What Are The Governors Doing With The Palliatives?

By Rotimi Fasan

At the end of July this year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in a nationwide broadcast that Nigeria had been able to save well over a trillion naira following the removal of subsidy on petrol. This was money that would, otherwise, have gone into the dark hole into which the fuel subsidy went. I think it’s fair to say, in the wake of the unbearable suffering Nigerians have been passing through since the end of May that some kind of support (read subsidy) was being enjoyed by Nigerians.

It was just that the effect of it was very minimal compared to the amount we are told went into sustaining the oil subsidy bogey. The best part of the subsidy money went into the pockets and bank accounts of shadowy players in the oil sector, including oil marketers that are too quick to make Nigerians groan by their Shylock-like ways. 

How Southern Nigeria Can Win 2023 Presidential Election

 By Dele Momodu

Buhari and Gov Akeredolu of Ondo

Fellow Nigerians, please, allow me to remind you of an article I wrote in 2014 titled IN SEARCH OF MATHEMATICIANS. It was a simple calculation and permutation I made about how Major General Muhammadu Buhari was going to defeat the incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the 2015 Presidential election. As at that time, the confidence level of the Buhari camp was still quite shaky, indeed it was quite low. 

Atiku Will Make A Far Better President Than Buhari, Any Day, Any Time!

By Femi Aribisala

One of the biggest mistakes this country ever made was to allow APC to come into power in Nigeria. It must be sent packing in 2019...

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dodged a bullet; a bomb even with the conduct of its presidential primaries a few days ago. This was conducted in a calm, serene and collected manner. There were no riots. No bombs went off to mark the process as “do or die.” Nobody got killed, maimed or injured. The party did not find it necessary to insult the intelligence of Nigerians by boasting that it now has millions upon millions of fictitious members. Everything was as smooth as silk.

*Atiku and Buhari 

The same could not be said of the All Progressives Congress (APC). There is one word that comes to mind describing APC politics today: “shambolic.” APC primaries are characterised by violence, tear gas and acrimony. At the presidential level, the party virtually prevented other aspirants from competing against Buhari. It then showed its contempt for Nigerians by claiming the president, as a sole candidate, obtained a bogus 14.8 million votes.

Dear President Buhari, Please Look In The Mirror

By SKC Ogbonnia
Dear Mr. President,
I am beginning with an Igbo proverb which says that a heedless lizard falling from a tall palm tree typically wrestles to clutch at any available straw on its path before its imminent crash. My father also never fails to tell me that a habit of excuse is the best friend of failure. Nowhere are these sayings more manifest than the case of your presidency.

*Buhari 

Today, the general view is that you are at it again, trying so desperately to cling on to another excuse to avoid responsibility for the crises that have befallen our great party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and, by consequence, the entire Nigeria.

Understanding Adams Oshiomhole

By Abraham Ogbodo

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole is used to public shows. He lives as if every situation in life is a piece of drama that must be acted out. Even at that, he does not respect the rules of the stage and stay within his role.  For no clear reason, he loves to be the lead actor always, even if the director casts him to merely play a supporting role.

*Adams Oshiomhole 

As president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it seemed Nigeria had two presidents. Then, if a man or woman only mentioned the ‘President’ in describing the head of state and number one citizen of Nigeria, he or she would be required to give further details so that it would be known if the description applied to Obasanjo or Oshiomhole.

Nigeria: Siege, Plot Against Democracy

By Oshineye Victor Oshisada

The recent siege on the National Assembly was an aberrant behaviour. The institution is an august law-making organ of governance. However, its hallowed status was disdained when the Department of State Services (DSS) barricaded its gates to shut out the law-makers on August 7, 2018. That occurred on the assumption that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was contemplating of sacking the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.

 The hooded security men shouted that they were on the orders not to permit anybody –members or staff- to have entrance.

Assumption of the removal of the Senate President by the APC is not tenable. In law, one cannot take assumption for reality; it is not evidence. An assumption is based upon suspicion. Chapter V, Part I Section 50 (2) takes care of the removal of the President or Deputy President of the Senate. The Constitution of 1999 is supreme, and not a kangaroo method of removal.

