tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16077977245852175472024-03-15T18:12:06.708-07:00Public Affairs AnalystJide Ojo is a Nigeria based Public Affairs Analyst with over 1,000 published commentaries in 28 Nigerian newspapers and has been a guest analyst on AIT, Channels TV, NTA, Arise TV, PTV, BCOS, Galaxy TV, STV, Hot FM, Vision FM, Radio Nigeria,VON, Raypower, Faaji FM, WE FM, KISS FM, Love FM, Nig.Info and OGBC 2 FM.
Jide, a trained BRIDGE Facilitator holds first and second degrees in Political Science from Universities of Lagos and Ibadan both in Nigeria and is currently a Development Consultant.Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.comBlogger874125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-19411240065674602962024-02-28T10:08:00.000-08:002024-02-28T10:08:30.601-08:00Matters arising from implementation of Oronsaye report<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Since news broke about the
Federal Executive Council’s approval of the implementation of Steve Oronsaye
report on the merger and acquisition of Ministries Department and Agencies on
Monday, February 26, 2024, I have granted several media interviews on the subject
matter. The approval for implementation is a welcome but belated decision. It
should have been one of the first things President Bola Tinubu would do shortly
after his inauguration. Furthermore, it is not going to be far-reaching enough
to reduce the rising cost of governance in Nigeria.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to this newspaper
report in yesterday’s edition, 12 years after it received the Stephen Oronsaye
report, the Federal Government, on Monday, approved the implementation of some
of its recommendations to reduce the cost of governance. Consequently, 29
government agencies will be merged even as eight parastatals will be subsumed
into eight other agencies. More so, four agencies have been relocated to four
various ministries, while one was earmarked for scrapping. The Minister of
Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, revealed this to State
House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso
Rock Villa, Abuja.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Submitted in 2012, the
Oronsaye report on public sector reforms revealed that there were 541 –
statutory and non-statutory – Federal Government parastatals, commissions and
agencies. A year earlier, then President Goodluck Jonathan had set up the
Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government
Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, under the leadership of former Head of
Civil Service, Stephen Oronsaye. The 800-page report recommended that 263 of
the statutory agencies be slashed to 161; 38 agencies be scrapped; 52 be merged
and 14 be reverted to departments in various ministries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A PUNCH analysis revealed that
the Nigerian government could save over N241bn if the report is duly
implemented. The minister, who explained that the move would not lead to job
losses and redundancies in the affected agencies, said it was meant to reduce
the cost of governance and free up monies for reinvestment into the
developmental projects.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“The Pension Transition
Arrangement Directorate has been scrapped. The National Senior Secondary School
Education Commission is also being looked at with the aim to modify some of its
processes and a final decision on that will be taken,” he explained. Minister
Idris said the goal of Monday’s move is to “fine-tune and to restructure
government operations as a whole…and to reduce the cost of governance because
some of these agencies are performing very similar functions, so the government
thought it wise that there is the need – since this committee had already been
set up, white paper already been produced – to take a bold decision to visit
that.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In a May 7, 2023, report,
weeks before President Tinubu took the oath of office, sources told The PUNCH
correspondents that the incoming President would merge some ministries and
agencies of the Federal Government as recommended by the Oronsaye panel and
would take tough decisions on other issues going by meetings with his core
loyalists. The President’s Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza
Bala-Usman, announced the agencies to be merged to include the National Agency
for Control of HIV/AIDS to be merged with the Centre for Disease Control in the
Federal Ministry of Health.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The National Emergency
Management Agency is to be merged with the National Commission for Refugee
Migration and Internally Displaced Persons; the Directorate of Technical
Cooperation in Africa is to be merged with the Directorate of Technical Aid and
to function as a department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Infrastructure Concession
Regulatory Commission will be merged with the Bureau for Public Enterprises;
the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission to be integrated into the Nigerian
Export Promotion Council as the National Agency for Science and Engineering
Infrastructure will now be one with the National Centre for Agriculture
Mechanisation and Project Development Institute.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Also, the National
Biotechnology Development Agency will be amalgamated with the National Centre for
Genetic Resource and Biotechnology, the National Institute for Leather Science
Technology with the National Institute for Chemical Technology and the Nomadic
Education Commission with the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult
Education and Non-Formal Education. The Federal Radio Corporation will be
merged with the Voice of Nigeria; the National Commission for Museum and
Monuments with the National Gallery of Arts; the National Theatre with the
National Troupe of Nigeria and the National Metrological Development Centre
with the National Metrological Training Institute.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In a similar vein, the
Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno State, will now function as a faculty
within the Nigerian Defence Academy while the Air Force Institute of Technology
will become a faculty of the Nigerian Defence Academy. According to Bala-Usman,
the Service Compact with Nigeria, popularly known as SERVICOM, has been
subsumed to function as a department under the Bureau for Public Service
Reform; the Border Communities Development Agency becomes a department at the
National Boundary Commission while the National Salaries Income and Wages
Commission was subsumed into the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation
Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Institute for Peace and
Conflict Resolution was subsumed under the Institute for International Affairs;
the Public Complaints Commission under the National Human Rights Commission;
the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis into the Institute for Veterinary
Research; the National Medicine Development Agency under the National Institute
for Pharmaceutical Research and Development and the National Intelligence
Agency Pension Commission under the Nigerian Pension Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She announced that the Niger
Delta Power Holding Company has been relocated to the Ministry of Power; the
National Agricultural Land Development Agency to the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Food Security; the National Blood Service Commission has been
converted into an agency and relocated to the Federal Ministry of Health even
as the Nigerian Diaspora Commission becomes an agency at the Federal Ministry
of Finance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Presidential aide revealed
that Tinubu constituted a committee to midwife the necessary restructuring and
legislative amendments needed to ensure full actualisation of the approvals
granted. She said inter alia, “He tasked this committee with an immediate term
of reference to proceed and ensure all of these are done within a period of 12
weeks. The committee membership comprises the Secretary to the Government of
Federation, who will chair the committee; the Head of Civil Service of the
Federation, member; the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice, member; the Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning,
member; the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reform, member; the
Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination is a member; the
two Senior Special Assistants to the President on National Assembly are
members; and the Cabinet Affairs Office will serve as secretariat.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To my mind, this is the right
thing to have been done immediately after the inauguration of the new president
last year. Assuming it was done then, the 2024 federal budget would have been
streamlined to the new Ministries, Department and Agencies. As already pointed
out, there will be a need to tinker with the Acts of Parliament setting up many
of the MDAs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Though the Minister of
Information said there will be no job losses, it is doubtful if there won’t be
any. For instance, there won’t be two Director Generals, Directors and many
other positions in the merged agencies. Therefore, the Federal Government should
get money ready to pay the pension and gratuities of staff that will be
negatively affected.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is no information as to
which of the white papers is being implemented. Is it that of 2014 under former
President Jonathan or the 2022 one under former President Muhammadu Buhari? I
just hope that thorough work will be done by the new committee saddled with the
implementation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I dare say that implementing
Oronsaye’s report will not substantially reduce the cost of governance. There
is a need to alter Section 147 (3) of the Constitution to reduce the number of
ministers to not more than 18. We do not need 48 ministers. There is also a
need to reduce the number of senators, House of Representatives and state
Houses of Assembly members. In addition, it is imperative to block revenue
leakages, tackle corruption and have a value-for-money budget.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-46411502210166346182024-02-20T21:49:00.000-08:002024-02-20T21:49:56.066-08:00Now that there is consensus on state police<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">I have been a staunch advocate of state police despite the
concerns raised in some quarters about the propensity of governors to grossly
abuse the security outfit if created. Even the rank of Nigerian governors was
divided on whether or not to establish state police. The southern governors
were fully in support of this initiative, but their northern counterparts were
not so enthusiastic initially. Thus, out of frustration, South-West governors
of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Osun decided to establish the South-West
Security Network, better known as Amotekun Corps, in January 2020.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On Monday, February 12, 2024, governors elected under the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party met in Abuja and issued a communique
in which they called for the establishment of state police with appropriate
safeguards to prevent abuse. Earlier this month, the Lagos State House of
Assembly also passed a resolution calling for the establishment of state
police. Even this newspaper, in a February 13 editorial titled “Ekiti: State
police, not troops deployment,” also lent its voice to the call for the
establishment of state police.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, it seems that the federal government has eventually
succumbed to the popular request by the people and their representatives in
government. Last Thursday, February 15, 2024, President Bola Tinubu met with
the 36 state governors in Abuja, and it was reported that the federal
government appears to have finally come around to the idea of having state
police.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Leadership newspaper of last Friday published that at a
meeting with 36 state governors, attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima,
the National Security Adviser, the Inspector-General of Police, the
Director-General of the Directorate of State Services, and some ministers at
the State House in Abuja, it approved the composition of a committee to begin
the groundwork for the establishment of state police. President Tinubu, in a
statement by presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale, approved the establishment
of a committee comprising state governors and representatives of the federal
government to, among other things, explore the modalities for establishing
state police. He further endorsed the training and equipping of forest rangers
by sub-national governments to safeguard human and natural resources in local
communities.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This newspaper in its February 15 edition listed the six
takeaways from the meeting under reference. It said, “On addressing insecurity
which is also affecting farming and food production, President Tinubu made
three key pronouncements. He informed the governors that the Federal Government
will work with them and the National Assembly towards putting in place a
mechanism that will engender state police instead of the vigilantes that are
being used in some states. The President charged the governors to strengthen
their Forest Rangers and arm them to keep all the forests safe from criminals.
Modalities for state police and addressing security issues are to be discussed
further at the National Economic Council.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is a positive development. It’s an anathema to have
centralised policing in a federal system of government. Yes, it is true that in
the First Republic, the Native Authority Police was grossly abused by regional
Premiers, but that was eons ago. It is noteworthy that there are three pillars
in the justice sector – the police, the courts, and the prisons. State High
Courts have been in existence with Federal High Courts, and last year,
ex-President Muhammadu Buhari signed a constitutional alteration removing correctional
centres (Prisons) from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent
Legislative List, thereby making it an area of interest between the federal and
state governments. Unfortunately, the first pillar, which is the police, is
still left on the exclusive list.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The aforementioned PUNCH editorial was on point when it
said, inter alia, that “Nigeria’s current police structure is diabolical. In a
federal state, it is single, weak, and shorthanded. In a country of 220
million, it consists of just 371,000 officers, most of whom are assigned to VIP
guard duties. Also, the reliance on a single federal police force has strained
resources and limited the capacity to address security concerns adequately
across Nigeria. It has failed woefully to protect citizens, 5,135 of whom have
died in violence in Tinubu’s first seven months in office, per the
International Centre for Investigative Journalism. Under his predecessor,
Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023), Nigeria recorded 63,111 violent deaths, SBM
Intelligence said. With this, the argument for the localisation of policing
attains crucial impetus.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have granted several media interviews on this issue. I
spoke on this on Sunday Politics of February 4, 2024, on Trust TV. I also
granted interviews to the Blueprint newspaper and Nigeria Info 92.3 FM, Port
Harcourt. I mince no word about my wholehearted support for state police, but
there is a caveat. As the groundwork for its establishment is on, I am using
this opportunity to sound the following notes of warning. State police must
have sustainable funding; otherwise, the citizens will be imperilled when and
if members of the force decide to use their allotted weapons to fend for
themselves. The point here is that state police must be well-resourced in terms
of office spaces (police stations), barracks, arsenal, operational vehicles,
communication gadgets, forensic laboratories, and technological devices such as
drones, closed-circuit televisions, scanners, jammers, etcetera. The welfare of
the state police personnel must also be paramount. Salaries and allowances must
be paid as and when due.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I believe that the time has come for the review of the
revenue allocation formula in favour of states, given that there is now
devolution of powers as per the correctional centres, railways, and
electricity, which have been devolved from exclusive to concurrent legislative
lists. Creating state police is bad news for federal police, many of whom have
been partially funded by governors using the security votes and funds mobilised
from the Police or Security Trust Funds, which many of them have established. Now,
the governors would have to make public their security votes and give accounts
of how they spend it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The other issue that needs to be resolved is the areas of
operations between the federal and the state. This should be well spelled out
to avoid a clash of interest and conflicts. In order to address the genuine
concern of potential human rights violations and abuse of office, there should
be empanelled a board to oversee the state police and resolve any violation of
citizens’ rights. Additionally, I believe victims of abuse by the state police
will have the right to approach the National Human Rights Commission and the
courts for redress.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is important to also advise that recruitment and
promotion in the state police should be merit-based. There should be a
competitive examination for recruits who should also be educated. Discipline of
any erring officer should be prioritised. I am of the considered view that each
state should be allowed to establish its own state police when they have the
wherewithal to do so given that they are not equally endowed. It is also
important to state that those to be recruited into state police should be
familiar with the environment of operations and be subjected to drug tests,
psychiatric tests, and integrity tests. There should also be mopping up of
small arms and light weapons floating around the country. It is hoped that work
on the legal framework for the state police will be expedited so that this
outfit can take off latest by the first quarter of 2025.<o:p></o:p></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-25511322987749206142024-02-13T23:20:00.000-08:002024-02-13T23:20:55.011-08:00The best way to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">St.
Valentine’s Day otherwise known as Lovers Day has come a long way. According to
History.com, the Catholic Church recognises at least three different saints
named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends
that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When
Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those
with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realising
the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages
for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius
ordered that he be put to death. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Still
others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true
namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to
help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and
tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the
first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young
girl—possibly his jailor’s daughter—who visited him during his confinement.
Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your
Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nigerians
are not left out of celebration of Valentine’s Day which is observed annually
every February 14. Many young people choose to ‘hang out’ with loved ones,
exchanging gifts and indulging in ‘sexcapades’. Old couples and friends are not
left out, they likewise go out to have nice time, perhaps candle lit dinner,
exchange of gifts and renewal of marital vows, or friendship. Red is colour of
celebration today and you’re likely going to see many people dress with a touch
of red to mark the day. For me, though St. Valentine’s Day is worthy of being
celebrated; unfortunately, the whole essence has been forgotten and replaced
with carnality. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Do we
show love or kindness to one another again? It’s now a rarity. In our rat race
to acquire wealth, ill-gotten wealth, and relish in luxurious lifestyle, the
society has become atomised, caring less for one another. Political leaders
care less for the security and welfare of citizens though it is a prerequisite which
is constitutionally endorsed in section 14(2)(b) of our grundnorm. What today’s
crop of political leaders indulge and luxuriate in is personal aggrandisement. They
ask us to tighten our belts while they loosen theirs, due to their pot bellies.
If our leaders love us, they wouldn’t steal from us. They wouldn’t plunder and
pilfer out commonwealth. A former Accountant General of the Federation was
alleged to embezzle over N100 billion. Is that act of love?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ministry
of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation formerly Federal Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was
established in August 2019 to cater to the needs of millions of vulnerable
people. The poor and the needy. Unfortunately, the managers of the multibillion
naira budgets of the ministry resort to helping themselves rather than the
vulnerable Nigerians. Billions of naira was looted and mismanaged by the ministers
and coordinators of the ministry. Thanks to the anticorruption agencies, some
of the embezzled funds have been recovered. In the latest Transparency
International Corruption Perception Index, Nigeria scored 25 over 100 and
ranked 145 out of 180 countries surveyed in 2023. Again, I ask, is corruption
how to show love and care to the needy? But for corruption, Nigeria should have
been a developed country in the league of Europe and America. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">God
rest the beautiful soul of Dr. Herbert Wigwe who died with his wife and son in
a copter crash in US last week. News has it that he just moved into a
multi-billion edifice in Queens Drive in Ikoyi, Lagos. An estimate says the
residence is worth N10 billion. Wow! An individual living in such opulence in
the midst of grinding penury around him? He died at the age of 58. Sad! How I
wish much of that resources spent on that mansion was deployed to charity?
Perhaps he does that without media hype while alive. The appeal here is for the
wealthy and rich people among us to do more for the poor and the needy. We need
more Foundations such as Rockefeller, MacArthur, T.Y Danjuma and Dangote to
mention but a few. The world needs more acts of charity. There is too much
misery and deprivation around us for few individuals to relish in stinking
opulence. Each time I see people showing off at parties, ‘spraying’ cash on the
celebrants and musicians as is our culture here, I ask myself if there are no
poor persons in the families and clans of these super rich spendthrift guys
whom they can help lift out of poverty and penury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our
religious worship centres, be it churches, mosques and shrines should have a
rethink and engage more in welfare and charity. This is not the time to compete
in planting churches that church members are taxed to build. Church membership
is dwindling as congregants become disillusioned about the whole essence of
Christianity. In many churches, offering and tithes are emphasized. The General
Overseer lives in opulence while church members are emaciated. Church leaders
who are acquiring private jets in the name of global evangelism would do well
to rethink and spare more resources to assist the poor in their midst. Nothing
is wrong if religious worship centres build world class schools and hospitals
and offered free or highly subsidized services to members and non-members of
their centres. That’s a better act of kindness and love than inordinate
acquisition of material wealth for the comfort and convenience of the leaders
of the religious worship centres. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I have
argued on some radio and television programmes that Nigeria labour unions are
not established to carry out ‘aluta’ or protests alone. They collect check off
dues and this runs into millions or billions of naira. Nigeria Labour Congress
and Trade Union Congress as well as their affiliate unions can also establish
schools, hospitals, and provide other social amenities that will positively
impact societies. These services can be offered free or at highly subsidized
amount either to their members or the generality of the society. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Lest
someone says it is easier said than done, at a personal level, I am committed
to sponsorship of education of not only my children but also those of my
siblings and other extended family members. I have monthly support to few
uncles, cousins and friends despite my lean resources. If all of us spare
resources to assist others, it will make life better for all. And for those who
do not have money, you can at least check on loved ones either physically or
virtually and offer words of encouragement and emotional support. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
April 1985 some American musicians came together to sing a song titled “We are
the world” to raise money for charity. The first verse of the song was sang by
Lionel Richie, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and Kenny Rogers and it <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>goes thus: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“There
comes a time when we heed a certain call<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
the world must come together as one<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
are people dying<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Oh,
and it's time to lend a hand to life<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
greatest gift of all” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Happy
Valentine’s Day folks, let’s show acts of kindness and love today because,” We
are the World”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-11238231196352709392024-02-07T04:07:00.000-08:002024-02-07T04:07:51.059-08:00Insecurity: Nigerians as endangered specie<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Section
14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says
security and welfare of the citizens shall be the primary purpose of
government. In 2024, neither of these two are being enjoyed by Nigerians.
Compatriots feel unsafe in their own country and as for welfare, it’s a case of
what legendary Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti call “Suffering and
smiling”. Once upon a time, armed robbery, kidnapping and other crimes were
largely restricted to the urban centres with many promising to run and hide in
their villages from night marauders and criminals. Sadly, nowhere is safe any
longer. The grassroot, I mean people in the communities, are facing so much
unrest from criminal elements that they are now leaving their ancestral land in
droves to seek refuge in towns and cities that have no succour for them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Truth
be told, Nigeria is fast sliding to what the great political philosopher,
Thomas Hobbes described in his 1651 famous book titled Leviathan where he said
that in the State of Nature<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>life is solitary,
poor, nasty brutish and short. Most Nigerians feel endangered. We all live
day-by-day. Just as ordinary citizens are not safe from the rampaging
bloodsuckers, even the high and mighty are vulnerable. On Monday, January 29,
2024 dare-devil gunmen killed two traditional rulers in Ekiti State like fowl. The
bandit killed the Onimojo of Imojo in the Oye Local Government Area, Oba
Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti in the Ikole Local Government
Area, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin, while the Alara of Ara Ekiti, Oba Adebayo Fatoba
in the Ikole Local Government Area, escaped. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sources
said the traditional rulers were returning from a function in Kogi State when
their vehicles ran into the suspected kidnappers, who had laid an ambush on the
road. Same day, five pupils and four staff of Apostolic Faith Group of Schools,
Emure Ekiti were kidnapped on their way from the school in another community - Eporo
Ekiti.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Heart rending statistics<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Last
week,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>civil society groups, under
the aegis of the Civil Society Joint Action Group, said 17,469 Nigerians were
abducted under the Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu administrations from 2019
to date. Speaking on behalf of the group, the Executive Director of the Civil
Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said insecurity
had persisted over the last three administrations, with 24,816 Nigerians killed
and 15,597 persons abducted in the last administration of President Buhari,
between 2019 and 2023. Out of the total number of 17, 469 kidnapped from 2019
and to date, 90 per cent of the cases were recorded under Buhari, while 10 per
cent have been recorded under Tinubu.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Recall
that unknown gunmen on 2023 Christmas Eve attacked 25 communities in three
local government areas of Plateau State, killing over 150 people and razing
about 221 houses. The attacks, which affected Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu
LGAs, led to the displacement of over 10,000 residents of the attacked
communities. There have been several other attacks on the Plateau thereafter
with the most recent one being in some communities in Mangu Local Government. Similar
attacks have been recorded in Agatu Local Government of Benue State. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Global
Terrorism Index (GTI) is a comprehensive study analysing the impact of
terrorism for 163 countries covering 99.7 per cent of the world’s population.
