million pounds to Nigeria over a period of one year because, under Buhari, there wouldn’t have been need for that.

The Mail-on-Line should be told that the anti-graft war is achieving results, one step at a time. Nigerians are not under any illusion that this is just one event, no, it is not. It is not a sprint; not even a marathon. It is a process, a long term engagement with the future of the country; a process that Nigerians of every persuasion must not just buy into but take complete ownership of, if the future promised by the change agenda is to be guaranteed.

The good news is that the anti-graft war has started in earnest, with all its imperfections. Back home in Nigeria, over one trillion naira has been recovered, discovered or saved. That is far in excess of 250 million pounds. For any medium that is worth any credibility not to see this as a step, in the right direction, and to mock the effort as the Mail-on-Line has done smacks of outright mischief, professional amnesia or culpable duplicity.

I am tempted to take the view that the Mail-on-Line is being misinformed by those Nigerians who shamelessly plundered the national till for selfish reasons. It is convenient today for people to pander to ethnic, political or every other perceptible subterfuge for their woes. But how many of them obtained the permission of their restricted groups before dipping their itchy and insatiable fingers into the public purse? How many of them deployed such proceeds of official malfeasance towards satisfying the legitimate needs of their primordial groups rather than oppressing them?

I do not think we should waste our time on the little matter of Buhari’s children as the Mail-on-Line provided us with no evidence of any wrong doing on the part of the President. The newspaper did not claim that Buhari, a former head of state, a former governor, a former minister of petroleum resources, a very successful farmer and a pensioner, dipped his hands into the public till to pay the fees of his children or fund their travels. If I read the medium correctly, it is simply saying that for Buhari’s anti-corruption war to receive its endorsement, he must first commit class suicide and subject his family to the same level of penury as the poorest Nigerians. That is utter hogwash. It sound’s completely illogical and uncharitable.

If the Mail-on-Line is honest in its love for Nigeria, if it is not singing the tune being dictated by some unseen malevolent sponsors from Nigeria, the newspaper should back Buhari’s effort to repatriate all of Nigeria’s money stashed away in Britain and other Western countries. When that is done, I can assure the paper that Nigerians are prepared to swallow any home brewed bitter pills to take us out of the present situation.

There are times I begin to wonder if the media in the western world is not bothered that some of their financial institutions look and act like receivers of stolen goods. In Nigeria, receivers of stolen goods are treated as suspected accessories to the crime. But Buhari has not threatened to take the British financial institutions to the dreaded Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria. All he is asking is for the looted funds to be repatriated to Nigeria to prosecute the agenda of his government. Therefore, Buhari should walk tall to the London conference and, with the support of the Mail-on-Line newspaper, boldly announce to those holding our money and our relatives to release them to us now!

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

“Ol’boy, man don see something oh.” 

“Wetin you see?”

“My eyes don see something. My ears don hear, and my mouth sef, I for talk something join.” 

“Talk make I hear”

“No be dis Tiwa Savage and him husband matter? The husband wey say him wife offend am, he no gi am food, him wife dey form for house but him dey open leg for other men, and na another woman they give am edible catering, and the man come vex he wan jump inside river for Lekki-Ikoyi bridge”

“Who the hell are you talking about?”

“Tiwa Savage and her husband”

“And who are those?”

“Tiwa, now. Marvin First Lady.  She is one of Nigeria’s topmost female artistes. And her husband.  They are quarrelling. The husband tried to commit suicide. She says her husband prefers to follow other women, take cocaine and ignore his responsibilities as a man and a husband. Social media is agog with the news. Mainstream media is feeding on it too. The man even tried to jump into the Lagoon.”

“And has he done so?”

“No. He was restrained by Banky W and Peter Okoye.”

“And who are those? Red Cross Officials?”

“You are in this country and you don’t know Banky W and Peter Okoye?”

“There is no way anyone can possibly know all the members of the Red Cross? ”

“They are musicians, not Red Cross, not NEMA”

“Oh, I see”

“Don’t tell me you are one of those dumb ones who do not know what is going on in this country?”

“I don’t get it. Am I supposed to worry about how Tiwa Savage and her husband are savaging the public space with their dirty linen and turning their marriage into a subject for beer parlour gossip?”

“It is a serious matter.”

“Oh really? So, how has their matter affected the supply of petrol, the price of foodstuffs and the payment of salaries?”

“It is the biggest news of the week.”

“Of course, because the media does not know what to prioritise anymore”

“There are issues involved. Tiwa Savage’s husband wanted to commit suicide. The same week, there was a report about a man who killed his target of amorous desire and stabbed her mother  in Ilorin because the lady refused to love or marry him.”

“Love is the most potent poison in the world. The graveyard is a prison yard of unrequited love.”

“Tiwa Savage’s husband says…”

“You keep mentioning the wife.  That husband doesn’t have a name? They should have allowed him to jump into the Lagoon, and have his wife do a special song at his funeral and go home on the left arm of another man.”

“They call him em em. actually that is the problem if you would listen to the wife. She is the breadwinner, she says and the man likes to squander money and so on and so forth.”

“Look, I am not interested in that story.  I don’t want a taste of Tiwa Savage’s #Lemonade. I don’t want any tales about the #Becky-with-the-Big-Hair that served her husband “edible catering”. Or do you want the National Assembly to have a special session on a derailed marriage, or may be you want President Muhammadu Buhari to issue a statement on it? One of these days, Nigerians will start insisting that the Nigerian President should become a marriage counselor and he will be blamed for marital squabbles.”

“We are talking about celebrities. And come to think of it, in a normal country, Tiwa Savage’s husband will not have to depend on his wife. He will have a proper means of income.”

“E ma gba mi ke. Doro Tiwa and husband fight and Nigeria no go hear word? E joor oh. As you lay your bed, you lie on it. These things happen every day. Human beings pay for the choices that they make. They learn from the outcomes of their choices. Can we have the media focus on serious matters beyond sex, infidelity, cocaine and the poverty of matrimonial matters in the household of Tiwa and Tee Blliz? Which kin name be that sef?”

“Tomorrow is May Day for example”

“Nigerian workers should actually carry placards tomorrow, screaming May Day, May Day, May Day!!”

“You want them to scream for help?”

“Yes, because the Nigerian worker today is hungry, angry, sinking, helpless, jobless, over-used, under-paid and in despair. State governments are not paying salaries. Companies are retrenching staff.  The latest I read is that First Bank is planning to sack 1, 000 workers, Aero Contractors, 100.  I know a couple, who have both just lost their jobs and they have five children. Some other companies are closing shop. Massive divestiture in the economy.”

“Incidentally, you know the people who caused the melt down. “

“Tell me”

“I don’t know.”

“If you don’t know, then you don’t know, before you say something that will make me give you a punch in the face. But I think all that President Buhari needs to do tomorrow is to give the people hope.  In a situation like this, you give the people hope, you reassure them.”

“You are recommending rhetoric. Speaking for speaking sake.”

“No. I am saying hope is a strong weapon. When a leader gives the people hope, he calms down their blood pressure. It is a strong pill.”

“The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress are not asking for hope. Nigerian workers know what they want. They are asking for N56, 000 minimum wage.”

“Chai”

“You heard me. N56, 000”

“Chai. Do they live in this country at all? Do they have economists among them? Does it make sense to ask for what you know you cannot get?”

“You can ask for what you think you deserve.”

“But in matters like this, you look at the economy too. What they are asking for is called wage indexation. That is not sound economics. Wage indexation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you base your calculations on it, there will never be an end to it, and it will undermine the economy.”

“Which economy? An economy where some people grab N2 billion, and millions of dollars all in the line of a day’s arrangement, and workers cannot get the existing N18, 000 minimum wage?”

“If I were the NLC or TUC leader, I’ll be more interested in giving the government ideas about how to pay the current minimum wage and ensure that the welfare of the people is properly the concern of government. NLC should be pragmatic. Get all salary arrears paid to start with, and get government to pay all emoluments as at when due. Uncommon sense.”

“Sorry, Labour leaders don’t claim that they are economists. They just want the best for the Nigerian worker. That is their mandate.”

“Don’t speak for them. When they meet the President and the Governors tomorrow, let them say so. I wonder if anybody even reads those long speeches on Labour Day. Nigerian workers are looking for unpaid salaries, but their leaders ride exotic SUVs, and live in mansions. I beg.”

“You are beginning to sound like a government spokesperson. Come, are you still one of us?”

“I beg”

“By the way, what do you think is likely to happen in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), now that the party leadership says the Chairman of the party must come from the North East, and the South West members are threatening to pull out?”

“Are you sure anybody in the South West is threatening to pull out?”

“Yes. You don’t read the papers? Na one of your brothers even talk am”

“Who?”

“The Lion himself”

“A lion in my family?”

“Have you forgotten so soon? Abi as your phone no ring again, your brain no ring too? You no know the attack dog, the Lion?”

“Lion. Attack dog.”

“Hen hen now. Him say if they don’t make somebody from South West the Chairman of the PDP, the South West wing of the PDP will leave the party.”

“I’ll advise you not to lose sleep over what politicians say.  What you can be sure of though, is that before 2019, there is likely to be interesting re-alignments.  Nigerian politics may not be the same again before and after 2019.”

“Na dem sabi. Make they just give us the mekunnu, power, good roads, jobs and our salaries at the end of the month. Me, talking for meself, I don see say e no matter which party win election, as long as the economy dey kampe and man fit chop, pay school fees and get light to do welle for night. My broda, na the better thing wey matter pass be dat.” 

“What is welle?”

“You no know Welle?”

“No”

“Kai. Lord of Heaven. No be the thing wey dey cause problem between Tiwa Savage and her husband be dat?” 

“I still don’t get it.”

“You no watch her interview?  As the girl they talk, dey cry, without make up, looking like an angel, doing her eye like this, her shoulder like that, e just dey pain me say dem no allow the husband jump for inside river. If I see Banky W and Peter Okoye, hen, the kine slap wey I go give dem.” 

“Are you alright? Have you been sniffing cocaine?”

“C’ommot there. You just carry book for head, you no know how life be?”

“I am sorry for you.”

“Sorry for yourself.”

“Na you go sorry for yourself. And why your head dey always shine like this? You no get hair? You never reach old age, your head don become desert. Na people like you women dey look for?” 

“This is a special haircut, you can see that the shaving of the hair is completely clean.”

“This is not a haircut. This is called desert encroachment, or the desertification of the human skull”

“I did it this way, in the shape of a shining mirror, in solidarity with the people of the Edo Kingdom who have just lost their revered monarch, the Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo,  Erediauwa I”

“Only Benin sons are required to do gorimapa in honour of the great king that has ascended to the rafters.”

“There is no law that says other Nigerians cannot honour a revered monarch who kept the dignity of the throne and left behind a legacy of honour, character, royal grace, and dignity.”

“You don spake my broda. Make I add my own; Oba gha to kpere”

“Ise-ee”

“May his path to the great Beyond be one of illumination and grace.”

“So let it be.”

“So mote it be.”

Violence in Nigeria in its various forms has evolved over the decades; from use of traditional weapons, charms and hamlets, violence in Nigeria has taken sophisticated dimension. Political, electoral, religious, ethnic/tribal, cultism and other forms of violence are dominant in the Nigerian society, at varying degrees. Each region in Nigeria has its peculiar form of violence; in northern Nigeria, religious violence and extremist attacks is peculiar, in the South-South, militancy is popular and like extremist attacks in northern Nigeria, it has received global attention. In the South-East, cultism ferocity and robbery attacks are common forms of violence, while in the South West, political violence and thuggery are intrinsic.  However, this doesn’t mean other forms of violence such as gender based violence (rape, abuse, intimidation), tribal clash among others still exist across the regions of Nigeria.

Over and over, violence has threatened Nigeria’s peace, stability and unity. Even as the current administration is winning the war against terror in North East Nigeria, militants in Niger-Delta (South-South) have announced their resumption to violent attacks on crude oil facilities. Since February 2016, militants have continued to issue threats, vowing to blow up more pipelines and damage more crude oil facilities in the region. On 16^th of February 2016, The Guardian Newspaper published that Niger Delta militants held five foreigners ransom after hijacking a chemical tanker off the coast of Nigeria. Similarly, Fulani herdsmen have launched brutal attacks on rural farmers and dwellers in North Central Nigeria; in an attack in Benue state in February 2016, 40 people were killed, scores seriously injured, over 7000 persons displaced and properties worth millions lost. On 21^st of April 2016, the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Security have declared the “Shiite Islamic Movement” as a threat to Nigeria’s security; this is coming amidst on-going trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, whose movement is fighting for secession from Nigeria.

At the same time in the regions of Nigeria, different forms of major violent threats are rising. Nigeria’s socio-political landscape has been infested by terrific violence; the government is reactive to violence instead of been proactive. For the country to end the unending trend of violence, it’s important to assess and address the causes of violence, its effect and proffer sustainable solutions beyond use of security forces.

Major Causes 

Poor Economy and Unemployment: The escalating state of violence in Nigeria has been incessantly linked to poor economy and high level of youth unemployment.  Nigeria’s economy has been marred by corruption and thorough mismanagement of public funds. This has led to widespread of unemployment, frustration and restiveness among the youths which makes them susceptible to violence. Nigeria’s unemployment rate is above the sub region’s average that increased to 23.9% in 2011 compared to 21.1% in 2010 and 19.7% in 2009 (National Bureau of Statistics, 2012).  Unemployment rate has been on the increase in Nigeria, the youth constitute 60% of the country’s population, and majority of them are unemployed and underemployed. Since they are idle and frustrated, they become susceptible to violence, societies with strong economies and low unemployment rates record low percentage of violence.

Lack of Equality and Justice: Nigeria is a rich country with alarming number of poor people. The country is vast in natural resources and oil wealth which is controlled by the political class. While a lawmaker earns bogus salaries and allowances, a classroom teacher is paid meager amount which is usually delayed, sometimes for a few months. Civil servants earn far less salaries and the salaries are delayed. More also, government tax citizens yet the infrastructural deficit in the country is depressing; intra and inter states roads are extremely poor, power supply is a mirage, public healthcare is lagging behind, fuel/gas scarcity is incessant among others. Inequality and injustice in Nigeria has instigated provocations and led to violence many times. Violence has become an instrument to seek equality and justice.

