Public Affairs Analyst

2010 will go down as a year of mixed fortunes for Nigeria. The budget was proposed to stimulate the economy but the majority of Nigerians are yet to feel positive impact of the stimulus package. A number of positive developments in 2010 for me are the passage and signing into law of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria as well as the inauguration of the board. The other is the tsunami that swept away the board of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in August. There was also the sustained reform of the banking sector with the classification of the banks into four groups with different capital bases viz. International, specialised , regional, and national banks; the CBN also initiate idea of having a 10-year reform for the Nigeria banking industry which the CBN Governor at a pre-convocation lecture at Bayero Univeristy, Kano in February 2010 said is aimed at "enhancing the quality of banks, establishing financial stability, enabling healthy financial sector evolution and ensuring th...

I thought I was suffering from visual and auditory hallucination when I learnt that government of Nigeria had decided to lift ban on some hitherto prohibited items. These goods include furniture, textile materials, tooth pick, matches, cassava, energy drinks and vehicles that are less than 15 years old. According to newspaper reports, the government’s decision is ‘to replace the bans with tariffs to protect domestic industries.’ Government opined that banned imports result in huge revenue losses to government through significant trade diversion to neighbouring countries, and the routine smuggling of these items into the country. In un-banning the prohibited items, government therefore decided to slam levies on them. The tariffs put on the items are: cassava- 15% levy in addition to the substantive 20% duty; toothpick- 20% levy and duty of 20%; furniture- 20% levy and duty of 20%; textile fabrics and articles (lace fabric, brocade, voile, African print, etc. and made-up garments) - 20%...

In commemoration of his 20 years of media advocacy, Jide Ojo, a development consultant, essayist and public affairs analyst on Thursday, 25 November, 2010 at Denis Hotel, Abuja launched a book titled: Nigeria, My Nigeria: Perspectives from 1990 – 2010. The 315 page digest contains 11 chapters dwelling on different aspects of Nigeria’s national life. These includes commentaries on governance, economy, legislature and judiciary, education, health, politics and elections, media, global affairs, security, electoral reform, labour, sports, religion and society. As part of the event, a public lecture entitled: Elections, Power and Morality was also held. The Guest Speaker was Prof. Okey Ibeanu, chief technical adviser to the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The Chair of the occasion was Prof. Suleiman Bogoro The event had in attendance dignitaries such as Ed Morgan, a development consultant, Prof. Sam Egwu, Governance Team Leader, UNDP, Hajia Amina Salihu, P...

Congratulations are in order for our Super Falcons. In further celebration of Nigeria’s golden jubilee independence anniversary, the senior female national football team on November 14 2010, at Sinaba Stadium in South Africa reclaimed the African Women’s Championship with a 4-2 victory over Nzalang Nacional of Equatorial Guinea. The win makes it a record 6th time the Super Falcons will win the trophy out of the 7 editions of the soccer competition. By this feat, the Super Falcons alongside their Guinean counterpart have booked tickets to the next FIFA Women’s World Cup coming up in Germany in 2011. The Nigerian female soccer team is said to be the only one in the championship whose head coach is a woman. The coach, Eucharia Uche, is herself a former Falcon player. It did not end there. It was as if the tournament was organised to honour Nigeria as our ladies, apart from winning the trophy and gold medal as the champions of the soccer fiesta also won the Fair Play Award. Perpetua Nkwoch...

It was not my first time observing elections. I have been similarly engaged both in Nigeria and Ghana. However, getting invited as one of the global assemblage of people to observe the November 2, 2010 US mid-term election was quite exciting for me. In the one week that I was in America for the exercise, I tried to soak in as much information as I could on one of the world’s oldest democracies. It‘s true that America has over two hundred years of history of electoral democracy. Yet, I believe Nigeria does not need two centuries to overcome her challenge of credible elections. It took Ghana just about a decade to become the toast of the rest of the world on how to conduct acceptable and transparent polls. My American trip was an eye-opener. If we must catch up with the rest of the world, we must learn the positive lessons from other climes. With Nigeria in the process of conducting her fourth successive elections, it is widely believed that the forthcoming polls will be far better than ...

Cross River State is arguably Nigeria’s home of tourism. The State hosts the famous Obudu Ranch Resort, Old Residency Museum, Marina Beach Resort, Agbokim Waterfalls , Ikom Monoliths, Mary Slessor’s Tomb, Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort, Cross Rivers National Park and Carnival Calabar (a month long cultural festival held every December). Recently, I was in Calabar on official assignment and lodged at Amber Tinapa, the 243 room hotel situated right inside the Tinapa environ. This should be my third time visiting the business resort, the last time being in 2007. Tinapa is an architectural masterpiece, the first integrated business and leisure resort in Nigeria. It was conceived to be a free trade zone in the mould of Dubai. It comprises four emporiums of 10,000m2 each and about fifty four line shops that range between 150m2 to 200m2 in size. The edifice was commissioned in December 2008. However, two years down the line, I am very unimpressed with the lacklustre way the multi-mill...

