No, Comrade Oshiomhole, No!

By SOC Okenwa 

Initially I had wanted to caption this piece “The Comrade’s Last Wish” but changed my mind and went for the one above. As a writer one wrestles, sometimes, with titles for articles but in the end one arrives at settling for a better one that would convey a message.

Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole’s last wish may not be, after all, what his detractors and critics would want us believe. That is, aspiring to become a glorified godfather of Edo State politics in the mould of expired Anthony Anenih. Or destabilising the politics of the state like a bull in a China shop before bowing out in the near future. Or worse still, wanting desperately to install someone, a lackey who would not live up to expectation or measure up to the landmark achievements of the present occupant of Dennis Osadebay Government House in Benin city. The comrade-governor is leaving behind a big shoe — one difficult to fill but good candidates abound in Edo State.

Gov Oshiomole and his wife Iiara 

Comrade Oshiomhole came to power in Edo state as an action governor, a no-nonsense seasoned unionist who was not afraid of reforms in the system or politics of godfatherism that nearly ‘killed’ the ‘heartbeat of the nation’ before his celebrated ascendancy. Prior to his arrival onto the scene Benin City remained a “developing village” where witches and wizards congregated at wee hours of the night to hatch evil bloody plots. The two PDP Governors that preceded his emergence (Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor and Lucky Igbinedion) performed below average and made the people of the state poorer infrastructurally and economically. Igbinedion was the worst governor ever! He seemed to be content on being called the son of Igbinedion (a wealthy family in Benin city and Okada wonderland) and he had fun frolicking with beautiful Uniben undergraduates (to satisfy his libido problem) as governance suffered.

By the time the ‘Prince’ left office billions of Naira and millions of Dollars had been looted from the state coffers! The lucky Lucky had fought a bitter political battle with the ex-governor (now APC National Chairman) John Odigie-Oyegun for the governorship of the state decades ago with the latter trouncing him at the polls. As a student in Benin City then we witnessed the ‘guber war’ play out on state radio and TV and on campaign grounds across the state. It was reminiscent of the nostalgic Ogbemudia/Ambrose Ali gubernatorial crossfire. Lucky was desperate to become Governor after the scandal that trailed his Chairmanship of Oredo Local Government Area. But when, eventually, he got power he made a whole mess of it. Before his rise to the top controversy had manifested itself over the gruesome murder of George Idah in his office as Chairman of Oredo Local Govt. Needless to say here that fingers were pointed at his direction as the culprit.

Terrible Times For Nigeria

By Agala Kennedy

Yesterday, two pieces of news sank my heart. The first is that the FG finally confirmed our worse fears and declared that the government was broke.

This has been a rumor for sometime now, but hearing it directly from the government is capable of creating panic and retarding hope. Already there have been rumors that government might not be able to pay salaries in the next few months but this admission was callous.

The truth remains that there is something this government is either doing or not doing that is exacerbating the economic situation.

I’ve often referred to it as a plane flying in a bad weather with very terrible pilots. It seems they keep touching the wrong gears.

Why is government terribly broke? Of course they’d tell you that the last administration looted the country dry but I wonder how this dryness began to show as soon as you stepped in.

Q1: Customs revenue was short by 25%. Q2: And it is set to be worse. Was that also caused by Goodluck Jonathan?
Q1 FIRS revenue is said to be short by over 50%. Q2 And it will be worse. Is that also Jonathan’s fault?
Who froze tax audits in FIRS for the past six months and why?
Who padded the 2016 budget even when the government is screaming broke?

The second news is the sudden emergence of another militant group in the Niger Delta known as the Supreme Egbesu Water Lions.

Just four pieces of dynamites and a group called the Avengers have reduced global oil output and is already dictating global oil price which OPEC leaders couldn’t achieve.

International analysts are saying that these guys are more sophisticated then MEND and co.

The are degrading offshore and deep offshore facilities some 8 metres below sea level and they know the exact spots to create maximum damage.

Today we have a second Niger delta militant group to deal with.

A budget with a projected oil sale of 2.2 million barrels has fallen to about 1.2 million and projected to get worse, yet you hear some hangers on like Joe Igbokwe trying to echo Mr. President’s medieval mindset ( apologies to Prof Pat Utomi) by prancing up and down shouting war in the Niger delta.

The Parable Of The Madman (1)

By Dan Amor

In his short story, "The Madman", Prof. Chinua Achebe (of blessed memory), easily Africa's most celebrated novelist of the twentieth century, ventures into a poetic realization of a disturbing irony. The consuming paradox centres on the protagonist, Nwibe, a wealthy farmer who has so distinguished himself that he is about to be initiated into the select, dignified society of men who hold the highest and most venerable title in the land- the Ozo title holder.