Religious/Ethic Sentiments: Nigerians are overwhelmingly obsessed about religious and ethnic identities; sadly, religious and ethnic identities play more important roles in election, appointments, employment and admission into public institutions in Nigeria. The thick cloud of religious and ethnic sentiments has given birth to violence; this has brought global attention and scrutiny to Nigerian. Religious and ethnic sentiments have triggered major violence in Nigeria. 

Political Instability: Nigeria is a long standing victim of political instability. When I was teaching “Political Violence: A Socio-Religio Solution” in one of Nigeria’s leading Universities, each time I held classes with the students, the direction of comments and questions from the students depicted that they do not believe in the Nigerian government because of government failure over the years. Nigeria’s political terrain is characterized clash of interests, mismanagement, and corruption. 

Major Effects 

Loss of Lives and Properties: Violence of various types has claimed the lives and properties of many Nigerians. The recent attack on Agatu people of Benue state by Fulani herdsmen left 40 people dead and over 7000 displaced.  Over 2 million Nigerians in north east have been displaced by Boko Haram attacks, including over 800,000 children while thousands of lives have been lost, government, corporate and private properties lost in billions of Naira. This has come with the task of rebuilding the affected communities in a post Boko Haram era.

Socio-Economic Stagnation: For states affected by Boko Haram attacks in North East Nigeria, social and economic activities were paralyzed for several months; schools were shut down and pupils withdrawn, businesses were shut down and economic movement in the region became extremely difficult. The violence has stagnated socio-economic activities, peace is paramount to economic growth.

Social Tension: Violence breeds tension in the society. For example, if an Igbo man is killed in northern Nigeria by an Hausa man, it creates immediate tension, not only for Igbos in northern Nigeria but also Hausas in Eastern Nigeria due to reprisal attack. Often, state of emergency/curfew is declared in violent ridden areas of the nation while the government is working to restore peace.

 Major Solutions

Job Creation and Economic Growth: Unemployment must be addressed, inflation must be addressed, infrastructure must be put in place to create conducive environment for businesses to strive. Nigeria must keep her citizens gainfully engaged in various economically viable activities. If unemployment is reduced, violence will be reduced, when the economy grows and infrastructure is put in place for businesses to strive, violence is reduced and peace is restored.

Judicial Reform: Nigeria’s judiciary is undeniably weak. In many cases, it victimizes the poor and acquits the rich. Nigeria needs to strengthen the judiciary and make it a strong institution which is not controlled by the rich. The growing inequality and injustice in the country can be reduced by a strong and committed judiciary.  Corrupt judges and lawyers should be restricted from the justice system, obsolete laws should be reviewed, treaties ratified by Nigeria that protects human rights should be domesticated and coherent judicial policies should be made. 

Educational Reform: The Nigerian education system has descended from the sky of excellence. Violence among other social issues confronting Nigeria reflects in the crumbling education system. Education is pertinent to development, it is the bedrock of progress, and no nation can develop beyond its level of education. Nigeria needs to make educational reforms in curriculum; the curriculum must accommodate thematic topics such as history, Nigeria languages and cultures, peace and development, peace and economic growth, religious understanding and race relation. These topics must also be made practical in relation to the Nigerian society.  Today in many Nigeria schools, history, culture e.t.c are not offered as subjects. Since some are ignorant or under-educated, they become vulnerable to sentiments that can trigger violence.

Beyond use of military or police force in ending violence, Nigeria must implement sustainable solutions as listed above. Nigeria needs to give a different approach to ending violence, military is good, however, with well educated population, strong judiciary and glowing economy, violence will be minimized.

—

—
Olawale Rotimi
B.A, M.A Ilorin, DELF Paris.
T: @RotimiLawale
“You don’t struggle to grow, grow the grass and the sheep will come, nurture it and they will never. Increase in quality not in quantity”

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

If the past administration took the Boko Haram for granted, making the disaster a justification for grand treasury theft and even failing to correct perception of its key figures as sponsors of the the group in conspiracy theories promoted to gullible and polarized citizens, the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, despite its controversial handling of the economy, clearly takes its predecessors as a bad model for conflict management.

A prominent politician once told me that the war on terror failed under former President Goodluck Jonathan because, aside from our popular ridiculing of the man as uncharismatic and clueless, he was “afraid of his service chiefs.” This is interesting considering the involvement of heads of our security institutions in one of the biggest heists in the history of Nigeria,  diverting funds voted for counter terrorism to their private causes and personal accounts. The region was thus allowed to be destroyed by the Boko Haram because the evil benefits these morally irresponsible public officers.

Quite unfortunate was the politicisation of counter terrorism, with the President even seeking to make it a Muslim agenda against his Presidency while conspiracy theorists in the north, indoctrinated by former Governor Murtala Nyako and even Malam Nasir El-Rufai, portrayed the spate of killings as a covert operation of some Christian organisations or personalities eager to decimate the dominating north and its politically overpowered Muslims.

I have always seen the Boko Haram as a real conflict that emerged from our cultural flaws and thrived on our institutional lapses. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a reality to which many of us are firsthand witnesses.

I campaigned against Jonathan possessed by rage over his deliberate refusal to serve as a unifying figure at that critical point of our polarisation and distrust, for even making policy statements as he jumped from one pulpit to another, home and Israel.

I don’t think the past administration sponsored the Boko Haram, they just let it happen because of the billions allocated to our security agencies by the tricked and paranoid dispensation. Yet, the past few days, with the liberations of many towns previously sacked or occupied by the insurgents as announced by the Nigerian troops, internally displaced persons have been reunited with the only place they call homes, giving another chance for them to breathe freedom again, and rebuild their lives.

The recent images of happy “returnees” posing for selfies with their liberators, the soldiers, were the most beautiful symbols out of Nigeria since 2009, the year the terrorist cult became an uncomfortable menace from a carelessly managed face-off with the security operations in Maiduguri.

The liberators are the same soldiers we once derided for their “tactical manoeuvres”. What has changed? Leadership. Responsible and effective leadership, not one that diverted the resources meant for the welfare of these rank-and-file soldiers to causes other than counterterrorism. 

May God save us from us!

By Gimba Kakanda

@gimbakakanda on Twitter

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

The distance from CAN to WILL keeps getting larger. You can connect, lead, see, speak, create, encourage, challenge and contribute. The confusion kicks in when we become overwhelmed by all the things we can do, but can’t find the time or the courage to actually commit and follow through.

These little act of kindness and concern by Masari is all we as followers wanted, let our leaders talk to us, let them be ready to listen to our feedbacks even if it stings because when a leader listen to none of the feedbacks, he will learn nothing so also if he listen to ALL of it, nothing will happen But we can definitely ask the questions. And get better at the art of listening (and dismissing). 

My call to the government of Masari is to FOCUS, we know Shema auctioned cars worth N400million at the rate N53million all to himself and his cronies, that was the reason you decided to set up judicial committee of inquiry to investigate financial mismanagement but I assure you the leader who cries out like a child on how much liabilities & problems left for him by previous leadership will be left in the DUST by the leader who is focusing on winning, touching lives, rebuilding his people, inspiring the society by presenting a  clear feasible & realistic road map and most of all by his body language even if the both problems hurts just as much..

Problems & Pain, of course, are matters of perception. Most of what we think about will result in how we act about.

Governor Masari you have a choice about where to aim the lens of your attention. You can relive past injustices, settle old grudges and nurse festering sores. You can imagine failure, build up its potential for destruction, and calculate its odds. Or, you can imagine the generous outcomes you are working on, feel gratitude for those that got you there and revel in the possibilities of what’s next.

At the end your story is your story. But you don’t have to keep reminding yourself of your story, not if it doesn’t help you change it or the work you’re doing.

May God help the government of Katsina to focus on things that really matters to its people.

written by Jamilu Mabai

[online publisher Cliqq Magazine & Columnist at Katsinareporters.wordpress.com]

Email: Jamilisma2000@gmail.com

twitter: Jaymb000

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

The present Senate serving the Nigerian people runs the risk of being remembered as the worst since 1999.  Public Relations Consultants and media officials of this particular Senate have done their part flooding both the print and the online media with details of how productive the Bukola Saraki-led Senate has been, and they have been quite aggressive in telling us about 30 important Bills which when passed, will change the face of Nigeria and deliver change.

The Senate according to one report has considered over 125 bills, debated over 48 motions, and passed three bills. But nobody is apparently impressed. During the Jonathan administration, the Senate was the better regarded of the two legislative chambers. While members of the House of Representatives in the Seventh Assembly behaved as if they were a band of students’ unionists, the then Red Chamber projected an image of maturity and temperance, even if it was also self-serving! With the 8^th Assembly, the House of Representatives, apart from the shameful resort to physical combat over the distribution of “juicy” committees in November 2015, has shown itself to be better organized than the present Senate. The critical difference is that of leadership. It is one of management. It is a matter of weight and politics.

What is clear is that the leadership recruitment and selection process in the legislative arm of government is as critical as it is in any other sphere of government. During the 7^th Assembly, the politics of the emergence of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, a PDP lawmaker who became an agent and later, chieftain of the opposition party, ensured that the House remained almost permanently in a frosty relationship with the Executive. Likewise, the manner of Bukola Saraki’s emergence as Senate President, marked again by alleged disloyalty to his own party and collusion with the opposition for personal gains, has laid the foundation for the supremacy of intrigues, cabals, and the politics of mischief in a Chamber that should be devoted strictly to the making of laws for the good governance of Nigeria.

His colleague in the House of Representatives also emerged under controversial circumstances, but Yakubu Dogara’s politics seems to be better managed. Saraki’s politics is made more complex by the fact that he has strong roots in the two dominant parties in the National Assembly and has proven to be extremely influential across party lines, making him a dominant force in Nigeria’s current power equation, and most certainly, a threat to other power centres.

Online, the Saraki-led Senate claims that it has done a lot, even if it has spent more time being on vacation in less than a year, and obsessed daily with the politics of contradictions. The Senate President once reportedly boasted that the Senate under his watch has helped to block corruption by helping Nigeria to save money.  He talked about the Senate’s probe of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).  But now, here is the contradiction: Many Nigerians would find it difficult to see how a Senate whose leader is on trial for corruption-related matters, and that has chosen to buy for its members, luxury SUV vehicles at inflated cost can claim to be helping Nigerians at a time when the economy is on a tragic downward spiral, and yet the same Senators had allegedly collected vehicle loans. This has brought the Senate condemnation from both the Nigeria Labour Congress and a coalition of about 400 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

But we know where the problem lies: politicians are always playing games, and the Senate under Bukola Saraki’s watch has acted more than once, as if it is against the people. This Senate has had to reverse itself thrice in the last one month following public outcry about its lack of moral rectitude. The painful reality is that the impression has now been created that the Senate as presently constituted is playing the politics of one man. It has reduced itself to a Saraki-must-stay-and-the-Executive-and-anti-Saraki-APC-leaders-must-bow-Red-Chamber. Most members of the House of Representatives have tactfully stayed away from this abuse of privilege and utter contempt for the original mandate of the National Assembly, but they need to be advised to also stay away from the kind of infectious madness that seems to be seizing hold of the Senate. It is a form of madness that encourages recourse to farce, burlesque and conspicuous acquisition.

Determined to show support for their embattled Senate President who is on trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), and whose name has also been mentioned in the Panama Papers scandal, many of the Senators abandoned the Senate Chambers and started following their boss to the Tribunal. On one occasion as many as close to 50 Senators abandoned their primary assignment and chose to go and play politics at the Tribunal.  If this seeming relocation of the Senate to the Code of Conduct Tribunal was meant to intimidate the presiding judge, His Lordship has refused to be intimidated, either by the crowd or the convoy of buses or the retinue of 90 defence lawyers.  He has now chosen to attend to the case on a daily basis. The number of Senators doing follow-follow has since reduced: it will of course, be absurd to shut down the entire Senate to embark on sycophantic frolic. Nonetheless, the Saraki case is taking its toll on the Senate. It has placed it on a collision course with a court of competent jurisdiction, with the Executive and also divided the ruling All Progressives Congress.

It has also led to a situation whereby the lawmakers even attempted to change the Code of Conduct Bureau Act in an obvious attempt to frustrate the Saraki trial.  In less than 48 hours, the amendment bill went through first and second readings. If there had been no public outcry, the lawmakers would have passed the bill in less than 72 hours.  It would have been the fastest piece of legislation ever, and yet it was meant to be self-serving: making a law to sabotage due process, even when they know that a law cannot have retroactive effect. When that failed, our Senators came up with the ingenious idea that the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal must appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions. An indignant crowd of civil society agitators also shut that down.  The Chairman of the CCT has also been a target of campaigns of calumny. Saraki’s supporters are throwing everything possible into this matter, where the legal process fails, the legislative process is deployed; when that also fails, an internet war, rallies, protests, all designed to win the public mind is launched.

Senate President Bukola Saraki may not have read Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, for he seems to have broken too many of those laws already; perhaps he has read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He should have been told that to rush headlong into war without mastering the dynamics of power is costly. This is one bitter political lesson about the strategy of war that  Senator Saraki is currently learning.  But now that he has gone so deep into the battlefield, he may no longer be allowed to surrender or retreat, even as his troops are gradually fleeing. Saraki has stepped on the proverbial Banana peel; as he struggles for survival, our Senate, the people’s Senate, must not be allowed to fail as a public institution. Senator Saraki should step aside, for now, as Senate President. If he emerges victorious from his travails, his colleagues should do him the honour of reinstating him to that office of honour, without question. But if he loses, he should remember that war only offers two possibilities, and even when a warrior wins, there may still be dangers on the way back home. In all, the politics of Saraki’s trial should not consume the Senate, and indeed the 8^th Assembly.