The reluctance of the Nigerian parliamentarians to pass the anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorism (AT) bills is worrisome. Although, if history will be our guide, it rings true to the character of Nigeria’s members of the national assembly to hold anti-corruption bills in disdain. Similar fate as befalling the AML Bill has been the lot of Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill, Whistle Blowers Bill and several other bills aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in government. Background to the Bill President Goodluck Jonathan had written twice this year to appeal to the Senators and House of Reps members to pass the bill, all to no avail. News report has it that the new anti-money laundering bill was meant to replace the 2004 version of same bill which was said to lack the relevant provisions that will make it fully compliant with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task force (FATF), established by the G7 Summit held in Paris in 1989. Nigeria, at its last meeti...

Two incidents in our polity warrant a critical review of the election procedures in Nigeria. The first is the Court of Appeal judgement in Ilorin on Friday, 15 October 2010. After 42 months spanning 3 and a half years, the appellate court declared that Dr John Olukayode Fayemi of the Action Congress of Nigeria and not Engr. Segun Oni of the Peoples Democratic Party won the 14 April 2007 and 25 April / 5 May 2009 re-run gubernatorial elections. The second reason for us to take holistic look at our election procedures is the on-going alteration of the First amendment to 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act 2010. Before delving into the main issues in this piece, a little update is germane. Hitherto, legal framework in Nigeria does not have time limit on election petitions (particularly since the Supreme Court ruling in Paul Unongo v Aper Aku and others, (1983) 2 SCNLR 332) neither does it recognise inauguration of candidates after disposal of petitions against the...

WITH the passage of the amended 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act 2010, the nomination, screening and inauguration of the board of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the release of timetable for the 2011 polls by INEC on September 7, 2010, the stage is gradually being set for the next general elections which may hold January or April 2011. As we are in the season of political declarations and endorsements, it is important to remind our political elite to play by the rule. If the forthcoming election will be adjudged free, fair and credible, all attempts must be made to regulate the influence of money on the outcome of the polls. How political parties and contestants raise and spend money must be closely monitored to ensure that it is in strict compliance with the extant political finance regulations. Political finance covers both legal and illegal sourcing and spending of money in a political process. It also covers the use of State and Administrative Resources...

Nigeria is 50, does this call for celebration? Yes, it does. There are challenges quite alright, what with the high state of insecurity, soaring unemployment and grinding poverty, dearth or near absence of basic social infrastructures such as good roads, potable water, electricity, schools and health facilities. Nevertheless, a philosopher once observed that “life is a tragedy to those who feel; a comedy to those who think”. In spite of our numerous and seemingly insurmountable challenges, there is still cause for us to rejoice on our attainment of 50 years of independence. Nigeria is one of the 17 countries in Africa to have received liberty from their colonialists in 1960. The countries that attained five decades of nationhood in 2010 includes: Senegal, Mali, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo Kinshasha), Central African Republic, Chad and Madagascar. Others include Nigeria, Somalia and Republic of the Con...

“Financial institutions which are poorly governed pose a risk to themselves and also to others and could pull down financial markets. Recent experience in the Nigerian financial market attests to this fact.” SEC DG, Ms. Arunma Oteh at the International Conference on Good Governance and Regulatory Leadership, May 2010 Yours truly is an investor in Nigeria's capital market having bought small units of shares in some of the quoted companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. I had been taken in by the huge return on investment and the humongous profit after tax that many of the companies listed in the NSE declared at their annual shareholders meeting. That was before the bubble burst in March 2008. Today, my shares are not worth the share certificates on which they were written. My personal loss is miniscule compared to many big time investors in the stock market. Many lost millions and probably billions. The total loss is actually in trillions. My sense of loss was relieved on 5 August...

Arise, O compatriots, Nigeria's call obey To serve our fatherland With love and strength and faith The labour of our heroes past Shall never be in vain To serve with heart and might One nation bound in freedom, peace and unity. These are the lines of Nigeria’s current national anthem. Sadly, not many Nigerians, including those who are holding public offices, could recite the national anthem, let alone believe in the words. Nigeria is in her year of Golden Jubilee having got independence on October 1, 1960. There have been series of lectures, seminars, colloquia, conferences, exhibitions, debates etc planned in celebration of the country’s 50th anniversary. There is no gainsaying that Nigeria still grapples with the challenges of nationhood and governance. It is doubtful if this state of underdevelopment; anomie and morass were envisaged or hoped for by the founding fathers and mothers of Nigeria. I mean the political, labour and media bourgeoisie who were actively involved in negot...