*Chinua Achebe

Returning from an early morning work on his farm on a fateful Afor Market day, Nwibe stops to have a bath at the local stream. Meantime, a desperate madman comes along to quench his thirst at the stream; he sees Nwibe's loin cloth, gathers it and wraps it over his nakedness. Angered by the sordid affront, Nwibe runs after the madman in obvious nakedness thereby turning himself to the original madman.

Symbolically, this involuntary but tragic exchange of identity between a sane person and a madman is registered by the jeering, ironic laughter of a taunting madman. Nature, which seems to be participating passively in this tragic irony, solemnly echoes the madman's mocking laughter: "the deep grove of the stream amplifying his laughter." Nwibe, who has been appropriately compared to Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart as a man of "fierce temper whose judgement deserts him when he is under its full sway", fully recognises not only the outrageousness of the madman's affront, but more significantly, he understands the ominous import of the sacrilegious challenge. The words Nwibe screams out to the madman: "I will kill you ... I will whip that madness out of you today", convey, in fact, more than the obvious threat.

They also carry the veiled desperation of a man who realises that his precious life is about to take a certain tragic turn if nothing is immediately done to save the situation. The condition in which a stark-naked sane man pleads through a threat with a clothed madman for, of all things, clothes to cover his nakedness, is rife with a sweeping irony. In his stark nakedness, Nwibe pursues the fast-retreating clothed madman who is "spare and wiry, a thing made for speed." In a short while, what Nwibe has dreamed, swiftly becomes a merciless reality in the irony of mistaken identities. The involuntary transfer of clothes which only threatens possible disaster which, in fact, is still laughable, while it remains a private matter between Nwibe and the madman, suddenly assumes a tragic dimension the moment the first witness appears on the scene: "Two girls going down to the stream saw a man running up the slope towards them, pursued by a stark-naked madman. They threw down their pots and fled screaming."

Sorry, Nigeria Isn’t Broke

By Bolaji Tunji

I picked the title of today’s piece from the statement of the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed while briefing journalists on Wednesday shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting. According to him, the country is so broke that they had to increase the petroleum pump price inorder to generate money to run the system.

It is not as if the APC spokesman’s statement comes as a suprise, what’s suprising about his statement is the fact that he had not again laid the blame for this parlous state of affairs by the doorsteps of the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan as usual. Unfortunately,  I disagree with the minister. I disagree because I know that Nigeria is not broke.

But before going into my take on why this country is not broke, there’s an aspect of the minister’s statement that bothers me. Alhaji Mohammed had said that because of poor earning, the government had to look inward to generate money, he said it was on this basis that the pump price of fuel was increased to N145 per litre from its original cost of N86.50.

My problem with the statement is that in order to generate more money to run the affairs of government, the burden had to be put round the neck of the poor masses who are already groaning. Just a few weeks back, the same poor masses had to pay more for darkness ( electricity is now a mirage) when electricity tariff was increased. The masses is being made to take on more burdens, more sacrifices.

The questions are; what are the sacrifices being made by our rulers? Have they cut down on their own material comfort? Was it not a few days ago that the Senate bought some exotic SUV for its members. In spite of the uproar on why the upper chambers had to buy foreign made vehicles instead of patronizing Innoson  that produces made in Nigeria vehicles, nobody has heard them reversing that decision. Is it not obvious that purchasing such vehicles from Innoson would also help galvanize the economy even at that micro level?

Fuel Price: See What Politics, Hypocrisy Have Caused!

By Onuoha Ukeh

Last week Wednesday, when the Federal Government announced the increase in the price of petrol, from N86. 50 to N145 per litre, I went to a filling station to buy fuel. The time was 11.15pm. On the queue before me was this commercial tricycle operator, who was, surprisingly, excited that he was paying N145 for a litre of petrol he had bought N86. 50 a few hours ago. As he handed his money to the filling station attendant, after being served, he said, with a wry smile on his face: “If they (government officials) like, they should increase the price further. We will continue to buy fuel. Nigerians must survive, whether government likes it or not.”

I saw on the man’s face an obvious scorn for government. Where he was supposed to be angry that a government and a group of politicians, who had made Nigerians to believe that the previous government was clueless, incompetent and unpatriotic, are simply hypocrites, who say one thing and do completely another, he appeared overwhelmed by shock, which has turned to disdain and derision. Like this tricycle operator, most Nigerians would rather mock the government than cry for an action, which would definitely increase their suffering and hardship.   It is a feeling of regret, a feeling that one has when his trust has been betrayed.  It was such a feeling that Julius Caesar had when he was stabbed by Brutus, during the conspiracy that claimed his life. Caesar had exclaimed, when Brutus thrust the dagger into his back: “Et tu Brute?” (Even you, Brutus?).