The GTI report is produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
using data from Terrorism Tracker and other sources. The GTI report of 2022 ranked
Nigeria eight with a score of 8.065. GTI is a composite measure made up of four
indicators: incidents, fatalities, injuries and hostages. Nigeria’s position is
very depressing!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Triggers of insecurity<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Research
has shown that there are many triggers of insecurity ranging from Ungoverned
spaces; Porous borders; Poverty; Unemployment; Ostentatious lifestyle and
corrupt practices on the part of our leaders. There are swaths of land and
communities without any semblance of governance and security. Bandits have take
over such spaces. There are over 1,400 illegal entry and exit routes from
Nigeria according to the Nigerian Immigration Services. Nothing has been done
with the much touted e-border surveillance project of the federal government. The
porosity of our borders makes it possible for unhindered smuggling of small
arms and light weapons, hard drugs and human trafficking. Unemployment in
Nigeria is above 30 per cent while poverty rate even by official figures is
very high. Corruption and embezzlement of public funds, including that of
resources meant to buy arms and ammunition have further compounded insecurity
in Nigeria. News report has it that the $2.1 billion meant for procurement of
weapons to fight insurgency under the administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
was mismanaged in what has become ‘Dasukigate’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Impact of terrorism and general insecurity
on Nigeria <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
economy of Nigeria has been most impacted negatively. Many highly skilled
people have either died or suffered permanent disability as a result of the
widespread insecurity. Many have been displaced and now depend on friends,
family members and government for their daily survival. These are people who
previously have means of livelihood and could cater for themselves. Many micro,
small and medium enterprises have shut down. Indeed, many big companies are
divesting from Nigeria and relocating elsewhere where they could do business in
relative peace and safety. The major business booming in Nigeria now is for those
that sell security gadgets of all sorts including bullet proof vehicles, doors
and other accessories. These are things ordinary Nigerians cannot afford. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hundreds
of thousands of Nigerians are resigning from their plum jobs and voting with
their feet in what is called ‘Japa’ phenomenon. Socially, many Nigerians are
now under self-imposed curfew. No more night life. Churches and even mosques
have had to cancel vigils while many congregants are also afraid to attend worship
services and programmes even during the day. Night life is almost gone while
those who organise social events or parties no longer do till-day-break,
preferring to end their parties around 6pm so guests can be safely back to the
comfort of their homes before nightfall. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Medically
speaking many Nigerians have a feeling of being under siege and are suffering
panic attacks. Many are hypertensive and have developed stroke and heart
attacks due to too much fear. Medical facilities have also been target of
attacks and health and medical workers have been kidnapped either for ransom or
to serve as medical personnel for bandits in their den or enclave. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Government’s response<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Federal
government and indeed many state governments have exponentially increased their
security and defence budgets. In fact, governors across board are collecting
huge security votes that leaves many to wander why this hasn’t translated to
better security for the citizens. Many states are establishing vigilante groups
with the latest being Zamfara State. Last Wednesday, January 31, 2024, Governor
Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State, inaugurated a 2,969-man State Community
Protection Guards to tackle the insecurity challenges affecting the state.
Recall that in 2020, the six South West States of Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo
and Ekiti States Houses of Assembly passed the South-West Security Network
(Amotekun) Bill into law. The Corps has been in operation since then with
modest success recorded in the fight against crimes and criminality. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, on Wednesday, January 17,
2024 inaugurated a Special Intervention Squad (SIS) in the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) to address the increasing rate of crime in the territory.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony in Abuja, Mr Egbetokun said the squad was
made up of trained, well-equipped and highly mobile police officers. According
to him, the squad possesses the capacity for rapid intervention and effective
containment of significant security breaches like those currently threatening
the suburb of the FCT.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on
Saturday, January 13, 2024 revealed a plan by President Bola Tinubu towards the
establishment of the marine police, solid mineral police and better-trained
forest guards. In a message he posted on X (formerly Twitter), Onanuga said
Tinubu, at a meeting in Abuja on Friday, January 12 with governors of the All
Progressives Congress, revealed his plans to rejig Nigeria’s security
architecture. Onanuga wrote, “He (Tinubu) mentioned three brand new police
formations, to augment the regular police. He said the deployment of forest
guards was being considered, with better training, modern technological gadgets
and weapons to strengthen security.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">PDP Governors request for State Police<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Governors
elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, on Thursday, February
1, 2024 lamented the security challenges facing the country. They insisted that
for the nation to overcome the challenge, the present police structure must be
decentralised to give way to the establishment of state police across the
country The PDP governors spoke in Jos, Plateau State capital when they visited
the Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang at the Rayfield Government House. The
visit follows the series of attacks and killings by gunmen in the state which
had reportedly claimed over 200 lives in the past month with properties worth
millions of naira destroyed in various communities of the state.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I am
of the considered view that State Police is an idea whose time has come and
President Tinubu should not waste more time before sponsoring an Executive Bill
for constitutional amendment to sections 214 and 215 of the Nigerian
Constitution in order to pave way for State Police. There is already State High
Court, State Prison, State Road Traffic Management Agency. Much as the fear of
abuse of state police is genuine, the courts will be there for people to seek
redress. Already, even the federal police is being abused. Security and Defence
should therefore be moved from Exclusive Legislative list <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to concurrent legislative list with each state
to determine when to establish their own state police. The current insecurity
challenge should also be fought with technological gadgets such as CCTV,
drones, scanners, jammers, etc. Intelligence gathering should be prioritised
with more security personnel recruited and properly trained and motivated. With
the establishment of Police Equipment Trust Fund, Nigerian Police should be
better resourced for optimum performance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
article was first published in THISDAY newspaper of Tuesday, February 6, 2024<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-61000680095266686902024-02-07T04:02:00.000-08:002024-02-07T04:02:09.156-08:00Memorable visit to Centre for Yoruba Culture and History<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was in Lagos, the State of
Aquatic Splendour, last weekend from February 1 – 4, 2024. A non-governmental
organisation, Peace and Development Project, had organised a three-day
capacity-building retreat for the Department of Dispute and Conflict Resolution
of the Niger Delta Development Commission and I was one of the resource
persons. I presented a paper titled “Peace as a multistakeholder enterprise.”
Other resource persons included: Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy of the University of
Lagos who presented on “Communication and Interpersonal Conflict Management –
Increasing Self-Awareness: Power Perspective”; Dr Tunde Akanni, Associate
Professor at the Department of Mass Communication, Lagos State University
presented on “NDDC and the imperatives of Multi-Track Diplomacy,” while Osaze
Nosaze, Director Projectworks of Xrimedia and Francis Abayomi who is the
Director of PEDEP jointly presented on “How to make impact in Disputes and
Conflict Resolution.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As the popular axiom says,
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” in order to make the
participants, organisers and resource persons bond and relax, an excursion was
organised by PEDEP to John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History (better
known as John Randle Centre) located at Onikan, Lagos Island, last Saturday,
February 3, 2024. As a culture enthusiast, I was wowed by what I saw at the
museum. Indeed, every one of us who went, the majority of whom were non-Yoruba,
was so excited about the visit to the centre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By way of introduction, I have
been involved in the promotion of not only Yoruba culture but Nigeria’s culture
and history. Every day in the last six months, I have engaged in a daily quiz
competition of sorts where I ask five questions on Yoruba culture, people and
history. I ask questions on food, music, proverbs, folklore, current affairs,
towns and cities of Yoruba land and related matters. My fans take time to
answer the questions while many others who do not know the right answers get to
know about Yoruba culture and traditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Apart from the quiz, I also
promote Yoruba culture and those of other tribes in Nigeria through my
dressing. I have over 40 caps from different tribes across Nigeria. I have the
Niger Delta caps, the Ibibio, Efiks, Igbo, Igala, Tiv, Idoma, Igede, Hausa,
Adamawa, and Yoruba. My wardrobe is also made up of attires from many ethnic
groups. I am proud to flaunt these wears on my several media interview
platforms where I go by the sobriquet of “Asorogbayi” meaning one who talks to
earn honour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have visited 33 out of the
36 states of Nigeria and at present live in Abuja, the Federal Capital
Territory. The three states I haven’t visited are Taraba, Yobe and Kebbi. All
others I have been to and slept over in each of them. Interestingly, my visit
to each of the states also affords me the opportunity to go to their historic
sites and museums. In Abuja, I have visited most of the tourist sites such as
the Millennium Park, the Aso Villa, the National Assembly, the National
Children’s Park and Zoo and the Jabi Lake. In Plateau State, I have been to
Shere Hills, Jos Museum, Naraguta Leather Works and the Museum of Nigeria for
Traditional Architecture. In Niger State, I have been to Gurara Falls and Zuma
Rock. In Kogi State, I have visited Mount Patti, Lokoja, Lord Luggard’s first residence
and the confluence of Rivers Niger and Benue also in Lokoja.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Kaduna, I have been to the
Emir of Zazzau Palace in Zaria. In Kano, I have visited Kofar Mata Dyeing Pits,
Kano City Walls, and Kurmi Market. In Katsina, I have been to the Emir of Daura
Palace and Kusugu Well, Daura where Abu Yazid Bin Abdullahi, known as
Bayajidda, vanquished a serpent named Sarki. In Bauchi, I have been to Yankari
National Park, Emir of Bauchi Palace, the Tomb of the First Prime Minister of
Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Wikki Warm Springs Resort. In Borno
State, I have been to the Shehu of Borno Palace in Maiduguri.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Cross River State, I have
visited the National Museum Calabar, Tinapa Resort and Obudu Mountain Resort.
In Edo State, I have been to the Royal Palace of the Oba of Benin, the National
Museum in Benin and Igun-Eronwon quarters popularly known as Igun Street which
is the home of the Brass/Bronze casting industries in Benin City. In Abia, I
have taken time off my official assignment to visit the Abia State National War
Museum. This museum was set up in 1985 to remind people of the aftermath of the
Civil War that took place in the state.
It contains war relics, bunkers, etc. In Ekiti State, I have been to the
Ikogosi Warm Springs and the Fajuyi Memorial Park. In Osun State, I have gone
to see the Oranyan Staff in Ile Ife, the Ooni of Ife Palace and the Ife Museum.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Oyo State, I have visited
the Agodi Garden, Ibadan University Zoological Garden, Captain Bower’s Tower at
Oke Are, and Mapo Hall built in 1929. In Ogun State, I have been to and climbed
the Olumo Rock, and visited Itoku Market where Tie and Dye local fabrics called
Adire and Kampala are on sale. I have also been to Centenary Hall and Alake of
Egbaland’s Palace. Before my last
Saturday’s visit to John Randle Centre, I have been to several tourist’ sites in
Lagos. Among them are: the first storey building in Nigeria located in Badagry,
Badagry Slave Museum and Black History Museum, Whispering Palm Beach, Elegushi
Beach and Bar Beach. Others include the National Art Theatre at Orile Iganmu,
Tafawa Balewa Square, and Muson Centre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Outside of Nigeria, during my
visit to Geneva, Switzerland in 2005, I visited Jet d’Eau which is a fountain
shooting up in a single stream more than 121 metres; the Flower Clock which is
a colourful flowerbed that looks like a clock face with real mechanical hands;
Palais des Nations which is the home of the United Nations in Geneve’s Ariana
Park. I also took a boat ride on Lake Geneva. When I went to the United States
of America, I was privileged to visit the White House which is the seat of
power; the Lincoln Memorial, the United States Capitol, and the headquarters of
the Voice of America. In Ghana, I have been to Cape Coast Castle, Kakum
National Park, Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Elmina Castle. In 2014 when I
was on an official visit to Egypt, I was able to squeeze some time to visit the
Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx. In 2016 during my visit to Uganda, I was
able to visit the Equator line at Kayabwe Town. Also, I was at Nabugabo Sand
Beach Resort, Masaka.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why am I thrilled with the
John Randle Centre? It is because it is a repository of all that Yoruba people
are. Touring the site last Saturday, I saw the images of different Yoruba
deities, dresses, artefacts, drums, implements, regalia, and oral history in an
audio-visual form. There was also a swimming pool originally built in 1928.
Information on the website of the centre says facilities at the new centre will
include: a world-class permanent
exhibition and a temporary exhibition space; a library with physical and digital
capacities, flexible multipurpose rooms, seminar and performance spaces, a gift
shop and lounge, two separate restaurants – one of which is an open-air
gathering space with adjoining restaurant/bar, a public swimming pool, a
landscaped area with a market square and car parking.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">According to the Lagos State
Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, “The John Randle Centre is the first of many
initiatives aimed at the preservation of the heritage of the Yoruba through the
celebration and preservation of history and culture, the regeneration of
decades-old public green space, public recreation facilities, and the
restoration of civic pride……”</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Although
the centre was hurriedly commissioned by former President Muhammadu Buhari on
January 24, 2023, the centre is not fully completed, and the projection is that
it will be fully open to the public by April 2024. If you are truly a Yoruba
son or daughter, this centre is a must-see for you and your children as well as
loved ones. Kudos to my namesake, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for this world-class
edifice. I do hope it will be well maintained.</span> </p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-18131573703981515632024-01-31T02:11:00.000-08:002024-01-31T02:11:53.336-08:00Fake degree epidemic, student loans and education matters<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With the funding support of
the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, in collaboration with the
MacArthur Foundation, Umar Audu, a reporter with the Daily Nigerian newspaper
carried out a sting operation to ascertain the veracity of fake degree mill in
Benin Republic. According to the story published in the December 30, 2023
edition of the newspaper, Audu, in December 2022, reached out to a racketeering
syndicate that specialises in selling the infamous degree certificates from the
neighbouring countries to willing buyers at an ‘affordable rate.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The agent, however, gave him
the option of ‘studying’ for a year or month, but he opted for the month
option. His choice of mass communication from any ‘university’ in Cotonou was
premised on the fact he could easily sail through the screening as he had
knowledge of the course. The agent gave the reporter the breakdown of the
amount to pay, which included tuition fees, an evaluation letter, a resident
permit, immigration stamps at the border post and transportation. On December
27, 2022, the reporter made the payment and was issued a payment receipt. True
to the agent’s words, the certificate and transcript of Ecole Superieure de
Gestion et de Technologies, Cotonou, Benin Republic, were delivered to his office
on February 17, 2023. The transcript indicated that the reporter commenced
study in the institution in 2018 and graduated on September 5, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unbelievably, the reporter
‘finished’ the four-year degree programme in less than two months without application,
registration, studying, writing exams or crossing the Nigerian border. Apart
from acquiring a fake university degree, Audu was also mobilised for the
mandatory National Youth Service with the fake degree. This is despite the fact
that he had previously ‘served’ after his previous graduation from another
university in 2018.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the
news report, “In separate letters dated May 25 and 26, 2023 addressed to the
Director General of the National Youth Service Corps, the Federal Ministry of
Education confirmed that the ESGT is on the ministry’s list of accredited
institutions. The letter, which was signed on behalf of the minister by the
Deputy Director of Evaluation and Accreditation, Koli Salihu-Mongodiba, also
cleared 51 ESGT graduates to participate in the NYSC, “having met all the requirements
set by the ministry.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Daily Nigerian investigation
revealed that agents of these mushroom universities connived with some corrupt
officials at the Federal Ministry of Education to get evaluation letters for a
fee ranging from N40,000 to N70,000 per “graduate.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Before anyone will think that
fake degrees are only issued from foreign universities, a similar scenario had
previously played out at the Lagos State University. The management of LASU,
Ojo, confirmed removing the Dean of Students’ Affairs, Tajudeen Olumoko, a
professor, as part of the investigation into the allegation of certificate
racketeering in the institution. Oluwayemisi Thomas-Onashile, Coordinator,
Centre for Information and Public Relations, LASU, said this in a statement on
Friday, November 10, 2023, in Lagos. The suspension followed a media report
that a syndicate sells certificates for between N2m and N3m, depending on the
course of study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The report had recalled that a
sting operation, spearheaded by the school management during the administration
of Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, and the Department of State Services exposed
certificate racketeering in the institution, with some members of the syndicate
allegedly confessing to the crime.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Fake degrees or certificates
have been a hydra-headed monster plaguing our academic institutions. Many civil
servants got their jobs through fake certificates while a number of high
profile politically exposed persons have also lost their exalted seats due to
the same reason. In December 2021, the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education
Board dismissed 233 teachers in public schools in the state who presented fake
certificates to get jobs. The Chairman of the board, Tijjani Abdullahi, said
the affected teachers would also be prosecuted. Recall that Hon. Salisu Buhari
was forced to resign after he was exposed by media reports for parading a fake
University of Toronto degree in 1999. A former Minister of Finance under
President Muhammadu Buhari, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, was forced to resign, and fled
Nigeria in 2018 after Premium Times investigation revealed that she actually
got a fake NYSC Exemption Certificate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The procurement of fake
degrees or certificates shows how morally bankrupt some Nigerians are. This
menace is the reason our certificates are no longer commanding respect in the
private sector and even abroad. There are a significant number of Nigerians who
cannot write simple and correct sentences despite claiming to have graduated
from reputable tertiary institutions. It is scary when someone procures a fake
degree to work as an engineer, doctor or in other medical science professions
which have to do with human lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The earlier referenced Daily
Nigerian newspaper reported that, “In April 2018, the Federal Government, in a
bid to tackle the menace of the proliferation of substandard degrees, announced
the blacklisting of some questionable institutions in Benin, Cameron, Ghana,
and Togo. Adamu Adamu, the then Minister of Education, set up a 16-member
committee to screen 40,000 Nigerians with degrees obtained from foreign
tertiary institutions. But despite the measures, the business seems to be
thriving – no thanks to corrupt officials in the Federal Ministry of Education,
Nigeria Immigration Service, and other government agencies who collect bribes
to lower the bar.” I do hope something stringent is done by the Tinubu administration
to halt this menace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Away from that, one of the
laudable flagship programmes of the Tinubu administration is the reintroduction
of the Students Loan Scheme. Last week, the President made a slight
modification to the list of beneficiaries. According to a news report, Tinubu
has directed the management of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund to expand its
focus area by extending interest-free loans to Nigerian students interested in
skills development programmes. The President issued this directive after he
received a briefing from Akintunde Sawyerr, Executive Secretary of NELFUND, in
the build-up to the launch of the programme later in the month. Today is the
last day of the month and the flag-off of the programme meant to commence in
January 2024 is yet to take place. Furthermore, it is doubtful if the knotty
issues in the law such as repayment to commence two years after graduation and
qualification criteria have been sorted out. The last I heard was that the
National Assembly was going to further amend the law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Meanwhile, I strongly condemn
the move by the National Assembly to establish 47 new universities. News has it
that the number of federal-owned universities in Nigeria may hit 99 in the
coming months as a bill to establish 47 new ones has sailed through the second
reading. This is just as about 56 bills have passed for the second reading to
establish Federal Medical Centres in different parts of the country. The House
is also considering various bills to establish about 32 Federal Colleges of
Education, 11 Federal Colleges of Agriculture and five Federal Polytechnics in
addition to the already existing institutions. At present, in addition to the
52 federal universities, there are 22 federal medical centres, 27 federal
colleges of education and 40 polytechnics in Nigeria.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is preposterous! How will
the Federal Government fund these mushroom academic and medical institutions in
the face of dwindling revenue? The ideal thing is to mobilise funds to increase
the carrying capacity of the extant ones so that they can increase student
intake. Tertiary institutions should not be turned into constituency projects
of politicians. There are enough glorified secondary schools being called
universities already. I laud the Federal Government for acceding to the request
of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to exempt lecturers from the
Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System. This is heart-warming.
What is left is to grant full autonomy to these institutions in terms of
recruitment, discipline and promotion of their staff. Government at all levels
should also do everything in their power to stem the tide of brain drain in our
tertiary institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-52914487014561103892024-01-24T14:09:00.000-08:002024-01-24T14:09:26.900-08:00Now that Dangote refinery has commenced production<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The heart-warming news broke
on Friday, January 12, 2024. The tale is that $18.5bn Dangote Refinery and
Petrochemical Company, which was commissioned on Monday, May 22, 2023, has
finally commenced production seven months after it was inaugurated with pomp
and circumstance in Lagos. Recall that during the commissioning exercise,
former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, said inter alia, that
in ensuring the successful completion of the project, the CBN provided over
N125bn to cover the domestic currency requirements of the venture, while also
ensuring the availability of foreign exchange to pay for the importation of
some of the machinery. He projected that the Dangote refinery could earn
Nigeria foreign exchange savings of between $25bn and $30bn yearly, stressing
that the impact of the savings would be directly reflected in Nigeria’s foreign
exchange reserves by reducing the pressure on the country’s balance of
payments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Given the processing capacity of
650,000 barrels per day, the ex-CBN governor said the refinery was more than
able to meet all of Nigeria’s domestic fuel consumption, which is about 450,000
barrels per day, while the excess production would be available for export.