Daily Sketch Wednesday, 18 November, 1998 You can get through life with bad manners, but it is easier and more honourable with good ones. Character is the only religion there is. Anonymous The late Mahatma Ghandi of India identified what he called seven deadly sins. These are: Wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; business without ethics; science without humanity; politics without principles and religion without sacrifice of pride and prejudice. It is a truism that ‘the true rule in determining to embrace or reject a thing is not whether it has any evil in it, but whether it has more evil than good’. There is no gainsaying the fact that most of the world nations, with special emphasis on Nigeria are guilty of these seven deadly sins of Ghandi. Gone are the days when good and exemplary character is regarded as a virtue in Nigeria. Moral upbringing counts little and less these days with testimonials not worth the paper on which they were written...

The signing into law of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) law by President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday, 19 July 2010 is long overdue. The bill which was recently passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly was initially part of the Prof. Chukwuma Soludo’s 13 point banking reform agenda way back July 2004. However, the bill was stalled in the parliament until the incumbent Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi re-introduced it at the National Assembly as part of the current banking reform measure which he kick-started in July 2009. The law, to my mind is highly desirable going by the several advantages that will likely accrue to our banking nay financial sector and concomitantly the nation’s economy. Some of the envisaged benefits of the bill as highlighted by the president during the signing ceremony are that: The new law will ensure the stability of Nigeria’s financial sector and stimulate national economic recovery. AMCON, according to ...

This is, indeed, an exciting time for Nigeria. After an initial lull in the preparation for the 2011 elections, two recent events have brought about some animations in the polity - the announcement on June 8, 2010, of the nominees for the chairman and board members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the successful alteration of the 1999 Constitution by the Senate and the House of Representatives on June 2 and 3, 2010. The presidential nomination and endorsement by the Council of State, of Professor Attahiru Jega and 10 other national commissioners, as well as 19 other resident electoral commissioners to fill the vacuum in INEC has been largely well received, except for the pocket of protests about the partisanship of few of the nominees. Good enough, the President promised to replace all the nominees with party affiliations. This is heart-warming. Attahiru Jega is the first northerner and Muslim to be appointed Chief Electoral Officer of Nigeria. The good thin...

Dr. Wale Okediran was spot on in his analysis of Nigeria’s House of Representatives in his latest book titled ‘Tenants of the House’. The shocking, preposterous, nauseating and infantile display of shame enacted by some scoundrels in the Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 vindicated the veteran author and immediate past president of the Association of Nigerian Authors. In the full glare of cameras and right in the presence of some 75 pupils of the City Royal Secondary School, Nyanya, Abuja, our parliamentarians engaged in karate, judo, boxing and wrestling. They kicked and threw punches at one another, shredding clothes of fellow legislators in the fracas. One of them in the process had a fractured arm and another a bloodied nose. Even journalists covering the National Assembly were not spared as some of them were brutalised in the course of carrying out their legitimate assignments. This is awful! I couldn’t help asking myself, why are we so cursed? Since Ju...

That the Ondo State government decided to bow to public wish by deposing the Deji of Akure, Oba Oluwadare Adepoju Adesina did not come to many as a surprise. The monarch before his removal from throne on Thursday, 10 June 2010 had been in the news for some time for the wrong reason. He had earlier in November 2009 been dethroned by his kingmakers who levelled the following allegations against him: “Violation of Akure tradition and custom by personally going to the market to disturb market women from performing their legitimate trading business and engaging in wanton and indiscriminate destruction of essential food items in the market”. “Flagrant breach of age long and hallowed custom of Akure that makes it mandatory for the Deji not to leave his official palace without the knowledge and concurrence of the chiefs”. “Deliberate failure and refusal to complete the traditional rites for the stool of the Deji of Akureland contrary to the tradition and custom of Akure, rendering his selectio...

United Kingdom, one of the world’s oldest democracies had its general elections on Thursday, May 6, 2010. The poll was to elect 650 parliamentarians into the House of Common. The election which took place in 649 constituencies failed to produce a clear winner as the Conservative Party which eventually dislodged the Labour Party from the 10 Downing Street failed to win the 326 seats it needed to singularly form a cabinet. This resulted to a hung parliament, first time since 1974 and second time since the end of the Second World War. In spite of the inability of the top three political parties’ viz. Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats to clinch an outright victory that will enable it form parliament, the political logjam was not allowed to linger. Within a week, Conservative party which had 306 seats was able to negotiate a coalition government with the Liberal Democrat party which had 57 seats. Labour party who had ruled for upward of 13 years and whose electoral fortunes dipped...