To be sure, when the hike in the price of fuel was announced last week, most Nigerians felt betrayed. Who would have believed that President Buhari would approve the hiking of fuel price, having opposed this previously? Indeed, Nigerians will not forget January 1, 2012, when the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of subsidy and effected an increase in the pump price of fuel to N141 per litre. When this happened, President Buhari, who was then smarting from defeat in the presidential election of 2011, about seven months earlier, condemned the action. Former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, kicked against it. Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, rejected it. Erudite Pastor Tunde Bakare not only preached against it but also participated in a mass action organised by the Save Nigeria Group he co-convened and other groups. Many members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were in Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) then, spoke against the increase in fuel price. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), human rights groups and activists opposed the price hike. Indeed, the groundswell of opposition gave fillip to a street protest, wherein the opposition took over a square in Ojota, Lagos to hold what could pass for “political adoration.” And for days, Lagos and some major cities were grounded. We remember that the President Jonathan administration, face-to-face with imminent crash of government and democracy, buckled and reversed itself, only making a slight increase to N87 per litre.

‪#‎Bring Back Our History

By Moses E. Ochonu

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said recently that the Nigerian government will restore history to the secondary school curriculum. For inexplicable reasons, history was excised from the curriculum some eight years ago. They better get started on the implementation because historical illiteracy and amnesia is slowly killing the country. We are a country afflicted by an epidemic of forgetting and "moving forward." 

*Moses Ochonu

The absence of historical consciousness in Nigeria hurts the country in multiple ways. Take corruption. Many Nigerians believe that corruption only entered the Nigerian political lexicon during our latest flirtation with democracy, that is, post-1999. A few may cite the military era that preceded the fourth republic. Very few remember or are familiar with the corruption of the second republic, let alone the fact that the first republic was rocked by multiple corruption scandals.

The absence of historical memory in this domain of corruption is the reason many Nigerians say Nigeria should “move forward” instead of investigating past crimes. Grappling with the past and addressing its tragedies and residual pains is seen as moving backwards. It is the reason many are willing, even eager, to forgive past political crimes against the Nigerian people. It is the reason we are too quick to move on to new scandals, get bored with old ones, and fail to see a trans-regime tapestry of corruption and abuse of power. It is the reason we see political malfeasance and misbehavior in isolated blocks rather than as continuities.

This dearth of history in our public discourse is the reason old criminals are quickly ignored and manage to sneak back, unnoticed, into the orbit of power, their crimes forgotten. It is the reason that politicians delay their corruption trials, knowing that our legendary short memory and disconnection from history will buy them time, enabling their troubles to fizzle out.

It is as though our baseline of remembering is yesterday. It was Chinua Achebe who said perspicaciously that, if we are going to fix Nigeria, we should go back to when the rain started beating us. This was a compelling statement on the value of retrospective reflection, of history, in our search for diagnostic and ameliorative ideas. The irony and problem is that many Nigerians believe that the proverbial rain started beating us in 2010, 1999, or with the annulment of the June 12 presidential election in 1993. 

Deregulation: Same Policy, Same Issues, But Different Politics!

By Reuben Abati

This thing called democracy, particularly the Nigerian brand, never ceases to throw up new and intriguing lessons about the relationship between government and the people, and the larger, complex socio-political environment. I had gone to Lagos on an assignment in the last two days of the year 2011, when around midnight I received a phone call from someone close to the corridors of power, informing me that a meeting had just been concluded in Abuja where a decision had been taken to deregulate the downstream petroleum sector, and thus, in effect remove the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol).

*Reuben Abati 

I told him I was aware of plans to that effect, since the President had been holding a series of meetings with various stakeholders and constituencies on the same subject, but as at the time I left for Lagos, no final decision had been taken. The fellow insisted he knew what he was talking about and that in the morning, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulation Agency (PPPRA) would make the announcement. Sometimes in the corridors of power, informal stakeholders could enjoy faster access and be even more powerful than persons with formal responsibilities. There are persons and groups whose livelihoods are so dependent on government and the people in power that even a whisper at the highest level resonates immediately as an echo in their ears. I learnt very early never to underestimate such persons.

As it turned out, Nigerians were greeted with the Happy New Year news of deregulation of the downstream sector on January 1, 2012 and if you’d remember, hell broke loose. It was the end of the Nigerian people’s honeymoon with the Jonathan administration, the beginning of a long nightmare, and an opportunity for the opposition to launch an unending campaign of blackmail, name-calling and abuse against the administration. I received an early morning summon to leave Lagos and return immediately to the Villa.