Believe APC Govt, You’ll Believe Anything!

By Reno Omokri

There is only one thing worse than the show of shame that took place at the National Assembly on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, when the Buhari administration laid siege on the National Assembly. The one thing worse than that despicable is the attempt by the executive to spin the whole thing as a conspiracy between Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the bow sacked DSS Boss, Lawal Daura. 

Oshiomhole and Buhari 

If you believe that tale, then I can assure you that you will believe anything. So preposterous is the allegation that I would have wondered why anyone will tell such a monumental lie. And then it hit me. The tactic now being employed by the Buhari administration to spin the National Assembly siege as a conspiracy between Senate President Bukola Saraki and the now disgraced DSS Director General, Lawal Daura is known as the Big Lie. 

Nigeria: Of Treacheries By Political Mercenaries

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

“As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. 

So Jesus told him, what you are about to do, do quickly”

– John 13:27 (New International Version of the Holy Bible). 

Those who are conversant with the verse of the Bible quoted supra would remember very vividly what happened and the context in which Jesus made the statement.  

*Buhari and Saraki

But for those who are not, what transpired was that the time that Jesus Christ would be crucified was at hand and it has been written that one man, Judas, a son of perdition, who would fulfill a negative prophecy, would betray him to those who sought to carry out his arrest for the purpose of His trial and crucifixion. Jesus knew from the outset of creation that Judas had been predestined to accomplish that task in human history.  Judas, therefore, did not have the grace to resist the supernatural obligation to keep that grisly appointment with destiny.

APC Crisis: Oshiomhole Is Becoming A Problem, Not The Solution

By SKC Ogbonnia

The most compelling attribute of Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, the new chairman of our great party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), remains the doggedness in which he organized protests during the democratic regime of then president, Olusegun Obasanjo. But events thus far are revealing the hard truth: trade union activism is far from party leadership. This point is that, Oshiomhole, who was brought in to stave off crisis and lead the party to victory in 2019, is already becoming a problem, not the solution. 

*President Buhari and Adams Oshiomole

Recall that the first turmoil that greeted Oshiomhole’s chairmanship was the splinter group, the Reformed APC (R-APC). Instead of exploring meaningful avenues for peace at the time, the new party chairman heightened the crisis by attacking the group’s credibility. To Oshiomhole, the R-APC was inconsequential, boasting that the party would win in 2019 regardless. He went further to dismiss the group merely as a “counter force” against “President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to fight corruption.” 

Nigeria: The Road To Babylon

By Reuben Abati

Nigeria is on the road to Babylon: a place of confusion. Three years ago, the people were convinced that they had found a messiah who will lead them to the Promised Land, and meet all their expectations. 

*Buhari 

Today, everyone is speaking in different tongues; “turning and turning in the widening gyre…the falcon cannot hear the falconer… things fall apart; the centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-doomed tide is loosed, and everywhere/the ceremony of innocence is drowned…surely, some revelation is at hand…”

But just may be, there is still, no cause for despair. The good thing about democracy is that it teaches people lessons – ask them in Malaysia and the United States – and even when the people refuse stubbornly to learn – ask them in Syria, Venezuela, and Libya –  the lessons exist nonetheless.

I See Buhari Going The Jammeh, Mugabe, Zuma Way

By Reno Omokri

The news that the South African President, Jacob Zuma was resigning with immediate effect came as a bolt of lightning on Wednesday the 14th of February. It was a Valentines Day special for all of Africa.

*Ex-President Zuma and President Buhari

Apparently, to stave off a vote of no confidence on him by his own party, the African National Congress (ANC), Zuma, quit the stage while the ovation was lowest. In the space of just s little over a year, Africa got rid of some of its worst performing leaders (if you can call them that). First Jammeh, then Mugabe, and now Zuma. 

The Insensitivity Of The Nigerian Senate

By Ray Ekpu

The failure of the Senate to approve the devolution of powers from the centre to the federating states is a colossal misreading of the country’s temperature. It sends the wrong message to the agitators campaigning for ethnic self determination, total resource control and confederation. It says to them that the Senate thinks everything is okay in the country; that there is nothing to worry about and that the country as it is, is working just fine. This is a most regrettable decision and if the current tension arising from the dysfunctional state of Nigeria reaches an irreversible crescendo the Senate should hold itself largely responsible.

*Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki

Here are the facts: there has been a massive agitation by some Igbo youths for a Biafra Republic. The numbers are increasing and on May 30, they grounded all the five Igbo states as a show of their strength. Some Arewa Youths have asked the Igbos in the north to go away from their territory before October 1, 2017 otherwise… Some militants in the South South also say that northerners in the South South should also go away from their territory before October 1 otherwise… A group in the South West has already drawn a map of an Oduduwa Republic meaning that they are ready to secede except… The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has called a series of fence-mending meetings but no mending has yet taken place. 

The Nnamdi Kanu group which calls itself the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) has already declared that there will be no governorship election in Anambra State in November except there is a referendum on the idea of Biafra. Anambra is coincidentally the home of Emeka Odumegwu–Ojukwu, the Oxford trained historian – soldier who led the Biafran revolt (1967 – 1970) that ended in a monumental disaster. One million dead persons later, Kanu is embarking on another Biafra misadventure which is catching the attention of the youths who have never been victimised by the horrors of war but are enthused by the prospects of a putative utopia of that ill-fated name.

Buhari’s Search For Jackals And Hyenas

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It is a Monday morning. President Muhammadu Buhari has just resumed in his office after his over two months’ medical vacation. He would have loved to have more rest. But he has been inundated with tales of the intrigues to take over his job. He just has to muster every ounce of energy to take back his office. A file is presented to the president. In it is a list that contains the names of those who were hell-bent on scuttling his presidency while he was away. On the list are ministers. There are also special aides and other officials in the presidency. All these are to be sacked. Welcome to the post-London Buhari era in Aso Rock.

*Buhari 

The criteria for the mass cleansing are only clearly known to the helmsman of Aso Rock. However, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who was the Acting President while Buhari was away is not on the list. He has been found extraordinarily loyal despite all the machinations and intrigues of some people to intimidate and blackmail him into resigning, Buhari considers him as having judiciously represented his interest while he was away. What exemplifies Osinbajo’s fidelity to Buhari’s vision is his maintaining the position of the president that the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could remain in office till 2019 despite his not being confirmed by the Senate. Again, Osinbajo refused to succumb to the clamour for restructuring that ruled the polity.

Buhari has always believed that nobody should tweak the structure of the country as it is. He is on the same page with former President Olusegun Obasanjo who also fought the civil war to keep the country together. But as for former Military President Ibrahim Babangida, Buhari would respond to him appropriately at the right time for taking a position on restructuring that is different from that of the president. Of course, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has always been coveting the president’s job. But there is a way to also pay him for turning himself into a jackal.

How APC Betrayed Buhari

By Joe Igbokwe

I was shocked to the marrows when I heard that some APC Senators asked the National Working Committee of the Party led by the National Chairman of the Party Chief Odigie Oyegun to prevail on President Buhari to drop all charges against Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct corruption trial before they stop sabotaging the presidency. Words failed me when it dawned on me that this potentially dangerous demand is coming from some APC Senators who are supposed to be the agents of change we promised Nigerians while seeking their mandate in 2015.

*Buhari, Tinubu and Saraki 

I reflected on the event of the past 24years from 1993 when we elected Chief MKO Abiola to bring hope to Nigerians and how he was crushed and decimated by demonic and satanic forces after five years struggle to defend and sustain the mandate. Time and space will not permit me to recall the quantum of energies expended to defend the mandate for five years, the wars, on the streets, the casualties including MKO Abiola and the late wife Kudirat Abiola, and many others, the damage to the national project, the devastation of our economy, the balkanization of the political entity called Nigeria, the alienation by the international community making Nigeria a pariah nation, and the ethnic division it visited on Nigeria.