“So far, so good”, Saka Olawale wrote assessing the present Senate. I don’t think so. If anything, this Senate needs to be rescued. Whatever explanations our present set of Senators offers would be difficult to believe given the manner in which they have exposed their own limitations. The Senate cannot even keep documents. Copies of the 2016 Budget vanished from its custody. The copies when eventually found mutated into versions unknown to the Executive arm that presented the same Budget at an open ceremony. For five months, the Senate is embroiled in a needless controversy over the content of the Budget. What is worse: In almost one year, no Senator can be quoted as having said anything engaging or profound. The only Senator who makes a serious effort to display some common sense is far more active on Twitter than on the floor of the Senate. The more prominent Senators are known for their rabid politicking or their wardrobe or exotic cars or the comedy that they provide. One of them even came up with a bill to gag free speech. It was in this same Senate that some male chauvinists declared that women cannot have any equal rights with men, and so a Gender Equality Bill is unacceptable.

They failed to realize that in the United States, whose Constitutional democracy we are copying, a woman is only a short distance away from emerging as Presidential candidate of the Democratic Party and as 45^th President of the United States. I imagine many of them struggling to be photographed with the same woman if they are so privileged. Was it also not in this same Senate that a member argued that Nigerian lawmakers should only patronize Made-in-Nigeria-women? This was meant to be a “brilliant” contribution to a debate on the need to promote Made-in-Nigeria goods. How dumb! And this kindergarten level statement actually generated some debate!

Challenging as the democratic process may have been, Nigerians can still remember a few Senators of old who sat in that same Assembly and made impact with their interventions and insightful speeches. To now have a group of Senators who crack jokes, borrow their imageries from road side bars, embark on a frolic, or spend time on sycophantic exertions, and when called upon, prove annoyingly incapable of analyzing and interrogating policies and making solid contributions is sad. We expect this to change.

It is now over a year since Nigerians made history proving to the world again that peaceful transition was, in fact, possible in Africa. The election having been won and lost, it appears that some people still feels the scars of the pains of defeat as though it happened yesterday. One of such persons is a political commentator, Femi Aribisala.

Notice I used called him a political “commentator”, not an “analyst”, as he wants many of his readers to believe he is. In other to be seen as a being scientific in his write-ups, he sometimes taught us “How to Lose Presidential Elections Four Times” not minding the fact that he will later tell us “Why Buhari Will Never be President of Nigeria”. As funny as the premises on which some of his arguments were based, he had those who based their “analyses” on many of his unscientific conclusions.

At one point, in one of his articles, he paraded his “credentials” of been an authority in elections. He told his readers: He has been a student of elections for over 40 years. While studying for a degree in History and Politics at Warwick University (England), he obtained a scholarship to visit the United States to study the circumstances behind the 1973 election of Maynard Jackson as the first African-American Mayor of Atlanta. These reasons were just enough for his readers to believe whatever he tells them as gospels. Needless to say that it was in that same article that he gave a famous verdict: Goodluck Jonathan will win the 2015 presidential election by a landslide!

In parenthesis, this prediction reminds me of former Soviet’s leader (Nikita Khrushchev’s) famous statement, “We will bury you” speaking to Western diplomats about Soviet’s confidence of “burying” their rivals in the heat of the Cold War in 1956.

After winning a gold medal for his woeful predictions, Femi needs to save his face. To do this, someone or something has to be the scapegoat. Only recently did I read his, “How Jega Defeated Jonathan For Buhari”. As I finished reading this, I concluded that he, after searching all over for whom to blame for his wrong diagnoses (if he ever did any), chose Professor Attahiru Jega, the then INEC Chairman, as his perfect whip boy.

Like a typical public school pupil who failed his papers, he blames his dismal performance on anything and everything but himself-his teacher, his parents, his friends his foes, the test questions or anything that can easily justify his point!

Let us be quick to admit, writing from firsthand experience working as a psephologist, that the job of predicting the outcomes of elections could be mucky, complex and dangerous (requiring you sometimes to put your career on the line). Predicting elections requires some level of dispassion. When you get too involved and end up with a wrong prediction, one ends us frustrated like Femi because there are often too many variables waiting to alter your experiment and get you frustrated.

The lack of emphatic details led to the famous Literary Digest  fiasco in 1936 which wrongly predicted a defeat for US President Franklin Roosevelt. Many will equally not forget the recent case of Gallup Poll which predicted a victory for the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney against President Obama in 2012.

I cited these cases to show how complicated predictive analyses can be sometimes. If these reputable institutions can err this much, Femi needs neither to rant nor look for scapegoats since no one is infallible. All that was expected of him was simply be professional by updating his system of analyses like Gallup and others have done!

This should not be a platform for reminding brother Femi what is and what is not political analyses. But, I will to say that every political analyst (except if so-called) should know that some experiments that cannot be performed for ethical and practical reasons in political analyses. We cannot, unfortunately, re-run the 2015 presidential election under another INEC chairman to test for differences in outcomes. If Jega were not the Electoral Commission boss and it was someone else, whether the outcome of the election would have been significantly different is to say the least, counter-factual or virtual history.

Because we consider it futile to engage in virtual history, let us go back in time to compare data that are real. To argue, like Uncle Femi did, that Jaga “rigged” the election for Buhari is to note that the 2007 elections would have had a different outcome had Professor Maurice Iwu not been the then INEC chair. Or that had Femi Aribisala been the chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) during the June 12, 1993 election, Chief MKO Abiola would have been sworn-in as President!

Let us still hold on to his postulation that Jega, not APC “defeated” Jonathan in the 2015 election. Perhaps, Femi needs to be consistent since he told us in another article that just immediately after the same Jega he now criticizes, announced the postponement of the election by six weeks, that the party was low on cash and therefore, in shambles and crumbling. Where is consistency? Where is coherence in your “analysEs”? Was it also Jega that “rigged in” Jonathan in 2011? Mr. Femi!

I am aware that some people will bring in the point that the APC appeared stronger now than the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) or the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN) was in 2011 making it comfortable enough for it to be rigged into office in 2015. If we take this on its face value, then our firm conclusion will then be that the APC won the 2015 presidential election because it was stronger in all intent and purposes having grown massively over a period of four years as against its PDP counterpart!

Looking at the three-party game that played out in 2011, one will see that Jonathan won due some complications. I do not expect many people to agree with this, but had the ACN entered into any form of agreement with the CPC then, the election would have ended in a re-run whose outcome is highly unpredictable as the events in 2015 clearly show!

The same situation played out in 2015 the only difference being that the progressive forces achieved what many doubted as a possibility-the formation of APC. It should therefore not surprise objective political analysts why the party won.

The professional thing expected from Femi Aribisala after making such wrong prediction was simply to apologize to his readers and move on rather than look for scapegoats. His post-election rants against Buhari and the APC, including his recent display at an event in the University of Lagos, show that he is yet to recover from the trauma of 2015 electoral defeat of the “hero of democracy”.

Could this be why there was so much campaign from Jonathan’s supporters to sack Jega just weeks to the 2015 elections?

Olalekan Waheed Adigun is a political risk analyst and independent political strategist. Email: olalekan@olalekanadigun.com, adgorwell@gmail.com. Follow me on twitter @adgorwell.

What moral right do we have to tell our children to go to school when we can’t protect them there? –
Yusuf Abubakar,Coordinator of the sit-out group Bring Back Our Girls.

Precisely, two years ago, on Monday, the 14th of April 2014, 276 girls were abducted from the Government Girls’ Secondary School Chibok dormitories. 57 girls escaped while 219 girls are still missing. From April 14, 2014 to April 14, 2016; 18 parents of the Chibok Girls have died. The aforementioned figures are a snapshot of the Chibok Girls story.

Most Nigerians might recollect the time/period when the Chibok Girls story began to drum into our recollective skulls. For me, I began to take notice, some days later, when an On-Air-Personality Sope Martins was speechless on her morning show with her colleague Mazino of Smooth FM in Lagos. Some weeks later, on the 30th of April 2014, I was somewhere in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, unpacking my luggage and I noticed on BBC World that #BringBackOurGirls had become global and Mrs Oby Ezekwesili was to appear on a BBC programme. Who would believe that an incident in Chibok Town in Borno State would galvanise global momentum? Global momentum, which many believed would have resulted in action in rescuing the Chibok Girls.

I sidestepped writing about the Chibok Girls (because everyone was writing about it then and I decided to keep my thoughts to myself after discovering and observing other cultures’ high regard for the women folk). But my perspective changed when I met a top Nigerian-American official at Pfizer USA, who told me that writers did not have the obligation to keep mute. He also described the nonchalant attitude of government officials he had met in Abuja, who did not care about what the plight of the Chibok Girls might be. This I wrote about in my piece for the 100th day of their abduction which was on the 23rd of July 2014. Not forgetting the fiasco that transpired on Monday the 21st of July 2014, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja while Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili was about to board a British Airways flight to London to be on BBC HardTalk’s 100 days of the Chibok Abduction (watch the video).

Two years after the abduction of the Chibok Girls, stories of various dimensions have been coming to the fore. From how the military soldiers guarding that school were reduced, how they were recalled hours before the abduction, the tales of a long convoy of trucks to the school. The inability of the military to rescue the girls. How some of the girls had managed to pull themselves out of the trucks when they got to the forest by grabbing onto branches and hanging in there, according to Christina Lamb of The Sunday Times. Also, stories bordering on how girls and women who have escaped Boko Haram’s captivity and who are in Internally Displaced Persons’ camps (IDPs) are being marginalised and segregated and being seen as outcasts by other IDP inhabitants. And stories by Dr Stephen Davis, an Australian clergyman who had almost negotiated the release of some of the Chibok Girls but final talks broke down. The clergy man is adamant that the location of some of the Chibok Girls is not difficult to find for him, even on Google Maps.

A cornucopia of issues ranging from psychological problems, post traumatic stress disorders (PTSDs), teenage pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies, divided homes, missing parents, missing family members, missing children are issues springing up. And even sexual abuses in the IDP Camps as reported by Christina Lamb in her article in the UK’s Sunday Times of March 20, 2016.

Two years after the Chibok Girls abduction and after several assurances by President Muhammadu Buhari, his administration might be working to track down the exact location of the Chibok Girls (who reports have it that they might have been divided into groups) or what has become of them. But the truth of the matter is that information management with regards the Chibok Girls is not satisfactory. Like someone queried; who is the contact person in the Buhari Administration with regards the Chibok Girls? Isnt the government seeking assistance in terms of intelligence from nations willing to help?

The Buhari Administration can not be said to have succeeded come 2019, if the Buhari-led administration cannot give the Chibok parents, Nigerians, Africans and the world, a holistic report of what has happened to the 219 still missing girls from Chibok town. For the doubting Thomases, who still question the veracity of the Chibok Girls’ abduction; the Goodluck Jonathan administration set up a committee to look into the case, and it was reported the girls were abducted. But the findings of the committee have not been made public. Baffling.

This should not be baffling, when you remember that it had to take a trip by the Pakistani Girl rights activist Malala Yousafza, to Nigeria on the 90th day of the Chibok Girls abduction and soliciting a promise by President Goodluck Jonathan to meet with the Chibok Girls’ parents.  Also baffling is the story that since the abduction, the governor of Borno state, Governor Kashim Shetima (in which Chibok lies) has not visited the parents. Instead, he sent the district chairman a bag of rice, 30,000 naira and some fabric, which he said was a gift from the president.

Also baffling is the picture and PR ops, former Finance Minister Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweal had with some of the parents of the Chibok Girls, when she laid the foundation of a new building for the Government Girls College Chibok in May 2015. Pictures of the laying of foundation and with the parents were taken. But till date, the building has not been completed.

On the issue of amnesty cum de-radicalisation programmes for “repentant” Boko Haram insurgents, how can we as a nation via our government even contemplate pardoning members and fighters of Boko Haram-the world’s deadliest extremist group? A group that has used at least 105 women and girls in suicide attacks since June 2014? Heinous crimes against humanity were committed.

According to a global online publication, the Global Terrorism Index ranks Boko Haram as the world’s deadliest terrorist group. In its ever more violent quest to create an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, the group has killed more than 15,000 people, razed villages and forced more than 2m people to flee their homes over the past seven years. Living up to its name, which translates as “western education is forbidden”, it has also forced more than 1m children from school, according to UNICEF, burning their buildings and abducting thousands to work as cooks, lookouts and sex slaves.

Dr Ferdinand Ikwang, who runs a deradicalisation programme for former Boko Haram members and captives, told a reporter about a group of women and girls released in 2015. Amongst this group was a five-year-old who had been raped so many times that her pelvis had shattered and she “walks like a dog”.

No sane society (except the one where abnormality is the norm) would such happen and punitive measures would not be implemented. The “Operation Safe Corridor”, a programme launched by the Nigerian Military headquarters to rehabilitate repentant Boko Haram fighters through camps where they will be offered jobs and training in return for undergoing biometric profiling. Around 800 fighters had already signed up, and that camps would open all over north-east Nigeria in coming months.

But where would they get jobs from? In the same areas they ransacked, burnt homes, raped people, killed people? Let us call a spade a spade. Boko Haram committed acts of rape, which is a weapon of war and probably committed genocide.

But reading the last 3 paragraphs of New York Times’ West Africa Bureau Chief, Dionne Searcey’s piece on Boko Haram, published on Thursday, April 7, 2016. Gives one a glimmer of hope about the Chibok Girls. According to Dionne Searcey; Boko Haram incorporated the lack of food into their training, Ms. Amos said. Several months ago, she said, fighters rounded up the women and took them to an old factory to view a set of plump, well-fed girls who had plenty of food and water. Follow our ways, the fighters said, and you can have enough to eat, like these girls. The girls, some crying, told Ms. Amos they were from Chibok, the Nigerian village where Boko Haram had captured the schoolgirls. American State Department and military officials said they would investigate the statements from Ms. Amos about the girls. “They were very fat,” Ms. Amos said, compared with herself and the other women who were being held, “and they had lots of water.”

On the 600th day of the Chibok Girls abduction on the 5th of December 2015, I wrote a piece published in The Guardian Newspaper; in which I wrote that “several months ago, I was discussing with a Rwandan diplomat stationed in the West and the diplomat went thus; Can a country give up on her girls? In Rwanda, children are a ”pearl”, when you lose it you search for it until you find even if it is under your dead body. A girl is the “future of humanity.” This statement left me thinking and wondering where Nigeria and Nigerians have gotten it wrong.”