The Jonathan administration was definitely not the first to seek to deregulate the downstream sector and end a regime of subsidy, as a means of ensuring greater transparency, efficiency and competition. Since 1987, every administration had tried to manage this aspect of the curse of oil. Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of oil in OPEC, and the second largest exporter of the product in Africa, at a time after Libya, at other times, after Angola. But the big problem has always been making the product available to Nigerians at home, in an efficient manner and as they say, at an “appropriate” or “correct” price. The mismanagement of oil resource, which accounts for about 90% of the country’s exports, is at the heart of corruption in Nigeria.

The Evils Of Corrupt Enrichment

By Okechukwu Emeh

Materials wealth is a protection against the deprivation, misery, shame and inhumanity of lack, poverty and squalor. When acquired in a fair and just manner or by dint of hard work, or divine favour, it is a thing of glory and up­liftment in the sight of God and right-thinking people. However, when wealth is achieved through illegitimate means, it is bound to be a source or reproach and resentment.

Today, Nigeria is evidently in a war against corrupt enrichment using public office, as being spearheaded with courage and determination by the administration of President Muhamma­du Buhari. Reassuringly enough, many people of goodwill across Nigeria have risen beyond the confines of petty sectional sentiments by receiving the unsavoury development of evils spawned in the land by our corrupt officials with disbelief, revulsion and indignation. This is inevitable against the backdrop of startling revelations from the ongoing anti-corruption investigations into various public institutions in the country, like the $2.1 billion arms deal.

It is not an overstatement that corruption is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Ad­mittedly, the cancerous spread of this socio-economic cankerworm in Nigeria is one of the major reasons why Nigeria, notwithstanding her abundant human and material resources, is a classic example of stunted growth and arrest­ed development foisted by years of diversion of public funds badly needed for national transfor­mation into private pockets through unwhole­some practices like misappropriation, embez­zlement, fraud and bribery. Such economic and financial malfeasances are also a key factor fu­elling deprivation and despondency among our populace. Alongside this is the negative impact of endemic corruption on our external image, as frequently captured in our unimpressive ranking on annual global corruption indexes being conducted by renowned integrity rating bodies like Transparency International (TI).

The Subsidy Hell Hole

By Lewis Obi 

THE trouble with petroleum subsidy is part­ly that by its nature it is a little complicated trying to put it in everyday language. This difficulty has accounted for the difficulties governments have had trying to get well-meaning citizens to support its removal. Even the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, tried on TV to explain how he and his people arrived at N145 per liter. He ended up confusing ev­eryone who tried to understand his reason­ing. It used to be easier when the issue was simply the cost of crude, plus cost of refin­ing, plus cost of transportation, plus cost of equalization, plus marketer’s margins. Now the calculation has an added complication — the cost of the dollar.

If Dr. Kachikwu is right that N145 is enough to secure for the country a steady supply of petrol, with a possibility that when the new system settles down lower prices would follow, then the government deserves support. The assumption of the government that everyone understands its calculations is wrong. An overwhelming majority of Ni­gerians, including those who have finally discovered that subsidy payments are a huge swindle on ordinary Nigerians, do not understand how the ministry arrived at N145 per liter. The earlier that little de­tail is clarified and publicized the better for the government.

But essentially the second part of the trouble with subsidy is that it is, by its nature, political. It comes in the form of the argument that since Nigeria is Af­rica’s largest and the world’s sixth largest producer of petroleum products, it is only natural that the country should avail its citizens petroleum products at the cheap­est possible rate. Good argument on first reading until the technical inadequacies of our refineries kick in. We had three re­fineries that were calculated to meet our domestic consumption which are now producing only 40 per cent of our needs.

These refineries need billions of dol­lars to repair. That’s where the first fundamental question begins: Why did Nigeria not insist that the company which built the first refinery include technical training and transfer of technology in the agreement which came with the deal? Because that is what other countries do in similar circumstances. That way you are able to repair the refinery if it breaks down. You are able to build another re­finery by yourself if the current one has reached maximum capacity. With tech­nical expertise, you only need to know when to order spare parts in a timely fashion to prevent down time.

Buhari, When Transparency Matters

Paul Onomuakpokpo

What is more alarming in the midst of the current  crisis  of  fuel price increase is not really its searing impact on the lives of the citizens . Of course, the increase throws into sharp relief the calamitous  progression of  the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari  from a disavowal of promises to a brazen affliction of the citizens with policies  that would effectively plunge  them to the nadir of despair. But what is clearly grimmer is the path of the lack of transparency that the Buhari administration has taken.

