Governing Nigeria: Does The Economy Trump Politics? No, It Doesn’t!

 By Olu Fasan

It is the age-old chicken and egg question. Which comes first: the economy or politics? That’s the question at the heart of this intervention, and it was triggered by two recent events. The first was President Bola Tinubu’s response to the call for a new Constitution. The second was Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s speech at this year’s Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in which she called for a social contract for Nigeria. Everyone knew about those events, but few detected their logical fallacies. So, first, let’s recall the events.

Recently, in August, the highly venerated elder statesman Chief Emeka Anyaoku led a group of eminent Nigerians under the aegis of The Patriots to meet Tinubu at the State House and asked him to convene a constituent assembly to produce a draft people’s constitution for Nigeria.

Dangote Refinery, Victim Of Nigerian Factor

 By Dele Sobowale

A lot of media people have been talking to Alhaji Aliko Dangote lately; more would give an arm to be able to reach him – all because of the refinery which was advertised as the answer to our perpetual fuel problems. Laymen and women have developed the notion that, when it starts supplying fuel, prices would crash to pre-subsidy removal levels – among other expectations. More unsolicited write-ups have been sent to me by strangers and friends, alike, about Dangote himself and his refinery than I have ever received in a long time.

*Dangote 

Suddenly, the Dangote Refinery, apart from pervasive hunger, appears to be the only subject worthy of attention. The opinion leaders are almost evenly divided – those sympathetic to Dangote and those totally against – even though the latter are often afraid to be identified. That is power – the ability to make people fear you even when you don’t know them.

Borrowing Is The Opium Of Nigerian Governments

 By Dele Sobowale 

“The DMO said as of March 31, 2024, the country’s domestic and external debts stood at N121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion). Nigeria’s debt rose by N24.33 trillion within three months – from N97.34 trillion ($108.23 billion) in December 2023 to N121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion).” Channels Television.

Nigerian government leaders, Presidents and Governors, are addicted to loans the same way drug addicts cannot kick the habit; and become increasingly hooked. What Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala persuaded Obasanjo to do in 2004, that is paid off Nigeria’s external loans was so alien to our government leaders that one late former Governor called her “stupid”.

Obasanjo Foisted Presidentialism On Nigeria; He’s Still Defending The Indefensible!

 By Olu Fasan

As they prepared to return Nigeria to civilian rule in 1979, the military regime, led by General Murtala Muhammed and later by General Olusegun Obasanjo, set up a 49-man committee to draft a new constitution for Nigeria. However, the regime gave the “49 wise men” a red line: they must not return Nigeria to the parliamentary system, practised after independence from 1960 to 1966. Instead, they should adopt the American-style presidential system. After General Murtala’s assassination in 1976, General Obasanjo took over as head of state and put his imprimatur on the draft constitution, inserting nearly 20 amendments.

*Obasanjo 

So, the 1979 Constitution lied when it ascribed itself to “We the people of Nigeria.” In truth, it was Obasanjo’s military regime, aided by a few civilian elites, that imposed the constitution and the presidential system on Nigeria. Today, over 40 years after Nigeria first practised the system, and despite its patent flaws and unsuitability for Nigeria, Obasanjo is still defending it.

The Truth About Fuel Subsidy: Government Simply Fails Nigerians

 By Olu Fasan

Subsidy is gone. Subsidy is back. Oh no, it isn’t. Oh yes, it is. Such is the confusion that now dogs the fuel subsidy. On May 29, Bola Tinubu veered from his inauguration speech and blurted out: “Subsidy is gone”. With that diktat, market forces would dictate petrol price. Soon after, the price tripled from N197/litre to N620/litre, fuelling a surge in food and transport costs. However, surreptitiously, some subsidy seems to have returned to stop the soaring price of fuel. But the Tinubu administration denies any intervention.

Yet, market operators are adamant. In a recent interview, Festus Osifo, National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, said “the government is still paying subsidies on petroleum”. Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum company limited, NNPCL, issued a rebuttal: “There’s no subsidy whatsoever.” But John Kekeocha, National Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, said the government “is still spending billions to subsidise fuel,” adding: “I don’t know why they keep peddling lies.”

Tinubu’s Ministers: A Bunch Of Political Rewardees And Cronies

 By Olu Fasan

One of the popular myths around Bola Tinubu, stemming from his time as governor of Lagos State, was that he had an uncanny ability to pick competent teams of technocrats to run the affairs of state. Indeed, some genuinely wanted Tinubu to be president and “run Nigeria as he ran Lagos.” But the myths have busted since he became president. Not only has he muddled through policy after policy, the famed gift for talent-spotting gravely eluded him as he unveiled a middling cast of ministers, characterised by two fundamental flaws. 