In this writer’s moments of ruminating and soliloquising about the Chibok Girls, this question has reared its head on a couple of occasions; have we as humanity, disappointed the Chibok Girls. Yes we have. And the quote below amplifies this

“Every time a world leader gets up and says girls should go to school, they lack moral credibility when 219 brave girls went to school in a place called Chibok and never came back.” –Mrs Oby Ezekwesili.

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Introduction

One of the pre-conditions for free, fair and credible elections is a coherent, unambiguous legal framework. This is so because elections are predicated on the viability and potency of a legal architecture anchored on the principles of inclusion, integrity, justice and equity. The Electoral legal framework defines political relationships, creates a framework for the actualization of citizens franchise and a conflict management system. The legal framework must be structured to ensure the sanctity of the votes, an ordered process and participation of stakeholders. Its non-existence could potentially undermine the integrity of elections and create pathways to political instability.

Since the return to democracy, Nigeria has been restructuring its electoral process in an attempt to promote free, fair and credible elections,thereby deepening democracy. The continuous attempt to reform the electoral process is borne from the irregularities, malpractices, and violence that characterized elections post 1999. Obviously, the history of elections in Nigeria has been tainted with massive irregularities, prebendal politics, and violence. For instance, the report of the Babalakin commission of inquiry established to investigate the Ondo state governorship elections in 1983 identified several legal, structural and procedural challenges that impugned the credibility of elections in Nigeria to include; illegal printing of ballot papers, voter cards, illegal compilation of voter register, compromised voter register, falsification of election results, poor election logistics management etc.

Twenty-four years later, these same issues informed the establishment of the Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) headed by former CJN Justice Muhammadu Uwais following the conduct of the 2007 elections. The committee undertook one of the most comprehensive electoral reform exercises in recent times. It proposed fundamental changes in the electoral process. Key among them is the unbundling of INEC, procedure for appointment and removal of members of the Commission, dates, and sequence of elections, security of election materials etc. There is no gainsaying that the Uwais report is a reference tool for recent electoral reform efforts. Whilst some of its recommendations on financial autonomy for INEC and improved security features on sensitive election materials have been mainstreamed in subsequent reforms, the electoral process remains far from perfect.

Following the conclusion of the 2011 general elections, the movement for the amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended) and the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to address key challenges arising from the 2011 elections commenced. Civil society organizations like the Partners for Electoral Reform, Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Centre for Democracy and Development, Alliance for Credible Elections etc, led diverse advocacy initiatives on ensuring reforms to the electoral Act. Some of the key issues on the reform agenda include the appointment of INEC commissioners, unbundling of INEC, electronic voting, the role of military and security agencies in elections, prosecution of electoral offenses etc.

As previously experienced, the amendment process took the normal trajectory of previous reform processes. Since the enactment of the 2003 Electoral Act, it has become a norm for electoral reform to dovetail right into the electioneering period. For instance in the 2011 general elections, the amendments occurred four months to the general elections. This current amendment assumed a worse dimension, as the Bill which scaled through the National Assembly on March 10th, 2015 received presidential assent on March 26th, 2015 two days to the historic March 28th Presidential elections. Until this minute, the new amendment is largely obscure even to election administrators and experts.

The attitude towards electoral amendment in Nigeria does not only impact on the management of elections by INEC but also affects planning by other stakeholders. For instance, the planning of voters education program becomes onerous for political parties, media, and civil society. It must, however, be stated that the 2015 elections were conducted using the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) despite the existence of a newly amended electoral law. This is the impasse the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance sought to cure when it stipulates that electoral amendment must occur at least 6 months before the date of an election. This provision was also reinforced in the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good governance.

New amendments to Nigeria’s Electoral Act

1. Tenure of the Secretary to the Independent National Electoral Commission – Section 8 (1) was amended to fix a definite term of office for the Secretary to the Commission. A period of 4 years from the date of appointment was inserted in the section. The tenure is renewable for another period of 4 years only. The position of the Secretary was first established by the 2006 Electoral Act, which empowered the commission to appoint its own Secretary. This amendment puts an end to the controversy on the tenure of the Secretary created by the silence of both the 2006 Electoral Act and the 2010 Electoral Act as amended. The office of the INEC Chair, National Commissioners, and Resident Electoral Commissioner are tenured. This prevents abuse of power and sit-syndrome by public officials. The provision on the tenure for the INEC Secretary could potentially stem abuse of power and controversies that have trailed the office in the past.
   
   2. Increased number of days for transfer of registered voters – Section 13 (2) was amended to increase the number of days for applying for transfer of voter registration details to 60 days before the date of an election as against the 30 days stipulated in the 2010 Electoral Act As amended. The import of this provision is all application for transfer must be filed 60 days before an election. This amendment avails the electoral commission adequate time to process a request for transfers while also facilitating the prompt update of the voter register ahead of an election. In the same vein, this amendment may also reduce the arbitrary abuse of the transfer option witnessed in the staggered elections, where voters transferred from one location to the other at will. However, the flip side to this amendment lies in its potential to disenfranchise eligible voters who may be confronted with unforeseen circumstances; that necessitate relocation from one place to another 30 days to an election.
   
   3. Increased number of days for applying for duplicate voter card – Section18 (1) and (3) were amended to increase the number of days from 30 to 60 days within which a registered voter can apply for a duplicate voter’s card in cases where his/her voter’s card is lost, damaged or destroyed. This provision prevents the electoral commission for issuing any duplicate card 60 days to an election even if the commission has reasonable grounds to accede to the request. This provision benefits the electoral commission but could negatively impact on voter turn out because once a voter loses his/her card after the 60 days requirement elapsed; he/she cannot apply for a duplicate voter card to vote in an election. Ordinarily, registered voters are duty bound to safely keep their voter card; however there are some unforeseen circumstances or accidents that are totally not within the control of voters. This could lead to either loss or damaged voter cards. To preclude registered voters who are victims of accidents or natural events from voting due to the fact that it occurred after the 60 days timeline could be tantamount to injustice. The legal framework should aim to guarantee citizens access to the electoral process and not stifle the political space.
   
   4. Voting rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) – Section 26 was amended by the insertion of a new subsection that provides for the participation of displaced persons in voting at elections. It compels INEC to ensure IDPs are not disenfranchised in the event of an emergency affecting an election. Emergency in this context could be insecurity, environmental or natural disasters. This amendment creates a level playing field for the exercise of franchise by all the stakeholders. The voting right of an estimated 3 million displaced persons was a topical issue in the 2015 elections. The electoral commission was confronted with the complexity of managing this challenge vis-à-vis an extant legal framework that confines registered voters to vote in polling units where they are registered. This necessitated the reforms introduced by INEC to accommodate IDPs in the 2015 elections. The commission reviewed its guidelines and manual to ensure IDPs in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states vote in the IDP camps and centers. The new amendment can be interpreted to legitimize the administrative actions taken by INEC to accommodate voting and results collation in IDP camps / centers. The new provision was drafted in a manner that gives INEC the latitude and flexibility to determine the procedure for ensuring Nigerians displaced by an emergency are not disenfranchised. Furthermore, the amendment provides sufficient legal basis for the electoral commission to undertake IDP voting.

   5. Expanded jurisdiction for Oath-taking by election officers – Section 28 (1) was amended to expand the jurisdiction of administering Oath of neutrality for election officials to any court or Commissioner for Oaths. Previously, only the High Court could administer Oath of Neutrality to election officers. With this amendment election officials can approach any court or Commissioner for Oaths to affirm their neutrality. The amendment will accelerate the process of oath taking by election officials.

   This article is a first of a series discussing the 20 new amendments in the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2015 and its implications on the electoral process.

To be continued…

Samson Itodo is an elections enthusiast and he works with the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA). He tweets @DSamsonItodo

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

President Muhammadu Buhari is back from China. A common discussable topic nowadays, the retail-business woman in the market finally looks forward to instant relieve on inflation, un comforting hike in price of goods and services.

As conceived by her– President Buhari was on a proverbial journey,  to find lasting solution to various problems holding us down as a nation, to fight Pharaoh and her army (enemies of progress) and return home with the long awaited ‘magic rod’ similar to one used by Moses in the bible to path the red sea. We need ours to free Nigeria from shackles of poverty, hardship, unemployment etc. And finally, to lead 112 million Nigerians living below $2 per day, army of unemployed youth, underprivileged, vulnerable Nigerians to the promise land. A land filled with honey. Bread for the hungry… And ‘duty’ for the jobless.

There’s poverty in the land. Life is hard; life is cruel, life is difficult for average Nigerian residing in hinterlands and villages across the country. Minimum wage earners in the cities barely meet their daily needs. The situation is serious.  The mood is not nice.

It is best captured in the video that recently went viral online. A frustrated taxi-driver, in an interview, was on rampage as he poured his heart out without holding back. The cliché that in sorrow or adversity Nigerians are resilient and spirited instantly became a myth. I conclude that hardship has elder brother.

He thinks there’s no justification for the government to subject its people to the kind of struggle he faces in his quest to buy fuel. He waited all day on cue, all to no avail. He was furious and in the video – He simply wants the country and all that breathe in it to collapse. Not gradually but at once. Unfortunately so, he couldn’t spare ‘you’ and ‘I’ from his dooms-call.

Nevertheless I believe, if in any case it were to happen, nature would be fair to bring together all politicians across the land as shield over the rest of us and ensure they receive most ‘hit’ from the debris.

On PMB’s official trip: I found great delight in Nigeria’s current romance with People’s Republic of China. I must quickly add that development such as this is always foreseeable from a well structured administration; with capable hands and well-read individuals manning key Ministries. One of which is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the person of Geoffrey Onyeama. Highly cerebral! …  Also to include that whoever is responsible or found to have advised The C-in-C to look toward the Asian giant for economic ties and within his/her capacity initiated current bilateral cooperation between both nations, I say to the person(s): You’re the hero of this political dispensation.

I say it all the time that amidst today’s global politics, hypocrisy and lip service the two nations to befriend, most importantly developing countries, for economic partnership and security support are China and Russia. The former being the second largest economy in the world can always be targeted for industrialization, trade, funding support for infrastructural development etc.

According to Dr. Keith Jefferies, one of Botswana’s leading economists “the strategic economic cooperation between Africa and China will elevate developing countries and stimulate growth, especially under the auspices of such regional blocs like Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)”

“African countries need to glue closely in order to benefit widely from economic deals with China”

Something is ‘brewing’ in Beijing. Landmark deals and agreements Ha signed by Nigerian officials led by President Buhari and Chinese counterparts. On the other hand, this move has receive n what they termed “razzmatazz”.

However, there are few concerns emanating from notable Nigerians. The issues border on, ulterior motive, corruption, debt profile. These concerns are not totally out of place and I think they’re for benefit of doubts worth exploring.

Yes it is true that China is looking expend in ‘loan and kind’ $60 billion in Africa.

“… China will offer 60 billion U.S dollars of funding support, including 5 billion dollars of free aid and interest-free loans, 35 billion dollars of preferential loans and export credit on more favourable terms, 5 billion dollars of additional capital for the China-Africa Development Fund and the Special Loan for the Development of African SMEs each, and China-Africa production capacity cooperation fund with the initial capital of 10 billion dollars.”

As regards ulterior motive –Such comment as “Oga China is mainly out to protect its interest in Africa” in reality may not be wrong.

Also, they infer that such currency agreement signed by Nigeria’s Apex Bank and ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) which has been agreed in the deal, see Nigeria as the clearinghouse of renminbi(Yuan) in Africa – to them is a grand move to revitalize China’s export market in Africa, which is under pressure from falling oil prices.

In Nigeria alone, it is reported that 70% of our total imports come from China. And recently, due to depleting reserve, the Central Bank of Nigeria placed 42 items on “forex restriction” list.

The currency deal, which now allows Nigerians importing from China to transact in renminbi(Yuan), would admittedly address forex impediments. However this development, according to concerned Nigerians, would further edge importation over local production. For a country that wants to #buynaijatogrowthenaira.

On the other hand, I think more emphasis should, instead, be placed on 10 major projects offered by China “particular noteworthy is the emphasis on industrialization and the concept of exporting ‘production capacity’ from China as a way of promoting African industrialization.”

Oh, this is a plot to keep construction companies from China preoccupied in Africa with attendant effect on taxation/tax income to grace Beijing’s purse. By the way, I didn’t imply that. These are words coming from the street.

In all –China is not saying oh we’re Messiah or Good Samaritan we just want to help. President Xi Jinping, in his own words, calls this “time-honored win-win partnership”.

In my opinion I think the odds favour Nigeria and indeed the whole of Africa.

On corruption

The argument that monies borrowed from Beijing if not checked and properly monitored could be just another ‘freebies’ for political hawks and looters who over the years have fed fat on our common resource. For me this argument is valid.

However, in addition to the fact that we have at the helm of affairs a President who is ready to fight corruption to standstill; but greatly structured though –is the idea that counterpart funding from China on projects (railway, roads, power etc) proposed by Nigerian government would, upon commencement, be remitted directly to Chinese Companies in-charge-of various projects. In my opinion, this would go a long way in addressing –to a large extent –all corruption-related concerns by eliminating ‘middleman syndrome’ which usually in our clime creates avenue for exploitation and profiteering.

Incurring more loans is just unnecessary; we should be concerned about growing financial liabilities & commitments and as a country should focus more on clearing our indebtedness both local & foreign, instead of over-bloating our dept profile. This is true. .. But it is also true that the crash in the price of crude oil has dealt a serious blow to our economy. Nigeria’s mono product economy is struggling and some experts believe that way-out at this point is to jumpstart the economy through diversification –by investing heavily in infrastructure, agriculture, mining, real sector (SMEs), human capital etc.

“High debt to GDP doesn’t necessarily mean the economy is under performing. For an economy to grow, same needs to be funded by taxes, debt etc. There are limitations on raising taxes. The government may resort to debt. Most of the economies are run with deficit budgets. But a stagnant economy often displays the higher debt/gdp ratio” – Quora

Nigeria boasts sub-Saharan Africa’s lowest debt-to-GDP ratio [Bloomberg Business]

So –Prevailing China-Nigeria cooperation: Should we worry? No. There’s no cause for alarm!