*Buhari 

Remember, desperate to clinch the presidency in 2015, Buhari and his co-travellers in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the giddy days of the campaigns made several promises that apparently portrayed them as fully reconciled to the urgent need to rescue the citizens from the depredations of a ruthless political class. They promised to pay unemployed graduates N5,000, create jobs for the teeming population of the unemployed and through a magic wand known only to them transmute the  severely decimated naira  from trailing behind the dollar  to a pedestal of parity of  N1 to $1.

But since almost a year that Buhari became president these promises among others have either been blatantly denied or totally neglected.  It is not only that the promised stipend has not been paid but that the rank of the unemployed has bourgeoned against the backdrop of failing companies due to the worsening economic crisis.  And instead of the promised parity, the naira continues to crash, with heightened speculations that it would soon hit N500 to a dollar .

No doubt, while the citizens wait for the government to make the right policies to improve their condition, it is clear that they are currently beset with  a cruel fate. Or how else do we explain a situation where while their economic power is becoming more vitiated, they are compelled by the government to pay more to live in the country? Since those first few days of the Buhari administration when it appeared as if electricity had improved in response to his so-called body language, the nation has been plunged deeper into darkness . Yet, the Buhari administration increased the tariff regime, contrary to his promise to improve electricity. The citizens protested, whined about the injustice in paying for a service that was not provided. Some went to court to seek judicial ramparts against this impunity. But the Buhari administration and the electricity companies have had their way.

Buhari, Please, Reverse This Anti-People Fuel Increase Immediately

By Mike Ozekhome

The recent increase in the price of fuel from N86 to N145 is the most incensate, unsympathetic and anti-people decision the PMB government has yet taken in its flip-flop one year of clueless and directionless govt. At a time Nigerians are already groaning under a grotesque over 500% increase in prices of ordinary consumables with the miserly non living wage of N18,000.00 unaltered, it is inconceivable that the government will add to the pains, anguish, pangs and sufferings of ordinary Nigerians whose only crime is that they “voted” for “change”.

*Buhari 

This government has indecently reversed all its promises to the Nigerian people, treating them as inconsequential nonentities in its governance index. It is not about whether there are advantages in the increase. It is simply about honour, dignity and integrity in fulfilling election promises, which constitute a pact, pactum sunt servanda (agreements must be respected) with the Nigerian people.

It is commonsensical that a fall in the international price of crude oil should only lead to a further fall in the prices of PMS in Nigeria. No one needs to be an acclaimed economist to know thus simple truism. But, the Buhari government treats Nigerians with levity and disdain, as if they do not matter in its governance template and index. The already overburdened masses, who are groaning under excruciating economic woes are again told to go to hell.

Fulani Herdsmen And Others

By Sunny Ikhioya

The delicate nature of Nigeria was brought to the fore after the election of Goodluck Jonathan to the Presidency in year 2011, when some of us vowed not to allow a so called infidel to rule them and promised to make the nation ungovernable for him. This mission was pursued with so much doggedness until Jonathan lost the re-election in 2015. It is a clear fact that Jonathan did not live up to his full potential as President but when the story of his government will be told by unbiased historians, it will be on record that his government was greatly sabotaged, with the active connivance of propagandists who surpassed Goebbels standards.

 It became so clear to many people that Jonathan must leave for peace to reign. At the height of the Boko Haram insurgency, not a few people were of the views that Jonathan should  just go, if that was the price for peace to be restored in the land. There is also another school of thought that held the view that since Buhari is their son, his coming as president will make the northern hardliners sheath their sword but what have we witnessed since his coming? A new wave of insurgency caused by the rampaging  Fulani herds men. From the Middle Belt region they have now infiltrated the south, killing, maiming and kidnapping with so much effrontery. It is amazing that our security personnel are taking this long to contain them.

Some  are now of the view that they are another arm of the Boko Haram masquerading as herds men. Have you noticed the great influx of a particular blend of ‘northerners’ into the south region recently? Some say they are Malians, Chadians and other West Africans but what are our intelligence agencies doing about it? It is expected that with the experience of the Boko Haram these past years and the activities of militants and criminals in other areas, our level of intelligence gathering would have been up graded by several notch but, it appears we are still in the doldrums. The way and manner the so called herds men have carried out their genocidal missions suggest that they are truly professionals in the guerrilla warfare action. You sneak  in, ravage  a whole village/community and sneak out quietly with no trace of your where about. It is too much to comprehend. The question now is: Why has the coming of President Buhari failed to put a stop to the nefarious activities of these herds men? 

eLearning Africa: Sharing Infrastructure Must Be Top Priority

News release 

The African Union’s Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, HE Mrs Elham Mahmood Ahmed Ibrahim, will tell participants at this year’s eLearning Africa conference that sharing infrastructure must be a top priority for African governments. 