According to Emefiele, under the administration of President Bola Tinubu,
Nigeria will cease importing petroleum products, fertiliser and petrochemicals
that drained the country of over $26bn in 2022. He opined that the refinery
would have an enormous impact on job creation by generating thousands of direct
jobs and millions of indirect jobs, with over 135,000 permanent jobs for
Nigerians. He also stated that the project would generate up to 12,000MW of
electricity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to the billionaire
businessman, Aliko Dangote, the plant will meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian
consumption need of all refined products (gasoline, 53 million litres per day;
diesel, 34 million litres per day; kerosene, 10 million litres per day, and
aviation jet, two million litres per day) and has a surplus of each of the
products for export. He disclosed that 80 per cent of the production could also
be discharged through trucks across the country. Speaking on the benefits of
the refinery to the country, he said: “The refinery will make available vital raw
materials for a wide range of manufacturers in the plastic, pharmaceuticals,
food and beverages, construction and other industries with massive job
opportunities.” Moreover, the facility would put an end to the inflow of toxic
substandard petroleum products into Nigeria.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Though the company has started
with the production of diesel and aviation fuel before moving on to petrol
output, I’m very happy that the waiting game is over and that the jinx has
finally been broken and operations have effectively commenced. It is expected
that the Port Harcourt refinery currently undergoing Turn Around Maintenance
will come on stream too later this year. These two, together with the three
modular refineries located in Edo, Rivers and Bayelsa, should be able to help solve
Nigeria’s lingering energy crises which have drained our foreign exchange
earnings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was on the Love 104.5 FM
Abuja programme named ‘Editors Roundtable’ last Saturday, January 20, 2024, to
discuss this good news. As I said on the programme, the Dangote refinery coming
on stream will boost economic activities in the country. Aside from the
aforementioned, there will be revenue accruing to the government through taxes,
royalties and levies. This refinery will provide needed raw materials for many
industries as well as stimulate the establishment of other petrochemical
companies. An online source reported petroleum products to include gasoline,
distillates such as diesel fuel and heating oil, jet fuel, petrochemical
feedstocks, waxes, lubricating oils, and asphalt. The source also listed 144
products out of the purported 6,000 that could be made from petroleum. What is
being said here is that the value chain of refined petroleum products is very
long and will stimulate a lot of businesses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m sure the hospitality
business, restaurants, and other micro, small and medium enterprises will
spring up around the Dangote refinery corridor. This new refinery should also
put an end to the perennial shortage of petroleum products which have led to
long queues and loss of highly productive man-hours. There was a question I
couldn’t answer on the earlier referenced radio programme, which was, if the
commencement of operation meant there would be a reduction in the price of
petroleum products. It’s a tricky question because I don’t know if the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company Limited will sell crude to Dangote in naira or
dollar and whether the price will be fixed throughout the year or subjected to
the vagaries of the price of crude oil in the international market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we know, capitalists, especially a
monopoly, will aim for super profit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Will the Dangote refinery put
an end to pipeline vandalism and oil theft? Will it not cause traffic gridlock
in the Lekki–Epe expressway corridor? What is the state of the three modular
refineries the NNPCL claimed had earlier been completed under the Buhari
administration? What will be the environmental impact of the refinery on the
vicinity of the site as well as the general atmosphere of Lagos State? The
NNPCL should also tell Nigerians if the huge resources expended on the repairs of
our oil pipelines have made it safe to transport refined petroleum products
through them or if are we condemned to trucking alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there a plan to link the Dangote refinery
by rail so that these refined products can also be evacuated via cargo trains?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The success story of the
Dangote refinery should incentivise other licensees who are yet to start
building their own refineries to immediately commence operations. The market is
huge and the demand is inelastic as the request for petroleum products is eternal
even in this wave of clamour for transition to clean energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The big challenge before our government is to
put an end to pipeline vandalism and oil theft. Premium attention should also
be paid to road safety, especially by articulated vehicles which will now be
conveying refined petroleum products from the Dangote refinery to the
hinterland. The federal and state road safety marshals need to work
collaboratively to reduce accidents along the location of the refinery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am super excited by the
planned move by the NNPCL to seek private companies for the operation and
maintenance of its Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers State. This was made public
on Monday, January 15, 2024.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is noteworthy
that concerns have been raised that if the current managers of the facility who
allowed it to go into ruins are allowed to manage the refurbished refinery, it
will go comatose again. Thus, it is a wise decision to have private companies
take over the management of the operations of the company. I do hope those who
will be chosen are those who have a track record of competence to handle the
refinery and not political jobbers whose sole aim will be personal
aggrandisement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-25014115360447678282024-01-18T03:07:00.000-08:002024-01-18T03:07:50.326-08:00Imperative of structural reduction in cost of governance<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On January 9, 2024, President
Bola Tinubu announced the reduction of his cost of travel by 60 per cent. The
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale,
revealed this while briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja. Ngelale said the directive applied to the offices of the President, Vice
President, First Lady, wife of the Vice President and all ministries,
departments and agencies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ngelale was quoted as saying,
“President Bola Tinubu has approved that anywhere he travels within this
country he will no longer accept or allow huge security delegations to be
following him from Abuja, which attracts massive bills with respect to estacode
and duty allowances from now on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has
approved a massive cost-cutting exercise that will cut across the entire
Federal Government of Nigeria and the Offices of the President himself, the
Vice President and the Office of the First Lady. It will be conducted in the
following fashion. On international trips, the President has directed that no
more than 20 individuals be allowed to travel with him. That number will be cut
down to five in the case of the First Lady. Additionally, the number in the
entourage on official international trips for the Vice President will be cut to
five. The number that will be placed as a limit on the wife of the Vice
President is also five.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have joined millions of
Nigerians in lauding the president on this initiative. However, successive
administrations have done similar things with little or no effect on the
economy. There is no gainsaying that there is a need to cut down travel cost
but that is not far-reaching. Before I propose my recommendations, there is a
need to discuss further the profligate nature of Nigeria’s political
leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The PUNCH of January 15, 2024,
reported that Tinubu has spent not less than N3.4bn on local and foreign travel
within six months of assuming office. The figure is 36 per cent more than the
N2.49bn earmarked for the President’s travel expenditure in the 2023 budget.
Though Tinubu inherited the budget halfway, he spent more than what was
apportioned for the whole year between June and December 2023. The President
also approved the sum of N3bn for the purchase of three bulletproof Mercedes
Benz S-class 580 and the supply of other vehicles to the State House.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This profligacy is not limited
to the Federal Government. Again. The PUNCH of yesterday, January 16, reported
that, “Despite spending at least N21.04bn on foreign trips in the last three
years, 14 state governments have failed to attract any form of foreign
investments into their domains. The states in question are Bauchi, Bayelsa,
Benue, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Taraba,
Yobe, and Zamfara. Between 2021 and the third quarter of 2023, these states
failed to attract any of the $14.85bn that foreign investors channelled into
Nigeria.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The report went further that,
“Between 2021 and 2023, Bauchi spent N3.81bn on foreign trips without having
anything to show for it. Bayelsa spent N1.99bn, Benue spent N1.33bn, Borno
spent N1.73bn, Cross River spent N663.16m, Ebonyi spent N1.01bn, Edo spent
N1.77bn, Gombe spent N32.09m, Imo spent N541.23m, Jigawa spent N1.10bn,
Nasarawa spent N541.26m, Taraba spent N2.52bn, Yobe spent N1.24bn, and Zamfara
spent N2.77bn. The figures for foreign trips were extracted from state budget
performance reports sourced from Open Nigerian States.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The PUNCH editorial of January
15 said inter alia that, “The Tinubu administration has not inspired confidence
with its large cabinet, ostentatious convoys, and sickening luxury at public
expense amid an inflation rate of 28.20 per cent, job losses and factory
closures. There is also the ruinous forex crisis in which the currency is
exchanging for over N1,000 to $1. Multidimensional poverty saw about 10 million
more Nigerians sliding into penury since May 2023’s petrol subsidy removal,
according to World Bank estimates.” The editorial therefore proposed among
other things that, “The President should reduce the Presidential Air Fleet and
sell the N5 billion-yacht embedded in the 2023 supplementary budget. The gains
from the cost-cutting should be directed to the provision of social and health
services and infrastructure.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I fully endorse the
recommendation of this newspaper. However, for there to be a significant
reduction in the cost of governance, a number of administrative cum legal steps
need to take place. First is the imperative of structural reforms, including
altering the constitution to reduce the number of ministers, federal and state
lawmakers. For instance, the President relied on the second paragraph of
Section 147 (3) of the 1999 Constitution to appoint 48 ministers. This section
needs to be amended to peg the number of ministers to a maximum of 18 (three
ministers to represent each of the six geo-political zones). The constitution
should also be altered to either scrap the Senate as Senegal did in 2012 and
Mauritania did in 2017, or reduce the National Assembly and state Houses of
Assembly members by one-third as done in Italy. Recall that in October 2019,
Italy’s parliament voted to cut the number of representatives in both houses by
more than a third. The lower house approved a law to reduce members of
parliament from 630 to 400 and senators from 315 to 200.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If these three aforementioned
countries can do what they did, nothing prevents Nigeria, a heavily indebted
country, from structurally cutting down the cost of governance. I also suggest
another look at the Steve Oronsaye report which former President Muhammadu
Buhari promised to implement but failed to do so. Recall that in 2011, the then
President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring
and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and
Agencies, under the Chairmanship of former Head of Service, Mr Steve Oronsaye.
It came up with far-reaching recommendations aimed at reducing the cost of
governance. Despite the white paper being out, the immediate past
administration did not implement the report. Tinubu should be able to take up
the gauntlet and implement this report. Nigeria, in my estimation, does not
need over 1,000 ministries, departments and agencies, many of whom have
duplicate mandates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is also the need to
block all revenue leakages, particularly from the government-owned enterprises
that collect revenue for the Federal Government. It is a notorious fact that
some of them under-declare and do not remit the actual amount that they should
pay into the federation account. Similarly, the issue of oil theft and illegal
mining of Nigeria’s solid minerals needs to be tackled headlong. Corrupt
practices in ministries, departments and agencies need to be exterminated. That
is why the alleged embezzlement of public funds in the Ministry of Humanitarian
Affairs and Poverty Alleviation needs to be thoroughly investigated as ordered
by the President and all those found culpable prosecuted in a court of law.
Lastly, the aforementioned cost-saving measures should cut across the three
tiers and three arms of the government. Nigerians deserve good governance and a
better life!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-22367781578242495592024-01-10T04:31:00.000-08:002024-01-10T04:31:00.052-08:00Is Betta Edu a scapegoat or sacred cow?<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Former President Muhammadu
Buhari created the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster
Management and Social Development on August 21, 2019. However, after President
Bola Tinubu took over in May 2023, the name was changed to the Federal Ministry
of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. Prior to this, the National
Emergency Management Agency, National Social Investment Office, North-East
Development Commission, National Commission for Refugees, and National Agency
for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, which are agencies under the
ministry, were either under the Office of the Vice President or in other
ministries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Out of all the agencies under
the ministries, the National Social Investment Office is the cynosure of all
eyes and the one most enmeshed in controversies. The National Social Investment
Programme was established in 2016 as a social safety net to care for the poor
and needy. The seed fund then was N500bn. It was the biggest welfarist
programme in Africa at inception. The programmes under the NSIP are fourfold.
The N-Power programme is designed to assist young Nigerians between the ages of
18 and 35 to acquire and develop lifelong skills for becoming change makers in
their communities and players in the domestic and global markets and given a
stipend of N30,000 monthly. There are four sectors in N-Power namely;
education, agriculture, health and vocational training. The Conditional Cash
Transfer programme directly supports those within the lowest poverty bracket by
improving nutrition, increasing household consumption and supporting the
development of human capital through cash benefits to various categories of the
poor and vulnerable. The support is conditioned on fulfilling soft and hard
co-responsibilities that enable recipients to improve their standard of living.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Government enterprise and
empowerment programme is a micro-lending intervention that targets traders,
artisans, enterprising youth, farmers and women in particular, by providing
loans between N10,000 and N100,000 at no monthly cost to beneficiaries. The
home-grown school feeding programme is reducing the incidence of malnutrition
(especially among the poor and those ordinarily unable to eat a meal a day),
empowering community women as cooks, and supporting small farmers that help
economic growth stimulation. There is no gainsaying that the motive behind the
establishment of the NSIP is noble and laudable. However, the implementation
has been enmeshed in swirling controversies and corrupt practices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On January 2, 2024, Tinubu
ordered the immediate suspension and investigation of the National Coordinator
and CEO of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, Ms. Halima Shehu,
over alleged financial malfeasance. With the suspension and investigation into
the allegations, the National N-POWER Program Manager, Dr Akindele Egbuwalo,
has been appointed in an acting capacity as the NC/CEO pending the conclusion
of the investigation. Her suspension is coming about three months after the
confirmation of her appointment by the Senate in October 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After the axe fell on Halima,
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission invited a former Minister of
Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, for questioning over a purported
N37.1bn money laundering issue. She did not honour the invitation last week’s
Wednesday purportedly due to ill health but made herself available last Monday,
January 8, 2024. Umar-Farouq was grilled for about 12 hours by the EFCC
detectives over the ongoing probe into the N37.1bn allegedly laundered during
her tenure in office, through a contractor, James Okwete. The ex-minister was
questioned from 11am to 11pm by investigators seeking information on how the
huge sum was allegedly laundered by top officials who served under her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Meanwhile, data from the
Budget Office indicate that the ministry, erstwhile known as Humanitarian
Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, had a N2.38tn budget from
2020 to 2024. Figures from the budget office showed that in 2020, 2021, 2022,
2023, and 2024, the total allocations to the ministry and agencies under it
were N453.3bn, N456.1bn, N507.9bn, N426bn and N532.5bn respectively.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As if the Ministry of Human
Affairs is under a curse, the recently appointed minister, Betta Edu, who had
previously served as Commissioner for Health in Cross Rivers State and the
National Women Leader of the All Progressives Congress was suspended on Monday
for breaching Public Finance Regulations. The scandal involving Edu burst open
after a leaked memo revealed that the suspended minister directed the
Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer N585m to a
private account owned by one Oniyelu Bridget, who the ministry claimed
currently serves as the Project Accountant, Grants for Vulnerable Groups. The
minister had claimed that the N585m payment was meant for vulnerable groups in
Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun, and Lagos states, describing the allegations
against her as baseless. The Media Assistant to the minister, Rasheed
Olarewaju, said in a statement that it was legal within the civil service for
such payments to be made into private accounts of staff members, especially
project accountants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The position of Olanrewaju is
at variance with the Federal Government’s Financial Regulation Chapter 7, page
713 which says personal monies shall in no circumstances be paid into a
government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private bank
account. An officer, who pays public money into a private bank account, is
deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention. Interestingly, this may have
been the practice in the past because a December 27, 2021 report in Dataphyte
publication named Data Dive reported that, “Some Federal Government Ministries,
Departments and Agencies in three months paid N4.08 billion into personal
accounts, a breach of the Nigerian financial regulation. The payments were made
between June and August 2021 into personal accounts belonging to individuals
who are neither contractors nor suppliers. Dataphyte analysis from the Open
Treasury Portal showed that amounts totalling N2 billion (2,022,215.301.00)
were paid in June, N1.8 billion (1,833,481,669.50) was paid in July while N193
million (193,110,472.00) was paid in August. All payments were made into
personal accounts.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The report said further that,
“In June 2021, a sum of N2 billion (2,022,215.301.06) was disbursed into
accounts belonging to Miss Afangekung Okon, Sani Saleh and Aniegboka O. Peter
by the New Partnership for African Development and National Investment Office
respectively.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What is not clear is why Betta
did not consult with her Permanent Secretary who is supposed to be the Chief
Accounting Officer of the ministry or any of the directors of the ministries
before penning that memo to the AGF. The National Social Investment Office is a
parastatal under her, why did that memo not emanate from the National
Coordinator and CEO of NSIPA, Ms. Halima Shehu? Obviously, her action in that
memo did not follow due process. Aside
from the N585m memo controversy, billions of naira were allegedly paid to some
companies as consultancy fees to build the National Social Register. In fact,
some sections of the media report alleged that New Planet Project Limited, a
company founded by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, with
registration number 804833, registered on March 3, 2009, got a contract for
N438.1m as a consultant for the National Social Register contract to verify 11
million homes in Nigeria, carried out in one month.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Did these consultancies go
through due process before they were awarded? Was there a tenders board meeting
and did the process go through competitive bidding? Time will tell if Edu is
indeed a scapegoat or a sacred cow! However, the president did well by
suspending her and asking for a thorough investigation into the matter.</span> </p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-1444745711579568742024-01-03T05:53:00.000-08:002024-01-03T05:53:22.958-08:00From Tinubu’s speech to 2024 budget<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“For
the new year to yield all its good benefits to us as individuals and
collectively as a people we must be prepared to play our part. The job of
building a prosperous nation is not the job of the President, governors,
ministers, lawmakers and government officials alone. Our destinies are
connected as members of this household of Nigeria. Our language, creed,
ethnicity and religious beliefs even when they are not the same should never
make us work at cross purposes. In this new year, let us resolve that as joint
heirs to the Nigerian commonwealth, we will work for the peace, progress and
stability of our country.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">President Bola Tinubu in his
national broadcast on January 1, 2024<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Welcome to 2024 fellow
compatriots. Happy New Year! The holidays are over and it’s time to roll up the
sleeves and set to work. Two significant acts of President Bola Tinubu are
already generating hoopla. They are his new year national broadcast, and the
signing into law of the Federal Government’s N28.77tn budget passed by the National
Assembly on December 30, 2023.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Interestingly, these two are interconnected. Speeches are mere rhetoric
when there’s no means of implementing them. With the budget signed, resources
should now be made available to Ministries, Departments and Agencies to
implement the president’s economic blueprint.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The president’s speech had
some sound bites. One of them is his show of empathy when he said, “From the
boardrooms at Broad Street in Lagos to the main streets of Kano and Nembe
Creeks in Bayelsa, I hear the groans of Nigerians who work hard every day to
provide for themselves and their families. I am not oblivious to the expressed
and sometimes unexpressed frustrations of my fellow citizens. I know for a fact
that some of our compatriots are even asking if this is how our administration
wants to renew their hope.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On the ease of doing business
and improving the economy, Tinubu said, “I will fight every obstacle that
impedes business competitiveness in Nigeria and I will not hesitate to remove
any clog hindering our path to making Nigeria a destination of choice for local
and foreign investments.” To the Nigerian worker, the president said, “We will
work diligently to make sure every Nigerian feels the impact of their
government. The economic aspirations and the material well-being of the poor,
the most vulnerable and the working people shall not be neglected. It is in
this spirit that we are going to implement a new national living wage for our
industrious workers this new year. It is not only good economics to do this, it
is also a morally and politically correct thing to do.” Note that the president
did not say minimum wage but a living wage. Nigerians are waiting!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In his about 15-minute speech,
Tinubu spoke on a wide range of issues. He said 2023 was a transition year and
thereafter gave a recap of what his administration has been doing in the last
seven months. He acknowledged the economic pains the subsidy removal on petrol
and the unification of exchange rate have inflicted on Nigerians. He touched
briefly on security where he stated that his government has silently been
freeing those abducted and his efforts to revive the economy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He spoke on the pivotal role
of electricity when he said his administration recognises that no meaningful
economic transformation can happen without a steady electricity supply. Mention
was also made of the quest to restart local refining of petroleum products with
Port Harcourt Refinery, and the Dangote Refinery which is expected to fully
come on stream in the course of the year. He said his government is racing
against time to ensure all the fiscal and tax policy reforms needed to be put
in place are codified and simplified to ensure the business environment does
not destroy value. He touched on agricultural reform and his commitment to
cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country to grow maize, rice,
wheat, millet and other staple crops. It is noteworthy that this commitment was
first made in his July 31, 2023 broadcast. As an update, the president said he
launched dry season farming with 120,000 hectares of land in Jigawa State last
November under the National Wheat Development Programme.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The president did not mince
words in emphasising once more that no excuse for poor performance from any of
his appointees would be good enough. According to him, it is the reason he has
put in place a Policy Coordination, Evaluation, Monitoring and Delivery Unit in
the Presidency to make sure that governance output improves the living
conditions of Nigerians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By Tinubu’s admittance, what
he has been doing since taking over is planning. He said he had laid the
groundwork of economic recovery plans within the last seven months of 2023,
stating that his administration is now poised to accelerate the pace of service
delivery across sectors. Nigeria awaits the delivery of democracy dividends to
them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There are gaps in the
president’s speech. He failed to give facts and figures. The speech was not
data-driven and very short on statistics. Tinubu did not say what had been done
in terms of support to micro small and medium enterprises. For instance, in his
July 31, 2023 presidential broadcast, he said he would strengthen the
manufacturing sector by funding 75 enterprises with great potential to
kick-start sustainable economic growth, accelerate structural transformation
and improve productivity. Each of the 75 manufacturing enterprises would be
able to access N1bn credit at nine per cent per annum with a maximum of 60
months’ repayment for long-term loans and 12 months for working capital.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He said then that his
administration recognises the importance of micro, small and medium-sized
enterprises and the informal sector as drivers of growth; as such he would
energise this very important sector with N125bn. Out of the sum, he promised to
spend N50bn on conditional grants to one million nano businesses between August
2023 and March 2024. His target is to give N50,000 each to 1,300 nano business