Boluwatife Adekunle

@boluzzz

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Just like the thought of Micheal Moszynski on Ben Murray-Bruce that it is Common Sense that the common man should finally share in this prosperity and if not we will see a different type of Revolution that will make what happened in France over 200 years ago look like an amuse bouche. I have always advocated for a proper revolution from the Nigerian Youth constituency. When I mean revolution, I do not mean revolution that comes with altercation of flesh and blood but the one that comes from the mindset. A mindset that is breed on good guts for development and compounded with intellectualism devoid of sentiments, hatred, ethnicity and bigotry. I still maintain irrespective of the change mantra that we are witnessing, some set of leaders are still using us to play a game of ludo. They throw the dice and whatever comes out of it is for their immediate benefit. So sad, the youth constituency still red carpets them upon their crimes. There is a loss of responsibility within the Nigerian youth constituency. We are very eager to cast blame on our leaders for actions and inactions that we tolerated from them.

Most of our leaders that we found their lives enviable have made a way for themselves and that of their children either through legal or illegal means. They have what it takes to live the dream we long throat for. They have what it takes to shut us out of the existence of reality as far as governance and politicking is concerned. During their youthful age, heaven smiled at their agitations in the inclusion of governance, they feast heavily on the dividends of governance. The more lucky ones wine and dine in business with ease. The economy that the then leaders before the Fourth Republic afforded was favourable enough to see them triumph as world class merchants. Under the shield of being a Nigerian, the struggles of better life and acceptance in the International community was overwhelming. Life was not easy though but they had a strong will that is missing within this day Youth Constituency in Nigeria. What is missing today is the common sense that is common with uncommon usage. The only common usage of our common sense mostly thrives on illegalities and this is the point where most leaders note as an excuse of denying us what is ours. Little wonder, in the year 2015, on the 13^th day of October, the Vice President through a tweet attributed to him via the handle @ProfOsibanjo  said that, ‘we could not find some outstanding Nigerian youths to form cabinet is a challenge to our youths to brace up #MinisterialScreening’’. This statement is not only embarrassing to the Youth constituency but emotionally harassing because it has in all attributes an iota of truth. The iota is just the way and manner in which we have presented ourselves. The elders’ due is our doom.

I guess the marginalization of the Youths by themselves is a typical Nigerian Youth business. We do things mostly for crooked profits or benefits. We do not put passion on things that would make us better in the world at large. We are good to a large extent at procrastination, make undue profits and swagger. Our love for complaints is so great that many of us do not see beyond getting a white collar job after university convocation.  I can imagine a whole lots of complaints been made by our constituency towards this present administration. Most complaints directed to this administration is coming from us and I keep wondering what have we done as youths to ease the burden of this administration. How many of us have applied common sense in starting small scale businesses to help grow our economy.  And those of us that have started, how are we hoping to sustain and make the best out of it. To those that have not started, how are we encouraging those that have started? Are we patronizing the locally made goods?  How are we helping our naira to grow when we do not even patronize our own locally made goods? Our love for foreign made goods is alarming. We are growing another country’s economy from every single purchase of goods we make. Unfortunately, most of what we purchase are made or initiated by youths in those countries. Their initiative to the development of their economy makes them to be relevant in governance and decision making processes. They dictate because of their firm involvement in development of their countries. That is why they have a proper leadership template to ride on. How many of us have given wide range of suggestions to the present administration as to what the youth constituency needed. How many of us are tapping from the neglected sectors of our economy irrespective of our university degrees? How many of us? Our application of the common sense message by Senator Ben Bruce comes to place at this point.

If common sense is required by the Youths of this country to make life easy for them, I would want to believe that common sense is also required by the government at all levels to create an enabling environment where businesses can triumph.  Our economy could even be said to be sick at the moment. Anybody that fails to see this may be living in denial. This is not about party or interest group affiliations; it is about the reality of the moment. No youth, and I repeat no youth of this country can compete favourably when he/she is been denied of basic amenities that can make him/her function well. Senator Ben Bruce has put it rightly as he had urged the government and the party in power to have an ear to the ground and soup up advice. Who knows where the solution to our economic situation will come from if not from the empowered youths? It is time for the government to adopt brain infrastructures and not tired and old machineries. This is the common sense to economic progress. The youths!

 (WHYTE HABEEB IBIDAPO is a Lawyer, United Nations Award winner, Africa International Arbitration Award winner, Coca cola/ The Nation Campuslife Award Winner, Promasidor Runner-up for the Best Future Writer in Nigeria, i-Hustle Campaign Initiative – Ambassador and Editor – Egba Youth Awards Foundation.

Email: whyte287@gmail.com

@whytehabeeb

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

The media has evolved rapidly in the last decade with the innovation of e-platforms. These platforms have simplified communications for everyone.  In simple term, media implies the main means of mass communication (television, radio, newspaper, and the internet). Journalism on the other hand means the profession of writing for newspaper or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television. Internet has changed the face of media, the platforms have evolved from analogue to internet based, but this doesn’t change journalism as a profession. In the traditional world, newspapers, corporations, governments, or other types of leading organizations simply had to give out information, and people would consume it by reading or looking at it. But this seemingly tried-and-true method is transforming as people want to have their voices heard.

Before being able to define the relationship between social media and journalism, it’s vital to explain journalism’s purpose and troubles within the media industry as a whole.  Today, the open access to social media makes many users carry the title “journalist” but journalism as a profession is not defined by access to a Facebook or Twitter account with large audience. The impact of social media on journalism cannot be overemphasized, it aids reporting and dissemination of reports, it has strengthen some of journalism major objectives: truth, transparency and giving a voice to the masses, however, today, everyone want to be heard, they want to register their voices on socio-political and economic matters in the media, thus they believe they should contribute their content and opinion which has been made easy with social media.

There is a shift from traditional media, like newspapers and magazines, to digital news sources. Journalist can be a social media user, but not all social media users can be a journalist. Journalists use social media/new media to promote their editorial material and for personal branding. As a professional tool, journalists use their social media account professionally too.

As more people have turned to Facebook and other social-media platforms as a place to gather and share ideas, many of them have assumed the status of a journalist but journalism is guided by its own ethics which majority of these users are unaware of. New media has made it possible to get information from corners of the world where previously there was very little. It gives the ‘voiceless’ a chance to speak. It democratizes media and allows viewers, listeners and readers to participate but all these don’t make them journalists. The media is a platform and it can change from time to time, journalism is a profession, the platforms may change, but the profession remains. 

Olawale Rotimi is a Writer/Journalist; he can be reached on 08105508224 or olawalerotty@gmail.com  

—
Olawale Rotimi
B.A, M.A Ilorin, DELF Paris.
T: @RotimiLawale
“You don’t struggle to grow, grow the grass and the sheep will come, nurture it and they will never. Increase in quality not in quantity”

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

I read an interesting article recently in which the author, objecting to President Muhammadu Buhari’s frequent travels abroad pointed out that Presidential spokespersons since 1999, including this writer, have always justified such trips using essentially the same arguments. The fellow quoted copiously and derisively from my State House press statements and an article by me titled “The Gains of Jonathan’s Diplomacy”.

Those who object to Presidential travels abroad do so for a number of reasons: (a) the cost on the grounds of frequency and size of estacode-collecting delegation, with multiple officers performing the same function tagging along on every trip,  (b) the need to make better use of diplomats in foreign missions and Foreign Ministry officials who can act in delegated capacity; (c) the failure to see the immediate and long-term gains of Presidential junket, thus creating the impression of a jamboree or mindless tourism, and (d) the conviction that the President needs to stay at home to address urgent domestic challenges, rather than live out of a suitcase, in the air. While these reasons may seem understandable, arising as they are from anxieties about reducing wastage and increasing governmental efficiency for the people’s benefit, I still insist that Presidential trips are important, and that by travelling abroad, the President is performing a perfectly normal function.

We may however, complain about abuses and the reduction of an important function to tourism for after all, in eight years, President Bill Clinton of the United States travelled only 54 times – only by Nigerian standards, but we must also admit that the President is the country’s chief diplomat. In our constitutional democracy, he is the main articulator and implementer of the country’s foreign policy. He appoints ambassadors who function in their various posts as his representatives. He also receives other country’s ambassadors. Emissaries from other countries or multilateral organizations consider their visits incomplete without an audience with the President, and it is his message that they take back home.

He visits other Presidents and he also gets visited by other world leaders; an interaction that provides him an opportunity to give effect to Section 19 of the 1999 Constitution which defines the objectives of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy. In doing this, he is expected to strengthen relationships with other countries, at government to government and people to people levels in the national interest.

The President is also the country’s chief spokesperson, and that is why what he says, or what he does when he is negotiating within the international arena on Nigeria’s behalf is of great consequence, and this is particularly why on at least two occasions recently, Nigerians were inconsolably upset when their President chose a foreign stage to put down his own country, and people. This clarification of the role of the President as the country’s chief diplomat may sound didactic, and I apologise if it comes across as pedantic, but this is necessary for the benefit of those who may be tempted to assume that the job of a President is to sit in one place at home and act as a mechanic and ambulance chaser. The concerns that have been expressed however point to something far more complex, and I seek to now problematize aspects of it.

One of the concerns often expressed is that the trips that have been made by our Presidents since 1999 look too much alike. It is as if every President that shows up, embarks on exactly the same junket to the same locations, for the same reasons: foreign direct investment, agriculture, security, co-operation etc. etc. accompanied by a large retinue that includes many of the same officials who travelled with the former President and had prepared the same MOUs that will be signed again, with the new spokespersons telling us the same story all over again.

Nigerians are therefore not impressed with the seeming conversion of the country’s foreign policy process into a money-guzzling ritual. This, I think, is the crux of the matter. Whereas our foreign policy objective talks about national interest, what constitutes that national interest has been blurry and chameleonic in the last 55 years and more so since the return to civilian rule in 1999.  National interest has been replaced majorly by personal interest and it is the worst tragedy that can befall a country’s foreign policy process. We run a begin-again foreign relations framework because every new President wants to make his own mark. The second point is that he is compelled to do so because in any case, we do not have a strong institution to follow up on existing agreements. The international community knows this quite well, and more serious nations being more strategic and determined in the pursuit of their own interests will bombard a new Nigerian President with invitations to visit. They also know that a new President in Nigeria is likely to cancel or suspend existing agreements or contracts being executed by their nationals. The uncertainty that prevails in Nigeria is so well known, such that the gains recorded by one administration are not necessarily institutionalized.

We may have thus reduced foreign policy to individual heroism, which is sad, but institutions and human capital within this arena are critical. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, once a glorious institution is a shadow of its old self. The politicization of that Ministry has done great damage. When a President visits a country, and enters into agreements that result in Memoranda of Understanding, it is expected that there will be follow up action to be taken by officials either through Bilateral Commissions (where they exist between Nigeria and the respective country) or the issuance of instruments of ratification, leading to due implementation. Nigeria signs all kinds of documents but so many details and agreements are left unattended to. There is too much politics in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and too much rivalry between career foreign affairs personnel and the politicians who do not allow them to function as professionals. This has to stop, otherwise every new President has to start again and embark on trips that should have been taken care of at the level of bilateral commissions or the ministry.

Career foreign affairs personnel are critical to the shaping of foreign policy. They are the agents through which states communicate with each other, negotiate, and sustain relationships. The only thing they complain about in that Ministry is lack of money. It is the same with the Missions abroad. Give them money, but there is always a greater need for professionalism, which makes the diplomats of Nigeria’s golden era so sad. The foreign policy process also works better when there is Inter-Ministerial and Intra-governmental collaboration. The tendency in Nigeria is for every department of government to operate as an independent foreign policy unit. Government officials get invited to functions by foreign embassies, without clearance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they just troop there to eat free food, but they never keep their mouths shut.  Nigerian officials are probably the most talkative in the world and with foreigners, they will offer their mother’s life history to make them appear important. That is not how to run foreign relations. There must be control, co-ordination, discipline, clarity and sanctions.

Every world leader wants to meet the Nigerian President. Nigeria is a strategic market and a very cheap one too, a source of raw materials and a dumping ground for finished products, with a consumptive population. Our balance sheet in all our relationships is unbalanced even in Africa, which we once described as the centerpiece of our foreign policy. We have toyed with many slogans: dynamic diplomacy, economic diplomacy, concentric circles of medium powers, citizen diplomacy, transformational diplomacy, what else/- the Buharideens are yet to come up with their own, but you wait, they will soon come up with something- really, the truth is that Nigeria’s foreign policy process is not strategic or competitive enough.

Within Africa, it is driven by too much kindness rather than enlightened self-interest, or deliberate search for sustainable advantages. A Donatus mentality has seen Nigeria over the years looking out for its African neighbours, donating money, supporting their causes, but Nigeria has gained little from this charity-driven diplomacy. Many of the countries we have helped to build openly despise us at international meetings, they struggle for positions with Nigeria, they humiliate our citizens in diaspora, and when they return later to beg for vehicles, or money to pay their civil servants or run elections, we still oblige them. The attempt in recent years to review all of this, and be more strategic should be sustained.

We must wield the carrot and the stick more often. American Presidents don’t just visit other countries, they make statements and often alter the course of history with their mere presence as Kennedy did with his visit to Berlin in 1963, Nixon in China in 1972, Jimmy Carter going to Iran in 1977, George Bush, visiting Mexico in 2001, and Obama in Cuba in 2016. In the international arena, we give the impression that we are ready to jump at any and every invitation in order to be seen to be friendly, but we tend to overdo this.  Foreign Affairs Ministry officials who want to be seen to be doing something will always try to convince the President to embark on all trips. The dream of every Ambassador on foreign posting is also to have his President visit, even if once during his or her tenure. The resident Ambassador is happy, the Foreign Affairs folks get quality eye-time with the President but the hosts look at us and wonder what is wrong with our country signing the same agreements with the emergence of every President and not being able to act.