After killing Chief Abiola in July 7, 1998, the same satanic and demonic forces still bent on decimating Nigeria further decided to foist PDP and retired General Obasanjo on Nigerians. In sixteen years, from 1999 to 2015 the same forces wasted huge resources running into hundreds of billions of dollars earned in times of oil boom. The unconscionable looters and unrepentant thieves diverted and stashed away these huge resources into private pockets. These funds have been traced to private accounts both at home and abroad, traced to real estates both in Nigeria and abroad, and traced to farms and some buried underground. The rest is now history.

Nigeria: APC’s Road To Infamy

By Alabi Williams  

In the beginning, all seemed very well with the All Progressives Congress (APC). As the fortunes of the former ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dimmed, that of the new coalition shone luxuriantly. Politicians began to fall over themselves to partake in the assemblage, even as thousands of volunteers outside the party system placed their bet on the party. Without being asked, they turned social media campaigners for the election of candidate Muhammadu Buhari. 

It could be said that in the build up to the 2015 elections, Buhari and his party had their palm kernels cracked on their behalf by a benevolent spirit. APC had little to do to clinch victory, as PDP had burnt its credit so prodigally that it was only a matter of time for it to unravel. At home and abroad, enthusiasts were just waiting for elections to come and go. The frenzy was so pervasive that the government of Goodluck Jonathan had to device some means to adjust voting dates, and postpone day of reckoning. Even that did not stop chants of Sai Baba!

Eventually, Buhari won and was crowned on May 29, 2015. It was time to unbundle the wrap of campaign promises, especially that of making one naira equal to one dollar. It turned out that there was a huge difference between asking for votes and delivering on promises. It turned out that beyond the excitement of winning election, there has to be proven capacity to comprehend the issues and conceptualise a process to confront them. That is where a good number of Nigerians, particularly friends of the APC in the social media, were forced to part ways with government.

Today, the level of discontent with the Buhari government is frightening. The quantity of bile social media ‘journalists’ spew and its toxic content is enough to send a chicken-hearted president on permanent bed rest. The rumour mill is agog with very offensive content, and you wonder how fast the APC has frittered away the credibility and trust on which it rode to power. And they are not about to back off, as the economy is not showing signs of quick recovery. Their anger is that they were conned by the ruling party, into believing that once they assist to send the other government away, Nigeria will become an el dorado overnight. In other words, they are angry with this government over its policies that do not seem to work and have human face. 

When Buhari came onboard, reflex action on the part of some agencies of government created mirages that were thought to be early signs of the change that was promised. Electricity supply became relatively more assured; supply of PMS at the former price of N87 became readily available, and Nigerians were beginning to reenact the social discipline that hallmarked Buhari’s first coming, as military head of state. Effortlessly, and without raising a hand, things seemed to work and the party in government attributed that to be the body language of Buhari in action. They began to celebrate with much noise.

Alleged Corruption: How Not To Save Magu

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Those who really want President Muhammadu Buhari to succeed in his campaign against corruption must be scandalised by the efforts of his so-called supporters to persuade him to dismiss the allegations of corruption against Ibrahim Magu as merely constituting a self-serving canard that is not worth his attention. The president’s friends do not see the need to investigate the allegations by the Senate that the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is amenable to the patronage of those he is supposed to investigate for corruption and his complicity in other myriad unethical practices that have rendered him ineligible to occupy that high office.

*Ibrahim Magu

These friends and those of Magu have instigated a rash of lobbying activities geared at making the president to re-nominate Magu for confirmation as the EFCC chair. It has been said that the debate on whether to retain Magu or not has split the kitchen cabinet of the president. The Senate is equally split as some senators led by Senate Majority Leader Ali Ndume are trying to persuade their colleagues to rescind their decision not to confirm Magu.