Mrs Ibrahim, who will be a keynote speaker at eLearning Africa in Cairo on May 24, is convinced that, by sharing telecommunications infrastructure, African countries could save billions of dollars and speed up the provision of universal broadband access, which will have a major impact on education outcomes.

“A review of infrastructure-sharing experiences found that developing countries can save billions and speed broadband access by sharing infrastructure,” Mrs Ibrahim said in a pre-conference interview with eLearning Africa’s news service. “These savings can be obtained both through sharing telecom infrastructure, such as ducts, fibres and masts, as well as sharing with other utility infrastructure, such as roads, power grids, fuel pipelines and rail lines.”

Better access to education and training through improvements in communications is a crucial element of the African Union’s 2063 Vision for a ‘transformed continent’ and Mrs Ibrahim will stress the importance of improvements in infrastructure for meeting the AU’s targets.

Africa’s Vision For Education And How It Will Become Reality

 
More than 1200 international education and technology experts, advisers and investors will gather in Cairo in May to discuss how to turn the African Union’s vision of a “transformed continent” into reality. They will look at how developments in technology could enable education and training to boost growth and transform the lives and prospects of the next generation of Africans. The programme for the conference, which is published online today is available at www.elearning-africa.com.

“New opportunities for expanding education and training are being created across Africa,” says Rebecca Stromeyer, the founder of eLearning Africa. “Everywhere, in every sector, technology is transforming the nature of learning, opening it up and creating new opportunities in both education and training. This is an extraordinarily exciting time for education everywhere. In Africa, the opportunity to create a massive transformation in the lives and prospects of tens of millions of people is enormous.

 
“The change is already happening. Technology is helping people to learn new skills and in many sectors, such as farming, it is beginning to make a huge difference. Technology-assisted learning has begun to make a significant contribution to economic growth in many countries. The pace of change is only going to quicken over the next decade and the effect will be astonishing. We really are going to see a new Africa, a transformed Africa.

 
“Education is at the heart of this change. eLearning Africa this year is all about a vision of Africa’s future and how we can make it happen. The African Union has set out its 2063 Vision but how can we turn it into reality? At the conference, we’ll be looking at what’s going on in both education and technology and how these developments can contribute to positive change and growth. It’ll be a very practical conference, featuring hundreds of presentations, proposals, products and solutions from experts and investors from all over the world.”

 
Themes up for discussion at the conference include the workplace skills of the future; changes in the nature and ownership of learning; improving access and creating new opportunities for students, teachers and trainers; innovation, emerging technologies; higher and further education; and the shape of African education institutions in the future.

Are You See What I’M Saw?

By Chuks Iloegbunam 

"Are you see what I’m saw?" Chief Zebrudaya Okoroigwe Nwogbo, alias 4.30, often asked his co-actors this question in the New Masquerade, the soap opera that held millions, especially east of the Niger River, spellbound during the 1970s and 1980s. Each time he put that question, there was something astonishing or peculiar. Often that peculiar or astonishing “something” formed the bedrock upon which a specific offering of the episodic sitcom was developed.

 

*Buhari and Cameron 

In borrowing from Chief Zebrudaya’s lingo, to ask whether or not readers of this column are in awareness of certain things all too obvious to this columnist, the intention is simply to point to confounding and bizarre happenings that are plenteous in the entity today.

A few of these developments deserve a mention, and possible exploration, here. British Prime Minister David Cameron pronounced Nigeria “fantastically corrupt”. A leaked document showed that Minister of Information Lai Mohammed had transgressed the antiseptic integrity of the Change Administration to seek a loan in excess of N13 million from a parastatal under his Ministry, and for an international junket. The government, after months of insistence to the contrary, devalued the Naira. Or did it? The government, after a prolonged stretch of inchoation in the petroleum sector of the economy, inflicted an upward spiral of over a hundred percent in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol.

All these happened at such a dizzying speed as to impel the weary and unwary to demand a stoppage of the world so they could hop off. All these happened, predictably, when the Steersman of the Ship of State, was blissfully abroad, attending yet another one of his innumerable conferences across the length and breadth of the globe. All these, predictably again, prompted reactions as numerous as they were conflicting.