It does not help either that with every new President, we talk about reviewing Nigeria’s Foreign Policy. We are probably the only country in the world that is always reviewing Foreign Policy and informing the whole world. That should be the routine work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, with inputs from the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), and the Presidential Advisory Committee on Foreign Affairs.

We must never lose sight of a necessary linkage between domestic policy and foreign policy. What exactly is in it for the average Nigerian, for the Nigerian economy and for Nigeria? Do we have the capacity to maximize gains from foreign interactions?  Always, the real challenge lies in getting our acts together and tying up the loose ends in terms of sustainable policy choices, infrastructure, culture, leadership, and strategic engagement.

During the last Presidential elections, I supported the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari. I did not only support in words, I did in action and also financially contributed to his campaign from the little I have. I have never met the retired General, I seek no political position or juicy contract and I am not a member of any political party. I supported Muhammadu Buhari because I believed, and still believe, he was the best option we had out of all the candidates that we were asked to choose from in 2015. Depending on who you ask about the administration’s performance till date, it could be said to be an outright disappointment, mediocre performance or absolutely satisfactory. I am not a praise singer or a doomsday prophet. I am a Nigerian that feel what my people feel and fear what my people fear. Simply put, I am just a hardworking Nigerian that wants the basic necessities of life and an assurance of a better tomorrow.

The current hardship in the land cannot and should not be denied by anyone. The Presidency, National Assembly, Political parties, religious bodies, Labour Unions and the society at large must know that the average Nigerian today has at no other time in the history of this country feared extinction like now. Unfortunately, these are the same people that almost all facets of the society have chosen to abandon, or at the very best, relegate to the background. A man requires more efforts to get fuel in Nigeria now than he requires to walk through the eye of a needle. Likewise, the state of the country’s power generation facilities has become wantonly ridiculous.

While it is easy to heap all of these on the current administration, the truth is that we are only seeing the results of past “leadership iniquities”. I am convinced also that the government of President Buhari has also not been forth coming as he and his party promised during the election. Expectedly, the anti-corruption President is pursuing the moral, social and humane decay in the last administration. No reasonable person will oppose such war against corrupt official trusted with the funds of the country but who chose to enrich themselves and their cronies. We have read, heard and seen how monies meant to fight evil have been pocketed by silently evil men. If not for any reason, these persons must be tried for the thousands of Nigerians that could still have been alive today but now dead as a result of depriving the Nigerian soldiers the resources to combat Boko Haram. Other corrupt cases must also be conclusively pursued; the Senate Speaker should answer for his charges and discharged and acquitted if he is found innocent, the NIS recruitment saga that took the lives of 18 persons should be properly investigated, those involved in the popular case of the two most expensive BMW cars in the world should also not be spared and all looted funds recovered. This should be the same for all individual irrespective of tribe, political or religious affiliation or gender. It is time in Nigeria for all citizens especially government officials to understand that responsibilities come with accountability.

Today, very few understand or even know the economic pathway that the current administration intends to follow to bring us out of the current mess that we are in. A lot of people have said the government has none. While I disagree that the government does not have an economic development plan as it has been accused in recent times, it is my belief that the plan may not have been articulately communicated to the citizens. The government of President Buhari should know that although Nigerians elected him President to lead the country for the next four years, we also expect him to share his vision and plans with us and not run a cult-like government as he has been accused of doing in recent times. What the administration has achieved in credibility for corruption intolerance, it has lost in its dissemination of information, citizens’ awareness and orientation. As things stand, President Buhari seems to have been bitten by the same “awkward-spokespersons” bug that bit the last President. His media aides find it more pleasurable to pick a fight rather than engage the citizens in thoughts and debates.

10 months have gone out of 48 months that the President has to show that we made no mistake in electing him. Either President Buhari likes it or not, the liabilities and failures of the past governments – Chibok girls, dysfunctional systems, power generation, rule of law, unemployment, infrastructural decay, corruption etc. are now on his table and not that of anyone else. I pray for his good health and divine guidance as he continues to weather this stormy terrain. However, I will like to tell him that he now has 38 months to redeem himself and the promises he made during his campaign else we discuss him afterwards as we do of the ones before him.

Follow me at @lanreshadiya

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

So let’s say you earned N100,000 a month and suddenly find yourself earning N30,000 a month due to some circumstances beyond your control (some self-inflicted). The only outcome here is that your life won’t be the same, in fact it will turn out worse. This, my friend, is the lot of Nigeria today.

A banker friend of mine, had before the elections told me that year 2016 was going to be a tough year for most countries, especially Nigeria, irrespective of who wins the general elections. His assertion was based on the (projected) drop in oil prices. I hope we have enough in our reserve was what he always sang. Today, Nigeria is in dire straits, no thanks to the drop in oil prices.

This is almost like a sing song, but I want to retell it. As a layman, I know that 90 percent of why Nigeria is where she is today (especially the Naira to dollar exchange rate) is over-reliance on petrol. Now, most of our foreign earnings come from petro dollar and here is a country that used to make around 100 billion in dollars when oil was sold at above 100 dollars per barrel. Local demand for the dollar to import toothpicks, matches and all those things we can easily produce, were around 60 billion. Once one does the maths a la the supply and demand of dollar, one gets excess of at least 20(?), 30(?), 40(?), billion dollars. This reserve was squandered by one of the most kleptomaniac governments this country has ever known.

Today, we earn around 30 billion dollars with oil selling at around 30 dollars per barrel and local demand for dollars still is as it is! This answers the question as regards why we are where we are today. No miracle was going to stop us from suffering for the wastage of yesterday. Today, we are suffering for not saving, scratch that, we are suffering for squandering what was saved for the rainy days. Today we are still suffering from fuel importation when we could have built functional refineries long time ago. Today we are paying for the mental laziness of not diversifying our economy despite warnings that our oil may dry up!

It is preposterous that we still import matches. What business does Nigeria have with importing toothpicks when there are bamboo sticks everywhere? Pray, what business does Nigeria have importing Saint Louis sugar from France? Is it not sugar cane processing that produces sugar? Go to the North, see Sugar cane and pass out! Is it not a curse that we import Milo when we have quantum of cocoa in the west?

The drop in oil prices may just be a blessing in disguise. That it is a wakeup call is a fact. The question is are we ready to take this chance to stop wallowing in our shallowness?

Take water aside, food drives the world. You can never go wrong with Agriculture. Agricultural productivity is important for a country’s economy as well as health of its population.

The people’s republic of China had a suffering economy for a while until she put Agriculture at the forefront of her national economy. China assisted in improving the conditions of Agricultural productions continuously by stabilizing the basic policies in rural areas. Farmers were mobilized by the government so as to bring about sustained and stable growth. Today, the net export of almost all classification of Agricultural products is on the positive, from Maize to drink/wines, coffees and tea. Today, China apart from being self-sufficient, ranks first in worldwide farm output. China today, is one of the world’s largest economy, as well as the largest exporter of goods in the world. The lesson here is, we need to go back to Agriculture. As stated earlier one can never go wrong with it!

Singapore, during the Asian financial crisis of 1997 experienced same economic downturn akin to what we have here today. This crisis led her to change policy direction.

In their book, Dynamic governance: Embedding culture, capabilities and Change in Singapore, Boon Siong and Geraldine Chen posited that when it comes to government , Singapore often seeks to defy the law of gravity. It has government organizations that are highly efficient. Decisions in Singapore usually get made based on merit, not because of corruption, ideology or self-aggrandizement.  The revenue generated by government-linked corporations has operated without any need for foreign borrowing. The absence of corruption in these corporations has also helped in the development of Singapore.

The implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which has saved this country a lot and has ensured efficient cash management, as well as the fight against corruption in Nigeria mirror this. These are laudable and should continue with extra intensity if we are serious about getting out of this quagmire. Good thing we are getting back most of our looted funds and the renewed efforts at tackling corruption is not a ruse. People now know there is a new normal: stealing is corruption and it has its consequences!

President Buhari rode on the massive good will of the people to come to power after Nigerians got tired of a defalcating government. I am not sure he will waste that after trying and failing three times. We all knew it would not be rosy. Yes, he has had his downs like not having a clear economic policy as well as not putting substitutes in place before taking some decisions on Forex ban et al but there is no doubt the President means well for Nigeria. Of course goodwill enough can’t change Nigeria from the mess of yester years, I however believe President Buhari will in no distant time start to match this will with actions.

I am certain he knows that one year already gone and that Nigerians are beginning to demand for a clear direction to a good life. I reiterate that I have never been this optimistic about any government in Nigeria despite the brief hard times. It’s 11 months in and hopefully with the signing and implementation of the budget, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We just need to be a little patient, what we are going through today is that storm before the calm.

No Fuel, No light: Nigerians Deserve Answers

Electricity is one thing people cannot live without in today’s world and the consequence of the lack of it cannot be over-emphasized. When there is lack of electricity, everything suffers, from businesses to the household. Add that to the non-availability of fuel and its welcome to hell.

One can almost touch the suffering that masses have been going through for some weeks now. The queues at the fuel stations almost bring tears to my eyes (no kidding). It is unbearable and the fact that the government is not saying anything concrete especially in the area of power is bothersome. Blaming vandals (and asking us to go after them) for the darkness is unacceptable. It is the job of this government to tackle this monster head on! This is exactly why we voted out Jonathan’s government of pilferers.

I know this is not the intention of the President but I wonder how hard it is to explain happenings like these to Nigerians. We are a patient people but this ungloden silence can make it run out! This is one problem I have with this administration and the earlier this changes the better. People are suffering, people are angry, people are running out of patience and the least that can be done is some kind of explanation – they need talking to and the silence of this government is just adding to the people’s frustration.

What has gone wrong all of a sudden in the power sector after the initial honey moon? What is been done to nip whatever the issue is in the bud? What efforts have been put in place? When do we expect an improvement? Is it going to be a stop gap or a permanent solution? Are we exploring other sources of Energy? How long more do we have to wait? Are the queues really going to disappear by 7^th or is Dr. Kachikwu just trying to douse the tension? What is the state of our refineries? How long do we still have to wait before they start to function properly?

Nigerians demand and deserve answers!

Chiechefulam Ikebuiro

chiechefulam.ikebuiro@gmail.com

@thalynxis on twitter

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Let us take the statement credited to Professor James Hansen, NASA’s Chief Climate Scientist, which he wrote in a report (in 2007): ‘The Earth today stands in imminent peril and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change’. This statement only proves that the challenge of climate change is real. Since the turn of this century it has become a global (if not) security challenge. What everyone- at least those who agree with the reality of this menace- agrees with is that only a concerted global effort, involving the governments of all nations, will be enough to avert its dangerous consequences. Be that as it may, the individual actions of the ordinary people are still crucial. Large and complex issues, like climate change, are usually best tackled by breaking down the problem into manageable bits for proper analysis. This was what led to the gathering of world leaders in Paris, France in December, 2015 to seek ways of minimising the negative effects of climate change.

The Paris Agreement is said to be the first universal, comprehensive and legally-binding deal seeking to tackle the menace of global warming. Perhaps, this was why David Cameron, the British Prime Minister said remarked (about the agreement): “a huge step forward in helping to secure the future of our planet”. The deal is also unique in that it commits nations to trying to keep global temperature rises “well below” 2C, the level that is likely to herald the worst effects of climate change.

To properly analyse the vexed issue of the ozone layer depletion, we need to first understand its causes. But before we go on to analyse the causes and the options for developing countries we need to make some germane clarifications. First, we are going to be using Nigerian specific cases and as it relates to how the scourge affect us as a people. Secondly, this writer does not intend to part in the political debate of the reality or otherwise of the menace as it has been reduced to in some other climes.

Like every known human-created problems, the causes of climate change are still with us. Our people have yet to come to terms with the fact that human activities are primarily responsible for the emissions of four principal green-house gases: carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and the halocarbons (a group of gases containing bromine, fluorine and chlorine). These dangerous gases accumulate in the atmosphere, causing concentrations to increase with time. Significant increases in all of these gases occur in the industrial areas such as Lagos, Port Harcourt and other urban centres.

Human emission of carbon dioxide has increased from the use of fossil fuel in transportation in densely populated areas; bush burning (especially in the rural areas) and other industrial activities in the country. Deforestation has been scientifically proven to be responsible for releasing CO₂ and reducing its uptake by plants. Carbon dioxide is also released in natural processes such as the decay of plant matter.

As a result of human activities in agriculture, natural gas distribution and landfills, methane has increased. Methane is also released from natural processes that occur in wetlands. Incidentally, Nigeria is one of the countries in the world richly endowed with both coastal and inland wetlands, while the country’s food supply shortages are met through wetland production. Climate experts say that there are eleven internationally-recorgnised wetlands in Nigeria, while altogether wetland covers about three per cent of the country’s land surface. This report, if proven to be true, means that the time has come to start taking climate change seriously.

Nitrous oxide is also emitted by human activities such as fertilizer use and careless burning of fossil fuel. Natural processes in soils and the oceans also said to release N₂O.

Though, itself not directly having human cause(s), desertification or desert encroachment in the Northern (especially the north eastern) part of the country is one of the effects of human interactions with the environment.  This region we must not forget is strongly associated with serial bomb blasts (as a result of terrorists’ acts), bush fires, erosion, ecosystem losses and the likes have had major economic impacts on humans. Relocation of farmlands and movements of people from their natural environments to new places increases the risk of global warming. Since man’s first natural instincts survival, it is understandable if people attempt to “conquer the environment” by this instinct. These often results in crops and forests stressing, species (particularly fuels) threatening, fire, coral reef bleaching for food or other uses. But unknown to them, they in the process instead of surviving end up “killing” the environment and endangering future generations.

In Lagos and other coastal states of the Niger-Delta, sea level rise and storm surges with major impacts on coastal development, infrastructure, saline intrusion, loss of coastal wetlands. Though the Lagos State Government has done a lot to combat the scourge of storm surges, which has been a nuisance to inhabitants in the state in the past, little do people know that they were suffering from the consequences of their (in)actions to the environment.

Oceans have absorbed about thirty per cent of human-made carbon dioxide around the world, storing dissolved carbon for hundreds of years. As the uptake of carbon dioxide has increased in the last century, so has the acidity of oceans worldwide. Acidification of oceans has had its attendant consequences on marine life, reefs and fisheries.