Yet, the issue requires far more than lobbying. For whether the anti-corruption campaign of Buhari retains whatever credibility it still has now or not depends on how the Magu issue is resolved. Thus for the anti-corruption campaign to continue and indeed gain greater verve, the allegations against Magu must not be glossed over. True, the Senate that accused Magu of corruption is perceived to have lost its lustre in a murky cesspool of malfeasance. Its leader, Bukola Saraki is being tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal for corruption-related cases.

There are other members of the Senate, especially former governors, who are facing cases of corruption. Despite the mounting pressure from the public, the Senate has refused to be transparent in its finances. The fogginess about their salaries and allowances and their extravagant lifestyles conflict with the desperate economic crisis of the nation. But we must resist the temptation to quickly dismiss the senators’ position until their allegations are investigated. It is only after this that we can be sure whether the Senate took their position in furtherance of their own interest or that of the nation. It is hasty to argue that by the Senate’s position, it is evident that corruption is fighting back.

Those who are insisting on saving Magu without investigating the allegations against him are not helping the anti-corruption fight. For even if the president is able to persuade the Senate to make a barefaced volte-face and confirm Magu, this would not help the anti-corruption campaign as long as there are no convincing responses by him to the allegations of corruption. To the extent that Magu on whom unresolved corruption charges are hanging retains his job as the chief prosecutor of the fight against sleaze in public offices, the anti-corruption fight has suffered an intolerable travesty that would only render the nation a butt of crude jokes in the comity of transparent nations. If Magu is found guilty of the charges, Buhari should allow him to face prosecution.

Before We Destroy Nigeria

By Malachy Uzendu

Nigerians are superbly interesting set of people. Every moment presents itself as placebo for throwing away serious punches. We seem to love to be dribbled; we enjoy flash in the pan situations. We seem not to have deep thinking faculties. Our handling of situations is always on the ephemeral plane.

*Buhari 

A few months ago, the issue on the lip of Nigerians were “Senate Standing Rules” forgery or no for­gery; whether it was the national leadership of the ruling All Pro­gressives Congress (APC) that holds the prerogative of determin­ing who becomes a principal offic­er of the National Assembly or not. It did not matter that people who were elected to that arm of govern­ment from the different constitu­encies in the country have even if we chose to call it some form of pedigree, neither did it matter that they have a contract with their var­ious constituencies. A privileged few must determine who becomes what and what happens there.

Nigerians made a lot of noise on this issue: some people called for the public execution of Sena­tors Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekw­eremadu. Some people who were obsessed by their self righteousness even postulated that National As­sembly members should not on their own aspire to any portfolio in that arm of government but should wait for portfolio to be assigned to them by the executive arm of gov­ernment either directly or indirect­ly through the instrumentality of the ruling political party.

Conversely, some persons who hold alternative view points insist­ed that capitulating to that level was dictatorial, diversionary, myopic and banal and had nothing to do with the essence of true democracy.

After several months of legal fireworks, propaganda and pub­lic odium for Saraki and Ekwere­madu, the executive arm of gov­ernment, withdrew the forgery lawsuit slammed on the two prin­cipal officers. To Nigerians it was a matter of case closed; no qualms, life moves on to the next issue. The master has spoken and so be it. The public never bother about the eco­nomic and social costs. This was a typical case of the executive dis­tracting the legislature and the pub­lic, the polity pays the price.

Nigeria: Obituary Of A Political Party

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It was only those who lacked prescience in the heady days of the campaigns for the 2015 elections that failed to realise that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was a contraption waiting to unravel. All that was needed was the appropriate time for the party to suffer an implosion and disrupt its self-valourisation for being different from the much-pilloried People’s Democratic Party (PDP). And now in less than two years after assuming power, the party is in the grip of crises from which recovery may not be possible.

This should have been expected in so far as the APC grew out of a myriad of crises of other parties. These crises have continued to haunt the APC in a way that has rendered its performance since its emergence less than stellar. Of course, no one makes the case that the existence of conflicting interests is aberrant in a democracy with its attendant plurality of perspectives. One moment of such a contest of interests that culminated in discontent was the quest for the chairmanship of the party that led to the exit of Tom Ikimi and his supporters.

But the troubling reality is that these crises have worsened since the APC assumed the reins of power. They have negated all expectations that after the electoral victory, previous differences would be relegated for a common front to tackle national problems. Thus, the only area where the APC could be said to have done well aside from winning the 2015 elections remains in its playing the role of an opposition party. It succeeded in demonising the then government of the PDP and eventually made it unacceptable at the polls.

What has dogged the APC and prevented it from building on its electoral success is a lack of a clear ideological vision that is underpinned by a holistic pursuit of service to the citizens. It is in this ideological vacuum that has festered all shenanigans for the appropriation of the party by its members as a vehicle for realising their selfish goals. In other words, what has marked out the party is its members’ Darwinian struggle for supremacy. In this quest, the disparate members owe no fidelity to the common ethos that binds them together in the party; thus it can be used and dumped as they have done to other political parties. It was this that led to the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as House of Representatives Speaker in utter disregard for the desire of some of the party’s leaders.

It is not only the party that its members brutally disregard to pursue their selfish interests. They have also disavowed their own promises to the citizens. But the citizens are not beyond blame; they have had too high expectations from politicians of the Nigerian hue. For despite all the pretensions, these politicians who decamped from the PDP could not be expected to do anything good to improve the lot of the people.

At his inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari in a moment that was seemingly preceded by a great introspection declared that he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody. If this were a clear repudiation of all obligations that might have negated national interest, the citizens would have appreciated it. But from the performance of Buhari in the past 16 months, he has been far from proving that he understood the heavy weight of the thoughts he expressed. For it is clear now that far from what he would like the citizens to believe, he is beholden to some interests that conflict with the collective good of the citizens.

Nigeria: One Year Of Disillusionment

By Robert Obioha

President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will, on Sunday, mark his one year in office. Expectedly, the occasion will give the president an opportunity to reflect on how he has governed Nigerians in the past one year. These are some of the questions that Buhari should address his mind to: Are Nigerians now better off than they were before the inception of the change government? Is the economy now better managed than previously?
Has power supply improved more than before? Are Nigerians more secure now than before? Are Nigerians more united than before? Has one naira exchanged to one US dollar as promised. Has the government paid its promised N5000 stipend to unemployed Nigerians?

*President Buhari 

Has the government created the jobs it promised in its one year in office? Has the government defeated the Boko Haram sect and rescued the Chibok girls as boasted? Has the government fought corruption to a standstill? I think that most Nigerians will not answer these questions in the affirmative.

Under the change regime, the economy is on its knees begging to be resuscitated. The naira has been badly battered and bruised that it recently exchanged for N360 to the dollar at parallel market. The Tiger Head brand of battery I used to buy at N50 a pair before change came has climbed to N60, N70, N80, N100 and N120 in the one year of change administration.

This analogy will give you an idea of what has happened to the price of rice, yam, garri, beans, meat and tomato in the past one year. Pure water that sells for N5 a sachet before, now sells for N10. We are indeed in a period of economic recession. The inflation rate has hit all time high at 13.7%. Unemployment is also at its peak of 12.1% yet the government is foot-dragging on recruitment of 500,000 teachers and 10,000 policemen it promised Nigerians. The worst of change to Nigerians is the unofficial removal of petrol subsidy and hiking of fuel pump price to N145 from N86.5 without providing palliatives.

Yet, many Nigerians are buying the commodity at between N150 and N165 in Lagos. It is sold higher prices in other parts of the country outside Lagos and Abuja. This is what APC government called deregulation of the petroleum sector yet the commodity is still scarce.
Upon all the pains inflicted on Nigerians by the change government, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, rubbed additional salt to the injury when he said that the government hiked the fuel price simply because Nigeria is broke.

The minister should better tell that to the marines for Nigerians are not dumb to swallow that disingenuous piece of propaganda line, hook and sinker. The minister should understand that Nigerians are wiser now than before. The cheap propaganda dished to Nigerians prior to the 2015 general polls is a hard sale now.

Nigerians now take his “Nigeria is broke” slip with a pinch of salt. What the economic scenario has shown is that Buhari has no handle on the economy. His economic team, if any, is sleeping and snoring while the economy is fumbling and wobbling and would soon grind to a disastrous halt if nothing urgently is done to salvage it.

Tying the naira to Chinese Yuan cannot save it. It is like jumping from frying pan to fire. No foreigner, whether European or Asian, will develop this country for us. The earlier this government realizes it the better for it and Nigerians. The government should think out of the box.

Budget Stalemate And National Woes

By Dan Amor

For all you may care to know, the 2016 Appro­priation Bill, like its pre­decessors, has continued to generate heat between the Ex­ecutive and the Legislature one month into the second quarter of the year. Some analysts have ascribed the feud between the Presidency and the National As­sembly over the 2016 Budget to the trial of the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki by the Code of Conduct Tribunal over the al­leged false declaration of assets by Saraki.

They believe that the Na­tional Assembly is trying to use the budget as a bargaining chip to cut a deal with the Presidency in order to give the Senate Presi­dent a soft-landing. And, as they say, when two elephants fight, the grass suffers, Nigerians are facing untold hardship as a result of the protracted delay in the passage of the budget. Yet, unnecessary Executive/Legislative conflicts have come to characterise the annual budget making process in the country and, to a large ex­tent, undermine the effectiveness of budgets in delivering to Nige­rians the so-called dividends of democracy. These conflicts have arisen in spite of the actual deline­ation of roles and responsibilities of the Executive vis-a-vis the Leg­islature particularly the extent of authority regarding variations to key assumptions incorporated in the Appropriation Bill by the Ex­ecutive that should be allowed the Legislature. In the particular case of the 2016 Appropriation Bill, the National Assembly went too far.

Section 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nige­ria 1999 (as amended) is unam­biguously clear about the role of the National Assembly and its responsibilities as the Podium of the elected representatives of the people. Also, Sections 80-83 publish the role of the Legislature with specific respect to the man­agement of the nation’s finances. Whereas, in exercising its over­sight functions, the Legislature is empowered by the Constitution to either add to or subtract from the allocation forwarded to it by the Executive, it can always do that in consultation with the lat­ter. The Constitution does not empower the National Assembly to create new clauses or remove in its entirety an item already budg­eted for by the Executive without the consent of the latter. The cur­rent unbridled legislative rascality being displayed by our lawmak­ers is nothing but the hangover of irascible corruption which was the stock-in-trade of previous leg­islatures since 1999.

No doubt, the received wisdom and the practice of the presidential system of de­mocracy indubitably accords the Legislature unfettered authority to vary any aspect of the budget proposal preferably in consulta­tion with the Executive, as noted above, as an integral part of the approval process. To ensure that the decision to alter the content of the Appropriation Bill prior to approval is not whimsical or driven by selfish considerations, it is recommended that exclusive and far-reaching consultations and collaboration between the Executive and Legislature should characterise the budget prepara­tion process.

But in the context of the pre­vailing situation, the Legislature is yet to establish a full-fledged, appropriately staffed Legislative Research and Budget Office and, to that extent, is handicapped by the lack of a robust basis upon which to perform its approval and oversight functions. In the United States of America from where we borrowed our Executive Presidential system, internation­ally celebrated economists and reputable experts such as Profes­sor John Kenneth Galbraith, are constantly hired by the Legislature to think for them and give them direction in the budgetary proce­dure.

It is therefore suggested that this power to vary budgetary pro­posals from the Executive should be exercised with a great deal of circumspection as the Execu­tive could be operating from the standpoint of a relatively superior understanding of the workings of the economy given the institu­tional capacity of its proposal. For instance, in 2004, while Nigerians were expecting words regarding the approval of the budget which President Olusegun Obasanjo presented to the joint sitting of the National Assembly on October 12, 2004, it filtered out that there was move to increase the bench­mark price of crude of 27 dollars used for the preparation of the budget and that the Executive had sent in a letter cautioning against such a move.