*Tinubu 

First, Tinubu will have the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s political history. With 48 ministers and over 20 special advisers and senior special assistants, with cabinet-level status, Tinubu will have the most bloated and unwieldy cabinet of any past president.

The Iconic Exit Of Chinua Achebe

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Chinua Achebe died at exactly 11:51pm (US time), that is 4.51am (Nigerian time), on Thursday, March 21 at the Harvard University Teaching Hospital, Massachusetts, USA, aged 82. It was one death that shook the entire world as tributes came pouring in from all the continents of the world, from presidents down to paupers. 

      *Pix by Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye (2013)

For some of his admirers, the world stood still, yet for orders events moved at a frenetic pace, culminating to the Thursday, May 23 interment of the icon in his native Ogidi, Anambra State. The one-storey home of Chinua Achebe looks quite modest from the outside but it has a lift inside. The building for me captures the essence of the great progenitor of African literature: the quality of what is within is greater than any showiness outside.

 The mausoleum constructed to the side of the frontage of the building bears the heavy burden of the memory of Mother Africa in the buried remains of Professor Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, the inimitable author of Things Fall Apart. 

Achebe was interred at 4.30pm in a marble tomb in his Ikenga village ancestral home of Ogidi town in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. He was given an elaborate Christian funeral service at St. Philips Anglican Church, Ogidi, as opposed to the African mores he championed in his novels.

Nigerian Women Can Lead!

 By Dakuku Peterside

In the year 2008, I co-edited a book with the title, African Women Can Lead,  published by  Kachifo  Publishers  under its prestige imprint. The book was a collection of essays and presentations made for three editions of the Development and Leadership  Institute, DLI, Women in Politics and leadership programme.

*Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

We chose the book’s title after a rigorous debate by the advisory board of   the programme. The thrust of the debate then was that more African women should be given a chance to lead as it will help address the prevalent inequality and empower women to contribute more to advancing society. Recent events where many Nigerian women are playing critical leadership roles globally on merit have made the book’s title a prophetic choice.

Save The Naira!! Save Nigerians!!!

By Henry Boyo

The Nigerian Public service is reportedly heavily burdened with a ghost population, who not only unexpectedly write job applications and present themselves for interviews, but who also open bank accounts and collect salaries, despite their human shortcomings! 

Curiously, the CBN’s “know your customers” directive to banks was obviously no deterrent to the establishment of bank accounts for such ghosts! Naira In a strategic move to forestall detection, these ingenious spirits discreetly also infiltrated the Nigeria Police Force, where a 2010 staff-audit revealed that ghost officers accounted for over 100,000 members, out of the officially registered 330,000 policemen.

The audit reports further revealed apparent collusion amongst the Police pay officers, and accountants as well as bank officials to successfully rob the NPF of over N36bn annually! Similarly, Alhaji Mande Lofa, Chairman of Tureta (LGA), has also confirmed that a verification exercise carried out in July 2011 by the Tureta LGA in Sokoto State led to the discovery of over 500 ghost workers.

Also, in July 2011, the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board reported losses of N2.4bn annually to 1477 ghost workers, while the National Identity Management Commission, also revealed that, after conducting a biometric data exercise, it had uncovered 4000 ghost workers out of about 10,300 employees on its payroll.

Furthermore, in December 2011, Garba Tagwai, the Niger State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs also noted that “No fewer than 20000 ghost workers have been detected on the pay roll of the 25 Local Government Areas of Niger State”. The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, also observed that, prior to his administration, Ekiti State government lost over N3bn annually to ghost workers out of a projected annual budget of N80bn.

Unfortunately, the federal government is not immune to such fraudulent revenue leakages; indeed, in 2001, the incumbent Accountant General of the Federation, Chief Joseph Naiyeju, reported the discovery of 40,000 ghost workers following a man-power verification exercise. Similarly, 6000 ghost workers were detected after the completion of a staff audit, when Mallam Nasir El Rufai was Minister, of the Federal Capital Territory in 2006; revealingly, the FCT government was losing about $8m annually, due to ghost workers on its payroll.

Buhari’s Speech: A Nut Bereft Of Kernel

By Chuks Iloegbunam

Two things leap disa­greeably out of Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari’s first-year-in-office anniversary speech of May 29, 2016. In the broadcast’s 2624 words, not once did he mention the words Fulani herdsmen, let alone address the real and pre­sent danger they constitute to Nigeria’s continued existence as one political entity. Was this unfortunate omission because he is himself of the Fulani eth­nic group? Or was it because he considers a final stop to have been put to the herdsmen’s mur­derous rampaging throughout the country? Or is it because the destructive army is a law unto itself, above censure and sanc­tion?

*President Buhari

And this: “We are fully aware that those vested interests who have held Nigeria back for so long will not give up without a fight. They will sow divisions, sponsor vile press criticisms at home and abroad, incite the public in an effort to create chaos rather than relinquish the vice-like grip they have held on Nigeria.” In rendering the above two sentences in the present continuous tense, wasn’t Presi­dent Buhari suggesting his gov­ernment’s lack of total control, much in the manner of a mon­arch unable to hold his goblet?

Sidelining the connotative meaning of these sentences as down to clumsiness by presi­dential speechwriters, and also not minding the grammati­cal mistakes in the speech, a fundamental worry is evident. Consider this: “They will sow divisions, sponsor vile press crit­icisms at home and abroad, in­cite the public in an effort to cre­ate chaos…” If you interpreted this official attribution of trea­sonous quality to a robust media as the first decisive step to the systematic emasculation of pub­lic opinion, your apprehension would sit on a solid foundation. Is it not often said that truth – read an unfettered media – is in­variably the first casualty in any dispensation’s charted course to a repressive bastion? Suddenly, a government that rode straight to power on the wings of the re­lentless and remorseless media battering and badgering of the Jonathan administration is talk­ing about a “vile press”!

The “vile press” must, of course, have no future in this democratic march, must not fea­ture in the dynamics of change. So, let’s take a more detailed look at the President’s broadcast, em­ploying the instrument of con­tent analysis. “By age, instinct and experience, my preference is to look forward, to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead and rededicate the administration to the task of fixing Nigeria,” said Buhari. Yet, about half the speech was on the past, rather than an expatiating on the “tri­umph”, “consolidation”, and “achievements!” he vaunted. He moaned about Boko Haram’s devastations. He moaned about the collapse in oil prices. He moaned about decayed infra­structures. He moaned about the preceding government that did not live up to expectation. You would expect the elaborate exercise in threnody to be fol­lowed by his administration’s rectifying “achievements!” That turned out to be a fatuous dream.

Abacha Loot: Saved, Spent Or Stolen?

By Sonala Olumhense

Former Nigeria leader Olusegun Obasanjo has explained what became of the funds recovered from Nigeria’s best advertised kleptocrat, General Sani Abacha.

Calling the court of law and Nigerians who want to know what he did with the money he recovered, “stupid,” he dignified his critics with some wisdom last week.

“I don’t keep account,” he said.  “All Abacha loots were (sic) sent to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and every bit of it was reported to Minister of Finance…If they want to know what happened to the money, they should call CBN governor or call the Minister of Finance!”

*Gen Sani Abacha

To begin with, here is a general timeline of the Abacha loot story:

·         May 29, 1999: Obasanjo takes office.

·         July 1999: Nigeria begins civil proceedings in London against Mohammed Abacha, Abubakar Bagudu and companies owned by them, in connection with a debt buy-back transaction in which they had made an illicit profit of about 500 million DEM. Freezing and disclosure orders having been obtained, $420 million in assets are identified and frozen, and Nigeria demonstrates to the courts that Mohammed Abacha had failed to disclose over $1.1m in assets in Switzerland and Luxembourg.

·         Mid-September 1999: Obasanjo hires Italian lawyer Enrico Monfini to pursue assets stolen by Sani Abacha and his family. Pursuit begins from a Nigeria police investigation which showed that between 1994 and 1998, Abacha and his sons had looted the CBN of about $2 billion and transferred the money abroad.

·         30 September 1999: Monfrini lodges with Switzerland a request for interim freezing orders. Granted within two weeks, this paves the way for the lodging of a formal request for mutual assistance by Nigeria on 20 December 1999. It is discovered that all of the bank accounts identified in the request have been closed, and their assets transferred to such places as Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the UK and Jersey.

·         November 1999: Nigeria, deploying a parallel strategy with the Attorney General of Geneva of a criminal complaint for fraud, money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation, requests to be admitted in the proceedings as a party suing for damages. This is granted, leading to a blanket freezing order in which the names of the suspects, their aliases and their companies are sent to all Swiss banks.

·         Within days, many accounts with assets of over $700m, are frozen in Switzerland as banks report and dutifully monitor suspicious accounts, including the receiving and paying accounts.

·         On the basis of the criminal proceedings in Geneva, Nigeria lodges requests for mutual assistance with Luxembourg, UK, Liechtenstein and Jersey, and within months, an additional $1.3 billion are frozen in those jurisdictions.

Dasukigate: The Vindication of Okonjo-Iweala

By Ikeogu Oke

A French proverb – wise as all proverbs are – says, “For desperate ills desperate remedies.” Those who have found fault with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala “for the transfer of US$300 million and British Pounds £5.5 million of the recovered Abacha funds to an ONSA operation account” (in what amounts to a move in support of the war against the Boko Haram terrorist group) may not be familiar with this proverb and its implication that there are certain problems that arise in the affairs of humans and nations which reasonable people unanimously agree on the rightness of ignoring convention in solving them.

*Okonjo-Iweala

Take, for instance, the tactics adopted by the United States in fighting terror post 9/11. It involved the torture of suspects at the facility in Guantanamo Bay by the procedure known as waterboarding, etc., but ultimately yielded information leading to the discovery of Osama bin Laden in his secret hideout in Pakistan.

We know that torture breaches the convention of respect for the dignity of suspects. We know what happened to Osama bin Laden in his encounter with the US Navy Seals, though the convention is not to punish – let alone liquidate – an accused person without trial. We also know that that final encounter with bin Laden involved an “unconventional” violation of the territorial integrity and airspace of his host nation. But more importantly, there was a general consensus that America faced such a desperate threat from terror that it was understandable that it took such desperate measures in dealing with it, hence such breaches of convention were generally regarded as insignificant – and justified – in light of the overriding need to find a remedy for the desperate ill of a terrorist threat which compares to Boko Haram in today’s Nigeria.

And the grouse of the critics of Okonjo-Iweala, for which they have asked President Buhari to order her arrest and prosecution, is that she – they allege – disbursed the said funds in a manner that violated convention, given that the funds should have been appropriated through Senate approval before their disbursement.

Allegations Of “Illegal Diversion” Of Abacha Funds Baseless - Okonjo-Iweala

PRESS RELEASE

As part of the campaign of falsehood against former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala by Edo Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, and other powerful and corrupt interests, another baseless story has been published by some online media. 

*Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala 

To achieve their evil propaganda objective of tarnishing her name, these evil elements have distorted the contents of a memo dated January 20, 2015 in which the former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala responded to a request by the former National Security Adviser, Col Ibrahim Dasuki (retired), for funds to prosecute the terror war against Boko Haram. 

Here are the facts:

·         The central responsibility of the Minister of Finance IS to find sources of funding for the financing of approved national priorities such as security, job creation and infrastructure. 

·         It will be recalled that throughout 2014, there were public complaints by the military hierarchy to President Goodluck Jonathan about the inadequacy of funds to fight the anti-terror war in the North East, resulting in Boko Haram making gains and even taking territories.  A lot of the criticism was directed at the Federal Ministry of Finance under Dr Okonjo-Iweala which was accused of not doing enough to find funds for the operations.

Adams Oshiomole: Losing The Shine So Soon?

By Uwa Eghomeka

I have read, first with discomfort, and then with something akin to horror, the words that have been attributed to my dear governor, Adams Oshiomhole. I call him “my dear governor” for two reasons; first, I am indigene of the nation’s big heart; and second, one of the ballot papers of the Edo state 2012 gubernatorial election bears my thumbprint. However, I am beginning to think that this may very well be the last time he will be labelled with such an endearment, at least by me.

*Gov Oshiomole 

As Labour leader, he was everyman’s hero; the voice of the people, the light in darkness. His booming voice and pointed remarks directed at those who were deemed oppressors were lauded because we believed that at the heart of all the drama was a man who believed in one thing-the people. As governor, we expected the transference of that passion into the governance of the state; we expected that he would demonstrate leadership, honesty, and respect for the people of his state; and with respectability too. We expected also that as our number one man, he would do so with some finesse and at the very least, a modicum of regard for the office and a huge dose of common sense. Sadly, we expected too much as Oshiomhole is now carried away with being more of a needless voice than functioning in the service of the people.