Many may not like to admit it that the scourge of global warming is also partly a security issue. The present international refugee and economic crisis arising partly from global terrorism (Boko Haram case in Nigeria) and from rise in sea level; flooding of large population centres, in particular in north eastern part of the country (including the Internally Displaced Persons or IDP camps as a result of insurgency) have added to the complicated challenge of climate change in Nigeria.

It can be so easy to talk about the challenges of global warming without coming out with any meaningful solution. It is said that it is very easy to destroy but it is never easy to create. It is on this note that having identified the cause, we feel we are duty-bound to present the solutions.

Just as we were able to show that over sixty per cent of the causes of climate change are as a result of human depletion of the environment, we must understand that the solutions to climate change lies in our hands. As developing nations, it is understandable if government takes the lead role(s) in our daily lives. This is why we have divided much of our proposed solutions into those dealing with policies (from the political systems) and those having to do with behavioural change (on the part of the citizens).

Having laid this template, let us now go on to present our proposed solutions.

First, developing nations must make climate change a serious political issue. In Australia for instance,  the 2007 Federal election was strongly influenced by the stance made by competing political parties on climate change. It is therefore so pathetic and worrying that developing countries do not appear to be taking global warming as a sort of national emergency. For example, Nigeria’s two main political parties, the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have no official views either in their manifestoes or any other document regarding climate change at least during the 2015 presidential campaigns. Are we really serious about tackling this challenge head-on?

No matter how we view this scourge now, one thing is obvious- that the strong and urgent action needed to combat climate change will require a healthy dose of political will, and the courage to make tough choices to save ourselves and the future generations. Before we are misconstrued, we need to come out clear that climate change should be a totally non-partisan issue as it has been in Nigeria but since it affects all people and all countries there are times we need to sake sides. If climate change is continued to be seen by the major political parties as an important issue, for so long will it be marginalised by apparently more immediate concerns.

The next option is for Nigeria to consider “green electricity“. By ‘Green electricity’’ we mean the  electricity produced from sources which do not cause burning coal and gas in power stations which releases millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main gas responsible for climate change and in turn have negative consequences on the environment. It is true that every type of electricity generation will have some impact (positive or negative), but some sources are more “green” than others. The safest energy sources are those that utilise the natural energy flows of the Earth. These are known as renewable energy sources, because they will never run out. There is a scientific prognosis that the future of energy clearly likes in renewable sources such as solar, wind and wave power. Aside from climate change, there are limits to available oil, natural gas and coal. ‘Green power’ is electricity that comes from these technologies, but is delivered to you in the same way as ‘dirty power’ from fossil-fuel burning. That is, down your power lines. As more people take up this scheme, it will drive ever greater investment in these technologies, reduce cost of delivery, and so further hasten the pace of update. It’s a feedback, and you can be the catalyst of change. This green energy has been used in the United Kingdom and other advanced countries for several years include taking advantage of: Wind, Solar, Hydro and Wave, and Tidal power. There is also Geothermal, Biomass, Landfill gas and Waste incineration. Due to lack of the technical know-how, Nigeria and many other developing countries may not be able to afford the use of more complex green energy sources like the Biomass, Geothermal, Landfill gases, but definitely they can afford the rest. The strategic position of Nigeria in sub-Saharan Africa affords it unique atmospheric condition to adopt the weather-related elements like the Wind, Solar and Hydro power. Also, thanks to the growing population of the developing countries, we generate enormous amount of waste hence limiting space at landfill sites. The political leadership in these countries must urgently see the need to convert these ever-increasing wastes to a viable source of income for their citizens. This should also include giving incentives for development of clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, geothermal (hot rocks), hydrogen, tidal and wave. Another incentive may also be for development of large-scale clean energy utilities, including solarthermal, solar-desalination and wind-water extraction plants in outback regions using highly efficient high voltage DC cables to supply electricity to major cities.

The next option is to advocacy. There is need for strong advocacy for the use of efficient household energy for our people. In Nigeria, many of us unthinkingly leave lights on when we are not in the room, or switch off the television sets by the remote instead of at the wall, fire up the heater on when we could put on an extra layer of clothing, or turn on the air conditioner when we could open the window and turn on a fan. It is a force of habit – a bad habit we can break, with just a little thought. The behaviour change we advocate lies at the heart of most individual actions on reducing our individual carbon footprint. By being sensible about our household energy uses, and making sure our houses are well insulated, we can make a huge dent in our CO₂ emissions. This will save us huge amount of money that we no longer need to spend on wasted energy time.

Aside behavioural changes, we should consider investing in technologies that help us in our daily lives as a nation. Our people must learn to- when buying new electronic appliances such as air conditioners or washing machines- take note of their energy and water usage. The more energy efficient they are, the more they will save us in the long run, and the lower their CO₂  emissions will be. In most cases the ‘payback period’ – the difference between the initial cost of a high versus low efficiency appliance and the long-term savings in lower electricity and water bills, is only a matter of a few months to a few years. After that, people will be smiling to the bank while at the same time doing something meaningful to combat climate change at the same time. How easier can things get?

In a nation that is strictly consumer oriented, we must learn that cars are not only slow means to get to work when you’re faced with a city gridlock – they are also a huge user of oil (which is running out globally) and cost the tax payer heft amounts in road building and maintenance. In a city like Lagos where the challenge of traffic is huge on working days, time, money and energy will be saved if people park their cars at home and take public transport to work.  Getting people to their destinations by trains, buses, bikes and on foot is much more greenhouse friendly, and often considerably cheaper. The main problem right now with public transport is that because not enough people use it, there is not enough investment by government to improve the quality of service and capacity to support large volumes of commuters. It might seem like a difficult task, but larger cities in developed economies have solved the dilemma and now move most of their people about on public transport. So our people must cultivate the habit of patronising our public transport network, and push governments at all levels for more investment in the sector. Also walking trails instead of building more and more roads for cars and worrying incessantly about fuel costs will reduce carbon emissions. The transition to a new transport system has to start with each and every one of us. There is need for major improvements in public transport and rapid development of more energy-efficient private transport.

We must address the issue of waste disposal. We dispatch too much of things we need and re-cycle too little of what we must throw away. Large amounts of energy and water is invested in producing endless amounts of these “trash”, much of which we do not really need or end up using. So we must use our local recycling service, for plastics, metals and paper. We must avoid the temptation to buy things we do not need like trinkets and knick-knacks, just because it feels good to accumulate things. There are limits to everything, including, most importantly, the ability of the planet to supply people with an ever burgeoning supply of raw materials. We must think above sustainability over suitability.

Also, Nigeria should participate in international negotiations and agreements placing constraints on emissions from coal. Nigeria is a major coal producing nation with large coal deposits in Enugu and other places. The country must consider enforcing and domesticating the numerous regulations concerning the burning of fossil fuels. Part of the enforcement mechanism should include sanctions on erring members of the public. Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency or similar ones should be empowered to educate the public on environmental awareness; ruthlessly prosecute offenders of the regulations and perform any other function(s) confer on it by the National Assembly regarding reduction of CO₂ emissions.

To counter the effects of desertification, governments at levels must discourage deforestation through making of laws and policies which are aimed at such. These laws must include compulsory planting of trees in schools and public spaces. The state must be firm in preventing careless falling of trees for uneconomic uses like cooking and for household consumptions. This will go a long way to reduce the effects of climate change.

Our proposals in this piece, we must admit, form part of the solutions, not the solutions. But we insist that if followed thoroughly by developing countries, they can be the much-needed answers to the critical question of climate change. The solutions are nowhere else but in our hands. But to show our seriousness about this, we must be ready to leave politics aside and tackle this monster head-on!

Olalekan Waheed Adigun is a political risk analyst and an independent political strategist for wide range of individuals, organisations and campaigns based in Lagos, Nigeria. Email: olalekan@olalekanadigun.com, adgorwell@gmail.com. Follow me on twitter: @adgorwell

 Dear Mr. Femi Adesina; I bring to you this passage from the Holy Bible: “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls- 1 Corinthians 10:12”. That is my message for you today. Meanwhile, I will try as much as I can, to keep it brief but concise, lest you call me a wailing wailer.

Sir, may I remind you that your appointment into your present position came on the 31^st May 2015, you resumed officially into office on the 9^th June, 2105 and on the 1^st July, 2015, barely a month after your resumption into the President Buhari`s led administration as the special adviser on media & publicity to the president, you coined the phrase- “wailing wailers”.

Sir, if you remember vividly, that tweet and the phrase- wailing wailers, was not without condemnations from all well meaning Nigerians including myself who feel every Nigerian include those that wanted the last administration to retain power for another 4 years deserves the right to challenge, criticize and condemn any action or inaction of the present administration.

Government owes it to the people to explain politely to them whatsoever calls for an explanation. It is called transparency and accountability- I know that isn`t difficult for anybody grown enough to be a special assistant to the president to comprehend.

We may actually live in a society where politicians are only seen to be humble and assessable during the electioneering period and immediately after the elections are over, they return to their real self and become invisible. Eating up every word they’ve said and denying every promise they have made. But even at that, it doesn`t still justify why their spokesperson like you, should go the line of insulting those that voted their boss in power.

Few weeks ago on a live television show- Sunday Politics with Mr. Seun Okinbaloye, you called out Nigerians to go hold vandals responsible for the blackout that has befallen the country for a while now. In your words: “If some Nigerians are crying over power outage, they should hold those people who vandalized the installations responsible”. Sir, that statement was ridiculous and insensitive, least expected from a spokesperson to the “President of Change”.

As if that was not enough, just last week on “The Osasu Show”, you again descended on Nigerians for asking you why the President has not visited Agatu after the massacre. In your response, you likened Nigerians to children whose lollipops have been taken away. In your words: “Now, how will a new administration…and maybe whenever the president says something, you just start hearing noise, wah, wah, wah, wah, like a child whose lollipop has been taken away”.

Sir, with all sincerity, you sounded much more responsible and thoughtful before your appointment. How you suddenly became vulgar and choose to go the way of your predecessor- The Attack Lion, baffles me. I doubt if the president knew about your vulgarity before appointing you. And if he did, then I fault him for having you come on his team in the first place.

At this rate you`re going, there is no better way to define “the arrogance of power” but by the actions you have displayed since your resumption as spokesperson to the president. Your vulgarity is fast becoming unbearable, embarrassing and worrisome.

Democracy gives room for the people to ask and for the leaders to answer politely. I do not shy away from the fact that some questions may seem insensitive and purposely directed to malign you or your boss. But then, there is always a way to respond to a foolish and insensitive question without one sounding controversial and insensitive. This is the quality expected of you as a spokesperson to the president.

Lola Shoneye gave a clue on how you could have answered the question on the Agatu visit without you necessarily insulting any group of people. Check this out: “The president was greatly saddened by the conflict in Agatu. As C-in-C, he is unwavering in his commitment to rid Nigeria of the violence that’s causing hardship and disruption for so many. Naturally, president Buhari wishes he could visit and commiserate with the affected communities whenever these tragedies occur, but engagements and meetings, many of which are economy or security –related, mean he sometimes has to be represented by senior governent officials”. I know you can do this and even do much more better than this.

The tragedy of history is that man hardly learns from it. But in your own case, learn from it! Do not go the way of your predecessor- who chooses to be called the “Attack Lion” and then ending up doing more harm than good to his boss. Learn from his trajectory!

Do think about this Sir and do not see it as an act of unnecessary wailing.

It is my wish that you succeed in your present position and endeavors. It is my wish that the president Buhari`s led administration succeeds too. And it is my uttermost wish that Nigeria works for all. However, you must not fail to recognize that it is the right of the people to continuously question the government while it is the duty of the government to humbly provide suitable and responsible answers to their question as it deems fit.

This is not a voice of a wailing wailer; it is a passionate caution call for you to take heed lest you fall.

Yours sincerely,

Ogundana Michael Rotimi is a Nigerian Biochemist, Socio-economic & Political Commentator, and Public Speaker. He tweets @MickeySunny.

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

It is no longer news that about 15 Local Governments in Benue state are affected by the on-going invasion and occupation by armed fulani herdsmen (Agatu remains the most affected). These attacks by herdsmen did not spare women or children. In some instances a whole family has been wiped out. It is so sad that these poor villagers have been forced out of their homes by armed herdsmen to take refuge in classrooms and open fields while their homes are now occupied by herdsmen and their cattle. It is even more sad and annoying that the Nigerian State is doing little or nothing about it.

Beginning with the State government, The Governor has not been speaking clear enough or at most only laments about the situation. He has failed to tell us what exactly he is doing to make sure these armed herdsmen are neutralised so that displaced people can go back home. At the moment of writing this piece, the governor has not visited Agatu or any of the troubled communities.

Our President on the other hand has been eloquently silent. It took the presidency days to release a statement after about six communities in Agatu were completely burnt down by these armed fulani herdsmen. According to the president’s spokesman, the president ordered an investigation but more and more villages continue to come under attack and this is evident in the number of IDP camps that have been opened since this statement was made. I will not be far from the truth if I accuse the president of sitting and doing nothing as armed fulani herdsmen commit genocide in the Benue valley.

Our security and law enforcement agencies are also acting strange. The Inspector General of Police visited Benue and remained in the State’s capital city of Makurdi but went back to tell the world that the killings in Agatu was exaggerated. There are still dead bodies littered in those communities that are under siege and those displaced can’t go back home but the number one police officer is saying the Agatu massacre has been exaggerated. Is that what he went back to tell the President? While the people of Benue were running from their homes and counting dead bodies because of armed fulani herdsmen, the Inspector-General of Police announced he was deploying three Commissioners of Police to Rivers state for election. Are the people of Benue lesser human beings? He will later claim to deploy more policemen and operational vehicles to Benue state command but up to this moment nobody can tell the level of progress they have made. Those who visited Agatu on a fact finding mission with Senator David Mark told us there are very few military personnel on ground who said they were not given any specific orders. So what is actually going on?