owners in each of the 774 local governments across the country. In like manner,
he promised to fund 100,000 MSMEs and start-ups with N75bn. Under this scheme,
each enterprise promoter will be able to get between N500,000 to N1m at nine
per cent interest per annum and a repayment period of 36 months. Tinubu did not
give an update on this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mr President is also silent on
his proposed Infrastructure Support Fund for the states. He is equally silent
on the promise to invest N100bn between August 2023 and March 2024 to acquire
3,000 units of 20-seater Compressed Natural Gas-fuelled buses. Federal workers
are complaining that the N35,000 wage award promised to federal workers has
only been paid once, which is for September 2023. What has happened to the
October, November and December awards? Now he is promising living wage. Can he
be trusted? The President did not talk about anti-corruption, education, health
and human capital development. He is equally silent on restructuring to
streamline and cut down on the cost of governance. Is there going to be a
National Population and Housing Census in 2024? Mum is the word from Tinubu.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The signing of the 2024 budget
is very significant. It means several things. It is Tinubu’s third budget since
he took over the reins of power on May 29, 2023, having first sent the 2022
supplementary budget to the National Assembly in July 2023. He also sent in the
2023 supplementary budget to the federal lawmakers before the presentation of
the 2024 budget to the National Assembly on November 29, 2023. Well, in the
national interest and in order to maintain the January-to-December financial
year, the federal lawmakers worked assiduously even on weekends to ensure the
passage of the appropriation bill within a month. This is the type of
collaboration needed among the three arms of government.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The significance of the
Federal Government budget is that all the new ministries created last year such
as Ministries of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Creative Economy; Steel
Development; Marine and Blue Economy; Budget and National Planning, will now
have their separate budgets as against what their ministers have been
experiencing of having to run their ministries without offices, personnel and
proper funding. It is expected that there will be prompt budget release and
cash backing so that the various heads of MDAs can perform optimally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The crux of the matter is how
this huge budget will be funded in the face of revenue shortage, high cost of
governance and ballooning borrowing. Don’t forget, the new ‘living’ wage is
expected to kick in later this year after deliberations have been concluded
with the labour unions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-49274044198798923312023-12-30T04:41:00.000-08:002023-12-30T04:41:28.623-08:00Synopsis of Nigeria, Africa and world in 2023<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s about 96 hours to the end
of 2023. A lot of remarkable things happened in the outgoing year. The popular
axiom says charity begins at home. Let me start the chronicle with a hearty
congratulatory message to Punch newspaper which clocked half a century of
publication this year. I am at present
reading “Our PUNCH Years”, a book edited by veteran journalist, Lekan
Otufodunrin. It was an eyewitness account of 38 former staffers of the
newspaper. The book offered a great insight to the topsy-turvy challenges of
newspaper publishing in Nigeria. I have been contributing to The PUNCH for 28
years. My first article in this newspaper was, “Saving our universities”
published on Friday, November 3, 1995. I became a columnist with this medium in
October 2012. Happy golden jubilee to The PUNCH, the most widely read newspaper
in Nigeria!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">2023 is a peculiar year for
Nigeria. The country has two presidents, two sets of governors, two sets of
House of Representatives members, two sets of senators, and two sets of House of
Assembly members. What accounts for this is the seventh general elections that
was held this year by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Remember,
elections fall due in Nigeria every four years. Thus, since the beginning of
this Fourth Republic in 1999, and the return to civil rule, INEC has conducted
seven general elections in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023. So, at
the beginning of this year, President Muhammadu Buhari held sway until the
change of power on May 29. In the same way, Dr Ahmed Lawan was the President of
the Senate until the inauguration of the 10th Senate on June 13 when Godswill
Akpabio took over from him. Also, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamila, stepped aside on June 13 to make way for Dr Tajudeen Abass as the
Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The 2023 general election was
fractious, divisive and contentious. Over 1,000 pre-election matters were filed
in various courts across the country arising from the messy party nomination process
of 2022. This year’s general elections were held mainly on February 25 and
March 18 with supplementary polls held on April 15. INEC also conducted three
off-cycle governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa on November 11. This
is the first of its kind. Most of the polls were won on the first ballot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Opinions are divided on the
credibility and integrity of this year’s elections. While the young voters and
opposition candidates claimed the election lacked credibility, many other
experienced voters and political analysts believed that the elections, though
not flawless, were conducted in substantial compliance with the country’s
electoral laws, especially Section 135 of the Electoral Act 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Indeed, in what appears like
chest-thumping, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, in a speech during an
extraordinary meeting with chairmen of political parties on December 18, 2023,
said inter alia that, “So far, the Election Petition Appeal Tribunals have
ordered the commission to conduct re-run elections in 34 constituencies made up
of one senatorial district, 11 federal constituencies and 22 state Assembly
constituencies. However, the 34 constituencies constitute 2.8 per cent of the
1,191 petitions filed by litigants. Significantly, out of the 34 re-run
elections, it is only in three cases that the commission was ordered to conduct
elections in the entire constituencies. In the other 31 constituencies,
elections are to be held in a few polling units.” Only four out of the 31
governorship elections held in the outgoing year have been nullified by the
tribunal or Court of Appeal. They are those of Kano, Nasarawa, Plateau and
Zamfara states. Out of these four, only one of the All Progressives Congress,
Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State is affected.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In terms of governance, there
have been new sets of ministers and commissioners at the federal and state
levels. President Bola Tinubu took appointments of ministers a notch higher by
having a 54-member cabinet comprising 48 ministers, the President, Vice President,
Secretary to the Federal Government, Head of Service, National Security Adviser
and the Chief of Staff to the President. This, to me, is unwieldy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Popular agitation is for the
cost of governance to be reduced. That’s not what is currently happening both
at the federal and the sub-national levels. Early this month, Nigeria has a
delegation of 1,411 that went to the United Arab Emirates for the COP28 Climate
Change Summit. Although only 422 of the delegates are purportedly sponsored by
the Federal Government, such a huge delegation is needless. Many compatriots and I want the cost of
governance reduced, and the cost of living, which has exponentially risen as a
result of the removal of subsidy on petrol, should be tamed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As the year ends, inflation in
Nigeria is at 28 per cent. Global audit and tax advisory firm, KPMG, projected
that Nigeria’s 2023 unemployment rate is expected to rise to 40.6 per cent as
compared to 2022’s 37.7 per cent. This may have come to pass given the number
of micro, small and medium enterprises that have shut down in 2023. In January
this year, Transparency International released the Corruption Perception Index
for 2022. According to TI, “Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2022
CPI, compared to 24 points in the 2021 CPI. There has been no change in the
country scoring between 2021 and 2022. In the country comparison for the 2022
CPI, Nigeria ranks 150 out of 180 countries compared to 154 on the 2021 CPI
results.” This is not an enviable position to occupy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nigeria still faces
existential challenges such as insecurity, high cost of living, poverty,
infrastructural deficit, bad governance and restiveness in the critical social
sectors such as education and health. The new sets of political leaders have
made commitments to fix these problems. However, despite the ‘Renewed Hope
Agenda’ of President Bola Tinubu, many more Nigerians are ‘voting with their
feet’ as they flee (japa) legally or illegally in search of greener pastures
abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Shortly after his inauguration
as the 16th President of Nigeria, Tinubu was elected as the Chairman of the
ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government at the 63rd Ordinary Session
of the Authority held on July 9, 2023, in Guinea-Bissau. Since then, there had
been additional two coups in Niger Republic and Gabon. It will be remembered
that Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso have been under military rule since 2022.
Sudan, since April 15, 2023, has been plunged into a full-scale war due to a
power struggle between General Abdel al-Burhan and his erstwhile deputy,
Mohamed Daglo.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to the Centre for
Preventive Action’s Global Conflict Tracker of November 2023, “Sudan’s two
warring factions remain locked in a deadly power struggle after more than six months
of fighting. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced 5.6
million, 80 per cent of whom are internally displaced and hundreds of thousands
of whom have fled to unstable areas in Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Nigeria
had to evacuate over 5,000 of its citizens from the war-torn country. Very
heart-rending!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At the global level, while the
war between Russia and Ukraine is yet to abate, on October 7, 2023, Hamas
militants attacked Israel, killing over 1,200 of its citizens and holding over
200 hostages. As the year winds down, an AP report of December 23, 2023, says,
“Israel’s war to destroy Hamas has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians….
Israel’s aerial and ground offensive has been one of the most devastating
military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85 per cent of Gaza’s
2.3 million people and levelling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. More
than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are
starving, according to a report from the United Nations and other agencies.”
This is quite devastating!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">There is no gainsaying the
fact that the world is in dire need of good governance, equity, justice and
fair play. Rule of law, due process and selflessness are among the ingredients
that will help silence the guns and bring about global peace. As we look
forward to a better 2024, may our leaders govern with fear of God and law as
well as kind consideration for ordinary citizens. Happy New Year in advance!</span> </p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-47440740165009408022023-12-20T00:45:00.000-08:002023-12-20T00:45:56.755-08:00Governor Fubara, you’re on your own<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On Monday, December 18, 2023,
a signed agreement to resolve the lingering political crisis in Rivers State
surfaced in the media. It was an eight-point resolution reached at the end of
about three hours meeting held at the Presidential Villa between the camps of
Rivers State governor, Siminalaye Fubara, and that of his estranged godfather,
Nyesom Wike. This was the second time the President is mediating in the brewing
local political crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta state. Some political
watchers said the president shouldn’t have mediated while others believe that
Fubara was handed the short end of the stick.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Before examining the content
of the signed truce, let me attempt a chronicle of the political development
that brought about this presidential intervention. On the night of Sunday,
October 29, 2023, there was an inferno at the Rivers State House of Assembly
complex due to explosives purportedly ignited by unknown arsonists; by the dawn
of Monday, October 30, the majority members of the Rivers State House of
Assembly commenced impeachment proceedings against Fubara. They said he
committed gross misconduct. They also suspended the Leader of the House, Edison
Ehie, and three others loyal to the governor. It became clear thereafter that
in a 32-member Assembly, only four members are with the sitting governor while
27 are loyal to his godfather, the former governor now Minister of the Federal
Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. One of the RSHA members died.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the course of time, two
factions of the House of Assembly emerged, both laying claim to be the
authentic faction and having parallel sittings. The judiciary was dragged into
the fray with both sides getting ex-parte orders and several court injunctions
in their favour both in Port Harcourt and Abuja. On Tuesday, December 12,
Justice M.W. Danagogo of the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt ruled
that the authentic Speaker is Edison Ehie. The judge also restrained Martin
Amaewhule and Dumle Maol from parading themselves as Speaker and Deputy Speaker
respectively, or interfering with the activities of Ehie as the Speaker of the
Assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This emboldened Fubara as he
hurriedly presented the state’s N800bn 2024 Appropriation Bill to a four-member
Assembly on Wednesday, December 13. Isn’t that preposterous? Absurdity and
impunity were taken to Olympian height when the governor claimed to have
received the approved budget from the House a day after it was presented. He
claimed to have signed the budget into law. N800bn state budget without any
legislative action; no first, second readings; no committee work; no budget
defence by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Rivers State; no third
reading and final passage of the bill. Wow!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While many thought that was
enough shenanigan, Fubara ordered the demolition of the Rivers State House of
Assembly. The Same day he presented the budget to the minority House,
excavators, wheel loaders and other earth-moving equipment moved to the Rivers
State House of Assembly, not to refurbish the torched complex, but to level the
structures to the ground. The Assembly complex comprising about six buildings,
including the main chamber, was built during the administration of Dr<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter Odili who was the state governor
between 1999 and 2007. There is no gainsaying that it is a sheer waste of
public finance to pull down structures that can be repaired. Although the state
Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, in a statement
last Wednesday, said the place was unsafe for human habitation because of the recent
explosion and fire incident there, however, not a few knew it was done to
prevent the 27 loyalists of Godfather Wike from sitting, thereby frustrating
any impeachment move on the governor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On Monday, December 11, 27
Rivers State lawmakers loyal to Wike defected to the All Progressives Congress
citing division within the Peoples Democratic Party as well as the refusal of
the state governor to pay their salaries and allowances. Prior to this gale of
defections, the APC Rivers State Executive Committee was dissolved and a
seven-man caretaker committee inaugurated on Friday, November 24, 2023, at the
APC headquarters. The caretaker committee is headed by Tony Okocha, who is a
presumed loyalist of Wike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, the grand
design is to hand over the APC structure in Rivers State to the immediate past
governor. It remains to be seen if he and his other loyalists comprising
senators, House of Representatives members and other federal political
appointees will defect to the APC in due course.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Meanwhile, Edison Ehie as the
recognised Speaker has officially written to the Independent National Electoral
Commission to conduct bye-election in the 27 constituencies where their
lawmakers have defected to the APC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
G-27 also got an Abuja High Court injunction from Justice Donatus Okoronwo to
stop INEC from doing so following an ex-parte motion moved by the defected
lawmakers’ counsel, Peter Onuh. The court order restrains INEC, PDP, and the
House of Assembly from declaring the defectors’ seats vacant or withdrawing
their Certificates of Returns pending the determination of the motion on
notice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Another newsworthy incident
that happened in the course of this political imbroglio was the mass
resignation of commissioners serving in Governor Sim Fubara’s government. At
the last count, nine out of 19 commissioners had resigned their appointments.
They are the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus
Adangor (SAN); Commissioner for Works, Dr Des George-Kelly; Commissioner for
Special Duties, Emeka Woke; Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation,
Mrs. Inime Aguma; Commissioner for Finance, Isaac Kamalu. Others are the
Commissioner for Education, Prof. Chinedu Mmom; Commissioner for Housing, Dr
Gift Worlu; Commissioner for Transport, Dr Jacobson Nbina; and Commissioner for
Environment, Austin Ben-Chioma.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The content of the eight-point
resolution signed by the mediators and warring parties in the Rivers State
crisis on Monday, December 18, 2023, stated as follows: Governor Fubara and his
allies will withdraw all court cases related to the crisis. The state House of
Assembly will drop impeachment proceedings initiated against Fubara.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The leadership of the House, under Speaker
Martin Amaewhule, will be recognised, along with the 27 lawmakers who defected
from the Peoples Democratic Party. Governor Fubara will re-present the 2024
budget to the Amaewhule-led Assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Others are: Salaries and
benefits for all Assembly members and staff will be restored. The Assembly will
have autonomy to choose its location and conduct business without interference
from the Executive. The governor will resubmit the names of resigned
commissioners for approval and the dissolution of local governments is declared
null and void.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">From the foregoing, it will
seem that the resolution achieved a win-win solution. However, Fubara only got
his seat protected for him. He will still be governing among his political
enemies. All Wike’s loyalists both in the state cabinet and House of Assembly
are to retain their seats. The local government chairmen and councillors also
got their lifeline. Now the governor who is still in the PDP will be governing
over the APC-dominated House of Assembly. A look at the key ministries being
held by the resigned Wike loyalists shows who is controlling the finances of
Rivers State. Believe you me, Governor Fubara you’re O-Y-O! This means you’re
just a figurehead governor with no power or authority as the levers of power
remain with your political godfather in Abuja. You’re a military General
without a battalion of soldiers under you. Figure it out!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, as this roforofo fight rages,
the welfare and security of the good people of Rivers State is secondary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-15838501126325118792023-12-13T14:51:00.000-08:002023-12-13T14:51:56.616-08:00Osimhen, Oshoala, Nnadozie: Africa’s worthy champions!<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Stand up for the African
champions! What a befitting Christmas and End-of-the-Year gifts to Nigerians!
Last Monday, December 11, 2023, I felt proud to be a Nigerian. My compatriots
have once again risen to the occasion to burnish the dented image of the
country by winning big at the just concluded Confederation of African Football
Award Night for 2023. Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen, broke a 24-year-old
jinx to win the 2023 Men’s Player of the Year. Osimhen triumphed over Morocco’s
Achraf Hakimi and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah to win the coveted trophy during the
CAF 2023 Awards held in Marrakech, Morocco.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the same vein, Super
Falcons forward, Asisat Oshoala, was named the 2023 Women Player of the Year to
become the first woman in history to win the award six times. She had
previously won it in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022. In other categories,
Goalkeeper of the Year (Women) was won by Super Falcon’s goalie, Chiamaka
Nnadozie (FC Paris). Also, the CAF National Team of the Year (Women) was won by
Nigeria’s Super Falcons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Other winners are: CAF Team of
the Year (Women) – Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies; CAF Team of the Year (Men) – Al
Ahly; Interclub Player of the Year (Men) – Percy Tau (South Africa/Al Ahly);
Interclub Player of the Year (Women) – Fatima Tagnaout (Morocco/ASFAR); Young
Player of the Year (Women) – Nesryne El Chad (Morocco/LOSC Lille); Young Player
of the Year (Men) – Lamine Camara (Senegal/FC Metz) and CAF National Team of
the Year (Men) – Morocco. Others include: CAF Goal of the Year – Mahmoud
Kahraba (Al Ahly vs Al Hilal); Goalkeeper of the Year (Men) – Yassine Bounou
(Morocco/Al Hilal Saudi); Coach of the Year (Women) – Desiree Ellis and Coach
of the Year (Men) – Walid Regragui. CAF is the governing body of African
football and was founded in 1957. The founding members are Egypt, Sudan,
Ethiopia and South Africa. ‘With a membership of 54 member associations, the
secretariat is based in Egypt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The feat performed by Nigeria
and Nigerians at this year’s CAF Awards is a clear testimony to the resilience,
never-say-die and can-do spirit of Nigerians.This news is a soothing balm to a
nation in the throes of economic hardship, corruption and insecurity. It has
once again cast a positive light on a country whose youths have been despised
as being lazy, hedonistic and nonentities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Before Victor Osimhen’s 2023
feat, previous Nigerian players to have won the award are: The late Super
Eagles striker, Rashidi Yekini, who was the first Nigerian player to win the
prized African Player of the Year award following his explosive goalscoring
form for the club and country in 1993.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The mesmerising Super Eagles
winger, Emmanuel Amuneke, succeeded Yekini as the African Footballer of the
Year following his blistering performance for Sporting CP of Portugal and El
Zamalek of Egypt, as well as his exploits in Nigeria’s triumph at the 1994 African
Cup of Nations in Tunisia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nwankwo Kanu aka ‘Papilo’ is
the only Nigerian player to win the CAF African Footballer of the Year award
twice in 1996 and 1999. The Prince of Monaco, as Victor Ikpeba is fondly called
by Nigerian football, fans emerged as Africa’s best player in 1997 following
his exploits for club and country. Thus, Victor Osimhen is the fifth Nigerian
to win the coveted award. The new Football King was only months old when Super
Eagles legend, Nwankwo Kanu, won<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CAF
Player of the Year in 1999, and since then, no Nigerian footballer has won the
award.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Osimhen scored 31 goals in 39
games across all competitions for Napoli, inspiring the Italian club to their first
Serie A title in 33 years. The 24-year-old has since won the Serie A Striker of
the Season award and also recently won the AIC Player of the Year award voted
for by Italian footballers while finishing eighth on the 2023 Ballon d’Or
rankings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Meanwhile, Osimhen has been
nominated for the 2023 IFFHS Men’s World Best Player award. The International
Federation of Football History and Statistics nominated him along with 24 other
players in recognition of his exploits in the 2022/23 season. Osimhen would have
to compete with notable names such as Lionel Messi (the current holder of the
award), Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Antoine Griezman and
Bukayo Saka amongst others for the 2023 IFFHS Men’s World Best Player award.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nigerian ladies have dominated
the CAF Women’s Player of the Year since it birthed in 2001. Super Falcons
players that have won the prestigious awards are Mercy Akide (2001);: Perpetua
Nkwocha (2004, 2005);: Cynthia Uwak (2006, 2007);: Perpetua Nkwocha (2010,
2011); from then on it has been the Queen of Nigerian Football, Asisat Oshoala,
winning a record six times –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2014, 2016,
2017, 2019, 2022, and now 2023. Tell me who will not be proud of these amazons
who have done their country proud in football? Unfortunately, many men still
see a girl child as inferior to a boy. This is heart-rending!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is also interesting that
while Nigeria’s Super Eagles have only won the African Cup of Nations thrice in
1980, 1994 and 2013 out of 20 appearances; Nigeria’s Super Falcons have won 11
of the 14 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations since its genesis in 1991.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While we celebrate the
exemplary conduct and sterling feats of our football heroes and heroines, our
sports administrators need to get their acts together and discover more talents
that can soar like Osimhen and Oshoala.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While it is true that Nigeria
has had more success at the female football and FIFA Under-17 World Cup where
we have been the most successful nation in the tournament’s history, with five
titles and three runners up; sports is not about football alone. Boxing,
weightlifting, table tennis, basketball, para lifting, wrestling, long jump and
hurdles have also brought laurels to my native land.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Minister of Sports
Development, Senator John Enoh, the Minister of Youths Development, Dr Jamila
Ibrahim, and his Minister of State, Ayodele Olawande, should work in sync to
harness the great potential of Nigerian youths to develop our sports and
entertainment. They should collaborate with the Minister of Arts, Culture and
Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Osimhen, Oshoala and Nnadozie
are king, queen and princess of African football today because they ply their
trade abroad. The same goes for Tobi Amusan who is doing the nation proud in
100m hurdles and Ese Brume who’s flying the flag of Nigeria high in the long
jump. There should be a blueprint or road map for Nigerian sports development
which should be implemented to the letter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sport is a multibillion-dollar
business which Nigeria should key into. We need to fix our deplorable sports
infrastructure from stadia to sports equipment. The energy Nigerian youths are
channelling into crime is best positively used in sports. Our coaches must be
trained and retrained. There should be all-year-round competitions for young
talents to hone their skills. Private sector partnerships and sponsorships
should be sought but there must be zero tolerance for corruption. Transparency
and accountability must be the watchword of our sports administrators.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-58467941512128280102023-12-07T01:29:00.000-08:002023-12-07T01:29:46.403-08:00Nigeria’s aviation sector stinks, can Keyamo clean up?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Transportation is very key to
human existence. In the days of yore, aside from trekking, many people travel
by riding on animals such as horses, donkeys, and camels. When technology came,
vehicles, trains, canoes, boats, ships and airplanes gradually substituted
animals in the transportation business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is debatable if people travel more for business or pleasure.
Undoubtedly, the fastest means of transportation is through air. An airplane
can make road travel of 12 hours in one hour. Hence, it is the most preferred
means of travel by elites who value time and also want to travel safely.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The history of aviation in
Nigeria would be incomplete without the mention of Kano city, where the first
aircraft landed on November 1, 1925. According to Wikipedia, Nigeria Airways
was founded in 1958 after the dissolution of West African Airways Corporation.
It held the name West African Airways Corporation Nigeria until 1971 when it
was rebranded to the name it had until it ceased operations in 2003. After many
years of operating as Nigeria’s national carrier, Nigeria’s aviation was
privatised to allow Nigerian and foreign business owners to run airlines in the
country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Information gleaned from the
website of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority shows that in its about 65
years of existence, Nigeria has 20 airports and many regulated airstrips and
heliports; 23 active domestic airlines; 554 licensed pilots; 913 licensed
engineers and 1700 cabin personnel. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is
an important destination for over 22 foreign carriers. Nigeria currently has
Bilateral Air Services Agreements with over 78 countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have been a regular air
traveller for over 20 years now. I can safely say that air travel in Nigeria
remains a traumatic experience. Flight cancellations and long delays are the
two most pronounced challenges faced by air passengers. Other unpleasant
experiences of air travellers include arbitrary airfares, misplacement and
mishandling of passengers’ luggage, unfavourable airport waiting lounges,
discourteous airline staff, failure to implement the passengers’ bill of
rights, corrupt practices, among others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have had three distasteful
experiences in the recent past. The first happened on December 15, 2020. I had
been invited as one of the resource persons to the 3rd Annual Abiola Ajimobi
Roundtable organised by the Senator Abiola Ajimobi Foundation in collaboration
with the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prof. Freedom Onuoha of the Department of
Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and I were scheduled to fly
Overland Airways from Abuja to Ibadan. We bought our tickets and got to the
airport early enough. However, after about five hours’ delay, the flight was
cancelled. We were asked to return the following morning which was the day of
the event we were going for in Ibadan. It was to start at 10 am. The airline
asked us to return at 7:30 in the morning of December 16. There was no
refreshment served during the duration of the long delay. We returned the
following morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even then, the flight
did not depart until about 11:30 am. The programme we went for had commenced
and the organisers were worried about our safety and security. We ended up
getting there very late, at about 2 pm due to an additional hold-up experienced
from the Ibadan airport to the University of Ibadan Conference Centre, the
venue of the programme.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Among us was a doctoral
student who I learnt was going for her PhD defence at the Olabisi Onabanjo
University, Ago Iwoye, and had hoped to be on the ground a day before the
epochal event. She cried her eyes out. Other fellow passengers included judges
and senior lawyers. The disappointment made us form a WhatsApp group with the
hope of suing the airline. Unfortunately, many of those affected were
non-committal to the proposed court case, so it died a natural death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My second nasty experience was
on January 11, 2023. I had gone to Kaduna on official assignment and was
scheduled for another event on January 12 and 13 in Jos. Due to the fear of
abduction, the organisation that engaged me preferred me to fly to Lagos and
connect a flight to Jos from there but a five-hour delay at the Kaduna airport
meant my connecting flight to Jos from Lagos had departed before my late
arrival to Lagos. An early morning flight scheduled for 8 am on January 12 was
cancelled at about 5 am on the departure day. My colleague and I had to
reschedule our flights to Abuja and did about five hours of road travel to Jos
from there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The third bad experience took
place last Friday, December 1. I had gone to Lagos from Abuja via United
Nigeria Airlines on Tuesday, November 28 for a two-day official assignment. My
colleagues and I were to return via the same airline last Friday. As we were
preparing to leave the hotel for the airport, information came that our 2 pm
flight had been rescheduled to 5:20 pm. The organisation then arranged a
delayed checkout for us till 2 pm. On getting to the airport at about 3 pm we
waited till about 7:30 pm without the flight being called. Then announcement
was made for all checked-in passengers to come to Gate 5. We thought we were
going to board. No way! Rather the airline official briefed us that we were
going to be merged with Port Harcourt passengers whose flight was scheduled for
9:10 pm. Thereafter we would be flown from Port Harcourt to Abuja. I was
flabbergasted!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is the same airline that
took passengers from Lagos on Sunday, November 26, 2023, and rather than take
them to Abuja, it curiously took them to Asaba only to later take them to Abuja
when the pilot noticed that he was handed the wrong flight plan. But reacting,
a statement signed by its head, Corporate Communications, Achilleus-Chud
Uchegbu, said the United Nigeria Airlines flight, NUA 0504, operating from
Lagos en-route Abuja on Sunday, November 26 was “temporarily diverted to the
Asaba International Airport due to poor destination weather.” This claim has
been debunked by NCAA officials. News report said the NCAA inspectors were not
convinced about the claim of the airline that its crew diverted to Asaba
following the bad weather situation at the Abuja Airport. It was learnt that
all the wet-leased aircraft in its fleet would remain suspended until after the
conclusion of the investigation into the incident.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With the palpable fear of a
possible re-enactment of the November 26 experience, the organisers of the
programme I went for in Lagos took a prompt decision to buy tickets from
another airline flying directly to Abuja from Lagos. Though we were lucky to
get tickets on Dana’s 8:20 pm flight to Abuja, it did not take off until after
10 pm. Finally, I got home at about 1 am. What an Israelite journey! What was
going on in my mind was if any of us should have a medical emergency, or
someone who is weak to make a road travel that was booked for a flight only to
have an extended delay like we experienced last Friday, what would happen to
such a fellow? Granted that flight cancellations and delays are not peculiar to
Nigeria, it is fast becoming unbecoming of Nigerian airlines to use the
subterfuge of operational reasons to cause untold hardship to the flying
public.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is despite having to
cough out exorbitant fees to purchase air tickets. Refunds take a long time to
be made by these Shylock airlines. Another unwholesome practice is to put the
luggage of passengers into another airline without informing them. This
happened to colleagues with whom I travelled on the United Nigeria Airline last
week Tuesday, November 28, 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I want the Minister of
Aviation, Festus Keyamo (SAN), to ensure that regulatory agencies in the
aviation sector are alive to their responsibilities. Sharp practices and
malpractices of the domestic airlines are impacting negatively on the ease of
doing business. The Passengers’ bill of rights should be made known to them and
be enforced. All the necessary C-Checks i.e. routine maintenance, should be
enforced on all the airlines. The trapped funds of the foreign and domestic
airlines with the Central Bank of Nigeria should be released and if necessary,
bailout funds should be made available to these airlines to ensure their
operational efficiency and safety. A stitch in time saves nine!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-83868775677236019982023-11-22T04:23:00.000-08:002023-11-22T04:23:51.174-08:00Financial recklessness of Nigeria’s political leaders<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Politics ordinarily should be
a call to serve. So do politicians tell us during campaigns. They claim they
want to serve us. However, the opposite is the case. The main attraction to
politics in Nigeria is for personal aggrandisement and primitive accumulation
of wealth. That is why our elections are very fierce and war-like. It is simply
“do or die.” Nigeria runs a winner-takes-all, zero-sum game politics whereby
with the slimmest of margin lead, a contestant is declared a winner while the
first runner-up, no matter how close to the winner, loses every of his
political investments – money, time, material resources including goodwill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unlike in the United States
where there is no unnecessary indulgence of political office holders, Nigeria’s
political leaders, both elected and appointed, live large. They have
chauffeur-driven luxury cars at their beck and call. They live in official
quarters with stewards, gardeners, cleaners and other domestic servants paid
for by the Nigerian state. Thus, they do not have to spend any money from their
personal purse while in office. Even their health and those of their family
members are maintained with state resources. Only God knows how much the
Nigerian state paid to maintain the health of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari who
frequently went on medical tourism to the United Kingdom; neither do the people
of Ondo State know how much the state had spent thus far on the ailing Governor
Oluwarotimi Akeredolu who has been down with an undisclosed ailment which has
kept him away from the Alagbaka Government House in Akure, the state capital.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Over the weekend, the 2023
governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Congress in Lagos, Funsho
Doherty, wrote an open letter to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
In a post on X, Doherty said, “I just wrote an open letter to the Governor on
Public Procurement awards reported by LASG for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of
2023, highlighting a number of issues for further scrutiny and remedial action.
Judicious use of public funds is always important, and is especially so now.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the letter, he noted that
the sum of N440,750,000 was awarded to the Office of the Chief of Staff for the
“procurement of a brand new bullet-proof Lexus LX 600 for use in the pool of
the Office of Chief of Staff.” Other items flagged are the “provision of supply
items (rechargeable fans, rechargeable lights and fridge in the office of the
deputy governor” which was procured under the office of the deputy governor.”
The item was awarded to Judkom Enterprises in July 2023 at the sum of N2bn
(2,017,840,000). Also pointed out was the sum of N7,475,000 awarded for the
“replacement of the liquid fragrance in the Office of Mr Governor, Lagos House,
Ikeja.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The government reportedly
approved N152m for the restoration of water supply at Idunganran palace, the
official residence of the Oba of Lagos. Records allegedly showed that the state
would spend N581m to renovate Saint Andrews Anglican Church in the Oke-Popo
area of the state. The Office of the Deputy Governor was awarded N30m for
monthly outreach of indigent citizens by the wife of the deputy governor. The
office also got another N30m for empowerment programme. In addition,
decorations for the venue of political delegates were reportedly done at the
sum of N20,084,550.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Flying hours’ expenses for ad
hoc charter plane by Lagos State Government were awarded for the sum of
N400,000,000,” he wrote. It added that sundry consultancy services received
generous allocations ranging from N2bn to N7bn from the state. The Daily Trust
newspaper (online edition) of November 20, 2023, also reported that Sanwo-Olu
approved N73.1m for President Tinubu’s portrait and N44.8m for the clearing of
vegetables (whatever that means) within the Epe Mixed Development Scheme.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to The Guardian
(Nigeria) of November 20, 2023, it is not only Lagos State that’s involved in
financial profligacy; mention was also made of the Oyo State Government who
allegedly spent N43.5m to purchase 55 fire extinguishers in the 2023 budget.
The newspaper posited further that according to state statistics, Benue State
Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has also earmarked N2,040,780,000 for the purchase of
cars for himself, his deputy, members of the state House of Assembly, and other
state officials. The money was approved on September 5, 2023, according to
state financial documents. The Guardian said, “It is just one of the governor’s
many questionable expenses, which have totaled more than N40bn in just five
months.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Recall that in 2015 shortly
after leaving the governor’s office, allegations of financial and personal impropriety
surfaced against the then Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola(SAN).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fashola, who later became a super Minister of
Works, Housing and Power under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, was said to
have spent N78.3m on the upgrade of his official website, N139m on the drilling
of two boreholes at the Government Secretariat and was accused of awarding a
N640m contract to a German engineering firm, Julius Berger, for the
reconstruction of a car park and other associated works at the Lagos House Marina,
his official residence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Meanwhile, according to The
Guardian newspaper earlier referenced, Lagos State is sinking into a debt
crisis like every other state in the country. As of the end of June 2023 the
state government sat close to one-sixth of the total domestic debts owed by the
sub-national entities. In absolute terms, it owed N996bn to local debtors
captured and managed by the Debt Management Office. Its $1.26bn external debt
is also disproportionately higher– almost 30 per cent of the value of external
debt commitments of all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do I blame the governors for
extravagant lifestyles and spending on governance? No! As the saying goes, it
is the front horse that the back ones use to pace. The governors are copying
from the Federal Government. Was it not recently that news came out that N5bn
was spent to procure a Yacht for the president? This newspaper in its November
6 edition reported that, “Despite the unprecedented level of poverty and
hardship in the country, a review of the newly approved 2023 supplementary
budget showed that the Federal Government allocated the sum of N5.095bn for the
purchase of a presidential yacht under the capital expenditure of the Nigerian
Navy.” Also in the supplementary budget, N4bn was earmarked for the renovation
of the president’s residential quarters in Abuja, with an additional N4bn
allocated for the renovation of Dodan Barracks for the President. Moreover,
N3bn has been designated for the renovation of the vice president’s official
quarters in Lagos, while N2.5bn has been allocated for the renovation of Aguda
House.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For vehicle purchases, the
breakdown shows: N2.9bn for SUVs, N2.9bn for the replacement of pool vehicles,
and N1.5bn for the purchase of official vehicles for the Office of the First
Lady. Another significant expense is the construction of an office complex in
the State House, with a budget of N4bn. It is noteworthy that it is not only
the executive arm that is involved in these spending sprees or jamboree. The legislative
arm has also been caught in the same web of financial profligacy. The National
Assembly recently budgeted over N40bn for the procurement of exotic cars for
official use of members while about N70bn was also earmarked for the renovation
of the Assembly complex. Meanwhile, the DMO recently said Nigeria’s total
public debt hit N87.38tn at the end of the second quarter, representing an
increase of 75.29 per cent or N37.53tn compared to N49.85tn recorded at the end
of March 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While this frivolous and
mindless spending by the federal and sub-national governments goes on, 133
million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty while about 40 per cent of
employable youths are not gainfully employed. This disconnect between our
political leaders and the citizenry is why there is a lot of cynicism about
politics being about service. Meanwhile, about 27 states have a life pension
scheme for the governors and deputy governors. Why should our leaders be living
large on our behalf with little or nothing left for the ordinary citizens? With
this profligacy in government, how can the cost of governance be reduced and
good governance entrenched? Very unfortunate!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-65366175618540713352023-11-21T09:17:00.000-08:002023-11-21T09:17:41.795-08:00Successes and foibles of Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa governorship polls <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Periodic
election is one of the pillars of democracy. Historically, electoral democracy
had been introduced in Nigeria in May 1919, when the Townships Ordinance gave
the right to vote for three members of Lagos Town Council to some men. The
first elections to the council were held on 29 March 1920. The first general
election in this country took place in Lagos and Calabar on September 20, 1923,
after the coming into force of the 1922 Sir Hugh Clifford Constitution. There
are several types of elections. They include: General, Off-cycle,
Supplementary, Run-off, Re-run, and By-election. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
are 11,082 political offices in Nigeria comprising of: I presidential seat, 36
governorship seats, 109 senatorial seats, 360 House of Representatives seats,
993 Houses of Assembly seats, 768 Local government chairmanship seats, 6 Area
Council chairmanship seats (see section 3 sub. 6 of the 1999 Constitution, as
altered) and 8,809 councillorship seats. As a result of judicial activism and
intervention, off season election crept into Nigeria’s electoral lexicon when
the appellate courts invalidated earlier victories of some governors and
declared another candidate winner. This started in Anambra in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">locus classicus</i> case of Chris Ngige and
Peter Obi over the 2003 governorship election in the South East state. This
scenario has also played out in Ondo, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Bayelsa, Kogi and Osun
states. In essence, only 28 states had their gubernatorial elections during the
general elections in Nigeria as at now. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
October 25, 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced
November 11, 2023 as the date for Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi off-cycle governorship
elections. That means the electoral management body gave more than a year
notice for the election which took place two Saturdays ago. Here are some of
the basic facts about the three states. Bayelsa is in the South-South, Imo,
South East and Kogi, North Central geo-political zones. It is the first time
INEC will combine three off-cycle gubernatorial election together. Bayelsa has
8 LGAs, Imo has 27 and Kogi has 21. Bayelsa has 105 Registration Areas or
Wards, Imo has 305 and Kogi has 239. Bayelsa has 2,244 Polling Units, Imo has
4,758 PUs, while Kogi has 3,508 PUs. There are 2 PUs with no registered voters
in Bayelsa and 38 of such in Imo State. Registered Voters in Bayelsa are
1,056,862 out of which 1,017,613 collected their Permanent Voters Card better
known as PVCs. In Imo, there are 2,419, 922 Registered Voters out of which
2,318, 919 collected their PVCs. In Kogi, there are 1, 932, 654 registered
voters out of which 1,833,160 collected their PVCs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Some
of the pre-election activities carried out by various stakeholders include:
party primaries and candidate nomination by political parties, campaigns, voter
education, collection of PVCs, procurement of sensitive and non-sensitive
electoral materials by INEC, Recruitment of poll officials such as Supervisory
Presiding Officers, Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers I, II, and
III. There are also Registration Area Technicians better known as RACTECHs,
Collation and Returning Officers. INEC also signed Memorandum of Understanding
with National Association of Road Transport Workers and National Association of
Road Transport Workers Unions as well as National Association of Boat Owners. The
electoral umpire also accredited Polling Agents, Observers and Journalists covering
the elections. There was also compilation of names, training and deployment of
security agents such as the Nigerian Police, Directorate of State Services,
Nigerian Civil Defence, military personnel and paramilitary staff to provide
election security. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ahead
of the November 11 gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi, there was
a lot of apprehension due to the volatility and high political tension in the
three states. Indeed, there were a lot of incidences of physical, structural
and psychological violence ahead of the polls. This was part of the reason
National Peace Committee signed Peace Accord with all the contestants and their
party chairmen in the three states on Wednesday, November 8, 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Outcome of the Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi
gubernatorial elections<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Though
Bayelsa State has eight local governments, however, the gubernatorial election
was not concluded until Monday, November 13, 2023 due to the difficult terrain
of the state, half of which is on water. The Returning Officer, Prof Faruq
Kuta, who is also the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology,
Minna, announced Governor Douye <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Diri of
Peoples Democratic Party winner of the poll at the collation centre of the
election. Diri who was seeking re-election polled 175,196 to defeat his closest
rival, Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress, who garnered 110,108
votes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In Imo
State, INEC declared Governor Hope Uzodimma of the APC winner of the November
11, 2023 governorship election in the state. The Vice Chancellor of the Federal
University, Oye Ekiti, Prof Abayomi Fashina, who was the state Returning
Officer declared Uzodimma re-elected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The APC candidate polled 540,308 votes to defeat his closest rivals,
PDP's Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who scored 71,503 votes and LP's Senator Ethan
Achonu who got 64,081.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
candidate of the APC in the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State,
Ahmed Usman Ododo, was declared the winner of the election. Ododo polled a
total vote of 446,237 to defeat his closest challenger, Murtala Ajaka of the
Social Democratic Party, who scored 259,052 votes, with the candidate of the
PDP, Dino Melaye, emerging a distant third with 46,362 votes. The Returning
Officer for the election, Prof. Johnson Urame, made the formal declaration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From
the foregoing the two governors who sought re-election won their elections in
Bayelsa and Imo States. While APC won in two states, Kogi and Imo, PDP won in
Bayelsa. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Appraisal of the three off-cycle elections<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Though
all the three elections were won on the first ballot without being declared
inconclusive, a lot of intrigues, sharp and corrupt practices happened during
the polls. As I have characterised it in other commentary on the polls, it has
the features of "The good, the ugly, the bad" the 1966 Italian epic
spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as
"the Good", Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach as
"the Ugly". In my own assessment, the good thing about last
Saturday’s polls are as follows: The elections started on time than they did
during the general elections earlier in the year. There was priority voting for
the elderly, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and persons with disabilities.
The three elections were concluded on the first ballot while there was timely
uploading of the results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal. However, the bad
aspect includes the reported incidences of vote buying and abduction and
holding of poll officials’ hostage in some communities such as Brass LGA in
Bayelsa State. The death of George Sibo also allegedly occurred at a Collation
Centre in Twon Brass also in Bayelsa. Furthermore, is the reported bypass of
Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Device better known as BVAS by some
unscrupulous INEC Poll Officials. The ugly incidents include the discovery of
pre-filled result sheets in some of the LGAs in Kogi. According to INEC,
reports indicate that the incidents occurred in Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo,
Okehi and Okene Local Government Areas. The most serious incidents occurred in
Ogori/Magongo, affecting nine of 10 Registration Areas. This is preposterous!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Another
baffling thing is the press statement issued by YIAGA Africa on Sunday,
November 12, 2023. According to the civil society organisation which was
accredited to observe the polls, reports from some Watching the Vote observers
in Imo State indicate elections did not take place in 12 per cent <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of YIAGA Africa sampled polling units. These
cases were prevalent in Orsu, Okigwe, Oru East, and Orlu LGAs. Yiaga Africa
also monitored the upload of results on the IReV, especially those from polling
units where elections did not hold. The group gave a breakdown of about 40 of
such PUs where elections did not hold in Imo State yet results were uploaded on
the IREV Portal. How so? I have also seen a number of inflated results where
the number of voters is higher than the figures of those who were accredited in
the Polling Unit. This is a clear evidence of result manipulation and over
voting. This happened because the integrity measures put in place in section 64
subsections 1 – 9 of the Electoral Act 2022 were ignored by the Presiding
Officers as well as the Collation and Returning Officers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Guardian of Nigerian in its November 15 online edition reported that “With
sustained efforts by election riggers to undermine the electoral process, the
act of inducing voters, not only with money but even degrading items like
wrappers, drinks and food, is a menace that won’t go away soon despite efforts
of security agencies to curtail it”. It said further that “The off-season
governorship election held in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states revealed that
politicians have perfected illegal acts of voters’ inducement to sabotage the
will of the people. Gone were the days when voters could collect money and
still go ahead to vote their conscience, party agents see the thumb printed
papers before “paying” for the vote in what is now known as “see and buy”, even
to exchange votes for food stuff and drinks, party agents had their ways of
ascertaining that candidates were voted for.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
PUNCH of November 17, 2023 reported that the National Peace Committee led by
former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Thursday, November 16, 2023
decried cases of violence, intimidation, and vote-buying, among other practices
during the off-cycle governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states. In
a statement the peace committee said, “We are not unaware of the glitches
recorded during the elections. Sadly, we have noted that some of the old ways
remain and ordinary people continue to collude with corrupt members of society
to stall the processes of our elections. The persistence of the culture of
vote-buying, intimidation, and voter apathy, among others are disturbing. A
democratic culture will only grow if we participate in cleaning up the process
of our elections because, in the end, we are the victims. The corruption of the
process will lead to the emergence of corrupt leaders if we collude with
merchants of corruption.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I had
thought that given the opposition candidates hues and cries that the November
11 elections were rigged against them, INEC’s chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu
would invoke Section 65.—(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 which says<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The decision of the returning officer shall
be final on any question arising from or relating to— (a) unmarked ballot paper
; (b) rejected ballot paper ; and (c) declaration of scores of candidates and
the return of a candidate : Provided that the Commission shall have the power
within seven days to review the declaration and return where the Commission
determines that the said declaration and return was not made voluntarily or was
made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations and guidelines, and
manual for the election.” Unfortunately, the Commission did not do that and had
rather gone ahead to issue Certificates of Return to the winners on Friday,
November 17, 2023. Shockingly too, no arrest of those who pre-filled results in
Kogi or uploaded manipulated results on the IREV Portal has been made by INEC
or security agencies. These are the desirable things to do to checkmate the
culture of impunity. But again, it is a missed opportunity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Some
of the candidates who lost the elections have threatened to go to tribunal to
challenge the outcome of the polls. It is within their right to do so. However;
they should be aware of the provision of section 135 (1) of the Electoral Act
2022. It says, “An election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of
non-compliance with the provisions of this Act if it appears to the Election
Tribunal or Court that the election was conducted substantially in accordance
with the principles of this Act and that the non-compliance did not affect
substantially the result of the election.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-85820739452998491142023-11-08T08:16:00.001-08:002023-11-08T08:16:31.544-08:00Killing Nigerians softly<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The title of this piece is an
adaptation of a popular song by the Fugees titled, “Killing Me Softly with His
Song.” Health is wealth is a common cliché. And it is said that a healthy
nation is a wealthy nation. Sustainable Development Goal 3 speaks of “good
health and well-being” for all. How close is Nigeria in realising the much
touted target of “health for all”? Many believed that in Nigeria, life is
short, brutish and nasty as postulated by the renowned philosopher, Thomas
Hobbes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The budgetary provision for
health care delivery is grossly inadequate both at the federal and sub-national
level. At the federal level it has perpetually been less than 10 per cent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible in Psalm 90 verse 10 says, “The years
of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.” However,
according to an online source, Statista says life expectancy at birth in
Nigeria in 2023, by gender is 59.93 for male and 63.75 for female. Overall, it
is 61.79.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to UNICEF,
under-five mortality rate is 110.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is more
than 10 per cent. Information also gleaned from the website of UNICEF revealed
that “Nigeria’s 40 million women of childbearing age (between 15 and 49 years
of age) suffer a disproportionately high level of health issues surrounding
birth. While the country represents 2.4 per cent of the world’s population, it
currently contributes 10 per cent of global deaths for pregnant mothers. Latest
figures show a maternal mortality rate of 576 per 100,000 live births, the fourth
highest on earth.” This is heart-rending!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A May 14, 2023 report in
THISDAY newspaper quoted the immediate-past Minister of Science and Technology
and former Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, as saying
that only 10 per cent of 30,000 primary healthcare centres across the states of
the federation are functional and operational. This, according to him, is due
to multiple factors, including dilapidated buildings and acute deficit of
medical equipment. Any wonder sicknesses that could have been dealt with at the
grassroots level are taken to general hospitals, Federal Medical Centres and
teaching hospitals?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to Dataphyte,
“Analysis of the distribution of hospitals and population projections across
Nigeria has shown Nigeria has an average of 17 hospitals to 100,000 persons.
Based on data from the Nigeria Health Facility Registry, Nigeria has a total of
39,914 operational hospitals and clinics. This number combines private and
public hospitals across the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care.” A
December 28, 2021 report in The PUNCH however says, “Data obtained from the
health facilities register of the Federal Ministry of Health has revealed that
Nigeria only has 40,017 functional hospitals and clinics across the 36 states
of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.” Unfortunately, many of
these hospitals and clinics are not well resourced. There is a shortage of
qualified personnel and medical equipment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Funding of health services in
Nigeria has been grossly inadequate. Many patients still have to pay cash or
what is referred to as out-of-pocket in order to be able to access health care
delivery. National Health Insurance Scheme is a body set up by Decree 35, of
1999 (now Act 35) operating as Public Private Partnership and directed at
providing accessible, affordable and qualitative healthcare for all Nigerians.
On May 24, 2022, it was officially gazetted by the Federal Government as the
National Health Insurance Authority. Unfortunately, the number of enrollees
under this scheme is still abysmally low due to the inefficiency and corrupt
practices among the health care providers popularly called Health Management
Organisations. It is believed that claims of these HMOs are not settled on time
by the government and as such the quality of service offered to health
insurance patients is simply abysmal. I do hope the newly appointed Director
General and Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, will be
able to turn things around positively at the NHIA.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Due to the myriad of
challenges facing Nigeria’s health sector, there has been a lot of restiveness
as health sector workers go on routine industrial action. If it’s not the
Nigerian Medical Association, it’s the National Association of Resident Doctors.
Nurses and other medical workers are not left behind. It has become an annual
ritual. Frustration over the lack of environment conducive to work, and
remuneration as well as insecurity combine to pave the way for brain drain in
Nigeria’s health sector. The ‘japa’ syndrome is most pronounced in the nation’s
field. According to the Register of the General Medical Council of the United
Kingdom, the number of Nigerian-trained doctors practising in the UK has
climbed to 11,001.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A September 17, 2023 report in
this newspaper says, “Leading experts in Nigeria’s health sector have said it
would be impossible to produce sufficient personnel to effectively meet the
country’s increasing healthcare needs with the current burden of brain drain.
They held that it would take Nigeria 20 years, at the minimum, to produce
400,000 health workers needed to fill in the gap and cater to the health needs
of Nigeria’s 220 million people. The senior medical professionals, while
exclusively speaking with PUNCH Healthwise, said Nigeria has a horrible ratio
of one doctor to 8,000 patients, which is against the World Health Organisation
recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients. The Coordinating Minister of
Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, not long ago, said the country still
needs about 400,000 health workers to cater to the healthcare needs of
Nigerians effectively.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A July 25, 2023 report, also
in this newspaper, says Nigerians spent a total of $1.04m on foreign
healthcare-related services in the first quarter of 2023. The total spending
for the period under review was obtained from the quarterly statistical bulletin
of the Central Bank of Nigeria for Q1 2023. The PUNCH observed that the amount
spent in Q1 2023 was an increase of 40.54 per cent from the $0.74m spent in Q1
2022. A breakdown shows that medical tourism gulped $0.34m in January 2023,
$0.32m in February 2023, and the amount increased to $0.38m in March 2023.
“Commenting on the report, the National Vice Chairman of the Joint Health
Sector Unions, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, said corruption, bad management, and poor
infrastructure are to blame for the poor state of the Nigerian health care
system, fuelling medical tourism. Nigerians, who are well-to-do, lack
confidence in our medical facilities. Even though we have well-trained
personnel that can handle all medical cases, the infrastructure and the
equipment are not adequate.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The situation in Nigeria’s
health sector is very gloomy but not hopeless. I do hope Pate and his
counterpart, Dr Alausa would do their best to turn around the situation. I like
the idea of hiring retired doctors and medical practitioners as contract staff.
The Federal Government recently approved the appointment of doctors, nurses,
and other clinical healthcare workers as contract staff after attaining their
compulsory retirement age or years. The government said the appointed contract
staff would be on the same salary scale level that they retired on if they
desired and deserved it. A circular dated October 5, 2023, by the Federal
Ministry of Health directed the Chief Executive Agencies, Chief Medical
Directors, Medical Directors, and heads of regulatory bodies and schools to
ensure compliance with the circular earlier issued by the Office of the Head of
the Civil Service of the Federation to all staff in their institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While this is a welcome
development, there is a need to ensure that all public hospitals are well
resourced with good structures and latest medical equipment. Medical workers
must also be well protected to perform their duties without fear of abduction
or molestation. Preventive medicine should be prioritised by ensuring health education
of the populace. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. The
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control should be alive to
its mandate to ensure the safety of our consumables. Health care is a social
service and should be made affordable to prevent Nigerians from patronising
quacks and unwholesome solution centres.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-76408852645022624062023-11-03T07:06:00.001-07:002023-11-03T07:06:17.775-07:00What is Tinubu’s anti-corruption agenda?<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Last week, I was in the
ancient city of Kano for the fourth edition of the Annual Kano Social
Influencers Summit, #Kansis23. I had attended the inaugural edition of the
summit four years ago and was privileged to be invited again this year to speak
on, “Working as Influencers: Challenges, Successes and Reflection.” There were
many other speakers. Some of them included the Executive Director of Primera
Africa Legal, Maryam Uwais, who spoke on gender corruption and accountability;
a scholar in the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano, Dr
Bala Muhammed, who presented on “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Narratives On
Social Media Uses”; Executive Director of AFRIMIL, Dr Chido Onumah, whose
presentation was on how social media can help whistleblowers. The two-day
event, held on October 25 and 26, 2023, was organised by the Centre for
Information Technology and Development with funding support from the MacArthur
Foundation and other partners.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Also in attendance at the
event were academics, students, researchers, social influencers, development
workers, media practitioners, traditional and religious leaders to mention a
few. There were several plenary and break-out sessions. My visit to Kano last
week enabled me to once again familiarise myself with the Hausa and Fulani
culture. Kano has the highest population in Nigeria according to the National
Population Commission and also has the highest number of local government areas
which is 44. The people are very warm and hospitable. Kano is the home of
theatre and movies known as Kannywood. Among the illustrious sons of Kano are
the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, and his arch business rival,
Abdulsamad Rabiu, the founder of BUA Group. The current National Chairman of
the ruling All Progressives Congress, Dr Umar Ganduje, is the immediate-past
governor of the state while his arch political rival, Musa Kwankwanso, is the
leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement and also former governor of the state. Kano
is also the home of the notable politician, Aminu Kano, whom the state’s international
airport is named after.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Interestingly, the state is
more peaceful than many of its neighbours that are plagued with banditry such
as Kaduna, Zamfara and Katsina. I used the opportunity of the summit to go
round the town and feel the pulse of the people. Among the places visited
included the Bayero University, Kano (both temporary and permanent sites),
Igwe’s Palace, which is a notable restaurant in the Sabon Gari area of the town
and the Yusuf Maitama Sule University where the KANSIS held. It is noteworthy
that the social infrastructure in the state has improved since my last visit in
2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For the benefit of those who
may not know, Investopedia describes corruption as dishonest behaviour by those
in positions of power. Those who abuse their power may be individuals or they
may belong to organisations, such as businesses or governments. Corruption can
entail a variety of actions, including giving or accepting bribes or
inappropriate gifts, double-dealing, and defrauding investors. Transparency
International defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private
gain. TI says, “Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic
development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the
environmental crisis. Exposing corruption and holding the corrupt to account
can only happen if we understand the way corruption works and the systems that
enable it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In 2022, Nigeria ranked 150
out of 180 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions
Index. Listening to various speakers at the Social Influencers Summit last week
brought to fore once again the need to wage serious war against corruption if
at all we want to overcome our development challenges. There was a consensus from the summit that
Nigeria isn’t doing well in the fight against corruption. This is buttressed by
our current ranking on the CPI as well as the culture of impunity around the
embezzlement of public resources by political office holders and their civil
servant collaborators. Under the Tinubu administration, there is already
swirling rumour that some of the recent appointments being made were actually
paid for by the beneficiaries. It is important to note that corruption is not
all about bribery or misappropriation of funds. Abuse of office, exchange of
sex for jobs, appointments or admission, unmerited favours granted to people,
contract splitting and inflation of cost of projects, cheating of customers by
traders, are all part of corrupt practices. So there is petty corruption and
grand corruption. However, people focus more on grand corruption among
government officials while overlooking their own sharp practices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Since 1999, each
administration has done one thing or the other to fight corruption. Olusegun
Obasanjo’s government set up the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
related Offences Commission in 2001, and the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission in 2003. Umaru Yar’Adua did well to fight political corruption by
sanitising our electoral process through legal reforms. Remember the popular
Muhammad Uwais Electoral Reform Committee set up in August 2007 which submitted
its report in December 2008. It was from this report that Yar’Adua initiated
constitutional and electoral reforms that birthed financial and administrative
autonomy for the Independent National Electoral Commission, set timelines for
electoral dispute resolution, and enhanced transparency and accountability in
the electoral process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dr Goodluck Jonathan initiated
the Treasury Single Account, Bank Verification Number, and Integrated Payroll
and Personnel Information System. Muhammadu Buhari implemented all of these and
passed some pieces of anti-corruption legislation and came up with the
Whistleblower Policy. What does President Bola Tinubu want to do in the area of
anti-corruption which is one of his eight point Renewed Hope Agenda? Thus far
he has eased off the leadership of the ICPC and EFCC in controversial
circumstances and replaced them promptly. The removal of Abdulrasheed Bawa was
particularly untidy and reprehensible. The young man from Kebbi State was
suspended, arrested and detained for over four months without trial. He was
only released last week. No charges were preferred against him in any court despite
the purported weighty allegations that led to his suspension in the first
place. This followed the same sequence as his predecessors namely: Nuhu Ribadu,
Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Lamorde, and Ibrahim Magu.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On October 18, 2023, the
Senate screened and confirmed Ola Olukoyede and Mohammed Hamajoda as the new
EFCC chairman and secretary respectively. This was despite the popular belief
that the new chairman did not have 15 years cognate experience in any of the
security and anti-corruption agencies. I wish him well and hope he will be able
to avoid the banana peel that has been the Achilles heel of previous chairmen.
Another appointment which the president made that is heart-warming is that
of Mr Shaakaa Chira as the substantive
Auditor-General of the Federation, as recommended by the Federal Civil Service
Commission. That position has been vacant for about 18 months. The office of
the Auditor General is another anti-corruption position.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">It is advised that President
Tinubu do the following: Initiate electoral reform to fight political
corruption and electoral fraud like Yar’Adua did, initiate the passage of
Whistleblower law to protect the anti-corruption vanguards, ensure that all our
anti-corruption agencies, including the Code of Conduct Bureau, are well
resourced.</span> </p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-72694424368225854962023-10-26T02:28:00.000-07:002023-10-26T02:28:03.943-07:00Review of National Social Investment Programme<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
council approved for the establishment of the Humanitarian and Poverty
Alleviation Trust Fund to actually be put together under a governing
board…..the implementation of that humanitarian and poverty trust fund would be
carefully worked out by members of the committee. Of course, it will involve
the Minister of Finance and other ministers that are relevant to the process.
This is a flexible form of financing that is supposed to help Nigeria
adequately respond to a humanitarian crisis. This will also respond to
challenges as well as adequately address the issue of poverty in Nigeria and
bring victory for the poor and indeed, bring help and succour which the Renewed
Hope Agenda stands for”</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">–Minister of Humanitarian
Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, while addressing State House
correspondents after the Federal Executive Council Meeting on Monday, October
23, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to the World Bank,
“Social protection systems are at the heart of boosting human capital and
empowering people. They help individuals and families, especially the poor and
vulnerable, cope with crises and shocks, find jobs, improve productivity,
invest in the health and education of their children, and protect the aging population.
Social protection systems that are well-designed can have powerful impacts in
the long-term, by reducing inequalities, building resilience and ending the
inter-generational cycle of poverty. Such systems and tools are transformative
as they help mitigate economic and fiscal shocks and provide opportunity by
giving people a chance to get out of poverty and become productive members of
society.” As of March 2023, the World Bank is providing $26bn in financing
through its social protection and jobs programmes across regions and income
levels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps, it is the Bretton
Wood institution called the World Bank that sold the idea of NSIP to former
President Muhammadu Buhari. Indeed, it is the ex-president’s signature
programme for which he will be remembered for life. The NSIP was established in
2016 as a social safety net to care for the poor and needy. The seed fund then
was N500bn. It was the biggest welfarist programme in Africa at inception.
According to the information gleaned from the website of the agency, “The suite
of programmes under the NSIP focuses on ensuring a more equitable distribution
of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth and women.
Since 2016, these programmes combined have supported more than four million
beneficiaries’ countrywide through a fair and transparent process supported by
the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and other notable MDAs with
aligned goals.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The programmes under the NSIP
are fourfold. The N-Power programme is designed to assist young Nigerians
between the ages of 18 and 35 to acquire and develop lifelong skills for
becoming change makers in their communities and players in the domestic and
global markets and given a stipend of N30,000 monthly. There are four sectors
in N-Power namely; education, agriculture, health and vocational training. The
Conditional Cash Transfer programme directly supports those within the lowest
poverty bracket by improving nutrition, increasing household consumption and
supporting the development of human capital through cash benefits to various
categories of the poor and vulnerable. The support is conditioned on fulfilling
soft and hard co-responsibilities that enable recipients to improve their
standard of living.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Government Enterprise and
Empowerment Programme is a micro-lending intervention that targets traders,
artisans, enterprising youth, farmers and women in particular, by providing
loans between N10,000 and N100,000 at no monthly cost to beneficiaries. The
home-grown school feeding programme is reducing the incidence of malnutrition
(especially among the poor and those ordinarily unable to eat a meal a day),
empowering community women as cooks, and supporting small farmers that help
economic growth stimulation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is no gainsaying that
the motive behind the establishment of the NSIP is noble and laudable. However,
the implementation has been enmeshed in swirling controversies and corrupt
practices. This newspaper in its May 26, 2019 edition reported that, “President
Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha, has rubbished the N500bn Social Investment
Programme of her husband’s administration, saying that it has failed
‘woefully,’ especially in the North. Aisha, who hails from Adamawa State, said
the situation in her home state, as far as the SIP implementation was
concerned, was pathetic. She also cited Kano, a highly-populated northern
state, as another example where she believed the programme had failed, despite
the huge funds the Federal Government had budgeted for it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Guardian in its July 12,
2020 edition reported that, “Since its inception, the scheme has had the
misfortune of attracting controversies, with the latest being the newly
introduced Modified Home Grown School Feeding Programme, which got many to
conclude that feeding schoolchildren to improve their health and to spur school
enrolment were far from being the major objectives of the initiative. Despite
protestations from Nigerians, the Minister of MHADMSD, Hajia Sadiya Farouq,
went ahead with the strange feeding programme claiming that the Presidency
directed her ministry to carry out the exercise even when schools are closed.
According to her, she was mandated to deliver feeding support to 3.5 million
homes, as against pupils.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Guardian reported further
that, “The leadership of the National Assembly is not just irked by the way and
manner that the NSIPs are being implemented; it is even displeased with the
current national social register being used, which it claims was contrived by
‘the World Bank method,’ hence the compelling need for it to be immediately
discarded. The Senate President Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker, House of
Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, when they met with Minister Farouq, and
some top officials of the ministry in April, lamented that the funds have
failed to reach those for whom the initiative was created.” Recently, on July
20, 2023, the National Economic Council unanimously resolved to do away with
the national social register used by the Buhari administration to implement its
conditional cash transfer, saying it lacks credibility. Consequently, it asked
states to generate their own registers for such cash transfers. This is the
same register that has been used for seven years!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On Saturday, October 7, 2023,
the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, announced
the indefinite suspension of the N-Power programme during a live interview on
TVC News. Edu said the programme had been marred by irregularities, adding that
the government had launched an investigation into the utilisation of funds
since the inception of the scheme. She added that some of the beneficiaries of
the programme were not found in their places of assignment, yet they were
receiving monthly stipends. She also stated that some of the N-Power
beneficiaries ought to have exited the programme in 2022, but were still on the
payroll.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On October 1, 2023, President
Bola Tinubu announced that 15 million households would receive N25,000 for
three months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last week, precisely on
October 17, 2023, the President, represented by the Secretary to the Federal
Government, Senator George Akume, launched the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash
Transfer for 15 million households. The launch was held at the Press Gallery of
the State House in Abuja coinciding with the World Poverty Eradication Day. On
top of this is the FEC approval of the establishment of the $5bn Humanitarian
and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What is the transparency and
accountability framework as well as the monitoring and evaluation template put
in place to ensure that this huge investment is not misappropriated? Has the
fraudulent social register been cleaned up to allow for the disbursement of
this huge fund under the CCT? How does the Federal Government want to recover
loans disbursed under the GEEP programme from defaulters? How do we bring
culprits who have embezzled the NSIP funds to book? Can Nigerians trust Dr.
Betta Edu to do better than her predecessor?<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-54938201525570190302023-10-17T22:23:00.001-07:002023-10-17T22:23:39.306-07:00Imperative of democracy and good governance in Nigeria<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you ask an average Nigerian
what he or she wants, you’re likely going to hear a near unanimous response of
better life, social amenities, security, employment opportunities and more
money to take care of needs. All these are attainable and envisaged in two
broad concepts of democracy and good governance. Many Nigerians do not want
military coups because of the draconian way soldiers govern. Under a military
junta, rule of law is absent. There is no constitutionalism or supremacy of the
law, neither is there strict observance of fundamental human rights. Equality
before the law is also a hoax under military regimes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Conversely, strong pillars of
democracy include rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances. In a
true democracy, there is a regular conduct of elections, vibrant media,
independent Judiciary and pro-people legislative assembly. In a democracy, the
three arms of government are separate, though inter-dependent. They also act as
checks on one another. The executive implements the law made by the
legislature, the judiciary interprets the law and adjudicates disputes among
the three arms. In an election, there is universal adult suffrage. Once you’re
18 years and above, you can register to vote at elections. Every registered
voter, be you master or serf, moneybags or powerful individuals, everyone gets
a chance to vote only once. The constitution has also guaranteed the freedom of
press and power to hold the government to account.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These features and ingredients
of democracy made it preferable to autocracy or dictatorial rule. Imagine that
an individual who felt aggrieved can sue the government or any of its agencies
and get favourable judgment. Democracy however is not an end in itself. It is a
mere means to an end. The ultimate goal of democracy is the enhancement of good
governance and development. Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution says the
primary purpose of government is security and welfare of citizens. It is only a
democratic state that holds the constitution as sacred and inviolable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Moving from the above
theoretical framework to the practical plane, Nigeria, this year, is
celebrating a centenary of electoral democracy. Recall that the first set of
elections took place in 1923 after the coming into force of the Sir Hugh Clifford
Constitution of 1922. What have these 100 years of elections delivered to
Nigerians? Nothing special! It’s been more of misery, poverty, unemployment,
underdevelopment, high cost of living rather than high standard of living. This
is the prime reason for few electorate at elections. Voters ask what their
previous exercise of their franchise has brought to them. They are
disillusioned. The fact that election, as a democratic tenet, hasn’t delivered
dividends of democracy made voters vote with their feet rather than with their
fingers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is Nigeria’s Fourth
Republic since independence in 1960. During the First Republic, we experimented
with the parliamentary system of government of our colonial masters, the
British. Barely six years into that voyage, our national ship capsized as the
military forcefully seized the reins of government on January 15, 1960, citing
rigged 1964 /65 national elections, corruption and bad governance, among
others. After 13 years, there was a return to civil rule in 1979. This time, we
decided to jettison the parliamentary system for the presidential system of
government. This was modelled after the governance system of the United States.
That is the system we have been toying with since 1979. Yet, it hasn’t
delivered the much touted good governance! Remember, the military struck again
on December 31, 1983 for much the same set of reasons as it advanced in 1966.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After a culminating 29 years
of military adventurism in Nigeria’s politics and governance, we are very much
stuck in bad governance with attendant features such as abuse of office,
corruption, poverty, unemployment, infrastructural deficit, and
insecurity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While we have succeeded in
routinizing elections as we have been conducting our polls as at when it falls
due, we have not been able to overcome our developmental challenges. All
development indices are pointing south, (negative) for Nigeria. Take for
instance, the country has the highest number of out-of-school children
globally. Also, the World Poverty Clock reported that there are 71 million
extremely poor Nigerians, according to 2023 data. The National Bureau of
Statistics classifies 133 million people as multidimensionally poor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In April 2023, a global audit
and tax advisory firm, KPMG, projected that Nigeria’s unemployment rate is
expected to rise to 40.6 per cent as compared to 2022’s 37.7 per cent. KPMG
detailed this forecast in its International Global Economic Outlook report – H1
2023 on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 where it stated that “unemployment is expected
to continue to be a major challenge in 2023 due to the limited investment by
the private sector, low industrialisation, and slower than required economic
growth and consequently the inability of the economy to absorb the 4-5 million new
entrants into the Nigerian job market every year.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nigeria ranked 8th among the
top 10 countries with the highest level of terrorism in the world. This is
according to the Global Terrorism Index 2023. This was the outcome of
assessment of terrorism impact in 163 countries. With a score of 8.065, Nigeria
has a terrorism impact that is “very high.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The SUNDAY PUNCH of March 10, 2023 reported that Nigeria’s misery index
has soared by 11.9 percentage points to 73.05. The misery index is a measure of
economic distress felt by everyday people, due to the risk of (or actual)
joblessness combined with an increasing cost of living. The misery index is
calculated by adding the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to the inflation
rate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to a UNDP 2021
rating, Nigeria is ranked 163rd in the United Nations Human Development Index
for the second consecutive year, a new report by the UNDP shows. In terms of
the HDI score, Nigeria remained unchanged with 0.535. That’s Nigeria’s
scorecard in a century of electoral democracy. Very heart-rending and
disheartening! Any wonder Nigerians are embracing irregular migration to supposedly
saner and better climes?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nigerians have once again for
the seventh time since return to civil rule in 1999 voted for a new set of
leaders to pilot the affairs of this country for another four years. 11,082
political offices made up of a president, 36 governors, 774 local government
and area council chairmen, 8,809 councillors, 993 state Houses of Assembly
members, 360 House of Representatives members and 109 senators have all taken
their positions across the country. The ensuing challenge is to govern well and
deliver the dividends of democracy to the citizenry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The president last Monday,
October 16, 2023, had a full complement of his cabinet after swearing in
additional three ministers to the already inaugurated 45. With 48 ministers
which is the highest ever, plus the President, Vice President, Secretary to the
Federal Government, Chief of Staff, Head of Service and National Security
Adviser; this brings the cabinet to 54. To me, it is bloated and unwieldy!
However, I do hope these ministers and other government appointees will roll up
their sleeves and positively contribute to the eight point ‘Renewed Hope’
agenda of President Bola Tinubu. At the sub-national levels viz states and
local government areas, the expectation of good governance is high and I do
hope the three arms and the three tiers of government will be able to
positively impact our lives and deliver the much expected development.
Nigerians earnestly yearn for good governance!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-31648265373331960812023-10-11T06:49:00.002-07:002023-10-11T06:49:57.930-07:00Death in search of the Golden Fleece<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I like to read for pleasure in
my spare time. In the last few weeks, I read two books, back to back, from my
library. Incidentally, both books have the same theme which is the irregular
migration of our youths to greener pastures. The phenomenon, which is now known
by the street parlance ‘japa’, has assumed a frightening dimension. The first
book I read on this phenomenon is titled “Daughter in Exile” by a Ghanaian
author, Bisi Adjapon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second is
titled “Tent 59”, authored by Ifeanyi Ajaegbo, a Nigerian.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the first book, Lola, a
21-year-old daughter of a Ghanaian High Court Judge had a stint working in
Senegal where she met a Black American Marine named Armand who impregnated her
and made plans for her to go and give birth to their child in the United
States. Things went awry as Armand abandoned Lola to her fate in America and
she had to go through a decade of harrowing experience as a single mother
before she was able to have her stay in the US regularised. The main character
in “Tent 59” is a young lad from Port Harcourt who fled home in search of the
‘Golden Fleece’ in Europe. As the saying goes, “Between the promise and the
promised land, there is a wilderness.” Zino and his friend Mado went through
the Israelite journey of being smuggled through the Sahara Desert and
Mediterranean Sea en route Island of Lampedusa in Italy. While Zino survived
all the odds to arrive in Europe, his friend, Mado, was not lucky as he died
when their pontoon boat capsized on the Mediterranean.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My further research on the
issue of migration showed that migration is not illegal as many of us leave our
ancestral homes to resettle elsewhere. The motive for migrating could be for
economic, political, social, security, diplomatic or cultural reasons. For
instance, as the war rages between Israel and Palestine, Ukraine and Russia, as
well as the fratricidal war in Sudan, many will flee their ancestral homes into
some more secure countries. This creates the problem of refugees and Internally
Displaced Persons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As the cost of living crises
bite harder across the globe, many people are bound to flee to other countries
in search of greener pastures or the Golden Fleece. That’s why a lot of
Nigerians are leaving the country in droves. A number of family and friends
have left the country despite having what to do in the country. Those who
‘japa’ from Nigeria are in two categories. There are those who legitimately
left. These include those who win the visa lottery or highly skilled migrants.
It is no news that many of our university lecturers and medical personnel are
being recruited to legitimately work abroad. The New Telegraph reported on
August 22, 2022, had a story that read, “Brain drain hits Nigerian banks as
tech experts, others resign in droves.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am not seriously worried about
those who legally and legitimately relocated abroad. My concern is about those
who have to dare the odds of traversing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean
Sea all because they want a better life for themselves in Europe. The
International Organisation for Migration defines irregular migration as the
“movement that takes place outside the regulatory norms of the sending, transit
and receiving country.” A migrant in an irregular situation may fall within one
or more of the following circumstances: He or she may enter the country
irregularly, for instance with false documents or without crossing at an
official border crossing point; he or she may reside in the country
irregularly, for instance, in violation of the terms of an entry visa/residence
permit; or he or she may be employed in the country irregularly, for instance
he or she may have the right to reside but not to take up paid employment in
the country.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Irregular migration is
otherwise called illegal, undocumented, unauthorised and clandestine migration.
The IOM documented 686 deaths and disappearances of migrants on the US-Mexico
border in 2022, making it the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide on
record. Nearly half (307) of the deaths on the US-Mexico border were linked to
the hazardous crossing of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, far more than
other desert regions where irregular migration is prevalent. At least 212
people died in the Sahara Desert in 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Again, according to the IOM,
when a boat crammed with over 500 women, men, and children sank off the coast
of the Italian Island of Lampedusa 10 years ago, the world said “never again.”
Today, on the tenth anniversary of that shipwreck, we have not lived up to that
commitment. 2023 has recorded the deadliest first quarter since 2017, and by
October 2, 2,517 people were accounted as dead or missing this year alone in
the Mediterranean. The figure represents nearly half of the 1,457 migrant
deaths and disappearances recorded throughout the Americas in 2022, the
deadliest year on record since the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project began in
2014. Across North and West Africa, 43 shipwrecks were recorded along the
Western Africa Atlantic Route to Spain’s Canary Islands in 2022, resulting in
the deaths of at least 559 people at sea, half of whom were presumed drowned as
their remains could not be recovered. In comparison, 1,126 migrants died in 74
shipwrecks on this route in 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">An online source reported that
several national laws and regulations had been introduced by many countries to
restrict entry for asylum seekers, despite being signatories to the United
Nations 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. This creates the paradox
in which asylum seekers have a right to apply for asylum but cannot enter a
country legally to do so and therefore have to enter in an irregular way,
sometimes with the assistance of migrant smugglers. One of such measures,
according to The BBC report of July 12, 2023, is the five-year trial –
announced in April 2022 by the United Kingdom that would see some asylum
seekers sent to Rwanda on a one-way ticket, to claim asylum there. They may be
granted refugee status to stay in Rwanda. If not, they can apply to settle
there on other grounds, or seek asylum in another “safe third country.” The BBC
said, “The policy is unlawful; the Court of Appeal has ruled. That decision
could itself be challenged at the Supreme Court.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Globalisation is seen as a
cause of irregular migration as irregular migrants help provide cheap
labour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2018, UN member states
adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration and the
Global Compact on Refugees. These compacts were born in part as a response to
tragedies such as Lampedusa; intended to be implemented complementarily, they
represent historic frameworks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In closing, it behoves African
leaders to bridge the inequality gap that is making our brothers and sisters
risk their lives going through a hazardous journey of irregularly migrating to
Europe and the Americas. African leaders need to do more to curb corruption,
unemployment, poverty and insecurity which have been identified as the main
drivers of irregular migration. To those who are about to be trafficked out to
Europe, it’s not worth the risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
awaits them on this perilous journey include premature death, starvation, organ
harvesting, slavery, racial discrimination and regrets. Truly, the resources
they are willing to deploy to defray their cost of being trafficked out could enable
them start a profitable business here at home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-85275069253002624652023-10-04T08:51:00.003-07:002023-10-04T08:51:49.024-07:00Contributions of ‘third sector’ to Nigeria’s development<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nigeria celebrated her 63rd
independence anniversary last Sunday, October 1, 2023 in a sombre manner. The
celebration was low-key, devoid of the usual merriment, gala night and fanfare
at the Eagles Square where such national events are often held. There were
symposium, thanksgiving services at the mosque and church and national
broadcast by President Bola Tinubu. The president in his speech lauded the vision
of our founding fathers and mothers as well as our modest achievements as a
nation. A sound bite from his speech says “Nigeria is remarkable in its
formation and essential character. We are a broad and dynamic blend of ethnic
groups, religions, traditions and cultures. Yet, our bonds are intangible yet
strong, invisible yet universal. We are joined by a common thirst for peace and
progress, by the common dream of prosperity and harmony and by the unifying ideals
of tolerance and justice.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tinubu in his speech more or
less gave an update on his July 31, 2023 national broadcast where he reeled out
the various economic relief packages to cushion the harsh cost of living that
is the upshot of the removal of subsidy on petrol in his maiden inauguration speech
on May 29, 2023. The president said inter alia that “I am attuned to the
hardships that have come. I have a heart that feels and eyes that see. I wish
to explain to you why we must endure this trying moment. Those who sought to
perpetuate the fuel subsidy and broken foreign exchange policies are people who
would build their family mansion in the middle of a swamp. I am different. I am
not a man to erect our national home on a foundation of mud. To endure, our
home must be constructed on safe and pleasant ground.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have granted several media
interviews looking at the evolution of Nigeria, contributions of our political
parties and electoral management bodies, our economic growth and development
and so on and so forth. However, not many understand the contribution of the
Third Sector to our socioeconomic development as a nation. That is what I
intend to do in this piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Toolkit by
Nothernbridge describes the ‘third sector’ as an umbrella term that covers a
range of different organisations with different structures and purposes,
belonging neither to the public sector (i.e., the state) nor to the private
sector (profit-making private enterprise).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Third sector organisations include charities; voluntary and community
organisations; social enterprises and cooperatives and think tanks and private
research institutes (this does not include universities and colleges).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In a sense, the Third Sector
belongs to the wider civil society organisations. According to the United
Nations Development Programme popularly known as UNDP, “[CSOs] can be defined
to include all non-market and non-state organisations outside of the family in
which people organise themselves to pursue shared interests in the public
domain. Examples include community-based organisations and village
associations, environmental groups, women’s rights groups, farmers’
associations, faith-based organisations, labour unions, co-operatives,
professional associations, chambers of commerce, independent research
institutes and the not-for-profit media.” As we mark the occasion of our
country’s 63rd independence anniversary, what can we say has been the
contribution of this Third Sector or CSOs?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This sector has achieved a lot
for Nigeria. CSOs contributed immensely to the decolonisation struggle of
Nigeria. The workers’ union under Pa Michael Imodu embarked on several strikes
and protests not only to seek the improvement of the welfare of workers but
also for Nigeria to gain independence. Since independence, successive labour
leaders such as Hassan Sumonu, Pascal Bafyau, Adams Oshiomhole, Ayuba Waba, and
the incumbent Joe Ajaero, have led labour movements to demand better welfare
conditions for Nigerian workers and the masses as a whole, take for instance
the latest heartwarming news about the 15-point Memorandum of Understanding
that Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress were able to achieve on
October 2, 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Recall that after Tinubu
removed the petrol subsidy on May 29, he set up a Federal Government committee
to meet with labour unions to work out the economic relief packages to give to
Nigerian workers. The committee was to sit and finalise deliberations in eight
weeks. This has dragged for four months. In the course of the time, labour
unions embarked on peaceful protests and a two-day warning strike. This didn’t
yield much and the workers’ unions gave an ultimatum to commence indefinite
strike by October 3, 2023 if the demands of the unions are not met. Nigerians
waited with bated breath. It is noteworthy that the threat by the workers’ union
led to the marathon meetings between October 1 and 2 before the unions
eventually shelved the strike for one month to enable the government implement
the agreements reached.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The gist of the MoU signed by
the government and labour unions are as follows:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Federal Government grants a wage award of
N35,000 to all FG workers beginning from September, pending when a new national
minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law; a minimum wage committee
to be inaugurated within one month from the date of the agreement; suspension
of Value Added Tax<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>collection on diesel
for six months beginning from October 2023; a vote by the Federal Government of
N100bn for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit in
Nigeria; and the government plan to implement various tax incentive measures
for private sector and the general public.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Agreement was reached in line
with relevant ILO conventions and Nigerian Labour Act on the leadership crisis
rocking the National Road Transport Union of Nigeria and purported proscription
of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria. This is to be resolved
on or before October 13. Also contained in the MoU are the outstanding salaries
and wages of tertiary education workers in federal-owned educational
institutions referred to Ministry of Labour and Employment for further
engagement; Federal Government’s commitment to pay N25,000 per month for three
months starting from October 2023 to 15 million households, including
vulnerable pensioners; increase in its initiatives on subsidised distribution
of fertilisers to farmers across the country; and a call out to state
government through the National Economic Council and Governors’ Forum to
implement wage award for their workers, with similar consideration to be given
to local government and private sector workers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The last leg of the 15-point
agreements<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>include the Federal
Government’s commitment to the provision of funds as announced by the President
on July 31 broadcast for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises; joint visitation to
be made to the refineries to ascertain their rehabilitation status; all parties
committing to abide by the dictates of social dialogue in all future
engagements; and the NLC and TUC accepting to suspend for 30 days the planned
indefinite nationwide strike, while the MoU will be filed with the relevant
Court of competent jurisdiction within one week as consent judgment by the
Federal Government.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is yet another
commendable feat by Nigeria’s Third Sector, particularly when one considers the
paltry offers made by the president in his July 31 and October 1 broadcasts.
But for the labour unions, the price of petrol would have increased to about
N1,000 per litre given the current exchange rate. Furthermore, the labour
unions have achieved the wage award increment from N25,000 to N35,000 and to
cover all federal workers rather than the low-grade workers mentioned by the
president. Instead of six months, the wage award will now lapse when the new
minimum wage comes up next year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>VAT has
also been removed from diesel for six months while the conditional cash
transfer of initial N8,000 for 12 million beneficiaries has now been increased
to N25,000 for three months for 15 million beneficiaries. This is the power of
dialogue. Remember the popular saying that it is better to jaw-jaw than to
war-war!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Apart from the labour unions,
non-governmental organisations such as the Campaign for Democracy, Committee
for the Defence of Human Rights, Centre for Democracy and Development, YIAGA
Africa and Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project as well as
professional bodies such as the Nigerian Bar Association have worked together
to deepen Nigeria’s democracy. Many of them fought together with the labour
unions for the return to civil rule. They have fought corruption and human
rights abuses. They have promoted transparency and accountability in government
and in the electoral process. The Third Sector therefore needs to be appreciated
and commended for their numerous contributions to national development.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-89348971254880169482023-09-13T13:25:00.001-07:002023-09-13T13:25:29.840-07:00Tinubu’s victory at the PEPC<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“An election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of
non-compliance with the provisions of this Act if it appears to the Election
Tribunal or Court that the election was conducted substantially in accordance
with the principles of this Act and that the non-compliance did not affect
substantially the result of the election.”<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– Section 135 (1) of Electoral Act 2022<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">There were over a thousand
election petition cases filed at different tribunals and courts challenging the
outcome of the 2023 general elections held between February 25 and April 15,
2023. However, none of these generated as much furore as the three petitions
filed by Allied Peoples Movement, Peter Obi and Labour Party, and Atiku
Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party. Under our electoral jurisprudence, the
candidates and the political parties that sponsored them have the locus standi
to challenge the outcome of any election in which they participated in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After six months of legal fireworks by the
petitioners and the respondents, the Appeal Court, sitting as court of first
instance in the presidential election dispute resolution, upheld the election
of President Bola Tinubu and All Progressives Congress. The unanimous judgment
of 798 pages lasted an unprecedented 12 and a half hours and was beamed live to
the world.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">In my own opinion, the judgment
was sound, well researched and based on law and not emotions. Before I proceed
to buttress my viewpoint on the verdict, it’s noteworthy that I have been a
development worker cum consultant since 1999, which is 24 years now. I have
been an accredited observer at all the general elections conducted by the
Independent National Electoral Commission since 1999 and some of the off-cycle
governorship and State Independent Electoral Commission-organised local
government elections. I have had the privilege of being accredited election
observer in the United States in 2010, Ghana in 2008, Egypt in 2014, and Uganda
in 2016.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a consultant, I have done
extensive research on many of our democratic institutions such as the Electoral
Management Bodies, political parties, National and State Assemblies, media,
civil society organisations and security agencies. I have also organised
training programmes for judges of the election petition tribunals. Aside from
research and analysis, my other forte is capacity building.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Since the 2023 election was held,
I have written several opinion articles on the polls and granted interviews to
many broadcast media on it. Of great importance was my participation in the
three out of the four editions of the Town Hall meetings organised by Fix
Politics Initiatives in collaboration with the Africa Independent Television.
The 4th edition of the #FixPolitics Dialogues focusing on the 2023 elections
with the theme: “2023 Elections: Challenges, Lessons & Prospects for The
Future of Democracy in Nigeria” was held on Thursday, July 20, 2023 at the AIT
studios. At the last forum, I warned Nigerians hoping that the 2023
presidential election would be nullified to moderate their expectation as the
court would base its judgment on the issue of substantial compliance.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">According to section 135 (1) of
the 2022 Electoral Act as reproduced in the opening paragraph of this piece,
election shall not be nullified or invalidated except there is substantial
non-compliance with the electoral laws. During the last #FixPolitics Dialogue I
recall citing an example of a school examination. When a teacher or lecturer
scored a student or pupil excellent in a subject, it does not mean the fellow
scored 100 per cent. He or she may actually have scored 75 marks missing 25. A
student is awarded ‘B’, very good when he scored between 60 and 69. ‘C’ meaning
credit is the remark for a student who scored between 50 and 59. This means
despite missing 50 out of 100 marks, the student is still deemed to have passed
the exam and does not need to rewrite the subject. Even someone who scored 40
marks out of 100 is said to have a weak pass.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Elections can be likened to those
examination scores. The Independent National Electoral Commission did not
perform excellently well in the conduct of the last general elections. As
earlier inferred, I was an accredited observer in the elections on the platform
of Nigerian Women Trust Fund and was deployed to observe the polls on February
25, 2023 at the Abuja Municipal Area Council. There was the late commencement
of the polls, voter distribution was haphazardly done and some voters couldn’t
locate their polling units. Furthermore, there was inadequate provision of
assistive materials for Persons with Disabilities as devices like Braille
Ballot Guide for the blind, Magnifying Glass for persons with albinism, were
not used and access to polling units by persons on wheelchair or crutches was
difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Priority voting for pregnant
women, nursing mothers, the elderly and PWDs were not observed in many of the
polling units my team visited around the Karu, Mararaba, and Nyanya axes. There
was also the big elephant of late upload of presidential election results
despite repeated assurances by the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, that
the PU results would be uploaded on the IREV (INEC Result Viewing) portal in a
timely manner.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Are all of these infractions enough
for the five justices of the Court of Appeal to overturn Tinubu’s electoral
victory? The answer by their lordships is NO! Really speaking, as I have said
at many events, INEC’s performance during the 2023 general elections is
suboptimal but it was not a failure. This is because in spite of all the
aforementioned shortcomings, they were not sufficient enough to invalidate the
polls. Unlike in the pre-election phase when there was the high incidence of
election-related violence, the election days were largely peaceful, most of the
voters were able to cast their ballot in spite of the late commencement of the
polls and disenfranchisement of the few, though there could be rigging in some
of the polling units, it was not widespread.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led
five-member panel held that the petitioners could not prove their case of
massive fraud and did not call any of their over 133,000 polling agents as an
eyewitness. That is strange! My knowledge of election dispute resolution shows
that when a petitioner makes a case of electoral fraud which borders on
criminal allegations, the petitioner must prove corrupt practices or fraud in
each of the polling units, wards, and local governments before coming to state
level. It is not enough to make sweeping statements of fraud in a state without
details of the PUs, wards, LGs where these crimes took place. Mark you, there
are 176, 846 polling units, 8,809 wards, 768 LGs and six area councils as well
as 36 states plus the FCT where the presidential election was held. Assuming
without conceding that there was fraud or rigging in 20 per cent of the PUs, is
that substantial enough to invalidate the polls?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer is NO! More so, a petitioner has
to prove the rigging beyond reasonable doubt in a maximum of 180 days with each
of the witnesses being examined and cross-examined by both the petitioners and
the respondents’ legal teams.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The court also settled some
points of law. For instance, we living and working in the FCT are not peculiar
or special citizens hence the fact that the APC presidential candidate did not
score 25 per cent of votes in the FCT but had more than the basic requirement
of 25 per cent of valid votes in two-third of all the states means he is
validly elected. The court has also resolved issues bordering on double
nomination and qualification and non-qualification. The PEPC says it’s a
pre-election matter which can only be filed by members of the political party
that produced the candidate at the Federal High Court. It is also surprising to
me that the petitioners decided not to frontload the witness statements of some
of their witnesses as prescribed in Practice Direction and Electoral Act
2022.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All said and done, it is well
within the right of the petitioners to approach the Supreme Court for the final
determination of their cases, I advise that those making<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wild allegations of bribery or inducement of
their lordships should desist unless they have incontrovertible evidence to
back up their claim.<o:p></o:p></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-13685307541358156732023-08-29T23:40:00.003-07:002023-08-29T23:40:50.096-07:00Tinubu’s loud silence on restructuring<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The Nasir El Rufai-led True
Federalism Committee set up by the All Progressives Congress to look into the
issue of restructuring submitted its reports to the National Working Committee
on Thursday, January 25, 2018. The committee in its reports called for more
devolution of powers to the states and urged that the police and prisons be
moved from the Exclusive to the Concurrent List. According to the report, the
state government would be allowed to establish state police to handle certain crimes
as well as state prisons.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The committee equally recommended
independent candidacy but with a clause that individuals who intend to stand
for elections must not have been a member of any political party at least six
months prior to the elections in which they intend to contest. On local
government autonomy, the committee said since “one size does not fit all,” the
states should be allowed to legislate for local governments, including creating
more councils. Former President Muhammadu Buhari was not a proponent of
restructuring or the devolution of power. In his eight years as president, he
never initiated a constitutional amendment to facilitate this. Surprisingly, he
had the highest number of constitutional alterations to his name.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">In 2018, despite being private
member bills of the National Assembly, Buhari signed into law five
constitutional alterations. Notable among them is age reduction for
presidential, House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly candidates
under the Not-Too-Young-To- Run bill. Presidential age qualification was
reduced from 40 to 35, while that of House of Reps and State Houses of Assembly
was reduced from 30 to 25 years. In March 2023, Buhari signed into law 16
constitutional alterations. Three of them have to do with devolution of
powers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the removal of railway,
prisons (now correctional centres), and electricity from exclusive to
concurrent legislative list.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The incumbent President, Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu, is a known democrat. He fought tooth and nail with fellow comrades
to ensure return to civil rule in 1999 as a prominent member of the National
Democratic Coalition. He is a known advocate of restructuring. In fact, at the
Third Annual Abiola Ajimobi Roundtable on November 16, 2020, he delivered a
profound speech titled, “The time for restructuring is now.” I was one of the
discussants at the event which was held at the International Conference Centre
of the University of Ibadan, Oyo State.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">At the roundtable, Asiwaju said
inter alia, “Our system remains too centralised with too much power and money
remaining within the federal might. This imbalance leads to relative state
weakness. We need to overhaul how revenues are allocated between the states and
the Federal Government. Here I must state what for many of us may seem a novel
idea. But this concept is one that has directed the fiscal policies of other
nations for several decades. If we are to catch these other nations in
development, it is a prerequisite that we match them in the efficiency of
governmental fiscal roles and operations regarding the national government and
our subnational political units.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Tinubu said further that it was
imperative that states were given more revenue so that they could do more
things. “I do not advocate a blank check for states. The more revenue they get,
the more they must do and the more they assume the responsibility to use that
revenue wisely because the very fate of their people is at stake.” He also said,
“The time for state police has come. In fact, it is overdue. This important
change requires more funds in state hands, less in federal.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">According to the Jagaban of
Borgu, “Other items such as stamp duties for financial transactions, tourism,
and the incorporation of businesses should also occur at the state level and be
removed from the federal charge. Perhaps the single most important factor in
economic development is power generation. States currently are shut out from
this vital sector even though the nation suffers a paucity of power. States
must be allowed to engage in power generation as long as their efforts are
consistent with and do not undermine federal labours in this sector.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">On June 10, 2023, President Bola
Tinubu assented to the electricity bill, which authorises states, companies and
individuals to generate, transmit and distribute electricity. The new
electricity law repeals the Electric Power Sector Reform Act which was signed
by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005. The new Act consolidates all
legislations dealing with the electricity supply industry to provide an omnibus
and ideal institutional framework to guide the post-privatisation phase of the
Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry and encourage private sector investments
in the industry. It also provides a framework for the improvement of access to
electricity in rural, unserved, underserved, peri-urban and urban areas through
the use of conventional sources and renewable energy off-grid and mini-grid
solutions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Earlier this month, precisely on
August 8, Tinubu inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and
Tax Reforms in Abuja. At the inauguration the president said among other things
that,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Within the scope of this mandate,
the committee shall have as its objective the advancement of viable and cost
effective solutions to issues such as the multiplicity of revenue collection
agencies, the high cost of revenue administration, the excessive burden of
compliance on ordinary taxpayers, the lack of effective coordination between
fiscal and other economic policies within and across levels of government and
poor accountability in the utilisation of tax revenues.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Despite these two commendable
initiatives, there is no codified document that speaks to the president’s
restructuring agenda. For instance, does the president still believe in state
police and fiscal federalism? How does he want to go about it? If he wants to
achieve the devolution of power, what are the processes he intends to take and
what timelines are we looking at? The president is already mouthing reduction
in the cost of governance, how does he want to achieve that? Is it by merely
reducing the number of delegates to the UN General Assembly in New York next month?
What is his take on the reduction of the presidential air fleet and motorcade?
Any plan to implement the Steve Oronsaye Report of 2011? There are estimated
over 1,400 Ministries, Departments and Agencies at the federal level. Any plan
to reduce this number?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Is there any consideration of
Tinubu’s presidency granting resource control to states? What is his take on
the collection of Value Added Tax and distribution which was a contentious
issue under the immediate-past president? What are the parameters of his fiscal
federalism? Again, what is the president’s take on local government reform,
especially financial autonomy for the local governments? Remember, the
president, as governor of Lagos State, was the first to create Local Council
Development Areas (37 in addition to 20 LGs of the state making 57). Lagos
State is also the only state in Nigeria that has four-year tenure at the local
government level. How does the president intend to plug revenue leakages,
wastefulness and corruption in government? The Tinubu administration clocked 90
days yesterday and there is a popular saying that you must set forth at dawn.
Thus, it’s important for the president to share his restructuring agenda and
timeline with the public for possible input.<o:p></o:p></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1607797724585217547.post-84139635388712256312023-08-24T04:14:00.003-07:002023-08-24T04:14:55.818-07:00Agenda for Tinubu’s cabinet<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I watched the colourful
swearing-in of the 45 out of the proposed 48 ministers of President Bola Tinubu
last Monday, August 21. It came 84 days after the president’s inauguration on
May 29, 2023.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the seventh of such
in this Fourth Republic which started in 1999. Hearty congratulations to the
lucky few who made the president’s cabinet. It’s indeed a rare privilege to be
selected for such enviable appointments among over 40 million estimated members
of the All Progressives Congress and over 200 million Nigerians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have granted several media
interviews across some of the print and broadcast media since the inauguration
of the ministers. Prominent among them are the Federal Radio Corporation of
Nigeria better known as Radio Nigeria, Spectrum TV, TV 360, News Central
Television and Blueprint newspaper. I do not hide my disapproval of the size of
the cabinet which I strongly feel is bloated. What’s the president doing with a
cabinet of over 50 persons (President, Vice President, 45 ministers, Secretary
to the Federal Government, Head of Service, Chief of Staff to the President,
National Security Adviser and possibly the Special Advisers to the president).
This is the highest since the advent of this Fourth Republic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to last Sunday’s
PUNCH (August 20, 2023) the President’s nominees topped the 42 appointed by his
predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2019 by five more persons. In his first term,
Buhari named 36 ministers, while the number increased to 42 during his second
term. Former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 named 33 nominees to be
ministers in his cabinet, including nine from the Umar Yar’Adua administration.
In 2007, Yar’Adua named a 39-member cabinet made up of 32 men and seven women.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo initially named 42 ministers in 1999 but
reviewed his cabinet to reduce the number of ministries and ministers to 27 and
40, respectively, before he left office in 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At a time when Nigeria’s paltry
revenue is almost spent on debt servicing and the country perpetually goes
a-borrowing with heavy debt portfolio, the commonsensical thing to do is to
have a SMART government that is lean and efficient<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reduction of the cost of governance should
have been our top priority. Unfortunately, it is not so. Right now, we
allegedly have over 1,400 Ministries, Departments and Agencies that the Steve
Oronsaye committee report of 2011 advised should be pruned to save the cost of
governance. Unfortunately, Buhari couldn’t keep his promise to implement the
White Paper of the report.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Despite the lean resources,
the earlier referenced Sunday PUNCH reported that the housing allowances for
the newly appointed ministers might cost the country about N343.25m yearly, according
to its findings. With that annual allocation, in four years, the Federal
Government will spend N1.37bn on the 45 ministers’ accommodation. The
allowances are based on data collated from a document obtained from the website
of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission. It covers
allowances for accommodation (200 per cent of basic salary), domestic staff (75
per cent of basic salary), utilities (30 per cent of basic salary), and
furniture (300 per cent of basic salary). Unlike other allowances paid monthly,
furniture allowance is usually paid once in four years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sunday PUNCH further reported
that each minister is entitled to an accommodation allowance of N4.05m,
domestic staff allowance of N1.52m, and utilities allowance of N0.61m, alongside
furniture allowance of N6.08m, which is paid once in four years. Each minister
of state is entitled to an accommodation allowance of N3.92m, domestic staff
allowance of N1.47m, and utilities allowance of N0.59m, alongside furniture
allowance of N5.87m, which is paid once in four years. An analysis of the
figures showed that each minister is expected to get a total of N7.7m annually
while each minister of state is expected to get a total of N7.45m
annually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In four years, each minister
gets N30.8m while each minister of state gets N29.8m. In total, the 32
ministers will cost the country about N985.6m while the 13 ministers of state
will gulp about N387.4m in four years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s the least of my worry;
the bigger issue is whether the ministers will be well resourced to perform
effectively and efficiently. The 2023 Federal Budget is premised on the old 28
ministries. Now there are additional six or thereabouts such as Ministries of
Marine and Blue Economy; Tourism; Youths; Arts, Culture and Creative Economy;
and Steel Development. What’s the wisdom of calibrating the Ministry of
Information and Culture into three? Why separate Youths from Sports? What’s so
special about Steel Development that warranted a separation from Solid
Minerals? To underscore our wastefulness, two ministers are put in charge of
Steel Development. What’s so spectacular about the Ministry of Police Affairs
that two ministers are assigned to that ministry when there was absolutely no
need for that ministry in the first place since there is a constitutional body
known as the Police Service Commission? How will these newly created ministries
be funded before the 2024 budget comes on stream in about five months?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about office spaces and full complement
of manpower that will enable them to “hit the ground running.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">From all indications, President
Tinubu will most likely double as Minister of Petroleum Resources following the
precedent laid by Obasanjo and Buhari. I’m not sure this is a wise decision as
the president does not, in my own opinion, have the expertise to successfully
drive that ministry even though he has two ministers of states, one for Oil and
the other for Gas. Perhaps, he will rely on his accounting background in
ExxonMobil but would he have the time to do a thorough job given the enormity
of superintending such a huge cabinet in addition to other matters such as his
chairmanship of authority of Heads of ECOWAS.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Festus Keyamo(SAN) said at the
valedictory session of the Buhari’s government last May that “the concept or
designation of ‘Minister of State’ is a constitutional aberration and is
practically not working for many so appointed.” He expatiated that, “it would
be difficult to assess the individual performances of the ministers of state
since their discretion is shackled under the discretion of the ministers.
Original ideas developed by a minister of state are subject to clearance by
another colleague in cabinet before they can sail through for consideration by
Council.” How I wish Tinubu read and understood the point of law made by the
Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Unfortunately, we are saddled with at least 13
Ministers of State who may be at loggerheads with their other colleagues who
are considered superior. I look forward to what will happen in the Ministry of
Defence where two former governors, Badaru and Matawalle are supposed to work
together.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I know that a retreat is in
the offing for the new ministers. That is highly desirable and expedient. Each
of the 45 ministers should have a proper job description, scope of work, or
terms of reference together with key performance indicators. This delineation
of duties will help to properly guide each of the ministers, thereby avoiding
friction. I also do hope that the former governors will not be throwing their
weight around and bullying their colleagues in the cabinet the way some of them
do to their commissioners.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All the ministers should
understand that they serve as lieutenants of the president. Indeed, they are
just elevated presidential aides who can be dropped without prior notice.
That’s why I don’t seem to understand someone leaving elected positions such as
the Senate and House of Representatives to become a minister that has no
security of tenure. I’m sure someone will remind me that ministers control
budgets and there might be more money to be made in the executive arm of
government. Anyway, I implore the new ministers to shun personal aggrandisement
and know that they are called to serve and not to corruptly enrich themselves.
I do hope they will all be exemplary in the task of implementing the
president’s Renewed Hope agenda. Nigerians are impatiently waiting for good
governance!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Jide Ojohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03422022204876474082noreply@blogger.com0