It may be easiest to start from an astonishing development, one that incongruously escaped critical examination, despite its underlying ominous implications. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour cornered President Buhari in London, where he was busily attending the anti-corruption summit put together by the one who had cheekily pronounced his country “fantastically corrupt”, and prized from him an interview slightly in excess of six minutes.

As the short interview progressed, Ms Amanpour asked how the Nigerian government was killing corruption in order that corruption doesn’t kill the country. Buhari responded by discussing those he claimed had pocketed billions meant for the fight against terrorism. The interviewer’s follow-up was inevitable: 

Who Will Outlaw Advance Rent Payment?

By Dan Amor

In what appears to be one of the most salutary pronouncements by a functionary of the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2009, the then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), challenged the Body of Attorney Generals of Nigeria, to initiate laws in their respective states to criminalise the demand for advance rent payments by landlords and landladies across the country. Aondoakaa who said this in a keynote address he presented at the opening of the Second Body of Attorney Generals Conference in Makurdi, Benue state, attributed the rising incidence of corruption in the country to the demand of between one and five year advance rent payment from tenants by greedy Nigerian landlords and landladies.

Similarly, the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, recently frowned at the high cost of accommodation in Abuja and promised to urgently address the ugly situation. Indeed, a situation in which a 2-bedroom flat, even on the outskirts of Abuja metropolis goes for at least N500,000 per annum and the tenant is expected to renew the rent at the same rate annually, is unacceptable. Where will he or she get the money from? If a man who has three or more children in school should pay N500,000 yearly as rent in addition to other variable costs, how much is his annual salary or income? Like Aondoakaa rightly pointed out, if in countries like Ghana, Gambia and Benin Republic, rents are paid on monthly basis, why should Nigeria be an exception?

Despite its inelegant implications such as corruption or outright stealing, harassment, psychological torture and such other vice crimes as murder and prostitution, this evil practice, which is the highest form of feudalism, is thriving in Nigeria because of the high degree of insensitivity of government towards the plight of the suffering masses. These landlords or landladies work in connivance with those who call themselves estate agents and some dubious lawyers to manipulate the law and hoodwink unsuspecting and hapless tenants using some local customary courts presided by local criminals who are not even lawyers. You would rent an apartment for, say N700,000 per annum probably with a loan secured from your organisation or through savings. At the end of the year, that is, when it expires and you don't have money to renew the rent immediately with another N700,000, you are given a quit notice in which you are expected to park out of the apartment within a stipulated period of one week (seven days). At the end of the seven day notice, thugs ostensibly from a court invade your home with a fake warrant to forcefully eject you.

Buhari And The Savaging Of The Poor

By Okey Ndibe

Before the 2015 presidential election, Candidate Muhammadu Buhari essentially advertised himself as a magician. Even though oil prices were tumbling, Mr. Buhari promised to pay N5,000 a month to unemployed youth, make the country more secure, fix the perennial electric power crisis, root out corruption, strengthen the naira against the dollar and reduce the price per litre of fuel.

*Buhari 

Once elected, Mr. Buhari began a serial retreat from his promises. Nigeria’s hapless youth have received no cash.  Boko Haram may have been weakened in the northeast, but heavily armed herdsmen have maimed and killed and ramped up Nigeria’s violence quotient. And – thanks to the administration’s hectoring tone and strong-arm tactics – the southeast and oil-rich Niger Delta have become highly volatile. Power outages are as bad as ever, and arguably worse.

The war against corruption has targeted some well-known persons, among them Senate President, Bukola Saraki, former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and the spokesman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh. Even so, the war appears imperiled in several ways.

One is Mr. Buhari’s failure to devise a fresh, innovative approach to combating corruption. The cases currently in court are making plodding progress – and are likely to drag on. Given the sheer number of suspects out there, the lesson is that the prosecutorial route is not particularly promising.

Besides, as I suggested shortly after his inauguration, Mr. Buhari is mired in an ethical bind: As some of the financiers of his campaign are perceived as plunderers of public funds.

More troubling still is that the president has paid scant attention to ways of plugging the loopholes that permit public officials and their cohorts to loot funds. What we have, then, is a policy of patching a system that demands an overhaul.

Politics Of Fuel Subsidy

By Sunday John

ONCE  again, the issue of fuel subsidy has come to the crucible of socio-economic life of Nigerians. Politics of fuel subsidy withdrawal has been a recurring issue over the years, from the time of General Yakubu Gowon as head of state. No government has come without harassing and intimidating Nigerians with fuel pump price increase and/or complete removal of fuel subsidy, otherwise called deregulation. It appears to have become a pastime for our rulers especially when they want to make scapegoats for their corruption, failures and economic naivety.

All governance ineptitude by the political rulers are heaped on fuel subsidy. It is the reason for the country’s backwardness, abysmal infrastructure, debt burden, poverty, corruption, etc. That is the reason the populace is intermittently administered with some obsolete concoctions of the benefits of subsidy removal by every successive government. Buhari may not have engaged in this sophistry of the benefits of subsidy removal because of some want of oratory. Indeed, as long as fuel subsidy is concerned, Nigerians have gone through a lot of torture in the hands of various governments. We have been harassed, tormented and bamboozled.

 Protests against fuel pump price increase/subsidy removal have cost lives, wastage and destructions. The ruling class are, of course, not the victims. The victims are the commoners, on whom they unleash their mediocrity and sadism. Like the ancient Roman emperors, the governments of Nigeria revel in seeing their subjects fight with the beast of subsidy now and again in the amphitheater.

 It is entertainment for them to hear us cry, see us abandon our legitimate duties and spill to the streets in protest, and our children roam the streets because schools are shut. Otherwise, how can a president or the ruling class that say they understand our pains add to the same pains instead of ameliorating it? The government knows that petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, is one thing that affects the lives of all Nigerians irrespective of their social status or age. All aspects of life is based on it, and that is why the people do not react happily to any tampering with its price. With a high currency exchange rate that has triggered inflation and put private businesses at risk, the removal of fuel subsidy at this time is nothing but rubbing salt in a putrefying sore.

Fuel Price Hike: Buhari Must Apologise

By Ochereome Nnanna

 PRESIDENT  Muhammadu Buhari owes us apologies for the latest hike from N86.50k to N145 of the official pump price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) announced on Thursday last week by his Deputy Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu.

First, he must apologise to Nigerians, on behalf of himself, his political party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, his foremost apologist, Professor Tam David-West, Labour and the hired “civil society” groups who truncated the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry in January 2012. Second, he must also apologise to his predecessor, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who lost his post-electoral “honeymoon” period early in 2012 when he stuck out his neck in an attempt to lay to rest, once and for all, the bogey of fuel scarcity and its attendant high cost and human suffering which have trailed the nation for nearly thirty years.

After maligning the Otuoke-born lecturer, he went back to implement a policy that Jonathan would have carried out four years ago if not for irresponsible and unpatriotic opposition. Whenever the deregulation of this sector is contemplated, people always say the timing is wrong without telling us when the timing will ever be right. Certainly, the timing for this steep hike is wrong. It comes so soon after the equally steep hike in the cost of electricity tariffs which the Federal Government through its Power, Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, openly approves of.

It comes at a time when thousands of people are losing their jobs and most employers cannot pay the salaries of their workers because of the parlous economic situation brought about by low oil prices, the crash in the value of the naira and the inability of the Buhari administration to tackle them. To top it all, Labour is priming for a new national minimum wage of between N56,000 to N90,000. Now that the official price of petrol has been nearly doubled, who knows the amount that Labour will now ask for? If ever there was a right time for the deregulation of the downstream sector, the year 2012 was it. We had just emerged unscathed from the worldwide economic meltdown of 2008/2009. By 2012 our Brent crude was selling for $114.26 per barrel, a trend that was generally sustained until toward the end of 2014 when the tide of transitional political was in full swing.

Unlike now when economic activities are low, poverty rate is higher than ever and most investors have fled, there was money in the system then. The economy was even becoming increasingly “dollarised” as a result of oil-fed liquidity in the system. In fact, it was shortly after this that a review of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product terms showed that Nigeria had emerged as the largest economy in Africa and the continent’s number one investors’ destination. Nigeria could have weathered the shock of deregulation much more easily than now. But the opposition would have none of it. Labour unions went on strike.

Resolving The Herdsmen Menace

By Dennis Brown James

The Federal Government’s passive condem­nation of the killings and mayhem unleashed by Fulani herdsmen across the federation re­cently is not what is required to douse the ten­sion and apprehension in many quarters in the country today.

To say that this carnage has led to a severe disruption of our national economy is a mere understatement. Apart from the fact that many communities have been sacked, abandoned or now live in perpetual fear of imminent attacks, many farmlands have been obliterated with scores of farmers killed.

The Federal Government under the leader­ship of President Muhammadu Buhari should reach a consensus with all the warring parties on how to nip these mindless killings in the bud before it is too late to do so.

The pockets of reprisal attacks and counter attacks witnessed in various communities that were affected in these tensions are an indica­tion that this might snowball into national chaos that might leave Nigeria’s national fab­ric badly affected and threaten her corporate existence, to the consternation of many of us. The activities of the herdsmen may still bring about the previous bookmaker’s prophecies that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015.