Those who visited Agatu told us Agatu is dead. They showed us pictures of dead bodies littered around, over grazed and destroyed farms, burnt houses and bans. The story is the same in about 14 other affected Local governments across the state. It is alarming that these armed fulani herdsmen are walking around with sophisticated weapons and the Nigerian State is doing nothing.

The narrative gaining prominence by the day is that government is reluctant to act because President Buhari is a fulani man. That They are all afraid of offending the President by acting against fulani people even if they are committing genocide. I don’t know if this is true but this narrative will continue to gain prominence if the Nigerian government continue to behave strange. This is how we ignored boko haram till they became powerful beyond our imagination. The media most times refer to the genocide in Benue as a “clash” between herdsmen and farmers and some justify their actions with a claim that the farmers provoked the herdsmen by killing their cattle. This is how people will continue to find excuses for them till they become powerful beyond our imagination. If they can use sophisticated firearms to occupy villages in Benue state without any challenge from the Nigerian State, why won’t they do that in any other part of the country? This is why the whole Nation must be worried.

What is happening in Benue is genocide. These armed fulani herdsmen kill anything on their path that is not fulani or their cattle. Some who are lucky to escape the matchet and bullets of the herdsmen still die in the classrooms or open fields that are called IDP camps. These atrocities cannot be relegated to the background of national conversation. The government must act now and make sure the displaced people return to their homes as quick as possible. The president must come out clear in words and deeds that he truly belongs to everybody. Government must rise to its responsibility to protect lives and property.

Bemdoo Hulugh is an active citizen and he writes from Makurdi

You can also interact with him on twitter @bumy

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

I do solemnly promise that this article is not a vendetta or a rant but an expression (without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion) of the mind of the majority of Nigerians. The minds of the younger ones that have had sleep taken away from their eyes for very many nights in the name of preparing for UTME, and still don’t have anything to show for it. I will also suggest possible solutions to this issue, so that the people that are on the other side of this matter will not think somebody is just trying to start wailing. So help me God. Amen.

As at 1977 when there were only thirteen universities in Nigeria, each of those universities conducted its own matriculation examinations, and offered provisional admissions to deserving candidates independently. As far as many Nigerians then and now are concerned, the selection process was quite okay. At least it was fair enough; the people that were interested in any of those Universities just had to apply, write the examination, and if you are really good, admission is sure. But in 1978, the then Federal Military Government led by General Olusegun Obasanjo thought it was better to set up a body to conduct  joint or unified matriculation examinations into these thirteen universities in Nigeria, so they set up the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Most Nigerians liked the idea. In August of 1988, which was during Major General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s tenure as the Military Head of State, the decree was further strengthened to empower the body to conduct matriculation examinations for entry into all polytechnics and colleges of education, to place qualified candidates into the available places in these institutions. Again, Nigerians do not see anything wrong with that.

Today in this Country, there are almost 300 accredited tertiary institutions, and the same body is still responsible for conducting matriculation examinations into these institutions. What we need to consider is how well the body has been fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.

The way the Nigerian educational system has been structured, UTME has become most young people’s official baptism into the Nigerian Society. From nursery, through primary, to secondary school, most of their exams are internal, having the regular faces of their teachers and school management team around. Even during the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations, they see the same faces, only plus one or two external invigilators. The UTME is supposed to be an avenue for the “leaders of tomorrow” to truly test their knowledge, to learn transparency, to learn the real values of hard work, and for confidence in the society and system to be built in them. But no, I do not think that JAMB is currently achieving that. These young people now think that in Nigeria, it is not hard work that pays; that there is little or no reward for it. I mean, what shall it profit a man to read hard- spending time to burn the midnight candle, and at the end not be given the result that he deserves?  These young people now see alternatives to hard work, depending on bribery and corruption; this has made the interest of the Nigerian youth in learning, to be in a very critical condition. Parents that can afford it are taking foreign exchange out of this country to send their children to universities outside this country, even countries like the Republic of Benin and Togo. This is a big problem that will seriously affect the future of our dear Nigeria if something drastic is not done about it. I personally, think that the best time to even tackle the issue is now-this era of change, where government is making efforts to eliminate corruption- this beast that has finished having a good meal on today, and is taking large bites on the tomorrow of Nigeria.

Let us now consider the most recent UTME that was conducted, the one that made one young man who applied for a course in the University of Lagos almost commit suicide. He had written UTME in 2015, scoring 215, but this year, with more preparation and experience, made a “wonderful” score of 160.

By the time the examinations were concluded on March 14 2016, I started hearing strange things like JAMB dashing people forty marks across board, and I was wondering, “Where does that happen?” I found out that the reason for the additional 40 marks is because the marks that were awarded were not the real scores of those candidates. I also discovered that the challenges that rubbished the efforts of JAMB in conducting this year’s computer- based examinations were: system failure at the examination centers, questions with no answers, and in very many cases, candidates being assigned different centers from where their examinations were to hold.

The problems start from accreditation of the centers. For next time, JAMB should do more in making sure that they properly monitor the centers that they accredit. You won’t believe that some greedy people, maybe relatives of Top JAMB officials just got a venue, borrowed computers from friends and family, and then invited JAMB to come and accredit them. Which they did! Then during the period of the examinations, systems were just coming on and off like Christmas lights in centers that were accredited by JAMB to play a big role in deciding the academic fate of young people. Too bad!

JAMB should teach these young people honesty by example. Come out and publicly admit that this year’s examinations were a complete failure, and teach “our tomorrow leaders” the importance of excellence, by re-conducting the examination nationwide. We really don’t mind if they return to the use of OMR sheets this time, as long as they give these candidates what they truly deserve.

I believe JAMB can learn from the way SAT and Test of English as a Foreign Language, TOEFL examinations are conducted. Like these exams, candidates can write JAMB within a full month or more, choosing their date and time within the year. Scores can be valid for at least two years and the scores from the exam, reported to two universities of their choices. We can include two polytechnics and two colleges of education each. This will reduce to a very large extent the pressure that comes from the population that tries to write the examination within a short period every year. It might also be considered expensive, but definitely not as expensive as the repercussion of letting this current problem to linger on.

Well, just this little advice from me to the government before they go ahead to do only one of either unbundling, restructuring or privatizing JAMB: they look seriously into this situation, and let a positive change to be made in our educational sector. This sector should be the pilot sector for the change agenda of the present administration. We all know what happens to a child that does not allow the mother to sleep, but we can never be able to imagine what happens to a mother that does not allow her children to sleep.

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

President Buhari needs to be constantly conscious of the fact that his true friends are his critics and not the sycophants and blind, die-hard followers who still “sai-baba” him despite the multiple shortcomings of his administration. His true friends are not those that hail his every action and inaction and accept his failings as unavoidable. His true friends would always keep him in check when he begins to sound arrogant. It is understandable that the humongous task before him might lead to a lot of frustration, especially because of the inclination of humans to resist change. However, this is no excuse for the arrogant stance Mr. President and several members of his team have displayed on several occasions.

In the article I co-authored with Mr. Faruq Musodiq, @fatfam2012, titled “The eight months of change : the many sins of PMB” , published on February 16, 2015, onwww.10taclesng.com, I posited as follows :
” Many times it comes across as if Buhari believes he is doing Nigerians a favour by presiding over their affairs! This is far from the truth. In fact the opposite is closer to being true. Nigerians did him a favour by entrusting their country, in need of huge scale revamping to an ex-dictactor; to a man who contributed to truncating its democracy in 1983! “

With the recent comical utterances by key players in the PMB administration, I feel vindicated on my above position. PMB and his team really think they’re doing Nigerians a favour by piloting the affairs of the country!
From the perennial insensitivities ceaselessly displayed in the utterances and writings of Mr. Femi Adeshina, to the now usual irregularities in the statements of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, it is safe to conclude that PMB and his team have given in to the hype of Praise singers termed as “Hailing Hailers” in some quarters.

It also seems Mr. President and his team do not have a good grasp of the challenges Nigerians are facing. Electricity is at an all-time low! The lingering fuel scarcity is at a near all-time high! The crazy exchange rate (though this cannot be blamed entirely on the current administration) is killing import-based industries. A portion of this cost is passed on to consumers in form of hike in prices.

Nigerians are suffering! Many people that supported PMB during the last elections are terribly angry at the current state of affairs in the country. However, the fear of mockery is keeping some of them from airing their grievances.

PMB and his team must remember the seismic efforts it took for the “Change” Vanguards to trump the “Transformation” advocates. They need to stop playing the “magician” card and get down to business They cannot afford to throw away this golden opportunity to revive Nigeria.

PMB also, as a matter of urgency needs to convince Nigerians that they didn’t make a wrong choice. He needs to sufficiently prove that he understands the innumerable challenges Nigerians are facing and that he has clear cut action plans to solve them. He has to employ and deploy optimally our abundant human capital in the quest to salvage the nation.

Dear PMB, what would you love to be remembered for :
The man that established Nigeria on a recovery path; Or God forbid, the man that set it back several miles? While many of us would gladly contribute to ensure the former is your portion, the choice is ultimately yours.

Mr. President, the clock is ticking.

: (@ani_gene) is a youth corper and social commentator

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Amna: Daddy!

Father: Yes my Daughter!

Amna: I just read that President Buhari is handicapped as regards signing the 2016 Budget. Why?

Father: My Daughter, there’s no way he can assent what he has no detail about. When the Senate transmitted to him the 2016 Appropriation Budget to assent thereby making it a law, it didn’t provide him with detail of the changes effected.

Amna: Daddy, be more legible pls.

Father: Amna, the Senate was expected to avail Buhari with the detail of whatever changes it has made to the Budget he proposed so that he wouldn’t assent what he will later not be happy with.

Amna: I remember, they reduced about N27 billion . . . .

Daddy: Yes! You see, the Senate can hardly be trusted recently. It can just play the presidency Maradona. It can lure Buhari into signing a Budget that isn’t too realistic to set the presidency on head-to-head collision with Nigerians. You know, as it is, the Senate can do just anything to frustrate the presidency in the name of politics.

Amna: Politics! But the nation should be first irrespective of the circumstance.

Father: Exactly my child. But the Senate appears not to realize this. Given the circumstance that characterized the emergence of its leadership, its tendencies raises no eyebrow at all. In fact, the Senate president has a criminal case before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje also has a case of alleged fraud to the tune of about N52 bn before a competent court of jurisdiction in Gombe. So, these are the kind of people there. Nonetheless, in fairness to all, there are few who are decent and innocent.

Amna: #DiaRizGodooooo!

Father: My Daughter! #NoBeOnlyDemWakaGoDSenateoooo! You remember, initially the Budget was declared missing after it was presented. Later, it was padded. The president said in Saudi-Arabia that through out his time in the Army when he served at different times as governor of the defunct northeast state and later Borno state, petroleum minister and as chairman of the defunct PTF, at no time did he ever hear of “Budget Padding.”

Amna: Hmmm!

Father: Amna, this is a land of many possibilities. We have seen so much in the past. But one sure thing is Nigerians are democratically more enlightened today and are therefore watching all that is going on. So there’s little to worry about.

Amna: Allah sawa’ka!

Father: Ameen!

@mukhtarjarmajo on Twitter

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Growing up as a child under the tutelage of my paternal grandma of blessed memory, she always made it abundantly clear that “ Iwe mimo ko ni ogbon” translated as “being educated does not equal smartness”.  This old saying is more apt for the recent action of Dr, Temitope Aluko, ex PDP Ekiti state secretary whom I wish to refer to in this short piece as “Ekiti Fool”.

2016 has almost not began when Dr. Tope Aluko came to national televisions displaying evidences of how June 2014 governorship election was militarized and rigged in favour of current  guy, Ayodele Fayose. Needless to inundate you with the details of those damming allegations by the “Ekiti fool”; but obviously Dr. Aluko was either under some spells making those allegations or he was on a pay roll of enemies of Fayose.

Barely two months after those hellish allegations, media was filled with images of peace meeting with Fayose by the same old Ekiti fool last Sunday who said he would never have anything do with Fayose because he ( Fayose) never won Ekiti election and meant no good for the state.

Of course, a fool will remain so no matter his age, exposure or educational pedigree.  If Dr. Aluko truly earned his Ph.D, shouldn’t have known that a meeting of any kind (peaceful, fightful) with Fayose would leave him dented? Shouldn’t he have been smart enough to know Fayose is a street man with tout blood in his veins?

Following the media backlash, Dr Aluko made a 360 degree u- turn denying ever making peace with Fayose. In the video, it was clear when Fayose referred to him as “my son and boy”. He (Aluko) in turn said the peace meeting was put together by well meaning Nigerians to move the state forward.  Peace meeting with whom? With a man you said he was never elected and doesn’t have honour to govern Ekiti state? Surely, some necessary bolts were off Dr. Aluko’s brain in that video.

 Does this new “Ekiti fool” want us to believe his ghost was standing besides Fayose in that video? Does he even think he is dreaming? How does he want his children to have honour or any respect for him as a father? Dr. Tope Aluko really showed Nigerians that his Ph.D certificate was never earned. His awarding institution should do the needful.  It is obvious that Dr. Aluko’s denial is a second thought having seen his childishness and stupidity are clear to all. How would a supposed lecturer over 50 years old have his brain filled with virus not to know Fayose was a mission to nail him?  The answer clearly is Nigeria politicians never see the danger ahead as long as it would satisfy personal interest and drop more money in their pockets to the detriments of the larger society.

Obviously, Fayose is a master strategist who would never allow such moment goes off him without further denigrating the person of Dr. Aluko.  Hear him “I am the father of all in Ekiti. Dr. Aluko is my son and boy. I have forgiven him. I hold no grudge against him.”  An HND holder washing the brain of a Ph.D holder off with pure water! O ma see!!!

Ekiti State, my beloved state of origin currently has no head, no direction and no road map for a developed future. Governance is being redefined by Fayose and his team of incompetent people to ‘stomach infrastructures”. States like Kaduna, Enugu, Imo, etc are on convocations marketing their states values for investors while Ekiti wallows in the dark.

For all well meaning citizens of Ekiti state, there is an urgent need to rescue Ekiti future from these charlatans and save our destinies.

It is possible

Sunday Osanyintuyi, media consultant and political analyst.

@SundayOs

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates